Best
of ELT
Teaching
is bliss, not ignorance, and some methods should be followed in order to teach
something to someone. In ELT world, there are a lot of teaching methods most of
which are useful for both students and teachers. Nonetheless, as George Orwell
said, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others. In other
words, several teaching methods are better for students for some aspect. As my
point of view, Problem-based learning (PBL) – the most efficient - is heading
the lead by far.
To
start with, PBL pushes all the students to think. In PBL, teacher puts a
problem or ill-structured topic at the middle of the class and wants students
to solve it. To solve the problem, students have to brainstorm, analyze, and
think critically which mean students are the teachers of themselves. This is an
opportunity to generate students’ own ideas and then compare them those of
others. (Barell, 2006) As said, it is a good opportunity to think about
self-assessment and in a critical way.
To
continue with, related to first aspect, critically thinking students starts to
evaluate the situations and the world around them which means they can think
more emphatically. Through this way, they can easily adjust themselves to any
environment they encounter, and have no hardship against the difficult events
they face. Namely, their future life will be shaped indirectly. They will have
a wider perspective of live. We create meaning as much from efforts to answer
our own questions as from what we read or hear. In that sense, it is often said
that our greatest challenges become our greatest learning experiences.
(Delisle, 1997) Our own experiences and studies will make our life perspective
wider. That is why; problem-based learning is the best teaching method to widen
our perspective indirectly.
Ultimately,
problem-based learning is student-centered. Teacher has little role in
learning. As accepted in the teaching world, being student-centered is more
useful than being teacher-centered for students. When centered students while teaching
what is aimed to be taught, teachers can teach more effectively which means
students are their own teachers (Duch, 2001).
As stated, students are their own teachers and only they can teach
themselves in a way that is the most accurate and efficient.
To
sum up, there are a load of teaching methods to choose. However, it is more
convenient to choose the best of all. At this point, we can understand that the
most efficient of them is PBL in anyway. Why? Since, as we can observe on the
children of early ages, everyone learns more by experimenting and observing.
Moreover, this can only be provided with a student-centered method and the most
efficient one of student-centered methods is PBL.
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