Teacher-led Lessons Research Articles

Learning to listen and look: the shift from the monitorial system of education to teacher-led lessons

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the relationship between the senses, power and educational change. A case study of a significant shift in instruction methods will be used to show how educational change is related to both the senses and to power. The monitorial system of education, as developed by Bell and Lancaster in the early 19th century, was a system that facilitated the instruction of large numbers of pupils by just one teacher. Most of the instruction was conducted by pupils, older and/or more experienced children, whereas the teacher had an overarching responsibility for overlooking the “machinery” without teaching much himself. In the second half of the 19th century the method was replaced by a new method in public elementary schools. From now on teacher-led lessons came to be the norm for what mass education should look like. This momentous change meant, among other things, that the relationship between pupils and teacher was transformed as the teacher increasingly was supposed to hold lessons, whereas the pupil to a greater extent became associated with listening to and closely observing a lesson.

Patterns of discursive interactions in primary classrooms: an application of social network analysis

This study aimed to investigate whether social network analysis (SNA) is a useful method for identifying different discursive patterns in everyday classroom activities. The material analysed came from 20 teacher-led lessons that were video-recorded in small-size classes in Italian public primary schools. SNA was used to measure classroom relations in terms of ties (in and out connections among individuals) and dialogues (duration of messages sent and received). The results highlighted two discursive patterns, which we called dominant and distributed. The dominant pattern was observed in lessons in which teachers limited pupils’ participation and governed discourse in a dyadic way. The distributed pattern of discourse offered children more opportunities to participate in the dialogues, to be connected with others and to engage in multiple interactions. Moreover, it exhibited adaptability with respect to children’s different attainment levels, within the constraint of the lesson’s subject. In conclusion, SNA enabled rigorous and original investigation of interactive processes in real classroom situations.

Students' representations of the teacher's role in the language resource centre of the Faculty of Medicine of Strasbourg

This article considers the representations students have of the teacher's role in a specific self-directed language learning environment: the Language Resource Centre of the Medical Faculty of the University of Strasbourg. The shift from language teaching to language learning in a Language Resource Centre (LRC) based on self-directed learning entails major changes in the roles of both teachers and learners. For students mostly used to teacher-led lessons, taking an active part and making decisions imparted to teachers in a more traditional system can be difficult to accept and adapt to. The research presented and focused on the evolution of the students’ representations of the teacher's role after a one-semester learning period in an LRC and led to the identification of three types of evolutions in representations: spontaneous evolution, gradual evolution and non-evolution. The type of evolution occurring appeared to be related to the existence and nature of teacher–student interactions that had taken place during the semester. The methodology and results will be exposed in the paper.

Exploring the Influence of Context on Attitudes toward Web-Based Learning Tools (WBLTs) and Learning Performance

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of context on student attitudes toward Web-Based Learning Tools (WBLTs) and learning performance. Survey data about attitudes and quasi-experimental data on learning performance were collected from 832 middle and secondary schools students. Five contextual variables were assessed including subject area (math vs. science), grade level (middle vs. secondary school), lesson plan format (teacher led vs. student based), collaboration (pairs vs. individual), and technological problems experienced (minor vs. major). Science-based WBLTs, higher grade levels, teacher-led lessons, and the absence of major technological problems were associated with significantly higher student attitudes toward the learning, design, and engagement value of WBLTs. Science-based WBLTs, higher grade levels, teacher-led lessons, working alone, and the absence of software problems were associated with significant gains in student learning performance. It is reasonable to conclude that the context in which a WBLT is taught can significantly influence student attitudes and learning performance.

Teaching as persuasion

A design experiment was undertaken to explore the effects of science lessons, framed as persuasion, on students’ knowledge, beliefs, and interest. Sixth and seventh graders participated in lessons about Galileo and his discoveries focusing on the personal costs and public controversies surrounding those discoveries. In selected classrooms, lessons were teacher led, while others were student led. Participants’ knowledge, beliefs, and interest were compared to peers in other science classes. There were significant differences between persuasion and comparison classrooms on all variables. However, teacher-led lessons were more effective at changing students’ knowledge, whereas student-led lessons had more impact on students’ beliefs.

Working with WebQuests

Searching the Internet is becoming an everyday practice for most students. Students with disabilities, however, are sometimes put at a disadvantage when attempting to complete this task. One practice that has become invaluable to me as a special education/inclusion teacher is the use of the WebQuest for- mat. This article describes how students are boosting their learning through teacher-led lessons on the World Wide Web. and can be incorporated in the creation stage of the lesson. With the special education teacher's knowledge of his or her students' needs, two of the IDEA requirements can also be met with regard to accommodations and access to the general education curriculum. First, teachers can address goals of the individualized education program (IEP) to focus on accommodations and modi- fications to support the child's success in the general curriculum (Goldberg, 1999). Teachers can incorporate instruc- tional support into the design of the WebQuest in the form of readability, larger text, and simpler directions. Also, because schools and teachers are required to help the child be involved in and progress within the general educa- tion curriculum, the WebQuest format offers the opportunity to incorporate basic skills with higher-order thinking skills and other enrichment activities with peers without disabilities.

Culturally Based Miscommunication in Classroom Interaction

This article identifies a number of ways teachers and students can misunderstand and confuse each other with their language-based communications in the classroom. Cultural variations in the formats for teacher-led lessons and child-generated personal experience narratives are described, using research findings from Canadian Inuit and Algonquin communities. The importance of practitioners learning from miscommunications is stressed.