Quiz0103-4.docx

**\ 3.5. Psychology of Instruction** The teacher's very important decision is how to present new material often called lesson planning or motivation. There are three approaches to developing instructional strategies. - The first is Ausubel's use of *advance organizers* or [introductory state...

**\ 3.5. Psychology of Instruction** The teacher's very important decision is how to present new material often called lesson planning or motivation. There are three approaches to developing instructional strategies. - The first is Ausubel's use of *advance organizers* or [introductory statements or events] that help prepare students for new learning and demonstrate a relationship between what they will learn and a broader concept or idea. - Secondly, teachers can use Brunner's model of discovery learning in which teachers present problems in ways that encourage students to investigate and discover the solution. - Thirdly, teachers can use Gagne's model of events with a lesson. A. Ausubel's meaningful verbal learning Ausubel (1960, 1977) advocated the use of active interaction between teachers and students in what he called meaningful verbal learning. This model stresses expository teaching in which teachers present materials in an explicit and fully organized manner; thus allowing students to receive a veil ordered set of ideas in an efficient way. The model depends on deductive reasoning in which people first learn principles and then learn to recognize specific instances of those principles. This approach assumes that people learn best when they understand general concepts and proceed deductively from rules or principles to examples. Ausubel's meaningful verbal learning relies heavily on dynamic verbal interaction between teachers and students. He starts with an advance organizer to set the scene for subsequent teaching and learning and then develops a series of steps that the expository teacher uses to instruct. B. Brunner's discovery model (discovery learning) Bruner's (1966) model of instruction assumes that students learn best when they discover information and concepts on their own. In this model, students use inductive reasoning to derive principles underlying a set of examples. For example, a teacher may describe to students the invention of the light bulb, the camera and the gramophone and contrast these inventions with discoveries (e.g. electric, nuclear fusion and gravity). The students may then derive for themselves what constitutes an invention and how it differs from discovery. In discovery learning, students discover the basic concept or predominant principle by engaging in activities that demonstrate the concept. Bruner believes that in this way students gain their knowledge when they discover themselves and that, giving the students responsibility for their own learning, increases their motivation to learn. **(i) Problem solving** Discovery learning begins with presentation of the problem. Teachers then guide the students through a problem solving process to generate their own questions or hypotheses. Students then test the hypotheses and draw conclusions from the experimentation. Discovery learning focuses on process not product. The teacher stimulates inquiry and provides examples that students examine or manipulate to arrive at a general idea or principle. **(ii) Guided discovery** In this approach the teacher gives students some direction to help them avoid blind alleys. They ask stimulating questions or pose dilemmas that need solutions, furnish appropriate and interesting materials, and encourage students to generate and test hypotheses. **C. Gagne's model** Gagne (Gagne and Driscoll, 1988) developed a model based on information processing theory that views instruction in terms of nine sequential events viz: 1. Gain students attention 2. Provide students with the goals or objectives of the lesson 3. Retrieve prior knowledge 4. Present stimulus material 5. Guide learning 6. Elicit students' responses 7. Provide feedback 8. Assess performances 9. Enhance retention and transfer **3.6 Assessment of Learning Outcomes** **3.6.1 Assessment** Assessment refers to interpretations of one or more measurements; measurement refers to the expression of a concept in numerical terms while evaluation refers to judgments in terms of value. Measurement devices should be reliable i.e can be measured with consistency. Measurement can b done using the test-retest method, the equivalent forms method or the split half method. The teacher has to establish the achievement of his objectives during and after his lessons. The most useful instruments he employs to his obvious advantage is the test whose qualities have been mentioned above. A test must have validity which refers to the extent to which test scores permit one to draw appropriate, meaningful and useful inference. The different types of validity include content validity, criterion-related validity and construct validity. Standardized tests are those in which administration and scoring procedures are held constant. Students' test scores often fall on the normal (or bell-shaped) curve. On this curve, the mean, the median and the mode are equal. Standard scores such as z-scores, t-scores or NCE scores, allow a comparison of a student's test scores in different subjects. Norm-referenced tests compare a student's performance to that of others; while criterion referenced tests determine a student's mastery of specific skills. Percentiles indicate the percentage of people, in the morning sample scoring below a specific score. Students' evaluation may be in the form of placement evaluation, formative evaluation, summative evaluation or diagnostic evaluation. When constructing tests, teachers should carefully plan content and format of the test (blueprint). The various test types (ie. essay, short answer, true/false, multiple choice or matching) have pros and cons and teachers can take steps to maximize and measure their effectiveness. All tests contain a degree of cultural bias; it is therefore important to minimize the impact of cultural bias in test. Other assessment techniques include performance-based assessment and portfolio assessment. Performance based assessment refers to assessment in which student's performance on an actual task (such as carrying out a scientific experiment) is assessed; authentic assessment refers to the use of tasks that occur in real life settings. Portfolio assessment refers to the use of collections of students' works to assess their performance. Portfolio may contain the best work, typical work or work that has been revised and improved.