Instruction as a Systematic Process

Teaching is not simply standing in front of a class and talking. The best teachers contemplate the manner in which they will present a topic and have a wide variety of instructional models at their disposal.

Models of Instruction

What is an instructional model?

Think of it as a broad, overarching descriptor that encompasses several different concepts. For example, when teaching astronomy, the solar system is a model with the sun at the center and all the planets orbiting around it. A few of the concepts associated with the solar model are gravity, orbits, heliocentricity, satellites, and eclipses. You can use this model to picture the solar system in your mind’s eye.

An instructional model acts as a blueprint for teaching. However, just as blueprints do not dictate all actions of engineers, instructional models are not intended to dictate actions of teachers. Teachers must select the appropriate model in order to achieve a specified goal, just as engineers select appropriate designs or methods based on desired outcomes. Models differ from general teaching strategies because they are designed to reach specific goals. In fact, instructional models generally include a variety of instructional strategies. (Eggen & Kauchak, 2001) The sample instructional models outlined below, designed to help students learn content and develop thinking skills, include many high-yield instructional strategies identified by Robert Marzano (2001) and his colleagues.

What type of instructional models do teachers embrace?

As critical as planning and management are to performing competently as a professional educator, quality instruction is absolutely necessary if students are to be successful in learning required content and skills.

There are a variety of ways to define quality instruction. Remember that instructional quality means that the desired goals and objectives have been obtained.

learning psychology modelsConcepts associated with the learning psychology model can be described as behaviorist, cognitive, constructivist, and developmental.

Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion. Observable (i.e. external) behavior can be objectively and scientifically measured. Internal events, such as thinking should be explained through behavioral terms (or eliminated altogether).* People have no free will – a person’s environment determines their behavior* When born our mind is 'tabula rasa' (a blank slate).

Cognitive model revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then we need to understand the internal processes of their mind. Cognition literally means “knowing”. In other words, cognitive psychology refers to the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Cognitive psychology focuses on the way humans process information, looking at how we treat information that comes in to the person (what behaviorists would call stimuli), and how this treatment leads to responses. In other words, they are interested in the variables that mediate between stimulus/input and response/output. Cognitive psychologists study internal processes includingperception, attention, language, memory and thinking

CONSTRUCTIVISMAs is the case with many of the current/popular paradigms, you're probably already using the constructivist approach to some degree. Constructivist teachers pose questions and problems, then guide students to help them find their own answers. They use many techniques in the teaching process. For example, they may:

prompt students to formulate their own questions (inquiry)allow multiple interpretations and expressions of learning (multiple intelligences)encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (collaborative learning)More information on the above processes is covered in other workshops in this series. For now, it's important to realize that the constructivist approach borrows from many other practices in the pursuit of its primary goal: helping students learn HOW TO LEARN.

In a constructivist classroom, learning is . . . 

 Students are not blank slates upon which knowledge is etched. They come to learning situations with already formulated knowledge, ideas, and understandings. This previous knowledge is the raw material for the new knowledge they will create. 

Example: An elementary school teacher presents a class problem to measure the length of the "Mayflower." Rather than starting the problem by introducing the ruler, the teacher allows students to reflect and to construct their own methods of measurement. One student offers the knowledge that a doctor said he is four feet tall. Another says she knows horses are measured in "hands." The students discuss these and other methods they have heard about, and decide on one to apply to the problem. 

The student is the person who creates new understanding for him/herself. The teacher coaches, moderates, suggests, but allows the students room to experiment, ask questions, try things that don't work. Learning activities require the students' full participation (like hands-on experiments). An important part of the learning process is that students reflect on, and talk about, their activities. Students also help set their own goals and means of assessment.

Examples: A middle-school language arts teacher sets aside time each week for a writing lab. The emphasis is on content and getting ideas down rather than memorizing grammatical rules, though one of the teacher's concerns is the ability of his students to express themselves well through written language. The teacher provides opportunities for students to examine the finished and earlier drafts of various authors. He allows students to select and create projects within the general requirement of building a portfolio 1. Students serve as peer editors who value originality and uniqueness rather than the best way to fulfill an assignment. 

organizational models Concepts included in these models are large groups, small groups, cooperative learning groups, learningcommunities, and individualized instruction.

classroom management models There are at least two major ones: self-discipline and imposed discipline. Concepts included within the self-discipline model are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, moral reasoning, character development, and reality therapy. The imposed discipline model includes desist strategies, assertive discipline, and behavior modification.

Strategies, Methods, and Techniques

Embedded within any model is a set of accompanying procedures—a series of steps to accomplish something—by which a specific aspect of the model is employed. For example, Chapter 7 is devoted entirely to a model for questioning. We could argue that “wait time” is a model with a series of specific procedures or steps used by teachers when conducting recitations. The questioning model is based on a psychological concept that attempts to raise the attention level of all in the class, rather than just one individual, prior to calling on a student.

In this text, we use the terms technique and procedure as synonyms to signify a series of steps that one takes to employ any general model being used in the classroom. When we use the term method, it implies some orderly way of doing something. The term strategy implies thoughtful planning to do something. Each of these aspects emanate from a broader and more encompassing model.

As you progress through the ten chapters in this text, you will observe a wide variety of strategies being brought into play to embody an overarching model. While each chapter explores a single topic or set of models, together they form a collective whole—a gestalt, as it were—that will become apparent in the final reading. Our intended goal is to illustrate as many workable and trustworthy teaching/instructional methods as is practical so that when you begin to teach you, too, will have an array of models and strategies from which to choose, and of critical importance, you’ll know how to employ each and know why you are using that technique at any given moment of the lesson.

 

The lesson is the essence of the act of schooling. Each lesson has a structure, just as a carpenter uses blueprints in building a house. In short, reading this book will give you a holistic view of schooling. Keep in mind that we are providing a manageable sample of the total instructional spectrum. As you gain classroom experiences, you will learn about other models and strategies. The operational term is experience! With experience you can sort out strategies that work well for specific topics and student groups. At this point in your pre-service career, your experiential framework is limited. We understand this, having passed through those same moments. But remember, the best teachers are lifelong learners as well.

 

Key Contexts of Teaching

The profession of teaching takes place in a number of contexts that will place demands on your work. Some of these demands reinforce one another, while others are sometimes in conflict.

The Social Context

A sign in the Singapore International Airport reads “Welcome to Singapore: Where Our Only National Resource Is Our People.” That sign sums up what our schools should be all about.

Institutions are made up of people. Schools consist of systems and subsystems of individuals who collectively conduct the business of schooling. The human interactions among administrators, teachers, parents, and learners forge bonds of trust and mutual support.

As teachers, our goal is to enhance human potential for every person associated with the school. The process of education takes place, for the most part, in structured and well-organized schools. This is true even for parents who home-school their children.

Schooling, to be effective, has a group orientation about it. The entire process is very social—that is, highly dependent on personal interactions. One of the first things that a child learns in school is that the individual must make accommodations to the group. Within this cultural and social milieu, behaviors are changed, learning takes place, and individuals change. Schools provide a social resource that might be missing for individuals learning on their own.

Embedded within the social context of the school is the concept of social capital.

Social capital is the sum of interpersonal relationships that provide support or encouragement. Sources of social capital include families,communities, public institutions, and ethnic groups. Emanating from these sources come social trust, norms, communication, and collaborative networks, to list only a few outcomes.

The school is an especially critical source of social capital for its clientele. It provides the physical and social framework for teachers, students, and parents/caregivers to work toward a common good, or to extend the acculturation process of children or adolescents. Norms (unwritten rules of behavior for specifi c groups) and normative pressures are part of the school’s culture and its vast resource of social capital

As a teacher, you help to create social capital for all students, especially those whose social capital, for whatever reason, has a near-zero balance.

. These students may include children growing up in poverty and new arrivals to the United States. You provide information that helps students become a part of social networks. By knowing your students personally, you help them gain experiences with things they don’t know. You show the students how to employ all the school’s resources—counselors, coaches, sponsors of extracurricular or club activities, the music director, or the school newspaper advisor.

By your own actions, you demonstrate that you are in your students’ corner. These methods of supporting students socially are all aspects of meeting our professional obligation. Collectively, these social elements of schooling aid in the acculturation processes Teachers create social capital. that prepare students to be successful in our society.

Elements of Social Capital_ Families

_ Personal relationships

_ Public institutions

_ Churches

_ Communities

_ Clubs

_ Ethnic groups

Now add to these interactions the phenomenon we call pluralism, and you can appreciate the social interactions and conflicts that can be predicted to take place in the schools.

The term pluralism refers to the fact that our society and our schools are composed of many different types of people, creating a mixture of nationalities, races, classes, religions, occupational groupings, philosophies, value systems, and economic beliefs. Given this broad social spectrum, it is inevitable that you will observe contradictory points of view as a teacher (see Livingston & Wirt 2004). You will observe intrapersonal conflicts, in which an individual tries to reconcile conflicts within his or her own value structure.

You will also observe interpersonal conflicts, in which the values of different individuals or groups openly clash. These kinds of conflicts generate considerable energy. Sometimes the energy is positive and leads to common problem solving and beneficial activities. In other cases, the energy leads to disharmony. As a teacher, one of your major roles will be to foster positive social interactions and relationships.

The Emotional Context

As we said before, the educational enterprise is a helping profession. People who enter teaching tend to do so for altruistic, moral, or ethical reasons. If education is to help all persons achieve their maximum potential, then its practitioners must develop an organization that cares about all individuals in it.

The close interactions among teachers and students forge bonds of trust and mutual support, especially for children who have trouble meeting expectations for achievement (see Noddings 2002). Additionally, caringness is part of the social capital of the school organization.

This trait makes it a bit easier to help students of all ages to develop moral and ethical values.

Do not be alarmed about the last sentence.

Yes, the schools have an obligation to teach those values, and virtually all parents or guardians will strongly endorse them because they fall under the umbrella of becoming a good or virtuous citizen (see Comte-Sponville 2001).

Closely related to these values is a concept called emotional intelligence. The term may show up in the literature of teaching. In brief, it means being aware of how you as a teacher feel as you scan a class of students with whom you are engaged. How do you react (feel) toward a specifi c student? Do you show any biases in your verbal or nonverbal cues? How does a student or group of students react (feel) to some situation? These are aspects of the term.

The Curricular Context

O Just what composes the overall curricular context of our schools? This is a tough question to answer, for it depends on your own educational philosophy. Over the years, the schools have either inherited or subtly adopted a social philosophy aimed at accommodating many social, emotional, and familial needs in addition to educational ones. Yes, the schools still teach the basics. But “the basics” now extend to many topics that were once considered extras. To be sure, reading and writing, communicating, mathematics, science, history, and geography still form the core academic disciplines, but the schools now also teach health and life skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, driving, and a host of other skills, both social and behavioral. This is the complicated montage we call the curriculum today.

The Collegial Context

O Over the academic year, principals or supervisors might spend a total of one or two hours observing and evaluating a teacher, with greater time for a novice and less for a veteran; but the vast amount of service that any teacher performs goes uncritiqued or unnoticed by fellow professionals.

O . When teachers develop personal teaching styles that are not especially beneficial to student learning, it often results from working in seclusion. Working in isolation is one aspect of many school cultures that tends to perpetuate the “batch processing” of students—that is, using large classes and large-class techniques. This is especially noticeable in self-contained elementary school classrooms and

O subject-centered high schools.

The physical isolation keeps new ideas from spreading. If you do not have opportunities to observe your colleagues, you may miss out on some great ideas (see Woolfolk-Hoy & Hoy 2003). Even though you may often work in seclusion, you can use the Internet to facilitate participation in the professional community by linking with professional associations’ websites. All state departments of education also have extensivewebsites. We highlight some useful tips to expand your learning in the Technology Insight boxes found throughout the book, and conclude each chapter with a few select sites for your consideration. You may be fortunate enough to be working in a school where the culture maintains a learning community

In these instances, you will seldom be alone, as there is a greater emphasis on teacher-student-administrator collaboration and planning. You will also find teachers conducting research and self-reflecting on their practices. The learning community culture encourages continued studies or professional staff development, and even encourages teaching professionals to seek a National Board Certifi cation. A foot to reconfigure schools into smaller, cohesive units through the creation of “schools within a school,” “core groupings,” and even discrete learning groups.

The goal of these techniques is to improve professional interactions and provide an environment conducive to student achievement. Schools tend to develop their own independent school culture apart from those of other schools in the same district. Their norms and values may be generated from the inside. As a result, subtle or even intentional pressures may be placed on teachers to conform. The outcome can be positive if the school culture includes healthy values, innovative teaching styles, and respectful communication patterns. If, however, the school culture includes less desirable qualities, this unfortunate tendency to encourage teachers to conform may undermine

the profession. Education, like all professions, is rooted in the development of its practitioners’ individual expertise. And, indeed, novice teachers have at their disposal a broad range of teaching strategies. This book is designed to help develop the best teachers possible. As you study, keep thinking of ways to influence your environment in a positive way instead of becoming a victim to its negative characteristics. If you take this approach, your school ethos can evolve, encompassing new norms that stress problem solving, active teaching, and positive student expectations. We advocate entering into professional discussions and collaborating with other teachers in your school. Share books and journals with one another. This is one way to shape the intellectual and Each school has its own culture. instructional dimensions of your school’s culture.

 

Contexts of Schooling_ Social_ Emotional_ Curricular_ Collegial (professional)As you begin your journey in teaching you will be

exposed to many different ideas, values, and theoretical models. In this section, we want to provide you with a series of perspectives so that you may be fully informed when you make instructional decisions.

Teaching as Art and Science

Professional-level teaching is both an art and a science (see Eisner 2003). Like an artist, a good teacher makes decisions from both a technical and a creative perspective. Great artists display a mastery of technical skills—painting, glass blowing, sculpting—that includes a grasp of the science behind how these techniques work. They also know when and in what way to apply their technical skills. They make decisions. That part is the art. Similarly, teachers develop their science by using carefully planned, fine-tuned lessons that reflect an understanding of many different teaching techniques. They apply each technique skillfully to gain the desired intellectual, social, affective, or kinesthetic result. They develop artistry by being aware of what they are doing and how their actions affect their learners. They are constantly aware that the choices they make affect the intellectual, attitudinal, and psychomotor skills of their students. Above all, they make decisions.

Importance of Research-Based Teaching Methods

Nearly all of the instructional techniques presented in this book have an extensive body of research supporting them. You will be a consumer of research and may even contribute to that literature; as you progress through your teacher education program, you may encounter advocates of some golden technique. Ask for empirically derived data—that is, longitudinal experimental and control group results that have been replicated. The educational fads that abound usually have no such data to back them up. Understanding and interpreting research is part of the science of teaching. Using that knowledge appropriately, making the right decisions, is the artistry. One last point on this topic: Robert Marzano (2007) provides research based evidence that teachers who have a strong professional pedagogical competence also have students who show greater academic achievement. Yes, there is a very powerful link between your instructional knowledge and how well your students will do in the school setting. Having a diverse set of teaching methods gives you an opportunity to blend the art and science of teaching.