New teaching techniques will be on the rise after the Covid-19 era to cope with changes brought in the education system due to this pandemic.
he simplest response to coping with post-Covid-19 pandemic higher education was converting the existing curriculum through an online mode in its best possible way. After more than a semester of online teaching in 2020, it is time to reflect on how effective this teaching was? How enriching it is both for students and teachers for now and the future?
There are reports of significant concerns. Students are tired of long hours of screen time, overlapping lectures, lack of self-learning time, connectivity/bandwidth issues, Covid positive cases in the family, chaos in the home atmosphere, and many more.
Often these led to anxiety and uncertainties about their career. At this moment, the larger question is, does our teaching delivery needs a refresh command?
Perhaps the most critical shortcoming in the current online teaching is converting the classical teaching methodology (like a lecture) into a digital or online mode. Teachers have tried best to adopt a flexible way of using recorded video, live sessions, and a quiz to overcome online delivery.
In the meantime, many not-so-explored teaching methods have emerged as alternate options of teaching methods. Such a rise in few teaching methodologies is one of the best outcomes of the current online teaching. But can those methods offer a better result than a typical lecture? To understand, let’s talk about teaching delivery approaches.
The classical pedagogical approach is based on the science of teaching a child (‘Peda’ means child and ‘gogos’ means teaching). The teacher sensitizes students to follow and learn, and the teacher decides the method and explains it. Students are not clear about the learning outcome in the beginning and dependent on the teacher.
The methods like a lecture, tutorial, practical exercises, assignments, coaching, quiz, discussion all are conventional methods and found useful in a better offline interactive mode.
Malcolm Knowles (1978) introduced the term Andragogy (‘Andra’ means adult) to differentiate from the pedagogical approach. The Andragogy depends on the learner to often develop learning more consciously and reflectively.
However, in the twenty-first century, more connectedness to the web has led to new approaches in perceiving the teaching methods. In 2000, Stewart Hase&Chris Kenyon propagated the word Heautagogy (self-determined learning) with a notion of making capable learners who can learn on their own.
The role of the teacher here is to mentor the students to learn responsibly from multiple sources. The Heautagogy trusts learners to bring the learning outcome with active mentoring. The teaching methods like flip-classroom, case, mentoring, mini-projects, short films, guided reading, and case study make innovative teaching options for exploring new-normal online teaching.
The emergence of new flexible teaching methods
The lecture method’s comfort is both a strength and a threat for a teacher of higher education. Unless we take our vehicle into different terrain, we don’t become an experienced driver. The covid-19 has made the terrain much challenging for all the teachers calling to try new teaching methods.
The diagram shows the teaching methods, which are more learner-centered and generally effective in online/offline teaching. Namely, the flipped classroom, case teaching, mentoring, mini-projects, paper writing, guided reading, seminar, online debate, film show can make wonder in an online teaching terrain.
These new methods can be more enjoyable, less time-consuming, and avoid repetition of existing knowledge. Instead, it encourages developing new experiences by practicing existing knowledge.