topic 1 l1 principles of teaching

8/12/2019 Topic 1 l1 Principles of Teaching

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EPB4053 LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY

TOPIC 1: PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This lesson focuses on two key aspects of teaching namely teaching principles and effective

teaching. After completing the lesson, you should be able to

(a) define teaching,

(b) describe qualities of good teaching,

(c) explain seven effective teaching principles, and

(d) discuss some issues on good and effective teaching.

2.0 DEFINING TEACHING

Teaching is the profession of the teacher. It is an act of and imparting knowledge or skills.

When one talks about teaching, it actually about

one’s philosophy, style, and attitude toward providing educational experiences forchildren.

an understanding of the psychology behind the task of providing appropriateeducational experiences.

How individual combine content knowledge and teaching skills with their own abilities,characteristics, and personality to develop what will ultimately be their own pedagogicalstyle.

It is important to note that teachers’ role is to promote learning for all pupils. They are

committed to students and learning

know the subjects they teach how to teach those subjects to students

responsible for managing and monitoring student learning, and

members of learning communities

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3. 0 TEACHING REQUIREMENTS

Richard Leblanc (1998), York University, Ontario, lists the following ten top requirements of agood teaching (see table 1).

Table 1: Top Ten requirements of Good Teaching

No Requirements Description

1 Good teaching is as much aboutpassion as it is about reason

It's about caring for your craft, having a passionfor it, and conveying that passion to everyone,most importantly to your students.

2 Good teaching is about substanceand treating students as consumers ofknowledge

It's about doing your best to keep on top of yourfield, reading sources, inside and outside of yourareas of expertise, and being at the leadingedge as often as possible. Good teaching is alsoabout bridging the gap between theory andpractice.

3 Good teaching is about listening,questioning, being responsive, andremembering that each student andclass is different

It's about pushing students to excel; at the sametime, it's about being human, respecting others,and being professional at all times.

4 Good teaching is about not alwayshaving a fixed agenda and being rigid,but being flexible, fluid, experimenting,and having the confidence to reactand adjust to changing circumstances.

It's about getting only 10 percent of what youwanted to do in a class done and still feelinggood. It's about deviating from the coursesyllabus or lecture schedule easily when there ismore and better learning elsewhere. Goodteaching is about the creative balance betweenbeing an authoritarian dictator on the one hand

and a pushover on the other.5 Good teaching is also about style Effective teaching is not about being locked withboth hands glued to a podium or having youreyes fixated on a slide projector while you droneon. Good teachers work the room and everystudent in it. They realize that they are theconductors and the class is the orchestra. Allstudents play different instruments and atvarying proficiencies

6 Good teaching is about humour It's about being self-deprecating and not takingyourself too seriously. It's often about makinginnocuous jokes, mostly at your own expense,

so that the ice breaks and students learn in amore relaxed atmosphere where you, like them,are human with your own share of faults andshortcomings

7 Good teaching is about caring,nurturing, and developing minds andtalents.

It's about devoting time, often invisible, to everystudent. It's also about the thankless hours ofgrading, designing or redesigning courses, andpreparing materials to still further enhanceinstruction.



8 Good teaching is supported by strongand visionary leadership, and verytangible institutional support --resources, personnel, and funds.

Good teaching is continually reinforced by anoverarching vision that transcends the entireorganization -- from full professors to part-timeinstructors -- and is reflected in what is said, butmore importantly by what is done.

9 Good teaching is about mentoring

between senior and junior faculty,teamwork, and being recognized andpromoted by one's peers.

Effective teaching should also be rewarded, and

poor teaching needs to be remediated throughtraining and development programs.

10 Good teaching is about having fun,experiencing pleasure and intrinsicrewards.

Good teachers practice their craft not for themoney or because they have to, but becausethey truly enjoy it and because they want to.Good teachers couldn't imagine doing anythingelse.

(Source: Richard Leblanc, York University, Ontario;

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/topten.htm )

Task 1:

Class discussion. You are required to demonstrate your understanding of the top ten

requirements of good teaching. Relate your experience in learning English language to those

teacher qualities.

4.0 PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE TEACHING

Mellon University, (2011) indicated that following set of principles can make teaching both more

effective and more efficient. Table 2 lists the seven effective principles:

Table 2: Principles of Effective Teaching

No Effective Teaching Principles Description

1 Effective teaching involvesacquiring relevant knowledgeabout students and using that the

knowledge to improve coursedesign and classroom teaching.

Teachers do not just teach the content; they teachstudents the content. A variety of studentcharacteristics can affect learning – differentiated

instruction.

2 Effective teaching involvesaligning the three majorcomponents of instruction:learning objectives, assessments,

Teaching is more effective and student learning isenhanced when teachers

(a) articulate a clear set of learning objectives (i.e.,the knowledge and skills that we expect students to

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/topten.htm





and instructional activities. demonstrate by the end of a course);

(b) design instructional activities (e.g., case studies,labs, discussions, readings) to support theselearning objectives by providing goal-orientedpractice; and

(c) implement assessments (e.g., tests, papers,problem sets, performances) that provideopportunities for students to demonstrate andpractice the knowledge and skills articulated in theobjectives, and for instructors to offer targetedfeedback that can guide further learning

3 Effective teaching involvesarticulating explicit expectationsregarding learning objectives andpolicies.

Being clear about teachers’ expectations andcommunicating them explicitly helps students learnmore and perform better.a) Articulate our learning objectives (i.e., the

knowledge and skills that we expect students todemonstrate by the end of a course) to givestudents a clear target to aim for and enables themto monitor their progress along the way.b) Be explicit about course policies (e.g., on classparticipation, laptop use, and late assignment) in thesyllabus and in class allows us to resolvedifferences early and tends to reduce conflicts andtensions that may arise.

4 Effective teaching involvesprioritizing the knowledge andskills we choose to focus on

Don’t be too ambitious. Don’t try to do too much in asingle lesson. Too many topics work against studentlearning, so it is necessary for us to make decisions

– sometimes difficult ones – about what we will andwill not include in a course.(a) recognizing the parameters of the course (e.g.,

class size, students’ backgrounds and experiences,course position in the curriculum sequence, numberof course units),(b) setting our priorities for student learning, and(c) determining a set of objectives that can be

reasonably accomplished.

5 Effective teaching involvesrecognizing and overcomingexpert blind spots.

Though it is difficult for experts to do this, we needto identify and explicitly communicate to studentsthe knowledge and skills we take for granted, so thatstudents can see expert thinking in action and



practice applying it themselves.

6 Effective teaching involvesadopting appropriate teaching

roles to support our learninggoals.

The roles we assume as instructors are critical inguiding students’ thinking and behaviour. We can

take on a variety of roles in our teaching (e.g.,synthesizer, moderator, challenger, commentator).These roles should be chosen in service of thelearning objectives and in support of theinstructional activities.

7 Effective teaching involvesprogressively refining our coursesbased on reflection and feedback.

.

Teaching requires adapting. We need to continuallyreflect on our teaching and be ready to makechanges when appropriate (e.g., something is notworking, we want to try something new, the student

population has changed, or there are emergingissues in our fields). Knowing what and how tochange requires us to examine relevant informationon our own teaching effectiveness

(Source: http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/teaching.html )

Task 2:

Get in groups of three or four. Each group selects and explains one of the above teachingprinciples. Present your views on the effective teaching principles; provide examples based onyour experiences as students.

5.0 TEACHER PEDAGOGICAL COMPTENECIES

What do effective teachers need? They need to:

have knowledgeable in content and skills (subject and content knowledge), know how to employ the most effective teaching and learning strategies to enable

children and young people to make progress (pedagogical knowledge), be able to assess what their pupils know, understand and can do, and then use this

assessment to plan future teaching and learning activities have high expectations for all their pupils, of whatever class, race, gender or ability know how to motivate their pupils - to do this, they need to be effective role models for

the pupils they teach.

(Source: http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/schools/education/teaching/ )

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/teaching.html



http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/schools/education/teaching/







Teachers need to have pedagogical competencies in terms of four components: purpose,

content, communication and professional development.

1. Purpose: the philosophy, attitude and style a person brings to teaching.

2. Content: the static content - the curriculum that teachers are responsible for teaching,

and the dynamic content (the knowledge and skills about teaching that a teacher uses to

teach).

3. Communication skills: the ability to communicate effectively with four very different

audiences: students colleagues parents and the community at large

4. Professional development: Teachers as life-long learners, reflective practitioners and

researchers.

6.0 REFLECTION

Task 3:

In groups of 3, students provide comments/opinions on the following teaching quotes.

1) John Dewey: Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing howto bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.

2) Individuals learn in different ways and at varied rates (Corno & Snow, 1986; Pintrinchet.al, 1986; Snow and Lohman, 1984)

3) Learning improves when learners are active participants in the educational process.Individuals learn best by doing ( Berliner, 1979; Brophy and Good, 2000)

4) Varied instructional strategies help learners to maintain interest and improveperformance (Gage and Berliner, 1988; Hay McBer, 2000)

5) Frank Smith: The teachers who get "burned out" are not the ones who are constantly

learning, which can be exhilarating, but those who feel they must stay in control andahead of the students at all times.

6) K. Patricia Cross: The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary"people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in makingwinners out of ordinary people.

7) John Roueche: Teachers who cannot keep students involved and excited for severalhours in the classroom should not be there.

8) Aristotle: Teaching is the highest form of understanding.9) Competent teaching is a compound of three element: subject matter, systematic

knowledge of teaching, and reflective practical experiences (Holmes Reaport, 186)10) Enthusiastic teachers enhance learner motivation and achievement (Borich, 2000;

Sederberg and Clark, 1990)

(Source: Dr. Ranjit Singh Malhi, 2002; Dr Western Kentucky University collection)

7.0 CONCLUSION



This lesson started with defining the term ‘teaching’. It then focused on two key aspects in

teaching namely teaching principles and effective teaching. At the end of the lesson, you should

be able to

(a) define teaching,

(b) describe qualities of good teaching,

(c) explain seven effective teaching principles , and

(d) discuss some issues on good and effective teaching.

“BE A GREAT TEACHER”

topic 1 l1 principles of teaching

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