"More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given."
-Bertrand Russell-
Methodologies help to improve the teaching process, currently there are many of them but sometimes we do not know about them. It is necessary to know how they work and the resources or tools that are required to apply these methods.
Technology transforms students from passive recipients to active learners and allows more profound and enriching linguistic immersion. Students learn English with comprehensive apps or platforms which synchronize even without the internet.
This website is broken down into different methodologies in English teaching environments, how they work in a real classroom and some examples of activities that can be developed for the students. These methodologies are changing the learning-teaching process and also it is helping teachers to innovate and create meaningful learning for the students.
In this methodology, students are acquainted with the lessons or content at home and work with the information in the classroom or the educational institution. Students can watch pre-recorded videos at home, read information, listen to podcasts, etc. At that point come to class to do the different homework or activities individually or as a group. This method duplicates students' access to knowledge once the recordings are at home, and again in the classroom.
A flipped classroom is a type of blended learning where students are introduced to content at home and practice working through it at school. This is the reverse of the more common practice of introducing new content at school, then assigning homework and projects to be completed by the students independently at home. (Teachthought, 2022).
Characteristics:
*Students are responsibles with their learning process. Teachers and parents support their learning.
*They explore and make efforts to achieve their goals.
*The resources are focused on a knowledge point, making the knowledge clearer and easier.
*With the support of technology, students can complete different assignments after watching the videos or the information.
Advantages:
Lessons and content are more accessible.
Students have more control.
It promotes student-centered learning and collaboration.
Students learn by themselve
s and teachers can help them and not only the active ones.
It´s easier for parents to see what´s going on.
It can be efficient when practicing content with students.
A virtual trip is the simulation of a current area with the assistance of consecutive recordings or still pictures. It can be included sight and sound, components like music, audio, floor designs, etc. They help in reproducing a practical portrayal of the real world.
According to Techopedia, 2015, A virtual tour is the simulation of an existing location with the help of sequential videos or still images. Other multimedia elements like music, sound effects, floor plans, etc., could also be used. They help in recreating a realistic representation of reality.
Characteristics:
*They depend on personal computers and/or internet.
*There are easy ways to access a virtual field trip as websites.
*The virtual field trips are carried out by using computers and digital resources such as photographs, videos, audios, and 3D models.
Advantages:
Present images from a variety of viewpoints and at many different scales.
Helpful for presenting trips to inaccessible areas.
Provide an alternative of fieldwork, when time, expenses, and logistics are issues.
Simulation refers to an artificial representation of a real-world process to achieve educational goals through experiential learning.
In other words, simulation is defined as an activity that utilizes simulation aids to replicate scenarios.
Moreover, simulation is a way to have different experiences while students learn and discover their abilities. Students can make mistakes and learn from them without the fear of being harmed. It is useful in different areas of learning.
They are able to demonstrate abstract concepts, allow interaction between users and simulated equipment, and provide users with feedback that allows users to improve their knowledge and skills. They are also cost-effective over the long term. (Knilt, 2022).
Characteristics:
*It depends on the learner's empathic understanding of the real content.
*Implies an analysis of the act and of the situation from the point of view of the learner.
*It is plotting of the real situation and capturing the essential which forms part of it.
Advantages:
It can be customized for learners´ needs.
It can bu used for all levels of students.
Allows to make accurate forecasts.
It is a friendly learner.
Social networking is the use of internet-based social media programs. These resources make connections with friends, family, classmates, customers and clients.
Social networking can occur for social, business, or educational purposes, through sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Classmates.com and others. Social media is a significant area for education to engage students in the learning process.
Characteristics:
*Communication in real time.
*People organized by themselves in order to communicate.
*Provides access to rich multimedia content over the internet at any time and place.
*Collaboration or group work is allowed to discover and share information.
Advantages:
Preference for interactive networked learning rather than individual study.
Students prefer to learn from multimedia resources such as pictures or videos.
Students prefer experiential learning activities.
A video conference is an online meeting. It could be a meeting over a distance, this activity happens between two or more people, and both can see an image of the other and they are able to speak and listen to the other participants in real-time.
It is necessary to use the following tools: a microphone, webcam, and speakers, display, management of time or resources throughout the meeting. Moreover, videos can be used to bring experts into the classroom in an easy way. By bringing video conferencing into the classroom; instructors can inform students about this tech and prepare them for the working environment.
Video conferencing in education allows teachers to connect with students no matter where they are. This lets teachers and students engage in real-time both audibly and visually. This tool is becoming more and more a part of the educational world as institutions adapt to new technologies and the changing needs of both students and teachers. Inspace, 2021.
Characteristics:
*Planning is essential to an effective teaching and learning with web and videoconference.
*Use guides and advice from experienced users to learn how the technology works.
*Utilize conferencing tools to facilitate meetings with subject tutors at other locations.
Advantages:
Reduces the Cost of Education.
Connects schools for collaboration.
Enables to Record Lessons for Review.
Empowers to Chat with Expert Face to Face.
This method refers to learning by actually participating and working on real-world problems. Students or learners have the opportunity to solve problems in real-world complex situations and find solutions. During this process, learners practice the skills and knowledge which are relevant and real to workplace situations and learn it at the same time.
Teachers can include role-playing activities, problem based activities, case studies, and participation in virtual communities.
Authentic learning refers to a wide variety of educational and instructional techniques focused on connecting what students are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications, (Edglosary, 2016).
Characteristics:
*Integrated assessment
*Collaborative work
*Students work and think in a real-life context.
*Reflection
Advantages:
Develops critical thinking
Expose learners to different settings, activities, and perspectives.
Creates opportunities for learners to collaborate, produce polished products, and practice generic and professional skills.
Builds capacity to exercise professional judgments.
Learners connect previous knowledge with new ones.
Both methods have a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeper knowledge.
Project Based Learning (PBL) prepares students for academic, personal, and a successful career, and prepares young people to rise to the challenges of their lives.
Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a method in which real-world problems are used as the vehicle to promote student learning of concepts and principles and create meaningful learning.
Characteristics:
Project Based Learning
*Students work on a project in a period of time.
*Engage students to solve problems in a real world.
*Develops deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking.
Problem Based Learning
*The problem motivate students to seek out a deeper understanding of concepts.
*Students take decisions and explain their thoughts.
*The problem should incorporate the content objectives.
Advantages:
Project-Based Learning.
Develops critical thinking
Collaboration
Problem-solving
Creativity
Empowerment, students take ownership of their projects.
Problem Based Learning
Develops long-term knowledge retention. Students can improve their abilities to retain and recall information.
Use of diverse instruction types.
Address real-life issues that require real-life solutions.
Improvement of teamwork and interpersonal skills.
Blended learning is an educational program that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods. This method requires the physical presence of both teacher and student. Moreover, It is a term used to describe the way e-learning is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study to create a new hybrid teaching methodology. There are some important elements to consider, such as classroom activities by a trained educator, and online learning materials required for pre-recorded lectures given by the same instructor.
According to Teaching, 2022, The biggest benefit of these programs is that it fosters the idea of independent learning in students. Some students have a difficult time in their classes because they learn differently than their peers do.
Characteristics:
*Online and offline learning
*Instructor involvement
*Independent learning
*Peer interaction
*Support for students
Advantages:
Time is not a problem, students and teachers could have an online session at any time.
A personalized training experience.
Better communication and collaborative learning.
This method develops constructivist learning. It helps students to increase their critical thinking. Students draw on his or her own past involvement and existing information to find connections with the new facts to be learned.
The Discovery Learning Method may have a specific end result, but the focus is on the steps and the critical thinking involved in getting there, Innovantionland 2018.
Characteristics:
*Learning is active and students participate in problem-solving activities.
*Focuses on the process instead of the end product.
*The lessons learned from failure.
*Learners continue searching for solutions.
*Feedback is an essential part of the learning process and collaboration and discussion allows students to develop a deeper understanding.
Advantages:
Promotes motivation for students in order to make them more participative and discover things by themselves.
Promotes autonomy, responsibilities, and independence.
Develops creativity and problem-solving skills.
This method is called a learning theory fo a digital age. Learning occurs in a social digital world.
Nowadays, educators should consider the work of thinkers like Siemens and Downes.
Connectivism is a learning theory that explains how internet technologies have created new opportunities for people to learn and share information.
Characteristics:
*Learning and knowledge support each other in a variety of concepts and ideas.
*Learning is considered a connection in the process, and takes place in a different context.
*In order to facilitate the learning process. It´s necessary to update the connection frequently in order to get new information.
*Taking decisions is a self-learning process.
Advantages:
It creates collaboration.
Empowers students and teachers.
It embraces diversity, which means that connectivism supports individual perspectives and diversity of opinions.
Technology helps a lot during this method.
Multimedia learning means learning from words, pictures, videos, and audio. Multimedia learning stated that people learn more effectively from pictures, videos, and even music than just words.
In this method, matter words consist of written text, spoken text, and even verbal lecture. Pictures are divided into static and dynamic (video and animation) which means that all these resources enhance learning.
Multimedia learning means learning from words and pictures. (Ikanubun, 2017).
Characteristics:
*Involves different digital tools.
*It requires managing different platforms in order to have pictures, words, and music in the same lesson.
*Teachers can combine the type of learning.
Advantages:
It increase students creativity.
Students can have deeper understanding.
Improved problem solving.
Increased positive emotions.
Learners have access to a vast variety of information.
Virtual reality uses technology to create environments designed for expressly human interaction.
Virtual reality is a simulated 3D environment that enables users to explore and interact with virtual surroundings in a way that approximates reality. These environments are created by hardware and software, and it requires wearing devices such as helmets or goggles to interact with the environment.
Characteristics:
*It requires some elements or devices to make it much more believable.
*It is inmersive
*Feedback, it feels more realistic with vibration or sound.
*It is interactive.
Advantages:
Active experience rather than just passive information.
Helps to understand complex concepts, subjects, or theories.
Expands learners' efficiency to gain knowledge.
Increase interest in boring subjects like science or history.
Improve teaching skills in teachers using VR by providing a deep level of knowledge.
Improve memory power by connecting feelings with education.
Collaborative and cooperative learning are often used to explain the general concept of learning in groups.
A cooperative learning scenario is opposed to a competitive scenario. Students work together rather than competing against one another. Collaboration implies working together to create new knowledge.
According to Drew 2022, students work in groups to achieve a common objective. Moreover, students have meaningful learning when all the members of the group participate.
Characteristics:
*They promote interactions between the students in order to achieve the goal.
*Learners interact verbally in a group which can also result in their own learning of speaking and communication skill.
*Interpersonal and social skills: constructive feedback that students receive in a group can help them build their interpersonal and social skills.
Advantages:
These methods build teamwork.
Effective communication
Time management.
They achieve excellence and meaningful learning.
Mobile learning or M-learning is a new methodology that brings different challenges however it came to take advantage of technology, electronic devices, and internet resources. Nowadays technology is part of our lives and sometimes looks like the telephone is part of our hands. That is why it is necessary to take advantage of the resources that are in the environment.
M-learning is the learning process that uses apps that makes students access information by using any device. Moreover, students are responsible for their learning process.
Characteristics:
*It is possible accessing to the learning at any time anywhere.
*Motivates students because they discover new knowledge using their cell phones.
*It allows students to use a variety of apps for learning porpuses.
*In addition it involves games to make the learning process funnier.
*Provides a collaborative environment.
Advantages:
The time is efficient.
Increased knowledge retention.
It is with an effective cost.
It is more engaging.
More accessible.
Encourages continuous learning.
Gamification is the use of game elements, design, and mechanics to enhance non-game contexts by increasing participation, engagement, loyalty, and competition, indeed, helps students to have meaningful learning.
It is a learning technique in which teachers involve the elements of a game, motivating students to keep learning new things every day. It makes learning a fun experience and meaningful.
It requires levels, avatar, control, objectives, prizes, and also a context that involves the learner´s mind.
Characteristics:
*Points: For each level or mission learners obtain points and that is a motivation for them.
*Badges: These elements are important in order to see the students advance.
*Levels: Every time they overcome a level a new hard one starts, and students can go step by step.
*Challenges and missions: Learners complete different activities while they go learning step by step.
Advantages:
The learners can experience fun while they are learning.
Retention of knowledge is better.
Provides an effective, informal learning environment, and helps learners practice real-life situations.
This method provides instant feedback, that makes students see their performance and they evaluate themselves in order to improve different areas.
According to Dam, 2022 Design Thinking is that designers’ work processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply these human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way—in our designs, in our businesses, in our countries, in our lives.
Design thinking is a human-centered method of innovation that draws from the designer´s toolkit to integrate the needs of people.
It encourages organizations to focus on the people they`re creating for, which leads to better products, services, and processes.
Characteristics:
*User context
*It avoids getting into solution mode without defining the problem clearly and precisely.
*Focus on practical scenarios and data.
Advantages:
Facilitates and speeds up the solution for different situations.
Strong engagement of the end-user who feels involved right from the design side.
Facilitates the dissemination and growth of an innovative culture withing the classroom, school o any institution.
*Methodologies help us as teachers to create meaningful learning because they can be applied to the student's needs. It is important to know our environment and according to the situation, we can use a different method.
*It is important to know the characteristics, advantages, and activities of each method because the objective is to create meaningful learning and engage students in their process.