Out-of-Box Methodology
What is Out-of-Box Methodology?
Learning only by using books and listening to what the teacher says must be very boring. Studying doesn’t mean only sitting in the classroom. It can also mean something completely different. The Out-of-Box Methodology is basically just unusual ways to teach particular things. It can not only make school less boring and tiring, but students also tend to remember more from these types of lessons.
We are here to present some ways of unusual teaching that teachers use in our school!
Team Working
Sometimes teachers in our school ask us to do some projects in groups. We divide into several teams and work together for the next few lessons, and after some time each team presents their project to others. It is a great form of building teamwork skills that are teaching you how to communicate with others in a great way. But something even better about this activity is that you learn something from others and they learn something from you as well.
School Trips
Every year, the beautiful time of going on school-trips comes. Usually we think of them as of a form of skipping lessons, but it can also be a way of learning something new! It’s a great way of studying about some places by visiting them in real life, rather than watching them in textbooks.
Here are some examples:
Lessons in the cinema
An example of trips in our school are lessons in the cinema. If you are a supporter of cinema it is probably your favourite possibility to learn something interesting. During lessons in the cinema you can learn much useful information about film, for example find out how special effects work or how dubbing is created.
Copernicus Science Centre
The most well-known place of out-of-box methods of learning in Poland is Copernicus Science Centre located in Warsaw. Students from all over the country come to visit this place. The main goals of this place are developing knowledge, collaborating with scientists, inspiring to ask questions and searching for the answers. You can feel like a real researcher there. In this place you don’t have to follow anyone’s rules, so you can just experiment and try to find out how some things in the world work.
Trips to museums
Another example of trips in our school are trips to the museums. It’s a very beneficial activity that allows you to increase your knowledge without reading the textbook. We usually visit science, art or history museums.
Going to the theatre
Usually, theatres have an opinion of very boring places not as fun as cinemas. But is this true? Of course not. In theatres you can learn a lot and have a lot of fun too. Visiting theatres is also a big test of your behaviour, because you have to know how to behave correctly and politely in these kind of places.
Field Games
Sometimes, students get a chance to organise some form of learning themselves. It’s called field games and is all about finishing a route created by a few organisers. The organisers’ role is also, for example, writing questions or challenges and leaving them at some points of the route, same as some tips or clues that may help the group to finish the game. The questions are a way of learning some new things, as they are the ones that you use to win! The field games usually take place in groups and make another example of learning teamwork.
Photo Gallery!
A few years ago, we organised a field game ourselves!
our questions
Once, we were on a walking trip and we met this dog named Adaś :D
Photo Gallery!
Charity Events
From time to time, students have a chance to organize a charity event. There is a lot of different ideas but the most popular is a cafe. The point is that every student of the class bakes a cake, cupcakes, waffles or take some other sweets from home and later brings it to school. At school, others can buy it. The money they collect is donated to a charity chosen earlier. It is a very good way to teach students to be entrepreneurial!
Photo Gallery!
Us making waffles on a cafe a few years back!
Science experiment classes
In our school, students from the younger grades have the opportunity to attend special experiment extra classes. There, they are allowed to prepare different science experiments and with the teacher’s help, understand them. These classes are an incredible way of learning and understanding science while having fun.
In conclusion, studying doesn’t always mean something really boring. Out-of-box methods are very important and often more effective than regular forms of learning. So why don’t give them a try?
?
Prepared by the Polish team of Erasmus+ ‘Personalised Education for Social Activity’