Active Engagement

Piaget proposed that students learn best by actively engaging in their environment. This type of participation promotes cognitive development. Research shows that a concept is best remembered when all five senses are used (touch, smell, taste, sight, audio). The more senses a teacher can incorporate into a lesson plan, the more ingrained a concept will be in the minds of the students.
                                                        
                                      

While observing and helping in the classroom I have noticed how the teacher strives to actively engage her students. For example, today in class the students learned about soil and the different layers. First, they discussed the layers out loud (audio). The teacher also drew on the board while they were talking (visual). Afterwards the students were given a paper with pictures of different items. They were required to sort out the organic objects from the inorganic objects (touch). Following that activity, the kids were split into groups and planted five different seeds into the five fingers of a glove (touch and sight). The teacher was able to actively engage the students by incorporating 3 of the 5 senses into her lesson plan. Not only did the students remember the concept better, but they experienced less boredom and more excitement for learning. I think teachers are able to actively engage their students by incorporating each of the five senses into their lesson plans.