Curriculum Content and Methods of Instruction

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Curriculum Content and Methods of Instruction

• June 27, 2002

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Challenges in Teaching Today

• Todays teachers will contend with the essential
  challenge of the one-room schoolhouse how to
  reach out to students who span the spectra of
• Learning readiness
• Personal interests
• Culturally shaped ways of seeing and speaking of
  the world
• Experiences in that world

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• Education is not the filling of a bucket, but
  the lighting of a flame.

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Teachers Sages or Guides?

• Learning Environment 1 Teachers as sages
• Students are passive, dependent learners
• Students are not used as resources for learning
• The focus of teaching is subject-centered
• Lectures tend to be the primary mode of teaching
• Teachers decide on the course content, methods of
  instruction and evaluation

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Teachers Sages or Guides?

• Learning Environment 2 Teachers as guides
• Students are active learners/participants in the
  learning environment
• Students are rich resources of learning for
  themselves and others
• The focus of teaching is performance-centered,
  problem solving
• Teachers and students are collaborators in the
  learning process, course content and evaluation
• Teachers guide the students through the learning
  process

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Blooms Taxonomy of Thinking Skills

• Benjamin Bloom said that the learning process
  occurs in a hierarchical manner, beginning the
  simple thinking process and proceeding step by
  step through more complex processes.
• The classification or taxonomy of learning
  behaviors supports that learning proceeds from
• concrete knowledge to abstract values
• dependent to independent thinking
• taken-for-granted facts to increased
  consciousness (Zachman and others, 1988)

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The Six Levels of Thinkingbased on Benjamin
Bloom, 1956

• Knowledge
• Lowest level of learning and thinking
• Involves recall or recognition of facts
• What do I know?
• Sample objectives
• Name
• List
• Describe
• Identify
• Tell

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The Six Levels of Thinkingbased on Benjamin
Bloom, 1956

• Comprehension
• Lowest level of understanding
• Involves putting knowledge in a different form by
  paraphrasing or summarizing
• What does this mean?
• Sample objectives
• Explain
• Discuss
• Define
• Interpret
• Give an example

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The Six Levels of Thinkingbased on Benjamin
Bloom, 1956

• Application
• Involves using knowledge in new, not previously
  learned ways
• Requires ability to use abstractions in concrete
  situations
• Uses skills in seeing relationships/connections
• What can I use what I know in different
  situations?
• Sample objectives
• Solve
• Use
• Apply
• Find
• Determine

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The Six Levels of Thinkingbased on Benjamin
Bloom, 1956

• Analysis
• Involves breaking down a concept into parts,
  seeing how the parts are related and being able
  to explain these relationships
• Why does it work as it does?
• Sample objectives
• Hypothesize
• Compare
• Contrast
• Support using facts
• Explain how

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The Six Levels of Thinkingbased on Benjamin
Bloom, 1956

• Synthesis
• Involves putting together elements and parts into
  a new pattern or a new idea
• This category clearly provides for creativity
• What can I create from the information and ideas
  I have?
• Sample objectives
• Create
• Plan
• Develop
• Imagine
• Design
• Invent

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The Six Levels of Thinkingbased on Benjamin
Bloom, 1956

• Evaluation
• Involves using criteria and standards to make
  judgments about the value of ideas, works,
  solutions, methods, materials and others.
• Is this accurate, useful, effective, economical,
  satisfying?
• Sample objectives
• Judge
• Prove
• Assess
• Measure
• Validate
• Critique

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Constructivist Teaching

• Constructivism
• Knowledge is constructed by learners through an
  active, mental process of development learners
  are the builders and creators of meaning and
  knowledge.
• A productive, constructivist classroom--consist
  of learner-centered, active instruction--the
  teacher provides the students with experiences
  that allow them to hypothesize, predict,
  manipulate objects, pose questions, research,
  investigate, imagine, and invent. The teachers
  role is to facilitate this process.

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Four Principles of Constructivism

• Learning,in an important way, depends on what we
  already know
• New ideas occur as we adapt and change our old
  ideas
• Learning involves inventing ideas rather than
  mechanically accumulating facts
• Meaningful learning occurs through rethinking old
  ideas and coming to new conclusions about new
  ideas which conflicts with our old ideas.

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What is Constructive Learning?

• Belief that learning occurs as learners are
  actively involved in a process of meaning and
  knowledge rather than passively receiving
  information
• Fosters critical thinking and creates motivated
  and independent learners

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Principles of Constructive Learning

• All people are active learners
• Errors promote growth and are critical to
  learning
• Meaningful learning occurs through reflection and
  resolution of cognitive conflict
• People learn best from experience about which
  they are passionately interested and involved
• The purpose of education is long-term knowledge
  that can used flexibly and independently
• A constructivist classroom is a student-centered
  classroom

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The Five Es of Constructivism

• Engage through a Discrepant Event
• Discrepancy creates a state of disequilibrium in
  the mind of the learner, increasing curiosity and
  providing the magic of motivation to learn

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The Five Es of Constructivism

• Exploration or Establishing a Problem
• Students learn through their own actions and
  reactions--they explore new materials with
  minimal guidance or expectations of specific
  results.
• Students are expected to raise questions.
• Students should be encouraged to describe,
  explain or predict.
• Discussions and debates among the students should
  be encouraged.

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The Five Es of Constructivism

• Explanation or Concept Invention
• Concept or principle is introduced and explained
• The concept or principle helps expands the
  students understanding or reasoning about the
  situation
• Teacher should make clear contrasts between
  misconceptions and goal concepts

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The Five Es of Constructivism

• Expansion or Application and Integration
• Learning is achieved by repetition and practice
  so that new ideas and ways of thinking have time
  to stabilize
• Students work on tasks on their own the teacher
  only serves as a resource
• Cooperative group work, open-ended questions,
  independent projects are some of the suggested
  activities

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The Five Es of Constructivism

• Evaluation-Formative and Summative
• Consistent evaluation can help to reveal any
  misconceptions students might have before they
  become deeply rooted.
• Students interest in the ideas, explanations, and
  reasoning of others should be encouraged.
• Reflective questions are also encouraged.

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VideoPutting the Learner First

• Watch the video program
• Find examples of what we discussed Blooms
  taxonomy, principles of constructivist teaching
  and the five Es, the role of the teachers and
  students.

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Lesson Plan Format

• Objectives
• What behaviors do you want to see in your
  students?
• Materials
• List of materials needed during class
• Procedures
• How will you introduce the lesson to get your
  students attention?
• What information will you present?
• How will you know if your students understand the
  lesson? What kinds of questions will you ask?
• How will you end your lesson?

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Lesson Plan Format

• Follow-up
• Will you give your students an assignment?
• Evaluation
• Was the lesson successful? Did the students learn
  the new concepts?