Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

1.What is direct instruction? When is it most appropriate? 2.Upon what two assumptions about learning is mastery learning based? 3.How do effective teachers use modeling? What three steps are involved in mental modeling? 4.How do teachers with a constructivist view of learning help students arrive at a deeper understanding of content? 5.Through what means does the constructivist teacher provide scaffolding, or support, to students as they learn new material? 6.What is the zone of proximal development? How does the effective teacher apply this principle of Vygotsky? 7.What is information processing? How may it be compared to a computer? 8.What are examples of teaching methods based on inquiry learning and discovery learning? 9.What is the teacher’s role in group investigation? In what ways is this method effective? 10. How does peer tutoring differ from cross-age tutoring? Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

1.What is direct instruction? When is it most appropriate? Direct instruction is a systematic instruction method that focuses on the transmission of knowledge and skills from the teacher (and the curriculum) to the student. Direct instruction is organized on the basis of observable learning behaviors and the actual products of learning. It is most appropriate for step-by-step knowledge acquisition and basic skill development but not appropriate teaching less structured, higher-order skills. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

2.Upon what two assumptions about learning is mastery learning based? Exploring Effective Teaching Methods (1)Virtually all students can learn material if given enough time and taught appropriately. (2)Students learn best when they participate in a structured, systematic program of learning that enables them to progress in small, sequenced steps: A) Set objectives and standards for mastery. B) Teach content directly to students. C) Provide corrective feedback to students on their learning. D) Provide additional time and help in correcting errors. E) Follow a cycle of teaching, testing, reteaching, and retesting. Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

3.How do effective teachers use modeling? What three steps are involved in mental modeling? Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Effective teachers use modeling by “thinking out loud” deliberately applied in the classroom to teach mental skills and to broaden horizons – to teach new ways of thinking. Three steps of “mental modeling” are 1. Showing students the reasoning involved 2. Making students conscious of the reasoning involved 3. Focusing students on applying the reasoning Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

4.How do teachers with a constructivist view of learning help students arrive at a deeper understanding of content? Teachers with a constructivist view of learning focus on students’ thinking about material being learned. Through carefully orchestrated cues, prompts, and questions, they help students arrive at a deeper understanding of the material. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

5.Through what means does the constructivist teacher provide scaffolding, or support, to students as they learn new material? By observing the students and listening carefully to what they say, the teacher provides scaffolding in the form of clues, encouragement, suggestions, or assistance to guide the students’ learning efforts. The teacher varies the amount of support given on the basis of the students’ understanding. The teacher provides just enough scaffolding to enable the students to “discover” the material on their own. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

6.What is the zone of proximal development? How does the effective teacher apply this principle of Vygotsky? The zone of proximal development refers to the point at which students need assistance in order to continue learning. The effective teacher is sensitive to the student’s zone of development and ensures that instruction neither exceeds the student’s current level of understanding nor underestimates the student’s ability. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

7.What is information processing? How may it be compared to a computer? Information processing is a branch of cognitive science concerned with how people use their long- and short- term memory to access information and solve problems. Like the computer, the human mind takes in information, performs operations on it to change its form and content, stores the information, retrieves it when needed, and generates responses to it. Processing involves gathering and representing information, or encoding; holding or storing; and getting at the information when needed. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

8.What are examples of teaching methods based on inquiry learning and discovery learning? When teachers ask students to go beyond information in a text to make inferences, draw conclusions, or form generalizations; and when teachers do not answer students’ questions, preferring instead to have students develop their own answers, they are using methods based on inquiry and discovery learning. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

9.What is the teacher’s role in group investigation? In what ways is this method effective? In group investigation the teacher’s role is to create an environment that allows students to determine what they will study and how. The teacher is an organizer, guide, resource person, counselor, and evaluator. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.

10. How does peer tutoring differ from cross-age tutoring? In peer tutoring students are tutored by pupils in the same grade. In cross-age tutoring older pupils tutor students in lower grades. Exploring Effective Teaching Methods Copyright © Notice: The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of The Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas Tech University.