Nataša Jeras, OŠ Šmartno pod Šmarno goro
Do we dare let the learner take the ownership of their leaning? Children are curious by nature. They are interested in so many things. We need to make use of their curiosity in school as well.
I often introduce various kinds of novelties in my teaching, to encourage students to learn. When we create the environment in which students are motivated, the effects of their learning are much greater. Students are more motivated when they are active. The technology plays an important role in that. The role of the teacher in such activities is very important. He/she needs to prepare carefully when students are encouraged to search new knowledge autonomously. They need clear instructions, monitoring, support if they need it; we need to lead them towards the goal of the planned activity. Simultaneously, we should not impose our will but rather let them find their own ways of reaching the goal.
This school year, I designed activities for my fourth-year students to encourage them to explore, design, create and acquire knowledge in various ways. We included the use of technology in all activities.
In Science and technology students worked autonomously on a new chapter. They worked in groups and focused on questions which they researched in a certain period of time. Their task was during the research was also how to share new knowledge with the rest of the students from different groups. They search for information in student books, the library, interactive student books, on the web. They designed presentations, posters, models, video. Similar activities were done for Music; groups were assigned different topics which they had to present to each other at the end (rondo, canon, opera …). At the end of the school year, they selected topics for Science which they found most interesting. They designed presentations, quizzes and experiments for it. In Maths classes they designed work sheets for classmates, and in Slovene classes they designed dictations themselves.
My conclusion is that students achieve much better results when they take ownership for learning themselves. When they feel we trust them to perform the task on their own, they make their best and many times to our great surprise. So – let’s be daring and trust our students!
