Most Effective Assessment and Teaching Techniques - Essay Example

The paper "Most Effective Assessment and Teaching Techniques" is a great example of an essay on education. Teachers can only get the best out of there if they abandon the old-fashioned teaching techniques for modern methods. The techniques in this context refer to various actions as well as conditions that teachers establish for facilitating learning activities (Laurillard 11). One area that requires modest techniques of teaching is lecturing. A good technique of administering lectures is by asking learners rhetorical questions. The professor can pause after every 10 minutes and encourage learners to note the answers. Another useful technique in lecturing is using guided lectures (Laurillard 64). In this case, students can listen to recorded lectures but they do not take notes. The instructor then gives the class around five minutes to record what they learn from the lecture. It is also necessary that the learners engage in discussion groups where they reconstruct the lecture by using supportive data to prepare complete notes and refer to the instructor for resolving questions that may arise. For teaching to be effective, the learners should be able to answer some mastery quizzes. Immediate mastery tests help learners to retain knowledge twice as much as they would have retained with normal learning procedures.
Other effective learning techniques are group discussions or group works (Laurillard 181). Learners can easily grab knowledge through short readings, case studies, role-play, and visual studies. Besides, encouraging critical thinking through thoughtful questions is a good way of improving the learnability of students. The instructor should engage students with descriptive as well as reflective questions. Other effective strategies are those that encourage active learning. A good technique for active learning is brainstorming where the teacher solicits ideas from the students. The instructor can supplement active learning with concept models. However, technology brings new teaching techniques like the use of audio-visual techniques as well as online learning that occurs outside the classroom (Laurillard 98). There are also clickers or systems for classroom responses where students record their answers, and the device gives instant results thereby encouraging class engagement. Moreover, podcasts have also proved useful in classrooms because they help students to revisit their learning activities.