June, the start of the new academic year and time for reflection. What worked last year? What didn’t? What can I do to improve learning in my classroom? What can my students do to become better learners? What innovations in education might benefit my students? What’s working for other teachers and students? These are some of the questions I’ve been asking myself over the last couple of weeks as I’ve been getting my teaching head back on (not that we ever really get it off, par for the course being a teacher!)
Back in Jan after reflecting upon the sem and doing some self/student evaluations, I decided that the protagonists of my classroom this year (apart from my students of course) will be flipped learning and cooperative learning. Flipping in earnest will be new for my students this year, however cooperative learning is something we introduced last semester. Students are finally getting used to this way of working and starting to understand (and reap) some of the benefits…
So, I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate some of these strategies to make the best use of the extra class time I’ll have when I start flipping learning with one of my classes (Part-Time MHRDM batch)in the last semester.
One of my favourite cooperative learning activities is the Think- Pair- Share in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. This strategy requires students to (1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; and (2) share ideas with classmates. Discussing with a partner maximizes participation, focuses attention and engages students in comprehending the reading material.
T : (Think) Faculty begin by asking a specific question about the text. Students “think” about what they know or have learned about the topic.
P : (Pair) Each student should be paired with another student or a small group.
S : (Share) Students share their thinking with their partner. Faculty expand the “share” and conclude with the solution
Dr. Kiran Kakade (Ph.D.,LL.M.,MCA,MBA(HR)) 