“We all live intending to be happy: our lives are all different and yet the same.” – Anne Frank
Similarly, a class full of forty students has forty different mindsets, approaches, beliefs, and learning capacities. A student might take 10 minutes to understand a concept and the other student might take 30 minutes to understand the same concept. This happens because different people have different strengths and abilities. But something that is common for all the students is practical learning. Students find it easy to learn when the teachers teach practically. If you want to be an effective and impactful teacher, make sure to follow the right teaching strategies and styles. Something that the teachers can follow is to teach practically. In the section below, an effort has been made to explain more about the concepts of practical teaching and outline its effectiveness.
What is Practical Teaching?
Practical teaching can be termed as a teaching approach where teachers teach the students by combining theory and practical work experience. For instance, if a teacher aims to teach the concept called 'types of matters in our surroundings', then they should give them the practical examples of liquid, solid, and gas. They teach practically by showing them the formation of ice from water or water from ice. Practical teaching is important as It not only provides the students a good classroom experience but also helps them in retaining the concepts for a longer period of time.
Importance of Practical Teaching
Practical teaching is considered to be important because it provides learners with the opportunity for better development. The reason being that when teachers are providing knowledge to students that are specific and factual, it becomes easier for students to develop critical thinking and logical understanding skills.
In most cases it has been found that through the help of practical teaching students develop a positive mindset and opposite attitude that helps them live a productive lifestyle. In most cases it has been found that when using a practical approach students find it easier to understand concepts and retain knowledge for a longer period of time.
In the current scenario of online education, it has been found that students engage more in the classroom when a hands-on approach is provided to them along with a minds-on approach. This is because, Combination of practical knowledge with theoretical knowledge has a profound impact on the minds of the students. it becomes easier for them to picturize concepts better leading to effective understanding of the topic.
Using a practical knowledge approach also has advantages for the Teachers as it becomes easier for them to keep the students engaged in the classroom and encourage them to talk about their opinions easily.
Ways to Practice Practical Teaching
In the section below an outline of practical teaching methods have been given, to provide more clarity to the method and its usage.
1- Prioritize Understanding over Learning- Teachers should prioritize students' understanding of the concepts rather than mere learning. Rather than focusing on word-by-word learning, the teachers should ensure that the students actually know what the concept is. This is known as practical teaching. Teaching practically is one of the most effective approaches to teaching. Engaging with students may be a useful and practical approach to examining learning skills and experiences for your students. When the teachers practice on the understanding part more than the learning part, they see better results for the students at the end of the year.
2- Exchange ideas with colleagues- Remember how we used to learn multiple things from our peer group during school days? Things still remain the same and teachers can learn a lot from their fellow teachers. Since all of them are teaching and have similar teaching experiences, they can share the same with them. They may improve their teaching skills by observing other teachers in actions and approaches. They can also visit different classes to broaden their horizons. They can contact various teachers who teach the same subject in order to understand how they teach practically. They can also discuss the concepts with them and plan the teaching the lessons accordingly. Learn why they did what they did, how they cope with different students and their needs.
3- Understand your students' learning approach- Understanding students' learning approach is extremely important. Teachers should understand the student's needs as it is crucial in order to deliver the best knowledge possible. Understanding the student's needs and learning approach helps the teachers in preparing themselves better to teach or choose the right teaching technique. Once the teachers are th0rough with what the students want, the teachers can easily teach practically.
What is Practical Learning?
Practical learning can be best defined as a process where the learning is considered to be complete which involves the head, the heart as well as the hands working together in harmony. It is important for learners to have practical learning because it allows them to be able to better experience real life situations and be able to understand how to navigate these challenges.
When talking about practical learning challenges it can be anything from learning how to cook to learning about cooking, to learning about drawing and to actually getting to draw a picture. Through these experiences it becomes possible for students to understand the amount of effort and hard work that goes into developing anything new.
Practical learning is considered to be an important goal that needs to be achieved by every student. The reason being it provides the students with hands-on experience to manage real life situations. It teaches them about accountability and adaptability. The reason being that a student only looks for solutions in a critical situation when they are aware about how that situation actually looks or what being through that situation entails.
Relationship between Practical Learning and Practical Teaching
There indeed is a strong relationship present between practical teaching and practical learning as both work together. it becomes the responsibility of the teachers to emphasize the importance of providing students with both theoretical and practical knowledge. Teaching the students about practical applications is also the goal of the teacher.
The positive relationship present between learning and teaching allows students to become more engaging and interested in the work they are doing. It allows the students an opportunity to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses and as a result takes the necessary steps to reform themselves. The feedback provided by the teachers improves that ability to become more aware of their own surroundings.
It is true that with the help of theoretical knowledge it becomes possible for students to gain perspective and how problems or challenges occur. But at the same time it is only through implementing this knowledge that one is able to gain the necessary experience to manage real life challenges.
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