The rapid change and increased complexity of today’s world in educational scenario cause new challenges and put new demands on our education system.
There has been generally a growing awareness of the necessity to change and improve the preparation of students for productive functioning in the continually changing and highly demanding environment. The approaches to teaching can be categorized according to major educational goals that affect teaching strategies.
Presenting subject matter often depends on the topic at hand, the resources available, the time allotted for the lesson, and the interest level expected of the student. When a teacher takes all of this information into account, teacher can make a good choice as to the best way to present the material. There are different teaching strategies that can be used to help students gain the understanding. These strategies can be used individually or in conjunction with each other. The technique of teaching on the one hand is viewed as the transmission of knowledge by the teachers to the students and on the other hand teaching is viewed as facilitating students’ autonomous learning and self expression. The former approach which converges towards the teaching of specified subject matter may be termed ‘
’ teaching and the latter approach which stresses open ended self-directed learning may be termed ‘
’ teaching.
The convergent approach is highly structured and teacher-centered; the students are passive recipients of knowledge transmitted to them .The divergent approach is flexible, student-centered.
Teaching strategies are used for achieving the teaching goals and objectives.
Keeping in view the class-room environment and the teacher’s attitude, teaching strategies can be divided into two categories - Autocratic and Democratic.
The
are traditional teaching strategies and are also called convergent approach. These are content centred and teacher-centred. While using these strategies, the teacher’s place is primary and the pupil’s place is secondary.
The teacher determines the content himself and by considering himself an ideal and by suppressing pupil’s interests, attitudes, capacities, abilities and needs, he\she tries to impose knowledge forcibly from outside in the minds of the pupils. In such a situation, pupils don’t have any freedom for their expressions. Hence, in these autocratic strategies, only mental development is emphasized, for achieving cognitive
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45 Teaching Strategies: Pros and Cons objectives and group development is not cared for at all. Autocratic teaching strategies include Lecture, Demonstration, Tutorial, Programmed instruction, etc.
Lecture Method
The lecture method is the most commonly used instructional strategy for working with groups of students. It is teacher-centered forms of instruction i.e. convergent approach. Lecture can be delivered in many different ways, and one method may be more effective than other. The least effective form of lecture method is when teacher reading from notes or the text; with this students quickly lose interest and also when no day to day life experiences are shared in the lecture.
Following are the ways through which effectiveness of lectures can be improved:
Be organized – Plan the lectures ahead of time and be logical in the order of presentation.
Allow for periodic breaks – lecture sessions should not be too long as the students cannot concentrate and grasp for longer duration. Hence, it may be appropriate to provide breaks in between so that the students relax and informally discuss the ideas that have been presented in the sessions.
Use visuals – lecture alongwith visuals like Power Point Presentation, overhead transparencies, pictures, charts, slides, etc. help the students a lot to understand the subjects better as they not only hear but also see through visuals.
Allow for questions – Provide adequate time for question and answer session. The person giving lecture should try to respond to all questions asked for so that the students get clarity of the subject delivered.
Arrange the seating – the seating arrangement should be in such a way so that the students see each other and also the teacher. This face to face arrangement can facilitate more interaction with the fellow students and also the teacher. Formal arrangement made in the classroom divides the students from the teacher leading to less of interaction.
Provide opportunities for small group discussion – in order to break the monotony of lecture session, small group discussions can be arranged to enhance better participation of students. The topics for small group discussions can be mutually decided by the teacher and the students and the time duration should be short. At the end, the representatives from each group should present their points of view in the general session in which the members of the other groups can also share their views. Once the general session is over the teacher can resume the lecture session again.
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n n n n n n n
46 Anuradha Sharma
The advantages of lecture sessions are:
Useful for large groups.
Effective means of providing new information and clarifying existing information to a large heterogeneous group in a short period of time.
Factual materials are presented in a direct and logical manner.
Life experiences can motivate the students.
More useful for covering essential concepts, principles, and systems.
Can stimulate learner’s interest in future study.
Can be recorded for future sessions.
However, the lecture session are having disadvantages also. They are: n n n n n n n n n n n
Demonstration
A person giving lecture should be proficient in oral skills. Otherwise the session cannot be effective.
Audience becomes more passive by listening the lecture.
Communication is more of one-way.
Not appropriate for children below grade four.
Learning fully depends upon the teacher, unless it is integrated with other techniques (is a passive versus learning activity)
Establishes a “tell me” mind-set in students.
Offers limited opportunities for assessment and feedback
Learner can be overloaded as it is common for teachers to include too much information in too short a time frame
There is very little independent thinking of the students.
Sometimes it can increase boredom among students.
Have very limited effectiveness in teaching anything other than knowledge.
Demonstrations are most effective when the students are concerned with an issue or problem and are looking for an answer. In such cases the demonstration can deal directly with their concern. It is important that the person doing the demonstration know the content very well and is able to answer questions as they arise during the demonstration. Demonstrations can be classified into two, one is
Result Demonstration and the other one is Method Demonstration. The Result
Demonstration is to show the results of some activity, practice or procedure through evidence (or example) that can be seen, heard or felt. It is an effective method for introducing new topic or idea in an extension. For example comparison between traditional agricultural tools and new technological tools can be well explained and shown by this method. At the same time the Method Demonstration illustrates how to do something in a step-by-step fashion.
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47 Teaching Strategies: Pros and Cons
The demonstration method also has both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages are: n n n n
More useful for those students who learn well by modeling others.
Promotes self-confidence.
Provides opportunity for targeted questions and answers.
Allows attention to be focused on specific details rather than general theories.
Disadvantages are: n n n
Limited value for people who do not learn best by observing others.
Not appropriate for different learning rates of the participants.
Requires the demonstrator to have specialized expertise if highly technical tasks are involved.
Tutorial
It is the fundamental right of every person to get education in democracy. Therefore, instead of individual teaching, group-teaching is emphasized so that the large group may be educated at the low rate of expenditure. But it is also true that in groupteaching, a general teacher cannot solve the ‘personal’ problems of every learner.
The reason is that if teacher does this, he/she cannot finish his/her fixed syllabi in a time-bound manner. To remove this drawback of group-teaching, students are divided into small groups so that the personal problems which came across during group teaching are solved successfully. Hence, a tutorial is a sub-part of the class in which a teacher tries to solve the problems of the small groups of students through individual teaching. Tutorials are of three types - Group Tutorial, Supervised Tutorial and Practical
Tutorial.
The Group Tutorials are conducted to solve the problems of the grown-up students of average level. It should be remembered that the group tutorials can only be organized successfully by a teacher who possesses the full knowledge of group dynamics and social psychology.
In Supervised Tutorials, the talented students and the teachers discuss the problems time to time. The students put-up their difficulties and then the teacher tries to solve those problems. In this way, after a discussion between a teacher and the students, the solutions to some problems come-up.
The Practical Tutorials are conducted to develop the physical skill and to achieve the objectives of psychomotor skill. Students have to work in the laboratory for this.
Such tutorials are more useful for youngsters and the students of lower classes.
Some people consider the teacher as primary and students as secondary in conducting the tutorials.
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48 Anuradha Sharma
In such a situation, if a tutorial acquires the form of a lecture, then this will be considered as autocratic strategy. Contrary to this, if the students are more active instead of the teacher, then it will definitely occupy its main place in democratic strategies. Prof. Bloom’s view is that the discussion should be based on the problem and the teacher should help the students to the maximum to solve the problem.
A tutorial learning situation is most helpful when a single student needs specific help. The focus for a tutorial is usually the specific problems of concerns of the student. The teacher then becomes a form of consultant to the student and attempts to assist in helping the learner deal with his/her concerns.
The advantages of this method are: n n n n n
Learning can be promoted
Encourages students to solve problems, connect, prioritize and incorporate conceptual knowledge.
Develops positive attitudes and values.
Promotes social and intellectual experience
Develops oral presentation skills
The disadvantage is labour intensive.
Use of Multimedia
Multimedia methods of presentation include slide shows, movies, power point presentations and transparencies. Visual aides to instruction can help students better understand the ideas that are being presented. When creating presentations, it is important to keep notes concise and to the point while including interesting and relevant images. If done well, presentation can be very interesting and effective for students’ learning. Visual aids clarify the ideas that are presented and reduce the confusion.
The advantages of this method are: n Content can be introduced with entertaining way and with raising issues n Usually keeps the group’s attention n Looks professional n Stimulates discussion
The disadvantages are: n Can raise too many issues to have a focused discussion n Discussion may not have full participation n Most effective only when it is followed by discussion
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Democratic Strategies
Teaching Strategies: Pros and Cons
The democratic strategies are child centred as the students determine themselves the content. Hence, the students’ place is primary and that of teachers is secondary. As a result of its use, maximum interaction occurs between the students and the teacher. This develops their constructive capacities in accordance to their interests, attitudes, capacities, abilities, needs and mental levels of the students.
Democratic strategies are objective and hence, the genius children gain advantage to the maximum. Following are the democratic strategies:
Group Discussion
Group discussion is an organized opportunity for the students to discuss selected topics/issues/ideas in a group setting. Group discussion allows more number of students to actively participate and helps them to increase learning. Before organizing a group discussion, it is important to make sure that the students have a certain level of understanding that will allow them to share their ideas in the group. Typically a teacher presents information through questions and answers, ensuring that the students are involved in learning. Teachers can retain control while checking on the students’ learning throughout the lesson.
To conduct group discussion effectively there are a set of procedures which include the following:
1. Presentation of material for discussion n Material for discussion should be of interest to the students n Focused on the purpose of the lesson and suitable for the age group n Set the climate for discussion n Identify the aims of discussion n Clarify the meaning of key terms in the topic for discussion to ensure a common basis for understanding n Questioning
To systematically go through the points for discussion
(i) Giving each student an opportunity to articulate his/her personal stance.
(ii) Avoid making substantial contributions but guide the discussion by asking the following types of questions:
-
-
fact questions - asking students for previously learned information, or to recount a specified aspect of their previous experience;
meaning questions - asking students to demonstrate understanding of concepts, to give explanations etc.;
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-
-
50 Anuradha Sharma
concretizing questions - asking students to relate the material under discussion to their own experience or the experience of others
balance questions - asking students to explore their differences;-
Open questions - asking students to answer from the background of their personal experience and ideas, with the nature of links between students’ ideas and the theme of the lesson being left open for the students to decide.
2. Conclusion n Plenary sessions are when the full class hears what went on in smaller groups. Each small group has a reporter and recorder who outline the conclusions of the group.
n The teacher draws the discussion to a close by summarizing the flow of discussion and the key issues rose in the light of the aims of discussion and the sequence of learning. Students are encouraged to adopt an informed personal stance as a result of the discussion or to raise further questions.
The advantages of group discussion are: n Pools ideas and experiences from group n Effective after a presentation, film or experience that needs to be analyzed n Allows everyone to participate in an active process
The disadvantages are: n Possibility of a few students dominating the discussion n Some students may not participate at all n It is time consuming n Many times the discussion can go off the track
The group discussions can be classified into two – one Large Group Discussions and the other Small Group Discussions. The Large group discussions are useful for holding general discussion, reporting back, airing views, giving information, seeking proposals, agreeing plans, generating energy, building trust and exploring expectations/hopes. However, large group discussions can be successful only if the participants are encouraged to express their views openly and everyone is given an opportunity to contribute.
The advantages of large group discussions are: n Puts the burden of learning on the students and increases their involvement n Provides both the students and the teacher immediate feedback n Useful for guiding learners to higher levels of thinking and inquiry n Provides valuable clues about students motivation and how to facilitate learning n Helps students identify and build on preexisting knowledge
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The disadvantages are:
Teaching Strategies: Pros and Cons n Can be time consuming n Relies on students preparation and willingness to participate n Can lead to a dominant few n Controlling the floor to the exclusion of fuller participation n Cannot ensure full participation within a large group
The Small Group Discussions are more complicated form of discussion. A teacher breaks the class into small groups and provides them some issues/ topics that they discuss. The teacher then walks around the class, checking on the information being shared and ensuring participation by all within the group. For example students have read a novel and are sharing information based on questions posed by the teacher. In this the teacher needs to handle the classroom management well to ensure the discussion in groups stay on the topic chosen. Small group discussion is useful for further exploration of identified issues, practical decision-making, actionplanning or full discussion by a small number of people. Small groups give everyone a break from the large group and help to generate discussion and stimulate participation. The general guideline used for small group discussions is: n Decide on an issue and agree for specific discussion n Set the time limit n Assign a reporter to each group n Encourage people to respect one another and to stay within the topic chosen
The advantages of small group discussions are: n Allows participation of everyone/ maximum participation n Students often feel more comfortable in small groups n Easy to reach by consensus
The disadvantages are: n Needs careful thought as to purpose of group n Groups may get side tracked
Exhibits
Exhibits are collection of materials that are displayed to help people learn. They are useful as a strategy to help the students to gain new understanding without the necessity of a formal course or training programme. However, exhibits should be setup in the areas that are frequented by the students. It is often helpful if the exhibits include selection of objects or pictures and appropriate signs and written information.
In addition, handouts and printed materials should be available for the students to take alongwith them. Exhibits will be more effective if they are periodically changed and are not kept for too long.
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Role Play
Anuradha Sharma
When students are expected to interact with other people effectively using the technical information role playing can be of great use. In role play two or more students are specifically given their roles and a situation in which they are involved.
The selected students then act in their assigned roles and try to solve the problems or project the situation properly. Role play can be done before the large and small groups of students. However, to ensure the messages reached the students it may be appropriate that at the end of role play the students are given an opportunity to talk about their feeling on the play, their observation, learning and if they play the role what they will do in a different way.
The advantages of role play are: n Introduces problem situation dramatically n Provides opportunity for students to assume roles of others and thus appreciate others point of view n Allows for exploration of solutions n Provides opportunity to practice skills n Actively involves participants, adds variety, reality and specificity to the learning experience n Develops problem-solving and verbal expression skills n Provides practice to build skills before real-world application when “real” experiences are not readily available n Can provide an entirely new perspective on a situation and develop insights about feelings and relationships n Provides the teacher immediate feedback about the students understanding and ability to apply concepts n Improves the likelihood of transfer of learning from the classroom to the real world
The disadvantages are: n Some students may be too self-conscious n Not appropriate for large groups n Some students may feel threatened n Puts pressure on students to perform, which can create embarrassment and even resistance n Depends heavily on students imagination and willingness to participate n Can engender strong emotions related to past experiences and empathy n Can lack focus unless well planned, orchestrated and monitored n Can reinforce ineffective behaviors/strategies if performance is not observed by knowledgeable person(s) who can provide appropriate feedback n Can be unpredictable in terms of outcomes n Can be time consuming
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Simulation
Teaching Strategies: Pros and Cons
Simulations are slightly different than role play in that students become involved in a situation and have to use what they have learned and their own intellect to work through the simulation. For example, a government simulation might have the students create a model legislature where they have to create and pass the legislation. These have a great ability to be interest building but also require the teacher to make clear how each student will be assessed for their participation.
The advantages of simulation are: n Can portray realistic situations n Allows for focused learning that eliminates irrelevant aspects n Can be used when “real” experiences are not readily available or would endanger patients n Provides immediate feedback
The disadvantages are: n Limits the number of people who can access the learning at the same time n Can create scheduling and logistics challenges
Student Presentation
Having students prepare for and then present information to the class as a whole can be a fun and engaging method of instruction. For example, one can divide a chapter into topics and have the students “teach” in the class or one can divide the topics to students or groups and have them present information on each of the topic as a short presentation. This not only helps students learn the material in a deeper manner but also provides them with practice in public speaking.
Field Trip
Field trips are often used to show the results of a certain practice. The field trip is usually a well planned visit by a group of students to some place(s) or organization(s) that can provide new ideas and insights. Field trips can be planned to places of interests, personalities, manufacturing facilities and the locations that cannot come to the students.
Case Study
Case studies are used to allow the students to examine or analyze the specific situations that they may be facing in the future. Usually the situations are prepared ahead of time and distributed in written form. The students, often working in teams, discuss how they can solve the situations that have been presented. This strategy can be helpful following the presentation of technical information whereby the students
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54 Anuradha Sharma can then apply the information to specific problems/situations. It is also helpful for allowing the students to assess how much they have learnt and how comfortable they will be in using the information to solve problems in the future.
The advantages of case studies are: n Develops analytic and problem solving skills n Allows for exploration of solutions for complex issues n Allows students to apply new knowledge and skills n Interactive sessions n Promotes problem-solving, diagnostic, interpretive and management skills n It is flexible and can be conducted at any time
The disadvantages are: n Students may not see relevance to own situation n Insufficient information can lead to inappropriate results n Not appropriate for elementary level n Time-consuming
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is used to encourage the students to freely share their ideas. All ideas are accepted in the beginning of the process with no response, regardless of how useless or impractical it may be seem, is omitted from the first stages of brainstorming. As ideas are contributed by the members of the group, they are listed for all in the group to see and discuss. Discussion can include the development of spin-off ideas, the refining of ideas, combining of ideas and reinforcing of existing ideas. Brainstorming can be excellent to help a group of students think creatively of new ideas to solve difficult problems.
Define the problem clearly layout any criteria to be met. Keep the session focused on the problem, but be sure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the session, even if they are clearly impractical. Criticism dampens creativity in the initial stages of a brainstorming session. Ideas should be listed, rather than developed deeply on the spot; the idea is to generate possibilities. Accordingly, the participants should be encouraged to pick-up on ideas offered to create new ones. One person should be appointed as note-taker and ideas should be studied and evaluated after the session.
The advantages of brainstorming are: n Actively involves students in higher levels of thinking n Promotes peer learning and creates synergy n Promotes critical thinking n Helps groups reach consensus
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55 Teaching Strategies: Pros and Cons
The disadvantages are: n Requires that students discipline their inputs to the discussion (generate ideas without making judgments) n May not be effective with large groups n Can lead to “group think”
Independent Study
Most adult learners do their learning through independent study. Independent study allows the students to select the content that they are most interested in learning and also to select the best time for learning. In the independent study students can move through the content at their own pace. A teacher can help the students do independent study by providing study materials, resource guides, selftesting materials and by being available to answer questions as they arise.
Fishbone Method
Fishbone method is a problem solving tool used to uncover the reasons behind them. It represents the relationship between an effect (problem) and its potential causes. It is used to identify, explore and display all possible causes of specific problem or condition. The fishbone technique uses a visual organizer to identify the possible causes of a problem.
The procedure to be followed for the fishbone method is on a broad sheet of paper, draw a long arrow horizontally across the middle of the page pointing to the right. Label the arrowhead with the title of the issue to be explained. This is the
“backbone” of the “fish.” Draw “spurs” from this “backbone” at about 45 degrees, one for every likely cause of the problem that the group can think of; and label each. Subspurs can represent subsidiary causes. The group considers each spur/sub-spur, taking the simplest first, partly for clarity but also because a simple explanation may make more complex ones unnecessary. Ideally, the fishbone is redrawn so that position along the backbone reflects the relative importance of the different parts of the problem, with the most important at the head. The following one example of the fishbone:
Social factors Economic factors
Factors Affecting non-literacy
Personal factors Environmental factors
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Assigning Task Method
Anuradha Sharma
In this method, trainees try to understand themselves first about assigned task through self study, instead of depending entirely upon the trainer. This is learning by doing .The objective of this method is that the trainees should develop confidence to do the job themselves, instead of depending upon others.
Conclusion
To conclude the figure given below shows the average retention rate of different methods of teaching. As per the figure the best effective method is learning by doing and least effective method is verbal processing which includes lecture and reading.
Figure: https://www.google.co.in/search teaching methods image
However, no method can be totally rejected as already explained each method has both advantages and disadvantages. Hence, it is the duty of the teacher to use mix of more than one method of teaching so that the effectiveness of the multi methods brought in favour of the students to learn in the most effective manner.
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