Models of Teaching Summary

Models of Teaching Summary

Information-processing models emphasize ways of enhancing the human beingÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s innate drive to make sense of the world by acquiring and organizing data, sensing problems, and generating solutions to them, and developing concepts and language for conveying them. The book discussed eight different information-processing models which include: Inductive thinking, Concept attainment, The Picture-Word Inductive Model, Scientific inquiry, Inquiry training, Mnemonics, Synectics, and Advance organizers.

The inductive thinking yields the ability to analyze information and create concepts which is generally regarded as the fundamental thinking skill. This model has been used in a wide variety of curriculum areas and with students of all ages-it is not confined to the sciences. Phonetic and structural analysis depend on concept learning, as do rules of grammar. The structure of the field of literature is based on classification. The study of communities, nations, and history requires concept learning. Even if concept learning were not so critical in the development of thought, the organization of information is so fundamental to curriculum areas that inductive thinking would be a very important model for learning and teaching school subjects.

Concept Attainment is an indirect instructional strategy that uses a structured inquiry process. It was designed to clarify ideas and to introduce aspects of content. It engages students into formulating a concept through the use of illustrations, word cards or specimens called examples. Students who catch onto the idea before others are able to resolve the concept and then are invited to suggest their own examples, while other students are still trying to form the concept. For this reason, concept attainment is well suited to classroom use because all thinking abilities can be challenged throughout the activity. With experience, children become skilled at identifying relationships in the word cards or specimens. With carefully chosen examples, it is possible to use concept attainment to teach almost any concept in all subjects. It is based on the work of Jerome Bruner. In concept attainment, students figure out the attributes of a group or category that has already been formed by the teacher. To do so, students compare and contrast examples that contain the attributes of the concept with examples that do not contain those attributes. They then separate them into two groups. Concept attainment, then, is the search for and identification of attributes that can be used to distinguish examples of a given group or category from non-examples.

Calhoun developed the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM), which uses pictures containing familiar objects, actions and scenes to draw out words from childrenÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s listening and speaking vocabularies. The purpose of using PWIM is to develop studentsÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦ vocabulary, concepts about words, and sentence and paragraph structures through our content subjects of reading, math, science, or social studies. This model helps students add words to their sight reading vocabulary, as well as their writing vocabulary, and also discover phonetic and structural principles present in those words.

Scientific Inquiry learning provides opportunities for students to experience and acquire processes through which they can gather information about the world. This requires a high level of interaction among the learner, the teacher, the area of study, available resources, and the learning environment. Students become actively involved in the learning process as they:

Ð'„X act upon their curiosity and interests;

Ð'„X develop questions;

Ð'„X think their way through controversies or dilemmas;

look at problems analytically;

Ð'„X inquire into their preconceptions and what they already know;

Ð'„X develop, clarify, and test hypotheses; and,

Ð'„X draw inferences and generate possible solutions.

Questioning is the heart of scientific inquiry learning. Students must ask relevant questions and develop ways to search for answers and generate explanations. Emphasis is placed upon the process of thinking as this applies to student interaction with issues, data, topics, concepts, materials, and problems. Divergent thinking is encouraged and nurtured as students recognize that questions often have more than one "good" or "correct" answer. Such thinking leads in many instances to elaboration of further questions. In this way students come to the realization that knowledge may not be fixed and permanent but may be tentative, emergent, and open to questioning and alternative hypotheses.

The Suchman Inquiry Training Model is most commonly used in science and social studies. Students need an initial period of practice in teacher-structured inquiry sessions before they can undertake inquiry individually or in small groups. This model is designed to assist students in developing the skills required to raise questions and seek out answers stemming from their curiosity in the following order:

Ð'„X The teacher presents students with a puzzling situation or event. Students are allowed to ask the teacher questions that must be answered by a Ð'ÐŽÐ'§yesÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё or Ð'ÐŽÐ'§noÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ё.

Ð'„X The purpose of this phase is to verify the facts.

Ð'„X Students next gather information and verify the occurrence of the puzzling situation.

Ð'„X Students identify relevant variables, hypothesize and test causal relationships.

Ð'„X Next, the teacher asks students to organize the data and formulate an explanation for the puzzle.

Ð'„X Finally, students analyze their pattern of inquiry and propose improvements.

Mnemonics are strategies for memorizing and assimilating information. It can help people to master interesting concepts and provide a lot of fun doing so. Teachers can use mnemonics to guide their presentations of material and they can teach devices that students can use to enhance their individual and cooperative study of information and concepts.

Synectics was developed for use with "creative groups" in industrial settings. Synectics is designed to help people "break set" in problem-solving and writing activities and to gain new perspectives