DEMONSTRATION METHOD OF TEACHING Dr. Goutam Patra

In accordance with the demands of effective learning, the learning process in the educational unit is held interactively, inspiration, fun, challenging, motivate learners to participate actively, and provide enough space for initiative, creativity, independence with talent, interest and the physical and psychological development of learners

Generally, demonstration method is a method of providing lessons by exhibiting and demonstrating. The demonstration method is a method of teaching by demonstrating things, events, rules, and sequences of activities, either directly or through using instructional media which is relevant to the subject matter or material that will be presented . The purpose of teaching using a demonstration method is to show the process of occurrence of an event according to the teaching materials, how they are attained and the ease to be understood by the students in teaching learning process. The demonstration method has several advantages and disadvantages.

A teaching method comprises the principles and methods used by teachers to enable student learning. These strategies are determined partly on subject matter to be taught and partly by the nature of the learner. For a particular teaching method to be appropriate and it has to be in relation with the character of the learner. Suggestions are there to design and selection of teaching methods must take into account not only the nature of the subject matter but also how students learn. In today’s school the trend is that it encourages a lot of creativity. It is a known fact that human advancement comes through reasoning. This reasoning and original thought enhances creativity. Demonstration Method is the process of teaching through examples or experiments. For example, a science/social science teacher may teach an idea by performing an experiment for students. A demonstration may be used to prove a fact through a combination of visual evidence and associated reasoning. Demonstrations help to raise student interest and reinforce memory retention because they provide connections between facts and realworld applications of those facts. Lectures, on the other hand, are often geared more towards factual presentation than connective learning.

What is it?

• VERBAL EXPLANATION + LIVE DISPLAY USING APPARATUS/MODELS = DEMONSTRATION. TELLING DEMONSTRATION SHOWING DOING PURPOSE OF DEMONSTRATION

• Teaching a skill, concept or principle.

• Delicate and dangerous experiments involving careful manipulation.

• Experiments involving difficult and complex operations.

• Use of costly apparatus.

• Several experiments are to be performed in one period to establish connections between them to derive conclusions.

• Number of operations in an experiment are too many.

Steps:

• Specify the objective of the demonstration.

• Prepare a plan for your demo listing the various steps in the proper sequence.

• Decide what information should be presented to the students BEFORE, DURING and AFTER THE Demonstration.

• Choose appropriate equipment, tools and other accessories.

• Practice or rehearse the presentation.

• Arrange the physical setting so that each student will be able to see clearly.

• Arrange the equipment to be demonstrated in order. It is convenient to keep the equipment to be used on the left hand side and the used ones on the right hand side.

• Demonstrate step by step. match explanation with manipulation. Avoid lengthy explanations.

 • Use a pointer to highlight the details/specific features.

• Do not show how Not to do a particular thing.

• Provide opportunities for students’ participation in the demonstration

ADVANTAGES

• Concrete things are shown. So students don’t enter into false imagination as it happens in a lecture.

• Students get confidence in the application of scientific principles as they observe them working and not simply hear about them.

• Motivates the students for further learning.

• Number of equipment is less and students are more, this is an ideal method.

 • Method is aligned to the principle, ‘Learning is more in seeing than in hearing; Learning is more in doing than in seeing and hearing; (Dramatization in the important steps and procedures

·         It can satisfy the curiosity of the learners

·         It develop the sense of vividness and clarity of the objects of learning

·         It helps the student to reveal the new truth of the area of study

Disadvantages:

·         It is not always possible to initiate and adopt this method as it depends on the variety of content

·         It brings indiscipline in classroom as every one tries to participate in the teaching-learning process

·         Class room management becomes difficult

·         It is not possible to demonstrate apparatus based and lab based content due to lack of infrastructures

·         The method is a technical one. Habit of learning is sometimes decreased

Conclusion: However, Demonstration method enhances interest of the learners to study and develop their power of imagination. It is a more effective method than any other traditional method of teaching.