It’s time to start thinking seriously about changing the way students are taught. While the traditional teaching methods aren’t necessarily bad, they’ve become inefficient compared to modernized approaches to education that address students’ needs more thoroughly. One of these approaches is interactive learning, which entails students actively engaging with the content they’re learning as well as with their instructor and peers.
All of the above sounds good in theory, but how much of an impact can interactive teaching strategies have in practice? Well, the statistics show that, on average, students are more likely to stay focused and develop critical thinking skills in an interactive learning environment. Better yet, this educational system is a great way for students to practice various cognitive skills.
With that said, let’s go over the fundamentals of interactive teaching and explore a few ways you can apply it in your own class.
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What Is Interactive Learning?
Interactive learning is an educational method in which students perform activities instead of passively absorbing information. This can be done through hands-on exercises, discussions, debates, or collaborative projects, to name a few examples.
To better understand what interactive learning is about, let’s imagine two different classes. The first one is structured traditionally, with face-to-face lectures where students primarily listen. Meanwhile, the other class has one crucial difference: each student opens an app that allows them to anonymously answer questions mid-lecture. Once they submit their answers, their teacher then evaluates the responses and explains why they are correct or incorrect.
This simple addition has turned the second class into an interactive learning environment, where students are more likely to retain new knowledge and become active participants.
What Are the Benefits of Interactive Teaching?
If you’ve taught a class full of distracted students, you’ll be happy to know that interactive teaching can make a real difference. Beyond capturing their attention, this approach can also improve their academic performance.
No matter what you’re teaching, you’ll find that adopting an interactive learning approach can come with several benefits, such as:
- Student engagement: There is a strong link between interactive learning and student engagement. This is hardly surprising; after all, students pay more attention when they’re actively interacting with each other and with the lesson material than when they passively take in information.
- Encouragement of critical thinking: As a result of active participation, students quickly learn to think critically in an interactive learning environment. This has positive effects not only on their academic performance but also on their cognitive development.
- Higher retention of learned material: Providing your students with interactive learning tools can help them retain information long-term. As an example, one study shows that students were more likely to retain information taught in virtual reality (VR) format than those who were taught traditionally.
- Increased collaboration: A traditional classroom might create a feeling of academic isolation in students, especially in distance learning programs. To combat this, you can implement a learning system that encourages students to interact and collaborate. This strategy can come in especially handy for subjects that rely on peer-to-peer interaction, such as language learning.
How to Incorporate Interactive Teaching in Your Classroom
Though it might seem challenging, implementing an interactive learning system is actually easier than you think. Every student learns differently, so you can always mix and match different teaching methods to suit their preferences. You just need to know which ones are better choices for your students. So let’s start exploring a few strategies you can try out in your classroom.
1. Use Interactive Learning Tools
Why use boring, text-only school books when you can incorporate interactive tools into the learning environment? With the right ones, you can easily create exciting resources such as an interactive textbook, a set of thought-provoking quizzes, or even highly engaging courses on various subjects. If you’re teaching a biology course, for example, you can add 3D models of an animal cell or a crossword puzzle about new scientific terms. The possibilities are endless!
Here are just a few tools you can use to start making your own interactive educational content:
- Kotobee Author: This award-winning software allows you to craft engaging interactive textbooks full of videos, audio, quizzes, and more. You can even add customizable ebook apps. And if you want a ready-made widget for your textbook, you can try BookWidgets as well.
- Edpuzzle: With Edpuzzle, you can turn video lectures into interactive lessons with pop-up questions. It’s a great option for turning text-based content into a fun, interactive course.
- Kahoot!: This is a popular platform for creating and sharing quizzes. Its game-like interface can make quizzes and practice tests much more fun to solve!
Important Read: 25 Unique Digital Tools for an Engaged Classroom (With Features and Prices)
2. Structure Your Classes Differently
Sometimes, the way you structure your class can have a huge impact on your students’ performance. As an example, a passive lecture on chemical reactions (where students only listened to their teacher) can be less effective than one centered around peer discussions about naming organic compounds. This second class uses a structure known as a flipped classroom.
In such a class, students study outside school hours and use class time to discuss the topic of the lesson with their teacher, or with one another. With this class structure, you can place more focus on interacting with your students to understand their progress and measure their academic performance.
3. Incorporate Multiple Modes of Learning
Using only one type of learning tool can get tedious for students, so try adding some variety! With a multimodal approach, you can give students more autonomy over their learning journey. In other words, they will be able to choose the type of educational content they learn best from, which saves them time and boosts their engagement with your lessons. Thus, they are encouraged to interact with the learning material in ways they might not have been able to do before.
4. Personalize Each Student’s Learning Path
Using data analytics and a structured approach, you can personalize the learning process for each student. Usually, you would create learner profiles that list out each students’ academic strengths and weaknesses. After that, the system analyzes the students’ interaction with the learning material in order to create custom paths for them. Over time, students can get the most value out of their educational materials via an optimized learning path built for their needs.
5. Host Discussions and Debates in Class
Understanding a topic goes hand-in-hand with knowing how to ask the right questions. This is why students can benefit greatly from discussing or debating topics with one another. Not only do these activities promote a deep understanding of the topic, but they also help learners appreciate different perspectives and expand their thinking.
There are two main types of discussions you can host in class:
- Peer discussions: This type of interaction involves having students work in pairs or small groups. One example is Think-Pair-Share, where students are instructed to read up on a topic and then discuss their thoughts with a partner. Another is peer teaching, or having students explain the topic to each other. These exercises can be helpful in teaching students how to convey their points of view to others coherently and confidently.
- Student-teacher interaction: As you teach your students, you should always pay attention to their needs and guide them along their learning journey. A good way to make this process easier is by establishing a two-way channel of communication. To do this, you can encourage students to ask questions or express their thoughts on certain topics. Additionally, you can give detailed feedback and work with them to address any learning gaps.
Photo from Freepik
6. Incorporate Games and Other Activities in the Classroom
Game-based education builds on the concept of learning through games. While this concept can seem counterintuitive at first, many studies have actually concluded that this system is quite effective, especially with knowledge retention and creativity. It’s also much more fun than regular lectures!
That said, games can sometimes be distracting for some students. In such a case, you can go for a gamified learning system instead. This means incorporating game-like elements into your regular lessons. For example, you can implement point or reward systems for students who answer questions accurately. This way, you can add a touch of interactivity to your class without completely changing your lesson plan.
7. Take Your Students on Field Trips
Field trips combine hands-on learning, collaboration, and access to expert guidance, all at the same time. So, why not provide our students with this exciting opportunity for enhanced learning? Not only are these trips fun, but they also offer a highly interactive way for students to explore new concepts.
For example, visiting new places can ignite their curiosity, which is great for cultivating creativity and capturing their attention. This can excite them and encourage them to share their discoveries with each other. Also, many field trips take the form of guided tours, during which students can ask questions and receive answers from industry professionals. In both scenarios, students work with one another and with their instructors to understand new concepts.
8. Introduce Problem-Based Learning
To take interactive learning to the next level, consider implementing problem-based learning (PrBL) in your class. This method of teaching entails introducing students to a problem and instructing them to solve it. This problem can take a variety of forms, from rhetorical questions and essays to case studies, research projects, and virtual simulations.
Usually, problem-based learning is used to reinforce learners’ understanding of new concepts. For instance, during a science class, you can instruct your students to come up with ideas for preserving historical artifacts from erosion. They might choose to reach out to professional archaeologists or run virtual experiments to observe how erosion affects ancient materials. At the end of the assignment, they can present their findings and offer evidence-based solutions on the best ways to preserve ancient remains. Such a project will help turn abstract learning into an engaging, hands-on experience.
Final Thoughts
Our students are our legacy, so it’s our responsibility to equip them with the skills they need to succeed. One great way to do this is by fostering an interactive learning environment. In doing so, we are not only helping them succeed academically, but we’re also preparing them to become pioneers and innovators in the future.
So, have you tried using interactive learning strategies in your own class? Share your experience with us in the comments—we’d love to hear from you!
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