Monday, November 14, 2011
Instructional Strategies
In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s indicated that hands-on-learning was a very effective teaching strategy yet teachers seldom used the approach. What could be the reasons for the lack of use of this strategy? For approximately the last decade, it has been indicated that an effective teaching strategy in the classroom is hands-on learning. However, some teachers seldom use this type of instructional strategy. What could be the reasons for not implementing this teaching?
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I think a big reason teachers don't use this strategy is because of a lack of funding. With school funding constantly going down, teachers don't haves the means to get supplies needed for doing hands on activities. I think another factor is time. If teachers don't think they have a lot of time they wont do hands on learning because that takes more time to do.
ReplyDeleteI personally learn best through hands-on activities. I don't learn anything until I actually experience it myself. I believe teachers don't do this as often as they should because they are afraid the students will not stay on task. Students will look at it as "fun time." While it is supposed to be fun, students should also be learning. The whirly gig experiment is a great example of this. Students want to throw their whirly gigs around for fun. They do not want to create a hypothesis for it. They do not want to do the writing part of the experiment, they just want to throw it around the classroom. While students tend to learn better through hands on activities, I also think it is very hard for them to stay on task.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do agree with you Jessica. It is very hard to do hands-on activities when you do not have the funds. Foruntatley, a lot of hands on activities can be homemade, such as the paper whirly gigs.
ReplyDeleteHands-on learning is very difficult to do beacuse of the lack of materials as stated from Jessica & Sarah. It's hard for teachers, especially on their salaries to purchase supplies for the entire class. Some things are simple to create, but they take time. Many teachers don't want to put the effort into this, even though the benefits are increased learning and enjoyment. I know even in college I love the classes where I get to do something with my hands and participate in the lesson rather than take notes. It engages the students, and allows for them to use more of their body rather than simply notes or reading. Lastly, another reason why hands-on learning might not happen is that teachers are lacking creativity and new resources. As a new teacher out of college I'm sure I will have several new ideas, but as I continue to teach I might stay in the same rut and do what I did the year before because it's easier and I don't want to risk it being a mistake. In my career I will make sure that I will take risks, and try new activities, and definitely implement hands-on activities.
ReplyDeleteI think we're all in consensus so far that hands-on learning requires resources. I think the major roadblock is the money needed to buy supplies and materials to make hands-on learning possible. Just one day's lesson could involve utensils, paper, tools, and models and each item carries a price tag that likely won't be covered by the district. So, unless you're willing to pay out of your pocket, you simply won't have access to the resources you need. Which means you'll need to get extra creative with your lesson planning in order to incorporate hands-on learning while still avoiding spending money. This ties into the other necessary resource: time. I think, though, that this is less a roadblock and more just a challenge. Time can always be manipulated or managed in a way to work towards a certain goal. If you want to make hands-on learning a major factor in your classroom, plan ahead and make it so. The time is always there to be used in your favor.
ReplyDeleteI like that Sarah said you can avoid spending money by just spending more time. Instead of purchasing pre-made materials, you might have to create those materials yourself. If you're a crafty person, it could be a fun creative outlet for you, but, of course, it will involve time. I think if you started out trying to make sure a lesson a week was highly hands-on or that with each concept you incorporate hands-on learning, you will be in a good place. This will tap into students who learn best kinesthetically and benefit others as well. As you become more comfortable with time and resource management, you can slowly incorporate it more and more. Most important is that you recognize its importance and survey its benefit to your students.
ReplyDeleteI think a major reason hands on learning is not implemented as much as would be desired is because of time. It takes more time to plan these lessons, carry out the lessons, and especially tie the activities to standards. School districts seem to be constantly pushing for more and more standard usage. The best way to get through several objectives faster would likely not be through hands on learning. Though this type of learning is certainly more authentic, schools put more emphasis on standardized test scores. Educators need to decide what's more important: high scores immediately, or lasting learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Libby that hands on activities are avoided because of the time issue. Getting hands on activities ready take enough time it self, then actually doing the lesson, then concluding the lesson. I also agree that teachers focus a lot on standardized tests because I just did research on No Child Left Behind and saw that.
ReplyDeleteI think that teachers avoid hands on activities because of the time issue. It takes a lot of time to think up a hands on activity that the students will be able to accomplish and learn from. It also takes a lot of time for the students and teachers to set up the activities. Doing the hands on activities take much more time than just talking about a lesson. Doing hands on activities include a lot more discussion, questions, predictions, and observations. I think that teachers should put more effort into doing hands on activities because the students learn better when they are engaged.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Sarah said about if you have the time you can spend time creating resources for hands on activities rather then spending a lot of money on them. However, there isn't very many people now a days that have all of that extra time to spend doing it. There is definitely a give and take with being a teacher.
ReplyDeleteI think one big reason why hands-on learning isn't implemented more is because of time. Hands-on learning takes more time to plan, to set up, and the lessons take longer. I also think it's because schools or teachers may have a lack of resources available. If you don't have the resources then you obviously can't do the activities. I think students definitely would learn better from hands-on learning, but I don't think it's really possible for teachers to use this kind of learning 100% of the time. There is not enough time in the school day to make everything hands-on, but I think when students are learning certain subjects, like science and math, they would greatly benefit from hands-on activities. In the classroom I am in I think the students learn a lot more because they do science investigations, rather than just reading out of a book and doing worksheets.
ReplyDeleteI agree that hands-on learning take a lot more time. The planning for it and the actual teaching is more of a challenge for teachers. I think that there should be a balance with using hands-on teaching. Students love to get out of their seat and work with others, rather than working on a worksheet or assignment by themselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous posts about hands on learning needing more resources than what may be available. I think teachers may be weary of hands-on learning because they don't know how to plan for it. It is hard to determine just how long the activity may take, especially if students become very engaged in the activity. I also think hands-on learning isn't used as much because it can be messy and take longer to clean up and move onto the next lesson. Clean up time may take away from the next important lesson.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Libby stated about teachers focusing on test scores. She is extremely right, teachers need to focus more on lasting learning, and one way to do this is by more hands-on activities and lessons.
ReplyDeleteI think that teachers do not always implement hands-on-learning due to time. I think teachers feel like they don't have time to do hands on activities and are more concerned about making sure they teach what they feel needs to be taught. Personally I learn better by doing hands-on-activities. I have a hard time understanding something if I don't see it in reality.
ReplyDeleteJessica I agree with your comment. It can be extremely difficult for teachers to do learning activities if they do not have the money to buy the materials. It can become very costly if you have to provide all of the materials for an activity.
ReplyDeleteI believe hands on learning strategy are not used in the classroom due to the lack of funding. Some of the resources teachers use in their classrooms they have to buy themselves. When a teacher pays for resources they do not get reimbursed. I have read many articles through education classes that explain how hands on activities do not actually benefit student learning. I personally like hands on activities, but sometimes they can get repetitive. I also believe that some activities last longer than they should. On the other hand, I do believe that people learn better through hands on activities.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in your comment, Amber. I have never done actual research on this topic of hands-on learning. I find it extremely interesting that these types of activities do not benefit students. How do these activities not help? This seems to be quite the opposite of what many students and myself have experienced.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Sarah and Jessica that hands on learning is not done mainly because of funding or that teachers feel like they don't have the classroom management to handle it. For hands on learning, you would be ideal to get classroom sets so that every student could do the activity at the same time. It would get very expensive if you had to buy classroom sets for each subject and topic, along with getting classroom sets for multiple classrooms. As for classroom management, I believe that classroom management should not affect learning strategies in a bad way. Even though it is easier said then done.
ReplyDeleteI think teachers are unable to implement hands-on-learning in their classroom because of lack of funds and time constraints. It would be ideal to be able to show students how to apply their knowledge in new, innovative ways, but doing so requires more time and more money. These are things many schools are in short supply of these days. It would be very expensive to only teach by using hands-on-learning, but I think a happy medium would be ideal. Not only does hands-on-learning help students understand better, but in my opinion is helps keep them engaged in learning and keeps their attention.
ReplyDeleteAmber,
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in your point about teachers paying for their own supplies without being reimbursed. I feel that it is the school's responsibility to supply the materials to the students. Maybe there are grants schools can apply for to receive funding for more hands-on-learning?
Jody,
ReplyDeleteI am curious to hear your ideas of how students can apply thier knowledge to new or innovative ways. I agree with you about the "happy meduim" between hands-on-learning and non-hands-on-learning.
I also agree that lack of funding is a contributor. It's hard to create hands-on activities when you're low on resources in the schools. I think that even though it is said that they are better, they can't always be administered. Sometimes activities that are not hands-on also work with instruction. Additionally I think that some teachers aren't as open to new things. They might just think that strategies that are not hands-on have been working this long, why change them.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is a lack of hands-on learning because of the lack of resources and the lack of funding to contribute to supplies. I believe that sometimes it is inconvenient for teachers to do this because of this reason. I believe that it is a great strategy for learning, and that oddly it is recognized as a great instructional strategy yet there are minimal resources for the teacher and lack of funding.
ReplyDeleteJust like everyone has stated, funding is a big issue for hands-on learning. Maybe some schools are not lucky enough to have a lot of hands-on activities. This reminds me how Ms. Lockhart told us last week during our field experience that teachers spend a lot of their own money in the classroom, so it also depends on the teacher and what they want to do. Hands-on activities are a great way to get the students more involved in the classroom but the lack of funding and supplies can wear it down to be minimal.
ReplyDelete