Innovative teaching key to engaging students in classrooms

In his presentation, Innovative Pedagogies (Sanwal, NCERT, 2021), Prof Sanwal outlines foundational concepts and contemporary applications of innovative teaching methods aimed at fostering equitable and learner-centred education. He defines pedagogy as the process of facilitating learning in a stress-free environment and describes innovative pedagogy as the proactive introduction of new instructional strategies to enhance academic outcomes while addressing diverse learner needs.
Traditional teacher-centred practices — characterised by textbook-oriented instruction, lecture-based delivery, and rote learning — are contrasted with modern approaches that emphasise active, differentiated, and collaborative learning. The presentation highlights various innovative strategies, such as blended learning, gamification, computational thinking, experiential and inquiry-based learning, flipped classrooms, arts-integrated education, and storytelling-based pedagogy, all of which are designed to make learning meaningful and relevant to real-world contexts. Furthermore, Sanwal points out that “the pioneering ways of teaching, along with an exploration of how the teaching process is impacted, constitute innovation”.
Historically, pedagogical assessment has been a central focus in educational research, with seminal contributions by Black and Wiliam (1998), who systematically examined the functions and types of assessment and demonstrated their influence on students’ learning and personal development. Subsequent research expanded assessment theory within the context of individualised learning, in which scholars developed methodological approaches that position assessment as an integral component of the learning process.
Further studies have explored pedagogical assessment from broader activity-based and instructional perspectives (Bikov, 2008; Gupta & Choubey, 2021; Yorke, 2003), even when not explicitly framed within activity theory. Notably, the advancement of formative, criterion-referenced, and active assessment practices was formalised through the work of McCarthy and Anderson (2000).
According to Botuzova et al. (2023), contemporary pedagogical science promotes a wide range of innovative learning models, including problem-based, project-based, simulation, game-based, and collaborative approaches that emphasise interaction and active learner participation. Despite their theoretical promise, these innovations have not yet exerted a substantial influence on mass education, largely due to weaker methodological foundations and limited technological capacity when compared to traditional educational systems (Jeynes, 2007). This gap sustains a fundamental contradiction between education’s orientation toward established cultural knowledge and the need to prepare learners for future-oriented, authentic and uncertain contexts, often reducing learning to an exam-driven activity with limited personal relevance. In parallel, assessment practices remain predominantly summative and grade-focused. Although alternative approaches, such as criterion-based and active assessment, are emerging, they are frequently insufficiently aligned with foundational pedagogical frameworks — particularly the activity-based (or structural–activity) approach that underpins educational and psychological theory — thereby constraining their potential to meaningfully transform teaching and learning.
On the other hand, from the perspective of teachers as practitioners in the educational field, pedagogical practices play a decisive role in shaping learners’ educational experiences and directly influence learning outcomes; therefore, the adoption of appropriate and inclusive pedagogies is essential for achieving curriculum objectives. To ensure successful implementation, teachers require targeted professional development that strengthens their capacity to address varied learning needs, accommodate different learning styles, and respond to students’ diverse disciplinary, social, cultural, and educational backgrounds, including the needs of learners with disabilities (University Grants Commission, 2022).
To sum up, engaging students in the classroom is becoming increasingly challenging. To address these challenges, innovative pedagogical approaches are essential. Various active learning methods, such as Think–Pair–Share (TPS), the flipped classroom (blended learning), peer instruction (PI), interactive brainstorming, demo-based teaching (DBT), and project-based teaching (PBT), are necessary. Ultimately, these approaches enable teachers to experience a sense of professional fulfilment when students are actively engaged in classroom learning and benefit from the outcomes of effectiveness.

Dr Zainab al Ajmi

The writer works at the Ministry of Education, zeinbf@moe.om