Teaching Approaches and the MAKER Framework Guide

Learning Unit Outcome and Assessment Criteria: LU 8.1.6

  • Learning Unit Outcome: On completion of this unit, students should be able to identify and distinguish between broad approaches to teaching.
  • Assessment Criteria: Students will demonstrate achievement of the learning outcome by being able to identify and analyze the effect of these approaches on several variables:
    • Methods used in the teaching-learning situation.
    • The teacher’s awareness of learners.
    • Knowledge (how subject matter is handled).
    • The outcomes (ends) of teaching.
    • The relationship between the role players in the teaching-learning situation.

Introduction to Teaching Approaches

  • The Professional Teacher: An individual becomes a professional teacher only when they reflect on and choose a specific stance toward their calling. This stance guides and sustains them in the important work of educating learners.
  • Knowledge as Power: Possessing an understanding of different approaches to teaching provides a basis for the reflection on and appraisal of work. This knowledge gives teachers the power to choose ways to teach that help achieve the noble goal of assisting the young in becoming thoughtful, competent, and caring adults.
  • Definition of Teaching Approaches:
    • They are ideas, notions, or designs about what teaching is and what it should be.
    • They represent different perspectives contemporary educators use to conceive the activity of teaching to improve effectiveness.
    • They are open to appraisal, criticism, adoption, rejection, or modification.

Core Types of Teaching Approaches

The Executive Approach (Approach 1)
  • Teacher Persona: The teacher is viewed as an executor, an organizer, and a manager of complex classroom processes.
  • Focus: Using the best learning skills and techniques available to bring about the process of learning.
  • Structure and Curriculum:
    • The teacher leads the classroom and teaches a highly structured curriculum.
    • The curriculum proceeds step-by-step, building on what was previously taught.
    • It is highly structured and values time: the more time spent engaged in learning, the more learning occurs.
  • Goal: To bring about certain outcomes with students using specific teaching methods and management techniques.
The Facilitator Approach (Approach 2)
  • Teacher Persona: The teacher is an empathetic person who gets to know each individual student.
  • Focus: Emphasis is placed on the student above the curriculum.
  • Values and Beliefs:
    • High value is placed on what students bring to the class.
    • Significant emphasis is placed on the learner's prior experience.
  • Goal: To help learners grow personally and reach self-actualization and self-understanding.
The Liberationist Approach (Approach 3)
  • Teacher Persona: An initiator into human ways of knowing.
  • Focus: Freeing and opening the mind of the learner.
  • Goal: Assisting the learner in becoming a well-rounded, knowledgeable, and moral human being.

Critical Analysis Questions for Educators

  • What makes the teachers different across these approaches?
  • What is the main goal of their teaching?
  • Do you find one approach more appealing than the others?
  • Who is conveying subject matter and skills as efficiently as possible?
  • Who is engaging students in meaningful experiences that connect to their daily life?
  • Who is trying to let the students look back at themselves and act in a "professional way"?
  • Who emphasizes "school-knowledge"?
  • Who strives to have good "relationships" with learners?

The MAKER Framework: A Common Framework for Comparison

  • Purpose: The MAKER framework helps to compare and contrast the different teaching approaches. Every teaching approach has its own unique "MAKER profile," which is a variation of two or more of the five profile elements.
  • The Five Core Elements (MAKER):
    • Method (M):
      • The skills and techniques teachers use to assist students in gaining knowledge, understanding, and skills.
      • Includes lesson planning, classroom organization, and how tasks are devised and assigned.
      • Covers how material is structured and conveyed.
      • Covers how student work is judged and how that judgment is communicated to students and parents.
    • Awareness (A):
      • Refers to what and how much the teacher knows about their students.
      • Includes student interests, talents, concerns, personal histories, family backgrounds, and performance in previous grades or years of schooling.
    • Knowledge (K):
      • Covers what the teacher knows about the subject matter they are teaching.
      • Questions how firm the teacher’s grasp is on important concepts, theories, and facts in their specific area.
    • Ends (E):
      • Relates to the purpose the teacher has for teaching and for their students.
      • Addresses questions like: What do you want your students to know and be able to do? What are you trying to accomplish as a teacher? What are your ideal educational aims?
    • Relationship (R):
      • The kind of connection teachers forge with their students.
      • Divergent Views on Relationship:
        • Some believe mastery of subject matter is most important and is best maintained by staying aloof from students’ personal interests.
        • Some believe the best way to help students is to become a friend and caring guide.
        • Some believe in getting "inside their head" to see how they are thinking to assist them effectively.