Teacher Centered Approaches to Teaching

            Now, I will talk about the teacher centered approaches to teaching which are direct instruction and presenting. Let’s start with presenting. When the teacher presenting some information, he should;

• Choose objectives and content 
• Diagnose students’ prior knowledge 
• Plan for use of time and space

The objectives and content should be chosen according to the students’ grade level, age group and course objectives. Because the students’ learning capacity are different and the teacher have to know and apply according to them. When presenting something, the sentences should be clear and the teacher shouldn’t use full sentences, key points enough. You should organize the content in a meaningful order. Also, the students’ prior knowledge is also important factor when you are presenting. Because, the retention of the new information increase if the content is connected with the students’ prior knowledge.  Also, you should use the time effectively and apply a good formation of desks.  The formation of the desk plan is important for also direct instruction. Because the interaction with the students and teacher, also student and student should be suitable for learning process.

For the direct instruction, you should plan how to use direct instruction during the lesson. My advises for that:

Firstly, you should gain students’ attention, clarify goals. And then, give the instruction or skill. After you give the instruction, you can provide practices for them to make it more clear. Later, you can check the students understanding and give feedback. And the last advice, you should extend the practices and transfer. I will also mention some guidelines for providing feedback, because it is the most important step for the students’ learning process. You should give a feedback as soon as possible after the practice. With that way, you can easily understand the students’ understanding. If you give a negative feedback to the student, you should show how to perform correctly. And the other important advice, you should teach students how to provide feedback themselves. They should think and know how they correct themselves.

Motivation

                In todays’ classrooms motivation is an important factor for learning. To have a productive and effective lesson, the teachers should use some motivation techniques in their classes. There are five perspectives of motivation which are:

• ·         Behavioral Theory
• ·         Needs Theory
• ·         Cognitive Theory
• ·         Social Cognitive Theory
• ·         Social Cultural Theory

There are some differences between them and every theory has their own rules or techniques. This can be everything that you want create. For example, if possible, creating a U shape can be a motivation for some students. With that shape, the student can interact between the others and become adapted to the lesson. Smiling also can be a motivation for some students. These may seem like small things but actually these are really important properties of being a teacher. The students are really affected by the teachers’ physical appearance. If the teacher know the students’ needs and help them according to their needs with a smiling and willing, the students will be motivated and willing for learning. That’s why this is important. The teacher also should trust their students. I mean believing their capabilities and showing them that you believe them can be a good motivation part. To show them that you believe their capabilities, you can tell them “I am sure you will do best”, “You are good enough” etc. Because when students are encouraged by the teachers, they will be more adapted and willing for the tasks and lesson. Also knowing students’ interests and giving them some homework about their interests is effective way for motivation. Because most of the students don’t like homework and with that way homework will be like an activity. After that, providing immediate and specific feedback them is also good way for their learning process.