Teaching Today A Practical Guide Fourth Edition - part 8 doc

Choosing activities for the lesson 433 they cannot fi nd it, which is no service to them or to society, and which can have deeply damaging repercussions. Earlier I was irreverent enough to suggest that the time allowed to teach a skill is in inverse relation to its importance. Sound opinion forming is necessary both for a stable society and to enable individuals to steer their own lives. As a consequence of its overwhelming importance, it is usual for no time to be allowed for the overt teaching of this skill! Were you taught it? If not, do you wish you had been? As we saw in Chapter 17 on discussion, if there is a disagreement, try to isolate the reason for this. Is it due to differences of fact, belief or values? Take a look at the diagram below. To challenge Jo’s argument, one must remove either one of the three legs supporting Jo’s argument, or the reasoning from these foundations. If one leg fails the stool falls. If the connection between the legs and the opinion fails, again the stool falls. Share this three-legged stool approach with your students, getting them to present their arguments in this visual way on wall posters, presentations and handouts. Hypothesis testing Venn diagrams are helpful in testing hypotheses such as: To what extent did the Treaty of Versailles cause the Second World War?1 Prisons do work.2 Opinions e.g. Jo believes there should be tax on aero-fuel Beliefs, general principles, science, etc. e.g. CO 2 emission creates global warming Taxing fuel will reduce air travel Facts, evidence, etc. e.g. air travel releases lots of CO 2 into the atmosphere. V alues, desires, goals, etc. e.g. protecting the environment is more important than freedom to travel Examining disagreement with the three-legged stool P04.indd 433 2/3/09 16:45:32 Putting it all together 434 In the fi rst case, the circle on the left could be the Treaty of Versailles, the circle on the right the causes of the Second World War. The overlap, V, represents causes of the War due to the Treaty. This verifi es the hypothesis. F1 is aspects of the Treaty that did not cause the War. F2 is causes of the War not due to the Treaty. With ‘Prisons do work’, the circle on the left describes the nature of prisons, and the right-hand circle describes what it means to ‘work’. The extent to which prisons work is shown by the overlap. The hypothesis is verifi ed by this overlap ‘V’. Aspects of prisons that don’t work is F1. Aspects of ‘working’ not provided by prisons is F2. Both these falsify the hypothesis. The diagram helps direct thinking towards any evidence that confi rms, but also any evidence that denies the hypothesis – great for assertive- questioning-style class discussion, based on an interactive whiteboard diagram. Further reading De Bono, E. (1978) Teaching Thinking, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Jepson, R. W. (1948) Clear Thinking: An Elementary Course of Preparation for Citi- zenship, London: Longman. Marzano, R. J. with Marzano, S. and Pickering, D. J. (2003) Classroom Management that Works, Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Nisbet, J. and Schucksmith, J. (1986) Learning Strategies, London: Routledge. Petty, G. (2006) Evidence Based Teaching, Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Thouless, R. (1990) Straight and Crooked Thinking, London: Edward Arnold. P04.indd 434 2/3/09 16:45:32 39 Choosing activities to achieve affective objectives 435 Every teacher is involved in achieving affective objectives. Bloom’s taxonomy (see Chapter 37) effectively splits the affective domain into two parts. The fi rst of these involves encouraging students to attend and to show interest in their studies – for example, to develop an interest in scientifi c experimentation. Developing in students a positive attitude to study has been a major preoccupation throughout this book; relevant factors, such as teacher enthusiasm, motivation, reinforcement, human interest, student relevance and relevance to the real world all play their part, and have been dealt with elsewhere. The other half of Bloom’s affective domain concerns raising awareness in learners, and changing or developing their beliefs, attitudes and feelings. Typical objectives might be: To • develop a positive attitude to non-smoking. To • value a multicultural society. To • appreciate the importance of fi bre in a healthy diet. In the caring professions the affective domain is very evident, and this objective would be typical: To empathise with newly admitted patients, and recognise the therapeutic value of making them feel comfortable in their new surroundings. Such objectives require more than knowledge of facts: they require value or impor- tance to be given to these facts. It is one thing to learn that fi bre is important in diet; it is quite another to begin to eat it! The learning described by such objectives can be seen as opinion forming. If the learners develop a suffi ciently high opinion of the benefi ts of dietary fi bre, they will change their eating habits accordingly. Values, attitudes and beliefs can all be seen as personal opinions, so affective learning can be seen as a high-order cognitive skill: that of personal opinion forming. Have you a feeling of unease about changing attitudes and opinions? I hope so. It raises a fundamental ethical question. What topics has a teacher the right to be persuasive about? Perhaps only issues where informed opinion has arrived at a virtual consensus. Opinions associated with matters such as health (e.g. diet) or safety (e.g. use of a lathe) might well fall into this category; but opinions on many political or moral issues (e.g. full employment or abortion) would not. It is part of the teacher’s professional duty to remain neutral in areas of political, religious, moral and commercial controversy. Persuasion in these areas is a gross violation of professional ethics. P04.indd 435 2/3/09 16:45:32 Putting it all together 436 For some topics, then, the teacher will be encouraging learners to adopt a particu- lar accepted opinion (persuasion, or convergent opinion-forming); and for other topics, the learners will be expected to make up their own mind on the matter – this is divergent opinion forming, and has been considered in the previous chapter. Persuasion (convergent opinion forming) So how are learners to develop or change their values, attitudes or beliefs? This requires them to clarify, adapt or change their opinion – and perhaps, as a result, their preferred behaviour. Once again, the skill of opinion forming is involved. The following approach is based on a model by Kathleen Reardon (and others). It suggests that messages likely to be persuasive may be founded on three factors: image, consistency and effectiveness (let’s call it the ‘ICE’ model). Imagine, for example, that you are attempting to develop a positive attitude to non-smoking in your students. The students will consider: Image. ‘Does the new opinion or behaviour fi t in with my image, e.g. with family, friends and peers? Does it fi t in with my image of myself?’ In the case of smoking, questions which students need to address would be: Will I lose or gain credibility with friends, acquaintances and family if I do/ don’t smoke? Do I value the image of being a smoker? Am I happy to think of myself as a nicotine addict? Consistency. ‘Is the belief or behaviour consistent with my other beliefs and behav- iours?’ Smoking-related questions might be: How can I smoke if I believe in keeping fi t? Effectiveness. ‘How does the belief or behaviour affect any of my long- or short-term goals), e.g. does it bring about any desired ends?’ Possible questions here: If I don’t smoke, how much money will I save? Will I fi nd it harder or easier to get a girl/boyfriend? Will I be better at football? Will I get cancer later in life? Which of these ICE categories is most infl uential will depend on the individual and the issue, so teachers should address all three in most cases. In any case, there is considerable overlap between them. It is common but fatal for teachers to ignore ‘image’ and ‘effectiveness’ when dealing, for instance, with social issues such as sexism, racism, etc. Thinking in terms of the ICE model helps to generate ques- tions for group or class discussion. Suppose, for example, you intended to develop a positive attitude towards safety at work on the building site. What questions would the ICE model throw up? Think this through for yourself. (Some suggestions appear in the box on page 438.) Coping strategies Some researchers believe that learners need to rehearse mental and verbal responses if they are to feel comfortable with a new opinion or attitude. They need to develop coping strategies to deal with a new belief, or they will revert to former attitudes. P04.indd 436 2/3/09 16:45:32 Choosing activities to achieve affective objectives 437 What would I do if I heard a friend make a racist remark? How could I refuse a cigarette offered by a friend? Role-play is often used to good effect here, and devising coping strategies in small- group discussions is an excellent group activity. It is almost always best for the students themselves to be involved as much as possible in the development of these coping strategies. They know best what would be likely to work, and will be more committed to their own ideas than to yours. It might be useful to add S for ‘strategies’ to the ICE mnemonic, to make ‘ICES’. Activities to develop affective objectives The activities and teaching methods used to explore values, attitudes and behav- iour must involve the emotions as well as reason, and must offer an opportunity for corrected practice in opinion forming. Commonly used methods are shown in the following box: Changing attitudes takes time and patience, especially when changing ingrained, long-held views. Do not expect overnight success; opinions change a little at a time, usually when the persuader is not present. A dietician persuading a pensioner to change from white to wholemeal bread, or a social studies teacher confronting a pupil’s racist views, cannot expect instant results. During discussions, listen rather than talk; watch out for verbal and non-verbal signals of attitudes and feelings, and follow these feelings up. As ever, try to see things from the learner’s point of view. How do they think? Why are these perceptions important to them? Why do they think this way? Teaching methods commonly used to achieve affective objectives The most effective overall strategy is guided discovery, as described in Chapter 29. Useful activities include: class discussion assertive questioning style (Chapter 24); small-group discussion; attitude questionnaires (such as that in Chapter 10 of this book); group work; games, simulations and role-play; debates; and surveys of students and others. Active experiential methods are particularly powerful – though sometimes diffi cult to arrange. Activities involving learner experiences, human-interest stories (be they in video or in written form) and activities which involve empathy and identifi ca- tion with particular characters are also powerful. For example, you could read out a short story in which a schoolgirl, Julie, refuses a cigarette but eventu- ally accepts it when it is offered repeatedly. Then you could ask the students: ‘Has something like this ever happened to you?’ ‘What do you think Julie was thinking?’ ‘What would you have done?’ … All the teaching methods mentioned above were considered in detail in Part 2 of this book. P04.indd 437 2/3/09 16:45:32 Putting it all together 438 There are bound to be counter-arguments against the belief you are advocating, though your students may be afraid of voicing them: My Grandad smoked for 80 years and it never did him any harm. Heroin isn’t addictive unless you use it fi ve or six times. These are often best dealt with directly. It is generally recognised that students need to be ‘inoculated’ against these counter-arguments, or they may be seduced by them later. This should be done with considerable care, especially with less attentive or intelligent students, or you may give the counter-arguments credibility simply by mentioning them. As persuader, you must provide relevant factual material, but this alone is not enough: you must also affect emotions, to provide the motivation for the learners to change their own thinking. They must be given the opportunity to explore the belief or behaviour under consideration in terms of their own existing values and beliefs. Self-persuasion is the only real persuasion. ‘You are wrong and I am right: you must change your thinking and adopt my ideas’ is an approach which leads learners to attack your views, or adopt a defensive, face-saving stance. Rather, the teacher must show that the new belief or behaviour is in line with the learner’s existing values and ‘self-concept’. ‘Sensible people don’t want to waste money, destroy their health and put off boyfriends/girlfriends. You are a sensible person. So you don’t want to smoke, do STRATEGIES FOR PERSUASION The examples focus on a health worker teaching elderly people modern dietary advice. Legitimate Appeal to authority. If you quote statistics or research, it is usually better to give detail rather than just the bare fi ndings: ‘Doctors and dieticians believe wholemeal bread is best. Research shows that …’ Appeal to majority. ‘Most people nowadays realise the value of wholemeal bread.’ Moral appeal. ‘You owe it to your partner to feed him/her well.’ Request for moderate change. ‘Why not buy a little wholemeal bread as well as your usual white?’ Illegitimate? Confrontation. ‘You’re not telling me you eat white bread!’ Ridicule. ‘White bread? You’ll be telling me you live in a cave next!’ Assuming agreement. ‘Of course, you all eat wholemeal bread and this provides some of the necessary fi bre.’ P04.indd 438 2/3/09 16:45:32 Choosing activities to achieve affective objectives 439 you?’ is a persuasive strategy. By contrast, ‘I believe smoking is bad for the reasons I have given, so you must not smoke’ is unlikely to win converts. The difference is subtle but crucial. Changing one’s attitude because someone else advocates a different one implies loss of face; changing to a new attitude because this is more in line with the ‘real me’ does not. This is why guided discovery is the best strategy for affective learning; students need to ‘discover’ for themselves that the opinion (which you are ‘teaching’) is the one that best fi ts in with their existing values and opinions. Peer education is an emerging approach to affective education, where small groups of students prepare and deliver a whole lesson on an affective issue after special training. Ask students why they hold the opinions they do. Then you might get responses such as: I want control over my own body, I don’t want to be an addict. I want to spend money on positive things that give me a good time. When students start asserting their own high values in defence of the new opinion, this can be very powerful. Such statements must come from the students them- selves, of course. Carl Rogers, in Freedom to Learn, argues that you must accept and respect the students and their existing values, or they will soon reject you. However, in doing so, you must remain true to yourself and trustworthy. This is not always easy to achieve! Jesus Christ was an inspired teacher in the affective domain. He used parables, perhaps because they examined issues without accusing the listener of wrongdoing; made their point clearly; and offered human interest. A case study Research quoted in the Times Educational Supplement of 22 November 1991 showed that 25% of 16- to 18-year-olds were prepared to have unprotected sex with a new partner, and that 82% of young people believed that sex education at school bore little or no relation to issues that they faced. P04.indd 439 2/3/09 16:45:32 Putting it all together 440 What activities could be used to help achieve the following objective? To raise awareness of, and develop positive attitudes towards, safer sex. You have two one-hour sessions, one of which will have 40 minutes taken up with basic factual material concerning safe and unsafe sexual practices, the nature of HIV and AIDS, etc. The group are 17 to 18 years old; they have elected to come to the lessons. Use the ICES model to choose some activities for the session. Then (and only then!) take a look at the suggestions in the box below. Activities which could be used to help achieve the objective: ‘To raise awareness of, and develop positive attitudes towards, safer sex’. A video of an AIDS victim recounting his/her story. (human interest) An anonymous questionnaire, with percentage responses made available for discussion in the following session. Questions such as: • How would you feel if your partner insisted on/refused a condom? (image) • Is it macho not to use a condom? (image) • What (if anything) do you believe is worth risking death for? (consistency) • Can you list enjoyable safe sexual practices? (effectiveness) • Do you agree with any of the following: ‘Young people hardly ever have AIDS’; ‘Only homosexuals and drug addicts have AIDS’; etc. (dealing directly with counter-arguments) (Many more questions would be worth dealing with.) Small-group work. In groups of same sex, students are asked to devise strate- gies for dealing with a situation where their sexual partner does not want to use a condom. What would they say or do in this situation? (coping strategies) There are, of course, many legitimate methods of dealing with this diffi cult topic; these are only suggestions. P04.indd 440 2/3/09 16:45:33 Choosing activities to achieve affective objectives 441 Further reading Reardon, K. K. (1991) Persuasion in Practice, London: Sage. The Government’s Sex and Relationship Education Guidance can be downloaded from: www.dcsf.gov.uk/sreguidance/sexeducation.pdf Developing a positive attitude towards safety at work on the building site (see page 436). Questions developed by reference to the ICES model. Image. ‘What would you think of someone who took a few minutes to tie up a ladder properly?’ ‘Do you think it is macho to ignore safety rules?’ ‘What would your workmates think of you if you suggested that they changed to a safer practice?’ Consistency. ‘Do you think of yourself as a risk taker?’ ‘Would you take risks if you were alone?’ ‘Would you use faulty electrical equipment at home?’ ‘Who gains if you take risks at work, you, your boss or neither?’ Effectiveness. What would happen to your wages if you were injured at work and had to take a week off?’ ‘If you weren’t wearing a hard hat, what would happen to you if a brick fell one storey to land on your head?’ Strategies (for coping). ‘What would you say to someone who said you were wasting time by tying up a ladder?’ P04.indd 441 2/3/09 16:45:34 40 Writing the lesson plan 442 Now you have some idea about the activities that will achieve your objectives, it is time to plan the lesson on paper. You will fi nd this a very time-consuming activity at fi rst. Most teachers plan lessons for the class; some prepare individualised learning programmes. This chapter deals with a lesson plan for whole-class teaching. The planning process to follow if your students are not being taught together as a class is described in Chapters 41 and 34. Lesson planning is an art, not a science; there is no ideal lesson to achieve any given set of objectives. However, the following points always remain important: The lesson should be planned to achieve the objectives.• The purpose of the lesson should be clear to students.• Final practice of skills and abilities should be as realistic as possible.• The lesson should be logically structured.• There should be a variety of student activities and teaching methods.• On the whole, students should be active, not passive• . The plan should suit the characteristics of the students. Have a look at the • initial diagnostic assessments of the group, as described in Chapter 47. Teacher talk should be illustrated with a visual presentation where possible.• Motivation (remember ‘SPERT’: success, purpose, enjoyment, reinforcement, • target setting). Interest (human interest, student relevance, challenges, puzzles, games …).• Most activities will take much longer than you expect.• Have a stretching activity for students who fi nish an activity early; alterna-• tively, use open-ended activities which always provide something for everyone to do. Always prepare too much; there is nothing worse than running out of material! • (Preparation time is rarely wasted; there is always next lesson.) Don’t forget that activities can go on in series, or in parallel, in different • groups. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. Lessons often follow a ‘beginning – middle – end’ structure: Beginning. Links are made with earlier work, and students are orientated to the lesson’s content. The purpose of the lesson is made clear; some teachers advocate reading the objectives out, but most explain them in a less formal way. Consider the starting activity with particular care: do you need to start with a bang, a quiet settling activity or an activity which accommodates varied arrival times? P04.indd 442 2/3/09 16:45:34 [...]... appropriate for a given course or part of a course They also have different record-keeping requirements Let’s examine each of them in turn 450 Flexible and inclusive course organisation and record-keeping Class teaching Example: Typical teaching of A- level history Here the aim is to pass on a predetermined body of knowledge and skills to a group of learners who have similar abilities, attainments and aspirations... conventional courses, but some courses are entirely organised in this way, especially in recreational education Art and design students working on a design brief are often managed in this way Why use self-directed learning? The adult learning approach Let’s take as our example an adult education evening class in photography Those who attend such a course may be of very varied experience and ability and have... independent and self-directed way Changing to self-directed learning is not easy for students Adults may have a memory of being disempowered and dependent as a learner in their youth, so they may associate education with a feeling of powerlessness, and may feel alienated from learning as a result Alternatively, they may expect the teacher to use class teaching and be irritated if the teacher refuses... and self-directed learning records, as explained earlier in this chapter, alongside her whole-class learning records Students keep personal action plans as part of their individual learning plan, the teacher has summaries Here are more examples of RBL being used to personalise whole-class teaching: • Assessing learner’s needs followed by tutorial action planning This is a form of self-directed learning... state an aspiration in an area of personal interest, and negotiate with you a set of personal challenges that are stepping stones towards that aspiration Ideally, challenges are worded in ways that allow the learner to assess whether they have been achieved Interest: Baroque violin music Aspiration: to play Bach suite or partita Name: Julia Tseling Progress Stepping stones: Improve detache bowing –... though, we will look at the strategies in isolation Whole-class teaching Here, all students learn the same thing at more or less the same time and rate Most teaching and learning is designed in this way Resource-based learning (RBL) Here students learn the same thing but learn at different rates, and may start the programme at different times or at different starting points Consequently, at any given time,... programme at any point, and at any time Many managers are attracted to RBL because they assume minimum teacher support is needed, enabling small classes or even individual students to be accommodated economically But if students are working at a challenging rate, they get stuck and ask questions, so it becomes hard to manage a class of 25 A common problem with RBL is that in order to ensure students can work... negotiated and monitored in a near identical way to that described here and in Chapters 47 and 48 RARPA: recognising and recording progress and achievement This is a highly flexible approach which uses self-directed learning and, if they help meet students’ needs efficiently, whole-class teaching and resource-based learning as well It is required on courses that don’t lead to recognised qualifications,... new targets See pages 384 –5 for some examples Again, the self-assessments are discussed and negotiated, at least some of the time See pages 490–2 Student journal: Students can write reflections on their learning and use these to set themselves targets See Chapter 46 on how you do this as a trainee teacher Chapter 31 deals with learning by reflection The aspirational approach: Here, students state an aspiration... is a preferable alternative to RBL Self-directed learning Examples: An adult education recreational course in photography Improving students’ essay-writing skills on an A- level history course Fine art students learning to paint In ‘self-directed learning’, what is to be learned and/or the student’s activities are negotiated with the student to produce an individualised learning contract or action plan . them in a less formal way. Consider the starting activity with particular care: do you need to start with a bang, a quiet settling activity or an activity which accommodates varied arrival times? P04.indd. recognise a poor lesson, and we all have occasional disasters. Read back over your evalua- tions occasionally: can you see any patterns? Do you, for example, often make the same mistake? Your. relevance and relevance to the real world all play their part, and have been dealt with elsewhere. The other half of Bloom’s affective domain concerns raising awareness in learners, and changing