Despite the amazing features an educational institution can offer to its students, teaching will always by the top necessity students actually need. And with all the changes in our lives, teaching have took many forms throughout the years. However, it has been sometime since people remember others forms of teaching besides the classroom. It did change from a black board and a chalk to a white board and a pen, to a bunch of slides on a Microsoft powerpoint, but the essence of teaching didn’t really change.
As a previous student, and a current one, who attended so many courses and listened to more professors, I can say our current method of teaching may needs some improvements. There definitely have been some styles of teaching I enjoyed more than others, some classrooms I was eagerly waiting to leave and some professors I can’t forget their words. Not all of them were successful experiences, there are some courses that we just loved so much and others that we just hated. Although this is contingent to the subject being taught, teaching methods does affect students experiences.
In addition to the traditional classrooms teaching, there are other common teaching methods as the flipped classrooms, which requires students to watch a video before class and devote the class time for discussions and problems, rather than for explanation. There is also active learning, and problem-based learning which are more student-centered. Both require students to be more active in their own teaching, to be in charge of solving and discussing rather than being a blank paper waiting to be filled with the teacher explanation, which mostly end up as failed attempts. Blended learning have been increasing too, combining online and traditional learning techniques. Student-led learning, however, encourages students to work together and support each other in understanding the material.
There many other approaches that have currently been proposed to indulge students more into active learning, where students are more engaged inside classrooms rather than being passive receptors. I think the key factor here is involving the students, in a way or other, keep them busy with finding solutions and seeking answers, rather than presenting them with ready ones. And as they say, things are better learnt working hard for them.