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Teaching Methods: Brainstorming

A great teaching method that can encourage the entire class to participate is the use of brainstorming.  Brainstorming can help students work together to expand their knowledge about a particular topic, or come up with many different ideas about what they can write about or even activities that they can do.  There are a few things to keep in mind when using brainstorming as a teaching method to create class involvement.

1.    There are no wrong answers

Students will feel much more confident about sharing their thoughts and ideas if all information shared is acceptable for the project. It encourages other students to contribute that may not have normally. As each student adds their thoughts, it will spark more and more ideas from others as they ponder about what has been presented previously.

2.    Set a time limit

The best brainstorming sessions are created when there is a time limit.  This helps get the mind churning as quickly as possible to come up with as many ideas as possible. It also will help those who are participating feel encouraged to help their fellow classmates come up with many ideas before the deadline passes.  When there is not a time limit, the brainstorming can die down and lose the momentum it needs to keep everyone’s attention.

3.    Be Prepared to Have Some Stimulating Ideas for the Group

Have some great ideas to get everyone else involved.  If you start off with something intriguing, creative, or unexpected, it can help pull the entire class into the activity, and they are able to pull from their own knowledge and life experiences having had a foundation to work from.

When a class is struggling to use the principles involved in teamwork, you can help jumpstart the process by using brainstorming as a teaching method. Not only will they begin to work together towards a common goal, they will help each other expand their minds and create an enthusiastic atmosphere.

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Teaching Methods: Role Playing

Role Playing is an effect teaching method.  It is like a rehearsal of the actual application of what is being learned.  You can compare it to a dress rehearsal.  It helps the students to be able to become comfortable with the material enough to be able to share it in an expressive way.

Psychologist Jean Piaget stated that there are two ways that we learn. These two modes of learning are assimilation and accommodation. When students use assimilation, they are simply filling in a mental gap.  Rote memorization is a good example of this.  If you were counting one, two, three, four you would know that the next number is five; this is because you have learned through rote memory to count at least that high. When students apply accommodation learning mode, they are actually changing their mental map, they are extending it and altering it to fit a new perspective.  Role playing encourages this form of learning. Most curriculums focus a great deal on assimilation more than accommodation.

At a professional level, a great example of role playing would be the use of a flight simulator for pilots.  The future pilot first becomes familiar with the process through the act of experiencing to some degree what he will experience when he gets into a real plane.  The same tactic is used in business for phone sales and other forms of marketing.  Trainees test out their strategies on their fellow co-workers.

Role playing is a great teaching method that can help students expand their use of accommodation as well as prepare them for real life experiences within the workforce. If you want to expand young minds, Role Playing is a great way to challenge your students to think outside the box, expand their minds and look at things from a different and new perspective.

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Teaching Methods: Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning is a teaching method in which the students are divided into small groups. The group members are of all different levels of ability. Each member helps the other members to learn the material and they cultivate an atmosphere of achievement through working together.

The benefits of Cooperative Learning are:

•    An increase in self-esteem.
•    Improved social skills.
•    Improved communication skills.
•    Improved student achievement.
•    Better relationships with fellow classmates.

Cooperative Learning also allows for the entire group to work together to set goals, but at the same time still focus on individual accountability as well. If a member of the group does not participate as they should, they are accountable to the entire group.  It is a positive way of using peer-pressure. As individual students improve on their test scores, no matter what their ability is, it increases the effectiveness of the group. When a student that has more difficulty is able to improve their test score from a 65% to a 75%, they have made just as much progress as a student that goes from having an 85% to a 95%.  They both made effort and have improved from where they were when they first started working together.

It is really important that a group that starts on a project or assignment remain together until that assignment is completed.  Changing the group can really affect the synergy and cause the progress made to decline. Additionally, it is important to arrange the members in the group in a way that they are able to see each other face to face. This way they can make eye contact with each other which encourages the growth of an atmosphere of trust and unity.

Cooperative Learning is one of many possible methods that can be used within the classroom. Many teachers say that it is really effective.

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Reforming Education Today

Education reform is a hot topic right now. In the news you will hear voices from Minnesota to Idaho crying out for reform. “What is it that needs reformed?” “Where has education gone wrong?” These are some of many questions that parents and students alike ask themselves as they face the challenges in our government-funded public school system.

Where it all Began

Education was completed at home. Parents and students had great influence.  Everything that students learned came from their families and neighbors.  Eventually education became a community responsibility, and then was later handed off to the federal government.

What to do Today

1.    Allow for Choice:
Parents and students should be allowed to have more choice in how and where they are educated. Whether a parent wants to educate at home, send their child to a private school, or keep them in the public school, it should be their choice. The funds that they are paying into the system for the education of the country’s children, should be returned to them to use for whatever form of education they choose for their family.

2.    Education Focused on the Student:
Each individual student should be the focus of education, and not the teachers alone or the school as a whole. The natural gifts, talents and abilities that the student possesses should be encouraged, and the basic skills needed for life taught.

3.    Teachers and Schools Must be Held Accountable
Teachers and schools should be evaluated by those that use their services.  The parents and the students that attend the schools should determine if the school is providing the amount of service that they expect for the money that they are paying. If there is an issue, then parent and student input should have the most value. If a school fails to satisfy their clients, then competition between educators and the institutions will naturally weed them out.

Returning the power of choice back to parents and students will create education reform quickly and naturally.

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