Methods of Teaching

Interpretation of the data on teachers’ distribution of attention during a
lesson (10 minutes) 
If Student Teachers found that most teachers they observed made a genuine effort to 
interact with at least half their children, ask them to speculate how they learnt to inter-
act in that way. If Student Teachers found that most teachers they observed interacted 
with less than one-fourth of their children, ask them to speculate on obstacles that may 
have prevented them from paying attention to a larger percentage of the class.
In-class writing (15 minutes)
Ask Student Teachers to write about the experience they had observing teachers 
interacting with children during a whole-class lesson. They should address whether 
their observations will influence the way they interact with children during practice 
teaching and, later, when they have their own class. If so, what will the influence be? 
How will they make sure they remember this experience when as a teacher?

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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
Closing (5 minutes)
Ask three or four Student Teachers to identify the most important thing learnt this week.
Week 10, session 3 homework
Have Student Teachers write a report of the classroom observation conducted this week. 
They should submit it at the beginning of the next class session, with their observation data.
Week 11: Constructive interactions 
between students
Sub-topics
• Cooperative working relationships are central
• Examples of cooperative working relationships
• Feelings are the foundation of thought
• Importance of trust and confidence 
Note to faculty 
NOTE TO FACULTY: The take-away message from this week’s sessions is that children, 
including those in class 1, can learn to work together and can be helpful to and supportive 
of each other to the mutual benefit of everyone, including the teacher. Children being able 
to work in small groups or pairs while helping each other is the key to a comfortable social 
environment in the classroom. As indicated earlier, this unit is based on the belief that 
cooperative learning groups and student collaboration (working together) are not identical 
processes, although they share many of the same goals and social skills. Cooperative 
learning groups are organized to achieve a particular academic goal. Collaboration is 
a continuous process intended to produce both joint actions (e.g. shared reading) and 
mutual support for individual actions. 
The challenge for this week’s lesson is helping Student Teachers identify behaviours and 
attitudes that collaboration requires. In week 11, session 1, Student Teachers observe each 
other. Create groups of six and have one person act as the observer. The observer will watch 
the rest of the group talking about the behaviour and attitudes that collaboration requires. If 
you choose to do this, make sure that each observer keeps a written record of the skills and 
attitudes they observe. Ask observers to compile a report back to the whole class. 
Week 11, session 2 can be used to review and consider the behaviours and attitudes identi-
fied through small-group work in the previous class session and to consolidate the groups’ 
work. Pair students together, ask four or five challenging questions, and have them practise 
working together using Think, Pair, Share. Think, pair, share is a relatively quick process: the 
teacher poses a question, individual students think about an answer, students pair up to 
share and improve their answers, and then they share their answer with everyone else. This 
method provides learners with an opportunity to test and improve an answer with a co-learner.
Student Teachers can also identify and create questions from an article or reading for 
homework. Pairs of Student Teachers should read the article and then create a set of 
questions based on it. In the next class, pairs can exchange articles and questions with 
each other. Student Teachers should then reflect on the collaborative nature of the activity.

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COURSE GUIDE: Methods of Teaching