Effective learning and teaching

Effective learning takes place in classrooms where teacher” strategies include:

• Establishing and maintaining a good classroom ethos in which pupils are motivated to learn

• Planning
• Preparing and organizing lessons well
• Setting a good example and fostering good relationship with pupils
• Having a high but attainable expetations of pupils.

I think I must consider these points about teaching for effective learning in my work with pupils:

• Intelligence is not fixed.We all have much greater potential for learning than is commonly recognized. The emphasis should be on success and potential rather than failings and shortcomings.
• We need to ensure that there are opportunities for all learners to use and develop all their abilities,playing to their strengths and developing the areas where they are less strong.

A powerful question is:”How are you smart?”( not” how smart you are?)

• Learning involves developing our emotions and feelings along with our ability to think and act.

Learning can be enjoyable -even fun.Teachers who use humor and take a genuine pleasure in their work tend to have more effective learners.Tasks that emphasize social interaction and involve movement and physical activity tend to engage learners feelings most effectively.

• We are more likely to learn when we are motivated to do so.Young people who feel good about themselves are much more likely to be highly motivated to learn.If they feel they have influence over their environment and the learning process,and what they say and do can actually make a difference is important for motivation and effective learning.

• We learn most effectively when we think through for ourselves .Learning is not something which someone else can do for us.
• Learning is messy.We rarely learn anything by proceeding along a single path to predetermined outcomes.If you think there is only one answer,then you will find one.Learning is best when the teacher is able to provide different options and inputs.
• Most learning involves other people.What the child does with the cooperation with others ,he will learn to do alone.It is very important for young people to work in teams.
• Self –awareness,including awareness of ourselves as learners,helps us to learn more effectively.

People”s learning styles differ:in how they know,in how they think,in how they decide ,in how they act.Although each person is unique ,typical differences in the ways people prefer to learn can be identified.Working with one of the models can help teachers to recognize powerfully the extent of differences in the way that people learn and the fact that there is no single best way to teach.

The pupils must know that a teacher is also a learner.

• Teacher’s own preferred ways of learning tend to affect the ways in which they teach.

Teachers must be more flexible and need to employ a variety of approaches .It can also help teachers to work together and to value the differences between each other.

There are different effects of trainers’ learning styles preferences:

Activists tend to feel comfortable with practical exercises such as games and role plays.They like to create opportunities for interaction between participants,they are open about their own emotions and experiences.

Reflectors tend to feel comfortable with video experiences or case studies..They like paper and pencil exercises which require low levels of personal disclosure.

Theorists tend to feel comfortable with lecturing approaches or other well-reached inputs as case studies,tutorial or discussion group approaches which enquire questioning and handouts.

Pragmatists need practical exercises generated from real experience, techniques and practical tips,action planning and other ways of translating learning at the event into changed practice back at work, using participants as a resource for learning.

Pupils learn best when they have the opportunity to:

• Have first –hand experience and are able to observe,estimate,record,measure,collect,classify and interpret.
• Formulate and test hypotheses
• Plan,choose and take responsibility for their learning
• Aquire study skills and use resources well
• Receive feedback on their progress from teachers and from other pupils
• Present good work for others to see or hear
• Undertake tasks in their own time and out of school
• Work co-operatively in groups
• Read,write,listen and discuss in variety of contexts
• Experience the creative aspects of individual subjects by designing,inventing,composing and performing.

I try to assess all things in my work and in every lesson I use the following methods:

• We do a lot of listening, speaking, acting,singing,playing ,asking ,answering etc.
• I read a short story at the beginning of each lesson ,to make the pupils understand the content without knowing all the words
• We use computers a lot: there are different programs for the beginners (they can listen,spell,play do exercises,quess the meanings of the words,translate,or find things)and we also use computer”s dictionary a lot,especially for individual work.
• I use different workbooks and do all kinds of exercises: filling gaps,completing the sentencs,making new sentences,forming questions,making and solving puzzles,answering the questions ,translating etc.
• It is useful to work in groups.
• I like the idea that boys read different stories and books from the girls,the books they are interested in.(about sports ,computers,weapons etc)
• I think that teachers work is very similar to the actors work.

• We sometimes write new words on the cards and fix them on the wall or for instance:the word we fix on the window etc.

Karin Kütt