Teaching strategies: what are they, types and examples?

What are teaching strategies and what are they for in the educational context?

There are many teaching strategies, and every teacher should be familiar with them in order to know how to choose the most appropriate one according to the occasion, the students and the content to be taught.

Whatever is to be taught, it is essential that in order to achieve meaningful learning, teachers make their classes enjoyable, fruitful and arouse the interest, curiosity and motivation of their students.

Next we will see what teaching strategies areThe most common and applicable in education.

What are teaching strategies?

Teaching strategies are methods, procedures or resources used by teachers to help their students achieve meaningful learning.. The application of these strategies allows the teacher to transform learning into an active, more participatory process that the student remembers more easily. Many of these strategies share in common the fact that they are very cooperative, something that facilitates the assimilation of values, develops a better emotional adjustment in students and prepares them for life in society.

These strategies, although very versatile, should not be applied without prior knowledge of the material to be taught. The selection of the teaching strategy should be made taking into account the purposes to be achieved, as well as the competencies to be developed in the students. It is very important that the teacher knows how to play his or her role, since it is his or her responsibility to create a learning environment.

Traditionally, the teaching strategy has focused on transmitting knowledge from the teacher, seen as an absolute expert, to the student, seen as a complete ignoramus. This process placed special emphasis on the memorization of content, evaluated by means of exams or written exercises, which, on many occasions, were not which, on many occasions, did not invite students to take critical positions, prioritizing being easy to correct by the teacher.

Fortunately, this has been changing, making teachers more aware that, in order to achieve better learning, it is necessary to apply varied teaching strategies, suitable for each type of person, content and situation. Thanks to their diversity, the teaching process can be made truly effective.The most common teaching strategies in education are: the use of a variety of teaching strategies, awakening the curiosity of the students, their participation and adding an important playful component.

The most common teaching strategies in education

The following are the most common teaching strategies, which every teacher should know in order to make his or her teaching task truly fruitful. These methods can serve both to activate the knowledge that students already have mastered and to teach them new knowledge, as well as to encourage a critical spirit and better logical argumentation.

1. Illustrations

Illustrations are visual representations of the concepts, objects or situations described in the theory, or a specific topic that has been discussed in class that has been discussed in class, such as a historical photograph, a drawing exemplifying the structure of a building, diagrams, graphs and other visual supports. There are four different types with different functions.

• Descriptive: shows figures, photographs and drawings.
• Expressive: figures or drawings highlighting attitudinal aspects.
• Logical-mathematical: diagrams of mathematical concepts or functions.
• Algorithmic: diagrams that include the steps for a procedure.

Although they can be used with students of any age, they are fundamental for the youngest students, since they do not yet have a broad knowledge of the world and the best way for them to construct it is through visual representations.

2. Objectives

Objectives are statements in which conditions, the type of activities, and how learning will be assessed.. It is through their explanation at the beginning of the course that students understand what is expected of them, in addition to outlining the path they should follow.

It is very important to establish these objectives, since, in addition to serving as a guide for the teacher, it lets the student know, in advance, what they will have to do during the course..

This gives students the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning, doing their own research instead of waiting for the teacher to tell them what to do at the beginning of each session. This way students will not be in for a daily surprise, but will at least have some idea of what is going to be given and will be able to relate it to knowledge from other courses more easily.

3. Previous presentation

It consists of preparing the introductory material well in order to facilitate the process of acquiring it.. This strategy should not be confused with that of the presentation of the objectives, since the previous presentation implies introducing the content in each session by awakening knowledge already possessed by the students or preparing them for the topic to be explained. Either by means of pre-reading or a brief and clarifying presentation, the process of acquiring new information can be greatly facilitated.

4. Debates and guided discussion

The incorporation of debates and guided discussions is an essential teaching strategy in any education that wants to promote freedom of opinion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of expression. encourage freedom of opinion, critical thinking, respect and understanding that other points of view exist..

Debates should be informal exchanges of ideas and information on the topic under discussion, always under the direction of the educator to ensure that students do not stray from the point to be discussed. During the debate, opposing positions on a given topic will be presented, and each participant must defend his or her point of view with respect and tolerance, using logic, reflection and due argumentation.

It is very important that if the teacher chooses this strategy, he/she presents a topic that allows for different approaches and points of view. In addition, the teacher should act as a director or mediator in the debate, asking a series of questions to invite students to make their opinions known. Ideally, they should have prior knowledge of the topic to be discussed, or have an idea of what it is about, so that they can be somewhat prepared.It is very important that the questions that are asked are not too long in advance, but rather too long in advance, so that they can be somewhat prepared to argue their positions.

It is very important that the questions posed by the debate mediator follow a logical order, and that a conclusion is reached at the end of the debate. In this way, the debate will allow an organized reflection and exposition of one's own arguments, stimulating critical capacity. Students will will develop a better critical and reflective thinking competence, in a collaborative work and a better communication capacity..

5. Workshops

The transformation of theoretical classes into workshops is a very good teaching strategy, useful to acquire new knowledge in a practical and collaborative way. In the workshops, groups are created to allow students to present their own proposals, discuss them and carry them out, as well as to use logic and make an intelligent use of the theoretical content content seen in the classes. This strategy promotes the development of cognitive, procedural and attitudinal knowledge.

The beauty of this type of activity is that students learn in a context that is very similar to real life, in the sense that, once they are older, they will not have access to a book or presentation explaining what to do in a new situation. The best way to put creativity and intelligence into practice is through this teaching strategy, getting them to think outside the box in a situation they have never faced before.

6. Hands-on classes

Although they may seem the same as workshops, they are not. Workshops invite students to explore on their own how to do things, discuss what they should do with each other.discuss what they should do with each other and put various activities into practice. On the other hand, practical classes are the organizational modality in which activities directly related to the theory are developed, that is, it is the practical representation of what has already been explained by the teacher in class or what appears in the book.

It involves teaching by means of practical examples the basic and procedural skills related to the subject matter. This type of strategy is ideal for subjects and other subjects that have a high practical component, such as computer science, biology, biology, etc., that have a high practical component.such as computer science, biology, chemistry or physics. Practical classes can be held in special classrooms such as the laboratory or computer room.

7. Problem solving

Problem solving is Theoretical knowledge is put into practice, but it can only be properly acquired by means of exercises in which formulas, formulas and formulas are applied. in which formulas, algorithms or routines are applied. This strategy, also classic, if used correctly, awakens the interest of the students when they see how problems of all kinds are solved.

The exercises may have one or several solutions known by the teacher, whose main intention is to apply what has been learned to reinforce the knowledge of the theoretical content. It is very important for the teacher to be aware of how the students do it, in order to detect possible procedural errors.It is very important that the teacher is aware of how the students do it, in order to detect possible procedural errors and prevent them from repeating them over and over again. This strategy is basic in subjects such as mathematics, chemistry and physics.

8. Cooperative learning

Cooperative or peer learning is a form of teaching organization that consists of making small groups in which members encourage each other's learning by collaborating and showing what they know. The members of the groups interact with each other, making those who have learned the content better to explain it in a more pleasant way and in a more accessible language to those who have problems..

In addition, socio-affective and intellectual skills are also worked on, since explaining what has just been learned implies putting into practice a better ability to organize the information, explaining it in an empathetic way to those who have more difficulties. It is through all this that not only the class contents are acquired, but also more prosocial values and attitudes.

9. Pedagogical simulation

Pedagogical simulation is a strategy in which students are asked to represent a context or to act out a situation.

Thus, the students have to abandon for a moment their own personality and identity, acquiring the one they are supposed to represent.. This allows them to have a better understanding of the characteristics of, for example, professions, ethnic groups, injustices or everyday situations since, when acting them out, they have to put themselves in the role and act as if they were really someone else.

This can be seen as a kind of game and, in a way, it is. Students have to assume their role, acting creatively and openly according to what they have been assigned to represent, or how they think the person they have been assigned to represent behaves. Within the pedagogical simulation we have role-playing, socio-dramas and psychodrama..

10. Interspersed questions

Interspersed questions are inserted in the teaching situation or in the reading of a text, with the intention of keeping the students' attention and favoring the practice and obtaining of relevant information.

These questions are productive, since it is from them that it is possible to know the degree of involvement and, at the same time, understanding of the students. With them it is possible to bring out the latent knowledge in the individual's mind that, perhaps, he/she would not have thought of revealing before. that, perhaps, would not have occurred to him/her before because he/she simply did not remember. It is giving them the clues to remember what they may know.

Bibliographical references:

• Anita, W. (2006). Educational Psychology. Mexico City, Mexico: Pearson.
• Román, F. G. (2006). Nuevas Alternativas de Aprender y enseñar ( ed.). Mexico City, Mexico: Trillas.
• Díaz Barriga, F., Estrategias docentes para un aprendizaje significativo. Trillas (1997), Mexico.
• Ferreiro, E. (2006) Piaget-Vigotsky: Contribuciones para replantear el debate. Paidós Educador, Mexico.
• Pozo, J.I. (1989) Acquisición de estrategias de aprendizaje. Cuadernos de pedagogía.
• Weinstein, C. E., and Underwood, V. L. (1985) Learning strategies: The how of learning.