How are you keeping your students’ learning experiences fun and engaging? As we continue to advocate for fun and active learning in our classrooms, we require resources that allow learners to be hands-on. Learning stations come in handy as additional resources to make your classroom experience extraordinary. These learning stations are spots inside or outside the classroom where students engage in different tasks or activities to reinforce a specific concept learnt in class.
Why Should You Consider Learning Stations?
If you are wondering why learning stations are important in your classroom, here is why;
Learning stations encourage self-control and self-study among your learners. These stations allow them the freedom to explore, experiment and interact with different learning materials, applying the knowledge they have gained in the normal lesson.
Additionally, having learning stations helps educators identify different challenges among learners, making it easier for them to address the issues promptly. For instance, if a learner is struggling with numeracy concepts, it would be easy to spot the challenge during an activity at the numeracy station.
In this piece, we look into several learning stations you can utilise in your teaching. You can easily blend them into your lesson plans to achieve the best learning outcomes. Let’s dig in!
Types of Learning Stations;
According to a study by Akinoso S.O., et al., learning stations are designed to allow learners to solve different learning tasks, either alone or in groups with much more customization and flexibility, making their learning experience enjoyable and engaging. Here are some of the different learning stations that can be helpful for your student’s learning and comprehension;
- Creativity/Art Station
Allowing your learners to explore their creativity is one of the ways you can increase their comprehension in your classroom. In this case, creativity stations can take shape in different forms. For example, it can involve drawing and colouring on canvas and paper, modelling using clay and plasticine or digital artwork on computers.
Art stations give you room to connect your lesson plans with creative activities. For instance, if you are teaching maths time/clock concept, learners can indulge in drawing and cutting out different shapes to represent different times. Through this engagement, learners will have fun, engage with one another and achieve the learning outcomes of the given lesson.
- Literacy Station
Have you just taught your learners about creating words and forming sentences? Why don’t you have a small literacy station at the back of your classroom where they can practise the same concept further? A literacy station can have simple resources such as cards with letters, words or phrases. In groups of one or two, your learners can use the cards to form words or sentences and you can walk around assessing their ability to construct them correctly.
- Science Corner
Scientific lessons are often faced with challenges such as a lack of hands-on and practical activities to accompany theory work. Here, learners may find science topics complex to understand. You can therefore invest in a science corner where learners can engage in experiments and exploration to foster greater understanding. Are you teaching your learners about different insects and their features? Don’t be afraid to create an observation station outside your classroom where learners can find insects and observe their different features. Additionally, you can have a laboratory to conduct experiments with your learners.
- Numeracy Station
In the history of learning numeracy, most learners assume it to be boring and difficult. What if you changed this assumption by involving your learners in fun and interactive activities to help them understand different mathematical concepts? Creating a numeracy station requires a few items, some of which you can improvise using items in your classroom. On this station, you can help your learners arrive at the same answer using different methods. For instance, if you are teaching addition, you can have one group of learners using bottle tops for addition and another group using books for the same concept.
- Technology Station
Since stations are not limited to the classroom, your learners can visit the computer lab in your school as their technology station. Do you need to use video and audio illustrations for your learners? Having a technology station allows you to access resources such as short video tutorials and podcasts for your learners.
Take Away
As we have highlighted in this blog, fostering understanding and comprehension is made easier by having learning stations in your classroom. You can set up a few stations in your classroom and watch them transform your learning outcomes. Edutab Africa offers Leap Learning Labs, which are innovative educational spaces featuring progressive learning stations that integrate tablet technology with educational apps and hands-on activities. This setup enables students to move between stations, engage with various games, and advance at their own pace and skill level. If you wish to learn more about Leap Learning, click here.
Written by Faith Wanja