Methods of Teaching

Activity 1: Conduct two classroom observations in one school 
In one day, observe a lower primary school class and an upper primary school grade 
class. Make every effort to talk with the teachers you observe before you leave the 
school and ask them what they think makes a good teacher. Also talk with your two 
partners about the observations. Come to the next class prepared to present your data 
on the frequency of each teacher action on the ‘Teacher Observation Form’. Add your 
three totals for each behaviour and divide the combined total by three. Bring your 
‘Teacher Observation Form’ to class along with any notes you made in conversations 
among yourselves and with the teachers you observed.
Week 2, session 2 lesson
Today in class (5 minutes) 
Distribute the model summaries (or summary) from the last class session. Give 
Student Teachers two minutes to read them. Tell them that they will be asked to write 
a summary of today’s class and the example summary should be used as a model. 
Today’s class has two purposes: to summarize data from their classroom observations 
and to give them time to write a personal theory of in their professional journals.
Examining data from classroom observations (20 minutes)
Have charts posted on the wall or board so that they are visible to everyone. There should 
be two charts: one for the lower primary observations and one for the upper primary 
observations. Use these charts to tally frequencies of occurrence for each action observed 
by each group. (Each group will present you with an average of their observations.)
List the teacher actions on the ‘Teacher Observation Form’ on the left side of each 
of your charts. Draw horizontal lines between actions to create rows with one action 
per row. Create as many columns as there are groups of observers. Label one chart 
‘Lower primary classes’ and the other ‘Upper primary classes’. Each group will give 
you the mean for each action for their three sets of scores. Enter each group’s num-
bers for each action for the lower primary classes and the upper primary classes. Study 
the charts and look for the most and least frequently occurring actions. Look for 
outliers. Look particularly for classes where the most actions occurred. Theoretically, 
those should be the most effective teachers. Get the names of those teachers and their 
schools. If it is convenient, you may want to invite one or two of those teachers to 
talk with the class. Save the charts, as you will use them again in the next class.

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UNIT 1
UNIT 4
UNIT 5
UNIT 3
UNIT 6
UNIT 2
UNIT 7
ASSOCIATE DEGREE IN EDUCATION/B.ED. (HONS) ELEMENTARY