Using Trivia in Teaching and Learning
Using Trivia in Teaching and Learning
In a previous post we touched upon the use of trivia in seminar related work and how it could benefit both the teacher and the learner. You may have read that post thinking “How does he know so much about this?”. Well, the fact is, as well as being a Trivia host and question writer I have spent 9 years working in the education sector as a teacher/tutor and have developed a wide range of experience and knowledge on the teaching and learning cycle and combined with my trivia knowledge this has produced some useful results.
This post is going to focus on the use of trivia in school classrooms and briefly touch on how you, if you are trivia entertainer, may offer your services to schools. First and foremost though let us start with the classroom. The aim of education for students to learn information and ever since the birth of the modern school there have been millions of studies by professors, academics and all manner of people into what makes good teaching and what makes good learning. Playing games in the classroom using trivia is a proven method of locking in key topics into the minds of the students. In all the countless books on the subject the outcome remains the same, the desirable result on any educational establishment is when the student leaves the classroom knowing the information that the teaching intended to teach. Sounds simple? Well it can be a lot simpler than some people make out and that is through the use of Trivia.
There are three key areas in which to consider:
- Using trivia during individual lessons. Each lesson has its own plan, its own aims and its own objectives and as a teacher you need to make sure that they are going in and being learned. Unless you actually test your students to find out what they know or don’t know you will never know this. One of the worst mistakes a teacher can make is it assume people are listening. If you constantly use Trivia at the end of every session then students are more likely to pay attention, take notes and engage in the learning. If they know the trivia test is imminent then it will peak their interest and it is this peak in interest that is needed for the learning to occur. If the student knows at the end of every class with you there are going to be ten to fifteen question on the days learning then they will try harder to remember it hence enhancing their learning and thus meaning their scores will rise and you will have succeeded in your role. You could also use this as a recap feature where by at the start of each lesson you use trivia to recap the last session making sure your learners study notes before class etc
- I briefly touched on this in the post on seminars but it is of vital importance. Using trivia also may help you know if your teaching is working. If, for example, your learners are scoring 2,3,4 on a trivia test you know something is wrong and you need to change your style, approach and teaching materials. However, if the learners are scoring 8,9 and 10 you know its working
- Trivia is also vital in test preparation. The education system revolves around tests and exams and one of the most vital roles you have as a teacher is to prepare students for these tests and trivia can be a vital tool in the days and weeks leading up to the tests. You can prompt key points, make sure the revision is going in the right plays and cement that knowledge your students need to know.
The above roles cover the use of teachers in the classroom but if you are reading this as a DJ then you may want to offer your services for school events, charity fundraisers and post-exam parties. Schools often hire trivia hosts for game show style experiences for their kids at social gatherings and end of the term parties so it may be worth you looking into the local area and seeing what the interest is. Schools love technology and interactive features, and students love wireless buzzers. So when you are pitching yourself base it around that and the whole game show experience.
Trivia therefore is a useful educational tool to use within a school environment and as a teacher you should ensure you have a good level of knowledge of pitching trivia correctly and making sure you use it to improve the performance and all round learning of your students.
3 Responses to Using Trivia in Teaching and Learning
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] too much into detail on a subject I have already posted at length about but in a nutshell the whole teaching and learning process needs reinforcement and testing so both the student and teacher know what, if anything, is […]
[…] post we looked at the benefits of using trivia in schools and how it can add to, and enhance, the teaching and learning cycle. In order to add further to this I am now going to look at how Trivia can be used in other […]
[…] learning. I do not want to delve too deep into the whole, and let us face it complex, issues of teaching and learning but the basic fact is that unless you test your students and audience then you won’t know if your […]