Instructional Models
Taba’s Concept Development Model
-Students receive an article, and are told to note all examples they can find in the article of “change”
-These ideas are presented to the class, all ideas are expressed on the board
-Students then group these ideas in a method of their choice
-These groups are then labeled, with an explanation provided by the student
-Students are net challenged to regroup their ideas based on a different question posed to the class by the teacher “Who had the greatest need for change”
-Finally, students synthesize their information, provide summaries of the data and form generalizations
Benefits:
-Gifted students begin thinking of a concept, then dive deeper into that concept
-Focuses on open-ended questions rather than right/wrong questions
-The open-endedness requires more abstract thinking, a benefit to our gifted students
-The questions and answers lend themselves to rich classroom discussion
-Easy to assess student learning
Limitations:
-Can be difficult for non-gifted students to grasp
-Difficult for heterogeneous classrooms
-Works well for fiction and nonfiction, may be difficult to easily use in all subjects
Questioning Approaches
Teachers use Bloom’s and Costa’s 3 levels of inquiry questions to ask students a variety of question types. It is important to have a mixture of the different types.
Low Level: Evaluates student preparation and comprehension, diagnoses students’ strengths and weaknesses, reviews and summarizes content
High Level: Good for problem solving, encourages students to think more deeply and critically, stimulates students to seek information on their own
Benefits:
-Thoughtful preparation is involved.
Limitations:
-You must decide on a purpose for asking the questions, choose content that is important, phrase your questions carefully, anticipate possible student responses, and write down your main questions in advance in order
Service Learning
-Service learning combines community service with structured opportunities for learning.
Benefits:
-Provides authentic experiences
-Represents problem-based learning
-Encourages students to investigate cause and effect from a variety of perspectives
-Fosters effective teamwork and collaboration skills
-Links to the academic curriculum and standards
-Encourages and models citizenship
Limitations:
-Some students might not be able to participate due to transportation problems, etc.
-Might be time consuming for the teacher to set up service learning projects
Visual Thinking Strategies
Students look at a piece of art about 20 minutes. They look at it carefully, develop opinions, express them using evidence, consider multiple viewpoints, speculate together, argue/debate and/or build on each other’s ideas and construct meaning together.
Benefits:
-Requires students to decode complex and diverse material
-It is student- centered, inclusive, and fully respectful of all
-It is easily mastered because the strategy taught uses and hones existing strengths, interests, experience, providing challenges when appropriate to stimulate growth
-Students work together in group discussion, and then individually, to complete writing assignments- in each case applying what they know to learn more about what they do not
-It is easy for both teachers and students to transfer strategy and verbal reasoning abilities to other areas
-It sparks motivation and curiosity
Limitations:
-May not be easy to find a piece of art that matches with the Essential Question
-Understanding that you are wanting to teach
Problem-Based Learning
Problem-based learning (PBL) is Student based learning strategy where students are provided an ill constructed, real-life problem. Students are placed in the role of a stakeholder in this problem. Students must then work together to determine the best course of action to solve the problem. Typically this will require students to cross the curricular boundaries from one subject to another. This method of learning uses all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Benefits:
-Provides authentic applications of content and skills
-Builds 21st century 4 C’s competencies
-Emphasizes student independence and inquiry
Limitations:
-It requires more prep time.
-It raises new questions about what to assess.
-Sometimes group dynamics issues compromise PBL effectiveness.
-Less content knowledge may be learned.
-Take longer than traditional lessons or assignments.
-Prior learning experiences may not prepare students well for PBL.
-Can be more expensive
-It creates some anxiety because learning is messier.
Kohlberg’s Moral Dilemmas
Steps: 1) Introduce and clarify the nature of the dilemma 2) Have students clarify the facts of the situation and identify the issues involved 3) Have students identify a tentative position on the action the central character should take and state one or two reasons for that position 4) Divide the class into small groups to discuss the reasoning behind their positions 5) Reconvene the class for a full class discussion of the dilemma 6) Encourage students to reevaluate their own positions
Benefits:
-Students use active listening
-Directly links to Common Core and higher order thinking
-Can be used in all subject areas
-Simple, free, quick
-Easy to link to current event topics
-All students can benefit
Limitations:
-Biased towards western cultures.
-It does not take into account emotions which may be critical motivators for our actions but concentrates on moral reasoning.
-May be biased against females
-Even if his ideas about moral reasoning are correct, it doesn’t mean they can be applied to moral behavior
Simulations
A simulation is an immersive learning environment that models the problems and complexity of the real world.
Benefits:
-Provides for collective decision making
-Builds personal responsibility
-Provides opportunity for leadership skills
-Develops language skills
-builds cross-cultural understanding
-Develops decision making skills
-Builds a realistic paradigm of the world
-Provides opportunities for experimenting with ideas
-Provides life long learning
-Can be used in all classrooms
Limitations:
-Time consuming
-May require special space or equipment
-Expense of commercial games
-Cultural issue may arise with multicultural groups
-Can oversimplify complex issues and concepts
-Not all students are metacognitively aware
-Some students may monopolize
Bruner’s Structure of the Intellect
Bruner believed that the process of learning involved organizing the world around us into mental categories invented by the learner. Every category, its name, the items in it, and their shared features compose a concept, a cognitive structure that helps people hold information in an abstract form and use it to think with.
Benefits:
-Students who do not have background knowledge about the topic can make connections
-Students take on an active role in their learning
-Can bring an unexciting topic to life
Limitations:
-Teacher must be an expert in his/her field.
-Requires creative thinking on the part of the teacher
-Have to make sure students are gaining the necessary information to meet the requirements
Socratic Seminar
Students explore ideas through collaborative dialogue.
The goal is to support deep exploration of a text, through collaborative dialogue with colleagues, using constant questioning.
Benefits:
-Empowers students
-Increases critical thinking and questioning
-Encourages and develops listening skills
-Encourages collaboration
-Establishes students and teachers as co-learners
-Develops confidence in presenting ideas for consideration
-Allows students to support their ideas with reasoned thinking and evidence while negotiating multiple meanings and/or ideas.
Limitations:
-Reluctant students won’t talk
-Some students may dominate
-Sensitive subject matter
-Considerable thought with preplanning the text and question ahead of time
-Must have a thorough understanding of text
-Must be able to think on your feet.
Creative Problem Solving
The CPS Model provides a structured method for approaching a problem in an imaginative way. You generate a variety of alternatives before selecting or implementing a solution.
Benefits:
-Simple to learn
-Easy to teach
-Highly transferable
Limitations:
-One student may want to dominate
-It requires students to get along