Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Instructional Strategies
In the late 1990's and early 2000's, research indicated that hands-on learning was a very effective teaching strategy yet teachers seldom used the approach. What could be the reason for the lack of use of this strategy? For approximately the last decade, it has been indicated than an effective teaching strategy in the classroom is hands-on learning. However, some teachers seldom use this type of instructional strategy. What could be the reasons for not implementing this teaching strategy?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Since hands-on learning has shown to be effective, I think most teachers would love to use it more frequently. However, I believe that one reason they do not use it, as often as they would like to, is because it takes a lot of extra planning. Many teachers spend considerable amounts of time outside of the classroom already, and they may not have the time to create interesting, authentic, and outcome aligned activities. Another factor may be that they already have found simpler ways to teach the same material, and if something is working, they may think, why change it?
ReplyDeleteHands on activites are great tools that can be used to enhance student learning. When I look back at my memories of primary school, the lessons I most vividly remember always involve hands on activities. When I talk to my peers, they seem to always agree. If these activites are so influencial on students, why don't teachers use them more?
ReplyDeleteOne reason teachers don't use this strategy could be due to a lack of time for instructional planning and preparation. Most teachers are already stretched for time. There is little time between teachers' obligations of instruction, recess/lunch duty, and professional development. When is the teacher expected to reconstruct lessons and incorporate new strategies?
By assigning hands-on activites, a teacher may be creating instruction that is more student centered. A student centered atmosphere tends to be less structured than teacher directed instuction. This can be difficult change for teachers. No teacher wants to lose a sense of order in the classroom.
Hands-on learning requires more effort and resources from a teacher. Creating hands-on activities for students can be very time consuming and it is much easier to simply teach the content from from a teacher-directed standpoint (for example, lecture). I believe hands-on learning is important for students because it shows them real-life applications for what they are being taught in class. Hands-on learning also helps students to understand why the content they are learning is important. I believe teachers need to do the extra work to create meaningful experiences for students in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think most teachers are reluctant to use hands-on learning because of how much more time consuming it would be. Teachers have to plan many lessons, which take time, so most probably wouldn't be very enthusiastic about having to spend more time trying to create hands-on lessons. However, I think that if teachers started integrating hands-on learning slowly, say one lesson a month, then one lesson every two weeks, then one lesson every week, etc., using hands-on learning activities would become normal to them, and they wouldn't be as hesitant to use such strategies in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhile it may be more time-consuming to plan hand-on learning strategies, teachers ultimately need to think of how much these strategies will benefit the students in their learning, which is our primary goal as teachers.
Like Kara, my most memorable educational experiences were the ones which promoted hands-on learning. Building bridges, catapults, models, and actively debating and presenting are some of the activities that I can still recall today. As a result, it is evident that hands-on approaches are meaningful and are more easily internalized and remembered. Furthermore, in one of my major classes last semester, I learned that there are three things that teachers should do to help students learn new concepts. Those strategies being visuals, repeating material many times with various means, and hands-on learning experiences.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Shelby's comment about teachers slowly implementing hands-on activities in the classroom. It's unrealistic to expect teachers to change their instruction immediately. However, teachers can make a conscious effort to gradually incorporate hands-on actiities in the classroom. As Shelby emphasized, implement one activity a month or every two weeks. This will help both the teaher and the students become more comfortable with the strategy. Over time, teachers will develop a portfolio of more and more hands-on activities. This will minimize the time needed to prepare lessons as extensively. I believe a gradual effort towards use of this strategy would promote more hands-on learning in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think that teachers are hesitant about using hands-on learning because of the extra planning and effort that has to be put forth in order to create authentic learning experieneces for their students. It is already a lot of work to create and plan different lessons and some may look at the extra work and shy away from it, thinking that the students will learn the same way if they do not encorporate hands-on learning. I also think that teacher's teach the way that they learn the best, so it is harder for some to accommodate for all the different types of learners within one classroom. We as future educators need to realize the benefits of hands-on expereiences and being to encorporate them now as we are still in college, to become more familiar with the process.
ReplyDeleteI personally loved hands-on expereiences while in school. I still appreciate the fact now, when professors incorporate them into lectures and different parts of the classes. I feel like I understand more of the content and what I am expected to learn during that time/lesson. I hope to encorporate as many hands-on experiences as possible in my classroom, but I know that that will take a lot of timing on my half and I need to be able to commit 100% to the development of my lessons to make sure that I am providing the best learning opportunities for my future students.
ReplyDeleteI think that hands-on learning is often left out of the classroom because of the work it requires when the teachers are preparing the lesson. Not only is it time consuming to develop some of the activities like building a model volcano for science, but there are so many extra things to take into consideration, like what happens when the volcano doesn't work. A hands-on activity requires teachers to be on their toes throughout the lesson, keeping an eye open for little hiccups in the activity. In order to be prepared for the things that do not go as originally planned, teachers have to do a lot of hypothetical planning so that they are able to respond as soon as something happens, rather than having to stop and think about it.
ReplyDeleteHands-on learning is very effective and enjoyed by many students. I believe teachers are not using hands-on learning has much because it takes a lot of time and perpetration. Teachers already spend a lot of time outside of school to plan, grade, and improve lessons. It is less time consuming to just hand out worksheets.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher I hope I can find enough time to incorporate many hands-on learning activities.
I enjoy watching students work on hands-on activities compared to when they are working on a worksheet. Studies discuss how effective the strategies are for student learning, but when you watch students during a hands-on activity, you also see how much fun they are having. They appear to be enjoying learning. I think this is just as important as using hands-on activities because they help students learn. It is important that students enjoy learning and learn that it doesn't have to be boring. When students enjoy learning and coming to school, I think they are more engaged in the classroom and they are able to motivate themselves to learn, rather than requiring some form of external motivation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anneliese. I never realized that teachers also have to be prepared for if the activity doesn't work. Also having hands on activities can require a lot of extra materials that might not be available for the teachers, and they have to spend their own money to purchase the materials. Most of these activities are left for the students to complete at home and bring in to share.
ReplyDeleteI think that hands on activities are a great instructional strategy. I think that a lot of educators would like to utilize this strategy, but it does involve extra planning time. Hands on activities can be tricky to come up with because there are so many ways in which they can go wrong. It is harder to have effective classroom management during hands on activities too, which is another reason that teachers turn to more traditional ways of teaching. Teachers want to feel like they're in control of their classroom and students find it easier to be off task during hands on activities.
ReplyDeletePersonally, a large chunk of my learning has come from hands on activities. As an educator I want to utilize this instructional strategy as much as possible, but I know that is going to be hard to do. Much of the good hands on activities teachers have their students do require extra materials, which are usually purchased by the teacher. A lot of the materials that teachers need for these types of activities aren't available to them. Another thing that I would worry about as an educator is the fact that planning hands on activities requires a lot of extra work. A teacher must be prepared for these types of activities. Teaching takes up so much time as it is that I'm not sure it will be possible to plan hands on activities frequently.
ReplyDeleteAnnaliese- I actually never thought before about all the "problems" that could occur with hands-on activities. With hands-on activities, students will learn that things don't always go according to plan, but from a teacher standpoint, making sure the students learn what you want them to learn from the activity can be difficult with more potential errors along the way. When preparing a hands-on activity, teachers must be mentally prepared to discuss and explain more topics than the activity is originally intended to cover.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anneliese--there are many things that could go wrong during hands-on activities, so if teachers plan on using them they need to be prepared. I think some teachers realize this, and don't want these situations to come up, so they don't use hands-on learning. However, I think it would be a great learning experience, both for the teacher and the students, because they would then be able to try to solve the problem together, and it shows students that things don't always turn out the way you want them to--sometimes you have to make on-the-spot adjustments to deal with whatever problem you're facing.
ReplyDeleteI believe hands on learning is also an effective way to learn. When I was in school, hands-on learning was used quite often for teaching lessons and other concepts to the students. Between either being a visual, auditorial, or hands-on learner, my effective and personal strength to learn was also by hands-on learning. I always liked looking at examples and seeing others perspectives/creativity to bounce off ideas and design my own projects. I think for younger grades, it is effective to make an example to show to the class or do the project with them as a teacher, since young students may not be eligable to do things or think independently.
ReplyDeleteHowever, on the other spectrum, I understand why teachers might not like to do hands-on learning in the classroom. Hands-on learning takes a lot more time for the teacher in their day. To do the lessons together with them, it takes a lot of time scheduling and extra preperation outside the classroom. These could be reason why teachers did not use much hands-on learning in the past.
ReplyDeleteHands on learning takes time, money, resources, and planning. With all the emphasis on doing well on standarized tests, teachers feel as if they may not have time to incorperate this type of instructional strategy in their school day. There have been massive budget cuts and more are coming. It sometimes can be hard for teachers to find resources and funds to get the materials and things that they need to do these activities. Most of what I remember from school is things that I actually did, like my science project and things like that. Hands on learning does help children learn, understand, and remember information, it is a shame that is so rare to find in the classroom today.
ReplyDeleteIf we look at the Countries that score very high in education like Finland and Korea, most of them rely very heavily on hands on activities and project based learning. It is fustrating that the research shows one thing, yet we still do another. We know what works, yet we still try to fix it on our own and actually end up making it worse.
ReplyDelete