Experiment: Learning Nouns through Productive Failure
Topic: Nouns
Class: 5
Time: 40 minutes
Groups: Two (Group A and Group B)
Aim
To find out which method helps students understand nouns better —
1- Productive Failure: Students try to find the rule first.
2- Traditional Teaching: The teacher explains the rule first.
Materials
1-Board or chart paper
2- Marker
3- Worksheets or notebooks
4- Sentences for practice
Group A – Productive Failure
Step 1- I gave an A4 sheet to my students wherein the following sentences were written-
1- India won the match.
2- The boy runs fast.
3- Laughter fills the room.
Step 2- I asked students to guess what kind of words are in bold.
Step 3- They discussed and shared ideas (some were right, some wrong).
Step 4- After the discussion, I explained the concept.
GROUP B - Traditional Teaching
Step1 - I explained the concept with examples.
“A noun is a person, place, thing or animal.”
Step 2 – I will ask students to pick out the nouns from the same sentences given to Group A.
Note- This time, no words will be in bold.
1- India won the match.
2- The boy runs fast.
3- Laughter fills the room.
Result
Students who tried first and failed (Group A) understood nouns better and remembered them for a longer time.
Conclusion
Allowing students to think and try before teaching helps them learn grammar more deeply and with greater interest.
Research done by
Sunbeam School Lahartara
