How do teachers implement instruction in order to engage students in rigorous relevant and relevant learning and to promote curiosity about the world at large?
Teachers must understand the cognitive processes associated with various kinds of learning and how these processes can be stimulated. They will have students with varying abilities in critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, memorization, and recall. Teachers must also understand the advantages and limitations of the various instructional strategies, to include cooperative learning, direct instruction, discovery learning, whole group discussion, independent study, and interdisciplinary instruction (INTASC).
Teachers should use a wide variety of materials and resources to enhance learning. This could include object lessons, hands-on experiences, field trips, computers, audio-visual technology, artifacts, literature, and other print resources. The more variety used to teach a lesson, the greater the impact the lesson will have.
Teachers should avoid “verbal regurgitation” of material. Presenting large quantities of information in a monologue format will bore students and cause them to quickly disengage. Similarly, one should avoid the “banking” teaching philosophy where the teacher seeks to “deposit” sums of information into the student, which he or she considers to constitute true knowledge (Freire, 2006). Instead, teachers should be willing to use various teaching styles and strategies and be flexible enough (or adventurous enough) to try new methods. This is where collaboration with other teachers can be helpful. A teacher may be able to take advantage of another teacher’s experience to supplement his/her own knowledge. Additionally, teachers should vary their “role in the instruction process (instructor, facilitator, coach, audience) in relation to the content and purposes of the instruction and the needs of the students.” (INTASC, p. 4)
Finally, teachers should model effective communication strategies in conveying ideas and information when asking questions. The teacher should demonstrate that communication is sensitive to gender and cultural differences and be sensitive to nonverbal cues, both given and received (Danielson, 2010).
In the class, instruction should be well planned. That means it has to be well planned out and organized in advance, taking into consideration the individual student’s strengths and weaknesses and any likely obstacles. Teaching style should match the room layout and there should be attention getting signals (Garrett, 2013). Every effort should be made to allow students to complete and display their finished product.
It is also essential for the teacher to exhibit some level of excitement or passion for the subject or curricula taught (Todd, 2013). You don’t need to be a trained teacher for this. For this you just need a love for teaching, for the subject, and for the students.
However, it does take training for a teacher to be able to provide differentiated instruction in their diverse classrooms. Because of the broad diversity of our nation, enabling teachers to react to individual students’ needs is the only way to ensure each child is provided an equal opportunity to learn. Therefore, teachers need to be trained and/or mentored to look at their class, consider what their goal is and decide what needs to be changed. From this point teachers should “make a cognitive effort to monitor the conditions in question, consciously think about the situation, and then work to control it by making an attempt to reach the set goal or change the context in question” (Tricarico & Yendol-Hoppey, 2012). The results will be a plan of differentiated instruction geared toward each struggling student, to be monitored and assessed for effectiveness.
REFERENCES
Danielson, C. (2010). Framework for teaching reference guide. Retrieved from http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/teacher_certification/docs/Framework/Framework%20for%20Teaching%20Reference%20Guide.pdf
Freire, P. (2006). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) Standard. Standard 4: Instructional Strategies. Retrieved from http://www.emu.edu/maed/intasc/
Garrett, T. (2013). Classroom management: it’s more than a bag of tricks. Education Digest, 78(9), 45-49.
Todd, C. (2013). From Expert to Rookie. Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 88 (4), 26-29.
Tricario, K. & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2012). Teacher learning through self-regulation: An exploratory study of alternatively prepared teachers’ ability to plan differentiated instruction in an urban elementary school. Teacher Education Quarterly, 39(1), 139-158.
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