Interview

A pair of two students is formed where one interview the other. The interviewer takes note during the interview and later write down a report about the topic

Pros: Organizing and clarifying ideas
Cons: Good interview comes with experience. Studennts may feel unconfortable to express their though to a stranger

Collaborative learning

Students forms groups. They do not divide the task of each individual of the group but solve problem together

Pros: Employ the efforts of everyone in the group. Can reduce the feeling of isolation of students
Cons: Forming group which aims for a common goal. It can be difficult to implement when students are used to divide work. Hence, it can require an intense supervision of the teacher in order to reach collaborative learning.

Brainstorming

Students are divided in small groups discussing a particular issue. Each member write preliminary ideas and present them without being critisized. Then ideas are brought together in the group and criticized.

Pros: - Students can develop their own thinking - Students experience various ways of approaching a problem and even crazy ideas are welcome - can also help more silent students to speak
Cons: - Hard to develop good ideas in the discussion - Ideas being developed and discussed can't be predicted by the teacher

Panel discussion

Make a panel discussion as in a conference, experts sitting and audience listening and asking questions

Pros: - Each participant shows his/her view - Audience can react - Creates some tension in the discussions
Cons: - Preparation/selection of the panelists - Chairing is challenging - Creates tension

Discussion groups

Give a bit of time for students to discuss a topic in small groups

Pros: - Activates students - Breaks rythm and creates discussion - Does not require much preparation for the teacher
Cons: - teacher should come up with good discussion topic

Presentation walk

Divide students in groups and ask each group to produce a poster. Then redistribute the groups with at least one student of each previous groups in the new groups. Each groups succesively walks around each poster and discuss them.

Pros: - Every student must be involved in the building process of the poster (because each student present it during the walk) - Not more time-consumming than other group works - Discussion possibilites during the walk
Cons: - All discussions are hard to follow for the teacher - Forming good groups

Group work

Small groups of student work independently on tasks (the teacher is not involved but just plans and assess the work)

Pros: - Develop working skills for the students - Peer learning - Can facilitate deep learning approaches - Value of a group can be more than the sum of the values of its parts
Cons: - Group dynamics - Not easy to ensure all groups are successful

Symposium

Participants introduced their subjects which are then discussed by the students. Every participant is an expert which need to prepare for the subjects. One participant acts as a chairman who is responsible to follow the schedule

Pros: All participant have reached a deep learning by preparing themselves beforehand. Hence it enables fructious discussion
Cons: Requires heavy student workload. Avoiding a competition of knowledge.

Seminar

Students presents their work in a seminar. They read summaries of the work done by other students

Pros: Structuring ideas and justifying their solution
Cons: Requires enough knowledge for both the presenter and the audiance. Workload of the student may be significant

Step-by-step discussion

The students answers a list of questions picked by the teachers. A new question is asked after the previous one is answered. Answer can be found by reading material or by though.

Pros: Works for various group size. Leading the students learning process by choosing beforehand the questions
Cons: Creating a good serie of questions. Questions should not be too easy so that the students should look for their answer insteedof just answering

Reading circle

Students meet regularly, just in between peers, to discuss about something they read related to the class and take notes

Pros: - Easy for the teacher - Students can interact in between peers
Cons: - Selection of good reading material - Can have limited success

Mind map

The main topic is written down in the center and other related subjects form a tree around it.

Pros: Help understanding context of topics, it can be used as mnemonics, need analysis ofrelationships between topics. Can be employed to structure a presentation.
Cons: Time consuming to create a good mind-map. Mind-map can be very personal and could significantly differs among the students

Mnemonics in teaching

Supporting memorization with keywords, sketches to connect new knowledge with acquired knowledge

Pros: Supporting memory promotes learning. Remembering is made easier when the information is meaningful.
Cons: Remembering does not mean that the students have understood fully the topic. Activating mechanically the memory of the students may also promote surface learning. To achieve a deep learning, students needs to activate their thinking instead of just their memory

Cross-over groups

Divide groups each achieving a sub-task of the problem. Then redistribute groups so that each group counts at leat a member of the previous group to combine works

Pros: - Help students to commit to their task - Develop skills to share knowledge - Supports cummulative learning
Cons: - Create the right assignments for each group - Guidance (balance the fact that you have to give the room for ideas and at the same time achieve objectives)

Learning café

Students discuss in small groups in a "cafe" athmosphere and a secretary takes notes. Groups are redistributed regularly to keep the discussion going, only the secretary stays at the same table

Pros: - Keep students active - The discussion progresses as the group are evolving
Cons: - Inequal status of students (secretary stsys always at the same table) - Find suitable discussion topics for the students

Assembling knowledge base

Students think about essential gaps in their knowledge related to the course, and then discuss these gaps in small groups

Pros: - The group is used as peer support - Student learn to justify their views
Cons: - Group dynamics - Not easy to ensure all groups are successful

Exercises

Students solve exercises either independantly or in groups. The exercises are made so that the students can solved them with their lecture notes. Once the exercise is solved, the learned topics can be analyzed. It is a teaching approach based on experience (Theory Action Reflection)

Pros: Applying theory in real case applications. Putting the theory in action
Cons: Creating exercises so that the work is properly challenging. Proposing exercises where a variety of answers can be acceptable

Dialogue with one self

In this method, the teacher has a dialogue with a single student.

Pros: Identify student difficulty, help in building a customized learning plan.
Cons: The student needs to feel confident with the teacher. It can be time-consuming for the teacher.

Independent work

Students work on a given assignment independently. Can be done at home or during the class, and last from minutes to hours.

Pros: - Creates breaks in the teaching sessions - Forces students to be active - Students develop their own views
Cons: - Creation of the right assignments to support learning - Choose the right duration os the assigments to keep students motivated

Learning diary

Writing a diary about each course day

Pros: -Very helpful for the teacher (can get feedback and redesign according to it). -Student has to think critically what he learned, revise the course in his brain and remember what he learned
Cons: -It takes time to do it, usually students not very motivated. It takes time for teacher to go through.

Participants teach

Participants prepare a teaching session where they are teaching a given topic to others. Teachers gives support in the preparation

Pros: - Students have an active role - Encourages students to deeply understand the topic they teach - Frees teacher from explaining the basics and focuses on guiding the discussion - Supports the development of students' performance and teaching skills
Cons: - One student is active at a time - the student preparing the course is the one who understands that topic the most - Ensure right level of teaching for other students - Guidance of students when they prepare their talk - Students must respect each other during sessions

Supplementary reading

Give extra material for the students to read to deepen their knowledge about the course topic

Pros: - No extra work for the teacher - Gives students a wider perspective about the course topic - Gets them excited about the course topic
Cons: - Find the right material to promote learning - Comes as an extra workload for the students

Lecturing

Monologue presentation on a given course topic

Pros: - Teacher can organize presented information - Can be planned, quick, simple - Comfortable also for students
Cons: - Teacher is in control of the knowledge - Not challenging for students (and teacher) - does not guarantee good learning - See students as a homogenious group

Teaching discussion

Bothe the teacher and the student bear the responsibility for the success of teaching discussion. It can be applied in teaching situations, in which taking the other’s opinions into consideration, forming own thoughts, learning from others, developing discussion skills and solving problems together are essential

Pros: Promotes active participation and communication skills for the students and leadership skills for eacher
Cons: Challenging for all sides

Cummulative groups

Divide students in pairs discussing a given problem. Then group two pairs together to enrich the discussion. Then progressively double the size of each groups and continues the discussion, until the whole class is together

Pros: - Students share views with an increasingly large audience and learn from a variety of other groups - Students have the possibility to learn from others
Cons: - hard to produce high quality work with groups

Summaries

Let students draft summaries about the course topic to deepen their understanding. Can come in various forms (writing, drawing, etc.), can be individual or discussed in groups

Pros: - Forces students to analyze the subject - Comes as a help for the student (to revise things for instance)
Cons: - Student must do this work personally ( not taking it from others) to be effective - Not easy to activate deep learning

Pretest

Make a pretest before a course to evaluate students' level

Pros: - Assess student knowledge about the topic - Teacher can orient the course
Cons: - Gathered info is hard to use for the teacher - Assessment is to be carefully considered

Games

Learning games are used to practice the studied skills in an environment that models reality, but is safe.

Pros: -Entertaining. - simulates real world and learning at the same time
Cons: May demand resources and preparation from teacher

Creative work

Creative work aims to utilise the students’ ability to adopt new perspectives, to think of new possibilities and alternatives and to build new knowledge and analyses.

Pros: Freedom, creativity .- Triggers the best out of everyone
Cons: Infinite solutions, not a definete correct result, demanding for assessment prposes

Stimulating writing assessments

Give student a reflection time when they write about the course topic, evaluate what they have learned and/or ask questions about the topic to fill their knowledge gaps

Pros: - Gives time for student to develop their perspective on the topic - Provides some "time stamps" in the course
Cons: - Choose the right assignment to keep students motivated

Debate with Argumentation

In a debate, two opposing groups or individuals are chosen, who then present their own views on the chosen theme and give counter-arguments to the opposing views. The students practice presenting justifications and arguments for their own opinions and evaluating other people’s opinions. The goal is to deepen the own understanding.

Pros: Promotes critical thinking, and argumentation skills. - Involves all students
Cons: -

Project work

An individual or a group is given a project to work on, or the students can be allowed to define their projects themselves.

Pros: Promotes self-initiation and improvisation to find or define a project. - Links theory to practice
Cons: Time demanding for students and requires teachers to keep students motivated

Roleplaying

The participants may act out relationships between persons or situations related to professions or organisations. During roleplaying, attention may be paid to attitudes, values and problem solving skills.

Pros: Seeing the world through different prismas/roles. -Builts up characters, makes people see different sides of situations in real world by simulating it
Cons: Creative and mentally courageous teachers is a prerequisite

Teaching walk

Students forms groups of 2-4 and discuss about topics selected by the teacher while walking. The teacher can also take part of the discussion or just lead the walking route

Pros: Refresh the participants, good to introduce topics which does not necesseraly needs to be written down
Cons: Weather may no be on your side.Making sure the students stay on the topic. It may not be possible for large group

Fishbowl

A part of the group is chosen as a discussion group or groups for this method. The other students in the teaching group form the audience for the discussion.

Pros: Promotes discussion and perform in big audiences.- Improves communicational and social skills
Cons: Demanding for the students, it requires preparation. - mentally demanding too

Drama Pedagogy

Drama pedagogy challenges the students to commit themselves to independent learning and learning as a group member, to come up with ideas, to solve problems and to make value choices. Learning occurs through the active actions and studying of the students.

Pros: Engage the student to communicate together. Bring compassion to the students by reole playing.
Cons: The student may not feel involved. He/She may also focus too much on the aesthetic/theatral part.

Case teaching

In case teaching, the students are given a case that they will start to process either independently or in groups and make conclusions and generalisations based on it.

Pros: Pleasant and useful for students.- It promotes critical approach from the student
Cons: Requires a lot of preparation from teacher

Problem-based learning

The purpose of the problems is to start the learning process and to challenge the students to work together to achieve learning.

Pros: Introduces students to the working reality.- Accelerates learning by applying knowledge into working reality
Cons: Very demanding for students. It requires experienced teachers to navigate/coordinate

Learn by doing

A group or individuals directly start to practice on the taught subjects. This type of teaching often includes laboratory assignments, field exercises, workplace training and workshops, for example. The purpose of laboratory assignments is to familiarise the students with experimental work, various measuring methods and devices and also to illustrate the subjects covered during the course

Pros: Learning through practical activity and work creatively in natural environments and direct acting. -Introduction to research and deep learning
Cons: May require labortory resurces, time consuming for both teacher and student

Inquiry Teaching

Inquiry teaching has plenty of ways of implementation. The questions may be posed by the teacher or the students. Inquiry teaching may also be carried out among the students. The questions can either be given to the students beforehand, giving them time for preparation, they can be formed together, or created spontaneously in the teaching situation.

Pros: - very pleasant for the student, requires interaction-Unique opportunity for the student to design a course from their own point of view
Cons: Very demanding for teacher (time consuming and mentally tough)

The Teaching Wizard

40 teaching methods currently available!