TEACHING METHODOLOGIES; THE ESSENCE OF VARIETIES

‘Variety is the spice of life’ so the sages say and the essence of using various or different methodologies to teach does not only makes learning more interesting but also better enhanced. According to Longman Active Studies Dictionary 5th Edition ‘education is the process of teaching and learning.’ According to Wikipedia education is a form of learning in which knowledge skills and habit of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, and research or simply through auto didacticism. It occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way we think, feel or act. We have various methods of teaching can be divided according to the age of man. These notwithstanding affect the learning process and are all important. Learning according to experts has not taken place except it affects the three domains which are the Affective, Cognitive and Psyco-motor domain. The early age of man, the learning methodology was SELF-REFLECTING approach. This approach allows the early man to think on his own. The later age, SOCRATIC METHOD OF ELENCHUS, was employed. It can also be inquiry, debate, questioning method. This allows the learner learn through questions posed by the teacher. In the early 18th Century man employed CLASS PARTICIPATION or group discussion, also called COLLABORATING, Group or project work. This builds the team leadership skill, presentation abilities in student. It can be called fishbowl discussion or well Learning by teaching. This can take various shapes (Where the students have their take on the topic and the leader is the guide). DEMONSTRATION also called connective learning. This has equally taken diverse shapes and can be through practical or experiment, storytelling or acting. Other method used for ages are RECITATION, MEMORIZATION or ROTE MEMORIZATION, EXPLAINING OR LECTURE METHODS which is factual presentation to the students. This helps the teacher to cover a wide range of curriculum in short time. INQUIRY LEARNING METHOD featured in United State National Science Education Standard in 1996, investigation, collection of data, application in other subject areas where people are developing critical thinking and investigation skill. Robert Bain proposed through inquiry people will develop skills and factual knowledge that answers to a question. They will form a hypothesis, collect and consider information and revisit their hypothesis as they evaluate. This is also called OPEN LEARNING. If one takes a critical look at the diverse methodologies, one can be said to be absolutely independent of the other as they are complementary. Learning may not be complete if on dogmatically uses just one of this teaching methodologies. While some are more important at some age grade and subjects others cannot but be emphasises in other fields. While Mathematics needs more of demonstration or solving the sum independently, Agricultural Science’s farm work needs more of group discussion as English is more prone to Lecture method. Yet these subjects are best when the methods are combined and used interdependently. This will make learning better, easier more interesting to both the teacher and the student. Any teacher that is stereotyped with one method creates room for boredom in the class. Variety is indeed the spice of life, and the classroom is not an exception. MR. ONI AFOLABI AJIBOLA ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDIDOT SCHOOL AWOYAYA, LAGOS 08036126690 oniafolabiajibola@yahoo.com