Jessica Lerner

ELED300
Module 2: Effective Teaching
Introduction
In Learning & Teaching, written by Don Kauchak and Paul Eggen, the chapters directly
relate and elaborate on the TExES Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities for early
childhood through 12
th
grade through effective teaching strategies to be used in the classroom.
The competencies give teachers a basis to go off of when it comes to the planning of their
instruction and implementing their strategies in the classroom. Planning for effective instruction,
using goals and organization to drive a positive and effective learning environment, and
involving students are the most important concepts that come from chapters 4, 5, and 6 and relate
directly to the competencies.
Planning for Learning
Competency 4 says that the teacher understands learning processes that impact student
learning and demonstrates that knowledge by planning effective and engaging instructions and
assessments. Planning is the essential key to a smooth and engaging lesson; if theres no set
detailed plan, then theres likely going to be chaos and everything will go haywire. Planning for
instruction involves making decisions about many different things such as the content thats
going to taught, the students themselves, the activities for the lesson, and the assessment. These
parts are all affected by factors such as the teacher and his/her beliefs and personal strategies, the
students and their individual learning abilities, standards, the content, and the time and resources
available. Teachers use a planning model to organize the instruction and all of the aspects that
entail it; starting with the objectives for instruction and building the plan off of those are just one
way to do that.
Effective Teaching
In order to understand how to be an effective teacher, its important to look at the
characteristics of what makes up one. These include having a positive attitude and classroom
environment, high efficacy, enthusiasm, expectations for students, good communication skills,
precise vocabulary, and clear transition signals. Competency 3 says that the teacher understands
procedures for designing effective instruction and assessments based on learning goals and
objectives that are appropriate for all. When it comes to developing lessons, organization is
probably the most important thing. A teacher has to be organized in his/her time throughout the
day to cover all content area and to get to all learning activities. By organizing the content,
having students actively involved, and giving them chances to practice and get feedback,
teachers develop effective lessons. All lessons should always have a closure though, which is a
way to go back and look at the content covered; there should also always be an assessment,
which is a way for teachers to see if their students learned what they wanted them to during the
lesson itself. There always have to objectives that teachers want their students to meet during any
lesson (which are later tested through assessment); those objectives and goals are what drive the
lesson and the developing of it.
Student Involvement
Aside from planning and organizing, having students actively involved in activities and
lessons is another essential component to effective teaching. Competency 8 says that the teacher
provides instruction that is appropriate for all and actively engages students. Student
involvement relates to student learning; if the students arent involved actively in the lesson and
activities, they will check out and learn nothing the teacher is striving for them to. Therefore, the
more that students are asking questions are actively involved, the more those students will learn.
As stated before, clear learning objectives play a special and important role in effective teaching;
students are involved in order to meet specific learning objectives. Another important part of
having students involved in activities in lessons is how the content is presented. Examples in real
life, demonstrations, charts, models, and case studies are all effective ways to represent content.
The way a teacher represents content relates directly back the learning objectives. Besides the
objectives and the way the content is presented, other aspects of actively involving students
include questioning; the way that teachers ask questions and the amount of questions. For
example, asking many open-ended questions that have many different answers is more effective
than asking the class only one question where the only answer is Yes or No.
Conclusion
Competencies 3, 4, and 8 from the TExES Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities
for early childhood through 12
th
grade give way to unique teaching strategies and concepts for
teachers to take and use in their own classrooms. Through lesson planning, being an organized,
enthusiastic, and effective teacher, and involving students using clearly stated learning
objectives, a classroom environment can be engaging and productive and support the flow of a
perfect lesson plan.
References
Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2012). Leaning & Teaching: Research-Based Methods (6th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson Education.