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Why increase the motivation for learning among modern schoolchildren, how will their love for gadgets help in this, and what are the trends here? We deal with the director of “YaKlass” Ekaterina Ryzhova
What is the problem
It is becoming more and more difficult for a child to captivate with classes with a textbook – it’s sad to realize, but it’s true. Today, the teacher is no longer the only source of knowledge. And earning authority is not an easy task: schoolchildren find any information in search engines faster than us, from historical facts to mathematical formulas.
At the same time, the motivation of children to study has a strong influence on their academic performance. A survey of Moscow primary school students in 2020 showed that the most important motivating factor in learning for them is the emotional component. In particular, how comfortable and interesting the child is at school. To do this, the teacher must captivate children using different formats for presenting information.
Teenagers themselves confirm that they are interested in practical homework. For example, instead of memorizing formulas, they will prefer to draw up a real business plan, and in biology lessons they will grow plants with pleasure.
Modern methods will help to add life to the lessons and surprise students. Here are some effective tools to increase student motivation.
Gamification
Try not to forbid children to use gadgets, but offer them a learning application on the topic of the lesson or organize an online game for the whole class. With the help of computer games, it is much more interesting to study the multiplication table, historical events, and computer science.
A study conducted at the University of Utah says that the game format in learning significantly increases the motivation to study – more than 67% of the students surveyed confirmed this.
For example, “YaKlass” offers students to learn programming in Minecraft. Children install a special mod with a programmable turtle – the modulo operator. There, students create the first programs using a linear and cyclic algorithm and their own functions. They also teach the turtle to dig tunnels and build houses.
Another example of gamification is the online educational game. For example, with its help, students can study historical eras. The teacher prepares the script in advance, records an accompanying video for the students and gives assignments. And the students draw a route on an interactive map, along which Alexander the Great must move, or depict the historical costume of Catherine II.
A network game can last up to several months and combine online and offline activities. The game can be supplemented with game speakers and techniques, and even broadcast on social networks.
Interactive tasks
“The worst thing in education is templates,” warns the honored teacher of our country Evgeny Yamburg. Interactive tasks will help to act outside the template and surprise students with novelty. Use animated flashcards, live tests, theatrical scenarios and quizzes. Children themselves will be happy to help prepare for such a lesson.
For example, you can conduct interactive lessons in history, chemistry, biology, computer science and other subjects. At a history lesson, you can arrange a costumed medieval ball or a competition for the best historical report from the scene, organize an auction for the “sale” of ancient artifacts. And also – to involve the class in the manufacture of frescoes, engravings or mosaics.
The list of ideas is endless. It is possible to master a topic in chemistry, for example, in the format of a Potions lesson, and to study the features of political parties of the early twentieth century through political debates. At the same time, the expert group or teachers will make sure that each performance corresponds to historical reality.
Scribing
Scribing is sketching and sketching on a topic to help you learn and remember it. Unlike notes, scribing helps capture information using diagrams and drawings. You can practice on paper or tablet.
With the help of scribing, it is really possible to present your own project, film poems or stories. The technique is used during brainstorming in the classroom or as part of the “flipped class” technique. This is a model of teaching when the teacher provides material for self-study at home, and in the lessons in the classroom, the children immediately go to practice.
multimedia lessons
Multimedia lessons help to diversify classes, using texts, sounds, videos and graphics in teaching. Why talk about the life of ancient people in words, if you can visit a virtual museum, watch an online theatrical performance or a historical film?
But if there is no opportunity to leave the class, then the lesson will be made more visual by online tools. For example, “YaKlass” uses a selection of cartoons in teaching that will help children understand themselves and their relationships with other people.
Teachers will be helped by the Miro online whiteboard, where they can create projects, visualize ideas using images, stickers, and notes. There are templates here. Children can work on the board on their own – build diagrams, write down terms, highlight the most important thing from new material. The teacher observes the process and corrects mistakes.
Chatbot with teacher
The teacher will no longer have to worry that someone has not heard or understood homework by using chatbots and special applications with interactive tasks to assess engagement.
Chatbots will be useful when scheduling individual lessons, automatically sending self-study assignments, compiling knowledge control maps, and grading.
Depending on the goals, a teacher can create a chatbot to answer questions, a game bot to engage in a topic, or an informer bot to send important messages. To create your own chat bot in Telegram, you can use the @Botfather helper.
For example, we often use the Mentimeter and Plickers applications in our work. The first is intended for passive listeners – the service helps to conduct a survey and evaluate how well the students understood the topic, collect comments from the audience.
The second application is useful for a quick assessment of students’ knowledge. Students respond using printed cards with individual barcodes. The teacher scans the barcodes with his device and gets the response statistics. The results can be displayed.