Major Skills of Micro teaching and Components
Core teaching skills may vary based on the perspective of
experts. So here we have to discuss some
important skills and its components which are essential for effective teaching
of English.
1. SKILL OF INTRODUCING
A LESSON/ SKILL OF SET INDUCTION
It requires a skill on the part of the teacher to introduce
a lesson or a unit in such a way that it motivates the students to know more
about what they had heard or seen just before. A felt need must be created in
the students. Pupils’ learning of the lesson depends on the way the lesson is
introduced.
The skill of introducing a lesson involves establishing
rapports with learners, promoting their attentions, and exposing them to
essential contents. If a teacher
skillfully establishes an affective or emotional rapport with the pupils, they
will be ready to receive new knowledge. Students will wait for his/her class.
This proves that “well begun is half done”.
Components of the skill of introducing a lesson
I.
Desirable Behaviours
i.
Using previous
knowledge
ii.
Using
appropriate devices
iii.
Arousing motivation
iv.
Link with
topic
v.
Use of simple
language
II.
Undesirable Behaviours
i.
Lacking in
continuity
ii.
Uttering
irrelevant statements
I.
Desirable Behaviours
i.
Using
previous knowledge
Previous knowledge refers to the knowledge
already possessed by the pupils. Mind cannot receive any new knowledge unless
there is continuity with relevant previous knowledge. When we give a new
knowledge, it must be a continuation of their previous knowledge. Introducing a
new lesson involves bringing the previous knowledge to the conscious level.
Teachers must be aware of the previous knowledge that has to be possessed by
the pupils, for the particular topic to be introduced. Teacher can ask
questions or create a situation to expose the students’ previous knowledge.
ii.
Using
appropriate devices
In
order to arouse interest or to link with the topic the teacher can use
appropriate device or technique such as audio aids, video aids, audio visual
aids, flash cards, flip cards, analogy, questioning, storytelling, narrating, illustrating,
role playing, dramatization, demonstration, etc. every device varies in
effectiveness. Their judicious use depends on the age, grade and maturity level
of the pupil.
iii.
Arousing
motivation
In
order to motivate the learners, the teacher should make use of appropriate
device or technique such as audio aids, video aids, audio visual aids, flash
cards, flip cards, analogy, questioning, storytelling, narrating, illustrating,
role playing, dramatization, demonstration, etc.
iv.
Link with
topic
After
preliminary questions and introduction, the teacher should establish a link of
the previous knowledge or introductory activity with present topic. The device
or technique that a teacher uses while introducing a lesson could be relevant only if they are related to the aims of the
lesson/content.
II.
Undesirable behaviours
v.
Lacking
in continuity
Lacking in continuity refers to
the inability of a teacher in presenting a new idea without linking it with the
relevant previous knowledge, in a
sequential manner. Here the teacher’s statements or questions will not be
related to proceeding question or statement.
vi.
Uttering
irrelevant statements
The
statements or the questions which a teacher utters while introducing a lesson
must be related to the aims of the lesson. Sometimes there may be continuity, but
the questions and the statements uttered may be irrelevant to the aim of the lesson.
If one is familiar with the topic introduced, it is not difficult to identify
irrelevant statements and questions.
2. SKILL OF
PROBING QUESTIONS
The term
‘probing’ implies going deep in to the matter in hand. It is defined as the art
of response management comprising a set of behaviour or techniques for going
deep into students responses with a view to elicit the desired responses.
When the teacher asks questions from the pupils
in his class different situations arise. They are:
1.
The pupil may give no
response,
2.
The pupil may give
incorrect,
3.
The pupil may give
partially correct response and
4.
The pupil may give
correct response.
How to deal with all
these situations effectively is the main theme of this skill. In case of no
response or incorrect response the teacher goes deep into pupil's responses by
asking many questions about what he already knows and to lead him to the
correct response. When the response is correct the teacher may help the pupil
to go deep into the content by asking questions of how, why and sometimes of
what types also. The skill involves a series of questions to go deep into
pupil’s responses.
If one wants to be an
effective teacher, one must be able to lead the pupils to the correct responses
without resorting to punishments. He must probe into the student responses by
asking a number of questions about what they already know. These questions will
be based on the response given to the first question. Probing question is a
technique of dealing with pupils’ initial response to the teacher’s questions.
Components of the skill of probing questions
The
five components of the skill of probing questions are:
i.
Prompting
ii.
Seeking
further information
iii.
Refocusing
iv.
Redirecting
v.
Increasing critical
awareness
i.
Prompting
This technique means to
go deep into the pupil’s response when it is incorrect or no response. Here
teacher helps the pupil to answer the question himself. He/She does not give
answer or make the other students answer the question, but provide clues or
hints and leading questions. He will not discourage the pupil for his/her wrong
response, but a series of hints or prompts are given to pupil through step by
step questioning in order to lead the pupil to the desired correct response. Let
us take the following example:
Example:
T: What are the functions of adverbs?
P: No response.
T:
What modifies a verb?
P: Adverb.
ii.
Seeking
further information
This technique is used when the response of pupil is incomplete or
partially correct. The teacher helps the pupil to clarify or elaborate or
explain his initial response by asking more small questions or creating
situation in which the pupil is made to think and respond.
E.g.: what else can you say?
How can you make it
more clear?
Give some examples
Will you please
elaborate our answer? Etc.
Example:
T: What are the functions of adjectives?
P: To modify a noun.
T: What are the other functions?
iii.
Refocusing
It is used when the pupil’s response is correct.
Here, the teacher relates the correct answer of a student with the topic
already covered in the class. This involves comparing the phenomena in his
response with other phenomena either for similarity/difference or relationship
between the two situations. The
teacher could use this opportunity to refocus on a related issue.
E.g. How one thing in point is different from
the other thing?
How the response of this pupil is related to
any other point?
“How does john’s answer relate to…?
How one
thing is similar to another thing?
“If this is true, what are the implications for…?
How it is
applicable to real life? Such types of questions are put to the pupil.
iv.
Redirecting
The main purpose of this
technique is to increase more and more pupil participation. When the situation
is of no response or incorrect response prompting should be preferred to
redirection. Then the teacher puts the same question to several students for eliciting
desired response.
Example:
Teacher :
How many verb forms are there?
Manu : No response
Teacher :
How many verb forms are there? (to whole class
or other students)
Shijin: Five verb forms are there. (Redirection)
v.
Increasing
critical awareness
This technique is used when the pupil’s response
is correct. The teacher puts higher order questions to stimulate the pupil to
think beyond what the pupil knows. This involves the ‘how’ and ‘why’ and
sometimes ‘what’ type of questions on the point under discussion.
How can you justify it?
How does it occur?
What may be the reason behind it? Etc. Such
types of questions are put to the pupil.
Example:
a. Why oxygen is necessary for living beings?
b. How oxygen helps in burning? etc.
3. SKILL OF STIMULUS
VARIATION
Learning in the
classroom depends, a large extent, on attention of the pupils on the learning
task. It is therefore essential for a teacher to secure the attention of the
pupils for making his/her teaching effective. How to secure and sustain the
attention is main theme of this skill. It is known on the basis of
psychological experiments that attention of the individual tends to shift from
one stimulus to other very quickly. It is very difficult for an individual to
attend to the same stimulus for more than a few seconds. Therefore, for
securing and sustaining the attention of the pupils to the lesson it is
necessary to make variations in the stimulus. This is because attention is the
necessary pre-requisite for learning.
Components of the skill of stimulus variation
i.
Movement
ii.
Gestures
iii.
Focusing
iv.
Change in
voice
v.
Pausing
vi.
Change in
interaction pattern
vii.
Physical pupil participation
viii.
Switching
i.
Movement
Teacher movement is an important teacher
behaviour in the classroom. The movement of the teacher helps pupils to change
their postures which provides physical relaxation to them and also contributes
to the alertness, enthusiasm and variety in the teaching behaviour.
Any type
of movement is not likely to be conducive. Here movement means making movements
from one place to another with some purpose. (For writing on the black board;
to conduct experiment; to explain the chart or model; to pay attention to the
pupil who is responding to some question, to give guidance when pupils are
doing the given assignment etc.). So teacher should avoid aimless wandering.
ii.
Gestures
Gestures
are non-verbal cues to express feelings and emotions, to emphasis significant
ideas, to indicate shape, size and movements of objects and mainly to arrest
attention of the pupils.
They are usually made with the help
of the movement of the eye, hand, head, body, facial expressions, like
extending the hands in a typical shape to indicate how big or small one object
is. All these
acts are performed to become more expressive.
iii.
Change in
voice
Voice plays a vital role
in communication in the classroom. The voice of the teacher has several
dimensions, namely pitch, tone and speed. Constant use of the same level of
pitch, tone and speed makes the class dull. In order to secure and maintain
students’ attention, a skillful teacher varies his/her voice. When the teacher wants to show emotions or to
put emphasis on a particular point, sudden or radical changes in tone, volume
or speed of the verbal presentation are brought out. The change in the speech
pattern makes the pupils attentive and creates interest in the lesson.
iv.
Focusing
The teacher draws the
attention of the pupils to the particular point in the lesson either by using
verbal or gestural focusing. In verbal
focusing the teacher makes
statements like, “look here” “listen to me” “note it carefully”,” Try to be attentive”. In gestural
focusing pointing towards some object with fingers or underlining the
important words on the black board or pointing something on the B.B. or diagram
using finger/pointer is gestural focusing. In verbal cum gestural focusing teacher uses both verbal and gestural
statements
v.
Pausing
This means “stop talking” or “a meaningful stop”
by the teacher for a moment. When the teacher becomes silent during teaching,
it at once draws the attention of the pupils with curiosity towards the
teacher. A short pause before saying something important is an effective
way of attracting attention of the pupils. The message given at this point is easily
received by the pupils.
vi.
Change in
interaction pattern
When two or more persons
communicate their views with each other, they are said to be interacting.
Teaching is an interactive process. This interaction is broadly of two types- verbal and nonverbal
There can be three
patterns or styles of interaction among teacher and pupils:
1. Teacher ↔ class (Teacher talks to
class and vice versa)
2. Teacher ↔ Pupil (Teacher talks to
pupil and vice versa)
3. Pupil ↔ pupil (Pupil talks to pupil)
A teacher using only any
one of these styles continuously for a long time fails to sustain pupils’
attention. So, all types of interaction should go side by side to secure and
sustain pupils’ attention.
vii.
Switching
Constant use of one medium for
imparting knowledge distracts pupils’ attention. So a teacher has to change his/her
medium. The teacher gives information to the class
verbally about something is called oral medium. The use of maps, charts and
object without saying something is called visual medium. If the teacher gives
information to the pupils through any one medium (oral, visual, oral visual)
for a long time, may lose pupils’ attention to what the teacher is conveying to
them. Therefore it is essential for the teacher to change medium rapidly in
order to secure and sustain pupils’ attention to what he says. There are three
types of media:
1.
Oral → visual :- when the teacher shows
objects, maps, charts, globe etc. while speaking is switching from oral to
visual.
2.
Visual → Oral:-
when the teacher shows
objects, maps, charts, globe etc. and speaks about it is switching from visual to
oral.
3.
Visual ⇄ oral – visual:- when the teacher demonstrates the experiment
silently and then explains the phenomenon with the help of charts, maps,
diagram etc. is visual-oral switching.
4.
Oral ⇄ oral –visual :- when the teacher shows objects, charts and
models while speaking and explains their various parts. It is switching from
oral to oral-visual.
viii.
Physical pupil participation
Pupils tend to prefer those lessons in which they get opportunity
for physical participation. Physical participation can be in the form of
handling apparatus or aid material, dramatization, writing on the chalk board
etc.
4. SKILL OF EXPLAINING
During the
teaching-learning process of some concepts, principles and phenomena, mere
description of theme does not make them understandable to the pupils. The
teacher has to give proper explanation and reasons to bring clarity and proper
understanding of what is being taught. Explaining is the most commonly used
skill and is the essence of instruction. A teacher generally resorts to
explanation, when he/she feels that his pupils have not understood the idea
that he/she conveyed. While explaining, the teacher is describing ‘why’, ‘what’
and ‘how’ of something. It fills up the gap in someone’s understanding. The explanation serves two purposes: to introduce the
subject by giving some background about its usefulness and application; and to
describe the subject in a simple, complete, and tantalizing way.
Explanation
is to explain or to give understanding to another person. It leads from the
known to the unknown, it bridges the gap between a person’s knowledge or
experience and new phenomena, and it may also aim to show the interdependence
of phenomena in a general sable manner. It assists the learner to assimilate
and accommodate new data or experience. In a classroom, an explanation is a set
of interrelated statements made by the teacher related to a phenomenon, an idea,
etc. in order to bring about or increase understanding in the pupils about it.
Categories of Explanation
1) INTERPRETIVE EXPLANATION-to make
clear the meaning of terms, statements, situation, concepts etc. It answers the
question ‘What?’.
2) DESCRIPTIVE
EXPLANATION- descriptions of objects, phenomena, structures, processes. It answers the question ‘How?’.
3) REASON GIVING EXPLANATION- principles
and generalizations and causes. It answers the question ‘Why?’.
Components of the Skill of Explaining
I.
Desirable Behaviours
i.
Beginning statement
ii.
Explaining links
iii.
Concluding statement
iv.
Questions to test pupils' understanding
v.
Covering essential points
vi.
Relevant and interesting examples
vii. Use of visual
technique
II.
Undesirable Behaviours
i.
Irrelevant statement
ii.
Lacking in continuity
iii. Vague words and phrase.
iv. Inappropriate
vocabulary
v.
Lacking in fluency
I.
Desirable Behaviours
i.
Beginning statement
The beginning statements
create mental readiness in pupils, to listen to what is going to be explained. It
is the introductory statement to begin explanation.
Example: What is an earth quake?
An earth quake is the sudden and violent shaking of earth’s surface. (Beginning statement)
Or what is an adverb?
Adverb is a word or phrase that modifies the meaning of an adjective,
verb, or another adverb, expressing manner,
place, time, or degree (e.g. gently, here, now, very
). (Beginning statement)
ii.
Explaining Links
The explaining links make one’s explanation more
effective. These are words and phrases which are mostly conjunctions and
prepositions and are generally used by the teachers to make his explanation
effective. Some of them are:
the result of, the cause of, such that, the consequence of, the function
of, hereafter, due to, so that, as a result of,
this is how, therefore, before, in order to, hence,
after, since, but, thus, because, the
purpose of, next,
Example: The result of his agony was beautiful poems.
iii.
Concluding statement
This is the statement made at the end of the explanation. It includes
the summary of all the main results of the explanation.
For example: We have discussed two types of verbs. They are:
·
First one is Transitive verb that is used with an object or it is an action verb that takes an object.
· Second one is Intransitive verb that does not take an object to complete its meaning. (Concluding statement)
iv.
Questions to test pupils' understanding
These are short
questions put to the pupils to test their understanding of the concept after
the explanation. The main purpose is simply to judge whether the pupils have
understood or not. Two or three questions based on the key points are enough.
v.
Covering essential points
While explaining, the teacher should
ensure that he/she covered the essential points.
vi.
Relevant and interesting examples
Teacher should give relevant and
interesting examples from daily life in simple language.
vii.
Use of visual technique
“One picture is worth ten thousand
words”, so the teacher may accompany his/her explanation with appropriate and
interesting visual techniques such as blackboard, chart, pictures, models, etc.
II.
Undesirable Behaviours
i.
Irrelevant statement
These are statements
sometimes made by the teacher during explanation which have nothing to do with
the present concept. These statements do not contribute to understanding rather
create confusion in the minds of the students.
ii.
Lacking in continuity
It happens when the
sentences remain incomplete or are reformulated in the middle of the statement
and there are other causes also like:
·
a statement is not
logically related to the previous statement.
·
when a topic of
previously taught content is referred without showing the relationship to what
is being explained.
·
when there is no
sequence of space or place.
·
use of inappropriate
vocabulary of technical terms which are quite unknown to pupils.
·
use of vague words and
phrases
iii.
Vague words and phrase.
Use of vague words and
phrases causes to lose the continuity. So its occurrence should be avoided maximum.
Some of these words and phrases are:
Some, much, seems, Many, something, somewhat,
Things, probably, the rest,
a little, perhaps, almost, might, may, types of, few, in fact, actually etc.
In addition to these
words there are words and phrases like “you
see”, “Okay”, “correct” etc. which are parts of teachers' mannerism.
iv.
Inappropriate vocabulary
Use of inappropriate
vocabulary of technical terms which are quite unknown to pupils also causes to
lose continuity. And also all the terms should be defined well, otherwise
explanation becomes a difficult one. So, it is likely to use simple and known
vocabulary to explain something effectively.
v.
Lacking in fluency
A teacher should be fluent while explaining.
Then only students can easily understand what is explained without getting
boredom.
5. SKILL OF USING
BLACKBOARD
Blackboard or Chalkboard is real asset in
class teaching as it serves to make direct appeal to child's senses and
strengthens the retention. B.B. is the most widely used visual aid by the
teacher. Through clear visual presentation on B.B. the teacher can bring about
clarity in understanding a concept. It reinforces the verbally conveyed idea. A
holistic picture of the idea is created through a skillfully used blackboard
work.
Components of the Skill of Using Blackboard
i.
Legibility of Handwriting
ii.
Neatness of Black Board Work
iii.
Organization of Black board Work
iv.
Appropriateness of Black Board Work
i.
Legibility of Handwriting
According to Gandhiji
“Fair and legible handwriting makes a man perfect in all walks of life.”
Legible handwriting on the blackboard draws the attention of the learners.
- Each letter should be distinct : There should be no confusion in the shape of the letters such as
a.
c-e, l-I, u-v etc.
- Adequate spacing between two letters and two words.
- The slantness of each letter should be nearly vertical.
- Size of the letters should be such that they are legible from the end of the class or it should be large enough to be read even from the last bench.
- The size of small letters should be same and size of the capital letters should also be same.
- The size of the capital letters should be slightly greater than that of the small letters.
- Thickness of the lines should be of same width.
- Words and sentences should be parallel to the base of the B.B.
- Main points should be highlighted by underlining.
ii.
Neatness of Black Board Work
a. Straightness of lines: The neatness of the black board increases
if you write in straight lines parallel to the base of the black board.
b.
Adequate Spacing between the Lines:
·
The words/sentences
should be written in straight lines parallel to the base of the black board.
·
There should be adequate
spacing between the lines.
c.
Avoidance of Overwriting: In order to keep the black board work neat and clean there should
be no over writing.
d.
Focusing the Relevant Matter: In order to keep the black board neat and clean :
·
Erase the unrelated and
irrelevant work and work not required.
- Retain the relevant matter.
iii.
Organization of Black board Work
For the proper
utilization of space only important words or statements should be retained till
the time of application. Organization of B.B. involves:
§
systematic planning of
space.
§
spacing to exhibit the
sequence of the items being presented.
§
adjustment of space for
presenting related items in totality.
iv.
Appropriateness of Black Board Work
The appropriateness of
black board work includes the following points:
a.
Continuity in points:
The points of the lesson should be logically arranged one after the other
in a sequence.
b.
Brevity and simplicity:
Write only the salient points in a simple and clear language.
c.
Drawing attention and Focusing: Underline the important points or use coloured chalk for
drawing the pupils’ attention.
d.
Illustrations and Diagrams: Illustrations and diagrams should be simple, large and
clear to convey the idea easily and conveniently. As this skill needs long
practice to achieve the goal and so no micro-lesson plan is given.
e.
Black board summary:
in order to make teaching
meaningfull to the lerrners, the teacher should develop the black board summary
at the end of the lesson. This should be so brief that the words can recollect
the whole lesson at a glance.
Additional points to remember
·
Check whether or not the BB is clear
at the start of the lesson.
·
Position
of the teacher/Stance: the most convenient place to stand
is towards the left side of the chalkboard. Stand one side and do not come in
between the pupils and BB
·
Avoid squeaking noise of the chalk
while writing.
·
Avoid committing mistakes in the
content written on the BB.
·
Holding
chalk: impressive BB work depends upon
the style of holding the chalk or writing instrument. For good BB work always take half stick of
the chalk and hold between the thumb and forefinger so that an inch or less
project.
6. SKILL OF
REINFORCEMENT
The term reinforcement
means strengthening the inbuilt force to respond. Every responding pupil of the
class needs social approval of his behaviour. To satisfy his/her need, he/she
is always eager to answer each question known to him/her. If the teacher is
encouraging the pupils by statements like, “good”; that is very good and
certain non-verbal expressions, as smiling, nodding the head; and paying
attention to the responding pupil, the pupil participation in the class is
maximised. A student is an individual and may
be different in his/her perception of the reinforcement; so, different
reinforcement may be needed for different students. The
main theme of the skill is that encouraging remarks of the teacher increases
and discouraging remarks decreases the pupil-participation in the development
of the learning process. The stimuli that provide or contribute to the
pleasant experience are called positive reinforcement or desirable behaviours.
While the stimuli providing unpleasant experience can be termed as negative
reinforces. Thus in the class room teaching positive reinforces are used for
strengthening the desirable responses of learners and negative reinforces for
weakening or eliminating the undesirable responses or behaviours. Try to avoid
negative verbal and non-verbal reinforcements as it is often painful to the
students. So the kill of reinforcement involves the
use of positive reinforcers more and more and decreasing the use of negative
reinforcers so that the pupils participate to the maximum.
There are two types of
reinforcement:
A.
Positive
reinforcement
B.
Negative
reinforcement
A. Positive reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is used by the teacher for
strengthening the desirable response or behaviour.
B.
Negative reinforcement
Negative reinforcement is used by the teacher for weakening
or eliminating the undesirable responses or behaviour.
Components of the Skill of Reinforcement
I.
Desirable Behaviours
i.
Positive Verbal Reinforcement.
ii.
Positive Non-Verbal Reinforcement.
iii.
Extra verbal Reinforcement.
iv.
Negative Verbal Reinforcement.
v.
Negative Non-Verbal Reinforcement.
II.
Undesirable Behaviours
i.
Wrong Use of Reinforcement.
ii.
Inappropriate Use of Reinforcement.
I.
Desirable Behaviours
i.
Positive Verbal Reinforcement.
These are the positive comments given by the
teacher on the correct response of the pupil. They are:
a. Using words and phrases like, “good”, “very
good” and excellent, right, correct etc.
b. Repeating and rephrasing pupil’s response.
c. Using pupils’ idea in the development of the
lesson.
d. Using prompts like carry on, think again etc. to
help the pupil give correct response.
ii.
Positive Non-Verbal Reinforcement.
The teacher gives comments to pupils on their correct response
without using words: This he does by: nodding the head, smiling, patting,
looking attentively at the responding pupil, teacher’s friendly movement
towards the pupil, writing pupil’s answer on the black boards etc. The teacher
encourages the pupils to participate maximally in the development of the
lesson.
iii.
Extra verbal Reinforcement.
Extra verbal reinforcers fall between positive verbal and
non-verbal reinforcers. It is the use of extra-verbal
cues, like “um”, “wow”, “aha” etc. to encourage pupils.
iv.
Negative Verbal Reinforcement.
The teacher gives comments on the incorrect or
partially incorrect response by telling that the pupil’s response is incorrect
or words like wrong, incorrect, no, stop
it or making sarcastic remarks like “idiots”,
“stupid” etc. Such behaviour of the teacher discourages pupil-participation and
should be avoided maximum.
v.
Negative Non-Verbal Reinforcement.
The teacher shows his
disapproval without using words. This involves, frowning, staring, and looking
angrily at the responding pupil, when he gives wrong response. This type of
behaviour of the teacher creates fear in the minds of the pupil and decreases
pupil-participation.
II.
Undesirable Behaviours
i.
Wrong Use of Reinforcement.
Certain teachers do not attempt
reinforcement in situations that warrant it. This is likely to discourage
pupils. Such teachers are really losing an opportunity to inspire pupils for
active participation in the learning process. It is
also termed as denial of reinforcement. And some teachers use the reinforcers
when it is not needed. It is only the proper and right use of the possible
reinforcers that brings encouraging results. The following use of reinforcers
should be avoided by the teacher.
·
Using reinforcers when not needed.
·
Not using reinforcers when needed.
·
Using the reinforcing the less and
excess amount than needed.
·
Encouraging or reinforcing only a
few responding pupils.
ii.
Inappropriate Use of Reinforcement.
Reinforces
should be wisely selected by teachers. It should suit the nature of the
response. Inappropriate use will lesser its effect. This is the situation when the teacher does not encourage
the pupil with respect to quality of his response. The teacher uses same type
of comment for every response.
7. SKILL OF FLUENCY
IN QUESTIONING
A good
teacher can make the students think and learn themselves through meaningful
questions. Questioning is a very important technique which every teacher should
know thoroughly. Questions are used to help students to recall facts, exercise
their reasoning ability. It is a logical procedure of problem solving. The
teacher can encourage the learners to seek more than one answer for a question.
The teacher uses questioning to achieve learning objectives and to assess
students’ understanding. It’s a critical
skill that can be used in any subject and any grade.
Meaningful questioning:
·
helps the students display/test
their knowledge
·
elicits desired information from
students
·
develops subject matter in the class
·
enables students to analyze problems
related to the topic being taught
·
enables students to apply their
knowledge to a specific new situation
·
helps the students to evaluate for
themselves their understanding of the concepts
·
motivates students to participate in
the teaching learning process
Fluency
in questioning means the rate of meaningful questions put per unit time. Those
questions are meaningful which have proper (i) structure, (ii) process and
(iii) Product.
Components of the Skill of fluency in
questioning
i.
Structure
A
technique of formulation of questions the content and language used is
important. Content means subject matter and language part refers to -
a. Grammatically correct: use grammar correct, unambiguous and
simple language.
b. Relevancy: Questions which are not related to
content being taught is irrelevant. So it should be related to the topic being
discussed and suitable to the mental level of student.
c. Specificity: Specific to content and should
call for single answer. It should not be general in nature.
d.
Clarity: in terms of content
and language. It increases fluency.
e.
Conciseness: refers to the minimal but essential length of question
should be direct and straight forward.
f. Variety: • Low
order questions: Recall or recognition type questions
Example:
what is the past participle form of ‘write’? List the names……. Define………. State
the ………..
• High
order questions: stimulate higher levels of thinking.
Require
the use of higher intellectual skills
Example: How or Why type questions.
(Asking ‘What colours make up a
rainbow?' is an observational question, asking ‘Why are rainbows important?' is
a higher question.)
ii.
Process
Process of formulating and asking question
has more than one aspect-
a. Speed: a teacher should not be too slow
or too fast while asking questions to the pupils.
b. Voice: voice is God’s gift. A clear and pleasing voice of a
teacher sustains students’ interest in the class. A teacher must put the
questions in a pleasant tone, in a friendly manner and in clear loud voice. It should
be audible and clear to the entire class.
e. Pause: defined as the time or the period of silence given by the
teacher just after delivery of question.
A teacher should give a short pause after the question, so that the
pupils can understand it. Students will get sufficient time to think and answer.
f. Reinforcement: a teacher has to encourage correct responses and
discourage in correct responses.
iii.Product
The term ‘Product’ refers to pupils’
response. Sometimes the students do not give any response. Some of the reasons
for this are:
·
Higher
order questions or not intelligent to
understand the question
·
Inattentiveness
due to the lack of interest
·
Lack
of previous knowledge
·
Lack
of rapport between pupils and teacher
Some
hints to develop well-structured questions are,
The
teacher maximum try not to repeat his/her questions unnecessarily. Questions
repeated in different ways confuse the pupils. They are likely to develop a
habit of waiting for the teacher to repeat the questions second or third time.
This hinders the pupils thinking ability and they may not give correct
response.
As far as possible:
·
Avoid Yes/No type question
Though it develops fluency, it
encourages guess work and do not stimulate deep thinking.
·
Avoid echo questions or suggestive questions
These questions are based on
concepts or facts just taught or reproduce the facts just taught. They do not
have useful purpose to encourage thinking. Example: Teacher: India is a big
democratic nation. It has many states. Delhi is the capital of India. Now tell
me what is the capital of India? Pupil: Delhi is the capital of India. Pupil is
asked to repeat the fact immediately after it is told.
·
Avoid rhetorical questions
These are statements with
interrogative phrases. Usually a teacher puts this type of questions to give emphasize
over a particular point.
8.
SKILL OF
ACHIEVING CLOSURE
Achieving closure is very much similar to the
stage known as recapitulation in Herbartian steps. It is a stage where new
knowledge is associated with the old knowledge and the new knowledge acquired
is applied in various situations. This skill is complementary to set induction. It is
attained when major purposes, principles and constructs of a lesson or a
portion of the lesson are judged to have been learnt and the pupils are able to
relate new knowledge with the best. It is more than quick summary of the
portions covered. Teacher can use closure by drawing attention to the major points
accomplished up to that point.
By
this a teacher gets an opportunity to evaluate the extent of realization of the
objectives and the effectiveness of learning experience provided by the
teacher. If the main points covered during the lesson are not synthesised into
a meaningful whole, it will be difficult for the teacher to introduce a new
unit.
From
the pupils’ point of view they will not be able to structure a meaningful
cognitive whole of their learning without a closure. They won’t be able to
apply the knowledge to new situations. They will be in confusion in the absence
of closure of each unit. They will not be aware of the end of an important
teaching point.
Components of the Skill of Achieving Closure
i.
Consolidation
of major points: consolidation of major points may be
done either by the teacher or the students. Here teacher can ask questions to
make students consolidate the major points.
This may be done several times based on
the points that have been discussed during the class.
ii.
Application of
the new knowledge: teacher provides opportunity for the
pupils to apply the new knowledge to various present situations or new
situations.
iii.
Linking past
knowledge with the present:
here students get an opportunity to link their new knowledge with their
previous knowledge.
iv.
Linking the
present knowledge with the future: here students link
their new knowledge with their future learning.
9.
SKILL OF ILLUSTRATING WITH EXAMPLES
Teachers may feel that some abstract ideas
or concepts are very difficult to teach. In spite of their best efforts of
explaining the concepts, the teachers are unable to convey the true sense and
meaning of the concepts. This difficulty of the teacher can be solved easily if
they are able to master the skill of illustrating with examples.
Components of Skill of Illustrating with Examples
i.
Formulating Simple Example.
- Formulating Relevant Example.
- Formulating Interesting Example.
- Using Appropriate Media for Example.
- Using Examples by Inductive-Deductive Approach.
i.
Formulating Simple Example
A simple example is one
which is related to the previous knowledge of pupils. It should be according to
the age level, grade level and the background of pupils.
ii.
Formulating Relevant Example
An example is said to be
relevant to the concept, when the concept or the rule can be applied to it.
This means to say that the rule is explained by the example. It should help to
understand the concept well.
iii.
Formulating Interesting Example
An example is
interesting if it can arouse curiosity and interest of pupils. This can be
judged by the attending behaviour of students. If the pupils keenly attend to
the example, it is really interesting.
iv.
Using Appropriate Media for Examples
Examples are conveyed to
the pupils through some particular media. The decision about the nature of
media whether it is verbal or non-verbal depends on the nature of concept.
Storytelling, analogy, concrete objects, maps, pictures, models, experimental
demonstration etc. are some examples of media that a teacher can use to illustrate
examples. Appropriateness of media refers to its suitability to age level,
grade level, maturity and to the unit taught.
v.
Using Examples by Inductive-Deductive Approach
This involves the
teacher giving examples relating to the concept or rule to clarify it. The
pupils on the basis of the examples given formulate the rule. After this the
teacher asks the pupils to give examples to test whether the pupils have
rightly understood the concept or not. It involves
·
understanding the
concept
·
applying the understood
concept
If you touch Harmonium when it is being played? What do you
feel?(Inductive Approach)
Can you give another example to show that vibrating bodies produce
sound? (Deductive Approach)
10.
SKILL OF
CLASS ROOM MANAGEMENT
Teachers must be aware
that learning is effective if the children actively participate in the learning
activities of the class. The main purpose of the skill is to achieve the
maximum participation of pupils in the development of the lesson.
Components of Skill of Classroom Management
i.
Calling pupils by their names.
- Making Norms of classroom behaviours.
- Giving clear Directions.
- Ensuring sufficient work for each child.
- Keeping pupils in Eye Span.
- Shifting from one Activity to another Activity smoothly.
- Recognizing and Reinforcing Attending Behaviour of Pupils.
viii.Checking Inappropriate Behaviour of
Pupils.
i.
Calling by Pupils by Their Names
Pupils are attentive
when they are called by their names by the teacher. Though this seems to be
simple but has great significance in obtaining pupil participation. Good pupil
participation controls the learning activities.
ii.
Making Norms of Class Room Behaviour
This includes the pinpointed instruction of the
teacher to the pupils:
a. Stand up and answer when you are asked question.
b.
Raise hands if you know
answer to the question.
c.
Never give group
response.
d.
Listen to the teacher
attentively when the teacher is teaching.
iii.
Giving Clear Directions
Here the teacher givers
clear directions to the pupils to follow the norms of the class room behaviour.
They should not be engaged in any other activity when the teacher is teaching.
The directions provide good classroom management.
iv.
Ensuring Sufficient Work for Each Child
The teacher should allot
work to each child keeping in view the individual differences. This act of the
teacher will prepare each child for active pupil-participation.
v.
Keeping Pupils in Eye Span
After teaching the
concept the teacher should check the effects of his teaching. We may assign
some activity like drawing the diagram and leveling its parts. The teacher
should go to each pupil to check his/her work. If it is needed he/she should
give instruction for further improvement.
vi.
Shifting from one Teaching Activity to the other Smoothly
When teaching some
concept in the class the teacher is engaged in many academic activities such as
explaining, illustrating, questioning, he/she should smoothly change from one
activity to another, when teaching to draw the circle, he/she should ask his
pupils to draw circle in their note books. This change in the teacher’s
behaviour is the shift one activity to other. Before shifting activity the
teacher must ensure himself that the concept under study has been followed by
the pupils.
vii.
Recognizing and Reinforcing Attending Behaviour
In order to ensure
attending behaviour of pupils the teacher should use verbal and non-verbal
smiling nodding head for the correct response of the pupil. This type of the
behaviour of the teacher is very effective to stimulate classroom learning environment.
viii.
Checking Inappropriate Behaviour Immediately
This
involves that if the pupil is not behaving properly in the learning situation or
may not be attentive mentally, he/she should be immediately checked. He/she
should be directed to behave properly to the needs of situation. This will
increase the attending behaviour of the pupil leading him/her to better managem
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