Reflection no.9

Demonstration Strategy

We discussed demonstration strategy whereby we came across;

What is demonstration?

Is a act of showing how something works.

Method:

1. Demonstration method is a visual approach to examine information, ideas and processes.
2. It is a teaching method that allows students to see the teacher actively engaged as a learner and a model rather than merely telling them what they need to know. 

Why:

1. To stimulate interest in a particular topic
2. To illustrate points efficiently
3. To provide a change of pace
4. When there is lack of equipment
5. Time constraint
6. Risky experiments

How:

1. Carefully plan the demonstration.
2. Practice the demonstration
3. Develop an outline to guide the demonstration
4. Make sure everyone can see the demonstration
5. Introduce the demonstration to focus attention
6. Ask and encourage questioning
7. Plan a follow up to the demonstration

Example of demonstration:

In order  to make demonstration effective we will have to give instruction to be followed and while taking them through demonstration we can ask them questions so that they are present and is following what the teacher is doing.

Reflection no.8

4) Project Strategy Of Teaching

Definitions:

“A project is any activity, individual or group, involving the investigation and solution of problems, planned and carried out to conclusion under the guidance of the teacher.”

-Callahan & Clark.

Features of a Project Strategy/method

1.      It extends beyond classroom teaching.

2.      The method is carried out in natural setting or real life situations.

3.      This method involves investigation and solution to practical problems.

4.      It demands and ensures active participation from the students.

5.      Involves effective interaction between the student and the social environment.

6.      Creates an opportunity to acquire or practice social skills.

7.      Enables the students to study functional aspects of the subjects learnt.

8.      The teacher acts as a facilitator or a guide and thus promotes independent learning.

Principles of Project Strategy/method

1.      Principle of utility: The project method attempts to study and investigate a practical problem or a situation. The problem/situation is concrete and not just abstract. The project should yield results, which are useful to the learner.

2.      Principle of readiness: The teacher presents a set of tasks and the students are given the opportunity to choose one for the purpose of project. The option offered to the students to choose an area depending on their own interest and choice ensures the readiness and willingness to work on a certain project.

3.      Principle of Learning by doing: Since this method of teaching provides an opportunity for the learners to have a direct contact with the learning situation or the context of learning, the learners acquire knowledge and skills through practical experience. Learning becomes more realistic and it makes learning more enriching and memorable.

4.      Principle of Freedom at Work: The teacher acts only as a guide and facilitator in using this method of teaching. The students enjoy a high degree of freedom and it facilitates the emotional and intellectual development process in the learners. The learners learn to be accountable and responsible of their own obligations and develop a sense of belongingness to the work assigned.

5.      Principle of Socialization: The project work method provides an opportunity for the learners to come into direct contact with the social environment. This demands a lot of interaction within the learners themselves and also with the social environment. Such effective social interaction enables the learners to acquire social skills necessary to adjust and live in a society.

Types of project work

There are four types of project work mentioned by Dr. W.H. Kilpatrick (1918:

A.    Projects involving construction or production of a useful article/object to “embody some or plan in external form”—Produce Type.

B.     Projects providing opportunities for appreciation of some aesthetic experience—Consumer Type.

C.     Projects involving study and investigation of practical situations/problems-Investigation Type.

D.    Projects providing opportunities for mastery of certain skills—Drill Type.

Note: in educational instituition, mostly A(produce type) & C (investigation type) are used.

The Investigation Type of Project Work – Stages (Diana & L. Booth)

 Stage I: Classroom Planning

Step 1: Providing a set of tasks/problems for study

Step 2: Selecting a task/problem for study

Step 3: Formulation of hypothesis (for problems undertaken)

Step4: Planning/designing methods to investigate

Stage II: Execution

Step 1: Collection of data

Step 2: Organizing and interpreting data

Step 3: Review

Step III: Conclusion

Step 1: reporting and incorporating additions/deletions

Step 2: Evaluation

Implemented properly, this method will ensure that learning becomes an enjoyable and an enriching experience.

How to plan a project work?

Planning preceeds action, a careful planning is essential for a project work. This helps to smooth the process and successful accomplishment of the task. The planning of the project work involves the following steps:

A.   How to select topics?

       While selecting the topics for project work the following points should be considered:

i.                    The topic should be related to the syllabus content.

ii.                  The topic should be appropriate to the class level.

iii.                The information on the topic should be available in the school and the community.

iv.                Students should be given a range of specific topics to choose from.

v.                  The topic should enhance the application of the concept learnt in the classroom.

B.   What is the format for the project work write up?

The format for project work write up should include the following parts.

i.                    Title

ii.                  Table of contents

iii.                Introduction (what is the topic about? Why is it chosen?)

iv.                Method      -How is the information collected?

                              -How is the information sorted out?

                              -How is the information analyzed?

Present information collected on the topic in a logical order. There could be sub-topics. If illustrations are to be used, they should be put wherever they are appropriate. The way in which the information is organized and presented may differ from subject to subject.

      

v.                  Conclusion. The conclusion should reflect the following:

a.       Summary of the findings

b.      Students’ experiences and opinion regarding the project work such as how he/she found the project work (difficult, challenging), how it has been beneficial to his/her learning.

vi.                 Acknowledgement

a.       Recognition of the help received

vii.               References

a.       List of the sources of information

C. How to collect information?

To collect information for the project work, the students should:

i.                    know what information to collect

ii.                  identify possible sources of information (persons, places, books, etc.)

iii.                develop some questions to collect the information

iv.                plan field visits if any

v.                  keep notes of observations, interviews, readings

vi.                collect samples

vii.              make sketches, tables, graphs and diagrams related to the topic.

D.   How to compile information for presentation?

The information that is appropriate and relevant to the project topic should be presented:

i.                    sort out and select the important information

ii.                  put the information order

iii.                use the information for writing the project work

                                              

E.   There are Dos and DON’Ts while writing project work:

DOs

i.                    The project work should be written on a fullscap paper in the students’ own handwriting.

ii.                  The project work should be written in students’ own words and not copied directly from the books except for quotes.

iii.                Necessary illustrations should be drawn or sketched with pencil.

iv.                The students can use simple colours.

DON’Ts

i.                    Use of pictures cut from books and magazines available in schools and photocopying should not be allowed.

ii.                  Students should not do unnecessary decorations of their project work using sketch and marker pens.

iii.                Students should not decorate the cover page using glossy and colour paper.

iv.                Students should not use folders and folders to enclose the project work.

When do you assess the project work?

The assessment of the project work should begin from the time the students start planning the project work and will end with the assessment of the final project work.

Reflection no. 7

3) Questioning Strategy

Purpose:to create a life long, independent learners who uses questioning as a tool to learn.

Characteristics:

1. up to students' level, clear and simple
2. logically sequenced 
3. back ground knowledge

• Question should be relevant to the students' level, knowledge ,sequenced and active involvement.

Difference between modern way of teaching and traditional method is QUESTIONING.

What are the purpose of questioning:

1. enhance understanding of students
2. make classroom interactive
3. enhance more participation
4. to let the teacher and student conscious of what they learn
5. create an affective and efficient learning 
6. for evaluation and assessment
7. gain students' attention; maintain the f low of teaching 
8. to create a life long independent learners who uses question as a tool to learn.

Classification of questioning

The literal level ('right there on paper'): types of question most often used in the classroom.
                   e.g; what is the color of the dog named Kasper?

The inferential level ('think and search'): answer can be identified by reading in between the lines, like from different
                    e.g; how did Kasper help the other dog?

The applied level ('on your own'): answer relies mainly on the readers background knowledge and experiences. Here d reader have to analyze, synthesize and evaluate themselves.

Thinking time/ wait time: consciously waiting for students thinking on answer.

No hands questioning: student are aware that teachers will select the students to give an answer.

Basketball questioning: move questions and discussions between students.

Conscripts and volunteers: teacher select answers from those who volunteers and also equally from those who do not.

Phone a friend: those who are not able to answer are allowed to nominate another student to suggest an answer on their behalf but still they have to provide their own answer.

Hot seating: a student is placed in the hot seat to take several question from the class and teacher.

Preview: questionings are shared/displayed before being asked or before starting the lesson.

Pair rehearsal: pair of students are able to discuss and come up with agreed responses to questions together.

Eavesdropping: listen to the group discussion and target specific questions to groups and individauls.

Big questions: setting of substantial and through provoking questions .

Fat questions: seeking a minimum answers.

Skinny questions: in traditional approaches to question and answer asking everyday, questions with a fixed/ specific answer.

Seek a partial answer: provide only a partly formal answer, to promote collective engagement.

THREE TYPES OF QUESTIONING

1) Socratic questioning:

i) Conceptual clarification questions=will get to think that what you are thinking/asking about .

                                                             e.g; why are you saying that?            

ii) Probing assumptions=based on assumptions, do you agree/do not agree?

                               

iii) Probing rationale, reasons and evidence=why is that happening [reason to the question] digging into the reasons. e.g; why are this reasons?

                           

iv) Question view points and perspectives=questions that can be debated. e.g; why is it better than?

                              

v) Probe implication and consequences=having logical implication. e.g; what is the best? why?

vi) Questions about the question=ask question, instead of giving answer we ask questions to a question in return. e.g; what was the point of asking that question?

2) Blooms taxonomy (Benjamin Bloom in 1950):

i)Remembering

ii)Understanding

iii)Applying e.g; calculation

iv)Analyzing (compare and contrast)

v)Evaluating (judge, evaluate, justify(judging others' work))

vi)Creating (construct and imagine)  

3) Kipling's questions (5WH):

i) What: will have questions like; what are we doing? 

ii) Why: in order to have deeper understanding of information; why are we doing it? 

iii) When: time/for a period of time(duration); When are you leaving?

iv) Where: locate a action/event. In three dimensional space -a) on, above, under, below

                                                                                                  b) next

                                                                                                  c) New york, London, Paris

v)Who: bringing people into frame.

vi) How: seeks verb of process. e.g;how often will you see me?(time), how much will you pay me?(quantity)

Role of Teacher and Students (Socratic questioning )

1)Teacher: use of different teaching technique, prompting students' view points. Probes their understanding and shows genuine interest in their thinking.

2) Teacher poses the questions that are more meaningful then those a novice of a given topic might develop.

3) teacher creates and sustain an intellectually stimulating classroom environment and acknowledgement the value of the student in that environment. [make friendly and interactive classroom environment].

(should not interrupt in between, while student answers).

Role of students:

1. Participate when called up.
2. Answer question as carefully and clearly as possible.
3. Address the whole class so everyone can hear.
4. Be as precise as possible in the interest of maximum classroom time and effectiveness.

Merits and Demerits of Socratic questioning

Merits:

1. interactive classroom
2. participation
3. two ways learning
4. independent work
5. think and do rather than just remember
6. handling incorrect responses or no responses
7. supports active student centered learning
8. helps student to construct knowledge
9. helps students to develop problem solving skills
10. improves long term retention of knowledge
11. fosters students' meta-cognition (thinking on thinking)

Demerits:

1. time consuming
2. student's level
3. fear of questions
4. teacher should have patience
5. calling students randomly maximizes incorrect responses.  

Reflection no.6

After we were done with the inductive teaching strategy we moved on to deductive teaching strategy whereby I learned that deductive teaching  means we present all the rules and the general concept followed by application of the particular principles basically leading the students from unknown to known, abstract to concrete and complex to simple.

Purpose of deductive teaching strategy:

1. Students are taken as blank slates which means it is a teacher centered.
2.  This strategy limits the thinking ability of the students because it is a teacher centered, which will develop dependency in the students.
3. This strategy is basically used to help students with learning disability to enhance their learning.

Phases of deductive teaching strategy:

1. Presentation of abstraction.
2. The teacher illustrates it with examples.
3. Students give examples of concept andapply them in new situations.
4. Students restate the concept or definition that they have learned.

Advantages of deductive teaching strategy:

1. Less time consuming.
2. It is different from rote learning as it is a strategy where logical interlinking of the elements is encouraged.
3. Most of the school materials /curriculum can be easily taught through deductive strategy.
4. This method involves all levels of questions.

 Disadvantages of deductive teaching strategy:

1. Students are not actively involved in the beginning of the lesson.
2. Since it is a teacher centered approach, it may not be challenging for the brighter students.

Role of teachers:

1. Teachers need to plan and prepare the detail information including materials.
2. Since it is teacher centered approach, most of the work is done by the teachers.
3. Provides guidance and scaffolding.

Reflection no.5:

With regards to the  previous class, in today's class I got clear understanding of  scaffolding. Scaffolding means asking the questions in the simplified way instead of telling the answer. e.g: if we want the student to know about the adjective, we won't directly say that adjective is a describing word (she(noun) is beautiful (adjective)) instead we would ask them what is their understanding of adjective based on their previous/past knowledge and then set some examples and non-examples of adjective, prompt the students to identify the patterns in the examples. After they are familiar with the examples and non-examples we can let the students to define the adjective.

(Reflection no.3 and 4, on Wednesday and Thursday, 14^th and 15^th of March)

 I knew that inductive teaching means an inquiry or discovery based learning where by learners are taken from what they know to what they don’t know or simple to complex or concrete to abstract. The application of knowledge in inductive teaching is from known to unknown. Along that I also came across the;

1.       Concept of inductive teaching/learning strategy=discovery teaching/learning (inquiry based).

         Provide specific information to learners and ask them to explore.

Inductive teaching strategy

Guided strategy               unguided strategy

Under guided strategy: clear instruction and hints are given to the students to let them think out of box and come up with concrete conclusion.

Under unguided strategy: teacher will just be the guide, e.g. field trip (where by learners shares their exploration with a specific conclusion).

2.       Purpose of inductive teaching/learning (constructivism) =motivate both the teacher and students.

Enhance class participation (student centered) and team work.

Makes class interesting and understanding.

3.       Procedural steps of teaching/learning strategy = OEP (open ended phase), COP (convergent phase), CP (closure phase), AP (application phase (how the knowledge is transferred in real life/applied practically)).

4.       Role of teachers=provide guidance (scaffolding-a range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but possible with the help of adults of more skilled peers.)Modeling (demonstration).

Coaching (instruction by teachers and performance by students).

Prompting and facilitating (encouragement, directing, giving hints, feedback etc…).

Giving opportunity to students.

5.       Merits of this strategy;

a) Can be used at all levels of study at varying degrees.

b) Incorporates all the questioning techniques including prompting, probing and content review.

C) Ensures greater interaction among learners, teachers and the materials.

d) Discourages wild guessing as it needs evidence.

e) It motivates children to find and learn more.

Demerits of this strategy;

a) Time consuming

b) Minimum content coverage

c) It needs verification; some of the verification has to be done in deductive strategy

d) It is frustrating for different students (slow learners won’t be able to cope with the fast       learners)

e)all topics cannot be taught inductively.

                                               

Group questions

Difference between teaching strategy, teaching method and teaching skill;
teaching strategy-it is a plan that is intended to achieve a particular purpose of teaching
                          or carrying out a plan in a skillful way.
                          
teaching method-it is a particular way of teaching (tactics) used to carry out strategies in particular situations
                          or is the quality of being well planned and organized.
                         
teaching skill-unlike strategy, skill is more specific or in context of teaching, it can be termed as an ability
                     to teach a particular subject or topic well.
                     

Some characteristics of an affective teacher are, who is;

1. able to vary their teaching styles according to the understanding of the learners
2. able to adapt to the different sorts of teaching-learning situations that may develop
3.  possess effective way of interacting with the learners
4.  has interest to learn more than teaching
5. gives equal concern to both the low and high achievers
6. has good command over language