Influence of Teaching Aids on a Teacher's Teaching

Teaching aids are useful for all grade levels.

Implementing teaching aids is a useful way to help engage students in the lesson material and can help reinforce ideas. When the classroom is teacher centered, learning is reduced and comprehension deceases. By taking a student-centered approach, teaching is tailored for the students. A student-centered approach will often use teaching aids and/or implement learning centers. Teaching aids are a useful way to help reinforce a lesson once it has been introduced.

Special Populations

When you teach in a classroom, you deal with different types of learners. Some of your students will be gifted and talented, others will be learning disabled, and some will be special needs students. Dealing with all the different populations can sometimes create a disjuncture in lesson comprehension. Teaching aids can be useful when dealing with multiple intelligences and helping to meet your students' multiple learning styles.

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner "is best known in educational circles for his theory on multiple intelligences." Gardner has identified eight distinct intelligences: naturalist, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, musical, mathematical-logical and verbal-linguistic. This means is that some learners learn best within one of these domains. Learning is capable within each domain; however, one domain dominates. Knowing what kind of intelligences your students have can tell you what kind of aids to implement that will increase learning.

Various Aids

There are a variety of teaching aids to choose from. When deciding what to choose, think about whom you are targeting. Are you focusing on students that need help concentrating? A hands-on approach to a lesson might be useful in that situation. Are you targeting someone who needs more independent practice? Learning centers can then be helpful because it allows for more personal individualized instruction.

Learning Centers

Learning centers are a non-traditional teaching aid that are student focused and allows for more hands-on activities and individualized group instruction. Learning centers help teachers deal with special populations and help to identify struggling learners. It can be used in grades K-12. It may take a lot of preparation beforehand, but it is another teaching aid that is useful when trying to reinforce or introduce new material.

The Teacher

As a teacher, your number one goal is to maximize learning and to use time efficiently. This may mean that you take a different approach to teaching. This is how teaching aids are beneficial. Keep the learning relevant to your students' lives. If the material is not relevant, students are less likely to care for it. But by remaining enthusiastic and implementing different methods in your teaching approach, it makes for a more engaging classroom.

References

• Howard Gardner: Biography of Howard Gardner
• Teacher Vision: The Basics of Centers