Abstract

Alternative Ways for Teaching and Learning – KOLLAR Method Dr. János Kollár clinical psychologist, assistant professor [email protected] The educational system has to face with new challenges by the XXI Century. Improvement of presentation methods, creativity, introducing new learning methods and teaching relaxation technics should be included in the curriculi of students. Unfortunately most of the teachers are not very well informed about such ways and possibilities. I would like to introduce a new method which has been already tested and proved to be successful in the Netherlands at Roosevelt Academy, Middelburg within the frameworks of Middelburg Center of Transatlantic Studies and on Debrecen University, Debrecen, Hungary. The program focuses on five fields: 1) Keys of Originality – Teaching simple methods for improving creativity. Such methods can be built into the everyday practice. The educational system can be rightly criticized all over the world for destroying creativity since it builds rather on repetition than creation. Some methods evoking and developing creative capacities can change the attitude of both students and teachers towards the curriculum of schools. During the training, the participants get the opportunity for choosing a method best fitting to their taste and besides learning new creative games they also learn how to improve their creativity by short and effective exercises. 2) Learning methods - Learning new mnemotechnic methods that can turn the process of learning to a kind of fun. This part of the program focuses mainly on enlarging the capacity of the memory and improving the effectiveness of recalling information from it. One of the most important keys of learning is finding some methods fitting to the personality and capability of the student the best. By learning different memory improving games and methods by the end of the course the participants feel like they are “The Masters of Learning and Teaching”. 3) Lecturing – Teaching basic rules of lectures and presentations and acquiring knowledge about the latest presentation softwares. The essence of this part of the program is a.) acquiring the basic principles of making and holding presentations and b.) introducing the latest presentation softwares into the educational system. The participants will learn how to overcome the “stage fear” how to talk in front of an audience without being stressed and how to grab the attention of their focus group by applying some simple methods. 4) Analysis of the World Wide Web Three important topics are discussed in this part of the training: a.) how to collect information about any topics in an easy way by using for example RSS (Really Simple Syndication); b.) how to search for different information on the world wide web and c.) discovering new free sites on the web fitting the best for learning and teaching. 5) Relaxation – Restoration the balance between mind, soul and body. Relaxation methods can help to calm people overwhelmed by stress. A 7 minute long relaxation can induce the effect of a 4 hour long sleeping. During the training the participants have the opportunity for trying relaxation several times and thus acquiring the basics of the method. This part of the training can be considered as a stress management program. By applying the KOLLAR method both teachers and students can be motivated for teaching and learning of better quality. The program is 30 hours long (30 x 45 minutes).