Section 5: Module 18

Ways to achieve goals

Do not need to make individualized instruction for every student & identify the situations in which teachers need to differentiate instruction

Classrooms will have differences such as: cultural, socioeconomic, linguistic, & family backgrounds. They could have different levels of prior knowledge, work ethics, & motivation

Might be necessary with students with language impairments or who are ELL, students with learning disabilities, or students who are gifted.

Matching instruction to students' learning style

Such as verbal learners or visual learners

Culturally responsive pedagogy

Instruction that uses students' cultural beliefs, values, family, and community backgrounds, language, & prior knowledge to create learning experiences characterized by active construction of knowledge & connections to personal experience.

Evidence-based teaching methods

teacher-centered approaches

the learning environment is structured & teachers control the amount and pace of information

student-centered approaches

teachers create a learning environment that enables students to construct meaning from their interactions with subject matter and peers

teachers often facilitate student learning rather than dispense information

particular learning objectives (what teachers want students to know & be able to do)

Learning objectives can range from lower level to higher level skills and the assement that teachers use for evaluating students' mastery of the matieral should match the learning objectives

how students demonstrate their learning of the material

subject matter itself, on occasion

Cognitive learning theory proposes that learning involves actively constructing knowledge

Teaching methods based on this perspective are student centered because they focus on mental processes students use in knowledge construction

Meaningful learning: actively forming new knowledge structures

selecting relevant information

organizing info into a coherent structure

integrating the information with relevant prior knowledge

Two kinds

Discovery learning

encourages students to discover & internalize a concept, rule or principal through unstructured exploration of the to be learned info

Student needs a lot of guidance and sufficient prior knowledge

to much freedom could cause students to miss the principal

can lead to gaps in understanding and result in negative transfer (incorrectly applying prior knowledge to the problem)

can also cause zero transfer (failing to recognize when they can apply their knowledge

Guided discovery is a form of discovery learning

teacher provides enough guidance to ensure that students discover the rule or principal to be learned

the structure & guidance allow students to focus on cognitive resources on integrating & reorganizing knowledge & making inferences

to be successful: teachers must consider individual abilities and needs of students

can be effective for development of conceptual knowledge in preschoolers and learning & transfer of new scientific knowledge for students from elementary through high school

Expository teaching

Also called meanigful verbal learning

goal is NOT to have students independently discover the to be learned content but to ensure new info will be integrated into learners memory in a meaningful way

teachers start by emphasizing the new content to what students already know & do real life examples & situations

Advance organizer

a tool that presents general info & provides a structure where that info can be integrated

They are not just outlines they can be visual presentations such as a flow chart or an analogy

consists of concrete models or anaglogies presented either verbally or graphically, rather than abstract examples or principles

also enhances learning & promote transfer especailly when new material is unfamiliar or difficult

Goal: maximize time that students spend in appropriate tasks by emphasizing completion of learning tasks & by minimizing off-task behavior

all students move through content at the same pace

small chunks of info & offer many opportunities for practice & feedback

High degree of of control to create structure environment

Compenents

Begin with: review previous day's lecture & check student work

Next introduce new content by activating prior knowledge through discussion of the learning objective e or an overview of the lesson

These steps of identifying the learning objective or lesson overview provides students with a purpose for learning the material & an overall procedure for how material is to be learned

This helps improve student achievement

Once students have learned material...they can progess through four structure types of practice

1. Controlled practice

the teacher leads students through examples, provide immediate corrective feedback

Requires careful monitoring to prevent students from learning incorrect procedures or concepts

Effective teachers: provide feedback, tell students what is correct, prompt them for clarification or improved answers, & reteach when necessary

2. Guided practice

students practice on their own while teacher provides reinforcement & corrective feedback

3. Independent practice

when students are able to practice knowledge or skills with about 85% or 90% accuracy

Homework is an example of independent practice

4. Distributed practice

process of spreading out practice over a period of time

short, frequent practice periods are more effective than fewer, longer practice opportunities, especially kids in early elem grades

Popular in early elementary grades where instruction is basic skills like reading, math, spelling, handwriting, & early science and social studies

Effective regardless of subject, students SES background, ethnic identity, or disability status

Beneficial for:

lower level objectives in Bloom's taxonomy & for improving students' basic skills in reading & mathmatics

as an initial instructional strategy for lower achieving students

for delivering interventions to improve mathematical difficulties

for improving language skills of children with autism

Based on the idea that: ALL STUDENTS CAN LEARN CURRICULUM MATERIAL IF GIVEN SUFFICIENT TIME

Teachers set a prespecified mastery level such as 80% on a unit test.

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Approach consists of:

Developing major learning objectives representing a course or unit

Dividing major learning objectives into smaller units from simple to complex, with each unit having its own learning objectives

Conducting a formative assessment-a brief diagnostic test to assess students' current level of performance before instruction & to determine areas needing improvement

Presenting material to students, who typically work individually & independently

Providing students with feedback about their progress

Summative assessment to test what student has learned

Problems: May not improve performance on standardized testing compared to other teaching methods

May also increase achievement gap rather than decrease it

Things to keep in mind

Compared to traditional instruction, well-implemented mastery learning leads to higher school achievement & increased confidence & academic self-concept

Students who need extra time or teacher feedback to achieve mastery are allowed this opportunity. Those that master after intial teaching may be given enrichment or extension activities

Can be used for all grade levels as well as basic skills curriculum to more complex material

Learning leads to change in an individual's behavior

roots in operant conditioning

proposes that an individual's behavior is the result of two environmental stimuli: antecedents & consequences

Antecedents: are stimuli or situations that signal that a behavior is expected

consequences: are stimuli that either strengthen the likelihood that the behavior will occur again or reduce the future occurrences of the behavior

teacher-centered instructional. teachers serve as dispensers of information & structure the learning environment to help students progress from simple to more complex skills