7 Rules Every Teacher Must Practice Post COVID Pandemic To Improve The Learning Outcomes Of The Students

 

Starting a fresh academic year post pandemic is really hectic as well as equally interesting and enthusiastic for the students as well as teachers. Transition from the online classes to the hybrid mode and finally physical mode had brought in loads of technological challenges for the teachers. There has been a lot of knowledge & understanding gap, discipline gap as well as performance gap in the students during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In order to build this gap and bridge a cheerful way in between, the teacher has to adopt certain measures that will help them to bring a drastic and expected change in the students as well. It is in the hands of a teacher to shape the future citizens of our country to be wise and smart leaders of tomorrow. 

The following are the rules a teacher should adopt, to bring a change in the classroom environment and boost the learning outcomes of the students. 

1. Enter The Class With A Gracious Smile

Greeting each student at the door with a smile is beneficial for both students as well as teachers. Teachers who smile frequently are happier people, it's good for their heart and relieves a lot of tension and stress. Positive initial interactions of the students with the teachers is the first step in helping kids adjust to their new environment and manage their feelings so that they can learn in the classroom. 

BENEFITS FOR THE STUDENTS:

1. Feeling of Oneness

2. Feeling of 'I am Special'

3. Positive Motivation 

4. Energetic Involvement in every initiative

5. Easy Adjustment in classroom

2. Warm Up Before Starting The Lesson

The Elementary, Secondary & Higher Secondary level Teachers generally are habituated to start  lessons directly from the abstracts of the textbooks unlike starting from the basic introductory information or background story so that the students feel motivated to pay complete attention towards what the teacher teaches. Teachers should ensure that the students are perfectly aroused and intrinsically motivated to learn the subject when you enter your class. These warm up sessions can be filled with different simple games, fun yoga, meditation, dance, song, craft or drawing activities which may or may not relate to the lesson to be taught. 

BENEFITS FOR THE STUDENTS:

1. Intrinsic Motivation

2. Increased level of Curiosity

3. Enjoyment, Laughter & Joy

4. Physically fitness

5. Bursting of Creativity

 

3. Create Realistic Lesson Plans

A lesson plan is a true and written reflection of the lesson which a teacher teaches in the classroom. Failure to adopt proper strategy to create the lesson plan and implement it in the same manner as written greatly affects the learning outcomes of the students. Hence, lessons should be planned in a realistic way such that the teachers frame the aims and the objectives of the chapter keeping in view its practicality. The activities or actions planned for in the lesson plan should be thoroughly executed in the classroom unlike just keeping in for enhancing the beauty of the paper. 

BENEFITS FOR THE STUDENTS:

1. Learns practically

2. Develops curiosity

3. Helps to collate and correlate to day to day life

4. Simplistic understanding

5. Encourages importance of facts

4. Avoid Monotonous Communication

Communication is the one factor which adds to the learning outcomes of the students. Majority of the time, teachers just conduct their classes as just one man shows. Wherein the students are hardly encouraged or given an opportunity to speak, ask doubts in between, read a paragraph from the textbook, solve a particular problem on the board or give self opinion about certain facts happening around them. Teachers should avoid involving themselves in monotony but give an opportunity for the students to express themselves. 

BENEFITS FOR THE STUDENTS:

1. Provides opportunity to answer

2. Express opinions & ideas

3. Strengthen concepts

4. Develops communication skills

5. Develops interest 

5. Use Smart And Engaging Teaching Aids

Teaching aids are the heart of any lesson conducted and failure to adopt the right kind of teaching aids affects the learning outcomes of the students as they lack proper clarity of the particular concepts taught by the teacher. So it is expected from the teachers that they use smart and engaging teaching aids which will boost the learning curve of the students, enhance the understanding level of the students and strengthen their knowledge base. Use of incorrect teaching aids just for the sake of showing something during the lecture will have a negative impact of yours on the students. 

BENEFITS FOR THE STUDENTS:

1. Easy understanding

2. Clarity of concept

3. Removes monotony and boredom

4. Encourage attention

5. Builds curiosity

6. Provide Frequent Positive Reinforcement

Praise, Reward and Punishment has a great impact on the learning psychology of the students. Positive Reinforcement and right encouragement provided to the students highly impacts the learning outcomes of the students wherein the student is not only motivated and rewarded for the right kind of behavior in the classroom but also is motivated to correct himself when he or she shows an incorrect behavior too. So the teacher should emphasize on using the right, positive and encouraging words in the classroom and boost the morale of the students. 

BENEFITS FOR THE STUDENTS:

1. Encouragement

2. Boosts 'Yes, I can' feeling

3. Improves Communication

4. Freedom of expression

5. Activates Creativity

7. End The Class With Fun To Do Activities

Class end activities are the memorable events which every student carries home and expresses the same with their parents. Highly engaging and recapitulating activities not only helps in proper retention of the concepts learnt but also motivates them in learning. This indirectly helps the teacher in understanding how far the objectives of the lesson taught is accomplished. 

BENEFITS FOR THE STUDENTS:

1. Concept Clearance

2. Boosts Confidence

3. Lays emphasis on key information

4. Check Level of Understanding

5. Builds engagement with the subject

So without much hesitation start implementing these rules in your daily classroom teaching and experience the change in the learning outcomes of the students. 

Happy Teaching!!! 

By Shobha Joy Gaddam

(Academician & Educator)