Approaches to Instruction:
Introduction
EDU 330: Educational Psychology
Daniel Moos
• Question: Who said the following?
“You want your students to learn? Don’t
focus on WHAT your students are
learning…focus on HOW are your
students are learning.”
• Answer: Me
Approaches to Instruction: Introduction
Behavioral Approach
• Academic knowledge and skills are the focus (not social
skills)
• Teacher makes instructional decisions
• Maintaining positive climate through reinforcement
• Three components of direct instruction: Orientation,
Presentation, Structured/Guided/Independent Practice
Cognitive/Constructivism Approach
• Rooted in Information Processing
• Communicate clear goals and objectives: What you want to
accomplish, why you want to accomplish, and how you are
going to assess
• Role of organization and meaningfulness
• Support “active learning”
• Assumptions consistent with Constructivism (ZPD, discovery
learning, social interaction, real-world)
Approaches to Instruction: Introduction
Humanistic Approach
• Focus on “noncognitive” variables (i.e. students’ needs,
emotions, values, and self-perceptions)
• Children make choices about their own development
• “Teacher as facilitator” (not a “prescriber”)
Social Cognitive Approach
• Cooperative learning:
• Group heterogeneity
• Group goal and individual accountability
• Interaction
• Interpersonal skills
• Team competition
Approaches to Instruction: Application
to Experiential Activity
First Step: Identify Learning Objective
• Shoot a basketball with proper form
Second Step: Identify how you are going to
structure activity to ensure learning objective is
met; use at least one theory
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How would a Behaviorist approach be?
How would a Humanistic approach be?
How would a Social approach be?
How would a Constructivist approach be?
Co-teaching: Introduction
What is co-teaching?
Co-teaching is typically defined as two educational
professionals working together to meet the needs of
heterogeneous learners
What are some keys to effective co-teaching?
• Planning – Who is going to lead which section? How will
you support each other? The students? Plan, plan, plan!
• Disposition – What are your beliefs on: fairness, grading,
behavior management, and philosophy of teaching?
• Evaluation – Is this model more effective in meeting the
needs of individual students?
What are some barriers to effective co-teaching?
• Time
• Grading
• Teacher and Student readinessl