What Are the 5 Teaching Strategies?

James L. Feldkamp

February 8, 2023

Teachers need to use a variety of teaching strategies to teach their students. This helps them improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.They can do this by making the classroom exciting and allowing their students to explore concepts independently. They can also change their teaching style from time to time to keep the class interested and engaged.

Active Learning

Using active learning strategies can help students build understanding rather than memorizing facts and increase student autonomy in their own learning.

These teaching strategies promote knowledge construction through reading, writing, discussion, or problem-solving. They also encourage students to think about their work and why it’s essential.

They can last from a few minutes to class sessions and involve groups of students working together or individually.

Research supports that active learning techniques improve student engagement, motivation, success, and attitudes toward course material. They can also develop critical thinking, communication, interpersonal and organizational skills that students will need in their future careers.

Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry-based learning encourages students to think about open questions and problems in new ways. This helps students develop problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities.

Inquiry can also help students build their learning journeys by linking lessons and activities to real-world issues. For example, if you teach about community gardens in your class, you can invite the students to explore how they can change their homes or local communities.

Differentiation

Differentiation is a teaching strategy that tailors instruction to meet students’ needs, interests, learning styles, and readiness levels. It includes modifications to content, process, product, and learning environment.

Educators who use differentiation believe that students of diverse abilities and interest levels can learn from each other. They also believe that differentiated instruction can increase student engagement and academic achievement.

Active Listening

Learning to listen is a skill that can help you in many ways. Whether you’re communicating with friends, colleagues, or clients, active listening can make you more understanding and empathic.

It can also increase your relationship satisfaction and confidence. In addition, it can improve the quality of your work and relationships with coworkers.

People who are good at listening are more likely to stay in a job or network for future opportunities.

This is because they can establish and maintain genuine connections with their peers. Plus, they can manage their emotions and retain information better.

Questioning

Questioning is a critical tool for checking students’ level of understanding and promoting active discussion. Questions can be planned or spontaneously posed as long as they are relevant, reasonable, and unambiguous.

Research suggests that teachers who use a higher proportion of open and higher-order questions tend to be more effective. However, the mix will depend on the objectives of the lesson.

It entails a variety of techniques and lesson adaptations, including response to intervention (RtI), data-driven instruction, flexible grouping, and scaffolding.

Sequences of questions should make increasingly challenging cognitive demands on students. This is particularly helpful where the material taught could be more complex or unfamiliar.