Summary: There are many interpersonal and psychic pieces of a rich and memorable teaching relationship; trust from the student, on the one hand, and the teacher's ability to see, and accept, the student as s/he is, on the other, are two such pieces. Those pieces are not, however, sufficient to elicit meaningful growth. The focus of this entry is upon the systematic elements of effective teaching relationships. As examples of the important systemic pieces are, for example: determining learning needs and desires, assigning learning for which the student is ready, evaluating mastery and developing learning activities.
Foundational Definition: Intentional
Teaching.
I want to be sure that you and I are talking about the same thing, i.e., intentional
teaching.. Teaching is a term used in so many circumstances and for so many
purposes that there is little likelihood that two strangers both using the word
'teach' will have much common understanding. So, while you needn't agree with
the definition I'm about to provide you'll at least know what I'm referring
to. You will better understand why I argue, as I do, for the particular set
of specific instructional activities listed later in this entry.
At the core of my definition of teaching is intention, that is, the intention to [facilitate, help, cause, be an influence, etc] move a student from one state of knowing to another, presumably more advanced, state of knowing. The definition reads as below:
If the teacher is going to hold her/himself responsible for a high per cent realization of this definition for each of a number of students then caring must be tranlated into effective and even efficient action, particularly in a context where a group of students are to engage with learning activities in the same environment.Teaching has occurred for a given student on a given learning when:
- the prospective teacher picks the learning for the student;
- the prospective teacher chooses and uses a strategy which s/he believes will bring about the desired learning in the student [sometimes this criterion is broken into two separate parts {chooses the strategy, uses the strategy};
- the student masters the learning, and
- the mastered learning is proven to be (or at least may be strongly argued to be) the source of the target learning.
Personalizing System and Assumptions Behind Components
| COMPONENT |
ACTION |
ASSUMPTION(S) |
|
Needs Determined |
Some negotiation / analysis with student or representative to determine the major issues of growth. |
1) The suitability of instruction for students relates ultimately to appropriate service and the student's will to learn. |
|
Terminal Objective(s) Derived From Needs |
Analytic processes are applied until a specified performance under specified conditions and as judged by specified criteria is listed as an agreed upon translation of need(s) |
2) Instruction that is effective at producing learning that meets needs can only be designed around a specific, concrete image of that performance which would meet needs. |
|
Sequences of Subobjectives Derived and Tests (Mastery and Screening) Made for All |
Analysis of the terminal objective into their component behaviors and prerequisite learnings. Each objective is assessed for mastery via stated procedures. Similarly, the subobjective upon which instruction is to start is determined by stated, yet different. procedures. |
3) An individual is only reach for a given learning when all prerequisite learnings have been mastered. 4) Necessary prerequisite learnings may be found via examination of the performance components of a given. |
| 5) Prerequisites to prerequisites may be determined in the same way. 6) Stated objective criteria for mastery of an instructional objective must be met before movement to a higher sequential objective. Otherwise, assumption '3' is violated. 7) A determination of appropriate entry into an instructional sequence may be created by combining items from the mastery tests for the separate instructional objectives. |
||
| COMPONENT |
ACTION |
ASSUMPTION(S) |
|
Screening Test Used to Determine Entry Point |
Students are administered screening test in group, or individually, to determine their starting instructional objective. |
See Assumption 7 8) Students will very rarely enter an instructional experience with the same skills. Students will end up having a wildly varied placement on any instructional sequence. |
|
Instruction for Appropriate Objective(s) Determined and Administered |
A means of instruction is determined for each objective. Those instructional strategies are organized in such a way as to be simultaneously administered to a group of students at the same time. |
9) Instructional objectives may be placed in categories that are, in general, taught in distinct ways. 10) Students react to learning in different ways. |
| 11) Students have different environmental (physical and social) conditional which are required for their learning. 12) Students will require individually different motivational strategies. These will vary from subject to subject. |
||
| COMPONENT |
ACTION |
ASSUMPTION(S) |
|
Monitor Progress |
Quantitative, frequent determination of degree of student progress on all instructional objectives. Instructional strategies are altered on a student-by-student basis based upon this analysis. |
13) Frequent objective checks of instructional effectiveness allow rapid adaptations of instruction to student needs. 14) Lack of responsiveness of instruction to student difficulties leads to accumulated frustration and resistance to instruction. |
|
Ascertain Mastery Through Use of Mastery Tests (H) Move on to Next Subobjective When Mastery Achieved and Stable |
When instructional activities for unit are finished and/or monitoring system indicates completion of objective, student's mastery is verified and s/he is assigned either to the next sub-objective or a new/different one that has characteristics more suited to need, positiong in sequence, learning style, etc. |
See Assumptions 3,6 |
|
Define Problem and Design and Implement an Appropriate Remediation Strategy (Getting Outside Help as Required (I)) |
When progress is not satisfactory, as indicated by either the monitoring system or failure on a mastery test, a problem is defined, an alternate approach is designed, and the alternate approach is carried out. |
15) Even the best designed instruction approach, i.e., one which best meets theoretical specifications for the given objective, will for some students, wipe out. Therefoe problem-solving processes must be a basic characteristic of personalizing instructional systems. |
The various pieces of our personalization plan have to be coordinated and sequenced.
The coordinated sequence will be as indicated in the diagram below:
