7 Easy Strategies to Improve High School Student Learning

Simple, Research-Backed Teaching Techniques to Boost Classroom Engagement

By SELIN Club | 22 Jan 2025, 06:26 AM

As teachers, we strive for possible ways on how to further make our students become fully immersed in learning the things that they need to take home in a long way, to help them develop and maintain critical skills that may benefit them in many ways, not only at school but also elsewhere. Most students undergo very crucial moments of academic and personal growth through high school, and the right teaching strategies can make a difference in their learning. Here, in this post, we are going to discuss seven easy, research-based strategies that you can use to boost learning in your classroom:
 

1. Active Learning Strategies

 

Definition: Active learning is the method through which the student engages with the material rather than the mere receiving of information passively through active practices of group discussion, peer teaching, role-playing, etc.

 

Why it Works: Active learning has been shown to result in increased retention and better understanding of material. Application tasks signal to students how they are likely to retain what they learn-to do it.

 

Practical Tip: Try a think-pair-share, where all students respond to a question, discuss with a peer, and then share with the class. Another option would be case studies, where students use concepts to solve real-life applications.

 

2. Technology and Digital Tools

 

Explanation: Technology is a power tool in lessons that makes them more engaging and accessible. Students can interact with content in ways that cannot be done without technology through LMS, apps, and multimedia resources.

 

Why it Works: Technology caters for different learning styles which include visual, auditory, kinesthetic; thus it increases student engagement because the content can be made interactive. Also, this makes it possible to personalise the learning experiences.

 

Practical Tip: Kahoot to make quizzes more fun and engaging; Google Classroom for making class organising easy; or Edpuzzle by converting a video into an interactional mode where questions are embedded throughout the clip. All these tools make learning interactive, thereby there is a good retention of concepts interestingly.

 

3. Feedback on Time

 

Explanation: With frequent, constructive feedback, students learn in what areas they excel and in what areas they need improvement. When instead of giving feedback to larger assignments or at the end of the term is done right at the small assignment or even during a lesson, it may be possible to make adjustments before changing course.

 

Why It Works: With this approach, students can keep pace with their learning processes and correct mistakes before moving on. This support, therefore, supports motivation and performance.

 

Convenient guidance: Utilise rubrics to provide highly explicit, systematic feedback about assignments. Provide immediate, written feedback on almost any activity using web-based tools, so you can provide more timely and personalised responses.

 

4. Promote Collaborative Learning

 

Definition: Collaborative learning is an approach in which students learn together with others in small groups and both acquire and share knowledge and skills to solve problems or accomplish tasks. Group work promotes the sense of community and enhances students' learning because they are exposed to views of the members.

 

Why It Works: Students learn more when they can discuss, debate, and teach each other, which eventually leads to a better understanding of the subject matter as well as critical thinking.

 

Practical Application: This works well by giving group projects or forming small, break-out class groups for completion of separate parts of a lesson. Get peer feedback and peer teaching so that students learn from each other and acquire knowledge they might not have otherwise understood.

 

5. Personalized Learning Strategies

 

Definition: It is by personalising instruction that it is offered according to each student's needs. This is because not all students learn the same way or at the same time. A teacher can adjust his/her learning strategy recognizing that every learner has a difference in aptitude toward learning material presented in class.

 

Why It Works: Personalization may increase the feelings of support and engagement on the part of the students. More importantly, it would ensure that the students worked at a skill level of approximately their own. As such, it could even lead to greater motivation and better achievement levels.

 

Practical Tip: Use differentiated instruction by allowing different ways of connection with content including visual supports, interactive tasks, or written summaries. You can also come up with tiered assignments and offer learning stations where students get to choose based on interest or skill level.

 

6. Engage in Encouraging Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

 

Definition: It demands rigour beyond just rote memorization to analysis, evaluation, and even creation in order to strengthen higher-order thinking skills.

 

Why This Works: In higher education and even in professional settings, this skill is even more vital. Encouraged to think critically, a student engages with the material more substantially and has a greater capacity to solve everyday problems.

 

Practical Tip: Use open-ended questions that leave students to think over the material. Ensure project-based learning where the students work on long-term, real-world projects or case studies where they apply concepts to practical scenarios.

 

7. Growth Mindset

 

Explanation: Growth mindset focuses on the possibility of developing skills and intelligence, which may be developed through effort and perseverance. The more students understand challenges and failures as means to learn and improve rather than failure, the better the chances are for developing resilience.

 

Why it Works: Students who can be designated with a growth mindset tend to take up challenges, tolerate difficulties, and gain further success at greater levels.

 

Practical application: Model a growth mindset by acknowledging your own mistakes and showing how you learn from those mistakes. Celebrate effort and improvement, not just the final outcome, and encourage students to embrace challenges as part of the process.

 

Conclusion

 

Applying these strategies in your teaching can significantly develop engagement, understanding, and achievement for students. Every student learns differently; therefore, making minor adjustments to your approach could lead to great results. Start experimenting with one or two of these strategies in your classroom today and see how they change your students' learning experience.
 

More ideas, resources, and teaching tips can also be found at the Selin Club. It is a most excellent peer resource for educators seeking to share insights and find new ways of supporting student success.

 

FAQs

 

1. How can I incorporate active learning without disrupting my lesson plan?

You don't need to dramatically change your instruction entirely. Start with small steps by adding activities like think-pair-share, quick peer discussions, or small group problem solving. These are easily incorporated into existing lessons.
 

2. How could you differentiate your teaching in the classroom for students with different learning needs?

For instance, you can make the differences of the reading texts clear by providing different levels of reading materials, through hands-on activities, or giving learners choices over the form of demonstrating knowledge and understanding, which may be results of learning, such as a project, presentation, or written report.

 

3. How do I encourage critical thinking without overwhelming learners?

I would start with very open-ended questions that provoke a real-world application. I would then require the students to discuss and criticise a number of different viewpoints before making a final judgement. As they become more comfortable with the critical thinking activity, the exercises' complexity can be increased.
 

4. How do I evaluate the efficacy of these strategies?

Student progress can be traced through assessment, feedback surveys, and even in the observation of participation, engagement, and academic performance. This can facilitate changes in strategies whenever results are not found.