12th reflection

Advantages of demonstration

• seeing before doing: benefit from seeing before having to do.
• task guidance: can be guided step-by-step.
• economy of supplies: less supply needed because not everyone needs to handle material.

limitations

• No-hand-on: Not a direct hands on experience.

• limited view.
• pacing issue. 

Activity Based Learning

Activity method is a technique adopted by a teacher to emphasize his or her method of teaching through activity in which the students participate thoroughly and bring about efficient learning experiences. It is a child-centered   approach. It is a method in which the child is actively involved in participating mentally and physically. Learning by doing is the main focus in this method. Pine G (1989) mentions that in an activity based teaching, learners willingly with enthusiasm internalize and implement concepts relevant to their needs.

 Advantages

·         It enhances creative aspect of experience.

·         It gives reality for learning.

·         Uses all available resources.

·         Provides varied experiences to the students to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, experience, skills and values.

·         Builds the student’s self-confidence and develops understanding through work in his/her group.

·         Gets experiences, develop interest, enriches vocabulary and provides stimulus for reading.

·         Develops happy relationship between students and students, teachers and students.

·         An activity is said to be the language of the child. A child who lacks in verbal expression can make up through use of ideas in the activity.

·         Subjects of all kind can be taught through activity.

·         Social relation provides opportunity to mix with others.

The activities used in this strategy can be generalized under three main categories:

·         Exploratory      -           gathering knowledge, concept and skill.

·         Constructive    -           getting experience through creative works.

·         Expressional    –          presentations.

Steps required for Effective Organization of Activities.

a.       Planning.

b.      Involving children in the learning process.

c.       Each child is made an active learner.

d.      For each activity ensure you follow the principles of:-

• What?
• How? Work directions step by step, including:
• With whom? Where? How long?
• What after?

e.       Ensure you give clear instructions before each activity. It must focus on the above a, b, c, d.

Role of a Teacher in an Activity Based Method

• A planner, an organizer and evaluator.
• Facilitator.
• Decision maker.
• Knowledge imparter
• Disciplinarian

Role Play

The act of imitating a character and behavior of something that is different from you. It can be any speaking activity when you either put yourself in someone’s shoe or create an imaginary situation and act.

Advantages of role-play

• Provides opportunity for students to assume roles of others, therefore appreciating another person's point of view.
• Allows for a safe exploration of solutions
• Tends to motivate students to learn.
• Promotes and develops critical and creative thinking, attitudes, values, and interpersonal and social skills.

Procedure

 1.   Prepare class for role-play

• Present an artificial problem, situation or event that represents some aspect of reality.
• Define the problem, situation and roles clearly.

 2.   Give clear instructions

• Determine whether role-plays will be carried out using student volunteers in front of the class (the teacher may or may not play a role), in partnerships/small groups with every student playing a role, or in small groups with role-players and observers.
• Divide students into groups, if appropriate.
• Model the skill with a scripted role-play.

 3.   Act out role-plays

• Students follow the procedure outlined by the teacher to act out role-plays.
• Unless the teacher is playing a role, it is helpful to walk around the room and observe how students are experiencing the role-play and offer coaching to students who are stuck.

 4.   Discussion (small group and whole class)

• Begin by allowing players to communicate feelings experienced during the role-play.
• Have students identify sexual health skills that were demonstrated during the role-play.
• Determine actions that strengthen or weaken these skills (i.e. body language).
• Discuss how this role-play is or isn’t similar to real life. 
• Identify ways of using identified sexual health skills in real life situations. 

Principles

1.   Match the role play to the target concept.

2.   Choose the techniques with care.

3.   Ask leading questions.

4.   Create readiness to play roles.

5.   Make awareness of the rules

6.   cast a character

7.   rehearse the characters

8.   playing

Individualized instructional strategy

Individualized instruction strategy refer to those classroom practices of teaching which recognize’’’’ the uniqueness of each student learner and thus provide for adequate tutorial        guidance, and other support services suited to bring about a wholesome development in the person.

Features

• Teaching strategy that connects with individual student's learning strategies.
• Provide a learning environment that maximizes the potential for student success.    

·         Students have multiple options for taking in information and making sense of ideas.    

·         Differentiated or Individualized Instruction is a teaching theory based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to individual and diverse students in classrooms.

·         Recognizes students’ varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interests, and to react responsively.

Purpose of individualized instruction

• To ensure that "no child left behind."
• To meet the learning needs of all kinds of learners by recognizing the uniqueness of each individual learner.

·         To maximize each student’s growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is, and assisting in the learning process.

• Individualizing instruction allows each student to progress through the curriculum at his or her own pace.

Characteristics of a Differentiated Class

Four characteristics shape teaching and learning in an effective differentiated classroom (Tomlinson, 1995a):

1. Instruction is concept focused and principle driven.

·         All students have the opportunity to explore and apply the key concepts of the subject being studied.

·         All students come to understand the key principles on which the study is based.

·         Such instruction stresses understanding or sense-making rather than retention and regurgitation of fragmented bits of information.

·         Concept-based and principle-driven instruction invites teachers to provide varied learning options.

2. On-going assessment of student readiness and growth are built into the curriculum.

·         Teachers continuously assess student readiness and interest, providing support when students need additional instruction and guidance.

3. Flexible grouping is consistently used.

In a differentiated or an individualized class, students work in many patterns.

·         Sometimes they work alone, sometimes in pairs, sometimes in groups depending on the nature of tasks assigned—such as tasks that are readiness-based, interest-based, constructed to match learning style, and sometimes a combination of readiness, interest, and learning style.

4. Students are active explorers.

·         Teachers guide the exploration and students learn to be responsible for their own work. Not only does such student-centeredness give students more ownership of their learning, but it also facilitates the important adolescent learning goal of growing independence in thought, planning, and evaluation.

Ways of Individualizing/Differentiating Instruction.

I. Content

Content can be described as the knowledge, skills and attitudes we want children to learn. Some ways of individualizing the content are:

·         Several elements and materials are used to support instructional content.

- These include acts, concepts, generalizations or principles, attitudes, and skills.

·         Align tasks and objectives to learning goals.

- An objectives-driven menu makes it easier to find the next instructional step for learners entering at varying levels.

·         Instruction is concept-focused and principle-driven.

- Teachers must focus on the concepts, principles and skills that students should learn.

II. Process

Individualizing or differentiating the processes means varying learning activities or strategies to provide appropriate methods for students to explore the concepts. The process can be individualized through:

·         Flexible grouping is consistently used.

- Grouping of students is not fixed. Based on the content, project, and on-going evaluations, grouping and regrouping must be a dynamic process as one of the foundations of individualized instruction.

·         Classroom management benefits students and teachers.

- Teachers must consider organization and instructional delivery strategies to effectively operate a classroom using individualized instruction.

III. Products

Individualizing or differentiating the product means varying the complexity of the product that students create to demonstrate mastery of the concepts. This can be done through:

·         Initial and on-going assessment of student readiness and growth are essential.

-          Meaningful pre-assessment naturally leads to functional and successful differentiation or individualization.

-          Incorporating pre and on-going assessment informs teachers to better provide a menu of approaches, choices, and scaffolds for the varying needs, interests and abilities that exist in classrooms of diverse students.

·         Students are active and responsible explorers.

-          Teacher’s respect that each task put before the learner will be interesting, engaging, and accessible to essential understanding and skills.

-          Each child should feel challenged most of the time.

·         Vary expectations and requirements for student responses.

- Items to which students respond may be differentiated or individualized for students to demonstrate or express their knowledge and understanding.

Guidelines/principles of individualizing instruction:

·         Clarify key concepts and generalizations to ensure that all learners gain powerful understandings that serve as the foundation for future learning.

·         Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend versus merely measure instruction. Assessment should occur before, during, and following the instructional episode, and help to pose questions regarding student needs and optimal learning.

·         Emphasize critical and creative thinking as a goal in lesson design.

·         Engaging all learners is essential. Teachers are encouraged to strive for development of lessons that are engaging and motivating for a diverse class of students.

·         Provide a balance between teacher-assigned and student-selected tasks.

Advantages:

• Meeting the needs and interests of diverse learners.
• Provides the opportunity for students to learn at their own pace, in their own way, and be successful.
• Recognizes students’ varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interests, and to react responsively.
• Maximizes each student’s growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is, and assisting in the learning process.
• Helps in providing for the uniqueness of each child in terms of his/her particular learning style, talents and potential, handicaps and deficiencies, etc.

Disadvantages or Problems of Individualized instruction:

1. Time constraints and chopped-up schedules are an obstacle.

2. Class size and teaching load are two of the biggest constraints.

3. Teacher Preparedness.

Principles

1.      clarify key concepts and generalization.

2.      use assessment a teaching tool to extent versus merely measure instruction.

3.      Emphasis critical and creative thinking.

4.      engaging all learners is essential

5.      provide a balance between teacher assigned and learner selected task.

Role of student

1.      observer

2.      reporter

3.      eye witness

Role of teacher

1.      planner

2.      coach

3.      mentor

Field Trip

A field trip is a visit to a place outside the regular classroom designed to achieve certain objectives, which cannot be achieved as well by using other means. A field trip is any activity that occurs outside the classroom for the purpose of providing hands-on experience with objects or people that only occur in certain places.

Types Of Field Trip

—  Field trips may be nearby or far away, a half-day or several days, involve physical journeys or virtual journeys online and they may involve a few students, a classroom, a grade or even a whole school. Virtual field trips are ideal for schools located far from major museums or exhibits relevant to students' learning.

Advantages

• facilitating the learning of abstract concepts,
• motivating students through increased interest and curiosity,
• improving long term retention of concepts,
• teaching scientific method by example,
• increasing student-student and student-teacher social interaction,
• developing social consciousness an increased appreciation for the phenomenon studied.

Disadvantages

• Expensive: difficulties with transportation, including cost
• Time considerations - preparation, fitting into the school timetable
• lack of support from school administrations for field trips
• Poor student behavior and attitudes( Or loss over students)
• Inadequacy of resources and choice of venue
• Medical Risk

Purpose of field trip

—  Field trips should enhance the curriculum and provide experiences that cannot naturally

—  Renewal

    After weeks and months in the classroom, students and teachers may become restless with school, teaching and learning. Just as a walk in the middle of a workday can refresh the mind, an outing as a group can refresh a class full of students and teachers.

•       Field trips give students experiential learning experiences

•       Concrete skills such as note taking

•       help build community and renew tired or uninspired minds

Procedure

—  All field trips must be approved by the entire subject faculty, principal and parents

—  Students must notify the teacher in writing of the approval of the parents/guardian.

—   Field trip request forms are to be completed and approved  2 weeks prior to the date of the field trip

—  Teacher must discuss where they are going.

—  Students must attend the pre and post presentation of the field trip.

Problem solving

§  Problem Solving is an activity that brings both domain specific knowledge and cognitive strategies to bear on a situation, in which the goal is specific, but the means for getting there is not; problem solving involves usually all available resources to reach that goal(Chi & Glaser, 1982).

distinct characteristics

1. Reliance on problems to drive the curriculum - the problems do not test skills; they assist in development of the skills themselves.
2. The problems are truly ill structured in nature - there is no one solution to a problem and as new information is gathered in a reiterative process, perception of the problem, and thus the solution, changes.
3. Students solve the problems - teachers are coaches and facilitators.
4. Students are only given guidelines for how to approach problems - there is no one formula for student approaches to the problem.

Benefits of Problem Solving

• It bases students’ development on their current knowledge;
• It is an interesting and enjoyable way to learn;
• It is a way to learn new things with greater understanding;
• It produces positive attitudes towards learning;
• It develops a sense of inquiry and research in children;
• It teaches thinking, flexibility and creativity;
• It teaches general problem solving skills;
• It encourages cooperative skills;
• It is a useful way to practice skills learned by other means;

Problem Solving Strategies

1. Guess (this includes guess and check, guess and improve)
2. Act It Out (act it out and use equipment)
3. Draw (this includes drawing pictures and diagrams)
4. Make a List (this includes making a table)
5. Think (this includes using skills one knows  already)

Besides the above-mentioned strategies that are commonly followed in problem solving in the classroom learning, the IDEAL Approach to Problem Solving is also seen as an effective problem solving strategy.

• I:          Identify the problem.
• D:        Define and represent the problem.
• E:         Explore possible strategies.
• A:        Act on the strategies.
• L:         Look back and evaluate the effects of your activities.

·         P: problem

·         O: option

·         W: way

·         E: elect

·         R: reflect

 Difficulties of Teaching Problem Solving             

• It produces teacher discomfort;
• It produces student insecurity;
• It puts constraints on the curriculum and takes too long to teach;
• It is not possible with students of low ability;
• It takes a lot of preparation.

eleventh reflection

Demonstration Strategy:

Concept: is an act of showing an action with definite evidences or proof by the teacher then letting students to repeat the action with or without the guidance from the teacher. It is also a process of of learning by doing.