1) CONSTRUCTIVIST
APPROACH

Constructivist Approach
• Views learning as a process
of constructing meaning
which is greatly influenced
by the learners’
accumulated experiences
and understandings.
• Social process in which
learners construct meaning
through the “interaction of
prior knowledge and new
learning events.”

Constructivism
• The absorption or
assimilation of
knowledge is somewhat
personal and therefore
no two learners can
build up the same
meaning out of one
situation.
• Knowledge therefore is
the result of the learners
own construction of
reality.

Constructivism ≅ Knowledge
“A continuous creation of rules to explain an
observation, and in the process, checks new
information against prior knowledge to come up
with new understanding.”
New Information Prior Knowledge
New Understanding

Role of a Teacher
Constructivist Perspective
• Teaching is not considered as merely
transmitting knowledge and
information (facts, concepts,
principles, etc…) to students but
rather as providing students with
relevant experiences from which they
can construct their own meaning.
• The teacher ceases to be the
traditional “sole source of authority
in the classroom.”

Role of a Teacher
• With proper recall of existing
knowledge which they gain through
experience. A teacher guides through
skillful questioning and appropriate
cognition process.
• Lessons must be activity-oriented.
• Participation with understanding
enables the students to “live through”
a learning episode, thus discovering
information by their own.

Pointers / Suggestions
1. In introducing a lesson, always find connection
with the previous one through a review or a
recount of observations during a past learning
activity.
2. Inquiry teaching suits the constructivists. The
teacher poses a problem, asks questions and
facilitates free probe into a particular subject.
Both teacher and students engage in open
discussions and dialogue, honest exchange of
ideas and collaboratively draw conclusions.

Pointers / Suggestions
3. Reflection is an important activity wherein
the learner recaptures an experience, thinks
about it and evaluates it. Through an analysis
of experiences, new understandings and
insights are gained. After a learning activity,
the teacher must allow time fro reflection.
Only then will the experiences gained be
useful in arriving at new interpretations and
conclusions.

Pointers / Suggestions
4. Plan learning activities that will develop critical
thinking skills, creativity and innovativeness such
as performing own experiments and in-depth
investigations. Research activities likewise
promote the search for new information based
on prior knowledge.
5. Since construction and reconstruction of
meanings is an active and uniquely individual
process, students must be encouraged to work
independently. They must be allowed to test
their own ideas. Self-discovered information
create more meaningful concepts.

Video: Constructivist Learning

2) DISCUSSION

Discussion
• Refers to free
communication of ideas
between the teacher and
students and among the
students as well.
• Orderly verbal interchange.
• Employed to clarify some
points during a learning
activity or as a check at the
end to find out if the
objective of the lesson has
been achieved.

Discussion (Interchangeably termed Discourse)
• Externalization of the
thinking process.
• Encourages students to
express their ideas, thereby
enhancing their thinking
skills.
• “Thinking Out Loud.” –
Provides the teacher a means
of viewing what is going on in
the students’ minds, thus
providing an opportunity to
correct immediately any
misconceptions or wrong
direction of thinking.

Objectives as a Teaching Strategy
1. To improve students’ critical
thinking reasoning.
2. To facilitate students’
construction of meaning
from a learning activity,
hence strengthen their
existing cognitive structures.
3. To help ensure
comprehension and improve
the ability to think creatively.

Objectives as a Teaching Strategy
4. To promote students’
involvement in open
discussions and sustain their
interest as the lesson
progresses.
5. To provide opportunity for
them to analyze their own
thinking process, at the
same time motivating them
to engage in discourse even
beyond the classroom
setting.

Objectives as a Teaching Strategy
6. To help them gain
important communication
skills such as stating ideas
clearly, listening to others,
responding to others in
appropriate ways, and
learning how to ask good
questions.

Pointers
1. The teacher’s questioning technique is put to a
test. Ask a variety of questions that would
require reasoning, analyzing and evaluating.
“Why” and “how” questions would encourage
them to discuss rather than “what.”
2. A question-and-answer format makes both the
teacher and students alert and focused on the
particular topic, thus minimizing irelevant
answers or ideas.

Pointers
3. Free-wheeling discussions encourage students
to volunteer their own ideas, resulting in
maximum generation of answers, solution or
alternatives.
4. Participating in a discussion enhances one’s
attitude of willingness to share as well as one’s
ability to listen to others.
5. Use discussion together with other
methodologies of teaching and in a variety of
clasroom situations.

Pointers
6. Allow sufficient time from them to think and
discuss. Too much teacher-talk discourage
students to open up.
7. The teacher must be tactful enough to guide
the discussion towards a particular objective
she has set for the lesson. She may prepare a
set of guide questions for her own use.

3) Lecture

Lecture
• A kind of oral presentation delivered by an
expert.
• It is simply a straight talk on a particular
topic that needs an in-depth explanation.
• It is recommended for older students who
can benefit from a “one-way” but focused
discourse on content.
• Because of its very specific nature, the
audience who usually belongs to the same
discipline, is prepared to listen with a
high degree of expectation.

Lecturer
• Regarded as an authority in
the special topic he is
requested to speak on.
• Since the lecturer may not
be the regular teacher, the
new knowledge provider is
easily welcomed.
• A lecturer capitalizes on
influence, impressiveness
and convincing personality.

Advantages
1. The lecturer is a recognized authority in his field.
The students will look up to him as a source of
accurate, reliable and scholarly treatise.
2. The attention of older students is easily
captured.
3. The lecturer is knowledgeable and most likely is
a practitioner, hence they are assumed of fresh
and updated information.
4. The lecture can form part of the school’s
document and researchers can refer to it.

Pointers
1. Prepare the students for the lecture session.
State the purpose of the learning activity.
2. A short introduction about the speaker will
help boost his credibility and the students
acceptance.
3. A brief background of the lesson may be
given to help them catch the salient points in
the entire discourse.

Pointers
4. Make sure that the choice of the lecturer is
agreed upon by those concerned if it is to be
held for a big audience.
5. The lecturer shall likewise be briefed on the
age level and composition of his audience,
the time allowed and if an open forum is to
follow.

4) Simulations

Primary Function of a Simulation:
a) To generate movement
toward a target or defined
path.
b) To compare effects of their
action with true path and
detect errors.
c) To utilize this error signal
to redirect the system.

Simulator
A training device that
represents reality very
closely but in which the
complexity of events
can be controlled.

Students learn from a Simulator…
1. As a direct result of
the experience in the
simulations
2. As a result of the
activities of
discussions that
follow.

Effectiveness
1. The learning tasks can be made much
less complex than they are in the real
world. The activities can therefore be
conducted without being exposed to
harmful environments.
2. They permit students to learn from
self-generated feedback.
3. They learn through their own senses
the corrective behavior necessary
rather than through verbal
descriptions.

Effectiveness
4. The simulators as a teaching device
can be used repeatedly.
5. Research revealed that computer-
based simulations had positive
effects on the student’s attitudes. It
can likewise arouse interest and
heighten motivation especially in
problem-solving tasks.

Effectiveness
6. It increases students’ confidence in
trying own solutions.
7. When students work in teams, they
develop empathy and higher
tolerance for others after the
simulation experience.

Steps / Procedures
1. The teachers presents the topic to
be explored and the concepts
embedded in the actual simulation.
2. The teacher introduces the rules,
procedures, scoring and decisions to
be made.
3. He organizes the students into the
various roles and conducts a short
practice session. He sets the
scenario.

Steps / Procedures
4. The actual simulation
follows. The students
participate in the game or
simulation and the
teacher functions as
referee and coach. They
may stop at some points
to clarify misconceptions.

Steps / Procedures
5. Participants debriefing. Depending on
the outcomes of the game the teacher
may help the students to focus on:
I. The events and their perceptions and
reaction.
II. Analyzing the process.
III. Comparing the simulation to the real
world.
IV. Relating the activity to course content.
V. Appraising and redesigning the
simulation.

Role of the Teachers
1. To raise the consciousness about the
concepts and principles under pinning the
simulations and their own reactions.
2. He assumes the assistance functions such as:
a) Explaining
b) Refereeing
c) Coaching
d) Discussing

Role of the Teachers
3. He assumes important management
functions. He oversees the preparations of
the simulators, including the choice of
materials to be used and the scenes needed
for the role playing.

5) Concept
Teaching

Concept
• Mental abstractions /
categories for things in the
physical world.
• It refers to the way knowledge
and experiences are sorted
out to form a specific class.
Once concept is distinguished
from the other concepts
through its attributes.

Concept Teaching
• The purpose of this model is to teach students a
concept and the skills necessary to attain an
understanding of the concept. Students construct
meaningful understanding of the critical attributes
of a concept.
• Based on the assumption that concept formation
begins at an early stage when children at 9 and 12
months of age start with object-sorting and object-
preference behavior. Such initial activity leads to
classifying and generalizing which serve as bases
for concept learning.

Concept Learning
Essentially sorting out
and putting things into a
specific class.

Concept Learning Helps the Learner:
• Understand specific concepts.
• Understand the nature of concepts.
• Utilize logical reasoning and higher level thinking.
• Improve Communication.

Jerome Bruner’s 3 Distinct Modes of Learning (1984):
1. Enactive Mode – Learning
by doing.
2. Iconic Mode – Learning
by forming mental
images.
3. Symbolic Mode –
Learning through a series
of abstract symbols.

Presenting the Concept
A. Expository or Rule-to-Example Method –
The teacher defines the concept for the
students and then provides them examples
to reinforce their understanding. This is also
referred to as deductive way of presenting a
lesson – from general to particular examples.
Examples:
– Vertebrates are animals with backbone. Fish,
birds and dogs are vertebrates. They have
backbones.

Presenting the Concept
B. Interrogatory or the Example-to-Rule Method –
The examples are given first and the students
discover the concept themselves through the
process of logical reasoning. This method is also
termed Inductive Method of presenting a
lesson.
Examples:
– Fish, birds and dogs, upon examination, were found
out to possess backbone or vertebrate column,
hence they belong to a group called vertebrates.

Approaches Used In Concept Teaching
1. Direct Presentation
Approach – This
approach uses the
rule-to-example
method or the
deductive method.
Example: Oxygen is
needed by all living
things. Trees are living
things, hence need
oxygen.

Approaches Used In Concept Teaching
2. Concept Attainment Approach
– This approach assists the
students to arrive at a concept
using the example-to-rule
method or the inductive
method. Example: Organisms
can emit their own light.
Fireflies produce light. Certain
fishes are light producers. Said
organisms exhibit
bioluminescence.

Steps / Pointers
1. Defining the objectives of the lesson to get
students ready to learn.
2. Input of examples and non-examples. In
deductive method, the concept is given first,
then the examples. In the inductive method,
examples are given first.
3. Testing for attainment and understanding.
Additional examples and non-examples are
given to test students’ understanding of the
concept.
4. Analysis of their thinking and integration of
learning. Students are asked to examine their
own decisions.

6) Synectics

Synectics
• Anchored on its enormous
potential in enhancing the
students’ creativity. A generous
use of analogies work best in
analyzing learning situations
that call for new solutions,
ideas and ways in doing things.
• Synectics as a teaching model
requires students to formulate
analogies.

Analogy
• A logical or assumed
relation between two
things.

3 Types of Analogies Worth Analyzing
1. Personal Analogy – This kind of comparison
shows how the students emphasize with the
ideas or objects. They identify with an object,
plant, animal or with other persons. The
element that should be watched in the analysis
is the emphatic involvement.
2. Direct Analogy – This kind of comparison is
made between two objects or concepts. The
objects being compared need not be identical.

3 Types of Analogies Worth Analyzing
3. Symbolic Analogy or Compressed Conflict –
The metaphoric comparison consists of a 2-
word description of a situation, object or
feeling which appear to be opposites or
contradictions.

Video: Synectics

7) Integrative
Approach

Integrative Approach
• Aims to teach “organized bodies of knowledge.”
• This model presents a comprehensive
collection of systematically arranged
knowledge such as facts, concepts and
principles.
• The teacher assists the learners to analyze,
synthesize and evaluate said information in
order to gain deep understandings, at the same
time develop critical thinking and the ability to
scientifically process information.

Guidelines / Pointers
1. The students should feel free to give their
own conclusions, inferences or speculations
after making their analysis and presentation
of evidences.
2. Make sure they are provided with all the
needed information in order to insure
success, since they will try to make
conjectures only on what they see during the
presentation.

Guidelines / Pointers
3. Open-ended questions will make the infer or
hypothesize based on their experience. They
develop critical thinking and creative
organizing of information.
4. Guide them in discovering relationships
among facts and concepts that could lead to
accurate conclusions. Present them in
tabulations and diagrams for ease in seeing
patterns, trends or similarities in
characteristics.

Guidelines / Pointers
5. Practice them in categorizing or sorting out
objects, organisms and experiences based on
common attributes.

Video: Kid President's Pep Talk to
Teachers and Students!