1. Peter McDermott, Ph.D The Sage Colleges Troy, New York
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 group’s 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?

6. Is there a time when they should only learn by
Listening?
Watching?
Speaking?
Writing?
Doing

7. Learning should be Meaningful Engaging Involve critical thinking
Social

8. Major learning theories
Behaviorism
Cognitivism
Constructivism
Multiple intelligences

9. Behaviorism (Skinner)
Operant conditioning
External reinforcers
Environmental

10. 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 learner’s schemata.

11. 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

12. 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.

14. Studies of children’s language acquisition offer important insights about teaching and learning.
After three days infants can distinguish mother’s voice from others.
After one month mother’s can distinguish infant’s voice for function (hungry, gas, etc.)
Six months children have acquired their sound system and linguists can identify their country of origin.

15. 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 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.

16. 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 children’s learning.
Learning is fundamentally social.

17. In small groups discuss how you learn best
In small groups discuss how you learn best? What are the conditions and what strategies do you use?

18. 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)

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. Exit card
What is the most important thing you learned from today’s 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),
Palincsar, A., Herrenkohl, L. (2002). Designing Collaborative Learning Contexts.Theory Into Practice, 41(1).