Imagine a learning environment where students can exercise their critical thinking skills: a place where they’re inspired to explore, engage, and immerse themselves in remarkable learning. That’s where progressive learning shines. This approach recognizes that students actively participating in their education have a higher chance of success.
Read on for tips on applying a progressive learning teaching style and helping your students succeed.
3 Important Principles of the Progressive Learning Teaching Style
At the heart of the progressive learning teaching method, you’ll find three crucial core principles:
Student-Centered Learning
In this approach, students play an active role in shaping their own education. The goal is to foster personal growth and development. Teachers take on the part of a helpful guide, steering students through the learning journey instead of just lecturing.
Learning Through Experience
A progressive learning approach puts a heavy emphasis on hands-on experiences. It naturally sparks curiosity, invites exploration, and encourages problem-solving. This becomes an opportunity to gain new knowledge applicable to real-life situations.
Motivate Your Students to Collaborate
In a collaborative learning setting, students often team up in small groups or do activities with the entire class. One of the benefits of working with groups includes improved problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Moreover, being part of a group allows students to hear various ideas. This widens their understanding and encourages growth in many ways.
3 Ways to Implement a Progressive Learning Teaching Style
Tip #1: Use the Flipped Teaching Method
A flipped teaching style, also known as the flipped classroom model, encourages students to learn the materials independently. Once they’ve done some groundwork, the teacher leads interactive activities during class, like discussions, problem-solving, and group work, to deepen their understanding.
Two essential benefits of adopting this method are:
Better Student Engagement—Flipped classrooms allow students to become more involved in their learning journey. Instead of just sitting through lectures, they go through the materials at their own pace. As a result, students show up to your online class ready to ask questions. They actively discuss ideas and team up with their peers to tackle challenges.
Improved Time Management—Since most learning happens outside the classroom, teachers can spend more in-class time helping students apply what they’ve learned instead of lecturing. This means better use of classroom time to offer more hands-on learning experiences.
Enhance your flipped teaching approach by employing these three valuable strategies:
Pick the Right Online Resources
Thoughtfully select digital resources like educational videos or interactive tutorials that students will use for independent study. These resources must match the intended learning goals and keep students engaged.
Encourage Teamwork
Motivate students to collaborate on tasks during class to reinforce what they’ve learned. You can form small discussion groups or have students work in pairs on problem-solving tasks.
Regularly Check for Understanding
Keep an eye on how well students grasp the material with a mix of assessments like:
- Quizzes
- Group projects
- Presentations
Formative assessment will help you spot areas where students may be struggling. Adjust your instruction as needed, and gauge the effectiveness of the flipped teaching style.
Tip #2: Metacognition
Metacognition is being aware of and understanding how our mind works. It’s like “thinking about thinking.” Metacognition is essential because it helps students become aware of their own thoughts. It enables students to watch over, manage, and assess their learning experience.
Here are strategies for promoting metacognition among your online students:
Write Reflection Journals—Encourage students to maintain a reflection journal where they evaluate their understanding and learning process regularly. Ask them to keep track of their progress, set goals for improvement, and hold themselves accountable for their achievement.
Prompt your students to ask questions such as:
What did I learn today?
How can I improve my performance in this area?
What challenges did I face, and how did I overcome them?
It will help learners think critically about their experiences and current progress.
Tip #3: Encourage Goal Setting
When starting a module or course, establish your goals and a clear learning objective as a guide. A well-defined learning goal enables students to focus their efforts and improve their performance.
Here are a few ways to guide students to set clear and specific goals:
Define Specific Goals—Help students set specific, measurable goals aligned with their learning objectives. For instance, if their goal is to become better communicators, a vague plan would be, “I want to be a better speaker.” A more specific goal could be “I will practice speaking in front of a small audience for 15 minutes twice a week and seek feedback on my delivery and body language.”
Break Down Big Goals—Encourage students to break down large goals into smaller, achievable tasks to make them more manageable. Big plans are often overwhelming, and they can seem unattainable. When you divide goals into more manageable steps, you’re increasing the likelihood of success.
Help students to set mini milestones along the way. For example, if a student’s goal is to write a 20-page research paper, they can break it down into smaller tasks like:
- Choosing a topic
- Conducting research
- Drafting an outline
- Writing each section separately
- Editing and proofreading
Setting smaller, more manageable goals also helps students maintain motivation and stay on track. By accomplishing each task, students will gain a sense of progress, ultimately leading to completing their main goal.
Set Deadlines—Guide students in setting realistic deadlines for their goals to ensure they stay motivated and on track.
Prioritize Tasks—Teach students how to prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency so they can allocate their time and resources effectively.
Develop An Action Plan—Assist students in creating an action plan detailing the steps they need to take to achieve their goals, including necessary resources and support.
Monitor Progress—Regularly check in with students on their progress and help them review their goals and action plans, making adjustments as needed.
In Conclusion
Progressive learning is an effective teaching approach. It encourages students to engage in the learning process and helps them develop critical thinking skills.
An example of a teaching method that uses the principles of progressive learning is the flipped teaching style. It inspires students to study concepts outside of class before engaging in hands-on activities during class time. This approach challenges traditional classroom norms and empowers students to take charge of their education.
As an online teacher, you can create an environment that fosters engagement, growth, and collaboration by integrating the principles of progressive learning into your teaching method.