With the change in time, educators have also felt a need to change their approach to teaching and learning. As we all know that every child has different qualities and learns differently, there is a need to understand each and every child’s learning style in order to make them learn better. Teachers have now slowly started accommodating the needs of students differently. Teachers are trying to align learning outcomes with classroom activities, create motivating and inclusive environments, and integrate assessment into the learning process of students. A variety of teaching methods have been introduced in the classrooms with a variety of teaching aids or teaching-learning materials that supports and strengthens the learning of students.
A broad framework that can be helpful for both teachers and students is WATCH-THINK-PRACTICE. This framework helps students to explore the different avenues of learning through exploring and thinking about the concept they are learning. Sight or Seeing is one of the five senses which helps a person to look at the world and form perspectives about it. As it is an inherent nature of human beings to learn by watching and observing things from their surroundings. After looking at the things, thinking about what has happened is a part of being human through which living beings evaluate the situation around them. After thinking and evaluating comes practice which helps in learning the tasks.
How does this framework look like?
WATCH:
The majority of part of the human brain is devoted to processing visual information and the brain responds to visuals fast. Remembering stuff from the picture is retained in the mind for a longer time. This is the first step for implementing the framework where the teacher can provide the content to students which they can see and observe. The content could be any video, any project, any place or any image, etc. Through videos, students get to process information fast.
THINK:
After watching the content students should get room to process the information and a trigger to think about the concept so that they are ready to learn the concept further. Thinking is an integral process of learning and an exercise in which the human brain is constantly involved. This supports the deep learning of a concept and provides an opportunity for students to explore more about the concept as per their interest in the topic.
PRACTICE:
Practicing a concept helps in the long-term retention of the concept. It’s important to provide that space to the students where they can apply their learning through hands-on methods. After watching, observing, and thinking about the concept it is important to work on the knowledge acquired to make the foundation strong.
How is the framework beneficial in the classroom?
Supports the students with different learning styles:
With this framework, teachers can cater to the needs of the students with different learning. As we all know that some students learn better by visualizing, some are kinesthetic learners while some are auditory learners. This method comprises different learning techniques where all the students get a chance to participate and learn concepts the way they like to. Students get a chance to see and listen to the concepts after which they can explore them more with hands-on activities.
Provides real-world contexts for learning:
This framework helps in bringing the real-world contexts to classroom learning with the help of videos and practice section. Videos are helpful in representing how a particular process occurs and concepts can be represented in a story format as well which helps in engaging students. Abstract concepts that are difficult to understand in any other way are learned by watching people perform or demonstrate the process. This demonstration makes learning fast. Also, this provides a trigger to the students’ mind and enhances their curiosity.
Challenges students to construct and apply new knowledge:
With this framework, students get a chance to think about the concept deeply and apply the new knowledge acquired through different practice methods. A combination of speech, text, and images makes it easier to understand the actual concept. This makes room for deeper understanding and provides an opportunity for the students to do hands-on activities.
Gives an opportunity to reflect on the learning:
Through WATCH-THINK-PRACTICE students and teachers can constantly reflect on the teaching-learning process. This framework completes the learning cycle with a practice element which provides a scope to the teacher to check the learning of the students and plan further classroom activities.
WATCH-THINK-PRACTICE enables teachers to plan their classroom activities better by involving a variety of content and strategies that enhance their creativity skill. This method also supports problem-solving, collaboration and observation skills among the students. Teaching methods can always be customized as per the needs of the classroom and certain changes can be brought to this framework also if that’s something required for your classroom so keep experimenting and see what works best for your students.
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