CH 11 – Teaching Styles and Strategies to Meet Learners’ Needs

1. CH 11 – Teaching Styles and Strategies to Meet Learners’ Needs Direct teaching: • Most teachers use this • You explain and demonstrate a skill and everyone practices the same skill at the same time and they same way and the teacher gives feedback • Saves instructional time and is good when the material can be learned in a strictly sequential, progressive manner. • Does NOT help with skills requiring higher-order thinking & unstructured organization.

2. Teaching Styles • The following styles are on a continuum from the command style, for which the teacher makes all of the decisions to the self-teaching style where the students make nearly all of the decisions • EVERY style has a place depending on the situation (time and environment), students, teachers, and content

3. 1. Command Style • Teacher makes all the decisions. • Teacher gives step by step instructions • All students perform the same task at the same time • Often appropriate for the initial learning stages, especially where safety is a concern • Also appropriate when instructional time is limited or student behavior dictates a highly structured class routine

4. 2. Practice Style • Most commonly used style in PE • Teacher determines what is taught, introduces the skills and tasks through demonstration or the use of task cards. • Student determine the number of practice trials and often the order in which they will practice the skills • Teacher circulates throughout the class giving feedback and answering questions • Good for initial state of learning and when you don’t have a lot of instructional time. • Better than command, because students have more time to practice skills and have more responsibility for their learning

5. 3. Reciprocal • Students give each other feedback • Teacher determines the task they practice and identify crucial features for them • Before this, you check for understanding by providing a number of demonstrations that include common errors, asking students to identify the errors and you give appropriate feedback • Students work in pairs and the observer gives the doer feedback – a check list or criteria sheet helps • Teacher communicates only with the observer • Helps with social skills • Limit to review of previously learned information

6. 4. Self-check • Teacher determines the task the student will practice and identify the critical features. • The feedback comes from the student • Should be skills where they can clearly see results. • Helps them become more self-reliant, but does limit interactions with others – not really appropriate for middle schoolers

7. 5. Inclusion • Very appropriate for middle schoolers • Teacher determines the task and its critical features, but you also give the students a choice of performance levels for the task from which they may select the level of practice that they think is right for them. • May change size and weight of an object; size; distance, and height of a target; body position, etc. • It is the students’ responsibility to determine when they are ready to move to a more difficult performance level

8. 6. Guided Discovery • Teacher determines the task and then arranges a sequence of problems or questions that, when solved by the students, leads to the one correct response. • Students must give a verbal or motor response to each prompt • Must give the students enough time to think through each question or problem • May need to adjust prompts if all or most of students respond incorrectly • Your goal is to logically guide students • Takes time, BUT students will learn material

9. 7. Convergent Discovery • Student goes though the discovery process without any clues from you • Should master guided discovery first • Must select activities through which the students are able to discover the correct answer.

10. 8. Divergent Production • A problem-solving style • You select a task and design a problem that can be solved in a variety of ways. Then ask students to find solutions and evaluate the effectiveness of each. • Improve motor skills by showing students many different ways to accomplish tasks • Best for learning tasks similar to tasks students have already mastered. • Great at developing social skills

11. 9. Individual Program-Learner’s Design • Teacher chooses the general subject material, but you allow the learner to choose the specific question and determine possible solutions. • We don’t use this much yet – but with more emphasis on individualized learning, we will

12. 10. Learner Initiated • Learner initiates the style for themselves. The student approaches you and states their desire to initiate and conduct learning activities. • We don’t use this much, yet

13. 11. Self-teaching • Exact opposite of command style • Doesn’t exist in the classroom, but it does in real life. • Encourages students to pursue their own educational interests, based on their own capabilities and needs both outside the school setting and when possible within the school setting.

14. Instructional Strategies • Teaching styles – address the question of who is making the decisions about instruction • Instructional strategies – refer to the arrangement of the teacher, learner, and environment • Many different types – we will explore only two

15. Station Teaching • Students are in small groups and rotate from learning center to learning center effectively and efficiently. • Provides students with a variety of drills and tasks • Works best when equipment or space is limited • Provides students with opportunities to practice and apply the same skill to different situations – crucial to mastering open skills

16. Station Teaching (Cont.) • Set up different activities around the gymnasium • Divide class into equal number of groups and assign to a different starting station • Place a task card describing what you want them to do • Make sure each station requires about the same amount of time to complete.

17. Station Teaching (Cont.) • Have students complete a data sheet at each station. • It is best to start with only 3-4 stations and then add more -this will minimize teacher talk • Can use this with a variety of teaching styles – reciprocal, self-check, and inclusion • Keep tasks fairly simple

18. Cooperative Learning • Research shows that cooperative learning results in greater achievement gains, improved cross-cultural friendships, increased social skills, enhanced self-esteem, greater interdependence (teamwork), increased cognitive and affective abilities, and an improved classroom climate.

19. Cooperative Learning (Cont.) True cooperative learning requires: • Formation of heterogeneous teams • Establishment of positive interdependence and individual accountability • Opportunity for team members to get acquainted with one another and establish a team identity. • Use of an established structure • Opportunity to debrief the situation

20. 1. Form heterogeneous teams • Teams should have a balance of gender, ethnicity, ability, etc. • You can randomly assign and then adjust for the above or you can rank students by ability and then assign one from the top with one from the bottom, etc. • Group sizes of 4-6 are about right, but partners can work too.

21. 2. Establish positive interdependence and individual accountability • Set up one task to be accomplished by each group. Make sure it can be completed ONLY if the students cooperate • Establish individual accountability making sure each member has a specific task, role, or resource ensuring that each must contribute to the successful completion of the task

22. 3. Promote Team Building • Students need time to get to know one another and develop trust before being presented with a task • Groups go through 4 stages: • Forming • Storming • Norming • Performing

23. 4. Select a Structure • There are many – we will limit to four • Think-pair-share: • Students work with partners. You pose a question and give students time to think about their answer. • After thinking, they share their responses with their partners. • Partners question each other to help refine the answer

24. Structure for Cooperative Learning (Cont.) 2. Numbered Heads: • Students work in partners • You pose a question and they solve it together – asking each other questions to make sure their answer is appropriate

25. Structure for Cooperative Learning (Cont.) 3. STAD (student teams achievement divisions) • Students assigned to groups of four • You present the lesson and supply instructional materials, then students work to make sure everyone in their group masters the information • Reciprocal style helps here

26. Structure for Cooperative Learning (Cont.) 4. Jigsaw: • Students assigned to home teams of 4-6 members • Each member of the home team selects a different piece of material to learn. • Have students from different teams who have similar pieces of information, forms expert groups to discuss their information and develop a presentation for their home teams. No more than 4-6 in expert groups • Have students return to home groups to share information

27. 5. Be Sure to Debrief • Ask students: • Was the task completed? If not, why? • How did it feel to have someone accept your suggestions? • How did it feel to have someone complement you? • What can you do next time to make your group work more successfully? • What learning can you take from their experience to use in the future? • What were some encouraging things you saw or heard?

28. Working with Limited-English Proficient Students • LEP = limited English Proficient • SDAIE = specially designed academic instruction in English • Four methods for working with LEP students: • create a supportive learning environment • Use a variety of instructional strategies, including cooperative learning • Make sure information is comprehensible to students • Include a technique called total physical response

29. 1. Supportive Environment • Ask them to share their experiences • Incorporate some of their background into the class • Establish consistent routines so they know what is happening next • Avoid forcing them to speak (takes 6 mo. To a year at least) • When they do speak, correct their errors only through verbal mirroring

30. 2. Variety of Strategies, Including Cooperative Learning • All of your students learn in unique ways – including the LEP students • Technology is helpful • Nice to have a bi-lingual student in group with LEP

31. 3. Comprehensible Input • Use simple terms • Reinforce key concepts over and over again • Check often for student understanding • Slow down speech pattern • Pause frequently • Enunciate clearly • Emphasize key words of phrases • Keep information in context

32. 3. Comprehensible Input (Cont.) • Use visual aids, gestures, organizers, and other real objects • Demonstrate concepts • Simplify information • Expand on student’s ideas by asking additional questions • Provide definitions • Make comparisons • Provide lots of examples • Avoid idioms • Summarize often • Increase wait time

33. 4. Total Physical Response • There is a definite link between physical activity and language acquisition. • TPR = demonstrate something physically and have the student respond with a physical movement

34. Summary • You will work with 20 – 60 different learning styles during one instructional period • Make sure learning is hands-on, relevant, and student centered.