Teaching Strategy

       It’s no secret that the face of education has changed dramatically over the past ten years or so. Teachers across the country are working hard to equip children with the skills needed for success in the 21st century world. In addition to instilling in students the flexibility to readily adapt to changing technologies, teachers must foster learning environments that encourage critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, global awareness, and social responsibility. Listed below are some strategies early childhood teachers are currently using in classrooms to prepare kids for the boundless future ahead.

• Active Learning - Active Learning is anything that students do in a classroom other than merely passively listening to an instructor's lecture. Research shows that active learning improves students' understanding and retention of information and can be very effective in developing higher order cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. 
• Clicker Use in Class - Clickers enable instructors to rapidly collect and summarize student responses to multiple-choice questions they ask of students in class.
• Collaborative/Cooperative Learning - Cooperative and collaborative learning are instructional approaches in which students work together in small groups to accomplish a common learning goal.They need to be carefully planned and executed, but they don't require permanently formed groups.
• Critical Thinking - Critical thinking is a collection of mental activities that include the ability to intuit, clarify, reflect, connect, infer, and judge. It brings these activities together and enables the student to question what knowledge exists. 
• Discussion Strategies - Engaging students in discussion deepens their learning and motivation by propelling them to develop their own views and hear their own voices.  A good environment for interaction is the first step in encouraging students to talk. 
• Experiential Learning - Experiential learning is an approach to education that focuses on "learning by doing," on the participant's subjective experience. The role of the educator is to design "direct experiences" that include preparatory and reflective exercises.
• Games/Experiments/Simulations - Games, experiments and simulations can be rich learning environments for students.  Students today have grown up playing games and using interactive tools such as the Internet, phones, and other appliances.  Games and simulations enable students to solve real-world problems in a safe environment and enjoy themselves while doing so. 
• Humor in the Classroom - Using humor in the classroom can enhance student learning by improving understanding and retention. 
• Mobile Learning - Mobile Learning is any type of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed location.
• Service Learning - Service learning is a type of teaching that combines academic content with civic responsibility in some community project.  The learning is structured and supervised and enables the student to reflect on what has taken place. 
• Teaching with Cases - Case studies present students with real-life problems and enable them to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life situations.  Cases also encourage students to develop logical problem solving skills and, if used in teams, group interaction skills.  Students define problems, analyze possible alternative actions and provide solutions with a rationale for their choices. 
• Team-Based Learning - Team-based learning (TBL) is a fairly new approach to teaching in which students rely on each other for their own learning and are held accountable for coming to class prepared.  Research has found that students are more responsible and more engaged when team-based learning is implemented.  The major difference in TBL and normal group activities is that the groups are permanent and most of the class time is devoted to the group meeting. 
• Writing Assignments - Writing assignments for class can provide an opportunity for them to apply critical thinking skills as well as help them to learn course content.