Monday, October 24, 2011
Instructional Strategies
In the late 1990's and early 2000's, research indicated that hands-on learning was a very effective teaching strategy yet teachers seldom used the approach. What could be the reason for the lack of use of this strategy? For approximately the last decade, it has been indicated than an effective teaching strategy in the classroom is hands-on learning. However, some teachers seldom use this type of instructional strategy. What could be the reasons for not implementing this teaching strategy?
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I think that the reason that teachers did not implement this strategy in the 1990’s and early 2000’s was because it was a new idea and teachers where not used to it yet. It used to be that teachers lectured and gave worksheets to see if their students understood the information. I think when this new idea of hands-on learning came out, teachers were scared to try something new because they had been using the idea of lectures and worksheets for so long.
ReplyDeleteNow I think the reason why teachers don’t implement the strategy is because hands-on learning needs to have guidelines. First the students need to have the responsibility to work with things and not get out of control behaviorally. Second I think that teachers need to set the guidelines of what to do and what not to do with the manipulatives so the equipment will not be misused. Third I think that teachers need to have the resources to purchase manipulatives and other learning tools so each student can work with one. Because of the lack of budgets in school systems right now, this makes purchasing hands-on tools more difficult.
The only reason I can think of that teachers don't implement hands-on instructional strategies is because it is more class preparation work for the teacher, which also means more grading later on. For example, I created a hands-on lesson that involved centers, so not only did I have to create all of the preparation work for the centers, but I had to have them graded for each center. The advantage to not doing hands-on lessons, is that expository grants more opportunities for assessing the children's skills for the lessons.
ReplyDeleteA connection I made to using hands-on learning is through the lesson plan I created. In my lesson plan the students will be creating their own flower to attach to their pencil which will include the 4 parts of the flower we talked about in class; petals, pistil, sepals, stamen. By creating a flower of their own, students will be able to look at their flower pencil and it will hopefully remind them of what the 4 parts of the flower are. I think this is a creative way to get the students to remember the 4 parts of the flower and it works on their hand-eye coordination through cutting with scissors and coloring with markers.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the reason hands on instructional strategies were not used in the past was because it was something totally new. Not only was it new to the students, but it was new to the teachers, who were not sure how to use it, scared to try something new, and not sure how the students would react to the new strategy, because they had never been exposed to this type of instruction themselves as students. They grew up with lectures, worksheets over the lectures, which were then followed by exams. Just like with anything new, people are skeptical and scared to try new things.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the reason it isn’t used today as much as it should be, is because it requires the teacher to be more prepared with guidelines needed to be followed and longer periods for grading. The teacher also has to put trust and responsibility in his/her students which I think is why hands on instructional strategy is not used as much as it could be.
My class is extremely social, and easily directed off task. I feel that for this particular class it is more difficult to do hands on instructional strategies for that reason. It is much easier to do lecture and worksheets with this group of students because you don’t have to put the trust and responsibility in the students, which could lead to more distractions with a very social group of kids. Although it would be easier not to use hands on instructional strategies sometimes, you can’t just leave them out or never use them at all. They are very important when it comes to the students’ learning because they ultimately learn more when doing things that are hands on. When working with a social group of students who get off task very easily, you just have to modify the hands on instructional strategy to benefit your class and make it work.
ReplyDeleteSome teachers may not used hands-on instruction because it requires more planning on their part. It shows that teachers sometimes take the easy way out and would rather stand up and lecture to the students as they take notes. I feel as if teachers now a days are becoming SO much more hands-on. In most of my courses at UNI we have learned different methods in creating a hands-on lesson. I loved expressive arts because it taught us to integrate the arts into our lessons while also tying into the curriculum. Some teachers may not do hands-on activities because of the NCLB act. This makes teachers feel like they have to teach to test and not teach for fun and enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason teachers in the late 1990's and early 2000's,did not use hands-on learning was because they have been doing things their way for however long they have been teaching and introducing something new scares them. They have there way of teaching and do not want to change it and it takes longer to set up and prepare the class for when they are doing a lesson.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the reason for the lack of use of this strategy may be because of the majority of the teachers in the workforce at the time received their education many years earlier. Meaning, when they were pursuing an education and training in teaching, hands-on learning in the classroom was not sought after. So when new research on hands-on learning came out in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s a few different reactions could have been occurring: 1) teachers could have been thinking with a closed mind, such as, “I didn’t learn about that when I was receiving my education so it’s not important in my classroom,” 2) teachers may have been overwhelmed by the research and puzzled about how to incorporate it in their classroom, or 3) it is possible that some schools/teachers didn’t take interest in the new research or the information wasn’t available to them.
ReplyDeleteI can’t think of any logical reason why today’s education major wouldn’t use hands-on learning in their classroom. According to the education and training we are receiving at UNI, we know that students are different, they are attracted to different methods of learning, and using different instructional strategies is a way to appeal to our differing students and the requirements of the curriculum.
Hands-on learning is huge. Students love to be out of their seats doing anything, and from my experience it is when students are most engaged. But if your education is outdated or you haven’t had proper education and training in hands-on learning, the likelihood that you’ll use it in your classroom is very slim. I’ve had the opportunity to listen to the Dean of the College of Education at UNI speak two times, both times he stressed that knowledge is the access to power. I believe that this outlook perfectly applies to this blog. To appropriately use something to your power, such as hands-on learning you need to be knowledgeable in that area.
I think that teachers didn’t use hands-on learning in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s was because that type of learning was something that they were not used to. When they went to school they were lectured to and were assigned a lot of worksheets. There weren’t many hands-on aspects of their learning. They were also not taught how to teach hands-on learning. Because of these reasons, teachers were unwilling and apprehensive about teaching in a hands-on learning environment.
ReplyDeleteToday teachers still may not use hands-on learning because they are not knowledgeable enough about how to implement it in their classrooms. Hands-on learning also takes a lot more planning and effort on the teacher’s part. With hands-on learning the students need to know what is expected of them. In some classrooms, hands-on learning is not the best method. Some classes need more direction and management than others, but in a lot of classrooms hands-on learning is a great way to teach and get students involved.
I think hands-on learning is very important in the classroom. Through the lessons I have observed, students are more excited and willing to learn when they are able to get up out of their seats. I think all teachers today should try to include hands-on learning in their classrooms. With hands-on learning students are engaged and actively participating. I think a hands-on learning environment makes students more excited about their learning.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I feel like the reason for the lack of use of this strategy is caused by the amount of energy put into different strategies. Usually when a teacher teaches using a teacher-instructed format the lesson tend to be easier to construct and involves less time. Also with teacher-instructed lessons a teacher does not have to worry about students taking a long time to reach the learning goals. In a student-instructed lesson, or hands-on learning lesson, the construction of the lesson takes a lot a time. Not only does it take time, but it can be hard to find great lessons that will get students to find the objectives. Some teachers I feel like also get scared that if they do a hands-on lesson the students will not get to the objectives right away or may not get there at all. This can be a reason for not implementing this teaching strategy. Some students can take a long time to reach the objectives and some students may not reach the objective at all. To teach a hands-on lesson it is important that the teacher picks a lesson that will most likely help student’s reach their goals. It is also important that the teacher is there to help guide the students down the right path to the learning goals if necessary.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of the other student’s entries that a lot of teacher’s probably did not go to this strategy because it was not what they are use to. A lot of people are set in their ways and do not like to change, even if the change is for the better. People tend to think what they were doing is working so why change what’s working. They may fear that they will ruin their way of teaching by trying something new and end up being a worse teacher. Not many in my opinion were probably ready to take step out of comfortable and try something new.
ReplyDeleteI agree that in some classrooms hands on is not the real way to go. I do believe that hands on helps out a lot and I think it sticks with the kids more.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that hands on learning would be an effective teaching strategy. Some ideas that come to mind when I debate why teachers might not utilize it as much is that students have more power on their learning. This could allow them to stray from meaningful learning. It would need to be closely monitored so that the students are taking from the lesson what it is that the facilitator would like them to learn, and not false information. It would be simple for students to make their own inferences based on what they are doing, instead of learning what it is that the lesson intends.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading many of the blog comments, I also agree that there are some other reasons that teachers will tend to not use hands-on learning. First, some teachers may think that their students can’t handle it. Second, some teachers may see the preparation time for these activities as an obstacle. But, teaching presents obstacles that need to be overcome. If our teachers can’t do that then I believe their positions need to be reconsidered. In my opinion, schools should be designed to meet the needs of students by doing what is effective and what works.
ReplyDeleteResearch may show that hands-on learning is powerful but instruction is good in moderation. So school days do not necessarily need to constantly be filled with hands-on learning lessons and activities. I think it would be better to have a few effective and beneficial hands-on learning lessons and activities per unit rather than creating and teaching meaningless hands-on learning lessons just for the sake of saying you’re using hands-on learning.
Use your resources for lessons and ideas, the Internet and technology is great for this. Brainstorm and collaborate with your colleagues and fellow educators across the country. Put your education to work -- it was time consuming and costly for a reason ☺
I think that hands-on learning is very important for students to gain anything out of a lesson, especially lower elementary level students. The reason I think this is because it's very easy for students to day dream and not pay attention when you are up in front of the classroom preaching to them all of the time. It's important to use strategies that will be more effective in getting to their short term/ long-term memory. 3 methods I have learned to integrate into your lessons are hands-on, visuals, and repeat. When using these 3 strategies..it is more likely that students will gain a lot more out of a lesson. As students get older they can relate the activities they do within the classroom to concepts and they will use these hands-on activities to help them remember. If you're lucky these concepts will even get to their long-term memory if you use memorable methods to instill these concepts.
ReplyDeleteHands on learning is very important for teachers to integrate into their classroom. Many students are "doers" and they learn best through this type of hands on active learning. Many teachers might not have used these hands on teaching strategies because the traditional lecture style teaching had been used for so long and this is the way teachers were used to teaching a lesson to the students. That kind of teaching style might have worked well at one time, but as people and culture is evolving so must our teaching strategies. It is important to teach our future teachers this hands on teaching style so they can become comfortable in using this in their classrooms. Another reason some teachers might not want to incorporate more hands on learning in their classrooms is because these activities can sometimes get out of hand pretty easily. This can be fixed if the directions are explained thoroughly and rules are made to keep the classroom calm. Hands on learning is a very affective teaching strategy and will allow our students to make even more connections within the classroom.
ReplyDeleteFor my lesson on multiplication, I had colored tiles that I incorporated in to make the lesson a little more hands on. I think this really benefited the students who are more visual learners. One of the students has been struggling with the multiplication we've done in the classroom so far and I noticed that during my lesson that student was doing really well. I was glad that my lesson reached out to that student and allowed for other students to see multiplication being used in a different way.
ReplyDeleteFrom all of my lessons this week, I tried to make some portion of the lesson hands on, because I believe that hands-on learning is beneficial and also more fun, especially for younger grades. Incorporating this into my lesson plan, however, was more difficult than it would have been to make the lesson expository. For that reason alone, I know teachers get turned away. After years and years of experience, teachers can switch up lessons to be as creative and fun as possible, but within the first years, teachers are still trying to get the swing of things so spending long hours on lessons on top of the hours already spent, would be more difficult and therefore is less appealing. I hope that I keep this in mind as I become a teacher so I do not lose the desire that I have to plan hands-on lessons.
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