Importance of Teaching Teamwork to Students

It is important to teach students that working in a team can improve their learning manifolds. As we all know team spirit is much needed skill in every sphere of life today. Be it your classroom or your workplace etc. Mentors can make students understand that team exercises are valuable learning experiences by careful guidance and planned out tasks for them.

Explaining meaning of team-work to students

Teachers need to define meaning of team-work to students so that they are able to adapt it well in their lives. Teamwork is joint action by a group of people for achievement of any specified task or goal. But here underlining point is that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is delivered when all the individuals in the group harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.

Why teaching teamwork is important to students?

Teamwork is important part of working culture today and many companies evaluate candidates on the basis of their capability to work in a group. One of the most important skills that employers look for is the ability of employees to work together. Often at times collaborative projects are implemented for the employees and it is where they have to prove their teamwork spirit. Therefore, it is important for students to learn to act in a team environment so that later on they can nurture this skill in them.

 Also, as per research students learn best from tasks which requires doing tasks involving social interactions. That’s why stress is on the fact that collaborative learning should be included in almost every classroom, but teachers at times struggle with having students work cooperatively. This is where understanding how to teach effective teamwork becomes a crucial task for the teacher.

Helping all students to share in a pair

Sharing is also another way of developing team spirit in students. Teachers can engage students in activities that require sharing. For example, always try and include group share or other method of sharing projects in the classroom.  Other method is making students use group mapping activities for brainstorming in the early stages of a new project. Also, encouraging interacting with each other while working on the project. 

Sharing brings broad-based positive reinforcement that helps kids to overcome confidence and self-esteem issues. Moreover, sharing teaches and reinforces good social skills.

Experiential Teaching Methods

The term ‘experiential’ basically means learning and development based on experience rather than receiving it through listening or study of theory. The expression 'hands-on' is further used to describe such teaching which its greater form is.  

Experiential teaching is such model which promotes learning by doing and by receiving first-hand experience of it. In such teaching process, students tend to learn and retain more information. Also, they are able to transfer the skills learned to other aspects of their life.

Use of visual teaching method is one such example of experiential teaching. It is far better process as it lies in the periphery of experiential teaching; opposed to learning by lecturing, which is pretty common and conventional. Another aspect of experiential teaching is that students are not taught how to do something but how to find out the answers to problems they are facing at present or apprehending in the future.

Outdoor setting is another tool of experiential teaching method. Use of this method enhances the learning of the students and exposes them to more inquiry–based experiences. Learning under such set-up engages young people, creates a fun, hands-on environment and helps students apply their new knowledge in different settings. Experiential teaching proves to be fruitful when a person involved n the activity looks backs and evaluates it, it, determines what was useful or important to remember and uses this information to perform another activity.

Several schools like Mother’s Pride and Presidium are known for providing “experiential education” to students. They even have an academy known as “The Knowledge Tree” that provides training to teachers for about such method.
 

Experiential teaching acts as a catalyst that sparks cognitive mind-sets of the children. It takes teaching to the higher –level and converts it into a beneficial interaction between teacher and the student. Hence, it automatically improves performance at both ends. Teachers get better results after employing experiential teaching methods and students are able to grasp the subject well with more ease and comfort as compared to conventional teaching ways. Our present education system looks forward for a change and implementing experiential teaching method is the right thing to do.