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
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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

6.3 | Managing Behaviour with Rewards and Punishments

Preview

Before we begin, look at this list of possible responses to misbehaviour. Which do you think are acceptable, and why? When you have finished, click below to see some thoughts about each:

  • Clean the bathrooms.
  • Lose five points.
  • Stand on one leg for ten minutes.
  • Stand up and apologise to the class.
  • No recess.
  • A public reminder of the rules.
  • Do extra homework.
  • The whole class must work in silence.
  • Sit in the corner and face the wall.
  • Three beatings with a stick.
Click to reveal some thoughts about each punishment

Thoughts about each punishment:

  • Clean the bathrooms – Possibly, it depends on the program. You should not give students unnecessarily humiliating, dirty or degrading punishments.
  • Lose five points – Probably.
  • Stand on one leg for ten minutes – Unlikely. This is a physical punishment and therefore is probably unacceptable.
  • Stand up and apologise to the class – Possibly. Be careful not to publicly humiliate any student in class.
  • No recess – Possibly, but remember that students, especially younger students, need exercise, fresh air and a change of environment.
  • A public reminder of the rules – Probably. Be careful not to publicly humiliate any student in class.
  • Do extra homework – Probably. However, be mindful of fairness and students’ existing workload.
  • The whole class must work in silence – Possibly. However, be mindful of discouraging students from expressing themselves and using their energy constructively.
  • Sit in the corner and face the wall – Unlikely. This seems like an unfair and humiliating punishment.
  • Three beatings with a stick – Absolutely not. Physical punishments such as beatings are cruel, and possibly also illegal.

Understanding Rewards and Punishments

Following rules and breaking rules both should have consequences. Consequences are used to impact the student’s behaviour. Depending on whether students follow or break the rules, consequences can be good (rewards) or bad (punishments). If students are behaving well, the teacher might want to reward them so that they continue that behaviour. If students are misbehaving, the teacher will need to punish them so that the misbehaviour does not reoccur. Increasing a desired behaviour requires rewards and decreasing an undesired behaviour requires punishment.

The goal of punishment is to reduce the frequency of misbehaviour. Punishment should not intentionally embarrass students, should not physically harm students and should not take away their opportunity to learn. Punishments involve giving something that is undesirable or taking away something that is desirable. For example, if a student breaks a rule, they have to write an apology to their teacher. The students do not want to write the apology so they avoid the misbehaviour. Or if a student breaks a rule, they have to eat their lunch by themselves silently in the classroom. The students want to eat lunch with their friends so they avoid the misbehaviour.

The goal of rewards is to increase the frequency of good behaviour. Rewards should be genuine and meaningful to the students. Reward involves giving something that is desirable or taking away something that is undesirable. For example, if students do not break any rules for an entire week, they get to watch a movie on Friday afternoon. The students want to watch the movie so they behave well. Or if a student works well in their group, they do not need to do homework. The students do not want to do homework so they behave well.

Students must know what the possible consequences are for their behaviour. In general, rewards are more effective than punishment. Rules may also require reminders, so that students remain aware of the consequences.

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