Most instructional activities can be categorized as one of four instructional methods: practice and drill, questioning, lecturing and problem solving or experiential. No one approach, whether teacher-centered or student-centered, is inherently good or bad. How you teach is dictated by who and what you teach.
The method of practice and drill has applications for teaching skills and processes.
Questioning is used as part of many different types of lessons: Types of questions include low level and high level, convergent and divergent, and valuing.
Lecturing is one of the oldest instructional methods. Different types of teacher talk can be effective with different students, but in general the length, complexity, and frequency of teacher talk should be reduced for younger and slower students.
Experiential and problem-solving approaches help students actively take responsibility for their own learning. Such approaches, which are inductive in nature, help students discover knowledge, not just assimilate teacher-identified content, and help them retain information better and longer.
