Lesson 10

Demonstration in Teaching

(Good Demonstration is Good Communication)

• In demonstration, you have to use both verbal and action communication for your learners to understand what you are taking and what you are showing to them. But a good demonstrator must present or show how a specific thing is done while following it up an explanation. It is best for your learners to see it in actual or to do it while showing showing it, for them to really understand it. To be a good demonstrator you have to make your demonstration lively and interesting to get the attention of your audience so that, they would be able to participate. Once they have been participated with communication between you and your audience. 

DEMONSTRATION

• Is showing how a thing is done emphasizing the salient merits, utility and efficiency of concept, a method or a process or an attitude.
• Demonstration is a method of presentation of skill which shows a particular procedure is performed.
• Demonstration increases interest of students and persuades them to adopt recommended practices.
• A good demonstrator is an audio-visual presentation. It is not enough that the teacher talks. To be effective, his/her demonstration must be accompanied by some visuals.

Guiding principles that we must observe in using demonstration as a teaching-learning experience: Edgar Dale (1969)

1. Establish rapport.
2. Avoid COIK fallacy (Clear Only If Known)
3. Watch for key points.

Planning and Preparing for Demonstration Brown (1969)

1. What are our objectives?
2. How does your class stand with respect to these objectives?
3. Is there a better way to achieve your ends?
4. Do you have access to all necessary materials and equipment to make the demonstration?
5. Are you familiar with the sequence and content of the proposed demonstration?
6. Are the time limits are realistic?

Several points to observe in the actual conduct of demonstration: Dale (1969)

1. Set the tone for good communication.
2. Keep your demonstration simple.
3. Do not wander from the main ideas.
4. Check to see if your demonstration is being understood.
5. Do not hurry your demonstration.
6. Do not drag out your demonstration.
7. Conclude with a summary.
8. Hand out written materials at the conclusion.

What questions can you ask to evaluate your classroom demonstration? Dale (1969)

1. Was your demonstration adequately and skillfully prepared?
2. Did you follow the step-by-step plan?
3. Was the demonstration itself correct?
4. Did you keep checking to see that all your students where concentrating on what you were doing?
5. Could every person see and hear?
6. Did you help students do their own generalizing?
7. Did you take enough time to demonstrate the key points?
8. Did you review and summarize the key points?
9. Did your students participate in what you were doing by asking thoughtful questions at the appropriate time?
10. Did your evaluation of student learning indicate that your demonstration achieved its purpose?

Lesson 9

Teaching with Dramatized Experiences

Dramatic is a something that is stirring or affecting or moving.

Formal Dramatized Experiences

1. Plays - depict life, character, or culture or a combination of all three.
2. Pageants - usually community dramas that are based on local history, presented by local actors.

Less Formal Dramatized Experiences

1. Pantomime - is the art of conveying a story through bodily movements only.
2. Tableau - is a picture like scene composed of people against a background.
3. Puppets - unlike regular stage play, it can present ideas with extreme simplicity without elaborate scenery or costume yet effective. An inanimate object, constructed of wood, cloth, plastic, cardboard.

Types of Puppets 

• The Marionette - are generally fashioned from wood and resemble a human body.

• Shadow Puppets - similar to the marionette, but less sophisticated, is the shadow puppet are generally flat characters created from heavy paper or cardboard.

• Stick Puppets - as simple as a styrofoam ball head attached to a stick, or a two-dimensional picture attached to a stick.

• Hand Puppets - most common type of puppet they are relatively simple to create.

• Mouth Puppets - 

• Rod Puppets - flat cut out figures tacked to a stick, with one or slender stick.

• Glove and Finger Puppets - make used of old gloves to which shall costumed figure are attached.

Lesson 8

Teaching with Contrived Experiences

Introduction

     If for one reason or another, we cannot employ direct experiences as materials for instruction, let us make use of an "edited" version of direct experiences, the contrived experiences.

Abstraction

     The model of the atom, the globe, the planetarium, the simulated election process and the preserved specimen fall under contrived experiences, the second band of experiences in Dale's Cone of Experience.

Contrived Experiences - these are "edited" copies of reality and are used as substitutes for real things when it is not practical or do the real thing in the classroom. These are designed to simulate to real life situation.

These include:

Model 

 - is a reproduction of a real thing in a small scale, or large scale or exact size. It is a substitute for a real thing which may or may not be operational.

Mock-up 

 - is an arrangement of real device or associated devices, displayed in such a way that representation of reality is created. The mock-up may be simplified in order to emphasize certain features.

 - Is a special model where the pars of a model are single out, heightened and magnified in order to focus on that part or process under study.

Specimen

 - is any individual or item considered typical of a group, class or whole.

Objects

 - may also include artifacts displayed in a museum or objects displayed in exhibits or preserved insect's specimen in science.

Simulation

 - is a representation of manageable real event in which the learner is active participants engage in learning a behavior or in applying previously acquired skills or knowledge.

 - simulations need not have a winner.

 - seem to be more easily applied to study of issues rather than to process.

Games

 - played to win

 - are used of any of these purposes

Purposes:

• To practice and/or to refine knowledge/skills already a acquire
• To identify gaps or weaknesses in knowledge or skills
• To serve as a summation or review
• To develop new relationships among concepts and principles

Why do we make use of contrived experiences?

     We use models, mock-ups, specimen and objects to:

1. Overcome limitation of space and time
2. To edit "reality" for use to be able to focus on parts or a process of a system that we intend to study
3. To overcome difficulties of size
4. To understand the inaccessible, and
5. Help the learners understand abstractions

Lesson 7

Direct Purposeful Experiences and Beyond

• From the rich experiences that our senses bring, we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives.
• Direct experiences are first hand experiences that serve as the foundation of learning. The opposite of direct experiences are indirect or vicarious experiences.
• Direct experiences lead us to concept formation and abstraction. We should not end our lessons knowing only the concrete. W go beyond the concrete by reaching the level of abstract concepts.
• Direct experiences are basically what the students can learn by doing it. This way of teaching is known to be the most effective way of teaching the students because experiences are the best teacher.

What are referred to as direct, purposeful experiences?

     These are our concrete and first hand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning.

• These are the rich experiences that our series bring from which we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives (Dale, 1969). They are sensory experiences.

Examples of Direct Activities

- Preparing meal

- Doing Power point

- Delivering a speech

• In contrast, indirect experiences are experiences of other... people that we observe, read or hear about.
• They are not our own self-experiences are experiences in the sense that we see, read and hear about them. They are not first-hand but rather vicarious experiences.

What are these direct experiences described to be purposeful?

• They are experiences that are internalized in the sense that these experiences involve the asking of questions that have significance in the life of the person undergoing the direct experiences.
• These experiences are undergone in relation to a purpose, i.e learning.
• It is done in relation to a certain learning objective.

Lesson 6

 USING AND EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

      The use of instructional material can be effective if it is properly selected depending on the topic and if it is properly used. It should be appropriate and satisfactory for the ultimate goal of facilitating learning. There are guidelines to be followed and the first is the selection of instructional materials.

These are factors to be considered as standards for the selection of instructional materials:

• Do the materials  give a true picture of the ideas they present?
• Do the materials contribute meaningful content the topic under study?
• Is the materials appropriate for the age, intelligence and experience of the learners.
• Is the physical condition of material satisfactory?
• IS there a teachers guide  to provide a briefing for effective use?
• Can the material in question  to make the students better thinkers and develop their critical faculties?
• Is the material worth the time, expense and effort evolved?

      The second guideline is the usage of instructional materials. After you have properly selected the material, you should as well effectively utilize it. According to Thomas Nagel, to ensure effective utilization of the instructional material, he advised us to abide by the acronym PPPF.

Prepare yourself - It simply means that you should know your lesson objective and your expectation from the class after the session. There should be a planning ahead on how you're going to proceed  the discussion and evaluate after.

Prepare your students - It implies setting class expectation and learning goals. This comes by throwing them guide questions and motivating them as a way of keeping them interested and engaged.

Present the material - It means you should rehearsed first the materials you are going to use before presenting them to the class. This is important especially if the materials you are using are mechanical in nature, for example, power points and other multimedia presentations. This is to avoid what they call as R.O.G. Syndrome of Running Out of Gas. This syndrome usually occurs due to lack of planning.

Follow Up - The main function of using instructional material is to achieve an objective and that is ultimately the learning of the students.Using this is not an end in itself but a means to an end so there is a need for follow up to know if you have attained your objective.