MANNAM FOUNDATION CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONTECHNOLOGY

PORUVAZHY, EDAKKADU PO, KOLLAM

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT

SUB : INNOVATIVE APPROACHES AND STRATEGIES OF INSTRUCTION IN COMMERCE EDUCATION

Submitted to :-Sumam Teacher,Lecturer in CommerceSubmitted on : 20 Oct 2015

Submitted by :- Aswathy Sasidharan

B.Ed Commerce

Candidate Code :19014373002

I N D E X

SER NO CONTENT PAGE NO

1. Introduction 1

2 Content Development

(a) Principles of the innovative approaches and strategies 1

(b) Types of innovative approaches and strategies 2-5

3 Conclusion 6

4 References 6

INTRODUCTION

The traditional approaches of instruction for commerce education are inadequate for providinglearner centered and appropriate learning experiences. In this situation the innovative modernapproaches of instructional strategies play a prominent role in providing effective learningexperiences to the learners regarding, commerce, trade and industry, innovative approaches arefollowed mainly for the transaction of the curricular material in a controlled learningenvironment.

PRINCIPLES OF THE INNOVATIVE APPROACHES AND STRATEGIES

1. Principle of activity centeredness : This principle insists that the strategies providemaximum activity oriented learning experience to the students. Learning should take placethrough the interaction between the active leaning environment and the learner.

2. Principle of learner orientation : The innovative strategies should be learner oriented. Theactivities related to the strategies must provide adequate reflective learning experiences to thelearner.

3. Principles of linkage : There should be very close linkage between the learner and thelearning environment. Such linkage will act as catalyst in the learning process.

4. Principles of effectiveness : These principles are meant for maximizing the effectiveness ofthe strategies during the implementation.

5. Principles of process evaluation : The process of learning should be considered as a moresignificant factor compared to the product.

6. Principles of Students initiation : While adopting the modern strategies motivation of thelearner is of utmost importance. Only then, they will actively involve in the learning process.

7. Principles of Student effort : This principle advocates that while following the innovativeapproaches students should take maximum effect in the learning process.

TYPES OF INNOVATIVE APPROACHES AND STRATEGIES

There are different types of innovative approaches and strategies, which a commerceteacher can adopt for transacting the commerce curriculum at the Higher Secondary level. Themajor among these are given below :-

1. Problem Based Learning.

2. Teaching of Thinking Skills.

3. Self-study Approach.

4. Contract Learning.

5. Experiential Learning.

6. Modular Approach.

7. Meaningful Verbal Learning Approach.

8. Collaborative and Co-operative Learning.

1. PROBLEM BASED LEARNING (PBL) :

Problem Based Learning is an innovative learning strategy, by which the learning materialspresented through problematic situations and the learners, motivated, and helped to solve theseand thus acquire and internalize related knowledge. The PBL encourages dealing withmeaningful problematic situations that promote curiosity and the spirit of inquiry amonglearners. PBL can be achieved by adopting the technique of Problem Based Instructions (PBI) orPBI can also be referred by other names such as Project Based Teaching (PBT). AuthenticLearning (AL) and Anchored Instruction (AI). The PBL originated from the roots of InquiryTeaching and Guided Discovery leaning. The purposed of PBL is to help the students master thesubject matter through problem solving.

2. TEACHING THINKING SKILLS :

The set of basic advanced, skills and sub skills that govern a person’s mental process haveknown as thinking skills. These skills consist of knowledge dispositions and cognitive and metacognitive operations. Meta cognition is the process of planning, assessing and monitoring one’sown thinking. Thinking skills indicate content free, open-ended, sequential cognitive process thatallows students to transform information in a strategic manner. Thinking skills are different fromprocedural skills. Procedural skills involve the skills for driving, swimming, etc. The outputresulting from the application such skills will be almost of the same nature. However, thinkingskills can have a range of acceptable outputs.

How to teach thinking skills?

A model for importing thinking skill is given below :-

Phase-I : Presentation of lesson.

Phase-II : Developing the lesson jointly with the learners.

Phase-III : Analyzing the thinking skills jointly with the learners.

Phase-IV : Motivating the students to foster thinking skills.

Phase-V : Reaching closure.

3. SELF STUDY APPROACH :

In self-study approach the student learns from outside the formal classroom. The studentutilizes the facilities of the School to engage himself in a variety of activities demanded by thecurriculum being transacted. For this, the student should get the help of an individual teachercoordinator who assists, instructs and evaluates the progress of the student.

4. CONTRACT LEARNING :

Our traditional methods of teaching allow students to be passive at the time of instruction.The instructor presents the learning material and the pupils hear what they say. To be active,students must participate in the process of learning and become more independent andresponsible for their own learning. They must develop the skill of inquiry. The use of learningcontracts allows students to structure their own leanings and to take up the role of activeparticipants in the process of learning.

Webster (1991) defines contract as “an agreement between one or more parties for thedoing or not doing of something specified”. Webster (1991) also defines learning as “knowledgeacquired by systematic study in any field of scholarly application”. By combining these twodefinitions, we can define contract learning as an agreement between as student and aneducational institution or a faculty member to fruitfully associate in a process leading to anacquisition of knowledge.

5. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING :

Stress on experiential learning began with the American Psychologist Carl Rogers (1902 –1987). Rogers distinguished two types of learning – Cognitive (meaningless) and Experiential(significant). The key to the distinction is that experiential learning involves more involvementthat is personal, self-initiation, insistence on constant evaluation and pervasive effect on the partof the learner.

The following are the major characteristics of experiential learning :-

(a) Learning is a continuous process grounded in experiences.

(b) Learning involves transaction between the person and the environment.

(c) Learning is a process of creating knowledge.

(d) Learning process involves research and problem solving

(e) Experiential learning focuses on :-

(i) How one think about the word and

(ii) How one acts in the world.

6. MODULAR APPROACH :

An instructional module is a self-contained, self-sufficient unit of instruction for the learner towork for achieving a set of pre-determined objectives. A module contains three co-ordinatebasic elements of instruction. These are objectives, learning activities and evaluation. A modulecan be defined as “a set of learning activities intended to facilitate the student’s achievements ona objective or set of objectives” Thus a module stands for a sub part or sub system of thecurriculum or instructional programme. An instructional programme in which modules are beinguse of is known as a modular approach of instruction.

7. MEANINGFUL VERBAL LEARNING APPROACH :

Ausubel’s theory of learning is usually known as the Theory of Meaningful Verbal Learning. Many people criticize his stress on ‘Verbal Learning’. When active leaning, discovery learning, etc. In which the learner is constructing knowledge have gained momentum, he uses the terms verballearning, receptive learning, expository learning, etc. and this is the basic for the criticism. ButAusubel has shown how verbal learning become undesirable only when it is mere meaninglessrote learning and points out him verbal learning if made meaningful is advantageous and evenmore desirable in certain respects.

8. COLLABORATIVE AND CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING :

It is very difficult to make clear distinction between collaborative and co-operative learning.The dictionary meaning of “collaboration” derived from its Latin root, focuses on the process ofworking together ; but the root would for “Co-operation” stresses the product of such work:-

Collaborative Learning

Collaboration is a philosophy of interaction where individuals are responsiblefor their actions, including learning and respect the abilities and contributions oftheir peers. In collaborative learning, learners world assume almost totalresponsibility for answering the questions posed by the teacher. The student’sdetermination if they had enough information to answer the question. If not theyidentify other sources, such as journals, books, the Internet, etc. and they obtained

extra source material would be distributed among the group members.

Co-operative Learning

Cooperative learning is a learning strategy in which the pupils are structuredinto groups of peers who work together towards a common goal. It places studentsof different abilities in the same terms and rewards or reinforces are given to thegroup but not to individuals to encourage learning. In co-operative learningstudents are tested individually on their mastery of the subject matter, but rewardsare based on group accomplishment. Co-operative learning can aid in makinglearning more effective for each member and can promote the problem solving skills.

CONCLUSION

Information technology is dramatically altering the way students, faculty and staff leanand work. Internet-ready phones, handheld (Laptop) computers, digital cameras, and MP3players and revolutionizing the College life. As the demand for technology continues to rise,Colleges and Universities are moving all sorts of student’s services, from laundry monitoring tosnack delivery online. Technology is also changing the classroom experience.

From the above, we can make out that the information and communication technology

has made many innovations in the field of teaching and made a drastic change from the oldparadigm of teaching and learning. In the new paradigm of learning, the roles of students aremore important than the role of Teachers. Nowadays there is democratization of knowledge andthe role of the teachers is changing to that of facilitator. We need to have interactive teachingand this changing role of education is inevitable with the introduction of multimedia technology.

The new method makes the classroom active. In commerce, learning it improves theefficiency of learning. Complicated problems can easily solve with the application of innovativestrategy. It makes the student active, ensure their active participation, and it gives good result. Ithelps the Teacher to reduce their work lead, provide adequate innovative strategies, and reducethe distance between Teachers and Students.

REFERENCES

1. Commerce Education - Dr. K Sivarajan & E.K Lal2. Teaching of Commerce - J.C. Agarwal.3. Web site - www.wikipedia.org