Teaching aids enliven lessons
correspondent | Thursday August 19, 2021 17:20
TONOTA: Although student centred methods of teaching may, to some extent, achieve this, teachers can also utilise a wide variety of teaching aids to make their lessons come alive for learners.
Teaching aids are materials and devices that can be used to supplement the written or spoken word in the transmission of knowledge and skills and to emphasise or clarify the instruction. They may also be used to communicate attitudes; for example, a chart may show the effects of overgrazing to reflect poor attitudes of some farmers towards the management of their animals and the veld. However, teaching aids can never replace teaching methods. But, nevertheless, teaching aids have many advantages: they stimulate interest amongst students, promote better understanding, and contribute to longer retention of learning.
After all, hearing is forgetting, seeing is remembering! Disadvantages include they are time-consuming to make and may demand some imagination and creativity on the part of the teacher. But, despite this, teachers need to produce more teaching aids to illustrate their lessons. And as a lecturer at Tonota College of Education (TCE), I too often saw a lack of teaching aids used by our student teachers during their teaching practice.
Teachers have at their disposal many different types of teaching aids. These include audio aids which embrace radio, and tape recorder and microphone. For example, a teacher may wish to teach the topic: Prevention and control of livestock diseases. So, he may visit a veterinary office in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and ask questions pertaining to the topic. Educational programmes are also broadcast by Radio Botswana; however, teachers need to know in advance the programme schedule and to see if it fits in with their teaching timetable. Visual aids are many and include the chalkboard, student textbooks, newspapers, manilla charts, posters, handouts, worksheets, photos, filmstrips and others. They are particularly useful in the following situations.
Firstly, when the object of instruction is either too large or too small to be seen effectively by pupils; for example, the vegetation of Botswana or an animal cell. Secondly, when the object is inaccessible to pupils; for example, in a lesson on beef production, pictures of the BMC abattoir at Lobatse can be shown to pupils since the abattoir itself may be too far away for pupils to see. Thirdly, when pupils are learning about a slow process, such as the stages of maize growth that may occur over a period of several months, or the oestrus cycle of a cow. Without a suitable teaching aid, it would take pupils a long time to observe such processes. Finally, when a process cannot be seen by the naked eye; for example, the passage of food through the digestive system, or the movement of substances in leaves during the process of photosynthesis.
All teachers use the chalkboard, the old mainstay of most lessons, but they may rarely use other teaching aids. And many teachers seem not to be aware that textbooks can be used as teaching aids even though using them does not involve any preparation at all on the part of the teacher. In preparing a lesson, the teacher should know what textbooks the pupils have been given. Before I supervised lessons during teaching practice, I would always make a habit of asking the student teacher for a copy of the pupils’ textbook to see if it can be used during the lesson.
I remember once supervising a Form 2 Social Studies lesson where the topic to be taught was colonialism in Africa. During the lesson, I glanced through the relevant chapter in the pupils’ textbook.
Here I noticed one famous well-known cartoon which shows a map of Africa over which towered Cecil Rhodes, a famous British imperialist. One foot stood over Cape Town at the continent’s southern extremity whilst the other stood over Cairo, Egypt, at the other end of the continent. Now the authors of the book expected pupils to understand the meaning of the cartoon without any assistance from their teacher – the British in the late 18th century wanted to colonise Africa all the way from the Cape to Cairo.
But when I asked the student teacher what the cartoon was trying to show, she said that she did not know! And on the same page, there was a map that showed the route that was used by the British to transport goods from British India to Britain by means of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. And to facilitate such trade, the British took control of both Egypt and the Sudan. Again, when I asked the student teacher what the map was showing, she had no idea! Although we need to inculcate a culture of reading in our children, sadly, it is the same case with many of our teachers. Reading around a topic that you are going to teach will likely result in your teaching that topic more effectively.
These days there are many newspapers in Botswana. Teachers could buy these and scan through them for any interesting articles that are relevant to the topics that they are teaching. For example, a Social Studies teacher may be teaching about mining in Botswana. And so he may show the pupils articles about the newly opened Khoemacau copper/zinc mine in Ngamiland, or Debswana’s diamond mine at Jwaneng, especially if they contain photos. Last month, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Botswana’s first president, Sir Seretse Khama. Many articles relating to the event appeared in many newspapers and the Daily News and they could be used when teaching about this period in our history in a Social Studies or history lesson.
Manilla charts can also be used to good effect in lessons. And the materials required to produce such charts are easy to source from good bookstores or stationers – the charts are cheap and felt tip pens come in a variety of colours to make charts colourful and attractive to pupils. Such charts could show information that would take too long for a teacher to put on the board; for example, charts could depict the oestrus cycle of a cow, the digestive system, the respiratory system, the human skeleton... Posters are similar to manilla charts but are ready-made and laminated and can be bought at no great cost. In the teaching of science, posters showing information on oxygen, nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide and acids and bases can be used, whilst in agriculture lessons, those showing seed dispersal, roots, the water cycle and the structure of a leaf or photosynthesis. Hand-outs are duplicated sheets of paper and may contain a summary of notes which can be given out at the end of a lesson. They may also show complex maps and diagrams which would take too long to draw on the chalkboard.
Worksheets may be used for student centred practical activities such as science lessons. They may contain instructions that the student must follow in order to complete an experiment and spaces for the student to record observations. For example, the teacher may give a concrete block to each group in a class. The handout may then instruct the pupil to first measure the sides of the block after which spaces will be provided in which the length of each of the sides can be stated followed by the calculation of the volume of the block. The handout can then instruct the pupil to weigh the block and, finally, to calculate the density of the block. In an Agriculture lesson, students may learn about the soil profile. To do this, the teacher may take his students to a nearby pit latrine where they can study the soil profile. The teacher then gives out a worksheet telling the students what they should do to describe the profile. For example, the handout may begin with Horizon A and the characteristics which the pupils should describe can be listed and spaces for them to fill in their observations; for example, colour, thickness, texture...
Teachers who like photography and have a talent for taking good photos can produce stunning pictures that can then be attached to manilla charts. However, this may be time-consuming. Using a digital camera, the images have to be first downloaded onto a computer and then prints have to be made. And if a film camera is used, the film has to be processed at a professional laboratory and this is costly – perhaps, P5 a shot.
Audio-visual teaching aids involve the use of both hearing and sight; for example, videocassettes, TV, films. However, such aids may be costly and they depend on a reliable source of power to operate.
Finally, teachers may use realia – objects and models. In an Agriculture lesson, a teacher may use samples of sandy and clay soils to teach pupils the characteristics of such soils – colour, texture, structure, fertility... And if he is teaching about fertilisers, he can bring into the class bags of fertilisers. Models are things that represent another thing and are usually smaller than the real thing. In the teaching of Agriculture, such models can include a chicken house made of cardboard, metal sheeting and wire, and a mouldboard plough made of cardboard and wood. Some models may also be bought, for example, a model showing the human skeleton which can be used in a Science lesson if the teacher is teaching about the anatomy of the human body. Working models represent, for example, machines whose operation will be similar to the real thing. For example, in Agriculture, a milling machine, automatic irrigator and a hand operated borehole and, in Science, a solar oven, solar car and water purification detector.
So, there is much potential in the use of teaching aids in making lessons more exciting and meaningful to pupils. Although preparing teaching aids needs a little imagination and creativity on the part of teachers, their efforts will be much appreciated by learners.