Contemporary Approaches to

Teaching and Managing

Primary Classes

Presented at a Workshop for

Teachers of Prince International
Schools Held on 21st August
2006.
 Introduction
• Schools are relied upon by many societies
as centres for preparing children and
youths for effective participation in the
lives of their societies.
• However, many children still remain out of
school, many drop out, and many among
those who finish do not achieve any
meaningful learning. Due to:
• Absence or shortage of basic
infrastructure for teaching and learning.
• Poorly trained and poorly motivated
teachers
• Teaching methodologies too teacher-
centred, too passive and too examination
centred.
• The focus of the on-going Education for All
(EFA) campaign is to ensure that all children
receive education of good quality.
• Having good quality education depends on what
happens in the classrooms and the type of
teachers we have.
• Teachers are very influential on pupil
development: effects of bad teaching hard to
undo even when subsequent teachers are good.
 Questions
• How can we change our teaching strategies in
such a way that all learners find meaningful
learning despite differences in their abilities,
interests and needs?
• How can we diversify our teaching in such a way
that the able, average and the not-so-able all
learn according to their abilities and needs?
• How can we do these within the limitations of
large class size, inadequate materials, limited
time and other constraints in our school system?
 The Focus on Teaching
• The scenarios of teacher-dominated teaching we
have all experienced as learners at one point or
the other in our school lives.
• This type of teaching focused only on the able
i.e. those who are most able to take advantage
of formalised structure of school learning.
• The vast majority of pupils who may possess
different learning styles, who may not have had
the adequate background experiences do not fit
in and are oftentimes labeled as failures.
Characteristics of Teacher-Focused
Teaching
• Learning is a passive activity – all that is
required of pupils is to listen to teachers and
they will absorb (learn) what is taught.
• The only content worth learning is what is
contained in the prescribed textbook and in the
syllabus. They are the only sources of
knowledge.
• Learning is simply transfer of information from
the teacher to the pupils – therefore the
emphasis is for students to reproduce
knowledge that we gave to them rather than
producing their own knowledge.
• Learners learn in the same way or they can be
made to – once a lesson is delivered it is
thought that learners will take it in; those who
cannot, must be bent to fit in with the content.
• Learning is based on the deficit model of the
student – the school tries to identify weaknesses
of the pupils and tracks, categorises or fails
them based on these identified weaknesses.
 Problems
• Are all learners the same?
• Don’t we all learn in different ways?
• Don’t we have different needs and
interests?
• Are we not individuals?
• Why are we not treated as such by the
school system?
 How Children Learn
• No two learners are the same – the pupils we
teach possess different characteristics which
affect how they learn. Therefore learners differ
in the way they learn.
• Differences between learners are not simply a
matter of differences in abilities as measured
by their IQ’s (Intelligent Quotient). How a child
learns (i.e. learning style) is a function of
socio-economic factors (e.g. home
background, prior learning experiences
provided, nutritional level, existence of role
models and support, etc.).
• Learners have different preferences for learning – some
learners feel more comfortable when they see text,
pictures, illustrations etc (Visual Learning Style); some
learners will like to listen, hear and discuss (Auditory
Learning Style); while still others understand better when
the lesson involves some hands-on experiences, outdoor
activities and physical activities (Tactile Learning Style).
• Learning is active – learners must be involved
meaningfully in the learning process. They must be
provided opportunities to interact with the learning
material in a variety of ways.
• The curriculum is not fixed and unbending – teachers
can adjust the curriculum (in terms of its objectives,
content, methods of delivery and assessments) to suit
the different types of learners they have in their classes.
This process is called curriculum differentiation
• All learners cannot achieve the same objectives at the
same time. In fact, learners may have and achieve
different objectives within the same lesson.
• Information needed for assessing learners can be
obtained from more than one source – assessment is not
restricted to paper and pen test only.
 Questions
• Is it possible for teachers to diversify their
teaching approaches to respond to
different learners at different times?
• How can this be done?
 The Formal Curriculum
• The focus of any teaching is the
CURRICULUM.
• It is technically defined as all experiences
offered to the learner by the school to
enable the learner grow along some
specified goals.
• In practical terms, curriculum refers to is
what is learned and what is taught (i.e.
content), how it is taught and learned
(teaching-learning methods); how it is
assessed (i.e. assessment) and the
resources used in the teaching and
learning (i.e. materials).
• This is the FORMAL CURRICULUM
• This is the curriculum on which our pupils
are to be examined on, and as a result we
implement it to the letter.
• Learners must bend to and learn the
curriculum in the limited time allotted so
that they are prepared for a common
examination at the same time.
• This is not FAIR!!
 Hidden Curriculum
• There is also the unplanned learning that
takes place as learners interact with each
other, with teachers, the learning
environment and the learning material.
• This can be a useful source of learning
experiences for pupils if well utilised.
 Questions
• Can a classroom teacher change the
curriculum?
• How can he/she do so without
encountering problem with the school
management?
• Which aspects of the curriculum can we
teachers change, and how?
 Modifying Objectives
• Instructional or Behavioural Objectives:
these objectives state the specific
behaviour that all learners must acquire as
a result of our teaching.
• They are very useful in learning specific
facts and skills
• They also make assessment of learning
easier.
 Problem
• They compel all learners to learn the same
thing at the same time, as if this is
possible.
• They do not allow for variations in learning
achievement or style of learning.
• They do not make provisions for
alternative learning.
 Expressive Objectives
• We can modify our objectives by the way
we state them.
• Expressive objective describes the
situation in which the learning would take
place i.e. the work pupils will do, a
problem they are to solve or a task they
will perform in the course of the lesson.
• They do not state a particular behaviour all
learners must perform.
 Examples
• Topic – Living Things
• Objective – To examine and classify living
things
• Or,
• Topic – Water Borne Diseases
• Objective – To study the nature of water
borne diseases
 Advantage
• By not specifying a particular behaviour,
you allow learners to achieve different
learning outcomes from different learners
• No learner is frustrated because he cannot
achieve the teacher’s expectations.
• Objectives are personal to the learner, and
therefore each learner progresses at
his/her own speed.
 Challenge
• Assessing learning must be varied since
learners are likely to exhibit different
outcomes
• Assessment must be personal i.e.
learners must not be compelled to
conform to the group norm.
 Modifying the Content
• Content is what learners are expected to
learn – it is the facts, concepts, skills and
attitudes that students acquire within their
learning environment.
• It should be meaningful, relevant to
students’ needs and interests; relevant to
the learners’ environments; and it should
be more than mere facts, it should develop
appropriate skills and attitudes.
 Example
• Topic – Calculating Areas of Spaces
• Find the length of your desk; the breadth
of your desk; cut a cardboard size of the
area of your desk; how many desks are on
the length of your class; how many desks
are on the breadth of your class
 Modifying the Delivery Methods
• Lesson delivery school consist of:
• Methods of Presentation and Methods of
Practice and Performance.
• In most of our teaching we emphasise
only methods of presentation, which in
most cases we take to be TEACHER
TALK and CHALKBOARD
 Method of Presentation
• Allow pupils to
• Observe
• Read
• Listen
• Do (Perform)
• These 4 are called INPUT MODES
 Methods of Practice and
Performance
• What pupils do to practice, use and add to
the knowledge acquired. Allow pupils to:
• Write
• Speak
• Draw
• Make
• These 4 are called OUTPUT MODES
 Modifying Methods of
Assessment
• Assessment is both Formative and
Summative
• Summative assessment is terminal and
provides information for placement and
certification. This is the most common
assessment mode employed by teachers
 Formative Assessment
• This is the assessment that takes place in
the course of teaching. It is part of the
teaching.
• Information obtained helps the teacher to
spot strengths and weaknesses so that
they can be reinforced or redress.
• This assessment is more important for
teaching purposes. This is the idea of
continuous assessment.
 Different Ways of Assessing
• Assessment is not only paper-pencil test.
There are several ways of assessing:
• Observation
• Entry Level Indicators (Pre-assessment)
• Record Keeping – anecdotal, portfolios
and journaling.
• Error Analysis
• Performance Assessment
Managing Class within the Context
of Diversity
• Diversity of Learners’ Responses: Do not
expect learners to respond or react to
situations in the same way.
• Flexible Groupings: allow for flexibility in
class arrangement. A class should be
dynamic i.e. changing to different learning
situations.
 Different Grouping Methods
• Whole Class Grouping- instructing whole
class at once.
• Small Group – Grouping according to
abilities, interest or sex depending on
activity.
• Paired Groups – groups of 2.
• Co-operative Expert Groups (Jigsaw)
 Managing Time
• Where is the time? This what many
teachers ask.
• Concentrate on the essentials
• Engage learners meaningfully
• Scale contents to the abilities of learners.
 Oversized Classes
• Too many pupils to a teacher. This
another constraint.
• Team teach
• Work cooperatively with other teachers,
older more brilliant pupils.
• Group them.
 Learning Materials
• There are no enough materials. This is a
constant cry by teachers.
• Use locally available materials
• Innovate – always think of alternatives to
the commercial material.
• Involve pupils and by extension their
parents.
• Develop a library of essential materials
 Conclusion
• Getting education to everyone does not
only mean getting everyone to school.
• It also means making sure that those in
school get education that will empower
them with the basic skills.
• It also means that focusing on that learner
who has difficulties learning and ensuring
that he learns as well as he can.
Thank You for giving me the
opportunity
 Qts
• Poor learners from rich backgound
• Output/input – use both in plng.
• Objects to teach colours
• Concepts unrelated to content
• Assessment using non-beh. Objvs