Interactive Teaching

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Interactive Teaching

• Peter McDermott, Ph.D
• The Sage Colleges
• Troy, New York

2
Goals of the Presentation

• Review major theories of teaching and learning.
• Share several examples of interactive teaching
  strategies.
• Provide opportunity for discussion and analysis.

3
In groups of four, provide a list of reasons
supporting these two statements.

• Traditional approaches to language teaching have
  worked well and there is little reason to change.

• Language teaching must adapt to new theories and
  ways of learning.

What is your groups position and why do you
feel this way?
4
How do children learn? What is their best way to
learn?
5
At what point should they learn by

• Listening?
• Watching?
• Speaking?
• Writing?
• Doing?

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Is there a time when they should only learn by

• Listening?
• Watching?
• Speaking?
• Writing?
• Doing

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Learning should be

• Meaningful
• Engaging
• Involve critical thinking
• Social

8
Major learning theories

• Behaviorism
• Cognitivism
• Constructivism
• Multiple intelligences

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Behaviorism (Skinner)

• Operant conditioning
• External reinforcers
• Environmental

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Cognitivism (Bruner, Anderson)

• Internal processing of child
• Mental processes such as thinking, attention,
  memory, knowing, and problem-solving
• Knowledge is seen as schema and learning is
  defined as change in a learners schemata.

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Constructivism (Vygotsky Rogoff) interactive,
participatory, collaborative, democratic,
sociocultural

• Learning is social
• Learn from an expert
• Learning is building knowledge, not giving.
• Learning must be active.
• Gradual release of responsibility
• Talk is essential

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Multiple intelligences (Gardner)

• Linguistic ("word smart")
• Logical-mathematical ("number/reasoning smart")
• Spatial ("picture smart")
• Bodily-Kinesthetic ("body smart")
• Musical ("music smart")
• Interpersonal ("people smart")
• Intrapersonal ("self smart")

13
In groups, draw an image or outline of a child.

• On the drawing, brainstorm and write key concepts
  and ideas about how they learn language. What
  principles apply? What forces influence their
  learning? What motivates them to learn? What
  interferes? Etc.

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Studies of childrens language acquisition offer
important insights about teaching and learning.

• After three days infants can distinguish mothers
  voice from others.
• After one month mothers can distinguish infants
  voice for function (hungry, gas, etc.)
• Six months children have acquired their sound
  system and linguists can identify their country
  of origin.

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Language learning continued

• One year children are pronouncing one year
  utterances to stand for complete thoughts.
• Second year children use 3-4 word strings and
  have acquired speaking vocab of 400-500 words.
• By third year they use simple and compound
  sentences and speaking vocab is 1000 words.
• 4-5 syntax is well developed and vocabulary is
  about 3000 words.
• 5-6 children have a speaking vocab of 8,000
  words.

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What do studies of language acquisition have to
say about teaching and learning?

• Predisposition to learn - language.
• Language is learned in social contexts.
• Meaning is the driving force to learn.
• Adults respond to the meaning of what children
  are saying, not the pronunciation and grammar.
• Adults model and scaffold childrens learning.
• Learning is fundamentally social.

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In small groups discuss how you learn best? What
are the conditions and what strategies do you
use?
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What are the implications of constructivism and
multiple intelligences for language teaching?

• Create a list of the implications in your group
  of four and identify a reporter to share with the
  class.

19
To what extent is constructivist teaching used in
the U.S.?

• Elementary schools (teach as taught state
  standards but more likely to see at this level)
• Secondary (teach as taught state standards,
  pressure to cover curriculum)
• Higher education (mostly lecture and teacher
  centered Harvard uses Socratic Method in many of
  its schools many institutions are strong with
  digital technologies internships international
  experiences)

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Does constructivist teaching apply to Bosnia?

• Children should develop a personal view of the
  world - this prepares them for a society in which
  individuality is prized and democracy is the
  ideal.
• Questioning ideas, including those of the
  teacher, play a vital role in learning.
• Learning proceeds from whole to part. Children
  need to see the big picture, and then analyze it
  to see its parts and connections.

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Constructivism in Bosnia?

• Children are naturally curious and want to learn.
• Mistakes are a natural part of learning and
  should be part of classroom learning.
• Children develop learning strategies as they
  acquire content.
• Students are expected to be active, independent
  learners who make connections and articulate
  their understandings.

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Exit card

• What is the most important thing you learned from
  todays presentation?
• What question do you have about the presentation?

23
References

• http//tip.psychology.org/theories.html
• Bailey, F. Pransky, K. (2002). Are other
  peoples chldren constructivist learners, too?
  Theory into Practice, 44(1), 19-26.
• Palincsar, A., Herrenkohl, L. (2002). Designing
  Collaborative Learning Contexts.Theory Into
  Practice, 41(1).