Page 58 - International Perspectives on Effective Teaching and Learning in Digital Education

Tina Štemberger and Andreja Klančar

progress since everything that happens reflects the learner's choices (Seren
Smith et al., 18).
Cooperative learning involves students working together in small groups
on a structured activity. The members of the groups learn to work as a team
to accomplish a specific goal, to solve a problem, to complete a project, or to
develop a product. Teachers hold students accountable individually but also
assess group work. Students are responsible not only for learning the mate-
rial but also for ensuring that the other members of the group also learn the
material (Slavin, 198).

Innovative Teaching Methods
Also, the definitions of innovative teaching methods are presented as agreed
within Transform 4 Europe Alliance.
Brainstorming aims to develop creative solutions to problems. It enables
the students for generating new, useful ideas and promoting creative think-
ing (Jarwan, 5).
Case studies are usually defined as a teaching method which requires stu-
dents to actively participate in real or hypothetical problem situations, re-
flecting the kinds of experiences naturally encountered in the discipline un-
der study (Ertmer & Russell, 1995).
Concept maps are a verbal or graphic presentation designed to assist the
learner in developing a clear and useful mental representation of whatever is
being studied (Lefrancois, 1997).
Cooperative learning can be defined as a set of teaching and learning strat-
egies promoting student collaboration in small groups (two to five students)
in order to optimise their own and each other’s learning (Johnson & Johnson,
1999).
Debate is defined as the process of considering multiple viewpoints and
arriving at a judgement, and its application ranges from an individual using
debate to make a decision in his or her own mind to an individual or group
using debate to convince others to agree with them (Freeley & Steinberg,
5).
Games-based learning can be defined as learning that is facilitated by the
use of a game. This can be at any academic level from preschool through to
lifelong learning, from simple memorization and recall to high level learning
outcomes such as evaluation or creativity. The use of the game can be intrin-
sic or supplemental, played face-to-face with physical objects or online, with
a computer. Where the difficulty arises is in the exact definition of the term
‘game,’ because there is not a single accepted classification and definitions

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