In this episode of Neuroeducation with Angie Dee, the focus is on maximizing learning in the classroom without spending a fortune on resources. Angie shares three free techniques that can enhance learning by 50%. One of these techniques is creating a collaborative learning environment where students work together. Angie acknowledges that this may be challenging at times, but emphasizes the importance of setting standards in the classroom to promote teamwork and cooperation. By implementing these techniques, teachers can optimize learning outcomes for their students while minimizing their budgetary constraints. Tune in to learn more about these innovative teaching strategies.

Transform your parenting with 'Montessori Made Easy' a course to help guide your child to thrive in a digital world with creativity, independence, and resilience. Click to explore a toolkit that will help you navigate the messy parts of parenting and rediscover the best parts of parenting: https://teachplayconnect.com

Follow The Neuroeducation Podcast:

https://www.instagram.com/neuroeducationpodcast/?hl=en

https://www.tiktok.com/@neuroeducationpodcast?_t=8iBmpacOWAr&_r=1

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHtouj8CkOyCDrVIO98BHLw

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553970581049

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:00:35 - Budget-Friendly Classroom Strategies

00:01:59 - The Power of Group Work

00:02:56 - Learning Pyramid Discussion

00:04:23 - Group Discussion Examples

00:05:07 - Peer Teaching and Retention Rates

00:06:10 - Social Development Through Group Learning

00:07:05 - Montessori Method and Personal Experience

00:08:53 - Learning from Life and Discussions

What are three things you can do in

your classroom that are basically free,

that can maximize learning by 50%? That's what

we're going over today in this episode. Welcome

to neuroeducation. where we're exploring the neuroscience of

how to switch on the brain to supercharge learning. I'll be sharing

with you innovative teaching techniques, effective parenting strategies,

and educational advocacy. I'm your host, Angie Dee.

Together, let's revolutionize children's learning. Hello

and welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee.

Thank you so much for tuning in. If

you are one of those teachers that blow

out your budget on resources, buying a million things,

laminating a thousand sheets and printing

off endless worksheets for your kids and blowing out your printing

budget, this episode is for you. Often

as a teacher, we try to buy

cute little accessories for the classroom. buying

so many worksheets. I'm definitely even guilty of

it, even though I tried to create the most hands-on learning environment. When

we had to capture a worksheet, you're paying somebody from

teachers pay teachers or somebody. And what

we're doing is spending a huge amount of money on printing

and hands-out. Well, what can we do that

is double the maximization of

the learning benefit for the kids? where we don't have to spend

money on all those extra handouts, resources

that is coming out of our own budget. Amazingly,

it's the children, the environment that

they're in. We can maximize what they're doing to

increase the learning by half, if not more,

by helping the children work together. Sometimes

this is tricky, you might have somebody say oh but I don't want to work

with so-and-so or like she doesn't like me. But

once you set standards in your classroom for

when we're moving into group work that

everyone moves into the group regardless and

we treat each other with kindness You build

slowly strategies and an

expectation that we move in with ease and grace and

it gets better and better. So something like

a group discussion or a group project, what's

the benefit? Well, if we go back

to the learning pyramid and we look, what is the best

method of learning on the learning pyramid? The

three top ones, Out

of the three top ones, two involve peer

interactions. So as a recap, the

lowest form of retention for any kind of learning is

a lecture. 5% retention is

the average expectation. If you go to

audio and visual, we have an expectation of around

20% of learning retention. If we go up,

to a classroom discussion or a group discussion, we

got up to 50% retention on learning rates. So

right there, if we stop and think about that, we

have 5% of a lecture, which when we're time

poor, often we do as teachers, we talk

to the students and we just telling them about the content.

And if they're only retaining 5% of that, and here as

the alternative, you have something that you can do

by activating the children to work together that

increases that by 50% well it's

50% retention so it's increasing it by much more than 50%. So

here we have a very simple strategy that you can

activate. There are fantastic examples all

over the internet of what you can do in a

group discussion that can activate the children. Each

child can share what they learn. Maybe they can read some content

or they watch content and then they have to share. Okay, what was

the most important thing that they got out of that? And then

maybe they have to work out something where they bring it back to the classroom to share

the most important points of whatever the content or

the subject was that they learned from. By doing this,

the children are learning from each other and they're

also engaging in classroom discussion. This

hits two of our top

tier learning strategies on the learning pyramid. 50% at

classroom or group discussion, and the very top

tier 90 to 95% retention if you're peer

teaching. Just by doing this simple strategy in a classroom,

getting the children to work together in a group, share what

they learnt from whatever the learning content was, and

then prepare in some way to share with the classroom, they're

having to discuss what they learned. They're having to share their

understanding and they're listening to the other children share

their understanding. This, by far, is

one of the simplest strategies that we can implement

that's maximizing learning. And what is it doing? It's making learning

more enjoyable for the children. Once they learn

how to work in groups more cohesively, What we

have is something that is absolutely fabulous

for their social development, for their social interactions and

their social connections. Now, as an adult, I

want to ask you, how do you enjoy learning the best? When

is the last time you had a discussion with a friend that

really made you think? And you walked away from that conversation being

like, wow, I'm going to look more into that. Or that you

really learned something. And what was it doing just

from having that personal one-to-one interaction? So

once again, what is one of the best ways we

can increase learning from 5% retention to 50, or if not 90% retention?

just by adding classroom interaction, just by getting students to

work together, to talk to each other, to share their understanding. When

we did this in one classroom, it was amazing to

see how much children learn

and also what was so dramatically different

that one child picked up to another. When I studied my

Montessori specialization, I actually had

a fantastic experience and I was learning

online. And a lot of people say, I can't learn online because there

was no interaction. But amazingly, this simple

kind of group discussion that we had to do online really

maximized my learning. And

Montessori has multi-age levels

of classrooms, usually in ages 3 to

6, and then ages 6 to 9, 9 to 12, 12 to

15, and 15 to 18. And this also allows for the older

children to be able to help guide and nurture some of the younger children, and

a lot of these things to happen naturally in a Montessori environment. Ironically,

in my own learning, my professional learning, studying

Montessori after I did my Bachelor of Education, I was

able to come back to this very similar method of education, but

it was online and it was the most interactive

method of education that I felt I did in my entire teaching

from studying my Diploma of Early Childhood, my Bachelor of Education

and then doing my Montessori. If I look at all of that, my

in-person Bachelor of Education and my in-person Diploma

of Early Childhood was much

less interactive, ironically, than my

specialization in Montessori, because we constantly had to

give each other feedback. We had to share our understanding, then

read somebody else's input, and then comment on

their input. And so what I found was not

only was I learning so much from the content, I was learning

so much from everybody else's understanding. And

this is what we do in life, is it not? When you go to

a friend's house and we have a dinner party, what are we

doing? We're sharing what we're learning and what we're experiencing in life. And

we have to say that we learn so much from our

friends and our family around us. And what is that through? Just

through simple discussions, which we can do in our

classrooms for free to maximize learning. So

Thank you for listening in. I hope you enjoyed this

tip and it would be a massive favor if

you could subscribe on YouTube and

also give us a five star review on Apple podcast or