TRAIN THE TRAINER PART VI : TRAIN THE TRAINER PART VI LATEST TRENDS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
Currents Trends in ELT : Currents Trends in ELT Active Learning Method
(ALM)
HIGHLIGHTS : HIGHLIGHTS To improvise the teaching methodology with new techniques in ELT.
To handle tough students to improve their communication skills in a very easy manner.
To make all the students to participate in the classroom with a lively environment.
To implement the latest trends in English language teaching to the native language speaking students.
To create greater emphasis on students’ exploration of their own attitudes and values.
ELEMENTS OF ACTIVE LEARNING METHODOLOGIES : ELEMENTS OF ACTIVE LEARNING METHODOLOGIES It requires that the student must find opportunities to meaningfully talk and listen, write, read, and reflect on the content, ideas, issues, and concerns of an academic subject.
MERITS OF ACTIVE LEARNING : MERITS OF ACTIVE LEARNING Students are involved in learning.
Less emphasis is placed on transmitting information.
Greater emphasis on developing students’ skills.
Students are involved in higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation).
Students are engaged in activities (eg. Reading, Discussing, writing)
Greater emphasis is placed on students’ exploration of their own attitudes and values.
STRUCTURE AND ATMOSPHERE OF ACTIVE LEARNING : STRUCTURE AND ATMOSPHERE OF ACTIVE LEARNING Where there is no competition.
Where seating favours discussion and peer learning.
Where it is explicit that class space is for learning by ‘doing some things’
The ‘doing’ is defined such that it can be seen as meaningful and applied in other contexts
Mixed age environments are also a possibility.
CREATING LEARNING STRUCTURE : CREATING LEARNING STRUCTURE Engagement is more important than demonstrable, measurable results.
Well being is more important than performance.
Class structure will not permit regression to the older mode
Initiative is welcome and hierarchy is not, ALM processes are considered suitable for learning in many situation, including the covering of the given academic content at the level of grades 6,7, and 8.
CONSTRUCTIVISM : CONSTRUCTIVISM Construction of connections between neurons happens as we invent our won concepts and ideas, connected to what we already know.
This “meaning-making” theory of learning is called ‘constructivism’.
Constructivism : Constructivism We must remember that neuronal connections are happening all the time.
The question is whether we are aware of the connections being made.
Active learning seems to involve an inward looking, simultaneous with the outward looking.
Active learning refers to techniques where students do more than simply listen to a lecture.
Students are DOING something including discovering, processing, and applying information.
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS : BASIC ASSUMPTIONS That learning is by nature an active endeavour
That different people learn in different ways”
Education is a process of transmission (Pouring knowledge into empty vessels)
Research has made it abundantely clear that the quality of teaching and learning is improved when students have enough opportunities to clarify, question, apply, and consolidate new knowledge.
BENEFITS OF ALM : BENEFITS OF ALM Critical thinking skills, increased retention
Absorbtion of new information, in creased motivation, and improved interpersonal skills.
It involves students directly and actively in the learning process itself. Instead of simply receiving information verbally and visually, students are receiving and participating and doing.
RESEARCHERS SUGGESTIONS : RESEARCHERS SUGGESTIONS They suggests that students must do more than just listen: They must read, write, discuss or be engaged in solving problems.
Students must be engaged in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
There is a consensus among researchers that we do not learn by passively receiving, and then remembering what we are taught.
Learning involves actively constructing our own meanings.
A WORD FOR THE TEACHER : A WORD FOR THE TEACHER While choosing modes of instruction, it is good to bear in mind that student learning depends primarily what the students do rather that what the teacher does.
Thus a thoughtful approach to effective teaching requires that educators grow aware of the many strategies promoting active learning.
These have been successfully used across many disciplines. Further, each educator needs to reflect on some questions.
QUERIES FOR THE TEACHER : QUERIES FOR THE TEACHER Am I willing to experiment with alternative approaches to instruction?
Are techniques of active and cooperative learning alternative to lectures or are they enhancements of lectures ?
“Active learning shifts the focus from the teacher to the student and from delivery of subject content by teacher to active engagement with the material by the student.
Through appropriate inputs from the teacher, students learn and practice how to apprehend knowledge and use them meaningfully.”
TASKS FOR STUDENTS : TASKS FOR STUDENTS Engaging students in doing something other than listening to a lecture and taking notes.
Students may be involved in talking and listening to one another.
Or writing, reading and reflecting individually or in small groups.
THANK YOU : THANK YOU I would be pleased, if you send me a feed back about how this concept worked in your class room sessions.
Thank you for the presence.