Educational Methods

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Educational Methods

• The bag of tricks

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Direct Instruction/Lecture

• Advantages
• Teacher controlled
• Many objectives can be mastered in a short amount
  of time
• Lends to valid evaluations

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Direct Instruction/Lecture

• Disadvantages
• Teacher controlled
• Student involvement is limited to the teacher
• Depends in part to rote learning (repetition from
  memory, often without meaning)

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Direct Instruction/Lecture

• When to use?
• When the objectives indicate effectiveness
• When the teacher determines that it is the best
  use of time effort

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Six steps in Direct Instruction

• Review previously learned material
• State objectives for the lesson
• Present new material
• Guide practice with corrective feedback
• Assign independent practice with corrective
  feedback
• Review periodically with corrective feedback if
  necessary

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1. Review previously learned material

• A short review before/with the new lessons
  interest approach
• Check grade previous homework
• Put problems on the board (can be part of
  bell-work)
• Re-teach if necessary

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2. State objectives for the lesson

• Students should know what is to be taught
• Stated Clearly
• Written on the board
• Handed out
• Follow the objectives
• Use them to develop evaluations

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3. Present new material

• Your teaching depends on your analysis and
  preparation
• Organizing Content
• From general to specific
• From lower level objectives to higher
• From previous information to new material

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3. Present new material

• Lectures
• Be aware of attention spans _____ minutes (20)
• Be aware of the number of major points made
  _____ (5)
• Be repetitious
• Review and summarize

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3. Present new material

• Demonstrations
• Learning Activity, experiment, demonstration
• WOW em!
• Allow students to practice immediately

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4. Guided practice with corrective feedback

• Guided and independent practice
• Teacher controls monitors guided
• Teacher evaluates corrects independent
• Questions should be prepared in advance

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5. Assign independent practice with corrective
feedback

• Homework
• A formative step not a summative step
• Worksheets

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6. Review periodically with corrective feedback
if necessary

• Check homework promptly
• Base new instruction on results
• Re-teach if necessary

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Other Teaching Techniques

• Brainstorming
• Situations for use
• Generate ideas (quantity is more important than
  quality)
• Students have some level of experience
• Planning Required
• Formulate the question
• Plan for recording ideas

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Brainstorming Steps

• Pose question to class
• Generate ideas with group
• Accept all ideas (do not criticize)
• Go back to summarize
• Discard unacceptable or unworkable ideas
• Determine the best solution(s)

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Supervised Study

• Common technique used in problem solving
  instruction, but certainly not the only technique
  appropriate for problem solving instruction.
• Also a major technique used in competency-based
  education programs.
• Often misused technique. A really bad form of
  this technique is Read the chapter in the
  textbook and answer the questions at the end of
  the chapter.
• Would be classified as an individualized
  instruction technique.

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Supervised Study

• Situations Appropriate for Use
• Discovery or inquiry learning is desired
• Access to good reference materials (textbooks,
  extension publications, web resources, industry
  publications, etc.)
• Students may need to look up information
• May be alternate answers that are acceptable
• Many structured lab activities are actually a
  form of supervised study

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Supervised Study

• Strengths
• Provides skills in learning that are useful
  throughout students lives. They need to know
  how to locate and analyze information.
• Recall is enhanced when student have to look up
  information, rather than being lectured to.
• Students have to decide what information is
  important and related to the question posed.
• Opportunity for students to develop writing and
  analytical skills.

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Supervised Study

• Weaknesses
• Easy for students to get off-task.
• Students may interpret questions differently and
  locate incorrect information (practicing error).
• Unmotivated students will do the absolute
  minimum.
• Students tend to copy information from sources
  rather than analyze and synthesize information
• Requires more time than lecture
• Relies on students being able to read and
  comprehend information at the appropriate level

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Supervised Study

• Procedures in Conducting Supervised Study
• Teacher develops a list of study questions for
  students to answer.
• Resources and reference materials are located or
  suggested to students as possible sources of
  answers.
• Students are given time in class to find answers
  to the questions and to record the answers in
  their notes.
• Note Due to time constraints, teachers may want
  to assign different questions to specific
  students, so that every student is not looking
  for the same information.
• Summary consists of discussing the correct
  answers to the questions with the entire class.
• Note Teachers must be careful to emphasize that
  incorrect answers must be corrected.

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Supervised Study

• Role of the Teacher
• Develop a list of study questions that focus on
  the objectives of the lesson
• Develop the anticipated answers to the
  questions--it is important that the teacher have
  a firm idea of what are correct or incorrect
  answers.
• Establish time frame for completing the activity.
  Students need to feel a sense of urgency, so
  dont give them more time than you think they
  will need.
• Supervise during this activity. NOT A TIME TO
  GRADE PAPERS, MAKE PHONE CALLS, PLAN FOR THE NEXT
  LESSON, OR LOCATE THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS IN
  THIS LESSON!
• Assist students in locating information, but do
  not find it for them.
• Keep students on task and eliminate distractions.
• Plan for reporting of answers

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Small Group Discussion

• Also Called
• Buzz Groups
• Huddle Groups
• Phillips 66
• 6 people per group
• 6 ideas to be generated
• 6 minutes

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Small Group Discussion

• Advantages
• Increased participation
• Good for generating ideas
• Cooperative activity (students learn from each
  other)

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Small Group Discussion

• Planning Required
• Clearly form the question or topic
• Develop a plan for grouping the students
• Plan for reporting
• Summarize the activity (what they should have
  learned)

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Small Group Discussion

• Conducting Small Group Discussion
• Write question or topic on board or handout
• Give specific instructions on how the group will
  operate
• Establish time limits
• Circulate among the groups to help keep them on
  task (Not as a participant!)
• Give warning near end of time allocated
• Reports Rotate among the groups for answers

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Role Play

• Situations for use
• Introducing a lesson
• Checking for understanding
• Summarizing

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Role Play

• Planning Required
• Script
• Minimum key points to cover
• Steps
• Role play Summary
• Tips
• Keep it short
• Use to make a single point, not several points

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Games

• Situations for use
• Motivate students
• Reviews
• Check for understanding
• Strengths
• Active learning technique
• Appeals to competitive students
• High interest level

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Games

• Planning Required
• Game must be developed by teacher
• Rules must be established. Try to anticipate all
  potential situations that might occur. You do
  not want the effectiveness of the activity to be
  destroyed by arguments over rules.
• Develop a plan for determining teams
• Develop plan for keeping score
• Determine rewards--make them appropriate (usually
  very minor in nature)

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Games

• Types Games may take a variety of forms, but
  most often they are modeled after
• TV game shows
• Sports
• Home board games

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Field Trips and Resource Persons

• Situations for use
• First hand experiences are needed
• Need expertise
• These appear to be different techniques, but the
  planning required is very similar

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Field Trips/Resource Persons

• Planning Needed
• Objectives
• Trial run/visit
• Special considerations (safety, grouping, etc.)
• Summarize (dont give up responsibility!). It is
  critical to know what the students have learned
  from the activity.
• Tips
• Provide advance organizers (report forms, fact
  sheets)
• plant questions among students
• assign students to begin the questions