Let's Talk Learning!

 

Stop #3: Let's Talk Learning!

Now that we have been introduced to the modern-day 21st-century learner, it is important to take some time to reflect on a few of the instructional skills, methods, strategies, and models that help to make teachers so effective. Looking at the reference chart depicted on the top of this page, it is common for readers to feel overwhelmed and concerned about the sheer quantity of information that lies at their fingertips. That being said, as soon as you begin to break this image down into more manageable chunks, I promise that you will be amazed by the great amount of guidance this reference can offer new educators. It is not news to anybody reading this blog that the first few years of teaching can be a challenge. With educators developing hundreds of new lesson plans, gathering materials, and starting up their very first classrooms, it is easy to become overwhelmed, especially when asked to analyze vast amounts of complex educational jargon and terminology. Although many of these terms are covered in school, with hundreds of other things on their mind, many new teachers find themselves questioning where to begin and how they will ever make sense of all the terms that they are required to master. With this idea in mind, let us take our own advice and break down this chart into more manageable pieces. We will do this by starting our analysis at the simplest level: definitions. However, before we delve into these definitions, let us first take a step back and look at the imagery of this resource. We can see that instructional methods seem to make up the first and largest category of our reference chart so it is safe to assume that their definition will be the most broad. This assertion is absolutely correct! In fact, put simply, instructional methods can be defined as all-encompassing because they take into account the strategies, methods, and skills that one wishes to accomplish in a lesson. Instructional methods are used by an educator to help set the course for a child's learning experience by generating a broad structure outlining what will be accomplished. Moving down the ladder, we will next learn about instructional strategies. Within any model, good teachers will use a number of different strategies throughout a unit of study. These strategies refer to the approach that a teacher uses to ultimately reach their instructional goals. Perhaps the teacher chooses to foster an interactive environment where the lessons are formatted in a way that encourages group work and collaboration? Or maybe the teacher uses experiential student-centered strategies that are more activity-oriented? These strategies for instruction can be classified as either direct, indirect, interactive, experiential, or independent study. Some teachers may even use more than one! Can you think of a strategy used by your favorite Social Studies teacher? If you are like me, then this teacher likely has used all of these strategies in their classroom to appeal to different styles of learners and add a sense of variety to their pedagogy. That is a good sign! As we have said before, this diagram is a reference, but that means that each category is not set in stone. In other words, there may be some overlap between certain strategies and skills. In fact, it is likely that teachers will appeal to all of the different models and strategies throughout their educational careers. Taking another step down the ladder, we see the words "Instructional Methods". This term is used to refer to the nature of the activity that the teacher and student will be involved in during the lesson. Once again, in this category, variety is key to producing a good quality lesson. In fact, some of the best lessons will use many different methods throughout one session. Have you ever had a teacher begin a class with a lecture and then conclude that same class with small group work or maybe even integrate turn and talk to your partner exercises throughout the session? Odds are that the answer to this question is yes, which is totally normal. In fact, it is good to utilize a variety of methods of delivery for course content, as every child acquires and retains information slightly differently. The final area of focus for today's blog stems from the last category of our opening diagram. This bottom circle is entitled "Instructional Skills" and it can be used to describe the specific set of educational behaviors that will be performed throughout one's lesson. For instance, some examples of instructional skills include questioning, discussing, explaining, demonstrating, planning, and managing. Although this may seem like a comprehensive list, it is important to remember that this diagram and overall analysis does not serve as a complete reference of all of the possible approaches to instruction. Quite honestly, the fact of the matter is that this list does not even scratch the surface. There are so many other skills, methods, strategies, and models left to be explored each and every day. Although this news may stir up some anxiety in a few readers, instead of being afraid of the unknown, I invite you to look at things from a slightly different perspective. I ask that you simply take a step back and think of this news as an opportunity to learn, grow, and explore this unchartered educational territory. After all, we did just embark on a social studies journey together....and what is social studies without a little exploration!