Dr. V.K. Maheshwari, Former Principal
K.L.D.A.V(P.G) College, Roorkee, India
A unit is an outline of carefully selected subject matter which has been isolated because of its relationship to students need and interests. Thus, a well planned teaching unit is the coordinated form of different types of activities. These activities provide new information on one hand and on the other hand, they are helpful for the evaluation of students. Teacher can determine these teaching units either all by himself or with the cooperation of his fellow teachers jointly.
It is a core, a back-bone a key concept or pivot of lesson planning. It concerns with the subject-matter, content and teaching strategies. The content is analyzed into units. These units are complete in it. These are arranged logically which work psychologically in effective and permanent learning. These units can be taught independently and can be measured independently these teaching units help to decide the teaching strategies, teaching tactics and audio-visual aids. These units provide basis for liking new knowledge with the previous knowledge of student’s Units help in relating teaching with learning
Morrison, the foremost educationist who propounded the basic concept of teaching unit, concentrated on actual change in the behavior of the learner, what he called an adaptation Morrison holds that genuine learning consisted of the student adapting or responding to a situation. Rejecting the notion that learning referred only to the acquisition of subject matter, the unit was the procedure used for the teaching of an adaptation based on a stimulus-response psychology.
Morrison’s categorization of learning into a cycle of three phases:
Stimulus,
Assimilation,
Reaction,
In developing his concept of mastery learning, Morrison distinguished between learning and performance. Mastery, according to Morrison, is when students focus on learning a skill and acquire a fundamental grasp of subject matter. Once students have achieved a certain level of learning, they attempt to apply the skill; this application is called performance. The next step achieved is adaptation, the stage at which students become able to apply their learning to any situation.
Steps of a Teaching Unit
1. Pre-active phase or introductory phase. New knowledge is linked with the previous knowledge so as to develop appreciative mass of the students by teaching units. These units help in motivating students. They provide awareness of teaching objectives to learners.
2. Inter-active phase. With the help of nits, appropriate learning experience is provided to perform certain activities to facilitate student-learning.
3. Post-active phase. The teaching units help in evaluating learning objectives in terms of student’s performance. It also provides feed-back to teaching learning process.
ELEMENTS OF TEACHING UNITS
1. Overview. Objectives of teaching unit are formulated on the basis of level of student i.e. their previous knowledge, age, intelligence, interest and social, cultural and personal need; and nature of the subject-matter.
2. Inventory or Back-ground. Previous knowledge of students is explored. Their motivational state and level of aspiration are also explored by asking some question or giving a pre-test.
3. Presentation. Every element of teaching unit provides new learning situations or experiences to learners. They are presented in a logical sequence which helps in more retainable learning. Lecture, discussion, demonstration or any teaching strategy supplemented with teaching aids and question – answer technique encourage student’s participation.
4. Motivation. It is an important factor for facilitating learning. It is also known as leading phase of learning. It involves several techniques, use of audio-visual aids etc.
5. Summarization. Induction-deduction approach (i.e. whole to part teaching) is utilized for comprehension of the unit. The elements of teaching-units are summarized at the end of presentation.
6. Drilling and Review. Drilling or practice of elements of a unit is must. The student learns better and retains longer if the drill is organized or review is done. Drilling and reviewing is done orally.
7. Organization. Assignments are given to students to organize their learning experiences according to their own ability.
8. Evaluation. Evaluation is done by short answer questions orally to ascertain how far the teacher could achieve real learning outcomes by presenting teaching units.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF UNIT-METHOD
- .Principle of Interest and Purpose. In order to achieve the objectives of the unit the teacher creates interest in the pupils. This brings the desired changes in their behavior.
- Principle of Unit. The process of acquiring knowledge, the teacher presents the content of a unit before the pupils giving supremacy to the unity of ‘Wholeness’.
- Principle of Child’ Supremacy. The activities of the pupils are emphasized in the entire teaching while assigning the special importance to the needs and basic instincts of the pupils.
- Principle of Organization. In order to provide complete knowledge to the pupils, various teaching materials should be used and organized.
- Principle of Dynamism. All the teaching units should be dynamic. Dynamism is the key to teaching. The teacher should apply the principle of dynamism according to the need. It makes the scope of each unit wider and pupils acquire it easily.
- Principle of Recitation. From psychological point of view, recitation marks the new knowledge in the minds of pupils. Hence, recitation by the pupils is encouraged in unit-method.
ELEMENTS OF TEACHING UNIT
Division of Content. The entire subject-matter is divided into smaller units. By concentrating on them pupils understand these smaller units easily.
Giving Practical Shape to Teaching Process. After understanding the smaller units of the subject matter they are given practical shape.
Overview. The teacher determines the objectives of the teaching unit in such a way that the needs of the pupils are fulfilled and they are so much motivated that they may acquire new knowledge with interest. After introduction the teacher states the aim so that the pupils get aware of the scope of teaching units.
Previous Knowledge. The get aware of the previous knowledge of the pupils for their knowledge, the teacher asks questions from the pupils so that after relating the previous knowledge to the new knowledge is may decide the point to start.
The elements of the contents The elements of the contents are presented in a logical order. The lessons is developed with the cooperation of the pupils .Question answer method is used. If the pupils fail to answer the questions the teacher interprets the elements himself.
Motivation. As every activity of the teaching unit is performed for learning, the teacher should motivate the pupils at intervals so that they may continuously show interest in the teaching and get ready to learn.
Summarize. It enables the teacher to give the summarized form of the lesson.
Drill and Recapitulation. These techniques are important to minimize forgetting in learning. The pupils may retain the learning experiences for longer duration.
Organization. To provide proper provision for organizing the acquired experiences, the teacher assigns home work to the pupil which helps them in organizing the acquired Knowledge.
Evaluation. There is a provision of evaluation the knowledge acquired by the pupils which makes them aware of the limit of acquisition of the objective. Oral questions or oral and written tests are used for this purpose.
SUGGESTED ADMINISTRATION OF TEACHING UNIT
Pre-active phase or introductory phase- New knowledge is linked with the previous knowledge so as to develop appreciative mass of the students by teaching units. These units help in motivating students. They provide awareness of teaching objectives to learners. The pupils are made clear about the teaching objectives to make them curious to gain new knowledge
Inter-active phase/ Presentation Phase- With the help of units, appropriate learning experience are provided to perform certain activities to facilitate student-learning. Learning experiences are provided to the pupils while presenting the contents
Post-active phase/ Evaluation Phase- The teaching units help in evaluating learning objectives in terms of student’s performance. It also provides feed-back to teaching learning process. Pupils repeat the acquired experiences while interpreting them.
Morrison identified a five-step instructional pattern. Morrison’s general pattern for the instructional process (his plan or method) involves the following sequential steps:
(1) Pretest,
(2) Teaching,
(3) Testing the result of instruction,
(4) Changing the instruction procedure, and
(5) Teaching and testing again until the unit has been completely mastered by the student.
On the basis of the above referred pattern the following steps can be developed;
Steps Related with what aspect- Morrison analyzed the school curriculum into units of five types: Science Appreciation, Practical art, Language arts, and Pure-practice. He firmly believes that instruction would vary among the different types of units, On the basis of this analysis; a teacher gets an opportunity to study the content deeply. It cultivate a feeling of self confidence in him .This analysis ensures continuity of teaching.
Steps Related with Why aspect- Teaching objectives are those central points around which the whole teaching process revolves. Thus it is essential that the teacher identify and analyze them in consideration with learning experience and entering behavior of students.
Steps Related with How aspect-Learning is a continuous process of acquiring experiences, through which the predetermined objectives can be achieved. It is related with active aspect of teaching. Determinations of instructional methodology including strategies are come under this step.
Steps related with how much aspect- This is the final and most important step of a teaching unit. Feedback regarding quality of instruction is given in this step. .
Every teaching unit has its own structure. The structure of a unit is based on the nature of the subject-matter and the teaching objective. A teaching unit marks the contents, the subject-matter and methods of presentation.
As objectives provide the base for the determination of teaching objectives, so objectives should be kept in mind while analyzing the content. In reality, the whole content should be divided as per the objectives. It depends on the fact that how much time a teacher has, for the realization of the pre set objectives. However in day to day teaching it is not possible to analyze/ divide the whole content at one time. Thus the total content at the disposal of the teacher is divided in the form of small topics. After that required time period is determined for the realization of the objectives.
In order to inculcate more objectivity in this process a two dimensional blue print chart should be prepared. In this blue print the objective should be placed on one side and necessary time periods are on other side. This two dimensional blue print can be analyzed as per the daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.
| S. No | Teaching Topics | Cognitive Domain | Affective Domain | Psycho-motor Domain |
Expected Periods | Duration |
| —- | – | Knowledge | Receiving | Impulsion | ||
| —- | – | Understanding | Responding | Manipulation | ||
| —- | – | Application | Valuing | Control | ||
| —— | – | Analysis | Conceptualization | Coordination | ||
| —— | – | Synthesis | Organization | Naturalization | ||
| —— | – | Evaluation | Characterization | Habit formation |
After the time periods, the topics of the contents are specified. It enables a teacher to foresee the contents to be given to students, and they have to be sequenced so that their inherent mutual relationship can be preserved.
Next, the content is analyzed in terms of objectives and desirable behavioral changes. Content should be analyzed in the form of following teaching points-
Contents related with objectives of Cognitive Domain
| Objectives | Teaching Points Related to- |
| Knowledge |
|
| Comprehension |
|
| Application |
|
| Analysis |
|
| Synthesis |
|
(ANALYSE SIMILARLY FOR OTHER DOMAINS OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES)
After having analyzed in the above manner, a teacher can determine the sequence of his presentation and related teaching activities. For it this process can be used. A flow chart is given here for this purpose-
|
State objectives in behavioral terms |
|
Determine method of teaching |
|
Evaluation/ Feedback |
|
Presentation Before students |
|
Selection of content |
Thus if at the time of determining teaching units, desirable behavioral changes are kept in view and the content is divided into small topics, then attention should be given to the entering behavior of the students and the time to be taken. If these points are kept in view there is every possibility that a teacher will be successful in his teaching.
Advantages
- Habit of Healthy Study. In helps in the habit of healthy study. This makes them self-learners.
- Interesting. The interest of the pupils is emphasized. Easy acquisition of teaching objectives is preferred.
- Child Centered Method. The capacities and needs of the pupils are considered supreme.
- Psychological Method. Based on Gestalt psychology. This method gives importance the ‘whole’ instead of part.
- Development of social values. An important method of group teaching, the unit method helps in developing social values in the pupils.
- Organized learning. Learning occur in an organized from. Consequently, it becomes the permanent part of the brain.
- Encouragement to Expression of Ideas. A child centered method encourages the development of social values as well as the capacity of express ideas.
- Use of Appropriate Teaching Aids. The knowledge is imparted with the help of appropriate aid. This enables them to learn how to apply properly the teaching aid.
Limitations
- End of Originality. While using unit method; pupils are to restrict themselves. This finishes the originality of the teaching and learning.
- Waste of Time. The pupils are provided with organized and detailed knowledge. This wastes the time.
- Limited Scope. Due to the detailed Knowledge provided to the pupils, this unit –method has very limited scope.
- Mechanical Method of teaching. The freedom of the teacher is delimited so much that he fails to present his thoughts before the pupils. The learning becomes lifeless, boring and mechanical in such a situation.
- Possibility of Gaining Less Knowledge- It is possible that the pupils acquire sufficient knowledge in some subjects and insufficient knowledge in others.