Scholarly Paper
Proper classroom preparations are key to the effective passing of certain content. Teachers need to employ effective teaching strategies that encourage learners’ active participation for the achievement of the lesson objectives. Appropriate classroom activities and learning aids promote the meeting of the various needs of the learners. The student population is characterized by varying individual competencies; hence, the instructor should apply effective motivation and evaluation techniques to identify the learners’ comprehension levels. Therefore, this paper will discuss the different aspects of classroom learning and their effects on the teaching process.
Ways to Motivate Students
There are numerous ways through which an instructor can use it to motivate students in a classroom. Motivation is an effective process for promoting students’ attention and energy in achieving the learning objectives. First, learners are motivated by applying adequate rewards for visible behavior changes or improvements in students (Abrams et al., 2018). The teacher needs to acknowledge positive increases in the performance of the learners. A word of appreciation and encouragement promotes the zeal of the student in education. Other forms of motivation include giving tokens of rewards to well-behaving individuals. Second, the instructor motivates the learners by developing clear objectives at the beginning of each unit. Well-defined goals enable the student to identify the course requirements helpful in preparing for exams. Furthermore, the instructor should outline the potential obstacles that the student may face during studying the course. Third, students are motivated when the instructor listens to their concerns. Effective listening informs the student that the instructor cares about their needs hence work hard to meet the unit objectives. It also ensures that the teacher understands the students’ areas of weaknesses for adequate intervention (Abrams et al., 2018). Motivation is vital for promoting the positive attitudes of the students to the subject.
The success of students in the classroom is influenced negatively by a variety of factors. Some students may have a negative attitude or disliking towards the teacher or the course. Poor attitudes may interfere with their grasping of the course content under study. This is the most prevalent reason people fail in some subjects (Albrecht & Karabenick, 2018). Additionally, the teaching modalities utilized by the teacher impact the performance of students. Adopting various teaching strategies that encourage active participation helps to avoid the boredom of learners enhancing their outputs. Finally, the school environment that provides students’ needs, including meals and extra curricula activities, is vital for promoting students’ success. Effective planning of the teaching and the environmental factors enhances the success of students.
Instructional Strategies
Effective instructional strategies in teaching are imperative for promoting the passage of information and lively classes. Several teaching techniques are used in the lesson plan above, including lecturing, use of short videos, role plays, discussion groups, and use of case scenarios. Lecturing involves the teacher presenting key ideas about the topic to students required to make short notes. This method is used to pass new information to the learners. It enables the teacher to meet the visual and auditory learner’s styles during the presentation. Visual information during lecturing is passed through effective gestures and body movements to convey a message (Sanchez et al., 2020). Short videos enable the teacher to meet the learning styles of visual and auditory students. These videos help to break the monotony of lecturing and also relay information to the learners.
Role plays involve engaging the learners in acting or simulations about the concepts learned in class. Students can apply the knowledge obtained from teaching in the short plays. This instructional strategy assists in meeting the kinesthetic learners’ needs who enhance their knowledge through experiencing or doing things (Sanchez et al., 2020). Discussion groups promote active interactions between the students in applying the lecture’s information to solve real-life problems. It is significant for meeting learners’ reading and writing needs as they strive to internalize the data given. Case scenarios prepare students to handle normal situations which may arise at their workplaces. Students are put into groups to solve given circumstances relevant to the nursing practice. It helps to meet the reading, auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learning needs. Therefore, adequate application of the various instructional strategies is imperative in meeting the needs of the learners.
Learning Activity
The success of teaching is largely improved through the active collaboration of the learners in the lesson. The learning activities deployed in this lesson on the delegation of nursing tasks include active listening, engaging in small group discussions, taking notes, asking questions, and engaging in role plays. Active listening involves paying attention to the concepts presented by the teacher during the lecture. It also comprises taking the relevant notes for future references when self-studying. These activities enable the instructor to meet the students’ auditory, visual, reading, and writing learning styles. The rationale for selecting these activities is to improve the retention of the key concepts in the lesson taught in class as the student is encouraged to ask questions (Silver et al., 2019). Furthermore, the teacher can meet the cognitive level as the student can understand and remember the information.
The other learning activities include engaging in small group discussions. This activity is significant in fostering the comprehension of the student about the pertinent topics in the course. It involves the learner engaging in constructive discussions with other students to solve various case scenarios outlined by the instructor. The learning styles accomplished through utilizing discussions include auditory, visual, writing, and reading requirements. Additionally, engaging in role-plays requires the learner to work collaboratively with other students to apply the knowledge learned in class in a short play. The instructor selects this learning activity to know about the students’ level of knowledge about the topic. This activity is also crucial as it enables the students to apply hands-on skills to perform the pertinent issues acquired (Albrecht & Karabenick, 2018). The kinesthetic learning style is achieved through acting in role plays.
Description of the Classroom Assessment
Classroom assessment strategies enable the teacher to identify the students’ understanding of the topic under discussion. First, asking appropriate questions on the content taught gives the instructor knowledge of the student’s awareness level. Answers are taken from the audience about the questions asked by the presenter. The results obtained from these questions will guide the teacher in formulating additional teaching methods to improve the learners’ understanding. Second, giving a case scenario for students to solve is imperative to determine their application of the knowledge learned in class in real-life cases. Solving these situations enables the instructor to assess the higher-level objectives of Bloom’s taxonomy of application and analysis of information (Moore-Cox, 2017). These results are vital in ascertaining the level of knowledge of the students on the topic.
Third, the muddiest points are a brief description of the areas of difficulties by the students. It provides an overview of the parts of weaknesses where the teacher should give additional explanations. These results are valuable for instituting further teaching objectives by the teacher. It also provides critical points for further studies by the learners. Therefore, proper class assessments help guide the instructor on areas that need further explanations (Moore-Cox, 2017). They also give a clue on the learners’ level of understanding of a particular topic and its effectiveness during the lesson.
Therefore, teaching is a complex process that requires intensive preparations for the promotion of its success. The instructor needs to institute proper teaching methodologies, which are necessary for relaying information. The teaching strategies should also actively engage the learners to enhance the retention of the coursework content. Furthermore, teaching is a process that needs the application of motivational principles to encourage good performance by the students. Subtle actions, including appreciating behavior changes or exemplary performance, inspire learners to work hard. Appropriate classroom assessments are instrumental for evaluating the understanding of the pupils about a given topic.
References
Abrams, A., Nold, R., & Gonda, M. (2018). 3 Implementing a classroom assessment technique to improve student engagement, communication, and performance in an introductory animal science laboratory course. Journal of Animal Science, 96(3), 498. Web.
Albrecht, J.R., & Karabenick, S. A. (2018). Relevance for learning and motivation in education. The Journal of Experimental Education, 86:1, 1-10, Web.
Moore-Cox, A. (2017). Lesson plans: Road maps for the active learning classroom. The Journal of Nursing Education, 56(11), 697–700. Web.
Sanchez, J., Andreu-Vazquez, C., Lesmes, M., Garcia-Lecea, M., Rodriguez-Martin, I., Tutor, A., & Gal, B. (2020). Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a learning model based on workstation activities. PloS One, 15(8), 230-246. Web.
Silver, R., Kogut, G., & Huynh, T. (2019). Learning “new” instructional strategies: Pedagogical innovation, teacher professional development, understanding, and concerns. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(5), 552–566. Web.