Sunday, February 24, 2019

Teaching Skills



When teacher uses teaching 'methods and techniques in controlled environment of the class, many teaching skills are developed in him. Some of these skills are given below:

   Skill of set induction:

Through this skill, the lesson is introduced to students. Their previous knowledge is linked to their present knowledge in such a manner that no zero is left between them. All the introductory questions are asked in a sequence and the last one is directly linked to the topic in hand.

Skill of stimulus variation:

Here teacher changes the actions of all his body parts in a regular manner in order to save the students from boredom. For example, he does not stand in the class at the same place for a longer period. He changes his position with the change of tactics or stimuli. He can use even his eyes to give them certain directions or to approve or disapprove their efforts.

       Skill of probing questions:

Through this skill, the teacher takes his students to the depth of the lesson. In order to stimulate their creative thinking, he asks these questions. He sometimes provides cues to answer them if students are not able to reach the right answer.

Illustrating with examples:

 Teacher uses a lot of verbal and visual examples here in order to clarify the difficult concepts and principles. Only those examples are used here which have direct link to the daily life of students.

Skill of closure:

It means ending a lesson in the class in such a manner, which creates further curiosity to acquire new knowledge. Students are so motivated here that they want to study next lessons at once. Summary of demonstration and lecture is also given by using this skill.

Skill of lecturing:

This is also called communication skill. By this skill, the teacher keeps his pupils fully absorbed in the lesson and listen to him with full attention without doing anything else in the class.

Skill of explaining:

Through this skill, the teacher explains what, why, how etc. of the concepts, laws and principles in such a manner that no doubt is left in the minds of learners.

       Blackboard using skill:

Writing in a good hand on the blackboard drawing pictures or diagrams there, doing blackboard work along with teaching drilling spelling on the blackboard, etc. are some of the important elements of blackboard skill through which a teacher makes his pupils attentive to his teaching. Pupils also try to learn these skills from their teachers.

Use of audio-visual aids:

By this skill, the teacher uses audio-visual aids in his lesson in such a manner that they become the part of the lesson. When they are used in the lesson, they create the impression that had they not been used, there would have been some flaws in teaching.

       Skill of class management:

Classroom management is an art. Through this skill, the teacher keeps all of his students busy in different activities in the class all the time. As a result of this, students do not get time to do anything in the class without the wishes of their teacher, though they are fully free there.

Skill of pupils’ participation:

Pupils' participation means that direct behavior of pupils that can be observed in the class. Teacher initiates his activities in the class in such a manner that pupils' activities are automatically increased. For example, he smiles at the right reaction of his pupils; he gets extremely pleased if his pupils perform a job in a right manner and so on.

       Skill of recognizing attending behavior of pupils:

 An effective teacher is always very sensitive. He keeps his eyes on all the behaviors of his pupils and tries to know what their respective problems are. Thus, no student in his class feels neglected.

Skill of silence and non-verbal cues:

Sometimes, a teacher gets silent in the class for 4 or 5 seconds. This silence is maintained at a place where students come to understand the next point without telling them in the class. One more advantage of this skill is that a teacher can identify those students who do not listen to him carefully and talk to each other. The teacher uses this skill all of a sudden.

       Skill of fluency of questioning:

By this skill the teacher asks questions in a row without taking any pause and students continuously respond him. The teacher does not think at all what next question he is to ask. This skill is especially used at the time of recapitulation of a lesson.

       Skill of giving home assignment:

Students generally consider home works as a burden for them but by this skill, the teacher makes the home assignment as a source of motivation and challenge for them such as, he links the home work with his pleasure or displeasure, he makes it useful for the practical life of his pupils and so on. He tries to create variation in such assignments that reduces the boredom level of pupils.

       Skill of planned revision:

Sometimes, he repeats the answers of his students, difficult teaching points or a part of any teaching point in the class more than twice in a planned manner. This certainly benefits the students because they can remember them easily.

       Skill of reinforcement:

Reinforcement means those events by which we can increase the possibility of giving more correct responses by pupils. Reinforcement can be of three types.

(a) Positive reinforcement

(b) Negative reinforcement

(c) Punishers Positive reinforcements increase the possibility of a loving response.

For example, saying very good, very nice, excellent, or giving some toffees to students in the class by the teacher etc. are positive reinforcements. Negative reinforcements reduce the possibility of an unacceptable response on the part of students. For example, saying wrong, very bad, very poor, try again etc. by the teacher are negative reinforcements. This alarms the students to give right response only. In punishers, the teacher uses corporal or mental punishment measures to terrorize his pupils not to give wrong answers. Teachers are always advised not to use them in the teaching learning process to the maximum level possible, they should rely on positive reinforcement most and negative reinforcement should be used in the class only when there is no other option left.

It is clear from the above discussion that it is teaching aptitude which developing teaching skills in a teacher and when he is practicing it using these skills with the help of teaching methods and techniques; he becomes an effective and successful teacher scientific and social theories and principles. Thus, so -many learning theories and principles will lead to the development of so many teaching theories.

 (d) Elements of teaching:

There are basically four elements of teaching

(i)            Drive

(ii)           Response

(iii)          Cue and

(iv)          Reinforcement.

All these four elements will need so many teachers’ activities in the class. As a result many teaching theories will be required.
Thus, Gaze has emphasized much on the understanding aspect of learning in his theory. According to him, all teaching activities are expected to increase the understanding level of students. Thus, nature of teaching is mostly cognitive. 

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