Unit 1: Teaching Aptitude mind map

What teaching is, what it aims at, and the levels and phases of teaching.

What is teaching

Concept of teaching

Teaching is a planned activity in which a more knowing person helps a learner to learn.

• Planned and purposeful. It always has an aim.
• Interaction between a better knower and a lesser knower.
• It is a social act.
• Pedagogy means the teaching-learning process.

Teaching is not just telling. The teacher plans, guides and checks, and the learner takes part.

Good teaching creates the conditions in which learning can happen. Albert Einstein said that he never teaches his pupils but only provides the conditions in which they can learn.

Teaching must not use fear or corporal punishment. Beating students is a criminal offence and is never part of teaching.

Teaching versus learning

Teaching is done by the teacher. Learning happens inside the learner.

• Teaching is a social act. Learning is a personal act.
• Teaching is like selling. Learning is like buying.
• Teaching influence is aimed at the learner. Learning influence is aimed at oneself.
• Teaching does not always lead to learning.

The two are linked but they are not the same. A teacher can teach well and a learner may still not learn.

A learner can also learn without a teacher, for example by reading or by experience.

Characteristics of a teaching act

A teaching act has a clear aim, a plan and a two-way exchange.

• Goal-directed and planned.
• Interactive. Teacher and learners respond to each other.
• Complex social process.
• Can be observed, judged and improved.

The syllabus calls teaching a complex social process in which teacher and learners together try to reach the objectives.

Teaching is both an art and a science. As a science it is systematic and logically planned. As an art it needs creativity and personal style.

Teaching, instruction, training and conditioning

Different words describe different purposes of teaching.

• Instruction: giving knowledge and information.
• Training: building skills by practice.
• Conditioning: shaping behaviour and conduct.
• Indoctrination: forming firm beliefs.
• Teaching and training are not the same thing.

Teaching is a wide word. It can include instruction, training and conditioning, but it should never become blind indoctrination.

A teacher uses the right act for the right purpose. Facts need instruction, skills need training, and habits need conditioning.

Basic requirements of good teaching

Good teaching needs a responsive human environment, clear aims and resources.

• Clear objectives.
• Responsiveness to the child and to the group.
• Good communication skills.
• Adequate resources and technology.
• Not a rigid plan.

A teacher must respond to the learners. A plan that cannot change when the class needs something else is a weak plan.

Teaching only what is in the book, or sticking to rigid methods, is not a requirement of effective teaching.

The teaching process

A teaching process moves from the goal to the assessment of performance.

• Instructional goal.
• Entering behaviour of the learner.
• Instructional procedure.
• Performance assessment.

First the teacher fixes the goal. Then the teacher finds out what the learner already knows. This is called the entering behaviour.

The teacher then teaches, and finally checks how well the goal was reached.

Objectives and taxonomies

Objectives of teaching

Objectives are the intended learning outcomes of teaching.

• Learning objectives = intended learning outcomes.
• They tell what the learner should be able to do.
• Written in action words.
• Following a rigid plan is not an objective.

Objectives guide the choice of content, method and test. They answer the question 'what will the learner be able to do at the end'.

A good objective uses an action word such as 'define', 'explain' or 'solve'. A word such as 'know' is too vague to measure.

Bloom's taxonomy: the cognitive domain

Bloom arranged thinking objectives in six levels, from simple to complex.

• Knowledge, Comprehension, Application.
• Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation.
• Evaluation is the highest level.
• Comprehension = understanding the meaning of material.

Knowledge means recalling facts. Comprehension means explaining them in your own words. Application means using them in a new situation.

Analysis means breaking a whole into parts. Synthesis means putting parts together into something new. Evaluation means judging by a standard.

Sample action words: define (knowledge), explain (comprehension), apply (application), compare (analysis), design (synthesis), appraise (evaluation).

Revised Bloom's taxonomy

The revised taxonomy uses verbs and puts 'create' at the top.

• Remember, Understand, Apply.
• Analyse, Evaluate, Create.
• Create is the highest.
• Rote learning reaches only 'remember'.

Anderson and Krathwohl revised the taxonomy in 2001. They changed the nouns into verbs and swapped the last two levels.

Learning by heart gives only the first level, which is remembering. Real understanding needs the higher levels.

Knowledge dimensions

The revised taxonomy also names four kinds of knowledge.

• Factual: basic facts and terms.
• Conceptual: ideas, categories and principles.
• Procedural: how to do something, methods of inquiry.
• Metacognitive: knowledge about one's own thinking.

Factual knowledge is the 'what'. Conceptual knowledge is the 'why'. Procedural knowledge is the 'how'. Metacognitive knowledge is the 'how I think'.

Knowing why something happens, for example that melanin decides skin tone and a cream cannot change it, is understanding-based (conceptual) knowledge.

Affective domain objectives

The affective domain deals with feelings, values and attitudes.

• Receiving.
• Responding.
• Valuing.
• Organising.
• Characterisation by a value.

At first the learner only pays attention (receiving). Then the learner takes part (responding) and accepts the worth of the idea (valuing).

The learner then builds a value system (organising). At the top, the value becomes part of the person's character (characterisation), and the learner acts on it consistently.

Psychomotor domain objectives

The psychomotor domain deals with physical skills and movement.

• Perception.
• Set.
• Guided response.
• Mechanism.
• Complex overt response.

The order runs from simple to complex. First the learner notices cues (perception) and is ready to act (set).

Then the learner copies with help (guided response), performs habitually (mechanism) and finally performs complex skills smoothly (complex overt response).

Action words such as 'stretch', 'balance' and 'manipulate' are psychomotor. Words like 'justify' and 'change' belong to other domains.

Learning outcomes and outcome-based education

Outcomes say what a learner can do after learning. Higher outcomes ask for thinking.

• Low outcome: learning facts and rules.
• High outcome: concepts, abstractions, applying and creating.
• Programme outcomes show what a graduate can do.
• Curriculum design starts with desired outcomes.

In outcome-based education the teacher first decides the outcome. Then comes content, then teaching and learning, and then assessment.

When a programme ends, students should have attained the programme outcomes.

Levels and phases of teaching

Memory level of teaching

Memory level teaching aims at remembering facts. It is the lowest level.

• Focus: recall of facts.
• Learner is passive.
• Lower-order outcomes.
• Example: 'What is the height of the Qutub Minar?'

The teacher presents information in a systematic way and the learner stores it. Thinking is not needed.

This level is a base for higher levels. But if teaching stops here, learners only cram.

Understanding level of teaching

Understanding level teaching helps learners see relationships and principles.

• Learner explains in own words.
• Seeks patterns among facts.
• The teacher gives positive and negative examples.
• Includes the memory level.

At this level the teacher asks 'why' and 'how'. Learners relate facts, apply principles and explain ideas with examples.

Using many examples and non-examples is a mark of understanding level teaching. It is not about critical reflection, which is the next level.

Reflective level of teaching

Reflective level teaching builds problem solving and critical thinking. It is the highest level.

• Highest order thinking.
• Learner explores and explains problems and solutions.
• Critical review of ideas.
• Includes memory and understanding levels.

Here the teacher is a guide. Learners study a problem, think about it and judge solutions. For example, a documentary is shown and students review it critically.

Understanding level asks 'do you understand'. Reflective level asks 'what do you think and why'.

Autonomous development level and the levels compared

Some lists add a level where the learner works on their own.

• Memory, Understanding, Reflective are the three core levels.
• 'Analytical' is not a level of teaching.
• Each higher level includes the lower ones.
• Higher level = more learner thinking.

The three levels named in the syllabus are memory, understanding and reflective. In some accounts a fourth level is added, called autonomous development, where the learner is largely independent.

When a question asks 'which is not a level of teaching', pick the name that does not belong, such as analytical.

Phases of teaching

Teaching has three phases: planning, doing and checking.

• Pre-active: setting goals and content, planning.
• Interactive: teaching in class, including diagnosis of learners.
• Post-active: feedback, testing and evaluation.

Philip Jackson described the three phases. The pre-active phase happens before class, when the teacher decides the goals and the content.

The interactive phase is the class itself. The post-active phase is after class, when the teacher gives feedback and tests the learners.

Planning teaching

Planning means deciding what to teach and how to teach it.

• Content selection.
• Choice of method and teaching aids.
• Setting of outcomes and assessment.
• Pre-planning comes before the lesson plan.

Planning teaching is making decisions. The two main decisions are about content and about the way to teach it.

Good planning also lists the teaching aids and the outcomes before the class starts.

How learners differ, how they think, how they like to learn, and how to support special learners.

Characteristics of learners

Individual differences

Learners differ from one another in many ways. A good teacher teaches with this in mind.

• Differences in ability, interest, speed and background.
• Natural. Heredity and environment both play a part.
• Cultural background affects learning.
• Height, blood group and complexion do not affect learning.

No two learners are alike. Some learn fast, some slowly. Some like pictures, some like words.

Individual differences are a natural fact. Both heredity and environment shape them. Heredity affects learning ability, but it does not decide everything.

Features such as height, blood group and complexion do not change how well a person can learn. Age and cultural background can.

Cognitive characteristics

Cognitive characteristics are about thinking, knowing and remembering.

• Intelligence and ability.
• Memory and attention.
• Level of visual literacy.
• Cognitive development = building of thought, including remembering, problem solving and decision making.

Cognition covers everything the mind does to gain knowledge. In everyday talk, words such as 'paying attention', 'planning', 'forgetting', 'guessing' and 'daydreaming' point to cognitive concepts.

Visual literacy, the ability to read pictures and charts, is a cognitive characteristic of a learner.

Non-cognitive characteristics

Non-cognitive characteristics are about feelings, attitudes and personality.

• Interest, attitude and motivation.
• Personality and self-concept.
• Beliefs and values.
• Believing what is true is not a cognitive skill. It is non-cognitive.

These traits do not measure how clever a learner is. They decide how willing and how steady the learner is.

Interest grows in stages. It begins with triggered situational interest, then is maintained, then becomes an emerging individual interest, and finally a well-developed individual interest.

Social and emotional characteristics

These describe how a learner relates to others and handles feelings.

• Ability to relate oneself with others is a social characteristic.
• Shyness that keeps a child from playing is a problem of social development.
• Emotional intelligence: recognising and managing emotions.
• Control over emotions is the hardest skill to develop.

A child who does not want to play because of shyness is showing a gap in social development, not in physical or mental development.

In public speaking and debate, control over emotions is the hardest skill to train, because fear and anger arise on their own.

What decides academic performance

Intelligence and motivation are the main determinants of academic performance.

• Intelligence.
• Motivation.
• Family structure, socio-economic status, cultural background and type of school also matter.
• Physique and gender are not strong predictors.

Of all factors, ability and the will to learn matter most. Home, school and culture shape the chances a learner gets.

Belief in God or an indifferent attitude do not harm performance. Low self-efficacy does.

Characteristics which help the learner's perspective are commitment, prior knowledge and parents' interest.

Adolescent learners

Adolescents are self-conscious, looking for identity, and strongly influenced by heroes and peers.

• Hero worship shapes social and moral development.
• They do not have uniform physical development.
• They do not have stable self-concepts.
• Increasing ability to deal with abstract ideas.

During adolescence the body changes fast and unevenly. The self-concept is still forming, so it is not stable.

Adolescents look up to heroes and try to copy their values. At the same time, their thinking becomes abstract, as Piaget's formal operational stage says.

Adolescents tend to be self-aware but they do not yet have a clear sense of identity. They are still exploring.

Factors that influence learning

Learning depends on the learner, the content, the teacher and the setting.

• Learner-related: aspiration, achievement motivation, readiness, will power.
• Content-related: organisation of the learning experience.
• Social competence: socio-economic status, motivation, intelligence.
• Learning needs an engaging environment and a suitable curriculum.

Factors that do not relate to the content are the learner's readiness, will power and basic abilities.

Effective learning needs a comprehensive approach. It needs a good curriculum, engaging activities and a supportive environment. An open-book examination is not by itself such a factor.

Intelligence and thinking

Intelligence: g factor, mental age and IQ

Intelligence is the ability to learn, reason and adapt. It is measured by tests.

• Spearman: a general factor 'g', called mental energy.
• Intelligence is partly inherited.
• Mental age and IQ show developmental status on a scale.
• IQ = (mental age / chronological age) x 100.

Spearman said that all mental abilities share one general factor, which he called general intelligence or mental energy. The idea is said to come from Aristotle.

Mental age and IQ are indices which show where a person stands on a particular intelligence scale.

Intelligence is partly inherited and partly shaped by environment.

Multiple intelligences

Howard Gardner said that there are many kinds of intelligence.

• Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial.
• Musical, bodily-kinaesthetic.
• Interpersonal (others) and intrapersonal (self).
• Naturalistic.

A learner may be strong in music but weak in mathematics. Teaching in many ways helps every kind of learner.

Interpersonal means understanding other people. Intrapersonal means understanding oneself.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is knowing and managing one's own and others' feelings.

• Recognise your own emotions.
• Recognise other people's emotions.
• Manage emotions well.
• Use emotions to guide action.

Learners with high emotional intelligence work better in groups and handle stress better.

It is not the same as expressing every emotion openly. It is about understanding and managing them.

Creativity and the creative process

Creativity is producing new and useful ideas. It follows a process.

• Preparation.
• Incubation.
• Illumination.
• Evaluation.
• Revision.

First the person gathers information and studies the problem (preparation). Then the mind works on it in the background (incubation).

A sudden insight comes (illumination). The idea is then tested (evaluation) and improved (revision).

Some degree of intelligence is needed for creativity, but high intelligence does not guarantee it.

Thinking, heuristics and biases

People use mental shortcuts which can lead to errors.

• Availability heuristic: judging by how easily examples come to mind.
• Confirmation bias: looking only for support of what you believe.
• Belief perseverance: holding on to a belief despite proof.
• Overconfidence bias: overestimating one's own accuracy.

If you have often seen planes crash on the news, you may overestimate how often planes crash. That is the availability heuristic.

Decision making means choosing among options. Biases can spoil it, so a teacher should teach learners to check their thinking.

Problem solving

Problem solving follows steps from understanding the problem to checking the solution.

• Define the problem.
• Generate many possible solutions.
• Evaluate the options.
• Choose and decide.
• Implement and evaluate the result.

Do not jump to a solution. First be clear about the problem, then think of many solutions before choosing one.

Critical and logical thinking also involves identifying the problem, analysing it and testing the answer.

Perception

Perception is how the mind makes sense of what the senses receive.

• Perceptual constancy: an object seems to stay the same even when the image changes.
• A car that moves away looks smaller, but we know it is not shrinking.
• Perception is shaped by experience.

Perceptual constancy lets us see the world as stable. Size constancy, shape constancy and colour constancy are examples.

Learning styles

Learning styles: the idea

A learning style is a learner's preferred way of learning.

• It is a way 'how' the student learns.
• Strengths and preferences of the learner.
• Styles are not the same as ability.
• Teachers should use a variety of ways.

Some learners like to listen, some to see and some to do. A style shows a preference. It does not show how intelligent a learner is.

Kolb's learning styles

Kolb described four styles from the learning cycle.

• Diverger: concrete experience and reflection. Good at imagining and seeing many views.
• Assimilator: theory and reflection. Good at creating theoretical models.
• Converger: theory and action. Good at practical application.
• Accommodator: experience and action. Best at hands-on, concrete tasks.

Kolb used two pairs of opposites. They are 'doing or watching' and 'feeling or thinking'. The four styles come from combining them.

Reflective and impulsive cognitive style

Some learners take time to think before answering. That is a reflective style.

• Reflective style: takes more time to check the accuracy of an answer.
• Impulsive style: answers fast, with more errors.
• Neither is wrong. Both have strengths.

A reflective learner delays the answer to be sure it is right. An impulsive learner responds quickly.

Special learners and adult learners

Learning difficulties

Some learners have specific difficulties. They are not due to lack of effort.

• Dyslexia: difficulty in reading.
• Dysgraphia: difficulty in writing.
• Dyscalculia: difficulty in mathematics.
• ADHD: difficulty in paying attention and controlling activity.

These learners need patient support, different methods and extra time. The teacher must not label them as lazy.

Inclusive education and UDL

Inclusive education means all learners learn together and no child is left behind.

• No child is left behind.
• Learning for all means inclusive and equitable education.
• UDL = Universal Design for Learning.
• All students share their unique views in an inclusive class.

In an inclusive classroom every learner is welcome. The teacher changes methods and material so that each learner can take part.

Universal Design for Learning plans lessons from the start so that they can be used by all kinds of learners.

Adult learners: andragogy and heutagogy

Adults learn differently from children. Their teaching is called andragogy.

• Andragogy: the study of methods and principles of adult education.
• It uses role playing, simulation and self-evaluation.
• Heutagogy: self-determined learning with focus on knowing how to learn.
• Pedagogy: how children are taught.

Malcolm Knowles popularised andragogy. Adults are self-directed, bring experience, and want to learn what they can use at once.

Heutagogy goes further. The learner decides what to learn and how. It stresses learning how to learn.

Student behaviour and teacher-student relationship

A good relationship with learners supports learning.

• Truancy: staying away from school or class without permission.
• Teachers must encourage learners to ask questions.
• A teacher who punishes questions is not a positive example.
• Teacher affect is the base of a warm relationship.

Truancy means willingly staying absent without permission. The teacher should find the cause and talk to the learner and family.

Positive relations include helping learners, giving feedback and listening. Punishing students for asking questions is a negative example.

The big theories of development, and the Indian and world thinkers on education.

Cognitive and social development

Piaget: four stages of thinking

Piaget said that a child's thinking grows through four stages in a fixed order.

• Sensorimotor: birth to 2 years.
• Preoperational: 2 to 7 years.
• Concrete operational: 7 to 11 years.
• Formal operational: 11 years and above.

In the sensorimotor stage the child learns through the senses and actions. In the preoperational stage the child uses words and images but thinks in a self-centred way.

In the concrete operational stage the child thinks logically about real objects. In the formal operational stage the learner can reason about ideas and possibilities, so adolescents are in this stage.

Some books split the preoperational stage into a preconceptual and an intuitive stage, so you may see 'intuitive stage' for ages 4 to 7.

Piaget: assimilation, accommodation, equilibration

These are the processes by which a child adjusts to new experiences.

• Schema: a mental pattern for understanding.
• Assimilation: fitting new information into an existing schema.
• Accommodation: changing the schema to fit new information.
• Equilibration: balancing the two.
• Adaptation: the overall adjustment to the environment.

A child has learned to get things by force from a younger sibling. The child then uses the same tactic on a peer. The old pattern is applied to a new case. That is assimilation.

When the old pattern fails and the child changes it, that is accommodation. Equilibration is the push towards balance.

Vygotsky: social learning and the ZPD

Vygotsky said that learning comes from social interaction.

• Learning occurs through social interaction and collaboration.
• ZPD: gap between what a child does alone and what the child does with help.
• Scaffolding: support that is slowly withdrawn.
• Language and culture shape thinking.

A child of class one cannot draw a circle alone but can do it with the teacher's help. The task lies in the Zone of Proximal Development.

A teacher or a more skilled peer gives support. As the child improves, the support is removed. Vygotsky saw the teacher-child relation as socially constructed development.

Erikson: eight psychosocial stages

Erikson described eight stages. Each has a crisis to resolve.

• Trust vs mistrust: infancy, feeding.
• Autonomy vs shame and doubt: toilet training.
• Initiative vs guilt.
• Industry vs inferiority.
• Identity vs role confusion: adolescence.
• Intimacy vs isolation.
• Generativity vs stagnation.
• Integrity vs despair: reflection and acceptance.

Erikson's theory is called psychosocial because social experience drives the growth. Feeding comes first, then toilet training, then the later childhood stages.

In old age, a person looks back on life and either accepts it (integrity) or regrets it (despair).

Freud: psychosexual stages

Freud described five stages of personality development.

• Oral.
• Anal.
• Phallic.
• Latency.
• Genital.

Each stage has a focus of pleasure. Too much or too little satisfaction can cause fixation. For example, over-indulgence at the oral stage causes fixation.

In the phallic stage the Oedipus complex appears. A boy feels love for the mother and hostility towards the father.

Freud's theory is 'psychosexual'. Erikson's is 'psychosocial'. Do not mix them up.

Kohlberg: moral development

Kohlberg described moral growth in three levels with six stages.

• Preconventional: obedience and punishment, rewards and exchange.
• Conventional: good-boy, good-girl orientation, law and order.
• Postconventional: social contract, universal principles.
• Moral reasoning matures with age and thinking.

At the first level a child obeys to avoid punishment or to gain rewards. At the second level the child follows rules to be approved and to keep order.

At the third level the person follows universal ethical principles even against the law. Any option such as 'intellectual disability orientation' is not a Kohlberg stage.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Maslow arranged needs like a ladder. Lower needs must be met first.

• Physiological needs.
• Safety needs.
• Love and belongingness.
• Esteem needs.
• Self-actualisation.

A hungry or frightened learner cannot concentrate. The teacher must meet basic needs before asking for excellence.

To promote competence and excellence through education, the need for self-actualisation has to be addressed.

Adolescent identity and peer groups

Adolescents form groups and search for identity.

• Cliques: small, close and intimate groups.
• Crowds: larger, less intimate and more loosely organised groups.
• Identity diffusion: no exploration and no commitment.
• Moratorium: exploring but not yet committed.

James Marcia described four identity statuses. Identity diffusion means the person has neither explored meaningful alternatives nor made a commitment.

Moratorium means the person is actively exploring. Foreclosure means commitment without exploring. Identity achievement means exploring and then committing.

In sociometry, small groups made up of individuals who choose one another are called cliques.

Philosophers and thinkers

Panchakosha: the five sheaths

The Taittiriya Upanishad describes five layers of a person.

• Annamaya: physical body.
• Pranamaya: vital energy.
• Manomaya: mind.
• Vijnanamaya: intellect.
• Anandamaya: bliss.

Lower order to higher order the sheaths are physical, vital, mental, intellectual and blissful. Indian education aims at developing all five layers.

John Dewey

Dewey saw school as a social institution and education as a social process.

• School is a small community.
• Education is a social process.
• Education is tripolar: learner, teacher and society.
• Learning by doing and through experience.

Dewey said that education should connect the child with society. Learners show their knowledge through creativity and collaboration.

The project method is linked with Dewey's ideas. Kilpatrick later developed and popularised it.

Rabindranath Tagore

Tagore wanted free, natural and creative education.

• Four principles: naturalism, humanism, internationalism, idealism.
• Learning in the lap of nature.
• He founded Santiniketan.
• Freedom and creativity.

Tagore believed that education should not make children prisoners of the classroom. Nature is the best teacher.

Gandhi, Aurobindo, Vivekananda and others

Several Indian thinkers gave a view on the aim of education.

• Gandhi: basic education, learning through a craft.
• Aurobindo: integral education.
• Swami Vivekananda: education is the manifestation of perfection already in man.
• Krishnamurti: education that transforms the human mind.

Vivekananda said that education is not information piled up in the mind. It brings out the perfection already within the learner.

Aurobindo's integral education develops body, life, mind, psyche and spirit together. Gandhi's basic education joins learning with a productive craft.

Pestalozzi, a Swiss educator, wrote 'Evening Hours of a Hermit'. The book asks for education to follow the natural development of the child.

Philosophies of education

Different philosophies give different roles to the teacher.

• Idealism: the teacher's personality is very important.
• Pragmatism: the teacher's personality has limited importance.
• Naturalism: nature and child's freedom.
• Education builds character and enables the learner to live well.

In idealism the teacher is a model, so personality matters greatly. In pragmatism the learner's experience and problem solving are central, so the teacher is a guide of limited importance.

Education builds character and enables a learner to face life. This is stated as an aim of education.

Holistic education and NEP vision

Holistic education develops the whole person.

• Curriculum and pedagogy should be holistic, integrated, enjoyable, flexible and engaging.
• Outcome-based education along with value education.
• Develops head, heart and hands.

To develop students holistically, a teacher should combine outcome-based education with value education. Marks alone are not enough.

How people learn, the learning theories, transfer, memory, forgetting and motivation.

Nature of learning and good learners

Nature of learning

Learning is a relatively lasting change in behaviour caused by experience.

• Learning is a process, not a pastime.
• Learning is selecting the right response and connecting it to the stimulus.
• It can be shown only through performance.
• Learning is also a social construct.

Learning changes what a person knows or can do. The change lasts, so a temporary change due to tiredness or drugs is not learning.

Learning is considered a social construct because people build meaning together in a group and a culture.

Self-regulated learning

A self-regulated learner plans, monitors and adjusts their own learning.

• Analyse the task.
• Set goals.
• Devise plans.
• Enact tactics and strategies.
• Regulate and adapt the learning.

Such a learner has knowledge about themselves, the subject and the task, and about strategies for learning. Language plays an important role in self-regulation.

The steps run in a cycle. After the learning, the learner reflects and adjusts the plan for the next time.

Self-directed learning

In self-directed learning the learner takes charge of the learning.

• Learner takes ownership of learning.
• Self-monitoring.
• Intrinsic motivation.
• Learner chooses goals and resources.
• It is not passive and not teacher-oriented.

A self-directed learner decides what to learn, how to learn and how to check progress. The teacher acts as a guide.

Passive learning, remedial teaching and teacher-oriented work are not features of self-directed learning.

Learning to learn and deliberate practice

Learners should be helped to learn how to learn.

• Organise teaching to increase opportunity for transfer.
• Deliberate practice needs tasks of the right difficulty.
• A task that is too easy or too hard is not deliberate practice.
• We remember the most through multi-sensory perception.

Deliberate practice means focused practice with feedback on tasks just beyond one's present skill. Tasks that are too easy bore the learner. Tasks that are too hard frustrate.

Learning through many senses, such as seeing, hearing and doing, gives the most lasting memory.

Factors affecting learning

Learning is shaped by learner factors and content factors.

• Learner: aspiration, achievement motivation, readiness, will power.
• Content: organisation of the learning experience.
• Family structure, socio-economic status, culture.
• Type of school.

Learner-related factors are those inside the learner, such as level of aspiration, achievement motivation and readiness.

Materials with a clear, well-organised structure help learning. Highly structured and individualised material is found in programmed instruction and modular learning.

Theories of learning

Associationism and contiguity

Early theories said that learning is the linking of ideas or events.

• Law of contiguity: ideas that occur together become linked.
• Watson stressed the importance of frequency.
• Contiguity theory gives no place to effect (reward) in learning.
• Guthrie is linked to contiguity.

One idea leads to another because in the past they have occurred together in time. This is the law of contiguity.

Watson's behaviourism stressed that the more often a stimulus and response occur together, the stronger the link. Contiguity theory does not need a reward.

Classical conditioning: Pavlov

In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus gets the power of a natural stimulus.

• Unconditioned stimulus: food.
• Unconditioned response: salivation.
• Conditioned stimulus: bell.
• Conditioned response: salivation at the bell.
• Reflex actions are unlearned.

Pavlov rang a bell every time he gave food to a dog. After some time the dog salivated at the bell alone.

A reflex, such as withdrawing the hand from a pin prick, is automatic. It is not learned.

Thorndike's laws of learning

Thorndike said that learning is the forming of bonds between stimulus and response.

• Primary laws: readiness, exercise, effect.
• Secondary laws: multiple response, set or attitude, prepotency of elements, response by analogy, associative shifting.
• Law of effect: a satisfying result strengthens the bond.
• Law of exercise: practice strengthens the bond.

Learning by trial and error leads to the right response. Success stamps it in.

Of the options often shown, the law of multiple response, associative shifting and the law of analogy are secondary laws. The laws of effect and exercise are primary.

The theory of identical elements says that transfer happens when two tasks share common elements. This is why physics and mathematics can be studied together.

Operant conditioning: Skinner

Skinner said that behaviour is shaped by its consequences.

• Positive reinforcement: add a reward. Behaviour increases.
• Negative reinforcement: remove an unpleasant thing. Behaviour increases.
• Punishment: behaviour decreases.
• Extinction: behaviour fades when it is no longer reinforced.

Reinforcement always increases a behaviour. Punishment always reduces it. Negative reinforcement is not punishment.

Schedules of reinforcement: fixed ratio gives a reward after a set number of responses. Variable ratio gives it after an unpredictable number. Fixed interval gives it after a set time. Variable interval gives it after an unpredictable time.

Fixed interval means individuals are reinforced for the first response after a fixed period.

Behaviour modification techniques

These techniques use learning principles to change behaviour.

• Shaping: reward small steps towards the goal.
• Token economy: tokens exchanged for rewards.
• Extinction: stop rewarding unwanted behaviour.
• Modelling: learning by watching a model.

Teachers can use rewards, praise and tokens to build good habits in the classroom. The aim is to change behaviour in the wanted direction.

Models of teaching in this family include assertive training, anxiety reduction, direct training and programmed instruction.

Latent learning

Latent learning is learning that stays hidden until there is a reason to show it.

• A new behaviour is acquired but not shown.
• It appears when reinforcement is given.
• Tolman showed it in rats in a maze.

The learner has learned the route but does not show it. When a reward is offered, the learner performs well at once.

Observational learning: Bandura

Bandura said that we learn by watching others.

• Attention.
• Retention.
• Reproduction (production).
• Motivation.

First the learner pays attention to the model. Then the learner remembers it, is able to reproduce it, and is motivated to do so.

Adaptation is not one of the four elements.

Information processing approach

This approach compares the mind to a computer that takes in, stores and uses information.

• Input, processing, storage, output.
• Attention, memory and thinking are studied.
• It does categorise types of knowledge.
• Memory stores: sensory, short-term, long-term.

Information-processing theory explains how attention, perception and memory work together. It does categorise types of knowledge, such as declarative and procedural.

Humanistic approach

Humanistic learning puts the whole person, feelings and self-growth first.

• Emphasis on self-motivation.
• Learning at higher levels of need.
• Freedom to learn.
• Carl Rogers and Maslow.

Humanist teachers see the learner as a person who wants to grow. The teacher makes the learner feel safe and valued.

Rogers extended his client-centred view to education. His non-directive model of teaching nurtures students rather than controlling the sequence of learning.

Constructivism

Constructivism says that learners build knowledge for themselves.

• Learner builds meaning from experience.
• Teacher is a guide, not a source who pours knowledge.
• Prior knowledge is the base.
• Constructivist 5E: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate.

A constructivist teacher does not give study material to be memorised. The teacher creates tasks that make learners think and discover.

The 5E order is Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate.

Situated cognition and cognitive apprenticeship

Learning is best when it happens in a real setting, beside an expert.

• Situated cognition: thinking is located in social and physical contexts, not only in the mind.
• Cognitive apprenticeship: a less experienced learner learns from an expert.
• Modelling, scaffolding, articulation, exploration.
• Support is faded as the learner grows.

A learner who learns craft by working beside a master is in a cognitive apprenticeship. The expert models the task, then supports the learner, then steps back.

Scaffolding means providing hints and clues at first and gradually reducing them. Assisted learning of this kind gives the most help at the start and less later.

Kolb's experiential learning cycle

Experiential learning is learning from experience, in a cycle.

• Concrete experience.
• Reflective observation.
• Abstract conceptualisation.
• Active experimentation.
• The teacher supports it. The teacher cannot be replaced by technology alone.

A learner has an experience, thinks about it, forms an idea, and then tests the idea in a new situation. The cycle repeats.

In experiential learning, the teacher is a guide who sets up experiences and helps reflection.

Transfer of learning

Kinds of transfer

Transfer means using what you learned in one situation in another.

• Positive transfer: earlier learning helps. Algebra helps calculus.
• Negative transfer: earlier learning hinders. Dialling an old number.
• Zero transfer: no effect. Carpentry and painting.

Mastering algebra helps in understanding calculus, which is positive transfer. Learning the piano making the violin harder would be negative transfer. Dialling a friend's old number after it changed is also negative transfer.

Using carpentry skills to excel in painting shows no connection. That is zero transfer.

Low-road and high-road transfer

Transfer can be automatic or deliberate.

• Low-road transfer: automatic, often unconscious.
• High-road transfer: conscious and effortful.
• Forward-reaching: preparing for future use.
• Backward-reaching: looking back to find past learning that fits.
• Near transfer: similar situation. Far transfer: very different situation.

Low-road transfer happens when a practised skill is triggered by a similar cue. High-road transfer needs mindful abstraction and effort.

A student who uses geometry learned in class to solve a spatial problem in an architect's office, a very different setting, shows far transfer.

Memory

The stores of memory

Atkinson and Shiffrin described three memory stores.

• Sensory memory: lasts a moment.
• Short-term memory: small and brief. About seven items.
• Long-term memory: large and lasting.
• Memory span: the number of digits one can report without error.

Information flows from the senses to short-term memory and, with rehearsal, to long-term memory. Repeating a phone number over and over while dialling uses short-term memory.

Short-term memory does not keep the sensory information in its original form. It is changed in the process.

Baddeley's working memory

Working memory is the temporary holding and processing of information for a task.

• Central executive: the controller.
• Phonological loop: sounds and words.
• Visuospatial sketchpad: pictures and positions.
• Episodic buffer: combines information from the parts.

Repeating words such as 'see-saw' quickly uses the phonological loop. Pressing keys in a clockwise pattern uses the visuospatial sketchpad.

The episodic buffer integrates information from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and long-term memory.

Types of long-term memory

Long-term memory is explicit (conscious) or implicit (unconscious).

• Explicit or declarative: episodic and semantic.
• Episodic: events of one's life.
• Semantic: facts and general knowledge.
• Implicit: procedural, priming and classical conditioning effects.

Declarative memory is recall of information that can be stated. Episodic memory stores personal events. Semantic memory stores general knowledge about the world and rules of logic.

Procedural memory is 'how to' knowledge, like riding a bicycle. Priming is easier recall of related information because of earlier exposure, without conscious memory of the earlier exposure.

Remembering the author of a book is semantic memory. Recalling your last birthday party is episodic memory.

Encoding, retrieval and recall

Memory works in steps and can be tested in several ways.

• Retention: keeping information.
• Recall: bringing it back without cues.
• Recognition: spotting it when shown.
• Level-of-processing: deeper mental analysis gives better memory.
• Schemas: organised knowledge that guides interpretation.

Remembering is the whole process. Retention is storage, recall is reviving it mentally, and recognition is identifying it when you see it.

The level-of-processing theory says that the more deeply new material is mentally analysed, the better it is remembered.

Schemas are organised bodies of information stored in memory. They bias how new information is interpreted, stored and recalled. Consolidation is the process, mostly completed within several hours but sometimes lasting years, that fixes information in long-term memory.

Forgetting

We forget for different reasons.

• Decay: loss through non-use.
• Interference: other information blocks recall.
• Proactive: old material interferes with new.
• Retroactive: new material interferes with old.
• Repression: motivated forgetting of threatening events.

Decay is the loss of information through non-use. Interference is difficulty in retrieval because of other information.

In proactive inhibition, what was learned earlier interferes with recall of what was newly learned. In retroactive inhibition it is the other way round.

Repression is motivated forgetting of traumatic or threatening events. A person may know something embarrassing happened but cannot recall what it was.

Amnesia

Amnesia is a serious loss of memory.

• Retrograde amnesia: cannot recall events before the onset.
• Anterograde amnesia: cannot form new memories after the onset.

'Retro' means backward, so the person cannot remember the past. 'Antero' means forward, so the person cannot make new memories.

Motivation and self-belief

Motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic

Motivation is the drive that starts and keeps a learner going.

• Intrinsic: from inside, like interest or the joy of doing good.
• Extrinsic: from outside, like marks, salary or praise.
• Hunger is a biological motive.
• Motivation to learn: finding academic activities worthwhile.

A person who helps an elderly person because it feels good is intrinsically motivated. A handsome salary is an extrinsic reason to become a teacher, so it is not intrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation is most important for lasting learning. Extrinsic motivation is based on factors not related to the activity itself.

For self-learning, give the learner a chance to feel competent. The need for competence is a powerful motivator.

Keller's ARCS model

Keller named phases that stimulate and sustain learner motivation.

• Attention.
• Relevance.
• Confidence.
• Satisfaction.

First catch attention. Then show how the lesson is relevant to the learner. Then build confidence that success is possible, and finally give satisfaction through reward and feedback.

Self-efficacy, self-concept and teacher efficacy

Self-efficacy is the belief that one can master a task.

• Self-efficacy: belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes.
• High self-efficacy leads to effort and persistence.
• Self-concept: what a person thinks about oneself, not about others.
• Teacher's sense of efficacy: belief that one can reach even the most difficult students.

Albert Bandura introduced self-efficacy. A student who believes 'I will do well in this class' because of past success has high self-efficacy for that subject.

A student who knows that algebra is harder for them than for their sister, yet thinks practice can help, shows metacognition. Self-concept is about the self, not about what one feels about others.

Metacognition

Metacognition is thinking about one's own thinking.

• Knowledge about one's own thinking.
• Metacognitive regulation: planning, monitoring and evaluating.
• Use of learning strategies reflects metacognitive knowledge.
• A KWL chart helps students think about their own learning.

Metacognition helps learners plan, monitor and evaluate their own progress. It makes the difference in how well and how quickly a learner learns material.

The three metacognitive skills to regulate thinking are planning, monitoring and evaluating. A KWL chart asks 'what I Know, what I Want to know, what I Learned'.

What affects teaching, what makes a teacher effective, and how a good classroom runs.

Factors affecting teaching

The six factors affecting teaching

The syllabus names six groups of factors that affect teaching.

• Teacher.
• Learner.
• Support material.
• Instructional facilities.
• Learning environment.
• Institution.

Teacher factors include knowledge, skill and attitude. Learner factors include ability, motivation and background. Support material and instructional facilities include books, aids and equipment.

Learning environment is the climate of the class. Institution factors include policy, leadership, assessment rules and culture.

Match: the teacher is the source of knowledge, the learner is the receiver, the learning material carries content, and instructional facilities assist in the process.

Factors that shape teaching style

A teacher's style is shaped by several kinds of factors.

• Institutional factor: for example, assessment policy.
• Career-stage factor: how experienced the teacher is.
• Learner factor and subject factor.
• Classroom factors: learner diversity, poor ventilation, digital inequality, teacher reluctance to innovate.

A new teacher may follow the book closely. A senior teacher may be freer. An institution that demands strict assessment pushes a particular style.

In classroom practice, learner diversity needs differentiated teaching. Poor ventilation affects comfort and attention. Digital inequality blocks online learning for some learners.

Influence of support material

Support material helps only when it is suitable.

• Clarity and comprehensibility.
• Appropriateness for the learner.
• Fit with the objective.
• Quantity alone does not make material effective.

Material that is clear and suits the learner's level helps. Too much material, or material that is too hard, hinders.

What makes teaching effective

Judging effectiveness

Teaching is effective when objectives are reached with less teacher effort and more learner initiative.

• Level of realisation of instructional objectives.
• Learner initiative for self-learning.
• Quality of questions asked by students.
• Marks in overall subjects alone are not a base.

An effective teacher ensures learning outcomes with fewer resources and less effort, and the learner takes more initiative.

The quality of questions that students ask shows how well they are thinking. It reflects the quality of teaching in a class.

Key behaviours of effective teaching

Research shows five key behaviours that raise learning.

• Lesson clarity: explain concepts logically, step by step.
• Instructional variety.
• Teacher task orientation.
• Engagement of students in the learning process.
• Student success rate: a high success and low error rate.

A clear lesson is well organised and well explained. Instructional variety means using different methods, examples and media.

Task orientation means the class stays focused on learning. Engagement means students are busy and thinking. Success rate means students can do the task correctly most of the time.

Helping behaviours

Helping behaviours support the key behaviours.

• Using student ideas and contributions.
• Structuring.
• Questioning.
• Probing.
• Teacher affect.

Structuring means giving overviews and summaries to organise the lesson. Probing means asking follow-up questions to dig deeper. Teacher affect is warmth and enthusiasm.

'Key' behaviours teach directly. 'Helping' behaviours make teaching smoother.

Hindering factors and non-contributors

Some factors hinder or do not help effective teaching.

• Hindering: low teacher self-efficacy, weak subject knowledge, poor class conditions.
• Do not contribute: teacher's socio-economic background.
• Do not contribute: a skill in pleasing students.
• A reactive mode of student behaviour is not a component of effective teaching.

Factors such as a teacher's family income or the ability to merely please students do not make teaching effective. What matters is subject knowledge, skill and attitude.

Hindering factors lower the quality of teaching. A teacher who lacks self-belief or knowledge cannot teach well.

Basic requirements of effective teaching

Effective teaching needs communication skills, resources and flexibility.

• Good communication skills.
• Adequate resources and technology.
• Flexible methods.
• Teaching only what is in the curriculum is not a requirement.
• Use of rigid methods is not a requirement.

A teacher must be able to explain clearly and listen carefully. Teaching only from the text or using rigid methods restricts learning.

The teacher

Teacher competencies

A competent teacher has knowledge, skill and the right attitude.

• Planning and preparation.
• Instruction.
• Classroom environment.
• Professional responsibilities.
• Personality and attitude, such as locus of control.

Charlotte Danielson's framework groups teaching responsibility into four domains: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction and professional responsibilities.

Competencies relating to personality and attitude include locus of control and similar traits. Subject knowledge relates to another domain.

Soft skills and listening

Soft skills help a person work with others.

• Communication.
• Decision making.
• Conflict resolution.
• Leadership.
• Listening helps a teacher address the learner's requirement.

Skills to face job interviews and to get employed are also soft skills. Marketing is a business skill, not a soft skill in this list.

Listening is important for a teacher because it tells the teacher what the learner needs.

Teacher affect and teacher efficacy

Warmth and self-belief make a teacher effective.

• Teacher affect: the base of a warm, nurturing relationship.
• Teacher's sense of efficacy: belief that one can reach even difficult students.
• A teacher with commands respect finds more satisfaction in teaching.

Teacher affect is the emotional tone the teacher shows, such as warmth, enthusiasm and care. It is the foundation of a nurturing relationship with learners.

Teacher efficacy is the belief that one can reach the most difficult learners and help them learn.

Teacher conduct and professional ethics

A teacher must treat learners with respect and never use beating.

• A teacher cannot beat students. It is a criminal offence.
• Respect and fairness.
• A teacher in a college must motivate learners to learn independently.
• A strict disciplinarian is not the ideal.

To motivate and improve students, a teacher must use positive methods. Corporal punishment is an offence.

In higher education the teacher encourages independent learning and critical thinking. A 21st century teacher prepares students for higher-order thinking skills.

Reflective teaching and action research

Reflective practice means thinking about your own teaching in order to improve it.

• Uses metacognition.
• Teachers learn from their own experience.
• Action research is a type of research that can enhance teaching competence.
• Extract the net meaning of an experience through reflection.

A reflective teacher asks 'what went well, what did not, and why'. The teacher then changes the next lesson.

Action research is classroom-based research done by the teacher to solve a real classroom problem. It improves teaching competence directly.

Running the classroom

Classroom management styles

Teachers differ in how much control and support they give.

• Authoritative: firm rules with warmth. Learners become independent thinkers.
• Authoritarian: strict control, little warmth.
• Permissive: considerable autonomy with little support.
• Laissez-faire: the teacher leaves things to the students.

The authoritative style is the best. It sets clear limits but it also explains the reasons and welcomes learner views.

Permissive classrooms give freedom with little structure. In laissez-faire teaching, students are more cooperative or self-managed because the teacher interferes very little.

Engagement, motivational climate and good order

Learners take part more when the class is interesting and fair.

• Use a variety of instructional strategies.
• Give students some choice.
• Reinforce good behaviour.
• Use cooperative learning.
• Increase teacher supervision for engagement.

Measures that solve many general problems are reinforcing good behaviour and conducting cooperative learning. Teacher-centred rules alone do not solve them.

Layout matters too. It is not desirable to have all interest areas around the outside of the classroom, leaving a large dead space in the middle.

Classroom interaction: Flanders and peers

Interaction analysis studies who talks in class.

• Ned Flanders developed the Ten Category System.
• It measures verbal interactions in the classroom.
• Teaching behaviour is 'molar', not 'molecular'.
• Peer interaction helps concept understanding.

Flanders' Interaction Analysis has ten categories: seven for teacher talk, two for student talk and one for silence or confusion.

Teaching behaviour is molar, which means it is looked at as a whole act and not as tiny bits.

Peer group interaction helps in concept understanding, because learners explain ideas to one another.

Group dynamics and creativity

Groups can help or hurt the creativity of members.

• Hinder creativity: a norm to maintain consensus at any cost.
• Hinder creativity: fear of being laughed at.
• Cliques: small groups of people who choose one another in sociometry.
• Collaboration needs a safe group.

When a group puts agreement above everything, new ideas get silenced. Fear of ridicule also hinders members from speaking up.

Sociometry is a technique to study the choices people make in a group. Small groups of members who choose one another are called cliques.

Positive environment, communication and bias

A positive class is safe, communicates well and treats all fairly.

• Concentrate on feedback from students.
• Create an environment that supports inter-cultural harmony.
• Avoid one-way communication only.
• Strategies to reduce bias include stereotype replacement.

A teacher should not rely only on one-way talk. Feedback from learners and respect for all cultures are key.

To reduce bias a teacher can replace stereotypes with examples that break them and can build opportunities for learners to know people unlike themselves.

Feedback and questioning

Feedback tells learners where they stand. Questions make them think.

• Self-generated feedback comes from the learner's own monitoring.
• Assurance from others is not self-generated.
• Process questions: divergent, probing and so on.
• Content questions ask for facts.

Feedback should be timely and specific. A learner can also generate feedback from their own checking.

Convergent questions have one right answer. Divergent questions invite many answers and ask for thinking, so they are process questions.

Ideas for planning and managing instruction

Maxims of teaching

Maxims are old rules for arranging what to teach.

• Known to unknown.
• Simple to complex.
• Concrete to abstract.
• Analysis to synthesis.
• Empirical to rational.

'From known to unknown' means that the teacher first focuses on the learner's previous knowledge. 'Concrete to abstract' means start with real things and then move to ideas.

Empirical to rational goes from real experience to reasoning. 'Rural to urban' and 'low IQ to high IQ' are not maxims of teaching.

Gagne's events and Rosenshine's principles

Two lists describe how to organise effective instruction.

• Gagne: gain attention, recall prior knowledge, give learning guidance, provide feedback, assess performance.
• Rosenshine: review daily, present in small steps, ask many questions.
• Rosenshine: guide practice, check understanding.
• Check homework and previous learning at the start.

Robert Gagne's events of instruction start with getting attention. Next the teacher stimulates recall of prior knowledge, provides guidance, gives feedback and finally assesses performance.

Barak Rosenshine's elements include reviewing homework and previous learning, presenting new material in small steps, asking questions and guiding practice.

Teacher-centred and learner-centred methods, cooperative learning, flipped classrooms, models of teaching and lesson planning.

Approaches to teaching

Teacher-centred, learner-centred and learning-centred

Approaches differ in who takes the main role in the class.

• Teacher-centred: the teacher is active. Learners are passive.
• Learner-centred: the learner is active. The teacher is a facilitator.
• Learning-centred: focus on shared, participative learning.
• Direct teaching and indirect teaching.

In teacher-centred teaching, the teacher decides, talks and controls. In learner-centred teaching, the teacher recognises that all learners are unique and uses different strategies for them.

Learner-centred features: it is centred on the needs of the learner, lays emphasis on skills and on cooperative learning. It is not centred on needs decided in advance by parents.

Teacher-centred methods are not more effective than learner-centred methods in promoting deep learning. Their drawback is that they can limit creativity and critical thinking.

Dialogic teaching

Dialogic teaching uses talk between teacher, learners and content.

• More scope for critical and creative interchange.
• Examples: problem solving, tutorials, discussion, seminars.
• Lecture with audio-visual aids has little dialogue.
• Chalk and talk is not dialogic.

In a dialogic method the learners also speak, question and argue. Methods such as the problem-solving method and tutorials have a lot of scope for dialogue.

The best arrangement for critical and creative interchange is a dialogic presentation involving teachers, students and the content.

Teacher-centred methods

Lecture method

In the lecture method the teacher speaks and learners mainly listen.

• Gives a large amount of knowledge in a short time.
• Suits large groups.
• Teacher is the source of knowledge.
• Limits creativity and student questions.

Use the lecture method when the objectives demand it, such as giving new information not easily found in books. Being a good orator or having a request from students is not a good reason.

The dictum 'the teacher is the only source of knowledge' justifies the lecture method.

Demonstration method

In the demonstration method the teacher shows how a thing is done.

• Teacher-centred.
• Emphasises the participative procedure of an act.
• Learners watch, then practise.
• Good for skills and experiments.

The teacher performs an activity or an experiment in front of the class. Learners observe and then try it themselves.

Demonstration is not a cooperative learning approach.

Direct instruction

Direct instruction teaches basic skills and explicit knowledge in a clear, structured way.

• Providing examples and explanation.
• Focus on the objective.
• Best for basic skills.
• Teacher makes all decisions.

Direct instruction is the best choice when teachers teach basic skills and explicit knowledge. The teacher explains, gives examples and checks understanding.

Methods that promote inquiry are indirect, not direct.

Interactive and group methods

Discussion, seminar, workshop and buzz session

These methods involve the whole group in thinking.

• Discussion: group talks over a topic.
• Seminar: presentation followed by questions.
• Workshop: hands-on experience.
• Buzz session: small groups discuss for a few minutes.

A workshop is meant for hands-on experience. A seminar builds the ability to present and defend ideas.

Buzz sessions are learner-centred. Both discussion and seminar offer room for dialogue.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group method to produce many ideas quickly.

• Aim: generate new ideas in an area of interest.
• No idea is criticised at first.
• Group-centred method.
• Evaluation comes later.

Group members call out ideas freely. Judging comes only after the ideas are collected. It builds creative thinking.

Brainstorming is a group-centred method of teaching and learning.

Team teaching

Team teaching means several teachers plan and teach the same class together.

• More than two teachers plan and teach the same class.
• Each teacher uses own expertise.
• Needs good coordination.
• A type of cooperative teaching.

The teachers share the planning, teaching and evaluation of one class, each according to their expertise.

Role play, simulation and field trip

These methods give direct or acted experience.

• Role play: learners act out roles.
• Simulation: imitates a real situation, often by computer.
• Field trip: provides direct experiences.
• Role of the teacher in simulation: explaining.

A simulation shows, for example, the working of the circulatory system on a screen. This is computer-aided learning.

A field trip takes learners to the real place. Lecturing gives presentation of information. Demonstration gives direct showing. Project gives learning by doing.

Types of teaching: micro, macro, station, cooperative

Different arrangements of teaching have different names.

• Micro teaching: small lesson, few students, short time.
• Macro teaching: a full class and full lesson.
• Station teaching: learners move between stations.
• Cooperative teaching: teachers or learners cooperate.

Micro teaching is a training technique. A trainee teaches a short lesson to a few learners, gets feedback and teaches again.

Macro teaching is normal classroom teaching with a full class and a full period.

Learner-centred methods

Project method

In the project method, learners carry out a purposeful task in real life.

• Learning by doing.
• Steps: purposing, planning, executing, evaluating, recording.
• Another order: selecting, planning, collecting data, analysing, reporting.
• Dewey's ideas, popularised by Kilpatrick.

The teacher guides while learners choose a purpose, plan the work, do it, judge the result and record it.

To promote direct learning, the project method is best suited.

Assignment method

In the assignment method, learners do a task on their own after class.

• Combination of lecture-cum-demonstration and laboratory methods.
• Independent work.
• Supports self-study.
• The teacher checks and gives feedback.

The assignment method brings together the ideas of the lecture-cum-demonstration method and the laboratory method.

Heuristic and inquiry methods

In these methods the learner finds out by their own effort.

• Heuristic method by H.E. Armstrong.
• Learner finds the answer to own problem by unaided effort.
• Inquiry approach is learner-centred.
• Guided discovery encourages students to discover with some help.

The word 'heuristic' means 'I find out'. The learner is placed in the position of a discoverer.

Problem-based learning is a learner-centred approach. In guided discovery the teacher gives support.

Individualised approaches

Individualised approaches allow each learner to proceed at their own pace.

• Modular approach.
• Programmed instruction.
• Computer-aided instruction.
• Personalised system of instruction.

Programmed and modular material is highly structured and individualised. Each learner moves ahead only after mastering a step.

Branching programmes are a right instructional technology for the understanding level of teaching.

Cooperative and collaborative learning

Elements of cooperative learning

Cooperative learning has five basic elements.

• Positive interdependence.
• Individual accountability.
• Promotive (face-to-face) interaction.
• Social skills.
• Group processing.

Group members must feel they sink or swim together (positive interdependence), yet each must also be responsible for their own learning (individual accountability).

Individual competition is not a feature of cooperative learning. Sole reliance on the teacher is not either.

Cooperative learning strategies

There are many structured ways to organise cooperative learning.

• Jigsaw.
• Think-pair-share.
• Numbered heads together.
• Round robin brainstorming.
• Team-pair-solo.
• Corners, rally coach, talking chips, round table, team word webbing.

Jigsaw: each member becomes an expert on one part and teaches the others. A classroom of students from different cultures working on parts of a project is a jigsaw classroom.

Think-pair-share: think alone, discuss with a partner, share with the class. Numbered heads together: each member is numbered and any number may be called to answer. Round robin: members take turns to give ideas in turn.

Team-pair-solo order: select a topic, work as a large team, work in pairs and then complete the task individually.

Fishbowl

In the fishbowl, an inner circle discusses while an outer circle listens.

• Students are split into an inner and an outer circle.
• The inner circle discusses an issue.
• The outer circle listens and observes.
• It develops listening skills.

The listeners in the outer circle watch and take notes. Roles are then swapped.

The fishbowl is the collaborative method whose main purpose is to develop listening skills.

Collaborative learning and peer teaching

In collaborative learning, learners work together to reach a common goal.

• Improved communication skills.
• Better understanding of different perspectives.
• A group project on research is an example.
• Peer teaching: learners teach one another.

Benefits of a collaborative environment include better communication, an understanding of other perspectives and shared learning. A decreased understanding of different perspectives is not a benefit.

Modern ways of teaching

Flipped classroom

In a flipped classroom, learners study at home and do activities in class.

• Lecture is watched at home, often by video.
• Class time is for discussion and practice.
• Hands-on tasks and problem solving in the class.
• Needs a good ICT base.

The usual order is reversed. The video lecture is given as homework. The next day the class is used for hands-on experiments, discussion and doubts.

Scaffolding, adaptive and reciprocal teaching

These strategies support learners as they grow.

• Scaffolding: providing hints and clues, then removing them.
• Adaptive teaching: challenging instruction with supports that are removed later.
• Reciprocal teaching: learners think deeply about what they read.
• Teacher poses questions as students attempt a task.

Scaffolding gives temporary support and fades it as the learner improves. Allowing students to figure out the problem on their own is not scaffolding.

The goal of reciprocal teaching is to help students understand and think deeply about what they have read.

Offline and online modes

Teaching can happen face to face or through technology.

• Offline: chalk and board, teacher present.
• Online: video-conferencing and learning management systems.
• Synchronous: live, with immediate feedback.
• Asynchronous: self-paced, flexible.

A teacher who uses chalk and board is working in the offline mode. A teacher who uses a videoconferencing tool and an LMS to provide digital resources works online.

Synchronous mode allows live participation, active discussion and immediate feedback. The benefits of asynchronous mode are self-pacing, self-engagement and flexibility. The presence of teacher and students together is not a benefit of asynchronous mode.

Models of teaching

Families of models

Models of teaching are grouped into families by their purpose.

• Personal models: focus on the individual.
• Social interaction models: learning in groups.
• Behaviour altering models: change behaviour.
• Information development (processing) models: build thinking.

Match: the personal basis model includes non-directive teaching. Social interaction models include role playing. Behaviour altering models include programmed instruction. Information development models include those of Gagne, Bruner and Schuman.

Role playing as a social model was developed by Fannie Shaftel. Schuman's model is an information development model.

Inquiry training model

The inquiry training model builds scientific process skills.

• Objectives: develop scientific process skills and strategies for creative inquiry.
• Elements: focus, syntax, social system, principles of reaction, support system.
• Stages (Pedaste): orientation, conceptualisation, investigation, conclusion, discussion.
• Learners ask questions and test them.

Joyce and Weil describe each model by its focus, syntax (the steps), social system, principles of reaction and support system.

In Pedaste's inquiry-based instruction, the learner first gets oriented, then forms a concept or a question, investigates, draws a conclusion and finally discusses.

Non-directive and behaviourist models

Models differ in how much the teacher directs.

• Non-directive model: Carl Rogers.
• It nurtures students rather than controlling the sequence of learning.
• Behaviourist model: it can be criticised, but it is appropriate for lower-order learning.
• Simulation model: the teacher explains.

In the non-directive model the teacher is a counsellor who accepts feelings and helps learners to grow.

A criticism of the behaviourist model is that it ignores thinking. It is, however, suitable for lower-order learning, so 'it is not appropriate for lower order learning' is not a criticism.

Lesson planning and curriculum

Lesson plan and its order

A lesson plan sets out what to teach, how and how to check.

• Pre-planning.
• Lesson opening.
• Presentation or layout.
• Extended practice.
• Closure of the lesson.

One order of a lesson plan: pre-planning, lesson opening, lesson layout, extended practice and closure.

Another order: formulate outcomes, select content, select teaching-learning material, present, check and evaluate. Learning outcomes come before content and assessment comes last.

A lesson plan should also include a recapitulation and plans to design evaluation and diagnostic methods.

Concept mapping and the 5E plan

Concept maps and the 5E plan are tools for planning and learning.

• Concept mapping: graphical tool to organise and represent knowledge.
• Five E lesson plan: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate.
• Mind maps help to organise ideas.
• Making information harder to comprehend is not a benefit.

A concept map shows ideas as nodes joined by lines labelled with the relation. It helps learners organise knowledge.

A mind map is a diagram for ordering ideas around a central topic. It makes information easier to understand and remember.

Curriculum and its evaluation

The curriculum is the planned set of learning experiences.

• It should be modified regularly.
• It is not only theoretical concepts.
• Outcome-based design: desired learning outcomes, content, teaching-learning, assessment.
• Tyler's model considers students, society and subject matter as sources.

A good curriculum is dynamic. It changes with society and knowledge. It also has practical and skill parts.

Tyler's model of curriculum evaluation considers three primary sources: the students, the society and the subject matter. These reflect the philosophy of the curriculum.

Traditional, modern and ICT-based support for teaching, Dale's cone, and online platforms.

Teaching aids

Kinds of teaching aids

Teaching aids are materials and devices that make teaching clear and interesting.

• Traditional: blackboard, charts, maps, models.
• Modern: projectors and audio-visual equipment.
• ICT-based: computers, internet, smart boards.
• Skill-based aids centre on reading, listening, pronunciation.

The syllabus groups teaching support into traditional, modern and ICT-based. A teaching aid makes teaching effective and easy.

Skill-based aids are built around a particular skill, such as reading, listening or pronunciation, for example a language lab.

Projected and non-projected aids

Aids are projected on a screen or used directly.

• Non-projected: blackboard, charts, models, maps, audio cassettes, plastigraph.
• Projected: overhead projector, filmstrip and slides, epidiascope.
• Blackboard allows step-by-step presentation.
• Instructional material is different from equipment.

Non-projected aids include the chalkboard, models and audio cassettes. Projected aids such as the epidiascope and filmstrips need light and a screen.

An overhead projector is equipment and not an instructional material. Material carries the content, while equipment is the device used to show it.

Maps are two-dimensional depictions. Globes and models are three-dimensional.

Asynchronous teaching aids

Asynchronous aids work without the teacher and learner being online together.

• Blog.
• Email.
• Social media posts.
• Recorded videos.
• Not asynchronous: Skype, online chat, Google Hangout.

Tools that need live presence, such as Skype, online chat and Google Hangout, are synchronous. Blogs, emails and posts can be read and answered later.

Choosing aids for class size and purpose

The best aid depends on the number of learners and the aim.

• Match the medium to the class size.
• Clarity of instructional messages.
• Link with course objectives.
• Teacher's technological competence.

A small group can gather round a model. A big hall needs a projector or a screen. The teacher must also have the skill to use the technology.

Technology in the classroom needs clarity about the instructional messages, the course objectives and the technological competence of the teacher.

Classroom resources

Classroom resources can be simple or complex.

• Simple resources: single items such as chart.
• Compound resources: made of more than one item.
• Complex resources: require several devices.
• Abstract resources: ideas and concepts.

Resources move from simple objects, which stand alone, to compound and complex ones, which combine several parts. Abstract resources are intangible, such as concepts.

Experience and technology

Dale's Cone of Experience

Edgar Dale arranged learning experiences from concrete to abstract.

• Base: direct, purposeful experience.
• Middle: demonstrations, field trips, exhibits, television.
• Top: visual and verbal symbols.
• Learning by doing is stronger than reading or hearing.

The cone shows that people remember more from direct experiences. Hearing and reading are near the top, where learning is more abstract.

The teacher should use real experience and activities wherever possible and use words only where needed.

Purpose of ICT in teaching

ICT is used to improve learning outcomes.

• Optimise learning outcomes.
• A smart classroom is an ICT-supported classroom.
• Chalk and talk is not part of ICT-based teaching.
• Recitation and memorisation are not modern ICT methods.

The main purpose of using ICT in a class is to optimise the learning outcomes of teaching. It supports the teacher. It does not replace the teacher.

Flipped classrooms and mind maps are modern and ICT-supported methods. Chalk and talk and recitation are traditional.

Tools for modern teaching

Many software tools support teaching and assessment.

• Interactive whiteboards: Jamboard and similar tools.
• Quiz tools such as Kahoot give immediate feedback.
• Prezi: interactive presentations and timelines.
• E-portfolio: online space to store and show work.

A teacher demonstrating equations visually in a live online tutorial can use an interactive whiteboard such as Jamboard. Interactive whiteboard software lets teachers create lessons, annotate and collaborate in real time.

A quiz tool such as Kahoot lets a teacher check performance and give immediate feedback. Prezi helps build interactive timelines.

An e-portfolio is an online space where students store and organise their work to show learning over time.

Evolution of educational technology

Educational technology moved from simple support to rich online learning.

• Textbook supplementation.
• Programmed learning material.
• Modular material.
• Computer-based and online learning.
• Programmed material is highly structured and individualised.

First the textbook was supplemented. Then came programmed learning material and modular material. Later came computers and the web.

SWAYAM and MOOCs

SWAYAM is India's platform for free online courses. MOOCs are massive open online courses.

• SWAYAM supports active learning.
• Four quadrants: video lecture, reading material, self-assessment, discussion forum.
• MOOCs are learner-centric.
• MOOCs are not delivered only through SWAYAM.

Each SWAYAM course has video lectures, specially prepared reading material, self-assessment tests and an online discussion forum for clearing doubts.

A teacher integrating SWAYAM can tell students that it gives access to quality content and lets them learn at their own pace.

Meaning and types of evaluation, good tests, alternative assessment, and credit-based systems.

Meaning and purpose

Measurement, assessment and evaluation

Measurement gives a number. Assessment collects evidence. Evaluation judges.

• Measurement: giving a number to performance.
• Assessment: collecting information in many ways.
• Evaluation: judging value and deciding.
• Evaluation helps teachers plan and judge their own teaching.

Evaluation goes beyond marking. It tells the teacher how well the teaching worked and what to do next.

The most important use of evaluation for a teacher is planning instruction and knowing how effective the teaching strategies are. Carried out correctly, evaluation improves teaching and learning.

Elements of an evaluation plan

An evaluation plan has a purpose, resources and analysis.

• Purpose.
• Resources.
• Analysis.
• Authority is not an element.

A plan says why the evaluation is being done (purpose), what resources will be used and how the results will be analysed.

Assessment instruments and tools

Assessment instruments are the means of collecting evidence.

• Tests.
• Examinations.
• Worksheets.
• Quizzes.
• Rubrics are scoring tools.

Tests, examinations, worksheets and quizzes are assessment instruments. Ritual instruction is not.

The process of learner-centred assessment uses multiple data sources and fits the skills the learner needs.

Types of evaluation

Formative evaluation

Formative evaluation takes place during teaching to help learners improve.

• Conducted during teaching.
• Gives feedback to teachers and learners.
• Informal, ongoing.
• Examples: quiz, oral questions, class tests, peer assessment.
• Raises intrinsic motivation the most.

Its goal is to monitor student learning and give ongoing feedback. A teacher uses the result to change the strategy.

Components include sharing learning goals, questioning, self and peer assessment and feedback. Discrimination among students is not a component.

Giving a mastery test at the end is not a formative device. A quiz session to accelerate participation is formative.

Summative evaluation

Summative evaluation takes place at the end to judge achievement.

• Done at the end of a course.
• Gives grades, marks or credits.
• Periodic and tied to standards.
• It does not identify gaps during learning.

It tells whether the learner has reached the standard. It is used for deciding on promotion, certificates and ranking.

Summative evaluation is not done throughout the learning process, and it does not identify gaps and misunderstandings in learning. Those belong to formative and diagnostic evaluation.

Diagnostic and placement evaluation

Diagnostic evaluation finds difficulties. Placement evaluation finds the starting point.

• Diagnostic: identifies deficiencies and difficulties of the learner.
• It finds the cause and helps to plan remedies.
• Placement: knowing the entry behaviour.
• Prognostic: predicting future success.

If a learner continuously performs poorly in a subject, a diagnostic test is needed to find out why. The result guides remedial teaching.

Placement evaluation checks the entry behaviour of the learner so as to place the learner at the right level. A prognostic test predicts who may have difficulty in a future course.

Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced

Norm-referenced tests compare learners with each other. Criterion-referenced tests compare them with a standard.

• Norm-referenced: position of the learner in the group.
• Criterion-referenced: cut-off mark or standard.
• NET needs 55 per cent: criterion-referenced.
• Criterion-referenced supports formative and diagnostic evaluation.

Ranking in a class is norm-referenced. A pass mark or a minimum 55 per cent for an exam is criterion-referenced because it is a fixed standard.

Criterion-referenced testing is not useful for finding the relative position of an individual in a group.

Ipsative assessment

Ipsative assessment compares a learner with their own past performance.

• Student measures progress against previous performance.
• No comparison with peers or external criteria.
• Good for motivation.

The learner asks 'am I better than I was?'. It reduces competition and builds self-confidence.

Assessment of, for and as learning

The purpose of assessment decides its name.

• Assessment of learning: summative, to report achievement.
• Assessment for learning: formative, to improve learning.
• Assessment of learning is not based on constructive feedback to enhance learning.

Assessment of learning measures what has been learned, so it is summative. Assessment for learning helps learners improve, so it gives constructive feedback.

Tests and their qualities

Characteristics of a good test

A good test is objective, valid, reliable, comprehensive, diagnostic and practicable.

• Objectivity.
• Validity.
• Reliability.
• Comprehensiveness.
• Diagnosticity and practicability.

Objectivity means scoring does not depend on the examiner's opinion. Comprehensiveness means the test covers the whole content. Practicability means it can be used with the time and money available.

Subjectivity is not a characteristic of a good question paper.

Validity and reliability

Validity means the test measures what it should. Reliability means it gives steady results.

• Valid: right target.
• Reliable: consistent.
• If a test is valid, it is also reliable.
• A reliable test need not be valid.

A weighing scale that always gives the same wrong weight is reliable but not valid. A test that measures what it says must give consistent results, so a valid test is reliable.

Usability is another quality. A test must also be practical.

Maximum and typical performance tests

Some tests find the best a person can do. Others find what a person usually does.

• Maximum performance: aptitude and achievement tests.
• Typical performance: personality and interest inventories.
• Aptitude test predicts potential success.
• Intelligence tests are maximum performance tests.

In a maximum performance test, the learner tries to do their very best. An aptitude test predicts the capacity and potential for success in a subject.

Prognostic tests are used to predict who is likely to have difficulties in a course.

Types of tests and items

Different test types suit different purposes.

• Essay type tests: compositional skills and creativity.
• Objective tests: quick and objective scoring.
• Multiple choice questions are traditional, not alternative.
• Length of a classroom test depends on purpose, kinds of items and age.

Essay type tests are best for assessing compositional skill and creativity in presentation. Multiple choice questions belong to the traditional kind of assessment.

The length of a classroom test depends on its purpose, the kinds of items used, the age and ability of learners and the time available.

Intelligence and aptitude tests

Standard tests exist for different age groups.

• WAIS: adults.
• WISC: school-age children.
• WPPSI: pre-school children, ages 3 to 7.
• Kaufman-ABC: for children.
• Otis-Lennon School Ability Test is a general aptitude test.

The Wechsler scales are named for the group they serve. WAIS is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. WISC is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. WPPSI is for the pre-school and primary years.

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children contains 16 subtests across ages, but at most 13 are given to any one child.

Projective techniques give a free-response way to study personality, for example by asking a person to interpret ambiguous pictures.

Alternative and innovative assessment

Authentic and performance assessment

Authentic assessment tests skills as they are used in real life.

• Real-world tasks and contexts.
• Performance assessment: carry out an activity or produce a product.
• Examples: design an experiment, a multimedia presentation on a novel.
• Not an alternative: multiple choice questions.

A science project to study the effect of environmental factors on plant growth is authentic. So is a multimedia presentation analysing a novel's themes.

A key principle in designing authentic assessment is to integrate real-world contexts and tasks into the assessment. Approaches that require performance in context include portfolios and exhibitions.

Portfolio and e-portfolio

A portfolio is a collection of a learner's work that shows growth.

• Shows growth, self-reflection and achievement.
• Elements: structuring, evidence, labelling, critical reflection.
• Not a single piece of work.
• E-portfolio is the online form.

A portfolio holds many samples collected over time with the learner's own reflection. It does not prohibit collaboration. It engages teachers and students in the process.

An art portfolio should include completed works, reflections on them and feedback or goals.

Journals, rubrics and concept maps

Journals, rubrics and concept maps are alternative tools.

• Journaling is informal assessment through reflection.
• Rubric: a grid of marking or scoring by criteria.
• Task-specific rubrics make scoring easier.
• Rubrics increase consistency in grading.

Learners keep a journal and write regularly. Group journals and magazines are examples. A rubric lists the criteria and levels of performance, so different examiners can mark in the same way.

A concept map is a visual or verbal way to show how ideas connect. It can be used as an assessment tool.

Peer, self and learner-centred assessment

Learners can also take part in assessing.

• Peer evaluation is an innovative approach.
• Self-assessment builds responsibility.
• Learner-centred assessment uses multiple data sources.
• Cooperative evaluation: students, peers, teachers and parents.

In peer assessment, learners judge one another's work with criteria. In learner-centred assessment, no single test gives a perfect picture of a student, so many sources are used.

A learning outcome based evaluation system is also considered an innovative practice.

Assessment bias

Bias is unfairness in assessment.

• Flexible and diverse assessment procedures reduce bias.
• Bias can come from examiners or from the test.
• Use clear criteria.
• A single test is not enough.

Assessment bias arises when something other than the learner's performance changes the result, such as the examiner's mood or the learner's background. Flexible and diverse procedures, which give disadvantaged learners fair chances, do not contribute to bias.

Systems of evaluation

Choice Based Credit System and credits

CBCS lets learners choose courses and earn credits.

• Shifts focus from teacher-centric to student-centric education.
• Degree is awarded on the number of credits completed.
• Marks are converted into grades.
• National Credit Framework: level 6 for a four-year Bachelor's (Honours) degree.

In a credit-based semester system, a degree is awarded when the student completes the prescribed number of credits.

The best advantage of CBCS is the shift from a teacher-centric to a student-centric education.

Computer-based testing

Computer-based testing delivers and marks tests by computer.

• Fast results.
• Can reach many learners at once.
• Used for NET and many entrance tests.

Computer-based testing (CBT) allows quick marking and can reach many students at once. It suits objective items best.