The years pass quickly and we find ourselves in a repeating cycle. and I have these tips and tricks for Teachers, Tutors, and whoever is filling in these roles.
1. Approaching new topics requires taking baby steps
When we, as learners, come across new topics, we try to use our prior knowledge to understand the new information. Many a times, this leads to catastrophic results in our comprehension of these new topics. As teachers and tutors, we might find it easier to understand the background of our learners - use relevant, accurate, content from the learners prior experiences in order to introduce new topics.
2. Allowing students to make mistakes so that we can begin unlearning
In teaching & learning, we must create a safe haven for the learners to make mistakes without feeling guilt or remorse or shame. In fact, we should seek to force learners to make mistakes so that we can trace their thoughts with them and correct their thinking process. This unlearning of the erroneous thinking process is one of the most important steps so that the learner can comprehend the subject matter accurately.
3. Aim to increase the frequency of exposure to the new information.
Our minds better retain information that keeps repeating. We can have very intense drills in a short period of time to score high marks immediately, or we can recollect past lessons frequently in order to promote long term retention of information. While the latter works much better long term, we need to cater for longer time for such information processing to take place.
4. Awake but homework not done?
Many students and parents have the same worry - that the amount of homework to be done sometimes requires the sacrifice of sleep. Resulting in a sleepy condition for next day of classes at school. Is this a required trade-off?
No. It is proven that the physical and mental condition of the learner is much more important for better processing of information required during class. If a student attends class tired and mentally unavailable to listen to class, the time spent attending the class will be wasted almost entirely. My humble advise is - do what you can for homework, but keep to strict bedtime hours.
I will continue to learn more and share more with everyone. Thank you for your time reading this
Teacher Jack
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