Modern Teaching Methods: Which One is Best?
Educational scientist and educators are constantly trying to come up with new teaching methods that improve the effectiveness of the education system. Although there are many exciting developments in the field of educational science, for this post, I would like to focus on what is called the Learning Ladder, particularly the practice stage. The learning ladder is a part of modern education theory that breaks down the learning process into three stages: the building stage, the development stage, and the practice stage. The building stage is where the instructor demonstrates the educational content (i.e. a lecture). Development stage is where the students begin to understand what was learned in the building stage. Finally, the practice stage is where students put what they have learned into action through various exercises.
A scholarly journal posted by Ejaz Gul, an Educational Scientist at the Bahauddin Zakariya University in Pakistan, takes a deep dive into three modern teaching methods that can be used during the practice stage by conducting her own experiment. During her experiment she had 80 university students fill out a questionnaire as to which modern teaching method they found the most effective. Roughly fifty percent of the students said they found the mutual practice method to be the most effective. Ejaz describes the mutual method in her journal: “In this method, a phenomenon is taught and then students are allowed for supervising each other’s work under the limited guidance of the teacher” (Gul 2016). The mutual method allows students to take the reigns when putting their understanding into practice. The teacher becomes more of guide for the student’s learning, allowing the student to work through the problems they encounter, themselves.
“In this method, a phenomenon is taught and then students are allowed for supervising each other’s work under the limited guidance of the teacher.”
The mutual method is already being practiced heavily across the globe as it becomes widely accepted as the most efficient and productive way to teach anyone as young as kindergarten, all the way up to university students. The outdated controlled method, makes the teacher the primary driver of the practice stage, preventing students from fully immersing themselves in the learning experience. I believe there is going to be a continuation of this change in the role of teachers from a supervisor to more of a guide. This will cause students to be more independent and achieve better understanding of the material they learned in the building and development stages of the learning ladder. Educational scientist like Ejaz are constantly doing excellent research to understand how educators can improve the quality of the education they provide to students. Hopefully, there will be more to come!
Gul, E. (2016). Effectiveness of Modern Teaching Methods; Evidence from Digital Learning Model of Modern Teaching Methods. Journal of Education and Vocational Research, 7(3), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.22610/jevr.v7i3.1413
