A method is a way to achieve a goal. In pedagogy, a method is a way of joint activity of students and teachers, as a result of which there is a transfer of knowledge, as well as skills. The teaching methods in pedagogy are divided into three groups - this is a passive, active and interactive method.
Passive teaching methods in pedagogy are considered the most ineffective and come down to the fact that students act as passive listeners. Examples of passive lessons - lecture, survey, test, test. Some teachers, in spite of all the disadvantages of passive learning, prefer this method, since it is easy to prepare and makes it possible to give out a large amount of teaching material for a limited time lesson. In the hands of an experienced teacher, this authoritarian style gives good results.
Active teaching methods in pedagogy are more democratic, since students in the lesson are not just passive students, but active participants in the lesson who have equal rights with the teacher. Interactive methods can be considered the modern form of active methods, which differ from the latter in that students communicate on equal terms not only with the teacher, but also among themselves. The purpose of interactive lessons is not only to consolidate the material studied, but to a greater extent to learn new things.
Among the active teaching methods, the most famous are problem-based learning, case studies, role-playing, game production design and a discussion seminar.
With problematic learning, the process of mastering new knowledge by students becomes similar to a search or research activity. The success of training by this method is ensured by the joint activity of students and the teacher, whose task is not simply to communicate new knowledge, but to familiarize their students with the objectively existing contradictions in the development and history of cognition and methods for their successful resolution. Students, together with the teacher and under his leadership, discover for themselves something new in any of the fields of science, that is, the process of obtaining new knowledge in this case is akin to the activity of an inventor or researcher.
In the usual approach, information new to the student is introduced into the learning process as something known and to be transmitted from teacher to student. The student in the learning process must learn the information, remember it and process it. With problematic training, new information is introduced as something unknown and subject to discovery and research. The role of the student in this case is very active. At the same time, he imperceptibly joins himself in the process of discovering new knowledge.
Active teaching methods in pedagogy are not limited to problem learning. One of the most common and effective methods is the analysis of specific situations or case-study. This method reveals and develops the student’s ability to analyze real, but not fictional situations - life or production. When meeting with any situation, the student determines the presence of a problem in the given situation and what it consists of, and also forms his own attitude towards it.
Teaching methods in pedagogy can be very original. One of such interesting teaching methods is the game method of active learning, called role-playing. At the same time, problems and special roles are distributed among the participants in the educational process. In this case, say, a production meeting can be played. Moreover, each of the participants “speaks at the meeting” in accordance with his own role.
Active teaching methods in higher education are especially popular. Here, as nowhere else, it is necessary to involve students in the creative process of cognition and assimilation of new knowledge. Seminars, discussions, disputes and other active teaching methods help students better learn new knowledge and successfully apply them in practice.