Notes for Acts of Teaching: Chapter 7
FOUR INSTRUCTIONAL ALTERNATIVES:
PRESENTATION. DISCUSSION,
INDEPENDENT STUDY, AND
INDIVIDUALIZED INSTRUCTION
- How do you think a teacher should teach? How do
you think you will teach?
- In planning, we focus on what to teach, how to
teach it, and how will the learning be assessed
- We will focus on how to teach it
- This will help you to be a multitalented versatile
teacher.
Presentations: Teaching as Telling and Showing
*What Is a Presentation?
- It is an informative talk from a more
knowledgeable person makes to a less
knowledgeable people.
- It is an expository teaching and reception learning.
- showing can enhance the telling.
*Purpose and Characteristics of Teacher
Presentations
- the purpose is to inform an audience of certain
facts ideas, concepts, and explanation.
- it differs in length and formality.
- Socratic Technique what do you think? And why
do you think that?
- Team Teaching - Teachers working together to
share their expertise engage in
*Good Presenters
- Should be humorous, enthusiastic, clear, fluent
and audible.
*Good Presentations
- should go through the process of:
Preparation It includes
(1) establishing the topic for the presentation and
the learning objectives,
(2) collecting and reviewing information to be
presented, and
(3) organizing or planning delivery
Delivery should follow
(1) Focus student attention (SET induction)
(2) Present learners with the learning objectives-tell
them what they are expected to know and to be able
to do and why that is important.
(3) Use an advance organizer - Link what is to be
learned to what students already know.
(4) Present information in an organized, step-by-
step manner. The better structured the lesson, the
greater likelihood it will be followed and
understood.
(5) Provide explanations that are complete,
accurate, and clear - When teaching a new idea or
concept, use both examples and non-examples
(6) Keep presentations short.
(7) Expect and solicit pupil interaction in the form
of questions and comments.
Closure
- Since you told learners what they would learn at
the outset, now remind them of what they have
learned.
- Review and summary are appropriate.
*Computer Presentations: Pros and Cons
-
*When Teacher Presentations Should Be Used
- Present knowledge to your learners when
1) they don't know much about what is to be
learned,
(2) the new knowledge is not available in a better,
more understandable form (e.g., in a book),
(3) the knowledge need not be remembered for a
long time, or
(4) the knowledge is a basis for what will be
explored later in depth.
*Limitations of Presentations
- teachers may not know the content sufficiently to
present it, presentations often do not involve
learners enough, and they may be overwhelming,
underwhelming, or boring. For these reasons they
may trigger frustration in learners who do not have
good attention, note taking, or memory skills
Discussion: Learning through Informative
Interaction
- Discussion is mostly used in honors programs and
even then sparingly: advanced placement classes
can be as discussion free as any class
*What Is a Discussion?
- is a situation wherein students, or students and a
teacher, converse to share information, ideas, or
Notes for Acts of Teaching: Chapter 7
opinions or work to resolve a problem.
*Purposes and Characteristics of Discussion
- to review and extend what students have learned
in order to ensure their mastery of a subject.
- can also be held when the purpose is to have
students examine their ideas or opinions.
- A third purpose a discussion might have is to solve
a problem.
- Sometimes a discussion can help students to
improve their face-to-face or interpersonal
communication skills.
Characteristics of Discussions
(1) Interaction Pattern Discussion
- differs from recitation, or the teacher question
student answer technique.
- Interaction is less formal and more conversational.
(2) Group Size and Composition
- The whole class can engage in a common
discussion, or it can be divided into groups.
- The composition of a group is also at issue. That
is, should members be similar (homogeneous) or
dissimilar (heterogeneous)? Arguments can be made
for either position.
(3) Group Arrangement
- One rule seems to hold: To converse, participants
should be face to face.
(3) Role of the Teacher
- Of course, the interaction pattern suggests a
number of different teacher roles and
responsibilities. The teacher serves as observer,
recorder, and perhaps arbitrator. At other times, you
should be a member of the discussion or be
facilitator moderator.
*Good Discussion Leaders
- - Students, desire to communicate with others.
- Review and extension of what students have
learned, examination of ideas and opinions, problem
solving, and increased interpersonal communication
skills.
- Discussion users must have confidence in their
students' capacities to think effectively.
- Enhance their psychological and social growth.
*Good Discussions
- Both of these outcomes depend on how the
discussion was prepared, presented, and concluded.
Preparation
- The four purposes-to review and extend
knowledge, examine ideas, solve problems, and
improve communication skills.
Delivery
- Once you have determined your purpose, students'
readiness, your role, group arrangements, and time
constraints, you are now ready to deliver. This
means
(1) making certain your students understand the
purpose of the discussion
(2) ensuring that you have related the discussion to
something students previously learned or to
something upcoming;
(3) informing them of the discussion questions and
potential information sources they can use in
preparation
( 4) organizing the participants. If several small
groups will discuss, you may want to appoint or ask
each group to select a facilitator and a recorder, and,
of course, the students in these roles must know
what is expected of them.
- Give the discussants a purpose, a plan, and
freedom to operate.
Closure
- at this part, a teacher should review the purpose
and the things they have learned and achieved
through the discussion.
*When Discussions Should Be Used
- Use it when you want to engage the students in
discussion when your purpose s to review
information, examine ideas and opinions, solve
problems, or improve oral communication skills.
- It is also used for long-term memory, higher-order-
thinking-skills, motivation, attitude change, or
moral reasoning.
- to meet the students social and psychological
needs.
*Research on Discussion
- It promotes knowledge retention, higher-order
thinking, positive attitude change, enhanced moral
reasoning, and increased motivation.
*Limitations of Discussions
- What if the learners do not seem to know what
Notes for Acts of Teaching: Chapter 7
they are supposed to do? What if learners do not
know enough or are not mature enough to engage in
the discussion? What if learners digress? What if
the discussion is dominated by a few? What if some
learners are reluctant to participate?
Independent Study: Teaching as Giving and
Guiding Seat Work and Homework Assignments
*What Is Independent Study?
- Independent study is any assignment learners
complete more or less on their own.
*Purpose and Characteristics of Independent Study
- when students need to rehearse or practice
something.
- when you want to be certain that your learners
gain specific knowledge or skills
- to encourage students to acquire study skills that
will serve them throughout life.
Types of Independent Study
By type of independent study, we refer to whether
the teacher prescribes the work assignment or
learners freely choose it.
Teacher's Role
- is to facilitate students' learning and satisfaction.
Context
- We have already alluded to the fact that students
can do independent work either in school or as
homework.
*Good Independent Study Leaders
- Valence and challenge arousal is the ability to
engender curiosity and enthusiasm in students and
to get them involved in the independent work.
- Variety and challenge involves the ability to
identify and assign independent study assignments
that vary enough to be interesting and are
challenging enough to maintain attention.
- Withitness is the ability to communicate to
learners that we know what they are doing even
when we are not nearby or looking at them.
- Overlapping is the teacher's ability to attend to
more than one thing at a time.
- Believe independent study enhances learning
through rehearsal/practice
- Believe independent study enhances learning how
to learn
- Believe students can work successfully
independently
- Exhibit clarity, valence and challenge arousal,
variety and challenge, withitness, and overlapping
*Good Independent Study
When preparing:
- Establish the general purpose
- Set specific instructional objectives
- Consider the ability of individual learners to work
independently
- Plan the assignment so that it is interesting and at
the optimal level of difficulty and length
- Collect, prepare instructional resources
When delivering:
- Get students' attention
- Inform learners of the rationale for the assignment
and of the objectives
- Relate assignment to previous and upcoming work
- Make sure learners know what to do and how to
do it before work begins
- Make certain learners know when and how they
may get help
- Make sure learners know what to do if they finish
early
- Be alert, move about to monitor and interact with
learners
- Diagnose students' progress and provide assistance
when needed
When closing:
- Collect assignments
- Assess assignments
- Provide feedback to students
- Count assignments toward the grade
*Limitations of Independent Study
- If the intentions of such study are not clear and
reasonable, students may resist the assignments or
exert minimal effort.
*Making Good Homework Assignments
- Let learners, parents, and caregivers know when
and how often assignments will be made and
approximately how long they will be.
- Make sure that assignments serve a good purpose.
- Make certain that learners understand the good
purpose and meaning of the assignment and that
Notes for Acts of Teaching: Chapter 7
they have resources necessary to succeed.
- Ensure that the assignment is clear and that
learners know both what is to be accomplished and
how.
- Make assignments that are neither too easy nor too
difficult.
- Vary assignments.
- Teach school study habits that transfer to
homework assignments
- Provide learners with feedback on their work.
- Work with parents and caregivers to ensure that
home assignments are meeting your expectations
and theirs in terms of quality and length and find
out what effects (positive and negative) they are
having on a learner's home life.
*Summary on Independent Study
Individualized or Differentiated Instruction:
Tailoring Teaching
*What Is Individualized Instruction?
- or differentiated instruction are terms used to refer
to any instructional maneuverer that attempts to
tailor teaching and learning to a learner's, or a group
of like-learners', unique strengths and needs.
*Purpose and Characteristics of Individualized
Instruction
- To tailor teaching and learning to individual
strengths and needs
- Teacher knows and cares about learner diversity.
- Learning tasks vary according to the individual or
group of like individuals. (Variable goals, Variable
learning activities, Variable resources, Variable
levels of student performance, Variable amount of
time and pacing)
*Types of Individualized Instruction
Contracts
- are signed agreements in which learners promise
to perform specific academic work-perhaps read a
book and write a synopsis of it.
Programmed and Computer-Assisted Instruction
- The material to be learned is broken down into
small, easily learned segments.
Individually Prescribed Instruction (!Pl)
- At the beginning of a school year students are
pretested.
- According to the results, students are assigned
work at appropriate academic levels.
Individually Guided Education (IGE)
- is another form of individualized instruction. A
major difference between IGE and other systems is
that IGE is done in a "nongraded" school.
- Each child's program is based on how and at what
pace he learns best, and where he stands on
mastering specific skills and concepts
Tutoring or coaching
- is perhaps the oldest and best-known means of
individualizing instruction.
- to give remedial instruction to a student or to
provide supplementary information
Distance Learning
- the intention is to make education more accessible
to persons not located near an instructional facility
such as a public school.
The Project Method: Self-Directed Leaming
- Teaching by engaging students in a long-term
activity in which they gather information and
develop a product of some kind, such as a written
report, oral presentation, or model.
*Good Users of Individualized Instruction
- Prize diversity
- Value individualism
- Know learners' strengths and needs
- Have knowledge of and ability to implement such
programs
- Have strong interpersonal skills
*Good Individualized Education Programs
- Are tailored to meet individual learners' strengths
and needs
- Permit considerable learner autonomy with regard
to goals, means, resources, time
- Result in greater equity
- Have no damaging side effects
*When Individualized Instruction Should Be Used
- whenever teachers hope to serve a student's unique
strengths and needs.
*Limitations of Individualized Instruction
- it is very time-consuming.
- Neither can you simply allow students to do
Notes for Acts of Teaching: Chapter 7
whatever they please.
*Summary on Individualized Instruction
Matching Instructional Alternatives to Learners
Overview of 31 Instructional Alternatives
Academic games or competitions
Brainstorming
- To generate creative ideas, learners are asked to
withhold judgment or criticism and produce a very
large number of ways to do something, such as
resolve a particular problem.
Cases-Students
- make detailed analysis of some specific, usually
compelling, event or series of related events so that
learners will better understand its nature and what
might be done about it.
Centers of interest and displays
-Collections and displays of materials are used to
interest learners in themes or topics.
Colloquia
-A guest or guests are invited to class to be
interviewed.
Constructivism
- Learners coming to learn through purposeful
experiences
Contracts
- Written agreements students and teachers may
enter into describe the academic work students plan
to accomplish in a particular period of time such as
over a week or month.
Cooperative learning
- student-team learning.
- Students working in groups are rewarded for
collective effort.
Debates
- In this form of discussion, a few students present
and contest varying points of view on an issue.
Demonstrations
- In this form of presentation, the teacher or learners
show how something works or operates, or how
something is done.
Direct instruction
- A teacher gives explicit, step-by-step instruction
Discovery
- In discovery learning, students are encouraged to
derive their own understandings or meanings.
Discussion
- Described in this chapter, discussions occur when
a group assembles to communicate with one another
by speaking and listening about a topic or event of
mutual interest.
Drill and practice
- In this form of independent study, the teacher
explains a task and then learners practice it.
Field observation, fieldwork, field trips
- Students make observations or carry out work in
an outside-the-school setting.
Independent study or supervised study
- independent study requires learners to complete a
common task at their desks or as a home study
assignment.
Individualized instruction
- Any of a number of teaching methods that tailor
teaching and learning to meet a learner's unique
characteristics.
Learning modules
- These are a form of individualized instruction that
allow students to use a self-contained package of
learning activities.
Mastery learning
- As a class, students are presented with information
to be learned at a predetermined level of mastery.
The class is tested, and individuals who do not
obtain adequate scores are retaught and retested.
Oral reports
- Individuals or groups of learners are assigned or
choose topics.
Presentations
- Students listen to a person who talks about a topic.
The teacher, or a guest speaker,
Problem solving
- Individuals or groups of learners are presented
with a perplexing, difficult question or situation and
are asked to think about and try to resolve it.
Programmed and computer-assisted instruction
- In this form of individualized instruction, students
learn information in small, separate units either by
reading programmed texts or by using computer-
presented teaching programs
Project or activity method
- In this form of individualization, learners choose
and work on projects and activities on related
topics.
Protocols
Notes for Acts of Teaching: Chapter 7
- Learners study an original record or records of members are often rewarded for the team's overall
some important event and then try to understand the success.
event or its consequences. Tutoring
Reciprocal Teaching - Either a teacher or a fellow student provides a
- Teacher gradually shifts teaching responsibility to learner or small group of learners with special help.
learners.
Using Technology in Teaching
Recitation
- search engines, PowerPoint.
- Students are given information to study. They then
- Increasingly we are becoming knowledgeable
recite what they have learned when the teacher
about blogs, wikis, and podcasts.
questions them.
*Selecting Quality Software and Websites
Role playing
*Utilizing Digital Content
- Learners take on the role of another person to see
- Word processing that allows learners to write and
what it would be like to be that person.
revise with the assistance of spelling and grammar
Simulation games
checkers.
- Students play a specially designed, competitive
- Spreadsheets that permit adding up collected data,
game that mirrors some aspect of life.
crunching statistics, and graphing.
Simulations
- Drawing/painting.
- Learners engage with something intended to
- Multimedia and presentation tools that allow
simulate
learners to create sophisticated class presentations.
-to give the appearance or have the effect of-
- Desktop publishing that enables students to create
something else.
materials for print or on the Web using scanning,
Student-team, pupil-team, cooperative learning
design, and layout tools.
- Learners are placed in groups or teams of four to
six. Sometimes the groups are as diverse or
heterogeneous as possible. In such cases, team