Teaching method
Encyclopedia
A teaching method comprises the principles and methods used for instruction. Commonly used teaching methods may include class participation, demonstration, recitation, memorization, or combinations of these. The choice of an appropriate teaching method depends largely on the information or skill that is being taught, and it may also be influenced by the aptitude and enthusiasm of the students.
Demonstrations are similar to written storytelling and examples in that they allow students to personally relate to the presented information. Memorization of a list of facts is a detached and impersonal experience, whereas the same information, conveyed through demonstration, becomes personally relatable. Demonstrations help to raise student interest and reinforce memory retention because they provide connections between facts and real-world applications of those facts. Lectures, on the other hand, are often geared more towards factual presentation than connective learning.
Collaborative discussions can take a variety of forms, such as fishbowl discussions
. After some preparation and with clearly defined roles, a discussion may constitute most of a lesson, with the teacher only giving short feedback at the end or in the following lesson.
, education became more conscious or self-reflecting, with specialized occupations requiring particular skill
s and knowledge on how to be a scribe
, an astronomer
, etc.
Philosophy
in ancient Greece
led to questions of educational method entering national discourse. In his Republic
, Plato
describes a system of instruction that he felt would lead to an ideal state. In his Dialogues, Plato describes the Socratic method
.
It has been the intent of many educators since then, such as the Roman educator Quintilian
, to find specific, interesting ways to encourage students to use their intelligence
and to help them to learn.
, in Bohemia
, wanted all children to learn. In his The World in Pictures, he gave the first illustrated textbook
containing much that children would be familiar with in everyday life, and used it to teach the academic subject
s they needed to know. Rabelais described how the student Gargantua learned about the world, and what is in it.
Much later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
in his Emile
, presented methodology
to teach children the elements of science
and more. In it, he famously eschewed books, saying "the world is one's book".
During Napoleonic warfare, the teaching methodology of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
of Switzerland
enabled refugee children, of a class believed to be unteachable, to learn and love to learn. He describes this in his account of the educational experiment at Stanz. He felt the key to have children learn is for them to be loved, but his method has been thought "too unclear to be taught today".
dating to the early 19th century. Parts of the Prussian
education system have served as models for the education systems in a number of other countries, including Japan
and the United States
. The Prussian model required classroom management skills to be incorporated into the teaching process.
posited that the purpose of education is to "like the world through knowing it." Teachers in New York found that student performance improved when this principle was employed in their teaching methods.
Many current teaching philosophies are aimed at fulfilling the precepts of a curriculum based on Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE).
According to Dr. Shaikh Imran, the teaching methodology in education is a new concept in the teaching learning process. New methods involved in the teaching learning process are television, radio, computer, etc.
Other educators believe that the use of technology
, while facilitating learning to some degree, is not a substitute for educational method that brings out critical thinking and a desire to learn. Another modern teaching method is inquiry learning and the related inquiry-based science.
"The Interdisciplinary Effect of Hands On Science", a three-year study of Tennessee
middle school
students, indicated that students who had hands-on science training had higher standardized test scores in science, math and social studies.
, collaborating, and demonstrating
.
A teaching method that includes questioning is similar to testing. A teacher may ask a series of questions to collect information of what students have learned and what needs to be taught. Testing is another application of questioning. A teacher tests the student on what was previously taught in order to determine whether a student has learned the material. Standardized testing is often used (e.g., Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), Proficiency Test, College entrance Tests (ACT and SAT).
Learning can be done in three ways- Auditory, Visual, and Kinaesthetic.
Explaining
Explaining, or lecturing, is the process of teaching by giving spoken explanations of the subject that is to be learned. Lecturing is often accompanied by visual aids to help students visualize an object or problem.Demonstrating
Demonstrating is the process of teaching through examples or experiments. For example, a science teacher may teach an idea by performing an experiment for students. A demonstration may be used to prove a fact through a combination of visual evidence and associated reasoning.Demonstrations are similar to written storytelling and examples in that they allow students to personally relate to the presented information. Memorization of a list of facts is a detached and impersonal experience, whereas the same information, conveyed through demonstration, becomes personally relatable. Demonstrations help to raise student interest and reinforce memory retention because they provide connections between facts and real-world applications of those facts. Lectures, on the other hand, are often geared more towards factual presentation than connective learning.
Collaborating
Collaboration allows students to actively participate in the learning process by talking with each other and listening to other points of view. Collaboration establishes a personal connection between students and the topic of study and it helps students think in a less personally biased way. Group projects and discussions are examples of this teaching method. Teachers may employ collaboration to assess student's abilities to work as a team, leadership skills, or presentation abilities.Collaborative discussions can take a variety of forms, such as fishbowl discussions
Fishbowl (conversation)
A fishbowl conversation is a form of dialog that can be used when discussing topics within large groups. Fishbowl conversations are usually used in participatory events like Open Space Technology and Unconferences. The advantage of Fishbowl is that it allows the entire group to participate in a...
. After some preparation and with clearly defined roles, a discussion may constitute most of a lesson, with the teacher only giving short feedback at the end or in the following lesson.
Learning by teaching
In this teaching method, students assume the role of teacher and teach their peers. Students who teach others as a group or as individuals must study and understand a topic well enough to teach it to their peers. By having students participate in the teaching process, they gain self-confidence and strengthen their speaking and communication skills.Ancient education
About 3000 BC, with the advent of writingWriting
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, education became more conscious or self-reflecting, with specialized occupations requiring particular skill
Skill
A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills...
s and knowledge on how to be a scribe
Scribe
A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep track of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing...
, an astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, etc.
Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
in ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
led to questions of educational method entering national discourse. In his Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
describes a system of instruction that he felt would lead to an ideal state. In his Dialogues, Plato describes the Socratic method
Socratic method
The Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...
.
It has been the intent of many educators since then, such as the Roman educator Quintilian
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing...
, to find specific, interesting ways to encourage students to use their intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
and to help them to learn.
Medieval education
ComeniusComenius
John Amos Comenius ; ; Latinized: Iohannes Amos Comenius) was a Czech teacher, educator, and writer. He served as the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, and became a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica...
, in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, wanted all children to learn. In his The World in Pictures, he gave the first illustrated textbook
Textbook
A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...
containing much that children would be familiar with in everyday life, and used it to teach the academic subject
Course (education)
The very broad dictionary meaning of the word course is the act or action of moving in a path from point to point . There are multiple meanings for this word, some of which include: general line of orientation, a mode of action, part of a meal, a mode of action, and many more. This article focuses...
s they needed to know. Rabelais described how the student Gargantua learned about the world, and what is in it.
Much later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
in his Emile
EMILE
EMILE is the Early Mac Image LoadEr, a bootloader for loading Linux on Macintosh computers that have m68k processors. It was written by Laurent Vivier, and is meant to eventually replace the Penguin Booter that is more usually in use....
, presented methodology
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...
to teach children the elements of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and more. In it, he famously eschewed books, saying "the world is one's book".
During Napoleonic warfare, the teaching methodology of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach....
of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
enabled refugee children, of a class believed to be unteachable, to learn and love to learn. He describes this in his account of the educational experiment at Stanz. He felt the key to have children learn is for them to be loved, but his method has been thought "too unclear to be taught today".
19th century - compulsory education
The Prussian education system was a system of mandatory educationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
dating to the early 19th century. Parts of the Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
education system have served as models for the education systems in a number of other countries, including Japan
Education in Japan
In Japan, education is compulsory at the elementary and lower secondary levels. Approximately 98% of all students progress to the upper secondary level, which is voluntary . Most students attend public schools through the lower secondary level, but private education is popular at the upper...
and the United States
Education in the United States
Education in the United States is mainly provided by the public sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. Child education is compulsory.Public education is universally available...
. The Prussian model required classroom management skills to be incorporated into the teaching process.
20th century
In the 20th century, the philosopher Eli SiegelEli Siegel
Eli Siegel was the poet and critic who founded the philosophy Aesthetic Realism in 1941. He wrote the award-winning poem, "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana", two highly acclaimed volumes of poetry, a critical consideration of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw titled James and the Children,...
posited that the purpose of education is to "like the world through knowing it." Teachers in New York found that student performance improved when this principle was employed in their teaching methods.
Many current teaching philosophies are aimed at fulfilling the precepts of a curriculum based on Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE).
According to Dr. Shaikh Imran, the teaching methodology in education is a new concept in the teaching learning process. New methods involved in the teaching learning process are television, radio, computer, etc.
Other educators believe that the use of technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, while facilitating learning to some degree, is not a substitute for educational method that brings out critical thinking and a desire to learn. Another modern teaching method is inquiry learning and the related inquiry-based science.
"The Interdisciplinary Effect of Hands On Science", a three-year study of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
students, indicated that students who had hands-on science training had higher standardized test scores in science, math and social studies.
Diversity in Teaching in the Classroom
For effective teaching to take place, an appropriate teaching method must be employed. A teacher may develop lesson plans or use lesson plans that have been developed by other teachers. When deciding the teaching methods to use, a teacher considers the students' background knowledge, environment, and learning goals. Students have different ways of absorbing information and of demonstrating their knowledge. Teachers often use techniques which cater to multiple learning styles to help students retain information and strengthen understanding. A variety of strategies and methods are used to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to learn. A lesson plan may be carried out in several ways: Questioning, explaining, modelingObservational learning
Observational learning is a type of learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating novel behavior executed by others...
, collaborating, and demonstrating
Demonstration (teaching)
Demonstration involves showing by reason or proof, explaining or making clear by use of examples or experiments. Put more simply, demonstration means to clearly show. In teaching through demonstration, students are set up to potentially conceptualize class material more effectively as shown in a...
.
A teaching method that includes questioning is similar to testing. A teacher may ask a series of questions to collect information of what students have learned and what needs to be taught. Testing is another application of questioning. A teacher tests the student on what was previously taught in order to determine whether a student has learned the material. Standardized testing is often used (e.g., Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), Proficiency Test, College entrance Tests (ACT and SAT).
Learning can be done in three ways- Auditory, Visual, and Kinaesthetic.
See also
- Educational psychologyEducational psychologyEducational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
- Educational philosophy
- Example ChoiceExample ChoiceExample choice is a teaching method that has been developed and explored at the University of Bergen. The main objective is to make mathematics and science teaching more interesting and relevant to the daily life of students...
- Lesson planLesson planA lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction for one class. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. Details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, and the need and/or curiosity of children...
- TeacherTeacherA teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
- Learning by teachingLearning by teachingIn professional education, learning by teaching designates currently the method by Jean-Pol Martin that allows pupils and students to prepare and to teach lessons, or parts of lessons...
(LdL) - Case methodCase methodThe case method is a teaching approach that consists in presenting the students with a case, putting them in the role of a decision maker facing a problem...
- Business gameBusiness gameBusiness game refers to simulation games that are used at an educational tool for teaching business. Business games may be carried out for various business training such as: general management, finance, organizational behaviour, human resources, etc...
- Experiential learningExperiential learningExperiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience. Simply put, Experiential Learning is learning from experience. The experience can be staged or left open. Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." David A...
- LearningLearningLearning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
External links
- TeachShare (also known as the Community Curriculum Project) shares teachers' trade secrets on how to best teach courses. It also describes various teaching techniques.
- Teachers' Toolbox is a website that explores various evidence based teaching theories through video clips and supporting documentation.
- Classroom observation is a collection of lesson observations on video useful for teacher training and professional development.
- English Teaching Methodology