A Lao teacher cuts out newspaper to make flashcards.- VT
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/Asia News Network): The governments of Laos and Australia have partnered to produce a teacher development video on ‘how to make and use flashcards’.
Flashcards are a very useful learning and teaching tool for teachers to encourage their students to participate actively and engage in lessons.
The E-learning team from the Research Institute of Educational Sciences has released a new video on how to make and use flashcards.
With more than 1.6 million views, the Teacher Development Videos YouTube channel launched by the Ministry of Education and Sports with the support of the Australian government, through the Basic Education Quality and Access in Laos (BEQUAL) programme, is a veritable success.
It contains training videos and audio materials for primary school teachers and their trainers and pedagogical advisors.
The videos cover a range of subjects and techniques around the new curriculum and the new active learning pedagogical approach.
Teachers use them to prepare lessons, improve their teaching methods, and to learn or review a specific technique. They also play audio tracks containing music, songs and English stories to students in the classroom.
The videos are also broadcast daily on the ESTV-Education and Sports TV Channel.
They are cards with words, numbers and pictures on one or both sides. A card may have a question on one side and the answer on the other side for example.
The E-learning team said that teachers can use flashcards to get their students more engaged and learn in a fun way.
Flashcards help students better understand learning content and encourage them to take an active role in their learning. Students learn while doing meaningful games or activities with flashcards.
With the provision of new materials for use by Grades 1 and 2 in primary schools, the Ministry of Education and Sports, with support from Australia, has provided all classes with a set of flashcards to teach Lao language and phonics.
In this new teacher development video, teachers will learn how to create more flashcards adapted to their lessons: flashcards to introduce new vocabulary, to check students’ understanding of a story, and to teach spelling.
Flashcards will help students understand categorising types of letters, words, animals, fruits, objects and so on. They also help children to understand the order of a process in a Sciences and Environment experience or the order of a story in Lao Language or English lesson.
The video also explains how flashcards can help promote gender equity and inclusive education.
The video is also dubbed in Sign Language so that it is more accessible to all.
