Day 18

Problem-Solving Strategy

 Problems:
It is a situations in which we experience uncertainty or difficulty in achieving what we want to achieve.

Problem-Solving strategy:
 Problem-solving is a tool, a skill, and a process. As a tool is helps you to solve a problem or achieve a goal. As a skill you can use it repeatedly throughout your life. And, as a process it involves a number of steps.

Purposes of problem solving:   

1. To give “tools” with which to face the challenges of the real world.
2. To help students to foster self discovery and adaption. 
3. To help students understand complex dilemmas.
4. To help students think about the problems and trace the obstacles to achieve the objective. 
5. Can be guided to effective problem solving strategies.

PRINCIPLES OF PROBLEM SOLVING:

1. Model a useful problem-solving method(Show students by your example how to be patient).
2. Teach within a specific context(Teach problem-solving skills in the context in which they will be used).
3. Help students understand the problem(students need to define the end goal).
4. Take enough time(When planning a lecture/tutorial, budget enough time for understanding the problem and defining the goal).
5. Ask questions and make suggestions(Ask students to predict “what would happen if”).
6. Link errors to misconceptions(Use errors as evidence of misconceptions, not carelessness or random guessing).

 Types of Problem Solving Strategy.

1. Convergent or closed problem.

• In this type of problem solving strategy, it need to have a right answer ( need a fixed answer).

  
     2.  Divergent/open-ended problem.

• In this type  it requires knowledge from different areas.

Elements of  Problem Solving Strategy.

• The definition of a problem(should have some knowledge of a problem to solve it).
• The definition of problem solving(Should have some connection between thinking and knowledge).
• Algorithms(Using of step by steps procedure to solve the problems).
• Heuristics(Need self- exploration).
• The relationship between theory and practice.
• Teaching creativity(applying of previous learned knowledge,no new creation).
• The transfer or the application of conceptual knowledge. 

Procedure of Problem Solving Strategy.

1. Define The Problem(How is the current situation different from what you actually want it to be?).
2. Problem Analysis( Should analyzed how is the problem effecting you and other people).
3. Generate possible Solutions(Finding solutions involves analyzing the problem to ensure that you fully understand it).
4. Analyze the Solution(Think about the solution weather the solution is relevant to your solution or not).
5. Implementation( Find out weather you have achieved what you wanted and how effective was the solution).

Advantages: 

1. Solving of problems in real life experience/situation.
2. It gives direction to a decision and prevent wondering.
3. It contributes to the personality development of a child.

Disadvantages:

1. It create fake ideas about the problems.
2. Create over realization.
3. Forming hasty conclusion.

Day 17

Individualized Instruction Strategy

Individualized instruction strategy.

 

It is also called differentiated instruction. Here teacher should not stick on a method but try with many and they must observe the student individually. 

 

Definition

Classroom practices of teaching which recognizes the uniqueness of each student learner and thus provides for adequate tutorial, guide and other support services suited to bring about development in the person.

 

Purpose of Individualized instruction strategy

1.   To enhance and develop listening habit.
2.  Enables the teachers to explain a lesson or demonstrate a technique to small groups of students at a time.
3.    Individualizing instruction allows each student to progress through the curriculum at his or her own      pace.
4.    Long term retentions they note down what they usually understand.
5.    Importance is given as individual not as group or class.
6.   Careful use of teaching aids is encouraged.
7.    Smooth and continuous lesson but timely interruption.
8.    Uniform and equal learning despite of individual differences.
9.     Less time and effort needed for re-teaching the weak areas.
10.    Provide the normal students the opportunities and needs to make them successful.

Principles of Individualized instruction strategy 

1. Clarify key concept and generation to ensure that all learner gain powerful understanding.
2. Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend various merely measure instruction.
3.  Emphasis critical and creative thinking as a goal in lesson design.
4.    Engaging all learners is essential.
5.  Provide balance between teacher-assigned and student assigned task.

Requirement of Individualized instruction strategy 

1.  Each student learn differently.
2. All students are talented in different ways. 
3.     Educating children with special needs.
4.     It meets the unique educational needs of the children.
5.     Teaching requires differentiated and individualized instruction.

Procedure for Individualized instruction strategy

1) Content

•   it includes the knowledge, skills and the attitude we want children to learn.
•  Must have the tasks and the objectives to achieve the learning goals.
•  Teacher must focused on the principle and the skills.

2) Process

• In include varying learning activities to provide appropriate method for the students to explore concept.

3) Product

•   Initial and on- going assessment of student’s readiness and growth are essential.
•   Students are active and responsible.
•   Varying expectation and requirement for the student’s responses.

Advantages of Individualized instruction strategy 

1. Meeting needs and interest of diverse learners.
2. Help student’s background knowledge, language, readiness and preferences in learning, interests and to react responsively. 
3.  Maximizes each students growth and individual success.
4. Helps in providing for the uniqueness of each children.

Disadvantages of Individualized instruction strategy

1.  Time constraint and chopped up schedules are an obstacle.
2. Class size and teaching load are two of the biggest constraint .
3. Teacher preparedness.

Day 16

Field trip strategy

• Introduced in 1827 by George Shillibeer for a Quaker school at Abney Park in Stoke Newington, London, United Kingdom.
•  A field trip is a visit to a place outside the regular classroom designed to achieve certain objectives, which cannot be achieved as well by using other means. 
• Example are a visit to museums, zoos, places of business, farms, nearby colleges, theaters, historical monuments or buildings, forests, wetlands, nature parks or flower  garden out side the classroom or round of school itself.

Some features of field trip

1.      Facilitating the learning of abstract concepts.

2.      Motivating students through increased interest and curiosity.

3.       Improving long term retention of concepts. 

4.      Teaching scientific method by example.

5.       Increasing student-student and student-teacher social interaction.

6.      Developing social consciousness an increased appreciation for the phenomenon studied.

Purpose of Field Trip

1. It enhances the curriculum. 
2. Renewal (saves from boredom and can refresh a class). 
3. Give students experiential learning experiences. 
4. Concrete skills such as note taking. 
5. Involvement in a real world experience makes learning more meaningful and memorable. 
6. Field trips help the students appreciate the relevance and importance of what they learn in the classroom.

Three kinds of Field Trips:

1. Instructional trips: is a visit by a class or group of classes to a location outside the regular classroom.
2. School contests or festivals: is to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills developed through subject area instruction.(Students  involve in that contest).
3. Motivational trips: It provides a motivational incentive for the school, club, group, or class and is related to improving the school climate. (students going for picnic after contributing to the school as a motivational trip)

Advantages

1.  Hands-on, real world experiences. 
2. Quality of education, positive attitudes to learning and motivation towards the subject. 
3. Improvement of the socialization between students, which would impinge on the classroom, and development of rapport between teachers and students. 
4.   Enabling teachers to utilize other learning strategies such as cooperative learning. 
5. Students learn better as there is change in the teaching method.

Disadvantages

1. Time considerations - preparation, fitting into the school timetable.
2. Lack of support from school administrations for field trips.
3.   Poor student behavior and attitudes (Or loss over students). 
4. Inadequacy of resources and choice of venue.
5. Medical Risks.

Role of teacher

1.    Planner (Pre and Post planning).

2.     Preparing Students before the Trip.

3.    Provide guidance.

4.    Act as the evaluator at the end of the trip.

Day 15

 Role Play strategy

Concept:

It is any speaking activity where you either put yourself in someones shoe or create an imaginary situation and act. 

This role play strategy was brought by the physician  L.Moreno.

 In simple term Role playing is unprepared, unrehearsed dramatization.

  Features: Learning by acting.


Why use role play? 

1. It's fun and motivating.
2. Quieter students gets the chance to express themselves.
3. The world of classroom is broadened to include the outside world.
4. Teaching communication skills
5. Identifying options and solutions
6. Managing conflict.

Purpose of Role Play 

1. Provide students with opportunities to develop a range of communication and social interaction skills (listening, thinking, speaking, compromise, co-operation) [developing the communication skills]
2. Help students to understand the feelings and attitudes of others by experiencing situations rather than just hearing or reading about them.(teaches many lesson)
3. Develop students' self-confidence, self-esteem and self-image.
4. Encourage students to take a deep approach to learning(cognitive learning method)  
5. Give students practice at taking action on their own behalf and on behalf of others in real-world situations
6. Provide long term retention and stimulate interest.
7. Enhance active participation and decision making. 
8. For the exchange of knowledge.

Principle of Role Play strategy 
- Match the role play to the target concept. 
- Choose the technique with care

1. Group, pair or whole class.
2. ways of presentation.

- Ask leading questions and let them talk.
- Monitor your non- verbals

1. pay attention to body language
2. model the behavior.

- Preparation

1. define the problems
2. create a readiness for the role
3. establish the situation
4. cast the character
5. brief and warm up
6. consider the training

- Playing

1. acting
2. involving the audience
3. analyzing the discussion
4. evaluation

Procedural steps of role play strategy are:

1. Select or develop the role-playing scenario.
2. Have the role-play scenario reviewed.
3. Develop the students’ confidence.
4. Tell the students what they will be doing and why.
5. Select participants and explain their roles.
6. Explain what you expect from the audience.
7. Commence the enactment.
8. Discuss, evaluate and debrief.

Summary of the steps

1. Prepare a class
2. Giving clear instruction
3. Act out role play
4. Discussion

Advantages

1. Students interest in the topic is raised
2. Active participation
3. Long term retention
4. It enhances communication skills and interpersonal skills
5. It can be used with individual or in group situation
6. Teaches empathy and understanding of different perspectives
7. It develops confidence and self efficacy
8. Immediate feedback about the learners
9. Develops competence
10. Useful for various topic(like interview, counselling,etc..)
11. Require mental and physical activity(body posture and gesturing.)
12. Reduces  boredom.

Disadvantage

1. Less effective in large groups (Chaos).
2. Teacher must accept her new role where she/he dose not dominate the classroom.
3. Embarrassment for the students
4. Can lack focus unless well planned and monitored.
5. Can be unpredictable in terms of outcomes.
6. Can be time consuming.

Day 14

Activity-based teaching strategy

concept:

• Is the form of teaching where the learner is actively engaged in a task.
• Focus is on making the abstract concrete and on learning by doing
• Can be teacher-driven - with direction from an instructor - or learner-driven with the learner having freedom to explore.

Principles 

• Encourage contact between student and faculty.
• Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.
• Practical uses active learning techniques.
• Emphasizes time on task.
• Communicates high expectations 
• Respects diverse talents and ways of learning(respecting each other talents).

Types/Kinds

1. Absorb-type

• Include presentations, demonstrations, stories, and field trips.
• Informs the learner.

2.    Do-type

• Include practice, discovery, and playing game.
• Allows the learner to practice what they’ve learned.
• learner is able to actively seek, select, and create knowledge.

3.  Connect-type

• Provide a way to link learning to life, work and future learning.
• Lets the learner put what they’ve learned to use.

Criteria for organizing activities

1. Should be relevant. 
2.   Time bound.
3.  Should contain meaning .
4.  Involves real world experiences.
5. Involves skills (listening, speaking, writing, etc.
6. Engage cognitive progress. (selecting, classifying, ordering and reasoning).
7. Have particular out come.
 

Procedural steps

      1. Planning.

      2. Instructions.

      3. Monitoring.

      4. Evaluating.

Role of the teacher

1. Plan and prepare in advance.
2. Giving instruction. 
3.  Facilitating.
4. Debriefing.
5. Clarifying learners' doubts.
6. Set up routines and expectations for learning.
7. Monitor the results using appropriate assessment strategies and recording devices, e.g., checklists, rubrics etc.
8. Choose activities that are relevant and stimulating for students.
9. Provide opportunities for students to present to an appropriate audience. 
10. Observe group dynamics and co-operation.
11. Support and encourage students.

Day 13

Demonstration Strategy

We learned  that Demonstration Strategy is a visual approach examining information, ideas and processes.Sole purpose of Demonstration Strategy is it allows learners to see real  modelling with its procedural steps of the things to be learned (teacher's view)

It allows the students to demonstrate mastery of a skills or procedure(Students View).

Procedures to following Demonstration Strategy

1. Carefully plan the demonstration.
2. Practice the demonstration.
3. Develop an outline to guide the demonstration.
4. Make sure everyone can see the demonstration.
5. Introduce the demonstration to focus attention.
6. Ask and encourage questioning.
7. Plan a follow up to the demonstration.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Seeing before doing.
• Task guidance.
• Economy of supplies.
• Safety.

Disadvantages

•  Not hands-on.
• Limited view.
• Pacing issue.

Day 12

Demonstration  Strategy

In today's class, after sir paper boat-making demonstration  we were asked to write our own definition of Demonstration Strategy followed by advantages and disadvantages of Demonstration Strategy.

Well my understanding is: Demonstration strategy is a teaching strategy, where students acquire new knowledge and skills following the teachers demonstration. Moreover it is learning be seeing and doing.

Each groups were asked to write advantages and disadvantages of Demonstration Strategy. And some good points collectively came up with following points:

 

Advantages:

1. Retains long term memory.
2. Encourages students active participation.
3. Effective interaction.
4. Motivate students to learn.
5. Arose curosity and interest.
6. Effective gain of attention.
7. Learning by seeing.
8. It is a unique strategy.

Disadvantages:

1. Time consuming.
2. Not appopriate to all kinds topics.
3. Lack in avalability of materials.
4. Not challenging to those who already knows.
5. Create dependency.
6. No creative thinking.