Teaching Approaches and Methods

Approach

A set of assumptions that define beliefs and theories about the nature of the learner and the process of learning.

Method

An overall plan for the systematic presentation of a lesson based upon a selected approach. Some authors also refer to it as a design.

Techniques

Specific activities manifested in the classroom that are consistent with a method and thus in harmony with an approach. A technique is also referred to as a task or activity.

Learner-centered instruction

In this approach, the primary consideration for choosing a teaching method and technique is the learner – including their nature, innate faculties or abilities, how they learn, their developmental stage, multiple intelligences, learning styles, needs, concerns, interests, feelings, home, and educational background.

Inclusive (teaching)

This means that no student is excluded from the circle of learners. Teaching is intended for all students regardless of origin, socio-economic background, gender, ability, and nationality. In an inclusive classroom, everyone feels they belong.

Developmentally appropriate

This refers to tasks required of students being within their developmental stages. The treatment of the subject matter increases in sophistication based on these stages. Observing developmental appropriateness is also seen as a way of expressing learner-centeredness.

Responsive and Relevant (teaching)

A teacher can make teaching meaningful by connecting lessons to students' daily experiences and by answering students' questions or concerns.

Research-based (lessons)

Lessons are made more interesting, updated, convincing, and persuasive when informed by research. Teachers can gain the latest information and apply new methods from research to enrich their teaching.

Culture-sensitive (teaching)

The teacher is mindful of the diversity of cultures in the classroom, anchoring respect for cultural diversity in lessons. All learners are viewed as unique individuals, and their varied cultural experiences, beliefs, values, and language are accepted as factors affecting their ways of thinking and interaction with others.

Contextualized and global (lessons)

Lessons are placed in local, national, and global contexts. This involves extending learning beyond the classroom into relevant real-world contexts and bringing outside-the-classroom realities into academic contexts.

The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (K to 12 curriculum)

It allows schools to localize and indigenize the curriculum. For indigenous people (IPs), the context of teaching is indigenous culture, using students’ indigenous thoughts, patterns, practices, materials, and local celebrations to concretize lessons.

Constructivist (teaching)

Students are believed to learn by building upon their prior knowledge, known as schema. They learn when teachers help them connect lessons to their prior knowledge, making sense of what is taught according to their current conceptions. In this approach, students connect knowledge and meaning for themselves with the teacher's scaffolding.

Inquiry-based and reflective (pedagogical approaches)

The core of the learning process is to elicit student-generated questions. A teacher's effectiveness in this approach is evident when students formulate questions, seek answers, probe relationships, make discoveries, reflect on findings, and act as researchers and writers of research reports.

Reflective teaching

It is an approach that encourages students to reflect on what they learned, how they learned, and how to improve the learning process.

Integrative approach

This approach can be intradisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary.

Intradisciplinary

Integration occurs within one discipline. Examples include integrating listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills within language subjects (Mother Tongue, Filipino, and English).

Interdisciplinary

Integration happens when traditionally separate subjects are brought together for students to grasp a more authentic understanding of a subject. Students demonstrate this understanding by combining concepts and methods from two or more disciplines to explain a phenomenon, solve a problem, create a product, or raise a question. For instance, mathematical skills like organizing, computing, and interpreting data can be taught in Araling Panlipunan, Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao, and Science, or Art can be taught with Math.

Transdisciplinary

Integration is done by connecting lessons with real life, often by citing real-life applications. An example is indigenizing or localizing lessons.

Collaborative (approach)

Groups work and learn together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product.

Spiral Progression approach

This approach develops the same concepts from one grade level to the next with increasing complexity, revisiting concepts at each level with greater depth. It is also interdisciplinary, allowing students to explore connections among sciences and branches of math. An example provided details how the lesson on graphs in Statistics and Probability increases in complexity from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

MTB-MLE-based

Stands for Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education. In this approach, teaching is conducted in more than one language, starting with the Mother Tongue. It is used as a medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3 to eliminate language barriers in early grades, leading to more interactive classes where children actively participate.

Direct Method

A teacher-dominated method where lectures are given immediately on what students need to learn without necessarily involving them in the process. This is a traditional Outcome-Based Education (OBE) approach emphasizing subject-specific content. Examples include demonstrating how to pronounce a word, add fractions, thread a sewing machine, dribble a ball, or read a map, with the teacher acting as lecturer and demonstrator.

Indirect Method

A learner-dominated method where students take an active role in the learning process. The teacher's role is to ask questions to provoke thinking, imagination, and thought-organizing skills. Examples include students sharing comments on an article, thoughts on a lesson-related picture, or their stand on controversial issues, with the teacher facilitating by asking more thought-provoking questions and leading them to generalizations or conclusions.

Deductive Method

Lessons begin with a generalization, a rule, or a definition and end with concrete examples. For instance, starting an economics lesson with the law of supply and demand and then giving examples, or stating a rule for deriving the area of a rectangle and then applying it with an example. This method is aligned with direct instruction, beginning with the abstract, rule, or unknown and ending with experience or examples.

Inductive Method

Lessons begin with examples, what is known, the concrete, and details. They end with students providing the generalization, abstraction, or conclusion. For example, a teacher might start a lesson on the law of supply and demand by giving many instances illustrating the law, then use questioning skills to lead the class to a general statement, or present computed areas of rectangles and ask students to derive the formula. This method is aligned with indirect instruction, beginning with the concrete, experience, or details and ending with a rule, definition, or generalization.