Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Importance of using a variety of instructional Strategies

ive Blog Guidelines" for directions to complete the following Blog 1 Prompt. Describe the importance of the using a variety of instructional strategies and the value they add to education of students in the 21st century. Evaluate the role technology plays in the implementation of various instructional strategies. How will this impact your teaching of students?
Instructional strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives.
There are several instructional strategies and methods. Lecture, drill & practice, Demonstrations, guided & shared reading. There are interactive instructions such as debates, role-playing, panels, Jigsaw, Brainstorming and Interviewing, problem-solving and Conferencing. It is imperative that we use these different strategies. Howard Gardener has contributed greatly to the awareness that students vary in intelligence, preferences or strengths resulting in a significant impact on their learning. Some students are visual learners while some are verbal or existential learners etc. This leads one to say that differentiated instruction is needed in the 21st century as we have to cater to the needs and abilities of each student. Today we teach a multicultural society where students background, needs, interest, language are all different. In my school we presently cater to special education students and bilingual students. It is through these engaging strategies that students are prompted to learn. Therefore students will take the world by storm and be able to perform in this global village knowing that they are equipped with the skills to do so.
When teachers incorporate technology in their instructional practices this promote students ability to reason and solve authentic problems.
It should be noted that the appropriate use of technology can reinforce higher cognitive skills, development and complex thinking skills such as problem solving, reasoning, decision-making and scientific inquiry. Teachers can use existing technology to transform classrooms into dynamic centers of purposeful and experiential learning that intuitively move students from awareness to authentic action. When technology is implemented in the classroom, students are impacted in these ways.
Society is currently experiencing a great technological advancement and momentum and has found its way into our classroom and it is there to stay. For some teachers however their instructional practices do not reflect the integration of instructional technologies.
If technology is the agent of change then teachers must be the agents of that change in the classroom.
Then there are other factors that we must take into consideration. Students in the inner city schools do not have the same level of access to resources and experiences to those who live in the wealthy areas.
Reference
The Influence of Teachers’ Technology

Use on Instructional Practice: Glenda C. Rakes, Valerie S. Fields, Karee E. Cox
Journal of Research on Technology in Education 423
Summer 2006, Volume 38 No. 4
Instructional Strategies Online: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/index.html
Instructional Strategies and Technology: TEC538.vior.lz-student.pptx

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