Instructional Methods (Text translated in the classroom on March 8)

Instructional methods are ways that instruction is presented to the students. These fall into two categories: teacher-centered approaches and student-centered approaches.

There is not one “best” approach to instruction. Some goals are better suited to teacher-centered approaches while others clearly need student-centered approaches (Shuell,1996).

In a traditional teacher-centered classroom setting which is based on the behaviorist approach, the teacher is always viewed as the content expert and source for all of the answers. In such a setting, the student passively waits for the teacher to give directions and information, views the teacher as the one who has all of the answers.

Teacher-centered instruction has been criticized as ineffective and grounded in behaviorism (Marshall, 1992), however this is not the case if delivered effectively.

Student-centered instruction ==> Homework-3

The names of some student-centered instructional methods are listed below. These are based on constructivist learning theory as well.

•Discovery learning
•Cooperative learning
•Problem-based learning
•Project-based learning
•Experiential learning