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How to Design a Curriculum that Wins Students' Hearts: Expert Advice
Miscellaneous / / June 27, 2022
To interest schoolchildren or students in a subject that seems boring and useless to them is a difficult task, but doable. Together with a psychologist and a methodologist, we share ways to captivate students with knowledge.
1. Create a learning itinerary
A clear goal of the lesson is important not only for the teacher, but also for the students. The route will eliminate uncertainty and tell you why the subject is needed, what knowledge will be obtained and what needs to be done to master it. And yet, having a general learning plan in front of their eyes, a schoolboy or student will be able to independently create a personal educational track - to determine for themselves the final task and several intermediate ones.
To make it easier for children, for some tasks you can use a flexible deadline system: set two or three possible dates for submitting a project, essay or term paper. And add nice bonuses for the fastest and most high-quality execution. For example, in lower grades - give more tokens or stickers, in older grades - raise one of the previous grades by a point.
In addition to an entire class itinerary, it is sometimes helpful to develop an Individualized Educational Itinerary (IEM) for a particular student. This is useful if the child has an interest and ability in the subject. IOM should include exciting challenges that will help deepen knowledge, but at the same time will not overload: do not forget that there are a lot of subjects in the schedule and each student should pay attention.
Daria Larionova
Deputy director for scientific and methodological work.
IEM is developed for any student who needs individualization of education, taking into account his requests, characteristics and needs, as well as the specific conditions of the educational institution. Often such routes are created with the aim of developing and supporting abilities, deepening knowledge in specific areas when working with gifted children.
The route not only fixes the load and fixes the order of the curriculum, but also determines the value of training - it gives motivation and helps in self-determination, career guidance and self-realization.
2. Explain with clear examples
Standard textbook descriptions don't always work. They may be obscure, outdated, or just plain boring. To make students really understand and become interested in complex theorems and rules, try to explain them using examples that are close to them. For example, making references to characters and personalities from pop culture, showing clips from films or inventing realistic cases from life.
To consolidate knowledge, you can ask students to offer their illustrations to the topic - right in the lesson or ask at home, giving them time to think. This will help not only to better understand the information, but also begin to notice the practical benefits of the subject every day.
Elena Kotova
Psychologist.
Clear examples show that much of what is being studied is in life and is really interesting. To find the right illustration, ask directly what your students do and are interested in outside of class. For example, if you teach physics, and the guys like movie comics, look in films for confirmation or refutation of some laws, show an excerpt and explain how it works.
3. Include interactive lessons
Solving examples at the blackboard and retelling paragraphs are useful, but there is little interesting in them. To captivate all students, try other options for testing knowledge. For example, searching for an answer to a problem by brainstorming or voting, debates, business games, role-playing situations. It is not necessary to completely abandon the classic formats, just combine different activities.
Daria Larionova
Inclusion in learning, interaction with classmates, autonomy, self-expression and stimulation of motivation - all this is possible with the addition of interactive activities to the lesson. It doesn’t matter if you are learning new material or consolidating your knowledge. The teacher can introduce game elements, access gadgets and instant messengers (yes, it is not necessary to limit use of smartphones), apply modern cases, analyzing media characters, and, of course, use unusual ways of reflection.
4. Encourage creativity
It is easy to cheat in abstracts and ready-made exercises: answers can be found on the Internet or copied from a friend. Therefore, sometimes it is better to look for tasks with a variety of solutions that include the child in the process. So, instead of the usual essay on literature, you can ask students to write a test for a read work or write a letter on behalf of one of the characters. The main thing is not to adhere to a conservative approach in evaluating creative tasks and not to underestimate points just because the student's opinion differs from the generally accepted one.
In the exact sciences, a creative approach is also possible. For example, dilute tasks for finding specific values with questions that require you to think and give a detailed answer. By the way, they can also be close to life, for example, “Why does a moistened knife help to cut onions and not cry?”. Other options are to ask students to prepare an advertising campaign for a physical law or a chemical element, create a task according to ready-made inputs, come up with an equation according to the answer, adding as many actions as possible to the example and signs. The format of the task can be any!
Elena Kotova
Creativity expands horizons and leads away from patterns. Thanks to such tasks, students will learn to set goals on their own, to know their reality and themselves - to see their talents. And it also helps to develop critical thinking, overcome the fear of mistakes and, most importantly, understand that making mistakes is normal.
5. Give attention to each student
Don't focus on A's or underachievers. Everyone should have the opportunity to speak. And also periodically give personal feedback: praise for success and do not spare recommendations to improve problematic moments. But it's better to do it face to face - in a short personal conversation or in the form of small text messages attached to homework. So the student will understand that you are not indifferent to his success, while classmates will not be embarrassed.
Elena Kotova
The student is a person. And all personalities are different. If there is an opportunity to work individually, then it should be used. Feedback should be environmentally friendly, aimed at education. The student must be inspired to understand the issues that cause difficulties, and not to sow self-doubt.
Therefore, before you give feedback, you must determine the problem that it solves and find a safe way to communicate. For example, you can use the banal sandwich rule: first give motivating information, then developing (what you should pay attention to), and then motivating again.
If you have your own ways of involving students in the educational program, tell us about them by taking part in the award of the Russian Society "Knowledge». This is an annual competition for school teachers, teachers of colleges and universities, lecturers and other people actively involved in educational activities. You can nominate not only yourself, but also your colleagues or acquaintances, whose abilities you admire.
Applications are accepted online at award website until 17 July. You need to point out what makes your approach unique and what student accomplishments you can boast about. And do not forget to choose the appropriate nomination - there are 13 of them in total. But there will be 22 winners. Most of the laureates will be determined by a professional jury, except for the best in the category "For the overall contribution to education" - the audience of the award will vote here.
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