What Flexible Learning means to me is being able to sum up situations and assess your learner and resources available and delivering to your students an interesting and fun way of learning to hold their attention thus keeping them engaged.
An early example of this happened to me when I was coaching my sons 12 year old cricket team I needed to teach them how to do a square cut when batting, the manual mentioned things like transfer weight from front foot to back foot,raise the bat high to play the ball into the ground follow, through in the direction of square" Yeah right these boys would have tuned off real early and we would have got nowhere.
So we needed some flexible delivery .Out came a sports bag strategicly placed square off the wicket and the boys were simply told " Hit the bag and you get an ice cream ".
Whether it was the fun aspect, talking to learners at their level, or the ice cream, a good time was had and I gained a valuable lesson in flexible learning and it only cost me four ice creams.
Kevin
ReplyDeleteI believe young lads would opt for an ice cream anytime. :) In all seriousness, what you actually did was add some fun to an experience which they probably would have tried anyway - just for the challenge of hitting the bag. You made it easy for them to understand what you wanted them to do, and also set it up so they could engage actively. It sounds like the ice cream prize may have provided the challenge and stimulated some competition.
How do your carpentry students like ice creams? :) As you imply the same principles apply - relevant activities, fun and action.