It’s frustrating to realize that almost half of the class has not understood the material taught in class. In most cases, an educator will set the lessons from simple to complex or start with the basics and move to complex ideas. Students who fail to understand the fundamental concepts will have a hard time moving on to other levels. So what strategies can a teacher use to ensure students understand the content taught in class?
Make the Lesson Relevant
To better understand specific concepts, a student can look for help from an essay service. When you order essay cheap from a reputable site such as samedayessay.com, you are guaranteed quality content that meets the academic standards. Reading the material adds knowledge and sharpens your writing skills, all of which come in handy during exams. While students take the necessary steps to comprehend the material, what are you as an educator doing to make the lesson relevant?
When education is relevant to students’ lives, it generates interest because the learning experiences become relatable. So when planning lessons, check and ensure the concepts have life relevance and apply to students’ experiences and world problems.
When students have a personal connection with the material, it becomes easier to learn and less likely to forget. A teacher can establish relevance by relating the topic to everyday applications or linking it to local cases. Discussing how theory can be applied in practice is another great way to show relevance.
Use Different Teaching Methods
Students have different learning styles. Some prefer visual content, while others comprehend information faster when listening to a lecture rather than reading it. Some learn more quickly by doing things with their hands.
While the easiest group to teach is those who learn faster through written words, since a class will have students with different learning styles, an educator should accommodate the whole group. This includes incorporating both text and images and setting specific days for learners to explain the concepts in their own words.
Use Tests to Measure Understanding
The ultimate goal of teaching any course or subject is to ensure all students understand the concepts. However, some educators assume that standing in front of a class and talking is the best teaching method. They then use a test to gauge the understanding, only to find out that more than half the class had poor scores, meaning they failed to comprehend the taught material. Besides, effective, practical, and fun teaching methods boost understanding and recall.
The trick to good teaching is administering a test the same day the lesson was taught, probably after class. Students can then go home do the test, and teachers mark it the next day. From the results, a teacher will know the problem areas and address them before moving to the next lesson. This works to catch students while they are still interested.
Apart from tests, other ways to check for lesson comprehension include: Through discussions where each student can talk, and the teacher listens.
- Filling questionnaires that ask the learners directly whether they have understood the taught concepts.
- Giving tests whose answers determine the steps to take for the next lesson.
Assign homework whose deadline is a few days away gives time for students to reflect on the lesson, which aids deeper understanding and stores the information in the brain’s long-term memory storage section.
Repeat the Lesson
In case some students did not understand the lesson, feel free to explain again. Focus on providing information that fills the gap in problematic areas; you can even revise the topic. Repeating the lesson might be energy-draining, but once your students grasp the basic concepts, they can smoothly proceed to advance material. Besides, repetition reinforces the information ensuring it is remembered and understood. You can further use homework to test whether the taught information has sunk in.
Ask Learners to Summarize Lessons
Summarization, a form of note-taking, involves picking out the key issues or main points in every topic. It’s also a great strategy to check whether or not students have understood the lesson. Summarizing leads to better retention and allows the learners to have a deeper understanding of the material. Summarization also makes it easier for students to use the learning style they prefer, which leads to better retention.
With this method, students have a chance to put the lesson taught in their own words. It also makes revision easier, which leads to better academic performance. But ensure first that learners know how to write good summaries by teaching them. That way, learners comprehend the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing.
