Please note the clarifications for this chapter in your text. Clarification 1:
Good teachers make a multitude of theoretical and practical decisions everyday. They interact with lots of students and they are constantly presenting and discussing content in front of the class. The result of the multiplicity of teacher decisions is that some unintentional mistakes can and do occur. If you examine the picture on p.194, you will see the result of one of those unintentional mistakes. Notice the word sufferage on the blackboard, which should be spelled suffrage.Clarification 2:
Teachers are not the only ones who make mistakes. Authors sometimes make mistakes, especially when presenting a comprehensive set of ideas in a textbook. In Chapter 5, we offer several different instructional approaches. With Instructional Approach III: Lecture on p.220, you will notice the following proposition: “If seeking to present complex conceptual ideas efficiently, then use lecture.” Later in the chapter (on p.222) you will find the observation that the lecture method is inappropriate when the information is complex, abstract, or detailed. So, how can the two similar observations be reconciled? Quite simply, they cannot. And the reason they cannot is attributable to the word “complex.” The statement on p.222 is correct. The proposition on p.220 should not include the word complex. It should read:If seeking to present information or concepts efficiently and with a particular organizational structure, then use lecture.
We made two changes to clarify the proposition. First, we deleted the word complex. Overly complex lectures can be difficult for students to follow and assimilate, and as a result lectures may not be the best instructional approach for a teacher to use. Lectures also often rely too heavily on auditory learning. To ensure that students understand complex material the teacher needs to use a number of different learning strategies that include visual as well as auditory modalities. The teacher needs to make certain that material is presented clearly and in a step-by-step fashion. Some teachers fail to translate complex material in a way that makes it understandable and clear. The burden is really on the teacher to ensure that content, regardless of its conceptual complexity, is presented with clarity. Second, we added the idea of organizational structure, which suggests that the teacher wants students to learn the content in a certain way. This is another way to foster clarity. The teacher should have a good understanding of how experts in the discipline (e.g., history or mathematics) have organized concepts and be able to communicate those to students in a way that is understandable.
The Tips for Teachers 5.4 is especially useful as you think about how to present the content and how to organize the lecture format.
