Approaches Towards Learning - Essay Example

Approaches towards learning Inquiry: Inquiry is a way of learning in which explore a matter by coming up with questions, problems and issue. This allows them to gather information and analyze it to generate solutions. Once the conclusions are justified, action is taken. Inquiry-based learning has a special significance in education. It allows students to work with mutual collaboration. The practice polishes their critical thinking skills and they become better analysts which is one of the primary goals of education.

However, since this learning is fundamentally driven by students, all students may not benefit from it. While confident students take the lead, shy students retreat into a corner. Inquiry-based learning makes teaching easier for the teacher in classroom. The teacher does not have to display a one man show, but serves as a guide to keep the students thinking on the right track. Nonetheless, students make too much noise in the classroom which disrupts the discipline of the class. Constructivism: Constructivism promotes learning through reflection upon experiences.

Every person has his own way of visualizing things. Thus, the understanding of world varies from individual to individual depending upon the way he/she reflects upon his/her experiences. In education, constructivism increases the students’ capacity and tendency to learn by making them adjust their minds according to the pedagogical style of the teacher. However, constant adjustment may deprive the students of their originality. Constructivism is an experience-based approach towards learning.

In classroom, students share their experiences with one another to broaden one another’s knowledge. However, sometimes constructivism leads to too much storytelling that deviates from the original topic. Problem-based learning: This is a student-driven pedagogical style whereby students understand a concept through study of complex realistic problems related to it. In problem-based learning, students work in groups to identify the extent to which they are already familiar with the subject, areas that need pondering, and resources that may be consulted to resolve the problem at hand.

In education, students understand the subject more thoroughly than they do in conventional learning methods, but too much analysis of one problem leaves too many other problems unstudied because of time constraints. In classroom, problem-based learning ensures active participation of students. However, weak students put additional load upon strong students in the group activity and do not do their part of the job. WebQuest: This is essentially an inquiry-oriented task which requires the learners to draw almost all of the required information from the web.

In this method of learning, students browse web for whatever information they need. Thus, information is just a click away from them. In education, webquest is a very useful way of learning in that it saves time. However, close supervision is required by teachers in order to ensure that the students are really working and not playing games or chatting on facebook. In classroom, use of webquest allows the teacher to improve students’ learning by providing them with more time for processing of information rather than retrieving it.

Nevertheless, the method incurs a lot of cost to the school administration as too many PCs have to be bought to accommodate the needs of the class. Skype: Skype is a program using which, two or more individuals can have live chat with one another along with seeing one another’s video. All one needs to avail the distinctive features of this program is to have a computer, skype account and an internet connection. Skype facilitates education via virtual learning. However, the tempo of education is interrupted by poor quality calls.

In the classroom, skype promotes learning by providing students with opportunities to ask questions from an expert sitting miles away from the classroom. Nevertheless, the classroom needs to be equipped with ICT in order to benefit from skype, that proves a costly option for many schools.