AIOU Course Code 846-1 Solved Assignment Autumn 2021

Assignment No.1

Q.1 Explain various activities occurring in each phase of teaching while highlighting on the different phase of teaching.

Through teaching the teacher brings a desirable change in the learner. Both the concepts teaching and learning are interrelated to each other. Development of all-round personality of the learner is the final goal of teaching and learning. During teaching an interaction takes place between an experienced person (teacher) and an inexperienced person (student). Here the main aim is to bring change in the behavior of the student.

Teachers teach students at three levels. They have to keep in mind about the developmental stage of the learners so that desired educational objectives can be achieved. These three levels are

Memory level: Thoughtless teaching
Understanding level: Thoughtful teaching
Reflective level: Upper thoughtful level

I’ll be doing a separate article on these levels of teaching but for now, in this article, we will have the gist of all these three levels of teachings along with their advantages and disadvantages.

Memory level of teaching

It is the first and thoughtless level of teaching. It is concerned with memory or mental ability that exists in all living beings. Teaching at memory level is considered to be the lowest level of teaching. At this level,

the thinking ability does not play any role.
students only cram the facts, information, formulas and laws that are taught to them.
the teaching is nothing but learning the subject matter by rote.[Bigge, Morris L(1967)]
the role of the teacher is prominent and that of the student is secondary.
The study material is organized and pre-planned. The teacher presents the study material in a sequential order.
Memory level teaching lacks insight. Psychologically, it is cognitive level teaching.

Merits of memory level teaching

Useful for children at lower classes. This is because of their intellect us under development and they have a rote memory.
The role of the teacher is important in this level of teaching and he is free to make choices of subject matter, plan it and can present it at will.
The knowledge acquired at memory level teaching forms a basis for the future i.e. when student’s intelligence and thinking is required.
Memory level teaching acts as the first step for understanding and reflective levels of teaching. It is pre-requisite for understanding level teaching.

Demerits of memory level teaching

This does not contribute to the development of the student’s capabilities.
Since at this level student learns by rote, the knowledge gained does not prove helpful in real life situations as it does not develops the talents of students.
The pupils are kept in strict discipline and cramming is insisted on this teaching.
Intelligence does not carry any importance in this type of teaching and it lacks motivation

Reflective level of teaching

This level is also known as introspective level. Reflecting on something means giving careful thought to something over a period of time. It also means thinking deeply about something.

Reflective level of teaching is considered to be the highest level at which teaching is carried out.

It is highly thoughtful and useful.
A student can attain this level only after going through memory level and understanding level.
Teaching at the reflective level enables the students to solve the real problems of life.
At this level, the student is made to face a real problematic situation. The student by understanding the situation and using his critical abilities succeeds in solving the problem.
At this level emphasis is laid on identifying the problem, defining it and finding a solution to it. The student’s original thinking and creative-abilities develop at this level.
The role of the teacher in this level of teaching is democratic. He does not force knowledge on the students but develops in their talents and capabilities.
The role of the students is quite active.
reflective level of teaching is that which is problem-centered and the student is busy in original imagination.

Merits of reflective level teaching

The teaching at this level is not teacher-centered or subject-centered, it is leaner-centered.
There is an interaction between the teacher and the taught at the reflective level teaching.
At this level, teaching is appropriate for the higher class.
At this level, teaching is highly thoughtful and useful than the teaching at the memory or understanding level.

Demerits of reflective level teaching

not suitable for small children at the lower level of teaching. It is suitable only for mentally matured children
At this level, the study material is neither organized nor pre-planned. Therefore students cannot acquire systematic and c;rganized knowledge of their study courses.

Q.2 Discuss the planning of teaching with special reference to task analysis and taxonomy of objectives.

Teaching is a complex task. We need systematic planning to perform this task. Teaching has to be done in steps. The different steps constituting the process are called the phases of teaching. Each phase has some operations of teaching which create the situation for learning. Teaching process can be divided into three phases/stages.

Pre-active phase – refers to planning
Interactive phase – refers to the conduct and management
Post-active phase – refers to the follow-up and consolidation

Different phases involve different operations of teaching.

The pre-active phase of teaching:-

It is the phase of planning for teaching.
Good planning makes the task of teacher smooth, functional and successful.
There one two major steps involved in this phase.

Establishment of some kind of goals or objectives.
Discovering ways and means to active these objectives.

Operation of teaching at pre-active phase:-

Before classroom teaching, a teacher has to perform many tasks. This phase includes all these activities which a teacher performs before entering the classroom. This stage involves the following activities.

(1) The formulation or fixing up of goal:-

The teacher formulates in detail the instructional objectives in behavioral terms by using the taxonomy of educational objectives.
Objectives one determined according to student’s psychology and needs of the society and the school.
Objectives are determined according to what changes teacher expects in students by achieving these objectives.

(2) Selection of content or subject matter to be taught:-

After fixation of teaching objectives teacher decides about the content to be presented before learners.
For content selection following points should be kept in mind.

The demand of syllabus/curriculum.
The entry behavior of the accepted learners.
Level of the motivation of learners.
Teacher’s preference for assessment related to the content.

(3) The arrangement of ideas and style of teaching:-

After selecting the presentable content, the teacher arranges the elements of the content in a logical and psychological sequence. Sequencing should be able to assist in the transfer of learning.

(4) Selecting Intuitional Methodology:-

The teacher has to select appropriate strategies and tactics of teaching, keeping in view, of the content and objectives of teaching. This operation is very important in teacher-education programme.

(5) Development of teaching strategies:-

The teacher should decide beforehand about strategies and tricks, which he has to use during the course of his classroom teaching. He should decide about

When and what device of teaching should be used.
When the teaching aids will be used.
When recapitulation or evaluation etc. will be done.

(6) Deciding the duration, place, and management of classroom teaching.

(7) A decision about evaluation tools and techniques.

So, this stage is about working out the details of the teaching or activities a teacher want to perform in the class. Here teacher hypothesizes about the possible outcome of his action.

The interactive phase of teaching:-

This phase refers to the execution of the plan made during the pre-active phase. This is actual classroom teaching. In this phase, the teacher gives students the learning experiences through some suitable modes.

In this phase, teachers give learners a pre-determined environment. The teacher interacts with students so that desired changes can be brought in the learner.

So learning is directed in pre-determined directions to achieve pre-determined goals. In this process, the teacher provides learners with verbal stimulation.
This stimulation can be of various kinds. Few examples are:-

asking questions
listening to student’s response
providing guidance
making explanations etc.

Operations of teaching at interactive phase:-

This phase of teaching

includes all those activities which a teacher uses after entering the classroom.
includes actual teaching done in the classroom.

In this face to face encounter with learners. Here the teacher uses some of the techniques, aids, and material planned in the first phase. This helps the teacher in achieving the relevant objectives that were already set. Here the following operations are undertaken by the teacher.

(1) Setting up the class:-

It refers to the activity of perceiving the due size of the class, getting the feel of the mood of learners. here teacher should be aware of

how many in the group are looking attentive
how many are negligent and disinterested
who are sharper ones
who are troublemakers etc.

(2) Knowing the learners:-

Knowing the learners means to know about the previous knowledge of the new learners. It is done after preserving the class size. For this teacher can start by knowing the abilities, interests, attitudes and academic backgrounds of the new learners.

(3) Starting teaching:-

At this stage, the teacher starts teaching. This is done after diagnosing by questioning. Here, two types of activities are involved.

Initiation
Response

The initiation and response are known as ‘verbal interaction’

The interactive phase of teaching is the classroom interaction between teacher and students. The interaction may be verbal or non-verbal. Interaction is the most important at this stage. This is the interchange between teacher and student by initiation or response operations.

In this phase, all the activities performed by a teacher when he enters the classroom are combined together. These activities one concerned with the presentation of content in the class.

Q.3 Discuss and different between the term task analysis and content analysis. Give examples in support of your answer.

Task and/or content analysis is a set of activities that help instructional designers understand the domain (knowledge, skills, etc.) to be taught. It is a critical part of the instructional design process, solving at least three problems for the designer:

It defines the knowledge and skills required to solve the performance problem or alleviate a performance need. This step is crucial because most designers are working with an unfamiliar domain.
Because the process forces subject-matter experts to work through each individual step of what is required to solve a problem, subtle details of the knowledge and skills to be taught can be more easily identified.
During the process, the designer has the opportunity to view material from the learner’s perspective. Using this perspective, the designer can often gain insight into appropriate instructional strategies for the materials they will ultimately create.

Task/content analysis does not begin in a vacuum. It begins with the needs or goals derived from the definition of the instructional problem. Designers should also consider what they uncovered during their learner analysis. An understanding of the learner’s knowledge and background related to the instructional domain helps designers determine the beginning point for the analysis as well as the depth and breadth of analysis. The output of a task/content analysis is documentation of the content that could possibly be included in the instructional materials. This output then serves as input for developing detailed instructional objectives.

A task/content analysis can take many different forms. Designers most often work with one or more subject-matter experts (SMEs), individuals who are experts in the content area. The SME is our link to the instructional domain; we rely on this individual (or individuals) to provide accurate, detailed information for use in developing the instructional unit. Our task as designers is to help the SME elaborate on the content and tasks in a meaningful, logical manner.

In this chapter, we describe the different kinds of content structures designers might encounter in their work, and how each can require different types of strategies to analyze (and later teach) effectively. We then describe three specific techniques for analyzing these knowledge and skill structures: (a) a topic analysis well suited for defining cognitive knowledge; (b) a procedural analysis for use with psychomotor tasks, job tasks, or cognitive sequences involving a series of steps; and (c) a critical incident method, which is useful for analyzing interpersonal skills.

Six structures are often associated with a task/content analysis: facts, concepts, principles and rules, procedures, and interpersonal skills.

Facts

A fact is an arbitrary association between two things. For example, ‘‘The chemical symbol for potassium is K’’ is a fact that describes a relationship between potassium and K. Most topics include many facts because they are the building blocks or tools of any subject—the ‘‘vocabulary’’ the learner must master for understanding. But unless facts are arranged in structured patterns, they will be of limited use to a learner and are often quickly forgotten.

Concepts

Concepts are categories used for grouping similar or related ideas, events, or objects. For example, we might use the concept of soft drinks to categorize the aisle in the grocery store that contains colas, orange drink, root beer, and so forth. The concept of fruit would include apples, oranges, bananas, and dates, but not potatoes. We use concepts to simplify information by grouping similar ideas or objects together and assigning the grouping a name (e.g., fruit, islands, or democracies). Some concepts, such as fruit, are considered concrete concepts because we can easily show an example. Concepts such as safety, liberty, peace, and justice are abstract concepts because they are difficult to represent or illustrate.

Principles and Rules

Principles and rules describe a relationship between two concepts. In microeconomics, we can derive several principles from a supply-and-demand curve. For example, ‘‘as price increases, the supply increases’’ is a principle that describes a direct relationship between two concepts (i.e., price and supply) that increase and decrease together. ‘‘As price decreases, demand increases’’ describes a different relationship between price and demand that causes one to increase as the other decreases.

Procedures

A procedure is an ordered sequence of steps a learner must execute to complete a task. A recipe for making a cake or casserole is a procedure. Similarly, a procedure could be a series of steps needed to plant a rosebush, or it could be a complex series of cognitive processes required to debug a computer program or diagnose the flu.

Interpersonal Skills

This broad category includes behaviors and objectives related to interpersonal communication, for example the development of interviewing skills, solving group conflict, leading a group, or how to sit (e.g., appropriate body language) when being interviewed on television.

A topic analysis is used to define connections and relationships between the facts, concepts, principles, and rules that make up a knowledge domain. Such an analysis is typically done in layers, much like what an archaeologist finds when excavating a site. First, the top layer of soil is scraped away. Then layers of earth are removed, and each artifact’s identity and location are recorded. Similarly, a designer working with the SME carefully reveals the first layer of information while looking for indicators of knowledge structures (i.e., facts, concept, and principles). Once the structure is revealed, additional detail is gathered for each structure, and new information appears as the designer digs deeper into the content.

A topic analysis thus provides two types of information. First, it identifies the content that will be the focus of the intended instruction. Second, it identifies the structure of the components. We should note that during a topic analysis, the designer might also identify one or more procedures that require analysis. While the topic analysis is not suited for analyzing procedures, our next methodology, procedural analysis, would be appropriate. As you conduct a topic analysis, then, you should remain focused on identifying the facts, concepts, and principles that make up the domain.

Analyzing a Topic

Let’s examine a topic analysis example. Imagine we are designing a beginning carpentry course. The course includes an introductory module on different types of wood fasteners. To begin, we can ask an SME to describe the different fasteners. Our question prompts the following outline:

Nails
Screws
Bolts

The SME considered these three major categories adequate to describe the various types of fasteners. So we might next ask the SME to further define each category. He expanded our outline as we asked additional questions. To get started, we might ask from what material fasteners are made, how they are sized, and how they are used.

Nails
1. Generally made from wire
2. Range in size from 2-penny to 60-penny
  1. Length of nails 10-penny or less is determined by dividing size by 4 and adding 0.5 inch
    1. Example: 7-penny nail is 2.25 inches long
3. Typically driven into one or more pieces of wood with a hammer or nail gun
Screws

1. Made from steel
2. Size determined by the gauge (thickness) and length

1. 1. Length varies from 0.25 to 6 inches
2. Usually twisted into a hole with screwdriver
3. Provide a more secure joint than nails
Bolts

1. Made from steel
2. Measured by length and diameter

1. 1. Available in fine or coarse threads
2. Placed through a hole and then a nut is tightened from opposite side

Let’s examine the content structure identified in the outline. Some of the facts identified in the outline are as follows:

Nails are generally made from wire
Bolts are made of steel
Bolts are measured by length and diameter
Screw length varies from .25 to 6 inches

The concepts identified in the topic analysis are:

Nail
Screw
Bolt

One procedure was identified in the task analysis:

Length of nails 10-penny or less is determined by dividing size by 4 and adding 0.5 inch.

Our SME helped us identify one principle in the content:

Screws provide a more secure joint than nails.

Next, we can ask the SME to provide detailed information on each fastener category, starting with nails. Once he finishes, we can organize the content using the following steps:

Identify the different content structures (facts, concepts, and principles; we might have also identified procedures, and interpersonal skills that we will also need to analyze using other procedures).
Group related facts, concepts, principles, and interpersonal skills. For example, in our full outline of wood fasteners, we would group all the information about nails, then the information about screws, and so forth.
Arrange the various components into a logical, sequential order.
Prepare the final outline to represent your task analysis.

Q.4 Critically examine the pedagogical models of teaching. Which model do you consider most important for the situation of Pakistan?

Instructions in higher education can be organized in different ways: The organization of learning activities can be made by the teacher or by the student.

Student-centered learning environments
Student-centered learning environments reflect the characteristics of constructivism. There is not real consensus regarding the definition of student-centered learning (Lea, Stephenson, & Troy, 2003). However, there is some consensus about student-centered approaches: Students have responsibility over their own learning, opposed to a prominent role of the teacher. The following characteristics are part of student-centered approaches (Beaten, Kyndt, Struyven, & Dochy, 2010):

Students are active and independent.
The teacher has a guiding or coaching role.
Knowledge is viewed as tool instead of a goal.

In short, students are actively involved in the learning process rather than passive receivers of information in student-centered learning environments. One of the objectives of these environments is to stimulate deep learning (Beaten et al., 2010).

Examples of student-centered learning environments
Many different instructional methods in higher education exist that can be categorized as student-centered.

Problem-based learning
One well-known method is problem-based learning (PBL). In PBL, students work collaboratively in small groups on realistic, ill-structured problems (e.g. description of a situation that could happen in real life), under guidance of a tutor (Barrows, 1996). The problem (i.e. authentic task) forms the starting point of the learning process. Students start a discussion about the problem based on common knowledge and their own experiences. Students need to formulate learning issues about the aspects of the problem that stayed unclear during the discussion. Afterwards, they search for relevant literature by themselves. After self-study, students discuss their findings and address the learning issues together in the group in the presence of a tutor. The tutor guides the discussion rather than he/she provides information to students (i.e., scaffolding) (Loyens, Kirschner, & Paas, 2012).

Project-based learning and Case-based learning
Project-based learning is somewhat similar to problem-based learning, as learning is organized around a collaborative goal (Savery, 2006). The difference between both methods is that the vehicle is a project rather than a problem. Students need to accomplish a well-defined end product (i.e. project) and the learning process is to tackle the obstacles they meet when achieving the project. Teachers act as coaches to give expert guidance and suggestions for improvements. A similar instruction type is case-based learning. Students learn on the basis of well-structured cases, in order to prepare them for work in their profession (Savery, 2006).

Project- and case-based learning are somewhat different from problem-based learning, as in problem-based learning students have more autonomy in setting the goals of the problem and its outcomes.

Inquiry-based learning
Curiosity of the students plays big part in this student-centered instruction type. Questioning is the start of this approach. Students need to investigate, create new knowledge, and discuss. The role of the tutor is to both guide the group process, and to provide information to students (Savery, 2006).

Interactive lectures
In general, lecturing is not typically student-centered. In traditional lecturing, a teacher transmits information to students and students rely on rote memorization. However, also during lectures, the teacher can try to turning the lecture into an interactive form, and focus more on the student. Mazur (2009) gives an example of this. During his lectures, students need to come prepared and they are asked (MC) questions. Students answer these questions with electronic devises, so the teacher can see the distribution of the given answers. Students are encouraged to discuss their (different) answers with peers. This way, students are stimulated to be engaged in the learning process and feedback for both teacher and student is provided.

Teacher-centered learning environments
Contrary to student-centered learning is teacher-centered learning. As can be expected in these types of learning environments, the teacher is more involved in the learning process of students. For example by directly providing information and instructions (e.g., in a traditional lecture). Typical for teacher-centered environments is that information is told independent of the context in which it occurs (Lea et al., 2003). Further, teacher-centered environments are characterized as more stable and well-structured (Elen, Clarebout, Léonard, & Lowyck, 2007).

Q.5 Discuss the model of reflective level of teaching and also explain the limitations of reflective level of teaching.

Teachers teach students at three levels. They have to keep in mind about the developmental stage of the learners so that desired educational objectives can be achieved. I’ll be doing a separate article on these levels of teaching but for now, in this article, we will have the gist of all these three levels of teachings along with their advantages and disadvantages. It is the first and thoughtless level of teaching. It is concerned with memory or mental ability that exists in all living beings. Teaching at memory level is considered to be the lowest level of teaching. At this level,

The thinking ability does not play any role.
Students only cram the facts, information, formulas and laws that are taught to them.
the teaching is nothing but learning the subject matter by rote.[Bigge, Morris L(1967)]
The role of the teacher is prominent and that of the student is secondary.
The study material is organized and pre-planned. The teacher presents the study material in a sequential order.

Memory level teaching lacks insight. Psychologically, it is cognitive level teaching.

Useful for children at lower classes. This is because of their intellect us under development and they have a rote memory.
The role of the teacher is important in this level of teaching and he is free to make choices of subject matter, plan it and can present it at will.
The knowledge acquired at memory level teaching forms a basis for the future i.e. when student’s intelligence and thinking is required.
Memory level teaching acts as the first step for understanding and reflective levels of teaching. It is pre-requisite for understanding level teaching.
This does not contribute to the development of the student’s capabilities.
Since at this level student learns by rote, the knowledge gained does not prove helpful in real life situations as it does not develops the talents of students.
The pupils are kept in strict discipline and cramming is insisted on this teaching.
Intelligence does not carry any importance in this type of teaching and it lacks motivation