2. Encouraging students to be independent learners

    Independent learning requires more than token gestures to ‘working by oneself’. It requires planning, structure and guidance. There are certain techniques we teachers need to take into account when helping students learn independently. “Teaching ‘independence’ appears to be a paradox. If a teacher provides a structure for learning, by definition they are removing an element of independent study yet if a teacher leaves a student to survive autonomously, the teacher is negating their responsibility to enable the student to learn. Independent learning is open to interpretation depending on the level of independence a teacher wishes to instil in his/her students.”

  We, teachers need to look for the most interesting approaches and strategies to make our students take responsibility for their own learning. Also, teachers must make their students understand they need to learn for life. Most of the time students get use to the teacher ‘spoon-feeding’, but this is something we need to avoid when teaching. The intentions of the teacher can be good when spoon-feeding contents, but he loses sight of the creativity, and the students become passive and teacher-dependent learners. Students’ dependency on the teacher restricts their ability to act and think independently about their subject and their learning. We need to make our students to do some research about certain topics so that they can learn by themselves. Moreover, we need to help our students develop their skills to the fullest. Knowing how to get students to this end point becomes a crucial part of short, medium and long-term planning and most importantly planning for progression. It requires a teacher to look beyond their immediate course of study, and to have a clear idea on where the he or she wants the students to be in the future.

     Scaffolding is used in the context of a technique designed to support a student’s transition in becoming independent learners. We have to help them till they are ready to do things by themselves. This will impact on a student`s ability to become an independent learner. A student`s capacity to be able to learn on their own can be maximized through effective co-planning of this time by both teacher and student.

1. Creating a positive and challenging learning environment through interesting and innovative strategies

         Teachers need to challenge students through interesting and innovative strategies to develop their skills. The book “Captivating Your Class Effective Teaching Skills” presents a series of interesting strategies that we can use in the classroom to challenge our students and to create a positive learning environment. For instance, there is a strategy in which each individual has a given number of talk tokens that they have to use within a discussion. These talk tokens can be used to make the whole class participate. For a talkative student who can be prone to dominate the discussion they will have to think before they talk and use their tokens wisely. They will hopefully become wise with their words and think much more before they talk. For a quiet student, having to speak can be an intimidating and overwhelming experience and the teacher needs to be sensitive in handling these students. Carrying out this strategy can be challenging for both talkative and quiet students, but it will create a positive learning environment in the classroom.

       Furthermore, students must be active learners “Speaking in a classroom should be a participatory event.” All students in a classroom must have the same opportunities to speak; and teachers need to ensure that everyone in the classroom participates. Here, Interesting and innovative strategies play an important role in the classroom. Discussion, for example, is an interesting strategy in which all the students are involved. “Students have to be involved in their learning through interaction and physical activity rather than passive listening and reading. “

      Unquestionably, we teachers need to think about our students’ needs and different learning styles so that we can use the most appropriate  strategies in the classroom. By doing so, we will challenge our students to do their best.