A worksheet for school education is a piece of paper on which questions are asked to assess a student’s knowledge. It is kind of a fun activity whose sole purpose is to assign students tasks and to test their knowledge. It is a fun way of learning and completing tasks. Teachers usually use worksheets to give assignments or assessments. They are often used to provide extra knowledge which is not commonly found in textbooks. After using a worksheet improvement can be seen in a student’s academic performance. They can also be very helpful in identifying the weak areas of a student.
Some advantages of worksheets are stated below –
- Engages students in studying – Worksheets can make boring subjects interesting. Practicing from worksheets engages students in the subject. Worksheets if presented in an interesting way attract students and help them in learning. If studied with the help of worksheets students would learn concepts effectively and can score well in their examinations. By doing worksheets on a regular basis students can remember concepts for a long time.
- Makes them find solutions on their own- Doing worksheets develops logic in students. Students learn to find solutions on their own and ask questions. Solving worksheets improve the thinking ability of students and challenge them to find solutions on their own. It also develops logical reasoning in students. Worksheets of subjects like maths provide them calculative questions which improve their logical and analytical skills.
- Helps the teacher to find weak points- Worksheets can be a very good help for teachers to find the weak points in a student. Due to peer pressure, many students do not ask questions in class which results in unclear understanding whereas independent worksheets can give teachers an opportunity to point out the areas where students are lacking behind.
- A great way of revisions- Worksheets sure are a great way of revisions. After each topic teachers should give worksheets to revise all the important topics covered in the class. Teachers should give worksheets in homework so that students can practice it and recap all the topics taught in class. Revising from worksheets can develop problem-solving ability. An effective worksheet should contain all the important concepts taught in the classroom.
- Improves students’ learning ability- Worksheets encourage students to remember concepts for a long time. Providing worksheets on a daily or weekly basis can improve learning ability and strengthen concepts of students. For example, providing worksheets of subjects like social science on a daily basis can help students learn topics more comfortably.
Everything has its two sides. Worksheets also have their own advantages and disadvantages. The negative effects of using worksheets in class are mentioned below.
- Lacks hands-on learning – It is important for students to study things in practical, besides only theory. Worksheets only cover the theory part providing no practical experience. The worksheet is a task which a student can finish by just writing. For example, for a subject like chemistry, worksheets cover only the written part leaving the experimenting part which is very important for better learning.
- Can discourage abstract thinking – After completing a worksheet a student may think that there is only one possible answer for a particular question which limits their creativity and any level of deep thinking. This is a major disadvantage and can diminish their abstract thinking. Students can also take worksheets as a challenge and can try to do everything right which can lead to cheating.
- Makes teachers too comfortable – Teachers can give out multiple worksheets in a day which can be bad for students as it will increase the workload of students. Providing a lot of worksheets on a daily basis can lead to an easy approach of students towards worksheets and studies. If worksheets are provided in access then students will start doing them casually without understanding anything and can also skip them. Teachers should understand that worksheets are meant to assist them and not replace them.
Despite all the disadvantages, worksheets sure do benefit children. Therefore, teachers do use worksheets to enhance a student’s knowledge, but they may end up wondering how to create a perfect worksheet for a student’s effective revision.
Here, we will discuss some tips and tricks to create an effective worksheet.
- Teachers should decide what should be included in their worksheets. The first thing is to decide what topics must be included and how they should be presented. Worksheets should appear creative and interesting to attract students, hence, students should use diagrams or images to present their questions. Teachers can take the help of clip-art images to demonstrate the worksheet more interestingly. For example, if you want to assign a worksheet on subjects like civics, then you can use images related to the government to make the worksheet interesting.
- The next step is to decide what kind of questions should be included. Choosing types of questions depends upon your teaching objective. The teacher has many options like multiple choice, fill in the blanks, match the following, long and short. Choosing the perfect type of question format depends upon the learning object. For example, if you want to create a worksheet on science then you can ask questions in multiple-choice or in match the following format to make the worksheet more interactive. You can take help from Nutrition in Plants Class 7 Worksheet available as a sample worksheet online.
- Worksheets should be created by keeping all the students of the class in mind. Every student has its own unique approach. Teachers should create worksheets by keeping this in mind. Besides asking difficult questions teachers should also ask easy and moderate questions making the worksheet suitable for all students. For example, using colloquial language in a worksheet cannot be fair for some students who are not good at English.
Worksheets form the backbone of student learning and act as a great teaching aid. Worksheets test a student’s intelligence level and give a chance to teachers to examine their understanding of concepts. The methods mentioned above can help teachers to create a perfect worksheet to ace exam preparation.
