Reflection: 17 Principles of
effective instruction on p. 19 of the reading: Rosenshein, B. (2012) I Practice
in My Classroom
Author: Santosh
Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan
Teaching becomes effective if the
instructional practices in the classroom are effective. Effective planning of
strategies and techniques is required for effective instruction. Good
strategies employed while teaching would engage students intellectually to
discover their knowledge through collaborative activities because it provokes
their thoughts to create new knowledge.
From the 17 principles of effective
instruction on p. 19 of Rosenshine (2012), I use all the principles during teaching
in the classroom except the principle, "Use more time to provide
explanations." I am a teacher who believes that success happens if you make
the students "learn by doing." I go inside the classroom as a
facilitator and a guide at all times. Mostly, my class is found to be very
interactive and lively because my role in the classroom is just to provide my
students with directions for learning. Of course, sometimes I prompt, provide
hints, and help in understanding some concepts. For instance, if I use more
time to explain the content, I believe that I am making them dependent on me to
learn. More than teaching the content, I engage my students in contextualizing
the context so that they learn something out of the box while forming new
knowledge. It leads to the learning of foundational skills that are focused on
concrete applications of knowledge based on their interest and they will be
able to retain the knowledge gained for a longer period (Gavilan College,
n.d.). For this purpose, I let them research, discuss, collaborate, and take a
role in sharing their findings. It enables them to learn from it.
Other than delivering the material and
spending extra time doing so, I constantly adhere to the other sixteen
guidelines in every class I teach. Because I believe it helps me link with the
material we will cover, I always start each class with a brief recap of the one
before. More than that, I also give importance to the students' prior
information because it plays a big part in helping them embrace the learning
and define their new knowledge. The students, on the other hand, usually find
it easier to understand the concept and analyze it for new meanings since I
always chunk the huge themes for them, which allows me to have a fluid flow in
the classroom. Chunking the content gives students hints and lessens their
cognitive load (Paulson, 2022). It can help students understand concepts at different
levels and help them retain knowledge (Ansrsource, 2021). I can restrict the
materials I should be giving them by doing this.
For any activities, I provide clear
instructions in detail and assure them that they understand it well before they
start their assigned tasks. I sometimes make them repeat the instructions given
to check their understanding. And I always make sure that my class is active
and interactive. Students are provided with a variety of activities and are
asked a variety of competency-based questions. This enables me to keep track of
their learning process as well as get to know them closely. Before making them
do the activity, I make sure that I always provide them with a sample
demonstration so that they get a clear understanding of what to do and what not
to do, after which they are made to make the presentation, and on-the-spot
feedback and suggestions are provided very systematically for improvement. If
necessary, I reteach sometimes if the understanding of the materials is not met.
In the end, the sharing of reflection and writing the reflection is the
compulsory activity that I follow after every lesson so that my students know
their strengths and weaknesses for future rectification and way forward. In
doing so, I mostly follow Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, which is proven
to be the most successful approach for the deeper learning process. Maybe
because of the practice I follow, my students are performing well at the
national level in my country and have also enabled me to achieve meritorious
promotion recently.
As of now, I have never faced any issues
in following those principles because I spend more time planning my lessons so
that they go well. Moreover, I go to my class not to teach my students the
content but to inspire them to learn the content by making meaning out of it.
And yes, I am doing it well.
References
Ansrsource. (2021). How to Chunk and
Sequence Content Most Effectively for Online Delivery. https://ansrsource.com/how-to-chunk-and-sequence-content-most-effectively-for-online-delivery/
Gavilan College. (n.d.). Contextualized
Teaching and Learning. https://www.gavilan.edu/staff/context_teach.php
Paulson, E. (2022). Content Chunking.
https://tlconestoga.ca/content-chunking/
Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of instruction: Research-based
strategies that all teachers should know.
https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf
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