Educational Foundations
Chapter 10: Authentic Instruction and Curricula for Creating a Community of Learners
Outline: pp. (324-363)
Becoming A Teacher
Classroom CULTURE:
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ways in which the teacher and students interact in
common activities
Room arrangements
Rules and procedures
Curriculum
Methodology
1. Classroom CLIMATE: atmosphere/quality of life in the classroom
 Use of authority
 Support for students
 Competitive/Cooperative/Individualistic encouragement: when? how?

High-performing teachers (?-“what is definition?) use the following:
1. productive, task-oriented focus
2. group cohesiveness
3. warm, open student-teacher relationships
4. cooperative, respectful interactions among students
5. low levels of tension, anxiety, and conflict
6. humor
7. high expectations
8. frequent opportunities for student input regarding classroom activities
Positive Interactions among students and teacher are influenced by:
 teacher must be PATIENT and SUPPORTIVE, never embarrassing
students for their mistakes
 high expectations set for all students, challenging but reasonable
 learning tasks must be authentic
 classrooms must be relatively organized and free from constant
interruptions and disruptions
2. CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION
A. Grouping:
1. BETWEEN-CLASS: “tracking,” students assigned to classes on
basis of ability and/or achievement (testing)
2. WITHIN-CLASS: instruction in small, homogeneous groups (math,
reading)
3. Regrouping
4. COOPERATIVE LEARNING: (1954: Brown v. Board of Education)
 Groups of 2-6 work together on activities
 Students must assist and collaborate
 Groups may compete against one another (no within-group
competition)
 Group members contribute to group goals according to own
talents, interests, and abilities
B. Instruction: an activity is authentic when learner feels emotionally
involved and mentally stimulated, has choices and makes decisions, feels
(self) has something to bring to the activity and that the outcome is
important. (Thelen, 1981) AUTHENTIC LEARNING TASKS enable
students to see the connections between classroom learning and the
world beyond the classroom-both now and in the future.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
TIME
allocated time: amount of time for instruction in various
content/subject
time-on-task: amount of time students are actively engaged in
learning activities
academic learning time: amount of time a student spends working on
academic tasks with a high level of success
opportunity to learn OTL:teachers should use time to provide all
students with challenging content through appropriate instruction
block scheduling: ( Ask: How many of you are familiar? Examples)
C. Management: how teachers structure classrooms to prevent/minimize
problems
PROACTIVE Qualities of the teacher:
1. “With-it-ness” (Kounin) eyes-in-the-back-of-your-head
2. “Ripple effect” (Kounin) use individual examples to reinforce
behaviors
3. Multi-tasking
4. Smooth transitions
Effective teachers establish and consistently maintain
RULES and PROCEDURES: Clear, concise, reasonable, few in number
Effective teachers organize and plan for instruction:
Meaningful, engaging tasks, grouping, feedback and assessment
Discipline: methods used after student has misbehaved, etc.
(Beliefs About Discipline Inventory: handout from website: www.ablongman.com/parkay6e)
Question: 1) Management styles you have encountered? Liked? Disliked?
WHY?
3. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
a. DIRECT INSTRUCTION: focuses on the transmission of knowledge
and skills from the teacher/curriculum to the student (Learning New
Behaviors)
 BEST USE: step-by-step knowledge acquisition and basic skills
development
b. Mastery Learning (Madeline Hunter)
 all students can learn material if given enough time and appropriate
teaching methods
 students learn best when they participate in a structured, systematic
program of learning that enables them to progress in small, sequenced
steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pretest
Set objectives
Direct Instruction with modeling
Guided practice and feedback
Posttest/Assessment
Reteach
c. Constructivist Teaching: (Child Development)
1. elicit students’ prior knowledge of material-start from this point
2. teacher reflects on students’ own learning process, provides
scaffolding (only enough support to enable students to discover
material on his/her own.
Vygotsky: zone of proximal development = point at which students
need assistance in order to continue learning
3. students put new information into memory (short-term, long-term)
and use that information to construct meaning
4. community of learners established to share information, insights,
and solve problems
d. Information Processing: (Thinking Process)
1. Gathering/representing information = encoding
2. Holding information = storage
3. Getting information when needed = retrieval
e. Inquiry/Discovery Learning: students are given opportunities to inquire
into subjects so they “discover” knowledge for themselves
f. Peer-mediated Instruction:
1. Cooperative Learning
2. Group Investigation (GI)
3. Peer-tutoring
4. Cross-age tutoring
4. EFFECTIVE TEACHING
a. OUTCOMES:
 Students acquire an understanding of the subject studies
 Apply knowledge to new situations
 Desire to continue learning
b. CHARACTERISTICS of effective teaching:
1. Planning and Preparation:
 Broad GOALS, Measurable OBJECTIVES
 To ASSESS use FORMATIVE and SUMMATIVE
EVALUATIONS
 Measurement involves gathering data
 Evaluation is making a judgment/giving value
 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS = students create, perform,
problem-solve
 PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
 PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT = collection/compilation of
students’ work
2. Classroom Environment
3. Instruction
4. Professional Responsibilities
5. KINDS OF CURRICULUM
 EXPLICIT CURRICULUM = what a school intends to teach
students
 HIDDEN CURRICULUM = behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge
the culture of the school unintentionally teaches students
 NULL CURRICULUM = what is not taught in schools
 EXTRA/COCURRICULAR PROGRAMS : a) larger the school,
less likely that a student will participate, b) those who do
participate tend to have higher self-concepts that those who do
not, c) students who participate tend to receive higher grades, d)
at-risk students tend not to participate, e) students from low SES
participate less
6. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
TYLER RATIONALE: ask the following
 What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?
 What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to
attain these purposes?
 How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
 How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
SUBJECT-CENTERED CURRICULUM emphasizes logical order of
study in the discipline
STUDENT-CENTERED CURRICULUM teaches content, but
emphasis is on growth and development of the student
What influences curricular decisions? Brainstorm societal influences