Active methods of teaching: a step forward in pedagogical science

There are many different classifications of teaching methods in pedagogy. However, now we are only interested in active teaching methods, which are based on the active role of the student in the learning process. It is the active methods that bring the best results.

Traditionally, there are three main groups of methods on which the role of students depends. First, these methods are passive, while all students are considered as a kind of learning objects. Students should, within the framework of this method, learn the material that the teacher transmits to them, memorize and reproduce it. In this case, traditional survey, reading and lecture are used.

The second large group is active teaching methods. In this case, the student becomes not an object, but a subject of learning, entering into a dialogue with the teacher and performing creative tasks, which along with the questions from the student to the teacher and from the teacher to the student become the main tasks.

The third large group is interactive methods. They allow all students and the teacher to interact. These methods are best suited to a person-centered approach, since they suggest co-education. At the same time, the teacher can become the object of the learning process.

This distinguishes active learning methods from interactive ones. The teacher in this case acts as the organizer of the learning process or the leader of the group. Like the active methods of teaching, interactive can be based on direct interaction with friends and on the appeal to the personal experience of the members of the group. Based on this experience can be based and the acquisition of new knowledge.

Active methods of teaching at school were practiced in Russia, as well as numerous interactive ones. Such interesting methods as laboratory-brigade or design methods, various practices, as well as labor and industrial excursions were known. These methods were developed in the works of the most prominent teachers Sukhomlinsky, Amonashvili (pedagogy of cooperation), as well as Lysenkova and Shatalov.

Developed these interesting methods and Americans, especially at the very end of XX century. In the United States, special instructions and detailed guidelines for teachers working on these methods were even developed. These developments are also interested in Russian teachers who want to keep pace with the times and apply interactive methods of teaching students and schoolchildren, and in a mass school.

Numerous studies conducted in the United States show that it is active teaching methods, along with interactive ones, that can significantly increase the percentage of mastering material and imply the immediate application of the acquired knowledge in practice, which further contributes to the assimilation of new knowledge, making them an integral part of the student's general knowledge and skills .

The result of the research of American educators was a special table called "Pyramid". From this table it is seen that passive methods of teaching have the lowest percent of mastering, and interactive ones are the largest. However, many Russian teachers evaluate this table very critically, because the mastering of the material, in their opinion, is very difficult to measure. Moreover, everyone knows the names of teachers whose brilliant lectures (passive method) are perfectly remembered and absorbed practically for life.

Nevertheless, despite all the criticism and imperfection of the Pyramid, this table still really reflects all the main tendencies and patterns and can become a good source of information for reflection.

However, one should not consider that it is necessary to completely forget all passive teaching methods and replace them with active and interactive ones. For the successful learning all methods and types of pedagogical activity can become very important , and any developments necessarily advance the pedagogical science.