Effective Instructional Strategies: From Theory to Practice
Fourth Edition
Chapter Summary
- Chapter Summary
- This chapter focused on communication and motivation in our classrooms. The main points associated with specific objectives were as follows:
- Learning Objective 1: Explain the importance of the communication process and its major components.
- Effective teachers must communicate effectively with students, parents, school administrators, and community leaders if they are to maximize learning.
- Communication is central to the learning process, for without it, learning could not take place.
- Classroom exchanges consist of both spoken and nonverbal messages, with the spoken message comprising the verbal, vocal, and metaverbal components. The verbal component of a message is the actual words spoken; the vocal component is the meaning attached to the words, depending on such things as pitch, loudness, tone, and rate; and the metaverbal component is the implied, or intended, message.
- Learning Objective 2: Explain the role nonverbal communication plays in the classroom and provide examples of various nonverbal behaviors commonly used in the classroom.
- Students learn through nonverbal communication.
- Students learn from a teacher’s facial language, body language, use of space and motion, use of time, and use of the voice.
- Learning Objective 3: Describe the different types of listening, as well as variables associated with effective listening.
- Listening is a four-step process: hearing, attending, understanding, and remembering.
- Teachers must overcome bad habits and become proficient at one-way, two-way, and empathic listening.
- Teachers have not learned to use nonverbal communication effectively, and rarely—if at all—have they learned to use feedback and to really listen to students.
- Learning Objective 4: Describe the concept of motivation and its relationship to student attitudes and needs.
- Motivation is largely influenced by internal factors, the teacher’s action, and the physical environment.
- We are motivated by our perception of events. Our perceptions are related to such internal attributes as attitudes, needs, curiosity, interests, and sense of well-being.
- There is no surefire method of motivating students. Motivation techniques that work in one situation may be totally ineffective in another.
- Motivation can come from within (intrinsic motivation) or outside (extrinsic motivation) an individual. Intrinsic motivation relates to an individual’s attitudes, needs, personality factors, and values. Extrinsic motivation comes from stimulation within the environment and from the application of desired incentives.
- Learning Objective 5: Explain the possible effects of stimulus variation and reinforcement on learning, as well as techniques for varying the stimuli and providing reinforcement in the teaching-learning environment.
- Central to the desire to attend to the learning process is classroom atmosphere. Teachers should establish a democratic classroom that is attractive and characterized by open communication.
- The classroom should be viewed as a learning community.
- Teachers must use different stimulus variation techniques for gaining and maintaining student attention.
- Teacher enthusiasm can also be an effective motivator. When you show excitement and interest in your lesson, that excitement is often communicated to students.
- A strong beginning for your lesson is crucial for motivating students’ desire to learn. Begin each lesson with an attention-getting device that will stimulate interest in the coming lesson. The beginning of a lesson should be followed up with other stimulating devices that will keep students interested.
- Learning Objective 6: Describe common ways to identify viable reinforcers for use with students.
- Reinforcement is a long-recognized technique for motivating students. Teachers should select their reinforcers based on their knowledge of the students and subject.
- Don’t rely on grades exclusively for providing feedback; offering praise and disclosing the results of assigned work can also motivate students. Reward mechanisms and learning contracts offer more formal motivational systems.