Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Se. M. Ed, Ph.D
Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India
The best substitute for a theory of teaching is a model of teaching. Teaching models merely suggest how various teaching and learning conditions are interrelated. In many fields models are prototypes of theories because they make possible our early conceptualization and study of phenomena. Unlike theories, in their early state of development models lack factual support. Evantually useful models give way to empirically supported theories.
A Basic Teaching Model
Robert Glaser (1962) has developed a stripped-down teaching model which, with modifications, is the basic teaching model. The basic teaching model divides the teaching process into four components or parts. It will be useful in several ways. It helps to organize the great body of facts, concepts and principles which makes up
The above diagram is a diagram of basic teaching model. The four parts of the model represent the basic divisions. Box A denotes Instructional objectives, Box B includes Entering behavior, Box C deals with instructional procedure, and finally Box D relates to performance assessment. The diagram referred above applies to the four components of the basic teaching model, with its connecting arrows shows only the major sequence of events in the instructional process, it is possible to add many more connecting lines. Lines with connect components later in the sequence with earlier ones are called FEEDBACK LOOPS .The three feedback loops as shown in the diagram shown below for example, connect performance assessment with each of the earlier components of the model.
Instructional objectives
Instructional objectives are those the student should attain upon completion of a segment of instruction. In theory, objectives can vary in scope and character. Instructional procedures ,describe the teaching process; most decisions a teacher makes are on these procedures. Proper management of this component results in those changes I student behavior which we call learning or achievement. Procedures must vary with the instructional objectives.
One way to define instructional objectives is to identify the end product of instruction in terms of observable performance. The way to determine whether or not a student has learned something is to observe the outcome of his behavior. The outcome has been conventionally referred to as behavioral objectives. It is more precise to refer to these end products of instruction as terminal performances. In most schools these are verbal performances or motor skills.
Entering behavior
Entering behavior describes the student level before the instruction begins. It refers to what the student has previously learned, his intellectual ability and development, his motivational state, and certain social and cultural determinants of his learning ability. Entering behavior is a more precise term than its usual alternatives—human ability, individual differences, and readiness. This precision may come at the price of seeing the student as less complex, less able, and less experienced than he may in fact be. Schools tend to define entering behavior in terms of the traditions curriculum rather than in terms of student ability, experience, and interest. A student with the more abstractive ability and interest of the mathematician, therefore, may be viewed as having a higher level entering behavior than that of a student whose major interest and ability are in creating the visual, geometric forms of modern painting and sculpture. Although the model gives priority to the selection of instrumental objectives over the assessment of entering behavior, in practices these two components must interact. Depending on the requirement of the instructional situations, particularly on the entering behavior of the student, the classroom of the future will provide for more or less personal contact than the conventional classroom does now. Accordingly, the model implies a greater emphasis on teacher competence than on personal charisma without, of course, objecting to a useful combination of the two.
More simply, entering behavior describes the present status of the student’s knowledge and skill in reference to a future status the teacher wants him to attain. Entering behavior, therefore, is where the instruction must always begin.Terminal behavior is where the instruction concludes.. This way the teaching can be described as getting the student from where he is to where we would like him to be- as moving from entering to terminal behavior. Together descriptions of entering and terminal behavior define the limits of instructional responsibility for each degree of teaching.
Instructional Procedures
Instructional procedures describe the teaching process; most decisions a teacher makes are on these procedures. Proper management of this component results in those changes in student behavior which we call learning or achievement. Procedures must vary with the instructional objectives. Generally instructional procedures describe procedures for teaching skills, language, concepts, principles, and problem solving.
Performance assessment
Performance assessment is the process of measuring the student’s auxiliary and terminal performances during and at the end of instruction. Auxiliary performances are behaviors which must be acquired at the lower levels of a learning structure before the terminal performances are acquired at the higher levels. In the teaching of a principle, for example, the teacher must determine whether the student has acquired the component concepts, as auxiliary performances, before proceeding with the instruction which arranges these concepts in the proper relationship for the learning of the principle. Terminal performances, you already know, refer to the end products of instruction—usually verbal performances’ the emphasis on the measurement of both auxiliary and terminal performances means that you should not think of performance assessment as occurring only at the end of a unit or a course. The assessment can occur whenever the teacher or student needs information about the adequacy of the student’s present learning for subsequent instruction.
Performance assessment consists of tests and observations used to determine how well the student has achieved the instructional objectives. If performance assessment indicates that the student has fallen short of mastery or some lesser standard of achievement, one or all the preceding components of the basic teaching model may require adjustment. The feedback loops show how the information provided by performance assessment feeds back to each component.
The personality of the teacher is not the central element in the present conception of the teaching process. The model indicates that teaching includes a broad range of decision and practice- much of which requires little or no personal contact between teacher and student. The widespread use of technological devices, team teaching, and non-graded instruction will definitely modify the traditional nature of the personal contact between teacher and student. Depending on the requirement of the instructional situations, particularly on the entering behavior of the student, the classroom of the future will provide for more or less personal contact than the conventional classroom does now. Accordingly, the model implies a greater emphasis on teacher competence than on personal charisma without, of course, objecting to a useful combination of the two.