Introduction
Students need to be engaged and motivated in order to succeed. This can be hard to achieve in a traditional classroom setting, especially since many teachers are required to teach large groups of students at once and often have limited time to interact with each individual student. Fortunately, there are some effective teaching strategies that teachers can use to create a healthy learning environment that helps students develop the mental habits they need to thrive academically. Let’s get started:
Promote Participation
To promote student participation, consider the following:
- Provide opportunities for students to share their ideas.
- Give students a chance to practice speaking in front of the class.
- Encourage students to ask questions.
- Use group activities that require each member of the group to speak so that each student takes turns talking and listening.
Stress the Importance of Balance in Life
One of the most important components of creating a healthy learning environment is to stress the importance of balance in life:
- Between work and play
- Between home and school
- Between learning and fun.
Read here on effective teaching strategies to combine curriculum, pedagogy and content and create a balance in your teaching.
Establish Clear Expectations
As a teacher, you have many responsibilities. One of the most important is establishing clear expectations for your students. This will also help them develop a sense of purpose in class and allow them to enjoy themselves more while learning.
Let’s say that one of your classroom rules is no talking out of turn or interrupting while another student is speaking. If you want to make sure that every student understands this rule and follows it without fail, here are some steps you could take:
- Write down the rule on an index card or two using big letters so everyone can read it easily.
- You could even put little pictures next to each step so kids can associate certain actions with specific consequences if necessary—for example, drawing a picture of someone holding their hand up means “I’d like permission.”
- Put up these cards around the room so everyone can see them easily during each lesson.
Promote a Sense of Belonging
You can promote a sense of belonging by creating an inclusive environment where students feel they are part of a community, taking advantage of Townsville education opportunities. When students feel accepted and respected by their peers, they are more likely to feel safe and secure in the classroom.
In addition to creating a sense of belonging, you must encourage students to be flexible thinkers who are open-minded when faced with new ideas or information.
Help Students Develop Self-Management Skills
Self-management skills are important for students to develop because they can help them be more successful in school, at home and in their social relationships.
Students need to manage their time to complete assignments on time. They also need to know how much sleep they need and the right time of day to study or do homework. If students have poor self-management skills, they will struggle with completing tasks on time and may not have a good work ethic due to this struggle.
Students also need self-management skills for them not only to manage their emotions. They need to know how to handle stress, anxiety and frustration. They also need self-management skills to control their emotions when they are upset or angry so that they don’t act out in destructive ways. Students can learn these skills by participating in activities that help them develop them, such as sports teams, drama clubs and other extracurricular activities at school.
Keep Students Engaged.
You will help students to become engaged and active learners when you:
- Encourage them to ask questions.
- Allow them to participate.
- Reflect their learning to them in different ways.
- Provide a variety of learning experiences.
- Involve students in decision-making processes.
- Encourage them to interact with their peers and adults.
Found these ways interesting? You can find 100 more free teaching resources created by faculty trainers, international teacher mentors and counsellors.
Ensure students remain motivated to learn.
Motivation is the key to learning. Students who are motivated will learn more than those who are not. This means that teachers need to find ways for students to earn this motivation by working hard and achieving goals set by the school, themselves and their peers.
Teachers should provide opportunities for self-directed or autonomous learning experiences through choice in assignments or projects. These opportunities lead up until a final product as evidence of self-directed behaviour—the cycle continues again until another goal is set forth!
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you understand how to promote a healthy learning environment in schools. We believe that these teaching strategies can be applied by anyone and everyone, from parents to teachers and other school staff members. The most important thing is to remember that it takes time for students to develop healthy habits and self-management skills, so don’t give up on them!
