inductive teaching models.doc
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INDUCTIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES
1. Introduction
Approaches are learning theories which will be applied when delivering
subject matter. Methods are a set of teachers’ systemic action to reach
learning objectives in a limited time frame; it includes procedures
based on approaches. Techniques are the manipulation of the method
to optimize learning, for example, exercises in class pertaining to a
subject matter. A teacher, therefore, is free to construct a teaching
method based on an approach. The relationship between approaches,
methods and techniques delivers model. Models will explicate teaching
methods and strategies, which are in turn based on teaching
approaches (Kamaruddin, 1993).
The number of emerging models and the ones that have emerged is
uncountable. Each emerging new model either explores a new
approach or attempts a modification of the conventional ones as to
cater the uniqueness of individuals. Most importantly, any teaching
model should optimize learning experiences to the needs of each
learner by carefully exploring the learning problems and offering
tailored assistance.
Inductive teaching models are among one of the influential models that
have emerged and influenced the foundations of modern curriculum
theories (Krull, n.d.). There are many versions of inductive teaching
and learning strategies; however, the focus of this paper is on the
inductive teaching and learning strategies which are grounded on the
constructivist view of learning. This is a view which weights on
learners’ self-constructive comprehension of the lesson, and teacher’s
active and constructive guidance of the learners. In brief, the
procedures of teaching and learning of this view are modified to suit
style, circumstance, content and learning activities.
This paper, therefore, aims at describing three different models of
inductive teaching with the focus on teacher’s role, content types and
examples of lesson plan. A brief explanation on what is the
constructivist theory is also necessary.
2. Constructivist Theory
Learners are encouraged to discover facts and relationships for
themselves.
Bruner, 2001
A major theme in the theoretical framework of the constructivist theory
is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts
based upon their own knowledge. Constructivists emphasize on the
importance of learners’ reliance on cognitive structures to select and
transform information, construct hypotheses and make decisions.
Cognitive structures such as schema, mental models, attitudes and
scripts, which are related to behaviour, provide meaning and
organization to experiences and allow the individual to go beyond the
information given. However, this relationship is often complex, thus,
making it difficult to generalize result across tasks and domain
differences (Kearsley, 2003; Huitt, 1999). Consequently, the
constructivists suggest a behaviorally-oriented curriculum (Huitt, 1999)
in which knowledge and skills are taught inductively in a
constructivistically-oriented classroom (Huitt, 1999) that require
learners to carry out tasks implementing critical thinking.
According to the constructivists, as far as instruction is concerned,
teachers should encourage students to discover principles by
themselves. The teacher and learners should engage in an active
dialogue. The task of the teacher is to translate information to be learnt
into a format appropriate to the learners’ current state of
understanding; therefore, lesson plan should be organized in a manner
in which students could continually build upon what they have already
learnt.
One of the prominent founders of constructivist theory, James Bruner
provides the following principles of constructivistic learning:
1.Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and
contexts that make the student willing and able to learn
(readiness).
2.Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily
grasped by the student (spiral organization).
3.Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation
and/or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information
given).
(Kearsley, 2002; Huitt, 1999)
Thus, this shows that there should be an adequacy between learners’
acquisition of knowledge and skills, and the development of their
thinking skill. The constructivists propose three teaching models,
namely the Inductive Model, the Concept Attainment Model and the
Integrative Model.
3. The Inductive Model
The focal point of this model is the emphasis on learners’ active
involvement in the classroom activities and learners’ development of
critical thinking. One of the strategies to develop such environment is
the utilization of real examples that represent the content of the lesson
plan. Students, then, have to hypothesize on the theory based on the
presented examples. The effectiveness of this model depends on the
active role of the teacher in assisting students to process and
hypothesize the information from the examples and the active role of
learners to develop their critical thinking.
3.1 Teacher’s Role
In developing students’ critical thinking and motivation, teacher needs
to play an active role in encouraging students to interpret and explain
the information learned in the class, and teachers can focus this
through questioning. The importance of questioning is to ensure that
students keep their focus on the task, to increase students motivation,
and to establish students positive expectation on the lesson. On the
other hand, the quality of examples that teachers use and their ability
to guide students to analyze the information in the examples are also
essential to determine the success of the lesson. Furthermore, in the
Inductive Model, the teacher does not solely display or explain the
information to the students, rather the teacher guides them through
questioning.
3.2 Content Type
The focus of the Inductive Model is to assist students to build deep
understanding of specific topics or ideas. These specific topics as
promoted by the model can be categorized as follows:
Adopted from Eggen & Kauchak (1996). p.69
Concepts Relationships among Concepts
Principles Generalizations
Content Types
Academic Rule
3.2.1 Concepts
Concepts are classes or categories of ideas with common
characteristics. Concepts can be found in various areas of studies, such
as language, social sciences, science and mathematics. As such, the
Inductive Model can be utilized in art classes as well as science classes,
as long as the content of the lesson focuses on concepts. An essential
characteristic of concepts is its defining features. Concepts are also
best described through its characteristics, related concepts, examples
and definition. Therefore, the teacher should ensure that the examples
provided contain essential characteristics of the concept; and the
success of the lesson depends on how students are able to identify the
characteristics in the examples (Eggen & Kauchak, 1996; Newby,
2003). Examples of concepts are adjective, direct object and
protagonist in language arts, and democracy and social norm in social
sciences.
3.2.2 Relationships among Concepts
To understand or form ideas about concepts, we can also generalize its
common characteristics. This is because concepts possess common
patterns among its characteristics, which we tend to generalize. The
broad patterns can be categorized as principles, generalizations, and
academic rules (Eggen & Kauchak, 1996).
a) Principles
A principle of a concept is any relationship among concepts that
can be accepted as true or valid for all known cases. Principles
are mostly found in the sciences.
Examples of principles are:
• Change is inevitable.
• Like magnetic poles repel and unlike poles attract.
• The greater the unbalanced force on an object, the greater its
acceleration.
b) Generalizations
Generalizations of a concept are relationships between concepts
that describe patterns that have exceptions.
Examples of generalizations are:
• People immigrate for economic reasons.
• A diet high in saturated fat raises a person’s cholesterol level.
• Teachers increase achievement by calling on all students
equally.
c) Academic Rules
Academic rules are relationships between concepts arbitrarily
derived by people.
Examples of academic rules are:
• A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number and
gender.
• In English, an adjective precedes the noun it modifies.
• In rounding off a number, if the last digit is 5 or more, you
round up, and if it is 4 or less, you round down.
3.3 Planning the Lesson
There are three stages in implementing the Inductive Model, which
include the planning stage, the implementing stage and the evaluating
stage.
3.3.1 The Planning Stage
The planning process involves three essential steps, which are
identifying the topic, identifying the precise objective and selecting the
examples.
Process ObjectiveIdentification of Topic •To determine which model to use
•To decide exactly what students should know about the topic
Identification of precise objectives
•To teach directly toward the objectives•To guide teachers to select appropriate
examplesSelection of examples •To determine necessary characteristics of
concepts within the examples•To determine a successful delivery of the
content
In learning concepts, principles, and generalizations, examples are
critical teaching aids. Without examples, learning is often reduced to
mere memorization. Therefore, it is important to choose good
examples because good examples contain all of the information that
the students need to understand. The examples could be in any form,
as long as they contain all the necessary characteristics of the
concepts. However, it is noteworthy that the examples selected could
visualize the concepts. Among the forms of examples that can be used
are realia, pictures, models, case studies, simulation and role play.
3.3.2 The Implementing Stage
Implementing a lesson using the Inductive Model combines five
interrelated phases. The phases include the lesson introduction, the
open-ended phase, the convergent phase, the closure and the
application phase.
These five phases can be summarized into the following chart.
Students observe, describe and compare the examples –
(look for patterns and differences).
Students analyze – responding to open ended
questions from the teacher.
Teacher introduces the lesson
Teacher presents the examples
Teacher narrows downrange of students' answers.
Teacher leads students toverbally identify therelationship in the
characteristics.
Phase 2Open Ended
Phase
Phase 1Lesson
Introduction
Phase 3Convergent
Phase
Students identify the characteristics of the concept.
Students are able to state the meaning and characteristics
of the concept.
Phase 4Closure
Analyzing examples
Introduction
Constructing
meaning
Identifying concept
3.4 Assessing Student Learning
Through the application phase, students can be assessed either
through a seatwork assignment or homework assignment. The
assignments can be done in a variety of ways depending on the
teacher's creativity.
4. The Concept Attainment Model
Closely linked to the Inductive Model, the Concept Attainment Model
also suggests that learners construct their own comprehension of the
lesson. This model is designed to help students reinforce their
understanding of concepts and practice hypothesis testing. However, if
Inductive Model solely rely on the positive examples that represent the
concept, this model utilizes both the examples and non-examples to
illustrate the concepts. Since hypothesis testing is particularly common
to describe scientific method; therefore, it is useful in the sciences.
4.1 Teacher’s Role
Virtually, to create an environment where students can think and
hypothesize freely, the teacher acts as the main role by guiding
students throughout the process of learning. The model suggests, that
first, the teacher needs to encourage students to state their thinking in
the form of hypothesis. Since hypotheses can be argued, and later
accepted, rejected or modified; therefore, the teacher needs to direct
students’ thinking to come up with the rationale to their hypotheses. In
Students apply to realistic context
Phase 5Application
Phase
Assessment
essence, the teacher is not only motivating students to participate but
also to guide students towards hypothesizing their thoughts.
4.2 Content Types
The focus of the Concept Attainment Model in what types of content to
be delivered is similar to the Inductive Model but with minor difference.
There are two important differences between the two models.
First, the Inductive Model is designed to teach concepts,
principles, generalizations, or academic rules; however, the
Concept Attainment Model focuses exclusively on concepts.
Second, while the students of the Inductive Model can have zero
knowledge of the content, the Concept Attainment Model
requires that the students have some background knowlledge
with the concept.
These differences are as such because in the Concept Attainment
Model, students need to hypothesize, and in order to hypothesize,
background knowledge is needed.
4.3 Planning the Lesson
Similarly to the Inductive Model, the Concept Attainment Model also
involves three stages in describing its lesson plan. The stages include
the planning stage, the implementing stage and the evaluating stage.
4.3.1 The Planning Stage
The planning process of the model also involves three essential stages.
Basically, the three stages are similar with the previous model, yet
individual differences have made them a little bit different from each
other. The stages are identifying the topic, identifying the clear goals
and selecting the examples.
Process ObjectiveIdentification of Topic •To determine which model to use
Identification of clear goals
•To achieve the objectives of the model •To determine development of students'
analytical thinking within the lesson plan•To ensure students' comprehension of the
conceptSelection of examples •To determine necessary illustration of
characteristics of the concept within the examples
•To determine a successful delivery of the content
The third step in the planning process is the selection of examples. This
model utilizes both the positive and negative examples in
demonstrating the characteristics of the concept. Thus, the selected
positive examples should contain and reflect the combination of the
essential characteristics, and none of the non-examples should contain
the same combination. The examples could be in any form as long as
the characteristics are reflective in the examples. Moreover, it is vital
that the form is the same for both the positive and negative examples.
Having selected the examples and non-examples, the final task in this
stage is to put the examples in sequence. It depends on the teacher on
how to arrange the sequence of the examples, but teachers have to
bear in mind the goal of developing students’ critical thinking. The
sequence should provide opportunities for students to develop their
analytical thinking. Thus, the organization of the examples should
depend on the goal of the lesson in developing students' analytical
thinking.
4.3.2 The Implementing Stage
The implementation phase of the Concepts Attainment Model is flexible
and can be fun for both the teacher and the students. The process can
be presented as a type of game in which the students try to identify
the concept the teacher has in mind. This model occurs in four phases.
The phases include the presentation of examples, the analysis of
hypotheses, the closure and the application phase.
These four phases can be illustrated in the following chart.
During the second phase, the teacher encourages the students to
analyze hypotheses from the positive and negative examples. This
begins a cyclical process of data presentation and hypothesis
examination. In the process, it is wise to ask the students to explain
Students hypothesize
Students analyze previous hypothesis
Teacher introduces the lesson
Teacher leads students to state characteristics
and define concept
Students extend andgeneralize concept toadditional examples
Students provide theirown examples of concept
Teacher presents an example and a non-example
Students hypothesize
Teacher presents more examples
and non-examples
Phase 1Lesson
Introduction
Phase 2Analysis of Hypothesis
Phase 3Closure
Phase 4Application
Introduction
Analyzing exa
mples
Making
Hypothesi
s
Identifying concept
Assessment
why they accepted or rejected the hypothesis. The purpose is twofold.
First, it helps students develop their thinking skill by having them
articulate their own reasoning; and secondly, the explanation described
out loud will aid uniformity of understanding among the students.
4.4 Assessing Student Learning
There are many ways in which teachers can assess students’
understanding of the concept. This model proposes, that first, the
teacher can ask students to identify new examples of the concept. A
second form of measurement is to ask students to identify
characteristics of the concept, and thirdly relate them to other concept.
Finally, students can also be measured by asking to provide the
definition of the concept.
5. The Integrative Model
Similarly to the two previous models, the Integrative Model also aims at
developing students’ critical thinking and increasing students’
involvement in the activities. However, it is designed for a different
content of understanding. It focuses on developing students
understanding of organized bodies of knowledge. The Integrative Model
is designed to teach the combination of specific forms of concepts in
large, i.e., organized bodies of information.
5.1 The Teacher’s Role
Essentially, the teacher’s role in the Integrative Model is to help create
an environment in which students could participate freely. However,
the biggest task for the teacher is to maintain the flow of the
discussion runs smoothly, and the success of the lesson depends on
the quality of the representations the teachers use, and their ability to
guide the students’ analysis of the information.
5.2 Content Types
The focus of the Integrative Model is to develop students
understanding on the organized bodies of knowledge, which are topics
that combine facts, concepts, generalizations, and the relationships
among them. In the lesson, the goals of the model are to look for
patterns in the facts, concepts, and generalizations, to describe cause-
and-effect relationships among them, to hypothesize additional
possibilities, and to form broad generalizations that encompassed all of
the information. It does not aim to teach a single concept or
generalization but the relationships among the concepts. Examples of
topics that are organized bodies of knowledge include the following:
• A comparison of different biomes, and the life forms and
attributes of each life science.
• A comparison of well-balanced and poorly balanced meals and
the incorporation of the different food groups into each.
• A comparison of art forms in different historical periods.
Each of these topics combines facts, concepts, and generalizations,
and the teacher would want students to identify and understand
relationships among them in each other.
5.3 Planning the Lesson
The Integrative Model’s lesson plan involves three stages. The stages
include the planning stage, the implementing stage and the evaluating
stage.
5.3.1 The Planning Stage
The planning process involves three basic stages.
Process Objective
Identification of TopicTo determine which model to useTo decide exactly what students should know about the topic
Specification of Goals To determine the teaching goals To guide teachers to select appropriate representations
Preparation of Representations
To prepare the matrix for the content of lesson
In the third phase, to present the information in a way that will allow
students to process, the data can be organized in the form of a
matrix/table. Since the topics often involve a comparison, the number
of ideas being compared depends on the developmental consideration
as well as the teacher’s goal.
Once the ideas and dimensions have been identified, the next step is to
gather the data that will appear in the matrix. Here, teachers have at
least three options.
• Assign individual or teams of students to gather the data that will
appear in each of the cells of the matrix.
• Have the students gather some of the data, and add some
additional data yourself.
• Prepare the entire matrix themselves.
In presenting and displaying the data that has been gathered, two
important factors should be considered. Firstly, it is important to
display the information in as factual manner as possible. This will
provide optimal opportunities for students to process information and
practice analytical and thinking skills. Secondly, an effective matrix
should include enough information, so that students can use data from
one part of the matrix as evidence for a conclusion about another part.
5.3.2 The Implementing Stage
The Integrative Model is implemented in four closely related phases.
Phase 1 marks the point where students begin to analyze the
information in the matrix, and the teacher records the analysis on the
board. Writing students' hypotheses on the board provides a public
record of the process and reference points for students. The second
phase is the point where the students are immersed in the process of
critical thinking. Once students warm to the task, their analysis can
become quite advanced.
The questioning process in Phase 2 should be more demanding. Asking
students to explain why a certain similarity or difference exists notes
the shift from Phase 1 to Phase 2, and the thinking process on the part
of the students is significantly advanced.
Phase 3 often evolves directly from Phase 2. The process of
hypothesizing continues until opportunities for analysis have been
exhausted. The lesson is summarized and comes to a closure when
students derive one or more generalizations that serve to summarize
the content. Students will not automatically be good at making
summarizing statements, therefore, the teacher may initially have to
do a considerable amount of prompting.
These four phases can be illustrated in the following chart.
Teacher introduces the lesson
Teacher questions
Teacher records students'hypothesis on the board
Teacher presents the matrix
Students hypothesize and analyzefor similarities and differences
Intro
Describin
g, Comparin
g and Searching for Patterns
Explainin
g Similaritie
sand Differences
Phase 1
Phase 2
5.4 Assessing Student Learning
The Integrative Model proposes that a simple and effective way of
measuring students’ comprehension is through the pencil-and-paper
description of the topics studied. It could either be in the form of a test
or an assignment.
On the other hand, student thinking can be measured at two levels.
Firstly, by referring to the chart or matrix, students can provide
conclusions that are developed during the lesson; this can be done
orally or as a written assignment. At another level, the teacher could
prepare items similar to the illustration presented in the class, and
therefore, students need to analyze them.
6. Conclusion
Inductive reasoning is a branch of logic. In a valid inductive argument,
the conclusion is believed to be true on the basis of modifying,
rejecting and accepting hypotheses. One of the influential
constructivist’s curriculum developers, Hilda Taba, believes that
Students analyze the recordand teacher questions
Students hypothesize for morehypothesis and provide reasons
Teacher records, students analyze record and teacher questions
Students hypothesize the matrix andrecord for outcome
Students derive generalization and summarize content of analysis
Hypothesizing Outcome for
Different Condition
sTeacher records, students analyze record and teacher questions
Generalizing to form Relationship
Phase 3
Phase 4
students make generalizations only after data are organized and
exemplified (Hannah, n.d.). She believes that students can be led
toward making generalizations through concept development and
concept attainment strategies, and describes generalizing hypothesis
actively as a higher order of thinking. Hilda Taba (in Hannah, n.d.)
further utilizes three main assumptions in developing her teaching
model.
1.Thinking can be taught.
2.Thinking is an active transaction between the individual and
data.
3.Processes of thought evolve by a sequence that is “lawful.”
In short, the inductive teaching strategies are powerful tools that can
be utilized and manipulated by teachers in their classes. Since these
models cover contents that range from concept, relationship between
concepts to organized bodies of knowledge, these teaching strategies
can be used in pure sciences, social sciences and even art classes. It
focuses on developing students’ self-constructive of the understanding,
critical thinking and active participation in class as well as teacher’s
role as an active guidance.
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