Meaning of instructional strategy (Paper 1) by Amrita Tejpal

Meaning and Nature of Instructional Strategy

In the early twenty-first century there are many instructional strategies. Similarly, there are tactics used by teachers to support particular strategies. The following provides a framework for thinking about instructional strategies, and then provides descriptions of seven strategies used frequently by teachers.

Instructional organizers, strategies, and tactics. A number of educators over the years, such as Barrie Bennett and Carol Rolheiser, have developed conceptual frameworks for thinking about instructional strategies. The frameworks most often include instructional organizers, instructional strategies, and tactics. Instructional organizers are at one end of a complexity continuum, and provide the "big ideas" that allow us to think about instructional practices. Examples of instructional organizers would be Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences or Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy for organizing instructional objectives. On the other end of the continuum are what are often labeled instructional tactics. These are specific, and for the most part, simple actions taken by teachers within the confines of particular teaching strategies. Asking questions, checking for student understanding, providing examples or visual representations, or examining both sides of an argument are examples of instructional tactics. Many tactics have grown out of the practices of experienced teachers. In the middle of the continuum are instructional strategies that involve a series of steps, are supported by theory and research, and have been designed to produce certain types of student learning. Examples of instructional strategies would include direct instruction, cooperative learning, and the others described later in this article.

Finally, some teaching strategies are tightly tied to the content of particular lessons. Pedagogical content knowledge is a term coined by Lee Shulman in 1987 to describe the relationship between content and strategy and to illustrate how what is being taught influences the way it is taught. For example, an English teacher teaching a Shakespearian tragedy would use different strategies than the biology teacher who is trying to help students understand photosynthesis. Similarly, a fourth-grade teacher would use different methods to teach reading, fractions, or the concept of scarcity.

Learning environments and instructional strategies. Classrooms are places where teachers and students interact within a highly interdependent environment. At particular times, some types of learning environments have been deemed more appropriate than others. For example, prior to the mid-twentieth century in the United States, environments that kept students quiet and in their seats were the preferred environment compared to later times when more open and active environments were in vogue. Both formal and informal learning emanates from the particular environments that teachers create, and these are highly influenced by the strategies being used. For instance, lecturing creates a tightly structured learning environment where students are expected to listen, observe, and take notes. On the other hand, if the teacher divides students into cooperative learning groups, an environment is created where students are actively engaged and in charge of their own interactions.

Instructional strategies and learner outcomes.

Learning is defined as a process where experience (instruction) causes a change in an individual's knowledge or behavior; different learning theories propound different perspectives about what is important and how learning occurs. Behavioral learning theories generally view the outcome of learning as change in behavior and emphasize the effects of the external environment. Cognitive and constructivist learning theories, on the other hand, view learning as change in cognition and focus mainly on internal mental activity. Instructional strategies used by teachers stem from particular learning theories and in turn produce certain kinds of outcomes. For most of the twentieth century, arguments persisted about which learning theories and which instructional strategies were the most accurate and most effective in affecting student learning. Debates among educators and the general public have surrounded lecture versus discussion; direct instruction versus discovery learning; and phonics versus whole language. These debates led nowhere mainly because the selection of effective instructional strategies can not always be precisely pinpointed, and mainly depends on what the teacher is trying to accomplish.

Contemporary conceptions of instructional strategies acknowledge that the goals of schooling are complex and multifaceted, and that teachers need many approaches to meet varied learner outcomes for diverse populations of students. A single method is no longer adequate. Effective teachers select varied instructional strategies that accomplish varied learner outcomes that are both behavioral and cognitive. To illustrate this point consider strategies teachers might use to teach the Bill of Rights to a group of eighth-grade students. The teacher might begin with a lecture describing each of the ten articles and the reasons they were included as the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Students might then be asked to match each amendment with its purpose. Use of the lecture and direct instruction methods facilitates the transmission of fairly large amounts of information to students in an efficient manner and helps them retain it in memory. However, it does not encourage students to think very deeply or critically about the Bill of Rights, or consider its significance to contemporary life. Nor would listening to a teacher promote the development of social discourse skills. Instead, the teacher might use more interactive strategies such as concept teaching and cooperative learning. If, however, teachers use more interactive methods, they have less time to explain the Bill of Rights. Particular strategies, then, have been designed to achieve particular learner outcomes, but no single strategy can address them all. Appropriate use of particular strategies depends upon the type of learning outcomes the teacher wants to achieve.