ACTIVE BASED METHOD

INTRODUCTION
To discuss Active Based Method, first we describe the activity.

Activity means:

 The state of being active.

 Any specific behavior or action of a kind.
 A thing that a person or group is doing or has done.
 An educational task that involves direct experience and participation of students.
 A specific pursuit or deed in which a person participates.

Examples:

 Acting,
 performing,
 demonstration,
 playing a game,
 thinking,
 writing,
 reading,
 reasoning,
 questioning,
 answering,
 operating etc.

Meaning of Active Based Method

 An activity or activities used in an educational process to make students learn.
 Learning through and from activities.

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  Activity based learning means that the teacher incorporates activities of some
type in teaching to make students learn.
 Using an activity or activities as a base for learning.

Moreover, Activity Based Technique adopted by a teacher to emphasize his or

her method of teaching through activity in which the students participate rigorously and
bring about efficient learning experiences. It is a child-centered approach.

Activity-based learning describes a range of pedagogical approaches to teaching. Its

core premises include the requirement that learning should be based on doing some
hands-on experiments and activities. The key feature of the Activity-based method is
that it uses child-friendly educational aids to foster self-learning and allows a child to
study according to his or her aptitude and skill.

Activity-based instruction involves...activities! This is in opposite of pure lectures. It

means hands-on approaches to instruction, using manipulatives to engage multiple
senses, as opposed to just listening to a lecture. For instance, I've used notecards in a
lesson to teach complete subjects and predicates. On the notecards I wrote complete
subjects and complete predicates, separate from each other, and had the students find
their match. As opposed to just listening to me tell them what the differences are, they
see them, evaluate them, and synthesize them.

History of Activity Based Learning

Activity base method started some time during world war II. David Horsburgh is
considered as the pioneer of activity base method system. He opened a school called
NEEL BAGH in Kolar. School has a diverse Curriculum which included music,
carpentry, sewing, gardening, as well as school subjects. Teaching materials were
systematically planned with different learning activities. Activity method is techniques
adopted by a teacher to teach through activity in which the students participate
thoroughly and bring about efficient learning experiences.  It is a method in which the

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child is actively involved both mentally and physically. Learning by doing is the focus in
this method and more a person learns and longer he/she retains.

It means any organized behavior that the teacher and students engaged in for a
common purpose. Activity based teachings is an approach adopted by the teacher
whereby activities are used to bring about effective learning experience.

Activity based method is student centered learning that is taught through many different
activities.

Types of Activity Base Method

Types of activity base Method are:

1. Exploratory – gathering knowledge, concept and skill.

2. Constructive - Gathering experience through creative works.

3. Expressional – presentation

Other subtypes are:

 Dramatization:
Conversion in to a dramatic form or reconstruction of an event, novel, story etc.
in a form suitable for dramatic presentation.
 Quizzes:
Competitive activity in which participants should give the answers to the
questions in a prescribed span of time following some pre-determined rules.
 Group discussions:
Discussing in smaller groups (four to fifteen students) about a given topic and
reaching a decision or arriving at some conclusions.
 Role play:
Enacting some situations or playing the role of things, persons, characters etc.

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  Educational Games:
These are games that are designed to help students to learn about certain
subjects, enhance concepts, understand different contents, learn a skill etc.

 Brainstorming:
It is a group activity in which group members are encouraged to produce a large
number of ideas quickly on theme or a problem without commenting on any one’s
view points for subsequent discussion and evaluation.
 Problem solving:
Problem solving is a process of finding the solution to the problem by using one
or more concepts or principles or formulae or required information.
 Debates:
Arguments (discussion involving Arguments) between two groups in which one
group argues to defend the controversial issue or theme and other group puts up
the arguments against the theme.
 Discovery learning:
Learning through exploration or discovery. Learning by exploring or discovering
many aspects of the environment on their own.
 Project:
It is a practical unit of activity having educational value and aimed at achieving
one or more definite goals of understanding, involves investigation and solution
of problems, planned and carried out to completion by pupils in a natural ‘real life’
situation.
 Field work:
Going to the real-life situations for observing the phenomenon, collect relevant
data, process and analyze the data and arrive at conclusions.
 Experimentation:
Carrying out or conducting the experiments in the laboratory.

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  Concept mapping:
It is a process of representing the concepts or different things in hierarchical
fashion with most inclusive, general concepts at the top and less general
concepts at the bottom in a pictorial form.

Need of Activity Base Method

 Children can learn well when they learn in their surrounding environment.
 When they actively participate and involved in learning.
 When they learn on their own.

Principle of activity base method

As we know that activity-based teaching is a learned –centered-approach. It
emphasis on experimental learning. Activity based teaching promotes acquisition of
social skills by providing opportunities for learner to work cooperative and
collaboratively. It provides potential and creatively in individuals. it encourages the union
of work and play, and it Uses child friendly educational aids to foster self-learning.

  

Role of a Teacher Role of a Student

A planner, an Organizer and Evaluator Active Participation
Facilitator More interaction in collaboration with
others
Decision Maker Discussion(Discourse) and Research
Knowledge Imparter Confident and well prepared
Disciplinarian Involved in the program flow

PROCEDURAL STEPS OF ACTIVITY BASED TEACHING STRATEGY

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Planning is must for all teachers and to everybody, as it guides to do the work properly.
Success is all brought because of well planning. Before doing something, we must plan
at the beginning. While planning an activity to students we must think of what? When?
How? Where? Why?

While giving an activity to the students, we teachers should think of how he/she could
make his/her students involved in doing activity given. The activity must be planned in
such a way that all students can participate.

Making children’s involved in doing activity can make them active learner. If they are in
a group, make a point that, they must contribute their opponents to the group discussion
and let the group members have some comments.

For each activity make sure that you follow the principles of:

 What?
 What type of activity you are going to give to the students?
 How? Students must be given clear instructions (Work direction step by step,
including; with whom? Where? How long?
 What after?

The following points are helpful to organize this method

 Decide Instructional Goals Understand the learners’ cognitive level and

characteristics.
 Consider the nature of the subject.
 Know the time available for achieving the instructional goals.
 Availability of human and non-human resources.
 Select or design the suitable activities.
 Prepare for implementing that in the class.
 Provide for link between different activities and previous knowledge.
 Implement it in the class room.

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  Follow it up and bring about required changes in the activities for better use.

Steps to Designing Active-Based Learning Activities

These are some key steps which are helpful for students to overcome on problems.

 Identify an Applicable Real-Life Problem

We will find a tangible problem that’s relevant to students, allowing them to easily
contextualize it and hopefully apply it to future challenges. To identify an appropriate
real-world problem, we will look at issues related to our:

 School
 Community
 Students’ shared interests

We must also ensure that students understand the problem and the information around
it. So, not all problems are appropriate for all grade levels.

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  Determine the Overarching Purpose of the Activity
Depending on the problem we choose, we determine what to accomplish by running the
challenge.
For example, we may intend to help our students improve skills related to:

 Collaboration
 Problem-solving
 Curriculum-aligned topics
 Processing diverse content

A more precise example, we may prioritize collaboration skills by assigning specific

tasks to pairs of students within each team. In doing so, students will continuously
develop communication and collaboration abilities by working as a couple and part of a
small group.

By defining a clear purpose, we’ll also have an easier time following the next step.

 Create and Distribute Helpful Material

Handouts and other content not only act as a set of resources, but help students stay
focused on the activity and its purpose.

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For example, if we want them to improve a certain math skill, we should make material
that highlights the mathematical aspects of the problem.

we may decide to provide items such as:

 Data that helps quantify and add context to the problem

 Videos, presentations and other audio-visual material
 A list of preliminary questions to investigate

Providing a range of resources can be especially important for elementary students and
struggling students in higher grades, who may not have self-direction skills to work
without them.

 Set Goals and Expectations for Your Students

Along with the aforementioned materials, give students a guide or rubric that details
goals and expectations.

It should help students stay on track by acting as a reference throughout the activity.

 Participate

Although explicitly correcting students may be discouraged, you can still help them and
ask questions to dig into their thought processes.

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When you see an opportunity, consider if it’s worthwhile to:

 Fill gaps in knowledge

 Provide hints, not answers
 Question a student’s conclusion or logic regarding a certain point, helping them
think through tough spots

By participating in these ways, we can provide insight when students need it most,
encouraging them to effectively analyze the problem.

 Have Students Present Ideas and Findings

If we divided them into small groups, requiring students to present their thoughts and
results in front the class adds a large-group learning component to the lesson.

Encourage other students to ask questions, allowing the presenting group to elaborate
and provide evidence for their thoughts.

This wraps up the activity and gives your class a final chance to find solutions to the
problem.

Active base Method - Merits and Demerits

What does activity base Method classroom look like? Well. active! Here, the teacher is
mostly that of a facilitator rather than of authority in knowledge. He engages the
learners into tasks and makes abstract ideas into concrete ones. It is learning by doing
rather than learning by listening It can be done in two ways – i) Student cantered
instruction where students have freedom to choose a problem and formulate strategies
to solve them and ii) Teacher cantered instruction where the teacher takes the lead role.

Merits of active base method

Activity based teaching method Can be used in all the subjects.

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  It Promotes better understanding of a lesson as it is learning by doing.
 Ethics are usually formed when using activity based.
 It Enhances Self efficacy in child.
 it gives an opportunity to work independently and in groups.
 It inspires the students to apply their creative ideas, knowledge and minds in
solving problems.
 It also helps learner psychologically as they can express their emotions through
active participation in something useful.
 The method also helps in developing their personalities, social traits and inter-
personal management skills.

Demerits of active based method

Active base method is useful, but it also has some negative impact.

 Learners have varied levels of merit and understanding. So less meritorious

students might not prepare for a task as other which might lead to failure of
objectives of the entire process.
 Learners would lose interest and become dormant in the discussions.
 This method requires long-term planning with minute details of the entire process
because before engaging the learners, the teacher must make sure that all
students have sufficient knowledge and skills regarding the task they are going to
perform. So, this method cannot be used on a regular and daily basis as it
involves a lengthy procedure.
 Focusing on activity to make learning fun can hamper those students who would
make satisfactory progress without it.
 Many renowned educationists also believe the activity-based method is more
suitable for branches of experimental sciences and less useful for subjects of
social sciences.

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 Traditional Lecture Method

Introduction

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A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a
particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to
convey critical information, history, background, theories, and equations.

Lecture is derived from Latin word

“Lectare” which means to read aloud.

Lecture method is a teaching method which the presenter or the teacher teaches orally

to a group of class participants. Lectures are used to convey critical information theories
and enquiries

The lecture is an excellent method for presenting information to a large number of

persons in a short period of time. Lecture is a speech that is red or delivered before an
audience so as to set forth some subject.

Teaching remains one of the few human activities that does not get demonstrably better
from one generation to the next.

Lecture method is the most commonly used method of teaching science. It is a teacher
controlled & information centered approach in which the teacher works as a sole-
resource in classroom instruction.

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In lecture method only, the teacher talks & students are passive listeners. Since the
student do not actively participate in this method of teaching, this is a teacher –
controlled & information centered method.

Lecture method is most commonly followed in colleges and in schools in big classes.
This method is not quite suitable to realize the real aim of teaching science.

Lecture is a teaching method consist of explanation of facts, principles which the

teacher wishes the class to understand.

A teacher organizes his activities of teaching to bring about desirable in the behavior of
the learner. Thus, the students are forced to achieve learning objectives. It provides the
opportunity to the teacher to use several types of teaching aids. Lecture method is an
oldest teaching method given by idealism philosophy. It is still most important teaching
methods in our schools. It is one of the autocratic teaching strategies
Focus: - It may be used to achieve the cognitive and affective objectives. Re cure can
be used to realize the Rightest order of cognitive activities.

Principles of Teaching
It employs the following principles.

 The content is presented as whole.

 The main stress is on presentation.
 The student learns better through listening.
 The Science – content is correlated with other subvert.
 Principle of aim.
 Principle of activity.
 Principle of co-relation.
 Principle of looking ahead.
 Good lecture effective preparation etc.

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 DIFFERENT KINDS OF LECTURES

 Formal lecture
A formal lecture is the most common teaching method. A professor teaches in
front of a large group of students. These formal lectures mostly aim at
transferring information. Students are expected to take personal notes in addition
to the course text, slides or transparencies.

Most of the time, the interaction between professor and students in such a formal
lecture is rather limited, even though there are professors who openly invite students to
comment and react. The average Belgian student restricts his own contribution mainly
to asking questions with a certain relevance to other students.
Normally an examination is not organized or taken before the end of a semester (in
January or June).

 Practical – Seminar – Tutorial

Practical’s, seminars or tutorials do not necessarily focus on the transfer of

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 knowledge, but students are expected to be actively involved. Whether it is about
exercises (tutorial), feedback on an assignment (seminar) or practicing skills
(practical), personal input will always be expected and often marked as well
(permanent evaluation).
 
 Group work
For a number of programmed courses, you are expected to carry out a large
assignment together with other students. The difficulty here is often situated in
finding a good balance between taking the initiative and being open to initiatives
taken by others. Only putting forward your own initiative often provokes sharp
reactions. But passively waiting for other people’s initiatives provokes resentment
as well.

 Reports – Papers - Thesis

Both in reports, papers and theses, all initiatives need to be taken by you. The
very aim of these assignments is that you prove your skills at dealing with a
subject independently. That is why there is often little monitoring offered in this
kind of assignment. Normally you only have feedback with your promoter
(professor, assistant) at the beginning and each time a major part is finished. For
reports and papers, you often find guidelines posted on Toledo by the tutor.

Preparation of Lecture
To prepare a good lecture, we should ask/check the following points.

 Is the material at the right level?

 Am I trying to cover too much?

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  What difficulties can I anticipate?
 Is there any space for student involvement?
 Have I got clear learning outcomes?
 What audio-visual or other aids am I going to use?
 How can I evaluate my lecture?

Technique of the Lecture

Each and every one has own technique but, in my opinions, there are some best
techniques which are:

Control your anxiety.

 An effective control mechanism is imaging.

Spontaneity
 Avoid reading to the class.
 Do not write your lecture out in full sentences.

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  Rehearse the delivery at home.

Voice quality
 Beware of lecturing in monotone.

Body language
 Do not stand glued to the podium.
 Use your hand for emphasis but not too much.
 Be aware of your body language.
 Maintain eye contact.

Speed of delivery
 Affects both the learner’s comprehension and enjoyment
of the material.

Elicit feedback from student

 To know how much student has received knowledge.

Time Management
 Lecture should finish on time.
 If it exceeds gives tension to teacher and damages content.

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 When to Use
This method should be used by the teacher when the number of students in the class
are more and there is no proper provision of various scientific materials and
equipment’s in the school or institution. This method is the sole alternative in situations
where the number of students in a class is large.

It also finds utility in the situation where there are limited number of periods available on
the time table to cover the entire syllabus. However, it can be said that this method is
unsuitable for teaching sciences in primary and high school classes and should be used
by able teachers who can modify it by mixing it with various practical methods of
teaching.

Learning is not a straightforward process. The pouring process is educationally not

perfect or recommended for secondary level students. At this level it is difficult for
student to pick new concepts using lecture method of teaching. They actually are
meaningful, active and interesting experiences or activity in the class.

Openings and Closures of lecture Method

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The following table shows the main points, that how to open or start your lecture and
how to close/end up the lecture.

Openings of lecture
Grab and hold attention

Establish report

Indicate content and structure of lecture (learning outcomes)

Link with previous lectures and /or reading materials

Closures of lecture
Reemphasize key points

Show links to subsequent lectures, reading materials etc.

Organizing the lecture

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When we organize the lecture, firstly our aim should be clear. Chose the topic and
should be well introduced to the students. Then explain and demonstrate also question
and answer session should be done. The following chart show the best style of organize
the lecture which are:

AIM

INTRODUCTION

BODY

DEMONSTRATIONS
EXAMPLES DISCUSSION
ILLUSTRATION

QUESTIONS

CONCLUSION

EVALUATE A LECTURE

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The speaker’s content expertise

 The language used.

 The degree of transparency of presentation.
 Use of audio visual aids
 Attention and intellectual participation of pupils

Advantages of lecture Method

It is quite economical method because it is possible to handle a large number of
students at a time & no laboratory equipment’s, aids, materials are required.

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  Using this method, the knowledge can be imparted to students quickly &
prescribed syllabus can be covered in short time. It is an economical teaching
strategy.

 It is quite attractive & easy to follow and also by this method teacher can develop
his own style of teaching and exposition.

 It simplifies the task of teacher as he/she dominates the lesson for 70-85% of the
lesson time & students just listen to him.

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  Some good lectures,
delivered by the teacher may
motivate, instigate and
inspire a student for creative
thinking. The habit of concentration may be developed among the students.

Disadvantages of Lecture method

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  In this method the student’s participation is negligible and students become
passive recipients of information.

 In this method we are never sure if the students are concentrating and
understanding the subject matter being taught to them by teacher.

 In this method knowledge is imparted so rapidly that weak students developed a

hatred for learning

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  In this method there is no place of ‘learning by doing’ and thus teaching by this
method strikes at the very root of science.

 It doesn’t take into the account of previous knowledge of students and it does not
take cater to individual needs and differences of students.

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  In case of Physics, it is against spirit of development of scientific attitude as
Physics is basically an experimental science.

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  It is an undemocratic and authoritarian method as students cannot challenge or
question the verdict of the teacher.

Violent teacher Frustrated teacher

 It does not provide for corrective feedback and remedial help to slow learners.

 It does not help to inculcate scientific attitudes and training in

scientific method among the pupils.
 This strategy can be used in higher classes, but it cannot
easily used in elementary classes.

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 Conclusion

 This method is suitable for teaching in higher classes (XI, XII) where we aim to
cover the prescribed syllabus quickly, and also this method will help them to
prepare themselves for college where lecture method of teaching is a dominant
method of imparting instruction.
 This method of teaching can be made more beneficial if the teacher encourages
his students to take notes during the lesson.

 After the lesson, teacher can give his students sometime for asking questions
and answer their queries without any hesitation.

 If a teacher can introduce some humor in his lesson it would keep students
interested in his lesson.

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  It is an oldest teaching method proposed by idealism. Teacher is more active,
and students are passive it is question answer teaching technique.

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