Combining Teaching Models

Every teacher has their own unique teaching style. After having experience in the classroom, they begin to learn what works and what does not. They understand that some lessons are better taught using a direct approach, while others may be more successful when taught indirectly or cooperatively. The readings for week 3 described four different teaching models. These models are: Behavioral, Information-processing, Social-Interactive, and Personal. The goal of behavioral systems is to change the behavior of the student by teaching him/her new skills. Strategies used with behavioral models include direct instruction and mastery learning. Programs for this teaching model tend to be informative in nature and provide little or no opportunity for students to interact with the program. Information-processing models aim to create thoughtful students who think critically. Strategies for this model include inquiry model and problem solving. Many different programs have been created to expand upon a child's skills in inquiry. These programs often take the form of interactive learning games that allow students to be actively involved in their learning process. These tools are loved by students and are excellent additions to any classroom.

The Social-Interactive model revolves around developing a student's social and communication skills. Group work and cooperative learning are two of the prevalent strategies used with social-interactive models. Many programs promote social interaction and group work. Some such programs include: Google Docs, Webspiration , and Zoho. These are excellent programs that allow students to collaborate on assignments and teachers to determine who did what during a project. Finally, personal models are used to help students see things in a different way. Strategies used for this are mind-mapping and nondirective teaching. Some of the programs that promote personal models are Inspiration and mindjet. These mind mapping programs are a great way for students to see things visually rather than in a traditional, written format.

It is important for teachers to use a combination of all four teaching models throughout their instruction. Effective teachers take their students into account along with the content that they are teaching and determine the appropriate model that they should use for each of their lessons. Students do not all learn in the same way, and therefore lessons should be taught in order to benefit multiple intelligences.