10th September 2018

While trapping yourself in the pre & primary teachers training courses, many of you came across the word “learning aids”. But hardly have a clue on what that’s mean and why it is practically considered important for the aspiring or experienced teachers to learn? We shall try to understand the basic concept, theory, skills and practicality behind the “learning aids”.

What is a learning aid?

Formerly teachers were always talking of teaching aids. They were also seen spending much of their time in enlarging pictures, diagrams or maps. These were usually colourful and the entire work process followed a different interactive flow of teaching. Use of clay is fun for the kids and becomes easy for the teachers to explain or show models. Thus clay and paper models are very conventional and common kinds of teaching. All these were visually appealing and coined as “good visual aids”.

 

• Change in the learning aids, giving it a modern outlook ------

Today there is a slight shift or change in the use of learning aids. Thanks to the technological integration, learning packages are aiding children to visually connect using their smart pods. All of which have been contributing the learning, training and development diaspora. In recent times, instead of merely demonstrating with a visual aid, a child is also given some interesting equipment. These are not necessarily been costly in nature, but are pocket friendly or picked from the daily lives.

While using it, he is interestingly involved in a learning situation. The operative word is ENGAGING and INTERESTING here. As with all the methods teachers who are seeking the pre & primary teachers training aid the children. The process of using interactive classroom education fit or aids the child-centric education system.

 

• Shaping the developmental phases -------

Let’s know how learning aids shapes the learner’s developmental stages.

1. Keeping the child’s sage of development in mind presupposes that one is aware of the child’s learning phases. This perhaps has nothing to do with their chronological age. In fact the activity used should not be too complex for them to resolve, or too easy for them to get solve easily.
2. In fact it is the other way round, when it is too difficult, he end up losing his interest and desperately looks for help. Now when the action is too easy for the kid to solve, it did not engages him or make him brainstorm or use his analytical reactions it won’t challenge him and thus would be insulting to decide or shape his individual ability.
3. To be attractive to the child, the activity needs to be eye-catching! The shape, colour and presentation format play huge importance here. Moreover, for instance, when something is brought in a shop it is usually machine made and so net edges and firm edges are automatic.

Here the note says that “teacher-made material” is often more effective because it can be tailored as per the teacher training courses – where they are professional trained on deciding, planning how to use it effectively. Thus the tailor-made thing would suit the situational option, but it requires a careful and precise work. In short, the more you make, the better you are likely to get at it!