Teaching and Learning Theories

Teaching is about using various approaches and activities to help learners gain the skills and understanding they need for a particular reason e.g. to gain a qualification or to perform a particular job role.

You will teach, and your learners will learn.

Learning is about gaining and using new knowledge to demonstrate a change. This change might relate to the performance of a skill, the demonstration of understanding and/or a change in behaviour and attitudes. The teacher is then able to assess the progress and achievement which the learners are making.

However, it’s not about you, it’s about your learners and the learning which is taking place. You can teach all you like but if your learners don’t learn anything, the process is meaningless.

Using different teaching and learning approaches and activities will help learning to take place, and they should include using technology wherever possible.

Rosenshines Principles of instruction

Rosenshine started with 6 principles of instruction and since beginning he has expanded this to a list if 17.

We can generalise the teaching approaches into 5 different categories.

Constructivist

Constructivism is the theory that says learners construct knowledge rather than just passively take in information. As people experience the world and reflect upon those experiences, they build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge (schemas).

Collaborative

A collaborative (or cooperative) learning approach involves pupils working together on activities or learning tasks in a group small enough to ensure that everyone participates. Pupils in the group may work on separate tasks contributing to a common overall outcome, or work together on a shared task.

Integrative

Integrative learning is an approach where the learner brings together prior knowledge and experiences to support new knowledge and experiences. By doing this, learners draw on their skills and apply them to new experiences at a more complex level.

Reflective

Reflective teaching involves examining one's underlying beliefs about teaching and learning and one's alignment with actual classroom practice before, during and after a course is taught. When teaching reflectively, instructors think critically about their teaching and look for evidence of effective teaching.

inquiry based learning

Inquiry-based learning (also spelled as enquiry-based learning in British English) is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios. It contrasts with traditional education, which generally relies on the teacher presenting facts and their own knowledge about the subject.

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