Allison Gerlach

Professor Romano

Introduction to Special Education

November 1, 2018

Varied Instructional Strategies

I observed my Foundations of Education professor to see the varied instructional

strategies that a college professor may use. In this class, we are uniquely learning about how to

be a teacher, a topic that everyone in the class is interested in. The professor will implicitly

explain different types of instructional techniques which is something that other professors in

other subjects do not typically do. But, with that being said, she also tends to teach us varied

teaching methods through modeling. One common strategy that she uses quite often is lecturing.

Most professors use this as the bulk of their instruction. The students passively learn the

information that is being spoken about and that is that. In most classes, this would not be the

most effective teaching method but because of the engagement that my class has in the topic, we

are much more receptive as a whole. In classes where you are interested in the subject to start,

you are more likely to enjoy listening to a teacher speak about it.

An instructional technique that my professor uses is that of a “teach out”. A group of

students teaches the class on an assigned topic. The teacher then gives feedback on how effective

the teaching was. The rest of the class not only learns the topic that was taught by the group but

also receives examples of effective teaching and instructional strategies that may not be so

effective. Personally, I think this technique was majorly effective. When you are able to teach

material that means that you have mastered the concepts yourself. While we are preparing to be

teachers and this is directly applicable, in other classes this would be effective as well.
 Another instructional strategy that I observed was think-pair-share. In times when the

class was getting antsy from too much complacent lecturing, the professor would pose a question

that we could discuss with the people around us. By engaging students who may have trouble

focusing on auditory lessons, they are able to apply what they learned in their own words.

Asking critical thinking questions is a good way to test student comprehension and giving them a

chance to share with their peers provides a chance to break up the lesson while still staying on

task. In a classroom with younger children, I can see how this would be even more effective.

Encouraging appropriate social interaction as well as academic conversation is a great teaching

technique.