What are the Important Steps of Teaching Process?

Steps of Teaching Process

Teaching is a very complex process, under which certain specific steps are being taken by the teacher. Mentions of some important steps in brief are as follows

i. In the beginning, proper planning of teaching is done by the teacher, in which content is being analysed properly, objectives and established and identified.

These functions are conducted in proper written form.

ii. Then comes the process of organising the teaching process, by which teaching strategies designed for achieving the objectives of teaching are being highlighted and come into light.

iii. After this, communication strategies are being identified in relation to teacher and learners.

iv. In the fourth and last step, teaching function is being controlled and managed properly. During this process, focus is being placed on the assessment of learning objectives in terms of performance of students and it is this assessment that forms the feedback to teacher and the learners.

As known that in schools and educational institutions, various subjects are being included in the curriculum to get over-all development of the students. Different courses can be designated, but it is important to keep in mind that they are in reality, an expression of some underlying philosophy which have general nature. For intelligent teaching, it is necessary for the teacher to have some specific philosophical background.

Although various important and significant courses can be introduced in the school or institution and qualified personnel can be appointed their teacher, but such persons will fail to accomplish the task successfully unless they do not know how to represent the facts and information in front of students in effective manner.

Thus, it can be said in other words that methods employed in the presentation of content of the subjects or course are of much significance to the success and failure of the course or subject. There are various methods which are being employed by teachers to perform their function.

From various studies, it has been found that while making use of same or similar kind of teaching method, two teachers can get different levels of success in their fields. Thus, it can be said that all the teaching methods cannot be employed without taking into consideration the situation or condition prevalent at time of teaching.

Various factors enter into all good teaching for one to be able to classify them under a given method. Kind of personality teacher possesses, manner in which he approaches towards the students and means of motivation employed by him are some of the important factors which determine the level of success and failure of different teaching methods to considerable extent.

To achieve the set objectives of teaching, teachers try to plan and arrange for all suitable learning experiences. This is done in the form of curriculum. Through the analysis of experience, a teacher thinks in advance of the time the methods by which he will provide the desired learning experiences to the students.

Although the main function of a teacher is to provide students with different information’s of subject, but this function cannot be performed by him without probing into the mind of the learners. It is a complex process in which a teacher interprets the world of knowledge to the student’s mind.

This complex function is done through the way of teaching, which is generally called Method of Teaching. There are various factors with which process of teaching a particular content and process has to remain compatible. Nature of science, existing classroom conditions and objectives are instances of such factors.

As various subjects are taught to the students in educational institutions and their nature differ to considerable extent, because of which various methods of varying nature are devised and used by the teachers. There are various teaching methods which are used in the present day in various parts of the nation, while some of them have become obsolete and has been discarded by teachers.

The main reason that why some of the methods are being used for teaching purpose is that such methods provide something to a capable teacher. The methods which are employed by teachers for science teaching are varied. It is important for teachers to make use of effective and most desirable method.

Before making use of any teaching method, it is very important for the teacher to have thorough knowledge of that method. It is not possible for a teacher to have complete information regarding all the methods which are used by teachers in different parts of the world, but information regarding some of the important methods should be gathered by him.

It is only after understanding the method, advantages and limitations by its use that he should take this crucial decision as to which method to employ in his classroom. In this chapter, some of the methods employed to teach science in different parts of the world have been discussed, but before doing it, it is necessary to first throw some light on the kind of methods which are being employed at present time in our nation for science teaching.

Various commissions have been set up by the Indian government to analyse the situation of science teaching in the nation. It has been concluded from various studies that science teaching is in pathetic condition in our nation and one of the main reason of this sorry state of this important and complex subject is use of improper methods of teaching. At present, in our nation, the methods which are being employed for science teaching have been divided into two categories by the experts, which are:

a. Teacher-Centred Methods, and

b. Students’ Centred Methods.

Following methods are included in the Teacher- Centred Methods:

• Lecture Method,
• Lecture-Demonstration Method, and
• Historical Method.

In Student’s Centred Methods, following methods are being included:

• Project Method,
• Heuristic Method,
• Problem Solving Method,
• Laboratory Method,
• Discussion Method,
• Inductive-Deductive Method.

The main reason that why science teachers in our nation prove to be failure in achieving set objectives is not that the methods employed by them are ineffective and inappropriate, but the fact that they do not possess significant information regarding these methods.

Teachers are not informed about the proper meaning and other aspects of the methods, as a result of which they fail to judge out the conditions in which one method can be used successfully. In lack of such kind of knowledge, generally they employed wrong teaching method in their classes and at last they realise the fact that inspite of making use of all the available materials, they could not accomplish the set objectives as a result of using inappropriate kind of teaching method.

It is with this intention to provide such kind of important information to the teachers that in this chapter, all the teaching methods employed to impart science have been discussed. Not only this, light have been thrown on the merits and demerits accruing from their use.

Methods have not been put under any categories in the chapter, as author is of the view that it is not possible to categories these methods in water tight compartments as one method which can prove be successful in one situation can become a failure in another situation. However, with information provided in the present chapter, teachers will find themselves in better position while selecting the t caching method which will prove to be more effective and useful for them.

As said earlier that a teacher’s choice of teaching method got affected by various factors, but while doing this function, it is very necessary for him to keep in mind the aims and objectives of science teaching. Although this topic has been dealt in length in the preceding chapters, but here some light has been thrown on it by which teachers cannot make any kind of mistake in judging the usefulness of different methods.