Teaching, in its simplest sense, is imparting knowledge. It is the connotation of experience. This experience may consist of facts, truths, doctrines, ideas, or ideals, or it may consist of the processes or skills of an art. The teacher is the sender or the source, the educational material is the information or message, and the student is the receiver of the information.  The main objective of teaching is to make students understand the learning concepts and prepare them for the real world. Therefore, teachers have been incorporating different strategies to enhance the efficacy of the lecture methods. Around the world, teachers have been using a variety of methods to teach their students. In this article, we shall discuss seminar method of teaching.

Criteria of Selection of Teaching Method:

1. It should increase the interest of the learners.
2. It should encourage the students to participate.
3. It should motivate the students to study and explore.
4. It should develop the creativity of the students.
5. The method should be according to the intelligence level of the students.
6. The method should link bookish knowledge with real-life situations.

Factors that Determine the Selection of Teaching Methods:

1. The ability of the teacher
2. The syllabus and curriculum
3. The size of the class
4. The intelligence level of students
5. Availability of teaching aids
6. Age of the learners
7. The time of the period

Seminar Method of Teaching:

The seminar method is the most modern and advanced method of teaching. A seminar is an advanced group technique which is usually used in higher education. It is an instructional technique it involves generating a situation for a group to have a guided interaction among themselves on a theme. It refers to a structured group discussion what usually follows a formal lecture or lectures often in the form of an essay or a paper presentation on a theme.  This seminar method is employed to realize the higher objectives of cognitive & affective domains. The higher learning process requires the interactive and integrated methodologies based on the psychological principles. The seminar method applies such technique of human interaction / intervention with the learning and teaching experiences.

The famous American writer, lecturer, and humorist, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) had written: “Few sinners are saved after the 1st 20 min of a sermon” (presumably because no one is listening after 20 min). This quote gives demerit of lecture method. When teachers focus on content and limit the time for thinking as it happens in lectures, students seem like parrots, repeating what they believe the teacher wants to hear and tending to forget much of the information learnt. Hence during teaching involvement of students must be ensured.

Objectives of Seminar Method of Teaching:

Seminar method is utilized to realize the higher objectives of cognitive and affective domains. The human interaction under this technique develops the good manners and skills among the participants. Provide a good learning and scholastic experience to the participants of seminar. The objectives are two folds viz: cognitive and affective.

Cognitive Objectives:

1. To develop higher cognitive abilities involving analysis, synthesis and evaluation as compared to the situations involving human interaction.
2. To develop the ability of responding in this manner would involve higher cognitive actions involving valuing, organising and characterization of quick comprehension of the situation, examination, of the knowledge he possesses and construction of his reaction to the situation.
3. To develop the ability of keen observation of experience, feelings and to present them effectively, and
4. To develop the ability to seek clarification and defend the ideas of others effectively.

Affective Objectives:

1. To develop the feeling of tolerance to the opposite ideas of others.
2. To develop the feelings of co-operation with other colleagues and respect of the ideas and feelings of others.
3. To develop the emotional ability among the participants of the seminar.
4. To acquire the good manners of putting questions and answering the questions of others effectively.

Concept:

Seminar is a teaching technique for higher learning. A specific subject or topic is delivered as an article or report in the seminar. The article and its concepts submitted in the seminar are analyzed and discussed through group discussion to arrive a final decision or concept. Thus, a seminar as an instructional technique involves generating a situation for a group to have guided interaction among themselves on a theme which is generally presented to the group by one or more members. The person who presents the theme should have studied the theme thoroughly before hand. This would mean selection of relevant material and its organisation. The collected material is put in the form of paper which is circulated among the participants in advance or before the paper reading. It provides the structure of the theme, to facilitate its communication.

It is the responsibility of an organizer to plan and prepare the whole programme of the seminar. He decides the topic or theme of the seminar and assigns the different aspects of theme to different persons who have to play the role of speakers. The date, time and place are decided by him. He prepares total schedule of the seminar.

Some guests and observer are also invited and allowed to observe the activities of the seminar. Generally, they are not permitted to participate in the discussion. They should be allowed at the end to discussion and present their observations by permission of the chairman.

The speakers prepare the topics thoroughly and copies of the paper are prepared and these are distributed among the participants before the commencement of the seminar, so that participants should also prepare themselves on the theme. It encourages the discussion to last long. The speaker should be ready to defend the questions. The speakers should have the tolerance of anti -ideas or criticism of others.

The participants propose the name of president. In suggesting name the name of chairman, it should be taken in consideration that the person must be well acquainted with the theme of seminar. He must know his rights and duties as chairman of a seminar. He directs the whole programme. He encourages the participants to take part in discussion. He keeps the discussion on the theme of seminar. He provides the opportunities to each participant.

The participants of the seminar should be well acquainted with the theme. They should appreciate the performance of the speakers. They should be able to seek clarification and put questions. They should place their own ideas regarding the theme on the basis of their experiences. They should address the president for seeking clarification. They should not put question directly to the speakers.

At the end the President has to summarise the discussion and may present his viewpoints on the theme. He has to give thanks to the speakers, participants, guests and observers.

Merits of Seminar Method of Teaching:

• A Different Environment than Classroom: In a learning environment different and unique from classrooms, students learn more effectively and efficiently. Far from the textbooks and academic syllabuses, students research and learn on their own which boost their confidence, performance, and productivity.
• Expert Guidance: Seminars, attract highly specialized and knowledgeable speakers. Few other methods of instruction offer the same chance to hear the opinions of experts in the field, or opportunities to ask those same experts for input on specific challenges. Students tend to learn about the latest information and new skills related to the concerned subject. As a result of genuine interest shown by the students to know and learn about the subject, they research about the particular topic with the help of expert guidance and land in their conclusion after a careful investigation, experiment, and simulation.
• Learner Centred: Seminars provide enormous amounts of information over the course of a day or two, making them well-suited to listeners who don’t have time to take extended courses. Similarly, it is a great way for those that don’t like to read, or attend classes, to improve their knowledge of a specific subject.  The detailed focus requires listeners to take notes and come to each day’s talk prepared to absorb as much information as possible, and allows participants a chance to gain a large amount of knowledge in very little time. Users gain more expertise than is possible from a single workshop.
• Development of Participants: A wealth of knowledge usually, presented by many speakers at one time in one place. The data processing skills, compilation skills, communication skill are easily inculcated in this method. Learning by doing is encouraged in this method.
• Spontaneous Learning: More focused exercises, allow participant to target and practice a specific skill or task. Interactive skills modules range from ten minutes to one hour in length and are specifically designed to help reinforce important concepts.
• Thought Provocation: Some seminars are forceful and thought provoking. They enable the Training Methods and Tools participants to see different points of view, attitudes, and opinions. In this method, information seeking and retrieval behaviour is encouraged
• Development of Peer Support Network: Individuals can meet others with the same interests/problems/concerns that they may have in their chosen field. Seminars bring attendees from multiple facilities together. Participants can forge new contacts within their field of interest and discuss challenges, problems, and most importantly, solutions with their peers.
• Encouragement and Motivation: Talking and learning about a new topic will encourage the students to explore new areas relevant to the topic. Students will feel motivated to research and learn new things. With proper guidance from teachers and experts, students feel motivated to publish their own research journals, contributing significantly to the education sector.
• Develops Tolerance: This method built better social values and fault tolerance levels in the minds of learner. Develops open mindedness, suppress the subjective ideas from the learners.
• Advantages to Speaker: The learner himself prepares and compiles his own paper for the seminar gives readiness of mind and learning becomes structured. The paper presenter / participant receive a reinforced learning experience from the Group discussion. Users learn skills that they can apply immediately to real information problems. Learner gets in-depth knowledge of the subject he presented. The interactions and interrogations develops the spirit of information seeking behaviours. Instructor is able to teach modules that build upon one another.

Limitations of Seminar Method of Teaching:

• Costly Method of Teaching: As all attendees must absorb their own costs. The seminars themselves sometimes also have an entry fee that can be quite high. All travel costs, food costs, hotel costs, and other miscellaneous costs must be absorbed by the attendees.
• No Individual Attention: If the audience for the seminar is too big, Individual attention, as in training situations, is not possible.
• Ritualistic Approach: Many seminars have just become rituals without anyone giving much thought to the issues. The subject area to be taught must be relevant to the theme of the seminar.  Similarly, a seminar themes must conform the learning experiences to be inculcated to the students. as a result, no purpose is achieved by convening seminars. Interactions between participants are very limited.
• Waste of Time: In some cases it may be the waste of time. The chance that the speakers may be sharing incorrect knowledge, or not at all knowledgeable themselves. Similarly, the chance that the topics may not actively help participant’s concerns, where whatever he/she learns is of any use to help their concern. The chance that attendees will expect too much from a seminar and thus be disappointed.
• Only Applicable to Higher Classes: This method found fit for higher learning only. Implementation of this method for lower classes is cumbersome. 
• Requires Expert: Only matured and balanced minded teachers can make this method successful. The teacher must be resourceful (both in academic and administrative) in nature.  
• Time management is somewhat difficult.

Conclusion:

Seminars are short term training programmes arranged for a few days – a day or two or maximum three days. Seminars are convened to have in-depth discussion on a subject from various viewpoints. In seminars, there are presentations of papers by various authors followed by discussions, questions, and answers. Trainees participate in discussions that broaden their knowledge and outlook. At the end of the session, the participants can come out with recommendations. The purpose of seminar is to provide opportunity to students to actively participate in finding answers to questions or solution to problems using scientific approach of doing analysis and synthesis of facts observed. The effectiveness of seminar would depend upon selection and preparation of the topic. The teacher needs to help the students to select, plan and organize, prepare and collect data, analyses and report to the group as students. If chosen carefully, seminar can be a good experience.