Traditional teaching aids and tools

          Introduction

Education is vital to the pace of the social, political and economic development of a nation, so effective teaching is very essential. Effective teaching is important because teaching is based on helping children progress from one level to another a more sustainable interactive environment and to get the approach right to get students to be independent learners. Effectiveness does not mean being perfect or giving a wonderful performance, but bringing out the best in students.

Role of Traditional aids in teaching

Teaching aids are a boon for a teacher in making his or her task easy in making students to understand a concept. Teaching aids involve in the use of the senses of hearing and sight. Scientists through their research estimated 86% of the learning process of an individual depend on the senses of hearing and seeing. From the following example one can clearly understand the role of senses in learning process. A baby after birth at the beginning try to learn things by his or senses. First through the sense of sight he or she is able to identify mother and other family members. Slowly the baby is able to hear sounds and learn to respond them which finally help the baby to speak small words. After that, the senses coupled with mind leading to perception of the child. Perception leads to ideas for concepts. From this example we can clearly see how the senses helped in learning the various abilities of the baby like recognising, speaking and construct forming. Learning through senses is more permanent than mechanical learning. At the same time, one has to keep in mind that teaching aids have to be used as aids to supplement teaching but should not be used to replace the teacher itself which otherwise will have a determinantal effect on the learning process of students.

Advantages of Traditional aids in teaching

1. Using teaching aids in teaching makes his or her lesson more interesting and real. It motivate the student to imagine and think mentally. Audio-visual aids used for this purpose will make use of the senses of hearing and sight of the student. This will ensure quick and effective learning. For example, a social teacher if he uses a globe model in his teaching the students feel the lesson will be more real and interesting. They can learn things like shape of the earth, the various aspects of the earth like latitudes, longitudes, poles etc. more effectively. 

2. It saves the time of the teacher in teaching his or her lesson as well as it makes the learning process of the student more solid and durable. A Biology teacher who is teaching about the digestive system of man may do it by drawing the diagram of the same on the board. But this consume much of his time of this period for drawing the diagram with no time left for the teachers to explain. But using the chart for this purpose saves his time as well as it makes the teaching more interesting.

3. Using teaching aids in teaching will help the students to form a direct bond between the word and object what the teacher is teaching. For example, a language teacher in a primary class, if he wants to make his students to understand the difference between 'parrot green' and 'thick green' he cannot do it by using his verbal expression for any length of time. Using teaching aids makes this task easy by selecting the two different colour papers or cloth pieces of the same what he is talking about.

4. Teaching aids will remove the barrier of class room walls by bringing vivid reality into the classroom. For example, the specimens of various animals and plants stored in sealed bottles were shown to the students for teaching a biology lesson will arouse interest and enthusiasm as well as widen the scope of their learning.

5. Using teaching aids preparewill help slow learners or those who lack power of concentration to learn things by way of doing practically. It provides a first hand experience to see a demonstration, handle the apparatus and perform the experiments by themselves, prepare charts, models etc. This type of experience makes the learning permanent. 

6. Teaching aids are needed for those things which we cannot have accessibility, very expensive or physically cannot be carried has to be shown in the form of a chart for a model replace the original thing and help the students to understand easily. For example, extraction of a metal from its ore through various steps can be explained clearly with the help of a chart.

Traditional teaching aids and tools

Some of the traditional teaching aids which are in use even at present include Chalk Board, Charts, Models, Slides, Textbooks, Demonstrations, Flannel Graph, Bulletin Board, Radio, Tape Recorder, Flashcards, Pictures, Photographs, Globes, Graphs, Maps, Puppets, Field Trips, Aquarium, Vivarium etc. 

1. Blackboards and Chalks

Blackboard is one of the very old and most used teaching aids in the schools along with the text books. Recently blackboards have been changed to green boards, but the basic function of the board remains the same by whatever colour one may name it. Even the material used for making the blackboards is changed from the ordinary wood to the most sophisticated plastic, fibre and glass materials of today. In some classrooms, the blackboards are permanently made of cement and mortar. But the functions of all these are the same. The blackboard has been the most handy and useful tool of a teacher in the classroom. The teacher has to take a white chalk to describe the things on the blackboard for writing the notes of lessons on it for the children to copy. Coloured pieces of chalk are also used to emphasize upon the important parts of the lesson. While making selection of teachers, the selectors expect from the probable teachers to make maximum use of the blackboard which they called blackboard work or B/B work. 

2. Textbooks

The prescribed text books of studies for particular classes in a school have been the other very useful tool in the hands of the teacher for centuries whereby a teacher uses the textbook to read and explain to the students everything contained in the textbook lessons. The teacher asked the students to mark or underline important ideas appearing in the lessons and the difficult words for the concepts which students may fail to grasp easily. While using text books, sometimes the teachers move away from the subject to tell the students anecdotes, stories for personal experiences concerned with the topic in the textbook that is being taught to the students.

3. Charts and Models

A chart is a systematic arrangement events or facts or ideas in a graphic or pictorial form can be arranged in a way visible to the entire class. Charts and models prepared by the active participation of teacher and students will be much more helpful for the students rather than the charts bought in the market. Charts help the teachers to teach the abstract ideas into concrete concepts of the topic.

4. Flashcards

Flashcards are one kind of teaching aids can be used to teach English, Maths, Science or Social Studies. They are generally used by teachers to teach lower and upper primary classes. To teach English, a flashcard with a picture on one side and its name on the other side will be used. This type of flashcards will be used to identify the picture, alphabets and vocabulary in English language. In Maths to remember formulas, shapes of the objects, Maths vocabulary etc. Maths flashcards will be used. This type of flash cards can be made by teacher himself or will be available in the market.

5. Aquarium

Aquarium is a small pond arranged in a glass through is placed at a place in the school where everyone can see the interdependence of plants and animals, and animals and animals in it. The live aquarium will provide an opportunity to learn things, enjoy and relax in the leisure time.

6. Flannel Graph

Flannel graph can be used to exhibit prepared models like a gas plant for the whole process of pollination and fertilization. Teacher and students together can prepare such models and can be arranged on wooden board with a background of white flannel. This type of models prepared at once can be used by the teacher for years together.

7. Slides

Slides are used to teach structures in Biology which are too small to be seen by the naked eye like germs, structure of a cell, etc.

8. Maps, Atlases and globes

The lessons in geography becomes realistic when the teachers use wall maps, atlases and globes to make the student understand and know various geographical concepts and to know the locations of various places in the world. Teaching of Geography in the classrooms will be meaningless without the use of these teaching aids.

          Conclusion

Without any doubt teaching aids are very essential for effective teaching process. Teacher has to be very careful in selecting a teaching aid that demands and suits the situation of teaching. Using too many teaching aids, using a teaching aid at a wrong place may bring negative effect on teaching. Using a combination of modern and traditional teaching aids by the teachers will pave the way for the effective teaching. Teachers also have to see that technology should not dominate teacher which otherwise may result in indiscipline in students.