Active teaching strategy - Essay Example

Active Teaching Strategy INTRODUCTION: The active learning strategy that can be incorporated for teaching the nursing are a game. The reason for choosing a game is that psychologically we tend to perform better in a competitive environment and also studies have soon shown enhanced brain function with lesser amount of stress when the activity being performed by the person is mentally stimulating rather than tiring. Keeping this philosophy into consideration the idea that I like to propose for active learning is that of "ten questions". THE GAME: Ten questions is a very simple game, the theme of the game is that you have to guess about a thing which may be a name, place, animal, procedure, etc by asking questions and the answer to those questions gives you an idea as to what is thing that is being asked. RULES: The rules to this game are pretty simple; there would be teams and each team would have a group of four people, each team will have ten questions to find the answer, the questions will be asked by the team leader of each team by mutual discussion with its other members. The answer to each question will be either yes or no. no phrases or other word will be used to answer the question. Similar questions will not be answered and will not be counted in your question count. Once all ten questions are answered the team must guess the answer if the answer is guessed correctly the team receives 10 points and if the team answers incorrectly no points are award. If the team guesses the answer before the 10 question limit that team will receive bonus 10 points and 20 in all and if it answers incorrectly it will get -10 points. The team to guess most of the answers correctly wins. APPLICATION: This exercised can be easily conducted in the class room as there is nothing extra needed and no set up time is required also due to the ease and playability of this activity this activity can also be exercised by the students among themselves. The other good thing about this sort of exercise is that it applicability is universal and can be used by teachers of every subject. This sort of activity also motivates team work among the students which can prove to be very vital for their profession. PROCEDURE: The whole class will be divided into groups of 3 to 4 members. Each team will them have to guess the procedure by asking question to the teacher. The team will then guess the answer and the team with the most correct answer will be the winner. This team will then be awarded the title of washing wizard. To further stimuli the learning process the members of the winning team will be awarded marks which will be counted in their assignment and then these marks will added in the final tally as well. CONCEPT OF THE ACTIVITY: "People learn in response to need. When people cannot see the need for what is being taught, they ignore it, reject it, or fail to assimilate it any meaningful way. Conversely, when they have a need, then, if the resources are available, people learn effectively and quickly." (Brown and Dugout, 2000, p.136). The concept of the activity is very simple and that is to train the nursing students about the importance of hand washing and due to the nature of this activity this importance can be transferred to the students in a fun manner in which they can learn and remember it as well. ACTIVITY METHOD USED: This activity method that is being used is known as "Kolb's Model of Experiential Learning (Kolb, 1984)". This model of learning follows these steps: 1. Action- The learner performs some type of activity related to the lesson or subject. 2. Reflection- The learner reflects about what they did and what happened as a result of their activity. This can be in one of several forms: free writing, journaling, or small or large group discussions. 3. Knowledge/theory- The learner uses the results of the reflection to develop knowledge and theories, which helps further the learning process because the learner is conceptualizing their own theories, not accepting the theory of the instructor. 4. Planning- Based on the learner's theories, they plan what to do next and anticipate the results of further activity. This process moves the learner into the higher levels of thinking than merely recall/recite facts or information. PROBLEMS: The problems that can be faced during this style of teaching are: 1- The students may get too involved in the activity forgetting the purpose as to why it was held. 2- Due to the nature of this activity being in a group student might forget the basic purpose of the exercise. 3-Assessment should be embedded into the application component, but it is also a critical dimension of learner support and guidance. Assessment is a measurement of how well the goal of an output is being met. The instructor formally and/or informally evaluates students' achievement of the learning objectives and identifies areas that need more work. Learners need frequent and clear assessment related feedback, especially in the early stages of a class. This feedback helps them feel connected to the class and more confident in their abilities. If the assessment is not done properly the aim to the activity may not be properly achieved. 4- Some instructors may not like the active learning teaching method as they are too accustomed to the traditional form of teaching and thus they feel they feel uncomfortable in a noisy learning environment. 5- The subject of active learning method has also been faced with controversy as some research has shown that this method is effect in scenarios where interpersonal skill is required but generally it is not successful. 6- Some student also resist to this method as they are too accustomed to the old traditional way off teaching and find this method to be a distraction and are able to retain less as compared to the traditional teaching method. They are that this method is difficult to comprehend where conceptualization is involved. 7- Initially active learning should always be incorporated in groups rather then individually so as to make the students accustomed with the method. 8- The characteristics of the teacher and the student determine the teaching method of active learning; there the method of active learning should incorporate this element as well. REFERENCES: Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. King, A. (1995). Guided peer questioning: A cooperative learning approach to critical thinking. Cooperative learning and college teaching, 5(2), pp. 15-19. Read More