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Learning Contracts are written agreements between the teachers, students, parents, and guardians, which helps to clarify learning goals and expectations.

Before I proceed, I am inviting @eliany, @goodybest and @okere-blessing to participate in this learning challenge.

Can you explain what obstacles a teacher may face in the classroom learning process?

As a teachers I sometimes encounter various obstacles in the classroom learning process. This obstacles are in many ways. There are students related, teachers related, environment, administrative and others related obstacles.

Here are examples of students related

• Language barrier
• Behavioral issues
• Lack of motivation and engagement by the students
• Social and economic backgrounds
• Emotional challenges such as anxieties
• Different learning styles and abilities

After considering student related obstacles, lets see teachers related obstacles in relation to classroom learning process.

Teacher-Related Obstacles

★ Lack of understanding the lesson content
★ Inability to manage the classroom effectively
★ Stress and burnout
★ Lack of resources and support
★ Inability to use new technologies in teaching
★ Limited training and experience by the teacher

Environmental Obstacles

◆ Safety concern such as bullying and violence
◆ Poor classroom conditions like noise and temperature
◆ Environmental distractions such as noise and disruption
◆ Limited resources

Administrative and Policy Obstacles

★ Lack of administrative support
★ Changes in educational policy
★ Poor funding
★ Poor decision

Other Obstacles could be

• Parents expectations and their involvement
• Work load and time constraints
• Peer and societal pressure

Suggested solutions

All these obstacles can be fought by

1. Seeking professional help
2. Collaborating with experience colleagues
3. Changing instructional strategies
4. Seeking for support and resources
5. Staying updated with educational policies, educational materials and best practices

What do you think is the importance of learning contracts and how have learning contracts helped your teaching process so far?

Talking about learning contracts, I see it as a valuable and very important tool in education that benefits both teachers and students.

Now let's me highlight the importance of learning contracts

Importance of Learning Contracts:

★ Learning contract clarify what is expected of both the teacher's and students during and at the end of the lesson.

★ Learning Contracts promote accountabilities and responsibilities.
★ It encourages student's self learning
★ Learning Contracts enhances feedback from the receiving end.
★ It helps in time management and learning organisation.
★ It promote teachers and students relationship
★ It encourages continuous learning and improvement.
★ It encourages and motivate learners.

How Learning Contracts has helped me

◆ Learning Contracts has helped me in my teaching process to set realistic goals and what I am expected to achieve at the end of the lesson.

◆ Learning contracts has helped me to create a more efficient, engaging, and effective learning environment.

◆ It has helped me to provide clear instructions and guidelines as well as monitoring the progress and development of my students.

◆ Learning Contracts is an excellent tool for managing classroom time effectively and organising coursework and assignments

The above are some of the ways learning contracts has helped me over the years in my teaching process so far.

What important components should be included in a learning contract and explain why they are helpful to y

A typical learning contracts must include the following components;

1. Learning or Behavioural Objectives: Specific goal and accomplishments
2. Learners information: Age, subject or course
3. Learning Outcomes: what learners will acquired
4. Learning Strategies: Teaching method in use
5. Assessment: How students will evaluated.
6. Duration: knowing how long the lesson will take
7. Evaluation: Helped in checking learners progress and understanding of the lesson.
   Instructional materials: Resources and tools used during the lesson.

The importance components I mentioned above has helped me greatly because;

1. It has help me have a clear objectives of my lesson and always leep me on tract.
2. It has help me in managing my time effectively
3. It has helped me aligned with the standard of the curriculum
4. It promote different learning methods and strategies
5. It motivate and encourage students to learn
6. It encourages regular feedback sessions
7. It promote students growths and learning progress.

What are the strategies for ensuring student compliance with the learning contract and how have the consequences worked so far or do you have other ways of organizing the learning activities to remain effective?

To Ensure student's compliance with learning contracts I used the combinations of these strategies.

• I communicate clearly with the students by explaining the purposes, benefits and expectations of the learning contract.

• I regularly check in to monitor student's progress

• I Involved students in the creation of the contract.

• I established and explain clear consequences of not complying with the learning contract.

• Making use of positive Reinforcement by rewarding students who meets the goals.

Consequences for not complying with learning contracts

Giving of verbal warnings ⚠️
Loss of privileges
Loss of grades

So far, the consequences have helped improve students' accountability and enhance motivation.

It has also helped increased parental engagement with better academic performance as well as reducing misbehaviours.

Other ways of organizing the learning activities to remain effective

There are many other ways of organizing effective learning activities.

★ Project based learning: Here I assigned students to work on real life or world projects.

★ Giving them task to do at home and sharing the results of their research in class.

★ Help them develop critical thinking by solving real life and world problems.

★ The use of personalized learning plans which helps tailores plans to meet the needs of individual learners.

★ Incorporating games into learning to help and engage the learners.

@udyliciouz in action

Conclusion

In conclusion, learning contracts are powerful tools for promoting students' learning and having effective outcomes. It promotes and fosters effective autonomy as well as teachers' and students' relationships.