Interactive and Collaborative teaching tools that aim at quality learning experience to students

Interactive and collaborative teaching tools can be best utilised in a classroom setting rather than any other form of instruction like online teaching. These tools ensure learning based on dialogue and help the teacher access signs of student comprehension through body language (Koenig, 2010), and questions/ experiences asked as well as answered. Corporations and recruiters wish to hire students who can replicate their knowledge of theory into problem-solving at the workplace (Chapman and Sorge, 1999) and this requires that the classroom teaching is designed such that the students connect with the lessons by relating them to their own experiences (Jurkiewicz et al, 2004). There is hence a need to move from a monologues lecture to ‘Interactive Lecturing’ which seeks inputs from students at various points during the content delivery and is like “transforming the traditional lecture into a series of mini lectures”( Nilson, 2010). This ensures the engagement of students who do not wish to participate by choice and the technique also jolts the students whose attention span is short. This also escalates teaching from unreceptive instruction towards active learning, since it is believed that the former is an ineffective teaching method (Batra et, al, 1997). An effective session would usually witness the teaching time getting divided into two parts where one section is devoted for content delivery through any chosen pedagogy or a combination of methods depicted in the ‘Unique Pedagogical Tools Model’, and the second section of the class, focuses on a short case study.

An effective session would usually witness the teaching time getting divided into two parts where one section is devoted for content delivery through any chosen pedagogy or a combination of methods depicted in the ‘Unique Pedagogical Tools Model’, and the second section of the class, focuses on a short case study.

Pedagogies like Group projects teach students to collaboratively utilise the wealth of ideas within the student community. Students learn to work in teams and this trait is much sought after by prospective employers. However, to avoid the challenges in the successful execution of group projects, like “possibility of free riding; poor product quality, stifled individual creativity resulting from within group dynamics”( Ashraf, 2004), teachers must ensure that all group members conduct primary as well as secondary research, participate equally in presentations (Lieberg, 2008) and stand the chance of being taken for a ViVa in the situation of suspicion of non-participation.

Students can also be indulged in “Experiential Learning”( Jurkiewicz, 2004) through role-plays which replicate the limitations, motivations and problems of the real business world (Ments, 1999) and requires students to play a role in decision making thereby handling risk and uncertainty. Students learn to view organisational problems in the same perspective as they occur in the real world (Jurkiewicz, 2004) and understand the importance of spontaneous decision-making based on researched facts (which the students are expected to know). Role Plays foster the importance of reading and being aware about markets, businesses, politics and the general external environment and also motivates the shy students to open up and speak in a forum that is familiar to them.

An extension of experiential and participative learning is the use of “Class Talk Shows”. This innovative pedagogy involves a panel of volunteer students who “present their experientially based perspectives on relevant topics with candor and depth”. This technique propels a session of questions and discussions as well as disclosures by other class members and the role of the teacher is of a moderator, “ensuring that the experience is safe, serious, focused and achieves learning goals”( Eisner, 2004). This pedagogy imitates a real talk show that appears on television. It holds the capacity to amuse students, involve them enthusiastically and drive home concepts in a fun and collaborative manner. Eisner( 2004) suggests that the class talk show facilitates cooperation and mutual learning, quick feedback and allows the educator to localise the discussed content thereby offering an opportunity to the students to learn from an international as well as national context.

About the author:

Dr Anjana Singh is the Head of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Vedatya Institute

 

 

 

 

 

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha