Next Generation Learning and Teaching Methods in Education

Creating a learning environment where strengths and weaknesses of students are addressed is one of the ways to improve the entire learning experience. Just like anything which becomes a chore losing its magic, the learning process can become unattractive purely because the experience starts to feel like a duty more than an adventure.

Encouraging the students to stay involved in the lesson (or the classwork) is more difficult than ever for there are so many more attractive things to do in the time and age we live. 

Critical thinking, problem solving and inquiry-based learning are some of the aspects in today’s classroom where teachers are trying to encourage students to discover what possibilities are out there and how young individuals are going to unlock their potential to have a future. There are innovative teaching methods as well as new learning methods. In this article we tried to talk about some of these different teaching and learning methods.

Possible educational methodologies designed to equip new generations (individuals who grew up with technology and digitalisation) are mentioned below:

Leading the Individual to Do Research

Leading the learner to do research is one of the most popular trends in next generation education. Information is easily accessible thanks to the digital devices we use today. The learner has pages and pages of internet information under the tip of his thumb but what matters here is something else. 

Ready information that the internet provides is not the issue. It’s rather the ability of the learner to shift through it properly. The ability to collect, interpret and analyse the information is very important. This is why inquiry-based learning is so popular in education nowadays. When the student is capable of asking the right questions, the path to the answers is already half-covered. Asking is the essential part of comprehension. 

When the students are encouraged to take part in an inquiry-based learning experience, learning feels like a journey, some kind of adventure which keeps the individual excited. Especially when inquiry-based learning takes place in small groups, the learners are more keen to get information out of the adventure.

This method will also work with individual learning and the same goes for learning by doing research. Research is not only about reading. It’s possible to do research by seeing, listening or simply by travelling and experiencing. Learners can be led according to the subject topic and given compatible tasks.

Mentoring

Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the goal of professional and personal development. The "mentor" is usually an experienced individual who shares knowledge, experience, and advice with a less experienced person, or "mentee." When considered in the framework of education, a mentor motivates the learner, intervenes in the process when the learner needs support and then the mentor introduces the student to new ways of forming a perspective. A mentor is in fact an effective teacher who keeps the student engaged in all steps of the learning experience, closely monitoring how the student is progressing.

As a teaching strategy, mentoring is directly student centered and can put a bit of extra stress on the mentor. The mentor teacher needs to be a good observer of his or her surroundings. Also, he or she has to follow the development of the student closely so as to see the students’ needs. If and when necessary, the mentor teacher provides support for the learner.

Especially during times of crisis, the learners need to be well-equipped to tackle the situation. Mentors are the ones to boost the students’ self-confidence by guiding them with positive psychology. It’s not the easiest of tasks to teach students about the real world and the facts of real life experiences.

The mentor can play an important role here, when the learning is about the real world. Mentoring is an approach usually in higher education where the individual is relatively more mature and experienced about different learning styles.  

Taking part in teamwork

Teamwork happens when people work together towards a common goal. This goal could be professional or personal. Defining teamwork is simple, but understanding how to work well as a team can be complicated. That is why it is actually important to have been involved in group work while at school. Becoming an effective and high-performing team takes practice and guidance.

One key to a successful team: When individuals realize that working together on a project is more effective than working alone. Teams are effective when they aren't just dividing up tasks and working independently to get them done faster. Great teamwork is about working together and collaborating to come up with better approaches.

This is where diversity comes into the scene and makes a difference. Different backgrounds, different identities and different ideas simply form an amalgam of a rich togetherness. Hence diversity and inclusion are important both for educational institutions and companies: they matter for the individuals and corporate identity.

Diversity and inclusion efforts make it easy to consolidate the strengths of people so that efficient teams can be built. Next generation learning methods open ways for strength, creativity and communication skills which are essential when building efficient teams.

Teaching how to learn

You have to teach learners how to be self-sufficient and reach the right information with the right methods in the age of ever-increasing volume of data.

As a teaching strategy, teaching students how to learn something, anything is quite tricky. In order to encourage students to be engaged in what is being taught, the teacher needs extra tools. Easily accessible information is the reason why students tend to think that they can get a hold of knowledge instantly. But knowledge still needs to be cultivated. That is why teachers have to teach the students the ways of learning and make them understand that learning is about knowledge making sense.

In order to get that, one needs to keep asking certain basic questions. Why? How? Learners who are equipped with learning skills scan information coming from different sources and they ask the questions ‘why’ and ‘how’. By doing that, they can analyse their own needs to deliver a well-planned product management.

Teaching how to learn fundamentally means learners are led to investigate and research which is the way to make education sustainable.

Learning from mistakes

There is a wonderful quote by Eleanor Roosevelt. “Learn from the mistakes of others. You cannot live long enough to make them all yourself.” In the process of learning, it’s perfectly natural to make mistakes and it’s important to make the learners understand we must learn from mistakes.

Learners with this ability are capable of continuing to learn with more self-confidence and awareness. Making a mistake is a negative at first glance. However, making mistakes also has positive effects in the long run.

We grow and mature by the help of past mistakes because we extract knowledge and experience as a result of the analyses we make after making those mistakes.

Using technology efficiently

Next generation learning methods use artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and augmented reality. Learners are interested in technology naturally and it’s important to equip them with new skills like coding so as to improve their analytical thinking. Digital devices and tools are necessary as educational equipment to ensure raising well-equipped individuals.

For more information about next generation learning and teaching methodologies, please visit Speaker Agency's website for educational speakers Jim Carroll, Linda Luikas, Thomas Frey, Patrick Dixon and meet our experts.