Approaches to Teaching and the Four Families of Teaching Models and Strategies Graph

Direct Instruction is the most widely used form of teaching.  My content area is Math and direct instruction is the only method that I've seen used in the fieldwork experiences that I have had in the past year.  I find it surprising that it is suggested to lecture for only 20% of the class period.  But, now that I think about it, that seems correct.  Teachers allow time for guided and independent practice for students to master the assignments. 

Indirect Instruction can be a fun activity when you use an Inquiry based model.  We went into depth with the Inquiry Instruction mode with Dr. Hollibush.  It's a student-centered approach whereby students ask the teacher questions to find out the answer to a problem.  As long as there are good rules made up by the teacher and it is modeled properly, inquiry instruction can be very effective.

Interactive Instruction is another student-centered approach that includes brainstorming and cooperative learning.  Just like Inquiry Instruction, the rules need to be rigid and all students need to be made aware of them.  The emphasis is on making a "judgment free zone" for learning to take place.  The other emphasis is on quantity of ideas not quality of ideas.  I really like this area because I believe truly rich and meaningful conversations can arise when this is facilitated properly.

Experiential Learning seems to have a lot of work involved by the student.  It involves interviews and surveys.  There is no immediate feedback with surveys because the entire process of making and analyzing the survey must be completed before any judgments can be drawn.  I think if you make up a hypothesis at the beginning and try to prove or disprove the hypothesis through surveys, then that can be a meaningful activity.  There is immediate feedback with interviews, but they are limited to a small group of people.  Surveys can give a better view of a topic of study.

Independent Study refers to homework, portfolios, journal activities and computer activities.  I think when a learning contract is implemented, it fosters the development of the responsibility of the independent study.  Simply assigning homework and assuming everyone is doing it is uneventful.  However, when a contract is signed by everyone and the teacher is constantly checking completeness of homework assignments, now that is a wonderful accomplishment.  The teacher can decide to use the homework as a grade or simply check to see if it's done.