Research shows that when people are engaged in something, learning happens naturally. You’ve probably noticed this effect in your personal life. When you take a keen interest in a subject, you suddenly find yourself able to talk about it at length, even though you didn’t actively study for it in the first place.
Kids, however, tend to operate in a different world. They feel that they must study because that’s what adults are telling them to do.
But it turns out that it doesn’t have to be this way. All you need to do is foster your child’s innate curiosity and most of the learning will happen painlessly by itself.
Give Them Choices
When it comes to teaching children, make sure that they have real choices. This way, you give them power and ownership over their activities, instead of telling them what to do.
When you implement this tactic, you’ll naturally find that children are more interested in what they are doing. Their engagement levels are higher. That’s because they feel like they chose a certain activity and nobody is making them do anything that they don’t want to do.
Use More Hands-On Learning
Kids love manipulating things with their hands. So if you want to really engage them with what you’re doing, make more of your learning hands-on.
You can turn virtually any subject into something more practical. For math, for instance, you could use props like blocks or beads. In English class, you could act out the play, instead of reading it in a book. And in art, you could move away from pencil and paper and towards real building materials, such as papier mache.
Get Them Writing
Reading is okay. But if you want kids to exercise their powers of imagination, there’s no substitute for writing. Read more here about lesson plans.
Writing helps to get kids out of their comfort zone and doing something that they might not have done before. Coming up with a creative story and exploring ideas is a fun way to develop creativity and interest. Kids can then explore putting a unique twist on things and coming up with meaningful stories that matter to them.
Go Outside
Sitting indoors learning all day is okay in the depths of winter. But the moment the weather improves, you’ll want to move things outside. Research suggests that kids need a break from sitting in stuffy classrooms, just as adults need a break working at computers in hot offices all day.
When students learn outside, there are many benefits. First, they can get up close and personal with subject matter. Instead of learning about trees and insects in a textbook, they can see them up close whenever you go to some woodland. Second, data suggests that taking kids outside improves their grades. And, finally, being outdoors is a great stress reliever. The moment kids go outside, their internal chemistry changes and they become much happier, keener learners.
So, which of these ideas will you improve your students’ learning outcomes?
