6 Strategies Teachers Can Leverage to Engage Learners of Today

Today’s learners have no shortage of learning resources and opportunities. They can access unlimited resources at their fingertips, including online and offline libraries, books, tutors, video streaming websites, and whatnot. Yet, learning is a challenge for many. Isn’t that strange? It means getting information does not ensure learning. Likewise, teaching is more than merely presenting and conveying knowledge. Otherwise, everyone would have been a scholar. But that isn’t how things work. Teaching and learning are two-way processes. Until students can learn independently, they need the assistance of a mentor. That is why teachers enjoy inevitable significance and involvement in every aspect of literacy training and academia, even in today’s digitally connected world. But as the world advances, difficulties for teachers have also expanded. They cannot help but endeavor to ensure their learners maintain focus amid countless distractors. They need more commitment and eagerness to ensure the effective delivery of knowledge to their recipients.

In short, teaching today’s learners is more demanding, especially because each learner is unique, possessing a mix of multiple intelligences. So, teachers must upgrade their knowledge, skills, techniques, and strategies to prepare more effectively. That is why even experienced teachers enroll in training, skill development, and higher education programs like masters in curriculum and instruction online to augment their expertise and widen their teaching horizons. What’s best is that online degrees allow educators to meet work commitments alongside brushing up on their academic credentials.

The following paragraphs further discuss the importance of holistic teaching approaches and strategies to foster learning in today’s learners.

1. Encourage participation in experiments

Today’s learners are already preoccupied with many responsibilities and unnecessary distractions. Their minds are in a constant state of multitasking. Even when they attend a lecture, their minds wander somewhere else. Learning without engagement is hard to get through their heads and land in permanent memory. Hands activities and experiments, on the other hand, require active involvement and participation. As a result, students are fully conscious and can easily follow through with whatever a teacher instructs and teaches. Experiments are also more entertaining as students can witness and perceive how different variables act and produce specific outcomes. Experiments help them understand and absorb information better than presentation slides and lectures. 

Experiments allow them to manipulate theoretical knowledge, add or isolate pieces of a puzzle and see how results vary. It has more positive outcomes than traditional teaching, especially in STEM disciplines.

2. Assign writing assignments

Writing helps in brainstorming different ideas and understanding a concept more thoroughly. It is a complementary approach to learning for better focus and information processing capability. But writing just anything cannot activate learners’ cognition as effectively as assigning them well-crafted and purpose-oriented assignments. For instance, creative writing pieces are more effective in helping students contextualize, express, develop, and refine ideas than content writing. 

In the same way, research writing with a preconceived or defined problem area helps students explore and understand a concept or subject in more depth and detail than random surfing through books and websites. That is not all. Writing assignments can vary according to a problem area and discipline. 

Teachers can also experiment with other writing varieties and help students develop confidence. Once they are comfortable penning down their thoughts, any writing style can work. The purpose should be to encourage students to try, express, and improve their craft without fearing structure, correction, and effectiveness during the initial stages of their trials.

3. Encourage group discussions

Since today’s classrooms are more diverse, teaching is more rigorous and complex than in the past. Teachers have to apply various tactics and methodologies, including innovative tools like game slides, to augment learning outcomes. A teacher’s job does not end after delivering a lecture. They must cross-check on the spot if students also acquire what they teach. And classroom discussion is one way to examine how much learners absorbed and further clarify their misconceptions. Group discussions help view a problem, idea, or statement from varied angles. Since learners’ approach, perception, and comprehension varies, exchanging ideas can help widen everyone’s scope, perspective, and knowledge. They can observe how their opinions correlate, differ, and contradict others. 

Eventually, group discussions instill more eagerness to explore concepts, invest in self-study and research, augment knowledge, and contribute to academic engagements actively.

4. Question and answer session

Students can’t grasp everything during a lecture, no matter how well and thoroughly one teaches. A question-and-answer session is one strategy to observe their concepts and knowledge. When students ask questions, it means they have gone through the lecture material, books, or assignments and invested in self-study. It is also a marker for the teachers to gauge how much students can grasp and retain. So, spare a few lectures to address questions and confusion. 

Even if students do not have questions, cross-check their knowledge about previous topics with follow-up questions. It urges them to come to the classrooms prepared and proceed to further discussion attentively. 

5. Provide constructive feedback

Even though advanced technologies, sophisticated gadgets, and creative teaching methods have improved the learning experience, it’s no cakewalk for everyone. Today’s learners experience challenges like previous generations, though times may have changed. So, teachers must make classrooms conducive and exciting for better learning and ensure students match the pace. Feedback is one way to encourage students and identify if they are following through with the teacher’s guidelines. 

Feedback helps students reflect, observe their shortcomings, and improve their knowledge. Learners always depend upon their mentors for counseling and feedback. Hence, do not hesitate to deliver support when your students stumble emotionally and psychologically.

6. Repeat, revise, and refine

Realistically, teaching goes beyond a designated lecture timeframe. As a teacher invests hours compiling and structuring information that fits a specific lecture timeframe, students also need the same endeavor to decrypt, process, and read between the lines. Everyone may seem to understand everything during a lecture, but their queries arise when they dig into a concept afterward. Therefore, teachers must ensure availability when learners need to repeat, revise, and refine ideas after a defined lecture window. It does not mean teachers must show availability round the clock or invest their off-duty hours. But teaching is a responsibility that they cannot neglect. They should resolve learners’ queries during duty hours or respond to them as often as possible. Utilizing modern tools, digital gadgets, technologies, and virtual platforms is one way to reduce the connectivity gap and address queries timely.

Teaching cannot yield practical results if it’s one-sided. Since not all students are outspoken to highlight confusion during a lecture, a teacher must observe whether everyone is on the same page. Teachers must ensure that everyone can grasp whatever they learn. They must also promote independent learning in students than feeding them with prepared material, presentations, and lectures.