Five Ways to Make Learning Fun
Right off the bat, I would like to stress that; learning can be a fun process. Do not let anyone make you think otherwise.
Learning is a very informative process through which new ideas are acquired, or existing knowledge, behaviors, skills and values are modified. As students, learning is often built around the school environment; in classrooms, lab experiments, excursions and personal study time.
To make learning fun, students and teachers should try as much as possible to avoid wearying each other by applying good learning techniques.
A lot of students often complain about how boring some of their lecture periods or classes may be. This is not news, cases like this occur almost every day; especially when the teachers do not make a conscious effort to make the class fun through interactions and other great learning techniques. However, as a student, that shouldn’t discourage you from taking those courses. You shouldn’t lose interest in a course just because it is boring. Whether you like it or not, you would be graded on those courses. And if you fail, it would be your fault because you declined to use reasonable solutions to deal with your problems; instead, you decided to take the easiest way out by completely ignoring that course.
By now, you must be wondering, “how do I make that math class less boring than it already is?”
I will tell you how!
1. Stay one step ahead
Always read ahead of the class. Go to the school’s library; look for good textbooks that are easy to comprehend. Find those subjects you find so boring and read them. You will be surprised that it might not be so boring after all. Staying ahead of the class keeps you prepared for what would be taught in class, gives you questions to ask during the class, keeps you alert and entertained and prevents you from losing concentration. Staying a step ahead of the class may also include watching videos on YouTube in preparation for the next topic or subtopic to be explained in a class by the teacher. Most times, these subjects are not boring; the teachers just misrepresent them; in a boring way. So, watching random people explain these ideas in different ways would open your eyes to the subject and enable you to understand them better.
2. Engage in group discussions
Studying in a group is another fun way of learning. Working/studying together helps students retain information quicker and longer, develop critical thinking skills and build communication skills. If you have never tried it before, then you should! Form study groups among your classmates. Organize quiz sessions among yourselves. The study group members are expected to read a particular topic before the group meets (meetings maybe after school, over the weekends or during lunch hours). During the meeting, each group member is expected to explain what he or she understood from the topic he or she had read. When all the group members are done explaining what was understood, a question-and-answer segment often comes next. Any question the group cannot explain is looked up in a textbook or brought to the teacher’s attention during class.
3. Go on field trips
I advise you to engage in field trips as much as possible. When you attend these field trips, pay attention to everything. Do not let the fun distract you from learning. Geography students often take time to visit rocks and mountains in different cities. As a geography student, you should participate too. Seeing these rocks and mountains yourself will take out the “boring waves” you feel in class whenever your teachers talk about them. History students should visit museums; it may not be fun to talk about history in class without “an almost near” confrontation with it. Going on field trips would allow you to connect the abstract concepts taught in class to more practical, relatable real-life situations.
4. Use technology to your advantage
You can achieve this by; playing educational games after a period of lecture or study time. Play educational games that would help test your new knowledge. You can find educational games through a quick search on the internet or any download app. This can also be achieved by embarking on digital projects. If you are in a computer class and find learning about creating websites without any form of practicality boring, then you should put what you were taught into practice. Create your own videos, write your own codes, and create a logo by yourself. By doing this, you would keep yourself entertained while understanding the concepts of web and graphic design.
5. Be present in class
Try as much as possible to keep your mind on what is going on in class. Take notes! Do assignments and class work. Do so when you are asked to work in a group or with a partner! Don’t forget that learning ought to be an interactive process. Do not leave your teachers to do all the talking. Contribute to class. Politely ask intelligent questions and give intelligent answers to questions thrown to the class. You would only be entirely bored if you do not engage in what is going on in class.
The power which our mind possesses cannot be overemphasized. New ideas are easy to grab when there is little or no tension, and this is where making learning fun comes into play. If you think that learning is boring, it would always be boring to you under every circumstance. After reading and applying the tips in this article, you would still find learning boring if your mindset doesn’t let you see that it can be fun. It is very important to have an open mind and be very optimistic; this is the first step in learning how to make learning fun.
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