Engaging students and practical experience are keys to improve the effectiveness of their learning, the Conference on Creative Education for Sustainable Achievements: New Ways to Learn was told last week.
Lakeesha K. Ransom, principal of Assumption University Graduate School of Business, said to effectively develop students' learning, US teachers sought to provide or create circumstances that arouse students' engagement. "We learn more when we are active and engaged," she explained.
Lakeesha said the US had educational camps with interesting circumstances and technology to tutor students. US schools also used individuals' strengths to develop students' capacity by having them survey their talents and integrate these into daily life. Students had to do activities that encouraged them to explore and think, and this was how to find their talents.
Meanwhile, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in the UK focuses on learning by doing and giving students an entrepreneurial mindset. It provides several projects for students to do and learn while working with others and entrepreneurship, according to Julie Hardy, a senior fellow for Employability and Enterprise at UCLAN.
Hardy said students were asked to organise an exhibition. They needed to seek sponsors and evaluate risks themselves. Other activities included publishing diaries, marketing and creating short films. UCLAN had a centre that gave them advice on opening a company, management and marketing.
People from industry sit on a panel that provides the curriculum for students to try to encourage them to be entrepreneurs.