Do you remember your teacher or the teachers that really inspired you back at school? Have you ever thought about what made the encounters in the classroom so significant that you still remember them? To be able to succeed as an influencer or even a role model requires many things that are just right. Schools aim to plan their spaces in flexible ways and purchase the best tools and items to support individual learning preferences. Still, the teacher with the child-centered mindset and ability to understand pedagogical approaches is the key asset to making an influence that can last a lifetime.
Emotions are essential for effective learning.
The Higher Education Learning Framework (HELF) by the Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC), the University of Queensland, and the University of Melbourne introduces seven principals of learning. According to the research done to create the framework, feelings drive students to engage in learning. Lighting the personal spark of learning is important in order to encourage students to explore more.
The research also stresses taking into consideration the student’s individual needs by providing them with alternative ways of learning to help students develop positive dispositions towards learning, including perspective, persistence, and resilience.
Seven principals of learning (by HELF)
1. Learning as becoming
2. Contextual learning
3. Emotions and learning
4. Interactive learning
5. Learning to learn and higher order thinking
6. Learning challenge and difficulty
7. Deep and meaningful learning
How to adapt Your tools (and mind) to support this?
Teachers best friends in making memorable learning experiences are the teaching materials that are being used in the classroom. Flexible and easy-to-use audiovisual technology can transform the classroom into a more vivid space. It’s easy to create gamification formats by using different platforms and presenting them with a big picture that can be easily seen from the back row as well. And why stop there? With the help of images and video combined with high-quality sound, it is possible to create immersive learning experiences that will take the class to a desert to learn about how sandstorms are being born or dive into the bottom of the ocean to explore life under water.