Importance of Educational Strategies in the Changing Curriculum
With changing times the importance of educational strategies have been realised by the educational institutions and the educators. The educators are of the opinion that with the growing importance and involvement of technologies into the educational system and patterns are increasing the need for educational strategies. The educators are also provided with the knowledge of how to implement the educational strategies and for which perspectives. The Computer Assisted Legal Instruction initiatives provide the educators and the administrators of the educational institutions, web based tutorials and podcasts which help them to implement right strategies for the right approaches and learning sessions. Therefore, the following essay aims at describing the various types of educational strategies that are implemented and used by the educators to effectively reach to the learners and to make the learning sessions more impactful. In this notion, the essay will also discuss the roe of the teachers and the importance of implementing the strategies into the educational approaches. The essay will also involve certain theoretical understandings to explain the various forms of strategies.
The primary roe of the teachers are to implement proper classroom instructions and to use presentations within the classroom to help the students with their assessments and with their curriculum. However, as opined by (), the role of a teacher is not just to impalement the classroom instructions and teach the students. The role of a teacher is multifaceted. A good teacher is supposed to teach the students effectively regarding a particular topic and along with that a teacher must as well be a guide to help the students in all kinds of circumstances, and must also take the role of a friend, who is very approachable and helpful. Therefore, the role of the teacher is not just to provide the learners then understandings regarding the topics abut rather the role of the teacher is also to take the responsibility of the development of the students.
Therefore, to approach of all the roles, the contemporary teachers are effectively implementing various strategies into their approach of teaching to reach to all the students and to help them through their studies.
Many of the educators and social researchers have opined that strategizing the process and methods of teaching are effective for the learning of the students, as it helps the teachers to effectively plan for the learning sessions, so that the students find it easy to understand all the perspectives of all the topic involved in their daily curriculum. However, some of the educator have also opined that the teachers must also understand that not all the students are equally capable and does not possess an equal understanding of the curriculum or the topic. Therefore, these are the primary reasons for the teachers to implement certain strategic approaches, as the primary role of the teachers to provide the students with a sound understanding of the curriculum courses.
Role of Teachers in Student Development
The educational approaches involve various forms and types, and the three most important strategic approaches are, preventive actions, supportive actions and corrective actions. The essay will further discuss about these approaches.
The preventive strategies refer to the behaviour management of the students. Preventive strategies make the people engaged into positive behaviours. The preventive actions aim at understanding the misbehaviour that the students involve into and further involve the intrusive management techniques. According to Sharma (2016), the preventive discipline involves effective management of the lesson plans, and the transitions that can be viewed among the students. It also includes focus on the pacing of the students and the accountability of the same. Therefore, thee strategies that are involved into the preventive forms of strategy, are,
- Firstly, the teachers must have conception of the happenings within the classroom they must know the perspectives of the students as well.
- The teachers must have the idea of the orientation and capability of the students and therefore they must look into the fact that the transitions that are taking place within the classroom must be smooth transitions. A smooth transition refer to the maintenance of the momentum between the classroom activities. Maintenance of this momentum is crucial for effective group management.
- Third, the teachers must be aware of maintaining the group alertness and must ensure active participation of all the individuals into the classroom activities and into the lesson plans. The .group alertness and the active participation of the students into the learning process will result into optimal learning among the members (Rollock et al. 2014).
- Lastly, the teachers must ensure involving variations in the curriculum processes in order to manage the focus, and attention and interest of the students into the curriculum activities.
In order to ensure all these strategies the teachers further need to practice the following steps.
- Maintaining a positive relation with all the students.
- Involving daily routines.
- Implementing different approaches and different technologies for different curriculum activities and topics, in order to grab the attention of the students and maintain their interest (Thomas et al. 2016).
In this notion, the theory of Skinner related to Behavioural management can be mentioned. Skinner had identified that technological reinforcements and further the systematic use of the same ensure the active participation of the students into the learning process and also ensure optimal learning among the students. He further mentioned four types of reinforcements which are to be implemented or used in a preventive type of strategy.
- First, the Social reinforcements, which refer to the actions of the teachers made towards the students.
- Second, the practice of activities which will increase the interest of the students and made theme involved into the course process.
- Third, is the use of the tangible objects that can be or are used as rewards to increase the participation of the students.
- Lastly, the use of graphs or charts into the process of learning, which ensures the optimal understanding among the students and at the same time, can easily attract and involve the attention of the students (Woolfolk Hoy, Davis, and Anderman. 2013).
The theorist had also ensured the classroom strategies that are to be included by the teachers, and these involve the followings. First, the social reinforcer, referring to the behavioural aspects of the teachers, as well as, the behavioural aspects of the students. Secondly, he spoke about the activity reinforcer. This included free time that are provided to the students after each of the lesson to refresh their minds and to have understood the whole topic properly (Beck et al. 2013). It also includes the choices made by the students to involve into their choices of activities, and effectively complementing the task that they are provided with their choices of equipment.
Skinner was the first one to talk about the reward management approach.
The classroom environment is dynamic and diverse, involving both students and teachers from different fields into a diversified curriculum. Therefore, the supportive discipline or the supportive strategies refer to the reward management and the punishment strategies that must be included by the teachers or the educators. The basic notion of the supportive discipline or strategy is to develop and implement supportive actions for the violations of the rules or the maintenance of the same. According to Haerens, et al. (2013), the students must be provided with understanding that they should be able to control their behaviour and they must grow a conception regarding which set of behaviours are desirable within the classroom perspective and which set of behaviour must not be used within the classroom perspective. The authors have also mentioned that at the intimal level the teachers must include non- intrusive and subtle actions to correct the behaviour of the students, but as the violations of the rules and the misbehaviour among the students escalate, the teachers and the educators must involve or include intrusive and the teachers must learn to take more responsibilities for the actions of the students (Cheon, and Reeve. 2015). Therefore, the supportive strategies are more relayed to, and involve the, misbehaviours that the students involve into. It essentially includes the violations of the rules by the students, therefore the supportive strategies include the basic notions related to the preventive strategies, but along with that the supportive strategies involve some other strategic aspirations as well.
Classroom Strategies for a Positive Learning Environment
In this notion the strategies proposed by Glasser must be mentioned. Glasser had given certain strategies which are followed by most of the educators to involve the supportive perspective.
- First, the teachers must aim at developing classroom goals, and these goals will not vary with the varied topics or varied classes for different subjects. The classroom goals will be followed fort each subject in each session and it will be similar for all the students in an educational institution.
- Second, there has to be certain classroom rules, and these classroom rules can vary with different topics and different classes.
- Third, the consequence for not meeting the classroom goals or the classroom rules will be approached with certain consequences. The supportive actions were the first one to discuss about the punishment structure upon not meeting the goals (Seidel, Blomberg, and Renkl 2013).
Further, certain strategies for not meeting the approaches have also been mentioned, and these are, applying sanctions to the children, involving the practice of detention, exclusion, and suspension.
The educators practicing the supportive strategy within the classroom perspective, follow Jones’ theory of non- verbal communication. The according to Jones, the educator must maintain a body language within the classroom which will be effective and impactful for the learners. The teachers must maintain a self- dignity within the classroom and they must maintain eye contacts with the children while talking to the children. These all refer to the glance and hand movement. Also, the theorists have stated that a physical proximity must also be maintained, and they must utilise the physical proximity in order to intimidate the students.
The last approach to the educational strategy is corrective strategy or the corrective discipline. This is an extended form of the supportive strategy. While the supportive strategy is much subtle in its orientation, the corrective strategy include a classroom management plan. On the observation of the fact that mild interventions are not being fruitful enough to manage the classroom, the educators need to include some other approaches that would help in restoring the classroom culture. The corrective approaches, as opined by Rahimi, and Zhang (2015), involve or include certain extreme approaches to correct the behaviour of the students and to involve them within the classroom activities, by making them abide all the rules. The corrective approaches or the corrective strategies help in maintaining the behaviours of the students. Mubarak (2013), has stated that the corrective strategy, therefore involves lithe following approaches to ensure the participation or the involvement of the students into the curriculum.
- First, the teachers must intervene into the classroom activities in a very positive manner.
- Second, the teachers must not indulge them into any forms of arguments.
- Third, the teachers must talk to the students in a very respectful way as only then, the students will practice the same as well.
- The teachers must not humiliate any student in the process.
- The teachers must also practice to remain calm and composed during the given situations.
- Next, the teachers must continuously come up with plans to approach the diversified situations.
Therefore, for the successful implementation of the mentioned strategies, the teachers must practice the following approaches.
- Using humour to understand and to make the student understand.
- Involving direct appeals.
- Using reminders.
- Lastly, practicing peer reinforcements (Ellis. 2013).
The corrective approach or strategies are usually included during the extreme situations.
In this notion, the theoretical understanding as provided by Gordon, related to classroom ownership can be mentioned to provide a better understanding. The theorist stated that the teachers must essentially practice a problem solving attitude and approach in the classroom and it is further the responsibility of the teacher to come up with a solution applying a strategic decision making approach. In order to do that Gordon had suggested,
- The teachers must develop an understanding regarding the behavioural aspects of the students.
- Understand the reasons for the negative behaviour on the part of the students.
- Evidently approaching the students with the feelings that the teachers is experiencing due to the behavioural aspects of the children (Schmeck 2013).
Therefore, the classroom strategies that the teachers must include, is a formal yet positive attitude which will be appealing and intriguing for the students.
Conclusion:
Considering the present social situation it is evident that the teachers must employ certain strategies to manage the classroom behaviour and to create an ambience within the classroom which will be effective for the students and will impact their level of understanding and will increase their participation in the classroom activities.
References:
Beck, R.J., Skinner, W.F. and Schwabrow, L.A., 2013. A study of sustainable assessment theory in higher education tutorials. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(3), pp.326-348.
Cheon, S.H. and Reeve, J., 2015. A classroom-based intervention to help teachers decrease students’ amotivation. Contemporary educational psychology, 40, pp.99-111.
Ellis, R., 2013. Corrective Feedback in Teacher Guides and SLA. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 1(3), pp.1-18.
Haerens, L., Aelterman, N., Van den Berghe, L., De Meyer, J., Soenens, B. and Vansteenkiste, M., 2013. Observing physical education teachers’ need-supportive interactions in classroom settings. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 35(1), pp.3-17.
Mubarak, M., 2013. Corrective feedback in L2 writing: A study of practices and effectiveness in the Bahrain context (Doctoral dissertation, University of Sheffield).
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Schmeck, R.R. ed., 2013. Learning strategies and learning styles. Springer Science & Business Media.
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Sharma, M., 2016. Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Thomas, P.A., Kern, D.E., Hughes, M.T. and Chen, B.Y. eds., 2016. Curriculum development for medical education: a six-step approach. JHU Press.
Woolfolk Hoy, A., Davis, H.A. and Anderman, E.M., 2013. Theories of learning and teaching in TIP. Theory into practice, 52(sup1), pp.9-21.