Enhancing Learning with Teaching Aids: Key Strategies

What all do you need to have an interactive classroom? A skilled teacher and a favourite subject used to be the answer a decade ago but a lot has changed. There are interactive teaching aids now that have made teaching really exciting and immersive. From the most basic visual aids such as chalk and a blackboard to sophisticated smart boards, teaching techniques have been upgraded to using audio-visual aids. Let’s know why these devices are so popular now.

1. Counting made easy:
Having trouble teaching a preschooler? Colourful items such as building blocks, balls and buttons are great tools to teach addition and subtraction because the child has a tangible item to use to understand the methods.

2. Dimensions learned with daily goods:
At home, you can improvise your teaching methods by using tomatoes and vegetables. For instance, stacking capsicums one over another will give the child a sense of height. You can also pour water in a transparent jar to show volume.

3. Perspective made better:
Teaching subjects such as Geography and Science is incomplete without visual representation. Useful aids in Geography such as charts and maps have paved the way for 3-D modelling at present, all of which explain concepts far better and faster. In case of Science, diagrams are indispensable for studying everything from climate change to human anatomy. One can also utilise field trips to show examples in these subjects.

4. Classroom made interesting:
Instead of having to focus on long lectures, the attention of schoolchildren is retained with exciting presentations about a particular subject.

5. Tricky concepts made easy:
If a teacher faces problems explaining a tricky subject, an audio-visual presentation goes a long way as referencing. Teachers can continue their lectures with the help of a presentation and use visual elements such as images and videos as references to arrive at a conclusion.

6. Boredom kept away:
Often students feel bored while attending a class because they lose interest in the subject. An engaging audio-visual experience with stunning graphics and a powerful narration bring their attention back to the classroom. Some children prefer such animated methods of learning to plain verbal lessons.

Celebration of colour days, for instance, indirectly teaches children about the primary colours instead of explaining the concepts with bookish notions. Some children fail to identify primary colours and such initiatives hone their colour identification skills.

7. Examples come alive:
Good teachers use examples to make their students understand concepts. Yet there are limitations to this use of examples. Teaching aids address this limitation. A teaching aid helps the examples come alive and thus, solves all confusions in the process.

The more interactive the teaching process becomes, the better do students learn. Puppet shows, flash cards, modelling clay, storytelling sessions and skits are engaging ways to impart a rather tricky lesson to students.

Which teaching aids from your school years do you recall? Which one remains your favourite?