Guiding principles in the Selection and Use of Teaching Strategies

Guiding Principles in the Selection and

Use of Teaching Strategies

Prepared by: Mary Jane T. HugoBSE III- General Science

Research findings cited by Patricia Wolfe in her book Brain Matters: Translating Research Into Action (2001). Research findings about brain (Wolfe, 2001):1. Without rehearsal or constant attention, information remains in working memory for only about 15 to 20 seconds.

7. An integrated approach incorporates successful, research- based and brain-

based instructional strategies

2. Learning is a process of building neural networks. This network is formed through concrete experience, representational or symbolic learning, and abstract learning. The three levels of learning are concrete, symbolic, and abstract.

Concrete LevelYou see a small, furry, four-legged animal and your father tells you it is an animal called dog.

Symbolic Level• If you are older and your parents no longer take you to

the zoo , you have your way of expanding the neural network of animals. Later you see pictures of animals in a book that your mother reads to you. You quickly match the name of the animal to its picture. Your repeated exposure to the animals book can make the more exotic animals much more meaningful than if you have never visited the zoo.

Abstract level• If you are older and your parents no

longer take you to the zoo or buy you a picture books, what is your way of expanding the neural network of animals? It’s never seen, whether real or imaginary.

3. Our brains have difficulty comprehending very large numbers

because we have nothing in our experience to “hook” them to.

4. The eyes contain nearly 70 percent of the body’s sensory receptors and send millions of signals every second along the optic nerves to the visual processing of the brain.

5. There is little doubt that when information is embedded in music or rhyme, its recall is easier than when it is prose.

Example: If you are asked to write the Pambansang Awit, I bet, you have to sing the song in order to remember the lyrics.

Brain-Based Strategies

1.Involving students in real-life or authentic problem solving.

2.Using projects to increase meaning and motivation.

3.Simulations and role plays as meaning makers.

4. Classroom strategies using visual processing. Visuals are powerful aids in retention as well as understanding.

Graphic OrganizersExamples of graphics given by Robert J.

Marzano et al, (2001) in their book, Classroom Instruction that Works.

Network Tree

Analogy

Hierachical Topical Organizer

Hierachical Topical Organizer

Web Organizer

Episode Pattern Organizer

Concept Pattern Organizer

ConceptCharacteristic

Example

Example

Characteristic

Example

Characteristic

Example

Example

Example

Time-Sequence Pattern Organizer

Step 1: A dispute between two parties .Step 2: Both parties agree to have another person

listen to their arguments and make a decision for them.

Step 3: The court appoints an arbitrator.Step 4: In a setting much less formal than a trial,

the arbitrator listens to both sides.Step 5: The arbitrator makes his or her final

decision, and the parties must abide by it.

Process/Cause-Effect Pattern for Negotiation Organizer

Content can be more easily learned when they give it a tune or make it into rhyme

Adding movement to the music or rhyme provides an extra sensory input to the brain and probably enhances learning

Example: Teach Grade 1 pupils to end a sentence with a period with this song sang to the tune of Row, Row, Your Boat.

Stop. Stop, stop the wordsWith a little dot

Use a period at the endSo they’ll know to stop

5. Songs, jingles and raps

6. Mnemonic Strategies

Assist students in recalling important information.Examples: We remember the number of days of each mont by counting the peaks and valleys of our knuckles.StalaCtites are found on the ceiling while stalaGmites are found on the ground.

7. Writing Strategies

Make students write their own word problems and make them ask their classmates to solve them or by the use of incomplete statements.Examples are : I think calculators…; Factoring is easy if…; I am hard up in…;

8. Active Review

Instead of the teacher conducting the review, students are given their turn.

Review days are planned and organized to give enough time for students to prepare for the holding of a review. It also strengthens synapses.

9. Hands-on-activities

Concrete experience is one of the best ways to make long-lasting neural connections. Aristotle said: “What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.”

9. An integrated approach is also interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary.

For example, if you teach science, you interrelate and connect the topic care for environment with the kinds of pollution and global climatic changes within the science subject itself. This is interdisciplinary

If your content in science is used to teach grammar and values in the languages, this is multidisciplinary.

An instructional approach is also integrated when it includes the acquisition of

knowledge and skills as well as values.

10. There is no such thing as best teaching method. The best method is the one that works, the one that yields results.

There are factors to consider I the choice of teaching method. These factors are

(1) The instructional objective(2) The nature of the subject matter(3) The learners(4) The teacher (5) School policies