Teaching Methods

1. Teacher-Centered Instruction

Recognized as the most conventional approach, the teacher-centered methodology is based on the idea that the teacher has the main responsibility in the learning environment. Teachers are in charge of the classroom and direct all activities. Typically, in this approach, students are seated at individual desks that face the teacher. While group work may take place, most classroom time is spent with the teacher explaining concepts and assigning individual work. In other words, students passively absorb the information while the teacher actively delivers it.

Advantages:

1. It highlights the importance of the teacher’s role as a facilitator. Although the teacher-centered approach has been criticized for encouraging passive learning, no one can deny that students need the assistance of a teacher to develop their skills.
2. Having been built on behavioural theory, this teaching method facilitates control over changes in student behaviour through direct instruction. It might be helpful to use the core of this approach and modify it depending on the teacher’s and students’ needs, gradually shifting the focus from the former to the latter.

2. Small Group Instruction

Small group instruction (SGI) usually follows whole group instruction and provides students with a reduced student-teacher ratio, typically in groups of four to six students. SGI allows teachers to work more closely with each student on a specific learning objective, reinforce skills learned in whole group instruction, and check for student understanding. This teaching method is based on constant activities around workstations: groups working with the teacher and groups working independently on varied activities, such as using manipulatives or computer/online resources.
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In Koshys Global Academia meets each student's individual needs, provides direct instruction, and always keeps them in their zone of proximal development, which allows them to independently close learning gaps. Moreover, its digital framework keeps students engaged throughout the whole course, letting them work independently and carefully monitoring their progress.

Advantages:

1. Lessons are adapted to each student’s level. This allows teachers to provide targeted, differentiated instruction to small groups of students in a natural way. It helps the instructor to more closely evaluate what each student is capable of and construct strategic plans around the assessments.
2. It promotes students’ social adaptation skills. Students who find it difficult to ask questions and participate in a large group setting may benefit from working in a small group setting, where they feel more at ease and less overwhelmed.

3. Student-Centered / Constructivist Approach

As we consider shifting the focus from teacher to students, the rest of the approaches from this list are considered to be student-centered or constructivist. With the development of the educational sphere and society in general, the idea of a student-centered approach has become more popular, and there are good reasons for that. Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions places more responsibility and ownership on them rather than on the teacher. Also, teachers must become comfortable with changing their leadership style from directive to consultative. Meanwhile, students may work in small groups, access centers, and move about the classroom freely.

Advantages:

1. Students play a more active role in their learning and develop a sense of responsibility.
2. Thanks to teachers avoiding transmission of knowledge directly, students have a chance to stimulate their analytical thinking, by “making sense of what they are learning by relating it to prior knowledge and by discussing it with others,” according to American educational psychologist J. Brophy.

4. Project-Based Learning

A relatively new teaching method, project-based learning falls within the student-centered approach. As the name suggests, in project-based learning students complete projects. However, these are big, meaty projects in which students acquire knowledge, research, think critically, evaluate, analyze, make decisions, collaborate, and more.
Typically, projects are created in response to an open-ended question such as “How can our school be greener?” or “How was our city planned in the past and how could it be planned in the future?” Another important part of the projects is that they relate to real-world problems. The projects shouldn’t just apply to the classroom but have an impact, too. For example, students might make a radio show for the whole school to hear. Or, they might write a letter to the town council and attend a meeting to express an opinion.

Advantages:

1. Between projects, the teacher may provide scaffolding and smaller bite-sized projects to help build skills such as how to research, how to solve division problems, how to write a letter, etc. Thus, students build on what they know by asking questions, investigating, interacting with others, and reflecting on these experiences.
2. Cooperative learning is enhanced by letting students organize their work in groups.

5. Inquiry-Based Learning

What if learning was question-driven? This is exactly what inquiry -based learning is about: it engages students by making real-world connections through exploration and high-level questioning.
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Advantages:

1. Teachers guide students to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. To learn these skills, the teacher helps students think through their processes, teaches them possible approaches, and encourages them to try various methods.
2. Students are encouraged to fail as a part of the process and then improve their performance in subsequent activities.
3. Instead of repeating answers students have been taught, students learn to seek their own answers to questions. So, students develop strong research skills.

6. Flipped Classroom

The concept of delivering online lectures that students can view from home to substitute lecturing in the classroom is known as flipped learning. The letters FLIP represent the four pillars included in this type of learning: Flexible environment, Learning culture shift, Intentional content, and Professional educator. This technique, in theory, allows for more time in class to be devoted to active learning rather than instruction.

Advantages:

1. Students have more control over their learning. When viewing video content or other materials at home, students have the option of learning at their own pace.
2. It promotes student-centered learning and collaboration.

7. Cooperative Learning

As the name suggests, cooperative learning involves a lot of group work. However, it also requires a lot of structure and intervention on the part of the teacher to make learning as effective as possible. Some commonly used cooperative learning strategies include “think-pair-share.” Discussions in small groups or pairs can also be effective, as can a “jigsaw” approach. In the jigsaw model, students are broken into small groups to read or learn from a certain perspective. Then, changing their groups, members spread the information and share it with others.

Advantages:

1. It improves social skills through cooperative work, recreating real-world work situations in which collaboration and cooperation are required. One of the most vivid results of cooperative learning is described in American psychologist and professor of the John Hopkins University Robert E. Slavin’s essential work “Cooperative learning: Theory, Research, and Practice”.
2. It improves critical thinking: during the group work process, students will express their opinions or ideas with the other students in the group providing feedback. This feedback to each student will include critique as well as the interpretation of the opinions or ideas expressed.

8. Personalized Education

Personalized education takes the student-centered approach to a new level by, as much as possible, responding to each individual learner’s unique needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Each student gets a learning plan that's based on what he or she knows and how he or she learns best. Through individualized instruction, learning is tailored to the student. It provides numerous and yet-to-be-discovered advantages for both teachers and students.

Advantages:

1. Personal attention is given to ensure that every child develops his or her intellectual and creative talents.
2. Studying in a supportive and caring environment promotes respectful student-teacher relationships and even teacher partnerships with parents.