AIOU Solved Assignment 1 and 2 Code 8601 Autumn and Spring

AIOU B. Ed General Methods of Teaching (8601) | Solved Assignment 1. 
Q.1 
(i) Define teaching and elaborate old and new aspects of teaching.
(ii) Highlight the principles of effective teaching.
Answer
(i) Define teaching and elaborate old and new aspects of teaching.
Concept of teaching
When a person imparts information or skills to another, it is common to describe the action as teaching. Imparting may mean sharing experiences or communicating information, for instance, lectures. Teaching is regarded as both an art or science. As an art, it lays stress on the imaginative and artistic abilities of the teacher in creating a worthwhile situation in the classroom to enable students to learn. As a science, it sheds light on the logical, mechanical, or procedural steps to be followed to attain an effective achievement of goals. 
Teaching is an activity aimed at bringing about meaningful learning through a method that is morally and pedagogically acceptable. It involves a teacher, a learner, content in form of knowledge, facts , information, and skill to impart a deliberate intention on the part of the learners to learn, and finally, a method that respects the learners’ cognitive integrity and freedom of choice. It is one of the most important instruments of education and its special function is to impart understanding and skill among the students. The main function of teaching is to make learning effective. The learning process would get completed as a result of teaching. So, teaching and learning are very closely related. 
Teaching is a process in which one individual teaches or instructs another individual. Teaching is considered as the act of imparting instructions to the learners in the classroom situation. It is watching systematically. Dewey:- considers it as a manipulation of the situation, where the learner will acquire skills and insight with his own initiation. In this process, the teachers take their students from a level of unknown to a level of understanding the new concepts. So a teacher contributes to the learning environment by increasing the interest of the students.
 
Alton-Lee has listed ten characteristics of quality teaching. His ten-point model covers the following areas: 
1. A focus on student achievement. 
2. Pedagogical practices that create caring, inclusive and cohesive learning communities. 
3. Effective links between school and the cultural context of the school. 
4. Quality teaching is responsive to student learning processes. 
5. Learning opportunities are effective and sufficient. 
6. Multiple tasks and contexts support learning cycles. 
7. Curriculum goals are effectively aligned. 
8. Pedagogy scaffolds feedback on students' task engagement. 
9. Pedagogy promotes learning orientations, student self-regulation, metacognitive strategies, and thoughtful student discourse. 
10. Teachers and students engage constructively in goal-oriented assessment 
 
Definitions of Teaching
 
Different educationists hold different ideas regarding the concept of teaching. 
“Teaching is intimate contact between a more mature personality and a less mature one which is designed to further the education of the latter”. Morrison (1934).  Dewey (1934) expressed this concept of teaching by an equation. “Teaching is learning as selling is to buying”. In the words of John Brubacher (1939), “Teaching is arrangement and manipulation of a situation in which there are gaps or obstructions which an individual will seek to overcome and from which he will learn in the course of doing so”. B.O. Smith defined teaching as “Teaching is a system of actions intended to induce learning”. According to Gage (1963), “Teaching is a form of interpersonal influence aimed at changing the behavior potential of another person”. Smith in 1963 further extended the definition of teaching and said Teaching is a system of actions involving an agent, an end in view, and a situation including two sets of factors those over which the agent has no control (class size, characteristics of pupils, physical facilities, etc.) and those which he can modify (such as techniques and strategies of teaching. 
 
Old and New Aspects of Teaching: 
Long ago a Russian psychologist, L. S. Vygotsky’s (1956) ideas affected the world's understanding of teaching, learning, and cognitive development. Many researchers of different nations have now elaborated, corrected, and developed the concept of teaching differently. Much of this work was focused on the "natural teaching" of home and community. It is now accepted that before the children enter school, they could be "taught" cognitive and linguistic skills. Teaching of these skills is done in everyday interactions of domestic life by setting goal directed activities of daily life. The new concept of teaching consists of more capable family and friends assisting children to do things which the children cannot do alone.
According to Vygotsky’s theory, the developmental level of a child is identified by the ability of the child to do work alone. On the other hand the child’s ability to do work with The assistance of anyone was called by Vygotsky the "zone of proximal development”.
Teaching may be defined in the proximal zone. In Vygotskian terms, teaching is good only when it "awakens and rouses to life those functions which are in a stage of maturing, which lie in the zone of proximal development" (Vygotsky, 1956, p. 278; quoted in Wertsch & Stone, 1985). Therefore a general definition of teaching was derived from this as: Teaching consists of assisting performance through a child’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). But teaching must be redefined as assisted performance; teaching occurs when performance is achieved with assisting the students.
The new concept of teaching consists of more capable family and friends assisting children to do things that the children cannot do alone. According to Vygotsky’s theory, the developmental level of a child is identified by the ability of the child to do work alone. On the other hand, the child’s ability to do work with the assistance of anyone was called by Vygotsky the "zone of proximal development”.

Comparison between old and new aspects of teaching:
In the past teachers emphasized rote learning and immediate responses. there were no opportunities for give-and-take between a teacher and learning students. The student role was passive. Very few teachers make efforts to adapt instruction to individual differences. The other modern way/means for effective teaching is "scripts" (scripted teaching). It involves the traditional student-teacher interaction setup. It uses predesigned teacher talk and predicts student responses. It offers more than the recitation script for learning. The 
(ii) Highlight the principles of effective teaching.
THE CONCEPT OF EFFECTIVE TEACHING
It is universally recognized that the teacher is the key person in an education system and the whole system of education revolves around him/her. So effective teaching plays an important role in the development of an individual and community. The concept of effective teaching has emerged out as one of
the component that contributes a large amount in improving learning.
Interaction in the classroom is often dominated by the teacher. The quality of their teaching is an important factor in promoting effective learning in schools.
Effective teaching involves talking to the learners about their learning and listening to them. 
According to Ilukena, A.(1998) teachers are the persons who can bring a difference in educational practices. St. Augustine quoted in Fisher, (1992) says, “I learned not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me.”
Being important persons of the teaching and learning process, effective teachers must be highly competent in planning and organizing instruction as well as in managing in the classroom environment, if they want their students to be academically successful and genuinely excited about the work that they do. 
Principles of Effective Teaching 
Richard T. Walls (1999) makes links between the "process" of teaching and the "student learning" (the product) in "Four Aces of Effective Teaching". 
The Four Aces of Effective Teaching are
Ace 1 Outcomes 
let students know where they are going and why 
drive hard toward clear goals 
Ace 2 Clarity 
make the contact as clear and simple as possible 
build on what students already know
Ace 3 Engagement 
Don’t lecture for more than 30 minutes before running an activity that involves all students 
People learn what they DO, so have students DO everything that you want them to learn 
Ace 4 Enthusiasm 
If you hate to teach it, your students will hate to learn it 
The only key to motivation is success
Explanation of The Four Aces of Effective Teaching 
According to Walls (1999), student learning is better, faster, and/or more long-lasting when teachers play the following four principles: 
1: Outcomes 
The outcomes enable students to focus their attention on clear learning goals. These outcomes inform students of where they are going and how they will get there. Outcomes also provide the teacher a framework for designing and delivering the course content. Outcomes enable teachers to assess student learning as a measure of their own instructional effectiveness. 
2: Engagement 
This principle suggests that students learn by doing. Teachers must create an educational environment that offers students the opportunity to practice every concept that they are learning. Effective teachers use those instructional strategies that engage students throughout the lesson. 
3: Enthusiasm 
The principle of the high level of enthusiasm reflects the teacher's professional competence and confidence, the teacher’s subject matter knowledge, and instructional experience. Teachers establish a positive learning environment and show their enthusiasm for the subject matter. They use student’s names, reinforce student participation during class, and keep moving among the students. With the knowledge of the stated principles, the perspectives teachers must have to apply different approaches to make their teaching more effective. 
4: Clarity 
Effective teachers provide explanations and give details of the course concepts and content. If students DO NOT LEARN, it means the methods of delivery may lack the required degree of clarity. So the teacher should make the message clear from alternate perspectives to alternate senses. The effective instructional practice of the teacher should afford students the opportunity to make connections between the new material and the concepts that they have already learned.