Today, industries, tech giants, and corporate houses are looking for industry-ready professionals. But, the current education system is lacking somewhere in matching up to the pre-requisites of the employers. A recent report in the Times of India brought about the fact that almost 60% of engineers are either unemployed or underemployed. Well, the main reason behind this condition is cited as poor quality of education. Again there are two main factors that are affecting the quality of education firstly the rate at which the industry is automating itself, raises a lot of questions about the nature of activities that are going to happen as it’s beyond human imagination. Secondly, there has been evidence of more scientific information being produced in the last 20 years than in 5000 years before that, which makes it impossible to impart the required technical knowledge and skills through formal education. Another change that the education fraternity is witnessing is the increasing number of online courses that are available to students for the anywhere anytime learning experience.
The run-of-the-mill method of teaching viz. lecturers does not seem to be working in today’s times. It is beyond just teaching students about problem-solving, design, analysis, and more to enhancing their abilities in terms of creativity, systems thinking, and problem defining, to name a few. The old school methods are even criticized for their inability in achieving these objectives. Achieving this kind of development standards in education requires practice on a daily basis and hence the traditional teaching methods do not work here. There have been studies that show the retention rates bases on the pedagogical engagement done. Here’s the percentage retention
- 10% – reading
- 15-30% – seeing
- 20-30% – of hearing
- 20- 50% – seeing and hearing
- 30% – Demos
- 40-70% – Discussions
- 80% Practice
- 90% Doing while watching
- 90 – 95% Teaching others
The conventional method does not provide any opportunity for interaction and stimulation of the interest of the student. This is when interactive learning comes into the picture. Interactive learning is a methodology where teachers involve their students interactively in the learning process using various different means like a teacher to student, student to student, hands-on demos, audiovisuals, and more interactive learning methods. Interactive methods are known to be very beneficial when it comes to professional education. The benefits of interactive learning include –
- They ensure that training using material is efficiently acquired
- They encourage interest and engagement in the profession
- Impart freedom of expression, strength and motivation, knowledge, and team spirit
- Contribute to the complicated competencies of the future specialists
Apparently, the interactive learning approach has the ability to give that multidimensional engagement advantage which is known to be the core of educational philosophy.