ACCTEACH PRELIMS
for understanding?
CHAPTER 1: Understanding Teaching
Teaching has been regarded as a noble profession.
Teaching as a profession produces something
significant and moving when the right ideas and
beliefs are implemented.
Teaching profession demands a total commitment to
total transformation of the learner.
Teacher needs support system from the parents and
the community.
Teacher plays a crucial role in the continuous
development of the society.
What is teaching?
Organized, purposeful and deliberate efforts
designed to bring about certain desirable ends in an
individual.
Different Contexts of Teaching
As an occupation – one does for living.
Myriad of activities – explains, asks, reviews,
demonstrate, advises students; etc.
Act itself which involves common activities in
classroom & teaching strategies & techniques.
Process or set of actions to induce learning &
eventually to succeed in learning.
Teaching for understanding (tfU) Framework
Blythe & associates (1989) made a framework
linked to what David Perkins called fur
cornerstone pedagogy consisting of four elements of
planning & instruction.
It is a set of general guidelines and serves as guide
to focus educational practices on the development
of student understanding.
Generative Topics – what shall we teach?
Understanding Goals – what is worth
understanding?
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Understanding Performance – how shall we teach
Ongoing Assessment – how can students and
teacher know what students understand and how
students can develop deeper understanding?
Generative Topics
Are issues, themes, concepts, and ideas that provide
adequate depth, significance, connections, and
variety of perspectives to nurture students
development in terms of powerful understanding or
discernment.
GUIDE when selecting the best possible teaching
topics
Central to one or more domains or disciplines –
issues interest to professionals in the field.
Interesting to students – age, social, culture
contexts, personal interest, and intellectual
experiences.
Interesting to the teacher – explore the complex
territory of open-ended questions.
Accessible – availability of age-appropriate
resources to enable investigation of the topic.
Offer opportunities for multiple connections –
make connections to their previous experiences,
such topics offer an inexhaustible quality that can
be explored deeply.
STEPS for planning generative topics
1. Brainstorming – first step, done ideally
with colleagues, reflecting on what interests
the teacher most.
2. Create idea webs around ideas generated
Webbing – a good exercise as it offers an
opportunity for the teacher to become adventurous.
3. Choose from idea web
4. Consult with other teachers and peers or
with community members
Questions to ask when refining web of ideas:
 Does the topic represent fundamental
concepts or themes in your domain?
 Do you think it will appeal to students and
to you?
 Does it provide opportunities for students to
connect learning possibilities to other
classes as well as life experience outside
school?
 Does it have related resources materials to
make topic accessible to students?
 Do you think you can present the topic to
your students in engaging way
Understanding Goals
Nested Understanding Goals – unit sized goals
embedded within yearlong overarching goals or
“throughlines.”
Unit-sized goals – are those appropriate to a given
topic.
Throughlines – are compounded goals or short
topics for the duration of a school year.
Identifying Throughlines
The teacher might write down the most important
things he wants the students to get out of the class.
Throughlines are often rooted in deeply held but
rarely articulated beliefs and value about both the
subject matter and the teaching and learning
processes.
Planning Throughlines
“When my students leave my class at the end of the
course, what are the most important things I want
them to keep?”
The following steps may be tried for better
results:
Review several units that have been planned (either
using the framework or in other ways). What
common these emerge? What understanding, skills
or concepts resurface time & again as you plan &
teach?
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Ask the students what they hear being focused on.
As them what they think are supposed to get from
the class.
As with unit long understanding goals, try stating
overarching goads as both statement & question.
Examples of throughline
TOPIC: Philippine History
Yearlong Understanding Goal: Students will
understand the various considerations and strategies
historians used to interpret evidence about the past.
Unit Goal – Students will understand how to read
and judge the reliability of primary sources about
the Philippine Revolution or about a topic of local
history.
Performance of Understanding
Activities that develop, express, and supplement
their current understanding.
Initial performances are initially simple like
discussing certain topic as a group.
Eventually performance elevates from simple to
complex.
Teachers are the ideal influence on students as they
engage in performances of understanding.
Teachers can look at themselves as “floating
coaches” who keep an eye on the progress of their
students.
The performance of understanding generated are
sequence so they occur throughout the unit, from
start to end, which are:
 Introductory performances.
 Guided-inquiry performances
 Culminating performances
Ongoing Assessment
It is the process of providing students with clear
responses to their performances of understating in a
way that will help improve their next performances.

Key Factors of Ongoing Assessment
Establishing criteria and providing feedback
Criteria established for each performance of
understanding need to be:
 Clear – articulating explicitly the established
criteria at the beginning of each performance
of understanding.
 Relevant – closely related to the
understanding goals for the unit.
 Public – everyone in the classroom knows
and understands them.
Feedbacks need to:
 occur frequently from beginning to end of
the unit.
 offer students information not only about
how they perform but how to improve it
further.
 inform them about intended subsequent
classes & activities
 come from variety of perspective (student,
classmates & teacher)
Planning Ongoing assessment
 The teacher uses his understanding goals to
establish the criteria by which to assess
student’s performance. The test of
understanding is the most crucial.
 The teacher provides opportunities at the
beginning and throughout a unit for
assessing how well the students developed
their understanding. Assessment should be
ongoing process.
 Balance of both formal & informal feedback
is important & teacher should make room
for multi-perspective assessment (self, peer,
and teacher).
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Continuing assessment – is accomplished in the
context of performances of understanding that, in
turn are anchored on understanding goals.
Differences between Performance of
Understanding and Ongoing Assessment
Understanding performances are the activities
students do to cultivate their understanding while
Ongoing Assessment is the process by which
students get feedback and are critiqued on what they
do based on clearly established criteria for
successful performances.
END OF CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2: The Learner
Learner - is the core of the teaching-learning
process and first element of teaching & learning.
Pupil – learner in elementary level
Student – learner who attends an institution beyond
the elementary level.
Factors Affecting Cognitive Development of
Children
Biological Factors – are substances that affect
biological systems and are necessary to produce a
result or cause activity of the body.
 Senses – sense organs receive stimuli from
the environment.
 Intelligence – is the ability to learn about,
learn from, understand, and effectively
interrelate with one’s environment.
 Heredity – process of transmitting
characteristics from one generation to the
next.
 Maturation – process of learning to cope
and respond in an emotionally appropriate
way.
Environmental Factors - these includes
surroundings, conditions, or influences that affects
an organism. It can be divided into physical,
biological, social, cultural, and spiritual.
Following are the environmental factors:
Learning opportunities – the opportunity for
learning affects cognitive development.
Economic status – learners from better economic
status get more opportunities and better training.
Play – opportunity to interact with the environment,
receive stimuli and respond to them.
Various types of stimuli – as a child grows, he gets
various stimuli from the environment through his
senses and perceives their meaning.
Family and society – it is important from the point
of view of providing the child hereditary traits.
(7) Characteristics of Independent Learners
1. Curiosity –Seeking out ways to explore. On
their own, they look for additional
supplements.
2. Self-Motivation – intrinsic motivation far
surpasses any prize or reward system, that is
setting internal goals to achieve provide
motivation to independent learners.
3. Self-examination- Independent learners
keep track of their achievements & failures.
They have proper evaluation of their
strengths & weaknesses.
4. Accountability- Knowing what you must do
& doing it without anyone telling you to,
that is being responsible.
5. Critical Thinking – An attitude of
examining all possibilities & often come up
with multiple solutions. They do not
memorize, and they probe & analyze the
nature of things or situation.
6. Comprehension (with little instruction) –
this is the ability to read, visualize, or
kinesthetically instruct themselves. They
will find ways to understand material thru
application (normally trial and error).
7. Persistence – An attitude of not giving up
being serious learning. They try to
comprehend a concept as much as possible
on their own before asking for help. They
apply self-discipline when faced with
difficulty in finding answer to a problem.
Approaches to Learning
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Deep approach to learning
the student is aiming towards understanding. It
involves the critical & in-depth analysis of new
ideas, relating them with already known concepts &
principle.
It promotes understanding & long-term retention of
concepts that are used in problem solving. It is
applied in real life situation.
Surface Learning
the students are aiming to reproduce material in
test or exam rather than understand it.
It is the explicit recognition of information &
memorization. It leads to superficial retention
of materials for examination.
Deep learning as claimed, is positive while
surface learning is negative.
Learning Styles and Preferences
From students - it can by close observation,
seeing & hearing, working alone & in groups,
logical reasoning & intuitively, memorizing or
visualizing & modelling.
Part of teacher - there are those who lecture,
others demonstrate or discuss, some focus on
principles & others on applications.
The Seven Learning Styles (Memletic Styles)
• Visual (spatial)–prefers using pictures,
images, graphs, charts, logic puzzles &
spatial understanding.
• Aural (auditory-musical)–prefers using
sound & music.
• Verbal (linguistic)–prefer using words, both
speech & writing.
• Physical (kinesthetic)-prefers using body,
hands & touch.
• Logical (mathematical)-prefers using logic,
reasoning & systems.
• Social (interpersonal)-prefers to learn in
groups or with other people.
 • Solitary(intrapersonal)-prefers to work
alone & use self-study.
Basis of Learning Styles
1. Visual-the occipital lobes at the back of
brain manage visual sense.
2. Aural-the temporal lobes handle aural
content. The right temporal lobe is
especially important for music.
3. Physical-the cerebellum & the motor cortex
(at the back of the frontal lobe handle much
of our physical movement.
4. Logical-the parietal lobes especially the left
side, drive our logical thinking.
5. Verbal-the temporal and frontal lobes
especially the two specialized areas called
Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area (in the left
hemisphere of these two lobes) govern the
use of manually articulated (i.e., signed) or
vocally articulated (i.e., spoken) language.
6. Social-The frontal & temporal lobes handle
much of our social activities. The limbic
system (not shown apart from the
hippocampus) also influences both social &
solitary styles. The limbic system has a lot
to do with emotions, moods & aggression.
The Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model
Learning style – the way a person processes,
internalizes studies interprets, and changes new
and challenging materials.
The cornerstone of the Dunn and Dunn
Learning Style model is that most people can
learn, and everyone has his own ways of
mastering new and difficult subject matter.
It encompasses 5 strands of 21 elements
affecting everyone’s learning:
 Environmental- this strand refers to
these elements: lighting, sound,
temperature & seating arrangement.
 Emotional –this strand involves the
following elements: motivation,
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persistence, responsibility & structure,
i.e., some people work best when
motivated & encouraged, or when
allowed to do multi-tasking
(persistence), while other feel motivated
when assigned to lead.
 Sociological- the strand represents
elements which make individual learn
while in association with other people. It
can be a) alone or with peers; b) an
authoritative adult or with collegial
colleague; and c) learning a variety of
ways or routine patterns.
 Physiological elements in this strand are
perceptual (auditory, visual, tactile &
kinesthetic), time of the day energy
levels, intake (eating, or not while
studying), & mobility (sitting or moving
around).
 Psychological- the elements in this
strand correspond to the following
psychological processing: hemispheric,
impulsive, or reflective and global
versus analytic.
Hemispheric element refers to the left & right brain
processing modes.
The impulsive versus reflective style describe how
some people do something or resort to doing
something before thinking and others scrutinize the
situation before moving an inch.
Global & analytic element are unique, as these two
elements are made up of clusters of elements from
the other four strands. The elements are sound,
light & seating arrangement (environmental) and
persistence (emotional), sociological preference &
intake (physiological).
(4) Factors that significantly differ between
groups & among individuals
1. Global & analytic- Global learner prefers to
work in an environment with soft lighting &
informal setting; need breaks, mobility &
sound, while analytic learners prefer to
work in an environment with bright lights &
formal setting, work best when
 uninterrupted or with few; prefer a quiet
surrounding & little or no snacking.
2. Age- learning styles vary & change with
age. Some learning styles (sociological,
motivation, responsibility & internal vs
external structure) are developmental &
change as people grow older. Children
prefer to work with peers than being alone.
The auditory & visual perceptual elements
strengthen with age for many.
3. Gender- perceptual strengths of males are
often visual, tactile & kinesthetic. More
mobile than females & they function &
achieve better in an informal environment.
On the other hand, females tend to be more
auditory, prefer quiet atmosphere while
studying, work best in formal setting & need
less mobility. They are more conforming,
authority oriented & parent & self-motivated
& engaging than males.
4. High vs low academic achievement- High
& low achieving students learn in
statistically different ways from one another.
Kolb’s Learning Style
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory or ELT (1984)
sets out four distinct learning styles, which are
based on a four-stage learning cycle, namely social
or accommodating, creative or diverging,
intellectual or assimilating and practical or
converging.
Typical presentation of Kolb’s two continuums
1. Processing continuum (how we approach a
task) – east-west axis
2. Perception continuum (how one thinks or
feels about it) – north south axis
This model sets out four distinct learning style.
1. Social learner are leaders. They learn best
by analyzing & solving problem using their
intuition & information from other people
rather from books or lectures.
2. Creative learners are imaginative. They
have open mind to new ideas & offer
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multiple perspectives. They value
brainstorming with a group although they
often listen & observe first before sharing
their own ideas.
3. Intellectual learners are organized, logical
& precise. They like to learn from lectures,
reading & contemplation. They find fact,
ideas & information fascinating &
challenging to people & emotions.
4. 4. Practical learners are both thinkers &
doers. They are those who learn through
experimentation, seeking out new ideas, &
discovering practical application for them.
They can focus intently on select subjects;
they favor technical challenges to
interpersonal matters.
Kolb’s ELT three stages of person’s development
 Acquisition (birth to adolescence)-
development of basic abilities & “cognitive
structures”.
 Specialization (schooling, early work &
personal experiences of adulthood) – the
development of particular “specialized
learning style” shaped by social, educational
& organizational socialization.
 Integration (mid-career thru later life) –
expression of non-dominant learning style in
work & personal life.
Hypothesized Activity Type Preferences by
Learning Style
1. Role Play – Social
2. Simulation – Intellectual
3. Puzzle-mystery – Practical
4. Design – Creative
5. Interactive reference – Intellectual
6. Discussion Forum – Social
END OF CHAPTER 2
Prepared by: John Patrick Anyayahan