5 How Do I Deploy Teaching Theory?
Ben, like the other students in his education curriculum, had studied all the teaching theories back in college. He had also promptly forgotten them. Ben was a hands-on learner, practical in his outlook. He had no use for theory, at least not back then. Recently, though, Ben had connected with a teaching mentor who, after observing Ben’s teaching, commented on how different aspects of it reflected different teaching theories, serving different students in their differing needs. The mentor’s insights astounded Ben, who had never seen the connections between theory and his teaching practices, which Ben had assumed he had adopted on his own. Accordingly, Ben took a new interest in teaching theory.
Theories
Theory isn’t practice. Theory is theory, by definition impractical. Yet you may find that your knowledge of teaching theory can help you discern what students need in their instruction, to learn more reliably and efficiently. You teach as you teach, as a matter of your personal preference and customary practice, not necessarily as an overt reflection of your commitment to particular teaching theories. But your teaching nonetheless reflects certain beliefs or assumptions you hold about how students learn and how to influence their learning. You may not be able to articulate your teaching theory, but your practice still reflects implicit assumptions you hold that themselves reflect teaching theory. When you make those assumptions explicit, in your conscious awareness, you are then able to evaluate those assumptions and adjust them usefully, to improve your teaching. Know teaching theory. It’s more practical than you may think.
Differentiation
Differentiation of instruction is a big reason why knowing the different teaching theories can enhance your instruction. Differentiated instruction is itself a teaching approach or theory. The theory presumes that a teacher can serve students better by fitting the instruction to particular students according to their individual needs. Differentiated instruction rejects the one-size-fits-all approach, demanding instead that teachers offer a variety of instructional methods and approaches, again fitting the varied needs among students. Students differ in their academic preparedness, social skills, emotional states, psychological makeup, and cultural customs and preferences, among other ways. Those differences can mean that students respond better or less well to different instructional approaches, each representing a different teaching theory. Differentiated instruction is thus the teaching theory that pulls all the different teaching theories and methods together, giving a teacher a way to deploy them all to benefit students according to their individual needs. Differentiate your instruction as students need.
Behaviorism
Behavioral approaches to instruction focus on the teacher-engineered stimulus, student response, and teacher-designed reward or consequence to the student response. Behavioral approaches ask what the teacher wants the student to do. Behavioral approaches then reverse engineer a set of stimuli, rewards, and consequences to produce that student performance. Like it or not, and aware of it or not, every time you stand up to teach, and every time you make an assignment, you are engineering stimuli, expecting certain student responses, which you will then either reward, ignore, or discourage. Behaviorism involves examining that structure closely to tweak its design for better learning. To articulate it another way, teachers will teach. Teachers will stand up and talk, lecture, present slides, and require that students complete readings, worksheets, and other assignments. The power of behavioral approaches to instruction is that they encourage teachers to look closely at what all those varied stimuli are influencing, positively or negatively, in student responses. Behavioral approaches also encourage teachers to look closely at how they should reinforce those student responses, with reward or correction. Value a behavioral psychology approach. It is your most objective, observation-based, empirical, provable, and scientific teaching theory.
Cognitivism
Cognitivism is another powerful teaching and learning approach, one that, like behaviorism, you are probably already employing intuitively, if not explicitly, in your teaching practice. Cognitivism focuses on how students perceive, comprehend, organize, store, and retrieve information. Of course, we cannot directly observe any of those mental gymnastics, which is cognitivism’s limitation. Behaviorism is at the other end of that spectrum, focusing instead on observable stimuli and measurable student responses. Yet we can readily imagine how cognitivism could approximate what goes on in student minds, especially insofar as cognitivism draws parallels from computer systems. Cognitivism, for instance, would focus on not overloading students with more information than they can store in working memory. Cognitivism would also focus on the existing mental frameworks or schema with which students would connect and within which students would store new information. Cognitivism would also focus on student rehearsal of new information to move it from short-term to long-term memory and on automaticity in student retrieval of stored information. Students aren’t computers. Their minds don’t work as computers work. But cognitivism can help you design the appropriate mental loads and help you coax students to comprehend, organize, anchor, store, rehearse, and retrieve that information.
Social
Social learning theory takes a big step back from the close observational techniques of behaviorism and the technical terminology and insights of cognitivism. Social learning theory instead focuses on how teachers and peers model the desired knowledge, skills, and ethics for students to observe and imitate. Social learning activities may include the teacher working problems for students to watch, record, and reproduce, with the teacher focusing on student attention and prompting student responses to aid retention. Students may also repeatedly practice the teacher’s modeled behavior. The teacher may then have students work in groups, where they demonstrate the modeled techniques to one another while offering one another their encouragement and correction. Teachers may also assign peer mentors, select student pairs, and form specific student groups to provide the greatest social and interactive benefit. Assignments may also include collaborative projects where students can assume their preferred roles as leaders and learners. Recognize the value of encouraging your students to observe, practice, model, embody, and display their learning to you and to their peers.
Constructivism
Constructivist learning theory builds on social learning theory. Constructivism is a teaching theory that sees students as actively constructing their own knowledge out of their prior experience, immersion in and engagement with the subject, and dynamic social interactions. Constructivism is the opposite of and an antidote to traditional, old-fashioned, and outmoded teaching theory that sees students as empty receptacles into which to pour knowledge. Students are not blank slates on which teachers write their masterpieces. Students instead assemble their own meaning out of their own experience, through their own perspectives, in rich and complex interaction with their own environment. Constructivism urges teachers to limit, reduce, or even forgo lectures and presentations, in favor of active student inquiry and discovery, self-directed learning, problem-based learning, and collaborative and cooperative learning. The constructivist classroom can look completely different from the behavioral or cognitivist classroom, with students moving about freely while experimenting and exploring through hands-on activities. The teacher’s constructivist role is as a gentle guide, facilitator, or coach, rather than a director or dictator. Consider enlivening your instruction with periodic constructivist approaches.
Humanism
Humanism as a learning theory focuses on the whole student, especially their psychological and emotional needs. Humanistic approaches to teaching would generally give the students greater options in selecting their own preferred forms of instruction and activities, in self-directed learning, thus emphasizing the student’s free will. Humanistic approaches assume the student’s basic moral goodness and innate desire to achieve their full potential. Humanistic teachers may deliberately show greater tolerance for student differences and empathy for student challenges, while accepting a broader range of student attitudes and behaviors, all in the expectation that the safe, secure, and affirming environment that the teacher fosters will ignite the student’s interest in learning. Humanistic approaches may also deemphasize standardized or rigorous testing in favor of student self-assessments and narrative reports, accounting for the student’s own sense of their place and role in society. Whether you explicitly adopt humanistic approaches or not, don’t treat students as cogs in a great educational/vocational machine. Instead, see and value them for their humanity.
Progression
Teaching theories all discern some sort of progression in a student’s development, approximating the instructional goal of learning. The construct of a zone of proximal development captures that obligation of a teacher to maintain the student in a position where they can progress, through whatever teaching and learning approach the teacher deploys. Above all, teachers are not to simply let students languish wherever they currently are. Instead, teachers have the duty to push, prod, coax, or otherwise position students in a zone just outside of where they currently are but not so far outside of where they currently are that they cannot progress because of outright chaos and confusion. Keep your students in their zone of proximal development. To describe that obligation in another way, teachers must provide a bridge or scaffold to support the student as the student progresses, only gradually removing that support once the student can stand in the new place under the new learning on the student’s own. Use that sense of keeping students in their zone of proximal development, with appropriate supports that you gently remove as they master their new learning.
Integration
You can see the wide range of approaches to instruction that a teacher can draw from various learning theories. A teacher’s challenge is to integrate those approaches into their own teaching practices. You don’t have to land on one or another approach, as your sole or dominant approach. You may instead integrate aspects of different approaches into your own preferred teaching format and style. You can also vary your approaches across the classroom hours and course subjects, so that students experience a rich mix of instructional approaches. Some students will benefit more than others from certain approaches. Some approaches will frankly frustrate some students, who may outright reject those approaches as useless to them. Don’t feel that every student must appreciate every instructional practice, activity, and method. Continue to vary your instructional forms to reach and benefit all students. If you’re unsure of the value of a certain activity, survey your students across several terms on their preferred methods. You may be surprised at how at least a handful of students appreciate every one of your methods. Consider offering a sound instructional mix rather than going all in on one approach, especially if you find yourself serving widely diverse learners.
Reflection
What learning theory or theories do you recognize that your teaching reflects? Do you have a preferred theory or theories? Could someone familiar with teaching theory identify your preferred theory, from observing your teaching? Do you adequately differentiate your teaching methods, based on different teaching theories and approaches, to serve all students? How could you differentiate your instruction to greater degrees, to serve students more effectively, either individually or on the whole? Do you have individual students whom you know need a different approach to instruction than the dominant approach that you use, out of which you serve the majority of students quite well? If so, could you offer that individual student the different instructional format or approach on the side, as a special alternative to your standard instruction? Do you see insights that behaviorism might help you gain, in the quality, timing, and arrangement of your teaching stimuli, student responses, and rewards and consequences? Do you see insights that cognitivism might help you gain, in the quantity, format, and timing of the material you present, for students to store in working memory, rehearse, move to long-term memory, and retrieve? Do you give students opportunities to construct their knowledge, after the constructivist approach to learning? Is your teaching environment safe and secure, with opportunities for students to direct their own learning? Do you challenge students appropriately, keeping them in their zone of proximal development, while supplying and removing scaffolding as necessary to their optimal learning?
Key Points
Knowing learning theory sensitizes your instruction to different needs.
Differentiated instruction offers varied methods for different students.
Behaviorism focuses on teacher stimuli and student responses.
Cognitivism models student mental processes for storage and retrieval.
Social learning theory presumes that students learn by modeling.
Constructivism sees students as actively constructing knowledge.
Humanism encourages students in self-directed learning.
Teaching theories all discern a progression in student development.
Integrating multiple teaching approaches can serve diverse learners.