Course Content
1 | Introduction to Teaching
In this module, you will read a text and watch video about education and stages of the learning cycle. You will check your understanding with concept-checking questions. For the teaching competency standards that this module aligns to, please download the document from the Resources section.
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1.1 | What Is Education?
1.1.1 | Education: True or False?
1.2 | Understanding the Teaching Cycle
1.2.1 | Order the steps of the teaching cycle
1.2.2 | Video: The Teaching Cycle
00:00
1.2.3 | Ordering the Events
2 | Identifying Learners’ Needs
In this module, you will explore what learner needs are, how to identify learner needs, the difference between active and passive learning, and how to design classroom activities for different learners.
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2.1 | Active and Passive Learning
2.1.1 | Active? Passive? Both?
2.2 | Classroom Activities and Their Purpose
2.2.1 | Video: The Brain’s Learning Needs
00:00
2.2.2 | The Brain's Needs
2.2.3 | Practical Classroom Activities
2.3 | What Are Learners’ Needs?
2.3.1 | Matching Activities to Needs
2.3.2 | Matching Needs to Means of Data Collection
3 | School and Community Partnerships (to follow)
Introduction to follow.
4 | Lesson Planning and Learning Objectives
This module introduces the concept of lesson planning by providing a model (the five-stage lesson plan), exploring different types of activities, explaining learning objectives and allowing participants to practice writing their own lesson plan.
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4.1 | The Five-Stage Lesson Plan
4.1.1 | What Stage of the Lesson?
4.2 | Controlled to Free Practice
4.2.1 | Video: Controlled to Free Practice
00:00
4.2.2 | What Subject, and What Stage of the Lesson?
4.3 | Developing Clear Learning Objectives
4.3.1 | From Bad Objective to Good Objective
4.3.2 | Choose the Best Activities
4.4 | Lesson Planning: Putting It All Together
4.4.1 | Creating Controlled and Free Practice Activities
4.4.2 | Planning a Lesson
5 | Equity and Inclusion in Education (to follow)
This module introduces the concepts of equity and inclusion concepts in education.
6 | Classroom Management
This module invites the teacher to reflect on the good and bad behaviour of the students in their classes and how it can be prevented and managed. We will look at different strategies for how to facilitate positive student-teacher relationships to build better learning environments.
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6.1 | How to Create a Positive Learning Environment
6.1.1 | Video: Techniques for Good Relationships
00:00
6.1.2 | Techniques for Good Relationships
6.2 | What Are Rules and Routines?
6.2.1 | Rules and Routines...
6.2.2 | Rule or Routine?
6.3 | Managing Behaviour with Rewards and Punishments
6.3.1 | Reward or Punishment?
6.4 | Giving instructions
6.4.1 | What Strategy Do You See?
6.4.2 | Sequence the Instructions
7 | Diversity and Multicultural Education (to follow)
This module looks at the importance of diversity and multicultural education, and how to successfully manage it.
8 | Questioning Techniques and Cognitive Levels
This module overviews the use of questions in teaching and learning. It covers: elicitation, different question types and using Bloom's taxonomy to write questions.
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8.1 | Eliciting Skills
8.1.1 | Ways to Elicit
8.1.2 | Additional Ways to Elicit Information
8.2 | Types of Questions
8.2.1 | Open Question or Closed Question?
8.2.2 | Prompting, Probing, Divergent or Affective Question?
8.3 | Bloom’s Taxonomy for Questioning
8.3.1 | Video: Bloom’s Taxonomy and Thinking Levels
00:00
8.3.2 | What Level of Bloom's Taxonomy?
9 | Stress Management for Resilience (to follow)
This module is an introduction to the issue of stress and how to cope with it in education, to promote resilience in both teachers and their students.
10 | Innovation in Low-Resource Contexts
This module reviews learning objectives, presents ideas for DIY teaching aids and explores different ways the teacher can enhance learning in environments with limited resources.
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10.1 | Why Do We Need Resources?
10.1.1 | Match Activities to Resources
10.1.2 | Activities With Few or No Resources
10.2 | Making Your Own Materials
10.2.1 | Video: Five Ideas for Making Materials
10.2.2 | Thinking About Making Materials
11 | Motivation and Engagement
This module explores how teachers can define and enhance their student’s engagement and motivation. It will present a variety of strategies and techniques for how to group learners, how to differentiate for engagement and how to give feedback to improve motivation.
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11.1 | To Engage, to Motivate, or to Challenge?
Motivation, Engagement or Challenge?
Why Use This Technique?
11.2 | Engagement: Arranging the Class
11.2.1 | What Are the Best Groupings?
11.2.2 | Choose the Best Advice
11.2.3 | Design the Classroom Arrangement
11.3 | Engagement: Differentiation
11.3.1 | Video: Differentiation
Private: Foundations of Teaching

6.4 | Giving Instructions

Preview

Before we begin, read Teacher Lin’s instructions. Are the instructions clear and efficient? If not, what could be improved?

Teacher Lin

OK everyone, please listen to me. I’m going to give you all the instructions for this next activity. Listen to me, please. OK, I’d like you to get out your English books, turn to page 40, and halfway down the page you’ll see an exercise, a gap-fill exercise. You’ll be able to find it. It’s halfway down. I’d like you to get into pairs and complete this together, writing your answers on a piece of paper which you are going to give me at the end. Don’t write in your books, whatever you do. Just write on a piece of paper. So, yeah, you’ll need a piece of paper too. Don’t forget that. So, I’ll take your piece of paper, after you have written the answers, of course, and then I’ll mark it and give it to you next time, so you can see how you did. OK everyone, go ahead now.

The Importance of Clear Instructions

Instructions occur very frequently in lessons. Each activity should begin with instructions. Good instructions make the class more efficient, but bad instructions can waste a lot of time, especially if the teacher has to re-explain or re-clarify the instructions. Teachers should think about the instructions for an activity when planning their lessons. Some teachers find it useful to write down the exact things they want to say when giving instructions.

Good instructions tell students what to do and how to do it. They can help control misbehaviour and can become routines. Good instructions use the following characteristics:

  1. Attention: Get attention from all students before you begin to give instructions. Make sure that all students are facing and looking at you.
  2. Starting Signal: Don’t let students begin doing something before you have finished the instructions. It can be useful to use a word or gesture to signal when to begin.
  3. Steps: Give instructions step by step. This is especially important if giving instructions for a more complicated activity.
  4. Clarity: Tell students exactly what they need to do. Speak clearly so they can all hear you.
  5. Address Possible Mistakes and Misbehaviour: Give instructions that clarify what to do and what not to do.
  6. Model: If needed, show students how to do it first by demonstrating the instructions and giving examples.
  7. Be Efficient and Economical: Keep instructions as simple as possible. Limit how long you talk when giving instructions.
  8. Check for Understanding: After giving instructions, ask the students a few simple questions to check that they understand what to do and how to do it.

 

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