ED 107 – Principles of Teaching

Lesson 10: Teaching Strategies

Guiding Principles in the Selection and Use of Teaching Strategies

Brain- Based Strategies

Guiding Principles in the Selection and Use of Teaching Strategies

A teaching strategy is the method used to deliver information in the

classroom, online‚ or in some other medium.

The goal of a teaching strategy is to facilitate learning‚ to motivate

learners‚ to engage them in learning‚ and to help them focus.

1. Learning is an active process.

- actively engage the learners in learning activities if we want them to

learn what we intend to teach.

- give students opportunities to participate in classroom activities

- Hands-on-minds learning

- Research shows

75% retention rates in learning by doing

90% retention rates learning by teaching others

Summary quote:

What I hear, I forget.

What I see, I remember.

What I do, I understand.

2. The more senses that are involved in learning, the more and

the better the learning.

“Humans are intensely visual animals. The eyes contain nearly

70 percent of the body’s receptors and send millions of signals along

the optic nerves to the visual processing center of the brain… we take

in more information visually that through any of the other senses.”

3. Emotion has the power to increase retention and learning.

- The more emotionally involved the students, more learning

occurs and the greater is the lesson impact.

- Bring in emotion into the class

- Recognize the power of emotion to increase retention

4. Learning is meaningful when it is connected to the students’

everyday life.

- The meaningfulness & relevance of what we teach is

considerably reduced by our practice of teaching simply for

testing.

- “answering pedagogy”

- Students see meaning in learning when teachers show the

connectedness of the lessons to the everyday concern and life of

the students.

5. Good teaching goes beyond recall of information

- Teaching should reach the levels of application, analysis,

synthesis, and evaluation to hone our student’s thinking skills.

6. An integrated teaching approach is far more effective than

teaching isolated bits of information.

- Consider the Multiple Intelligences (MI) & varied learning styles

(LS) of students in an instructional approach.

- Possess a repertoire of teaching and testing strategies and

techniques to reach a full range of students’ varied learning

styles and multiple intelligences.

An integrated approach incorporates successful, research-

based and brain-based instructional strategies.

1. Rehearsal or constant attention.

2. Build neural networks through concrete experience, symbolic

learning and abstract learning.

3. Engage students in learning experience.

4. More learning occurs through sight. Visual information is more

effective on mind processes and remembering.

5. Recall is easier when it is embedded in music or rhyme.

Brain- Based Strategies

Brain-based education is actually a “no-brainer.” Here’s a simple,

but essential premise: the brain is intimately involved in, and

connected with, everything educators and students do at school. 

Brain-based education is best understood in three words:

engagement, strategies and principles. You must engage your learners

and do it with strategies that are based on real science. 

1. Involving students in real-life or authentic problem solving

Sometimes students ask us when and where they need this and

that they are learning in school.

This question implies that students hardly see the relevance and

practical application of what they’re taught in school maybe because

we give hypothetical studies that have convergent and neat answers

or hypothetical cases that are far removed from real life (Wolfe, 2001).

Example:

Students in fifth grade class were challenged by their teacher to

determine whether public opinion in their city matched that of the

country in public poll regarding the selection of a presidential

candidate. The students researched how polls are conducted, studied

data collection, and learned how to form questions. After conducting a

mini poll at the school, they tabulated their results, and discussed the

reasons for the differences.

2. Using projects to increase meaning and motivation

Projects may not necessarily be based on problems.

Example:

1. Example in item number 1 may be made a project.

2. The class will work together on a presentation of World War II

memories and produce an extremely poignant recording of a song

from the era and display collages of photos and other memorabilia

(Michel Simkins, 2002).

3. Simulations and role plays as meaning makers

Not all curriculum topics can be addressed through authentic

problem solving and projects.

At times these activities are not feasible, so simulations which

are not real events are our resort.

Example:

A sari-sari store to give elementary students experience in

making budget, stay within budget and counting change for bills.

4. Classroom strategies using visual processing

“A picture is worth ten thousand words.”

This being the case we make it a point to have visual aids.

Visuals are powerful aids in retention as well as in understanding. This

help students organize their thinking.

Categories

For Analogy

Hierarchical topical organizer

Web

Episode Pattern Organizer

Concept Pattern Organizer

Time- Sequence Pattern in Arbitration

Process/ Cause-Effect Pattern for Negotiation

5. Songs, jingles and raps

Content can be more easily learned when they give it a tune or

make it into rhyme through personally composed songs, jingles and

raps.

Adding movement to the music or rhyme provides an extra

sensory input to the brain and probably enhances learning.

Example:

Stop, stop, stop the words

With a little dot

Use a period at the end

So they’ll know to stop (Wolfe, 2001)

6. Mnemonic Strategies

Assist students in recalling important information.

Example:

We count the peaks and valleys of our knuckles.

StalaCtites - found on the Ceiling

StalaGmites – found on the Ground

7. Writing Strategies

Make students write their own word problems and make

them ask their classmates to solve them or ask the students to write

down what they are learning or confused about by the use of

incomplete statements.

Example:

I think calculators… Factoring is easy if… I am hard up in…

In Social Studies, you make them write dialogues, speeches,

letter, newspaper eulogies.

8. Active Review

Instead of the teacher conducting the review, students are given

their turn.

Review days are planned and organized to give enough time for

students to prepare for the holding of a review. It also strengthens

synapses.

9. Hands-on-activities

Concrete experience is one of the best ways to make long-lasting

neural connections. Aristotle said: “What we have to learn to do, we

learn by doing.”

An integrated approach is also interdisciplinary and

multidisciplinary.

Example:

If you teach science, you connect the topic for environment with

the kinds of pollution and global climatic changes within the science

subject itself.

An instructional approach is also integrated when it

includes the acquisition of knowledge, skills as well as values.

10. There is no such thing as best teaching method. The best

method is one that works, the one that yields results.

There are factors to consider in the choice of teaching method:

1. The instructional objective

2. The nature of the subject matter

3. The learners

4. The teacher

5. School policies

References:

Book:

Corpuz, Brenda B. & Gloria G. Salandanan. (2003). 

Principles and Strategies of Teaching.Quezon City: Lorimar

Publishing Co.

Online:

http://Effective Teaching Strategies.html

http://Teaching strategies.html

https://feaweb.org/brain-based-learning-strategies

http://www.slideshare.net/miggy27/principles-of-teaching

https://www.boundless.com/education/textbooks/boundless-education-

textbook/working-with-students-4/teaching-strategies-21/effective-

teaching-strategies-64-12994/