Models of Teaching
Contents:
Introduction
The challenge of teacher education – student trainees’ perceptions
Preliminary Activities
Defining the term Models of Teaching
Video Resource
Models of Teaching - models and theories
References and Acknowledgements
Models of Teaching - Introduction
Learning takes place in many different ways and in many different settings. Sometimes the learning is intentional; sometimes not. Some of the situations involve teaching, i.e. when someone designs activities with the intention that someone else learns from participating in them. All of these activities require a range of strategies to make the learning accessible for the students and in order to discuss and analyse teaching situations effectively, it is sensible to group them into different underlying models.
What this resource is
- a collection of ideas, resources, activities, video clips for new tutors to use with their students to make them think, reflect critique, the concept of what learning is, and how learning and teaching can be made more effective.
What this resource isn't
- a solution to the question “What is the best model of teaching?”
author: Helen Smith/Debbie Simpson
The challenge of teacher education – student trainees’ perceptions
Educating student teacher trainees in the art of teaching is a difficult task. This resource aims to assist the new tutor in guiding students through the numerous theories, pedagogies, models, strategies, paradigms – and the (often) synonymous use of these terms. There is no shortage of information on learning theories, but often the difficulty is drilling down to what is meaningful and presenting it in a format that is accessible for students. Replicating information in the form of handouts is straightforward, but reviewing the information critically, making comparisons and identifying the underlying concepts of theory and its importance are more difficult to develop.
Students as teacher trainees, too often focus on content and not enough on process. Hopefully through deeper understanding of the process (teaching methodology, strategy, progression, differentiation) sound models will be developed that suit the students’ own teaching style. Students need to be challenged about teaching techniques through their own experiences as learners (e.g. of being taught by teachers using a variety of models or approaches) and also through developing and mastering their own techniques and strategies.
The challenge exists therefore, to change students’ mindsets that teaching ICT is all about product; creating yet another leaflet or mechanistically producing spreadsheet models without a deeper understanding of the purpose and process. The QCA’s big picture of the curriculum reinforces the concept of the curriculum as “the entire planned learning experience of a young person” and should provide the framework around which strategies or models can be developed. There may be further opportunities to make links to the current agendas of ECM, Personalised Learning, Key Skills, assessment and testing issues (for example, broadening the scope of ICT content to teach meaningful lessons, but focusing on arrangement documents and syllabi dictated by examination frameworks) but this is not the main focus of this resource.
Preliminary Activities
This resource should be used in the wider context of the planning, teaching and evaluation cycle. Download guidance on the purpose of the activities and how they may be set in context.
Download Word document: Guidance.doc (163K)
Suggested Preliminary Activities - Perceptions of Teaching
Activity 1 –
All students have experienced learning through a variety of models (different types of lesson, school, teacher, resources) and all will have existing views on what constituted ‘good’ teaching/teachers and ‘not so good’ teaching/teachers.
Individually:
Think of your best teacher, or one who influenced you the most. What personal qualities made them unique in this respect? (Write down a few points to share with the rest of the group)
Groups:
In groups, consider the following and discuss the main points with a view to feeding back to the rest of the class at the end of the session.
- What is ‘effective teaching’? (as opposed to the effective teacher considered above)
- What do you think are the elements of ‘effective teaching’ that support and promote effective learning?
- What makes an effective lesson?
Activity 2 - Reading
The Scenario from Prosser and Trigwell (2001) p1-5 is recommended as initial reading for discussion to provide a focus for subsequent sessions. (One student, at the end of the year, failed his examination. The other student passed with distinction. Both were taught by the same tutor, covered the same syllabus, attended the same lectures and tutorials and completed the same assignments.)
Activity 3 - Learning Styles Audit
Further information about Learning Styles
download doc document: "Guidance.doc" (163K)
Defining the term Models of Teaching
“At first, when people create or find a new model of teaching that works for some purpose, they’re so thrilled they try to use it for everything. Our job is to find some order – finding out what each model can do and building categories to help folks find the tools they need.”
(Joyce, B 2002; p 27)
The term “Models of Teaching” has many interpretations and new tutors should discuss with their students what the term means to them. On asking a few experienced tutors in Higher Education what they understood by the term “Models of Teaching” it was interesting to note the variation in their responses. Some of these are listed here and may provide a starting point for discussion with your students:
- various strategies that facilitate learning through different models or approaches
- techniques for teaching such as mastery learning, drill and skill, direct teaching, blended approaches, elearning
- Is there such a thing as Models of Teaching? Should this read Models of Learning?
- Developing independent learners through whatever means available
- Pedagogies and philosophies for teaching and learning
- Delivering the product in a meaningful, interesting way
The list above is only a small sample of the many responses from one Higher Education Institution.
Throughout this resource the term ‘model’ will be used to define a variety of ways of teaching, but the following definitions may help the new tutor set this resource in context:
A model of teaching is a set of related practices which teachers can adopt in order to help achieve particular learning objectives (similar terms – approach, strategy, method, learning design)
A pedagogy is a coherent set of beliefs and practices, often associated with a particular teacher, subject or professional development initiative (similar term – style, methodology, paradigm, theory)
A technique is a well-defined procedure which may be combined with others within an overall model of teaching, e.g. demonstrate and ask student to repeat; whole class brainstorm; discuss with partner; hotseat.
The Video Resource
The video resource is an open-ended, extensible collection of video clips which new tutors may find useful in prompting discussion about approaches to teaching.
Currently, many of the video clips are sourced from Teachers TV. The clips can be used in an open-ended way initially, encouraging student analysis and reflection, with the aim of linking theory and practice at a later stage.
New tutors could consider filming their own students teaching and those clips could be used in a similar way to encourage self and peer analysis and feedback.
• Download Word document: Using the video resource.doc (1160K)
• Download Word document: Student Prompt Sheet.doc (54K)
Link to the Video Resource
Activities (text in italics does not appear on the Student Prompt Sheet):
From your observations
- What, in your opinion, were the observable variables that influenced the teaching/learning process?
- Suggest other variables which weren’t observed in the video, but may have also influenced the teaching/learning process.
(possible suggestions may include: home, peer influence, community, religion, health, society, culture, international conditions, social conditions; also variables that may occur in the classroom; such as Teacher behaviour; Pupil behaviour; plus ‘other’ factors. ).
Further reading - Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (beyond the scope of this resource)
- With reference to the qualities identified in the preliminary task “What makes a good teacher?” - which of those qualities did you observe in the video clip? For example: verbal ( humour, providing examples, questioning techniques, learning and using students’ names, inviting feedback, using praise) and non-verbal ( body language, smiling, maintaining eye contact, facial expressions, demeanour)
- From your observations, could you determine what the student/teacher was hoping to achieve? What were the pupils actually learning? Could you separate and identify the content from the process of what was being taught?
- How many different approaches can you think of to teach (for example) the COUNTIF function in a spreadsheet? (any ICT concept can be inserted here). Strategies could include text books, demonstration, lecture, video clip, podcast, activity sheet.
Reading – Models Metaphor
download doc document: "Using the video resource.doc" (1160K) download doc document: "Student Prompt Sheet.doc" (54K)
Models of Teaching – models and theories
“If you learn only methods, you'll be tied to your methods, but if you learn principles you can devise your own methods.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1837)
The key questions for new tutors may be:
Why teach learning theory? (and our students often ask this question!)
How can we make this knowledge meaningful and accessible for our students?
Learning paradigms (the framework of theories).
It may be useful to consider paradigms under the following headings:
Why learn about theory?
An in-depth study of learning theory is perhaps beyond the scope of this resource, but the rationale for including some study of learning theory for teacher trainees is:
• Theories influence what we believe about learning (and how we believe people learn)
• Theories should also influence how we teach so that people learn; and how we evaluate our teaching.
• A study of theory, differentiates between the instructional design process (sequential steps required in guiding the student learning) and the critical understanding of the most appropriate approaches based on research.
• Addressing QTS standards Q10. Q12 and in particular Q14 – “Have a secure knowledge and understanding of their subjects/curriculum areas and related pedagogy to enable them to teach effectively across the age and ability range for which they are trained.”
Download Word document: Woollard_Learning_Theories_Discussion.doc (32K)
From Theories to Models
Joyce, Weil and Calhoun (2004) have grouped models of teaching into four "families", each built around the thinking of key theorists accompanied by a rationale based on research that tests those theories for achieving the learning goals for which they were designed.
- Behavioural System Family of Models
- Information Processing Family of Models
- Personal Family of Models
- Social Family of Models
Download Word document: Families.doc (55K)
The DCSF has produced the following resources which new tutors may find useful
Updated Pedagogy and Practice (DCSF 2007)
and
Personalised Learning - A Practical Guide (DCSF 2008)
download doc document: "Families.doc" (55K) download doc document: "Woollard_Learning_Theories_Discussion.doc" (32K)
References and Acknowledgements
Special thanks to our QA officers Steve Kennewell and Rick Bennett for their rigour in scrutinising this resource and offering many helpful suggestions in defining some of the terminology.
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Joyce, B., Weil, M., and Calhoun, E., (2003) Models of Teaching (7th Edition), Allyn and Bacon; New York:
Kennewell, S., Parkinson, J. and Tanner, H. (eds) (2003) Learning to Teach ICT in the Secondary School, London: Routledge
Prosser, M and Trigwell, K (2001), Understanding Learning and Teaching - The Experience in Higher Education, Oxford University Press.
Other Useful Resources:
A critique of Models of Teaching:
Dillon, J,T, (1998), Using diverse styles of teaching, Journal of Curriculum Studies, v30 n5 p503-14 Sep-Oct 1998
Also available at http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/westbury/JCS/VOL30/dillon.html
Johnson,C G and Fuller, U , (2007) Is Bloom's taxonomy appropriate for computer science?
In Anders Berglund and Mattias Wiggberg, (eds), Proceedings of the Sixth Baltic Sea Conference on Computing Education Research, volume 2007-006 of Uppsala University Department of Information Technology Technical Reports, pages 120-123. Uppsala University, February 2007.
Lamm, Z, (1978) Conflicting Theories of Instruction by Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 273-279 Berkley, Calif: McCutcheon.
Web-based Resources
Atherton, J. S. (2005) Learning and Teaching: Motivation [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/motivation.htm Accessed: 27 October 2008
Remedios, L; Clarke, D; Hawthorne, L, (2008) Framing Collaborative Behaviors: Listening and Speaking in Problem-based Learning, available: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=ijpbl Accessed 13 July 2008
Savary, J (2006) Overview of Problem-based Learning: Definitions and Distinctions, available :http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=ijpbl Accessed 13 July 2008.
Stiles, M, (2003) Computers in Teaching and Learning available http://www.staffs.ac.uk/cital/pedagog.html Accessed 21 September2008.
Other
Lawson, M, (2007); An introduction to Teachers’ TV www.ict-tutors.co.uk Accessed 31 October 2008
Email communications (from ITTE community on Why Teach Theory)
DCSF Publications (date order)