Teaching method

 

A teaching method comprises the principles and methods used for instruction. Commonly used teaching methods may include class participation, demonstration, recitation, memorization, or combinations of these. The choice of teaching method or methods to be used depends largely on the information or skill that is being taught, and it may also be influenced by the aptitude and enthusiasm of the students.

Methods of instruction

Explaining

Explaining, or lecturing, is the process of teaching by giving spoken explanations of the subject that is to be learned. Lecturing is often accompanied by visual aids to help students visualize an object or problem.

Demonstrating

Main article: Demonstration (teaching)

Demonstrating is the process of teaching through examples or experiments. For example, a science teacher may teach an idea by performing an experiment for students. A demonstration may be used to prove a fact through a combination of visual evidence and associated reasoning.

Demonstrations are similar to written storytelling and examples in that they allow students to personally relate to the presented information. Memorization of a list of facts is a detached and impersonal experience, whereas the same information, conveyed through demonstration, becomes personally relatable. Demonstrations help to raise student interest and reinforce memory retention because they provide connections between facts and real-world applications of those facts. Lectures, on the other hand, are often geared more towards factual presentation than connective learning.

Collaborating

Main article: Collaboration

Collaboration allows students to actively participate in the learning process by talking with each other and listening to other points of view. Collaboration establishes a personal connection between students and the topic of study and it helps students think in a less personally biased way. Group projects and discussions are examples of this teaching method. Teachers may employ collaboration to assess student's abilities to work as a team, leadership skills, or presentation abilities.

Collaborative discussions can take a variety of forms, such as fishbowl discussions. After some preparation and with clearly defined roles, a discussion may constitute most of a lesson, with the teacher only giving short feedback at the end or in the following lesson.

Learning by teaching

Main article: Learning by teaching

In this teaching method, students assume the role of teacher and teach their peers. Students who teach others as a group or as individuals must study and understand a topic well enough to teach it to their peers. By having students participate in the teaching process, they gain self-confidence and strengthen their speaking and communication skills.

Evolution of teaching methods

Ancient education

About 3000 BC, with the advent of writing, education became more conscious or self-reflecting, with specialized occupations such as scribe and astronomer requiring particular skills and knowledge. Philosophy in ancient Greece led to questions of educational method entering national discourse.

In his literary work The Republic, Plato described a system of instruction that he felt would lead to an ideal state. In his dialogues, Plato described the Socratic method, a form of inquiry and debate intended to stimulate critical thinking and illuminate ideas.

It has been the intent of many educators since, such as the Roman educator Quintilian, to find specific, interesting ways to encourage students to use their intelligence and to help them to learn.

Medieval education

Comenius, in Bohemia, wanted all children to learn. In his The World in Pictures, he created an illustrated textbook of things children would be familiar with in everyday life and used it to teach children. Rabelais described how the student Gargantua learned about the world, and what is in it.

Much later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Emile, presented methodology to teach children the elements of science and other subjects. During Napoleonic warfare, the teaching methodology of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi of Switzerland enabled refugee children, of a class believed to be unteachable, to learn. He described this in his account of an educational experiment at Stanz.^{[citation needed]} He felt the key to have children learn is for them to be loved.^{[citation needed]}

19th century - compulsory education

Main article: Prussian education system

The Prussian education system was a system of mandatory education dating to the early 19th century. Parts of the Prussian education system have served as models for the education systems in a number of other countries, including Japan and the United States. The Prussian model required classroom management skills to be incorporated into the teaching process.

20th century

Newer teaching methods may incorporate television, radio, computer, and other modern devices. Some educators believe that the use of technology, while facilitating learning to some degree, is not a substitute for educational methods that encourage critical thinking and a desire to learn. Inquiry learning is another modern teaching method.

See also

• Educational psychology
• Educational philosophy
• Example Choice
• Lesson plan
• Teacher
• Case method
• Business game
• Experiential learning
• Learning

References

• Everett Dean Martin, The Meaning of a Liberal Education, Norton, 1926.
• Paul Monroe, A Text-Book in the History of Education, Macmillan, 1915.
• Gilbert Highet, The Art of Teaching, Knopf, 1950.
• The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method.
• Palmer, Parker. Teaching Practice: Teaching Methods.
• National Board Certified Digital Edge Teachers. Teaching Methods: Demonstrations.
• Lieberman, Ann. Teacher Leadership. California: Jossey-Bass, 2004

External links

• TeachShare (also known as the Community Curriculum Project) shares teachers' trade secrets on how to best teach courses. It also describes various teaching techniques.
• English Teaching Methodology