Dr. V.K. Maheshwari, Former Principal
K.L.D.A.V (P.G) College, Roorkee, India
Teaching is an integral part of the process of education. It is a system of actions intended to induce learning. Its special function is to impart knowledge, develop understanding and skill. In teaching an interaction occurs between the teacher and the students., by which the students are diverted towards the goal. Thus the sole element of teaching is the mutual relationship or the interaction between the teacher and the students which advances the students towards the goal.
Teaching can be considered as the art of assisting another to learn by providing the information and appropriate situations, conditions or activities .It is an intimate contact between a more mature personality and a less mature one which is designed to further the education of later. The process by which one person helps other in the achievement of knowledge, skill and aptitudes.
ANATOMY /STRUCTURE OF TEACHING:
Teaching consists of three variables , which operate in the phases of teaching and determines the nature and format of learning conditions or situations.
These are classified as under:
1. Teacher as an independent variable.
The teacher plans the role of independent variables. Students are dependent on him in the teaching process. The teacher does the planning, organizing, leading and controlling of teaching for bringing about behavioural changes in the students. He is free to perform various activities for providing learning experiences to students.
2. Students as dependent variable.The student is required to act according to the planning and organization of the teacher. Teaching activities of the teacher influence the learning of the students.
3. Content and methodology of presentation as intervening variables:The intervening variables lead to interaction between the teachers and the students. The content determines the mode of presentation-telling, showing and doing etc.
PHASES OF TEACHING
Teaching is a complex task. For performing this task, a systematic planning is needed. Teaching is to be considered in terms of various steps and the different steps constituting the process are called the phases of teaching.
The teaching can be divided into three phases:
PRE – ACTIVE PHASE OF TEACHING
In the pre-active phase of teaching, the planning of teaching is carried over. This phase includes all those activities which a teacher performs before class-room teaching or before entering the class- room.
Pre-teaching consists essentially of the planning of a lesson. The planning of lesson needs to be seen in broader terms, not merely the designing of a lesson plan. Planning includes identifying the objectives to be achieved in terms of students learning, the strategies and methods to be adopted, use of teaching aids and so on.
It is the planning phase of instructional act. The foundation of this phase is set through the establishment of some kind of goals or objectives, and discovering ways and means to achieve those objectives.
Planning is done for taking decision about the following aspects-
1) Selection of the content to be taught
2) organization of the content
3) Justification of the principles and maxims of teaching to be used
4) Selection of the appropriate of methods of teaching
5) Decision about the preparation and usage of evaluation tools.
Suggested activities in the Pre-active phase of teaching-
1. Determining goals / objectives: First of all, the teacher determines the teaching objectives which are then defined in terms of expected behavioral changes. Thus, he ascertains the teaching objectives and what changes he expects in the students by achieving those objectives. These objectives are determined according to the psychology of the pupils and needs of the school and society , In the form of entering behaviours of the pupils and in the form of terminal behaviours of the students.
2. Selection of the content to be taught: After fixing the teaching objectives, the teacher makes decisions about that content which is to be presented before the pupils and as a result he wants to bring the changes in their behaviours. This decision is taken by the teacher by considering o the following points-
• Level need and importance of the curriculum proposed by the teacher for the students.
• The expected terminal behaviour of the students
• Level and mode of motivation be used for the students
• Selection of appropriate instrument and methods the teacher should use to evaluate the knowledge related to the contant.
3. Sequencing the elements of content for presentation: After making selections regarding the contents to be presented to the students, the teacher arranges the elements of content in a logical and psychological manner, so that this arrangement of content may assist in transfer of learning.
4. Selection about the instructional methodology : After sequencing the contents, the teacher makes decisions regarding the proper methods and strategies by keeping in view the contents , entering behaviour and the level of the students.
5. How and when of teaching strategies: Decision-making regarding the teaching methods and strategies for presenting the sequenced contents to the students is not sufficient. So the teacher should also decide how and when he will make use of the previously selected method and strategy during the class-room teaching.
INTERACTIVE PHASE OF TEACHING
The second phase includes the execution of the plan, where learning experiences are provided to students through suitable modes.
As instruction is the complex process by which learners are provided with a deliberately designed environment to interact with, keeping in focus pre-specified objective of bringing about specific desirable changes. Whether instruction goes in a classroom, laboratory, outdoors or library, this environment is specifically designed by a teacher so that students interact with certain specific environmental stimuli, like natural components (outdoor), information from books, certain equipment (laboratory) etc. Learning is directed in pre-determined directions to achieie certain pre-specific goals. This does not, however, mean that, in the pre-determined environment no learning other than what a teacher has decided upon as instructiohal objectives does not take place. The variety of experiences that students go through with a teacher, among them- selves provide learning opportunities.
All those activities which are performed by a teacher after entering in a class are clubbed (to combine together) under inter-active phase of teaching. Generally these activities are concerned with the presentation and delivery of the content in a class. The teacher provides pupil verbal stimulation of various kinds, makes explanations, ask questions, listen to the student’s response and provide guidance.
The following activities are suggested for the inclusion in the inter-active phase of teaching-
1. Sizing up of the class: As the teacher enters the classroom, first of all he perceives the size of the class. He throws his eyes on all the pupils of the class in a few moments. He comes to know the pupils who can help him in his teaching and the pupils who can create a problem for him as a result of this perception.
In the same way, the studrnts can feel the personality of the teacher . Hence, at this stage, the teacher should look like a teacher. He should exhibit of course in a veiled manner all those characteristic which are supposed to be present in a good teacher. In nut-shell the teacher should appears as an efficient and impressive personality.
2. Knowing the learners: After having a feeling of class-size, the teacher makes efforts to know how much the new comers or pupils have previous knowledge. He tries to know the abilities , Interests and attitudes and academic background of learners.
The teacher starts teaching activities after diagnosing, by questioning regarding action and reaction: two types of activities are involved here in the teaching-
a. Initiation,
b. Response.
Both these activities are known as verbal interaction. Both these activities occur between the teacher and the students. In other words, when a teacher performs some activities, the student reacts or when students perform some activities, the teacher reacts .This way the inter-action in the teaching take place.
The teachers performs the following activities in order to analyze the nature of verbal and non-verbal inter-action of teaching activities-
a. Selection and presentation of stimuli.
b. Feedback and reinforcement.
c. Deployment of strategies.
a. Selection and presentation of stimuli: The motive or new knowledge is a process of
teaching. It can be verbal or non-verbal. The teacher should be aware of the motive which would prove effective and which would not be so for a particular teaching situation.
The teacher should select the appropriate stimulus as soon as the situation arises and an effort should be made to control the undesired activities to create the situation and for desired activities.
After selecting the stimuli, the teacher should present them before the students. The teacher should present that form of the stimulus which can motivate the students for learning. During such presentation of stimuli, the teacher should keep in mind the form context and order of the stimuli.
b. Feedback and reinforcement: Feedback or reinforcement is that condition which increases the possibility for accepting a particular response in future. In other words those conditions which increase the possibility of occurrence of a particular response are termed as feedback or reinforcement. These conditions may be of two types which are as follows-
• Positive reinforcement: These are the conditions which increase the possibility of recurrence of desired behavior or response.
• Negative response: These are the conditions in which the possibility of recurrence of the undesired behavior or response is decreased, such as punishment or reprimanding etc.
Reinforcement is used for three purposes. These are –
• For strengthening the response.
• For changing the response, and
• Modifying or correcting the response.
c. Deployment of strategies: The teaching activities are directly related to the learning conditions. Therefore, at the time of interaction the teacher produces such activities and conditions by the reinforcement strategies which effect the activities of the pupils.
The development of the teaching strategies turns the pupil-teacher interaction impressive. From the very moment, the teacher starts the teaching task and till the movement, the teacher starts the teaching task and till the movement that task goes on, the verbal and non-verbal behaviours of the pupils are controlled by the reinforcement strategies and cooperates in presenting the contents in an impressive way.
In the deployment of the teaching strategies, three areas should be considered. These are –
• Presentation of subject-matter,
• Levels of learning.
• Level or context of learners, their background, needs, motivation, attitudes, cooperation and opposition.
In the interactive stage, these activities are carried on not only by the teacher, but also carried on by the students. The students also feel about the teacher and diagnose his personality as a teacher. In order to be impressed themselves and to improve the teaching, they deploy the various strategies by selecting the different stimuli.
Operations at the interactive phase
We can present the activities of the interaction through the following chart-
Teacher Student
P———D——–A P———D——–A
(Perceptual)(Diagnostic)(Achievement) (Perceptual)(Diagnostic)(Achievement)
This second phase of teaching is concerned with the implementation and carrying out what has been planned or decided at the planning stage.It is the stage for actual teaching.
Major operations in the phase are-
1) Perception-
Interaction process demands an appropriate perception on the part of teacher as well as the studennts. When a teacher enters the class, his first activity is concerned with a parceptionof classroom climate. He tries to weigh himself ,his abilitiesfor teaching against the class group.Similarly students also tries to have perception of the abilities, behaviour and personality characteristics of the teacher.
2) Diagnosis-
A teacher tries to access the achievement level of his students with regards to their abilities, interest and aptitude. The teacher can asks several questions to know how far students know about the topic.
3) Reaction Process-
Under this stage teacher observes the students that how they response to the teacher’s questions. The student has to learn the proper way of reacting and responding to the various stimuli and teaching techniques presented to it. This phase is responsible for establishing appropriate verbal and non verbal class room interaction between teacher and pupils.
POST-ACTIVE PHASE OF TEACHING:
Post-teaching phase, , is the one that involves teacher’s activities such as analysing evaluation results to determine students’ learning, especially their problems in understanding specific areas, to reflect on the teaching by self, and to decide on the necessary changes to be brought in the system in the next instructional period.
The Post-active Phase this phase concerns with the evaluation activities. This can be done in number of ways including tests or quizzes or by observing student’s reaction of questions, comments ,structures and instructured situations.
In this phase, as the teaching task sums up, the teacher asks the questions from the pupils, verbally or in written form, to measure the behaviours of the pupils so that their achievements may be evaluated correctly.
Therefore, evaluation aspect includes all those activities which can evaluate the achievements of the pupils and attainment of the objectives. Without evaluation teaching is an incomplete process. It is related with both teaching and learning. The following activities are suggested in the post-active of teaching-
1. Defining the exact dimensions of the changes caused by teaching.
2. Selecting appropriate testing devices and techniques.
3. Changing the strategies in terms of evidences gathered.
Defining the exact dimensions of the changes caused by teaching: At the end of the teaching,the teacher defines the exact dimensions of changes in the behaviours as a result of teaching, this is termed as criterion behaviour. For this the teacher compares the actual behavioural changes in the students with their expected behavioural changes. If he observes the desired behavioural changes in the maximum numbers of pupils, he concludes that his teaching strategies and tactics worked effectively with the help of which teaching objectives have been achieved.
Selecting appropriate testing devices and techniques: The teacher selects those testing devices and techniques to compare the actual behavioural changes with the desired behavioural change which are reliable and valid and which can evaluate the cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of the pupils. Therefore, criterion tests are more preferred than the performance tests.
Changing the strategies in terms of evidences gathered: While, by using the reliable and valid testing devices, the teacher gets the knowledge regarding the performances of pupils and attainment of objectives on one hand, and on the other hand he also gets clarity regarding his instruction, teaching strategies and tactics. He also comes to know about the required modification in the teaching strategies and situations along with the drawbacks of his teaching in order to achieve the teaching objectives. In this way, through evaluation, the teaching activities are diagnosed and these can be made effective by necessary modifications and changes in them.
Teaching is a complex activity. It is a process in which students are provided with a controlled environment for interaction with the purpose to. promote a definite learning in them. The environment provided to students is constituted by the content, the teacher who organizes and provides specific learning experiences, different ways and means of providing learning experiences and the school setting. All these components, called instructional components, interact in an interdependent and coordinated manner, in order to bring about the pre-specified desirable changes in the students. It is this interaction between human and non-human components that makes the process of teaching-learning a highly complex activity.
Teaching is viewed as a comprehensive process, and there has been a tremendous change in the way of understanding teaching and a teacher’s roles. Teaching is conceptualized as an active interactive process that goes on between the consciously designed environment and the student, (where teachers may or may not be present), with a definite purpose. It includes all the activities organized by a teacher to bring about learning, be it inside or outside a classroom, with or without the presence of the teacher.