Teaching – Learning Methodology

Methodist College of Engineering and Technology (MCET) promotes the use of student centric teaching and learning methods to increase the grasping and learning levels of the students. Emphasis is to go beyond the traditional Chalk & Talk methods in order to maximize teaching effectiveness in the fast-changing technologies in engineering. Further, the graduate attributes or the Program Outcomes (POs) are twelve in number and defined for a 4 year undergraduate program in Engineering and Technology.  Of these twelve, only five are domain specific and remaining seven are generic.  In order to cover the remaining seven POs, appropriate teaching-learning methodology needs to be adopted.

The college once a year conducts a workshop or faculty development program on Teaching Methodologies, in order to equip teachers with innovative and ICT based teaching methods. Therefore, teachers are encouraged to adopt some of the following methods, in their teaching.

A) Teaching methods

1. Chalk & Talk:Chalk talk is monologue presentation and a method of teaching which focuses on the blackboard where the matter/drawing is represented along with the oral communication by the teacher.It can be a method for presenting lectures and talks. One of the characteristics is that the presenter does not want the viewer to lose attention. He/she maintains regular eye contact with the students.  It is time-tested method adopted for many decades in education.  However, it limits the student’s involvement in learning the subject, due to lack of active application in the class.

 

1. Charts/Models: A chart/model is a good means or aid of teaching.  It brings environment to the process of teaching inside the class indirectly.  Instead of visiting the actual fields of a lesson in real life, the chart can bring such scene into class to be seen by learners.  The purpose is to give life to the theoretical learning.It facilitates the process of presentation in class.

1. Field Visits: Field trips give opportunities for incorporating out-of-class and real life experiences into a particular course. This may take the form of field trips to relevant locations, or it may be more project-based field work with students regularly visiting or working at one site as part of a course project.  These generate interest and enthusiasm in the student to learn the courses well, when they can link classroom learning to real life applications.

 

1. Group discussions/Debates: Group discussion/debate is a group activity involving the teacher and students to define the problem and seek its solution. It can also be described as a constructive process involving listening, thinking and speaking ability of a student.

1. Group tasks / Assignments: Assigning tasks to small groups during class can have many benefits, such as involving students in their own learning, making course topics come to life, deepening students’ knowledge and developing teamwork skills.

 

1. Mini Projects/Case studies/Surveys:This is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge. Case studies/Surveys is an instructional method (not a theory) that refers to assigned scenarios based on situations in which students observe, analyse, record, implement, conclude, summarise, or recommend. Case studies are created and used as a tool for analysis and discussion.

1. Student seminars:Engaging the students to gives seminar is aneffective teaching method. In general, the seminar method encourages active participation from the participants. The important components of a seminar include preparation of the material to be presented, a session where the information on the assigned topic is shared with the audience and a discussion session leading to deeper understanding of the subject matter.  This method involves the student in the learning process.

 

1. Think-Pair-Share: Think-Pair-Square-Share is a series of steps that enables the students move through the stages of individual work, paired work and group work before feeding back to the whole class very simply. This strategy allows you to quickly engage the whole class without losing any time moving furniture or formulating groups.

1. Worksheets: Worksheets refers to a loose sheet of paper with questions or exercises for students to complete and record answers.These are intended to help a student become proficient in a particular skill that was taught to them in class.

 

1. Workshops: The workshops are organized to develop the psychomotor aspects of the learner regarding practices of new innovations in area of education. Under this technique, participants have do some practical work regarding the technologies of their curriculum.

1. Guest Talks:  A guest talk supports a topic that students may know little about and can offer them a different point of view, one that they may better understand. It gives them the opportunity to learn something new, or learn the same subject with a different point of view.

 

Apart from the Chalk & Talk method, most of the methods described above are student centric and increase the student’s active involvement in the learning process, rather than passive listening.  In addition, college also encourages the use of the modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to enhance student’s learning experience.

B) ICT based Teaching methods

1. Certifications/MOOCs: A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is an openly accessible, web-based course designed for large-scale enrolment and instruction. Unlike a blended or flipped course, a MOOC is taught completely online. It is common for MOOCs to offer statements of accomplishment once learners have completed some or all of the learning activities in the course.Teaching a MOOC pushes to be innovative and creative when it comes to teaching.  It allows you to explore the online environment while pushing the envelope in terms of teaching pedagogy and strategies.

 

1. Flipped class: A flipped classroom is the reverse of the more common practice of introducing new content at institution, then assigning homework and projects to completed by the students independently at home.In this blended learning approach, face-to-face interaction is mixed with independent study–usually via technology. In a common Flipped Classroom scenario, students might watch pre-recorded videos at home, then come to institution to do the homework armed with questions and at least some background knowledge.

1. Google classroom: Google Classroom is a blended learning platform that aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way. Google Classroom is a free application designed to help students and teachers communicate, collaborate, organise and manage assignments in a paperless way.

 

1. Models/Prototype development/Project based learning:Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge. 

1. Power Point Presentation: PowerPoint can be an effective tool to present material in the classroom and encourage student learning. PowerPoint can be used to project visuals which would otherwise be difficult to bring to class.

 

1. Plickers:Plickers is an assessment tool that allows teachers to collect on-the-spot formative assessment data without the need to have students use devices or paper and pencil. Teachers can use this tool with previous planning or on the go as needed.

1. Quiz/Moodle based Quiz: The Quiz activity module allows the teacher to design and build quizzes consisting of a large variety of Question types, including multiple choice, true-false, and short answer questions. These questions are kept in the Question bank and can be re-used in different quizzes. These quizzes can be conducted online using various ICT tools or platforms such as Moodle.

 

1. Review web literature: Literature review is very important component of research work and it is concerned with the study of earlier researches carried out in the field of the present research work.With literature review, a researcher understands research gaps in terms of the areas which appear to be relevant and should have been studied but not studied.

1. Software based learning/Simulation: Software based learning/simulation is the latest strategy in teaching learning environment wherein students will be exposed to solve problems related to their curriculum using a software, specifically related to the subject.

 

1. Video lectures: A video lesson or lecture is a video which presents educational material for a topic which is to be learned.It might be a video of a teacher speaking to the camera, photographs and text about the topic or some mixture of these.

1. Virtual labs: The Virtual Laboratory is an interactive environment for creating and conducting simulated experiments: a playground for experimentation. It consists of domain-dependent simulation programs, experimental units called objects that encompass data files, tools that operate on these objects.

Online teaching (MS Teams Platform):

Microsoft Teams is an online teaching platform for teachers and education institutions to help create a space to better engage with students and enhance learning. This video-based platform is easy to use and works to connect teachers and students wherever they are. Teachers can make use of this platform from holding an online class to collaborating on a document as a class wherein the platform integrates lots of layers to make sure the experience is as seamless as possible. Teams offer video chat, interactive documents, assignments, auto grading, and quizzes.

Mind Map Technique:

Mind map technique is an effective method to take notes and brainstorm topics. A mind map involves writing down a central theme and thinking of new and related ideas which radiate out from the centre. By focusing on key ideas written down in your own words and looking for connections between them, you can map knowledge in a way that will help you to better understand and retain information.

 

A teacher in MCET is encouraged to use some or many of the above teaching methodologies.  In addition, a teacher can any other teaching strategy and develop his own innovative teaching methods which are highly encouraged.