Government College of Education, Sukkur

Spring 2025: Semester I

Course Outline: General Methods of Teaching
Instructor: Mehtab Ahmed

Year/semester: Year 1, semester 1

Duration (hours): 48 hours (16 weeks)
Credit value: 3 credits
Prerequisites: None

Course outcomes
By the completion of this course, Student Teachers will be able to do the following:
●​ Describe and discuss their personal theory of teaching and learning based on a critical analysis of implicit theories formed as Student
Teachers.
●​ Summarize and debate the pros and cons of teacher-centred and learner-centred teaching methods and state their position as a teacher.
●​ Make records of structured, reliable classroom observations and draw conclusions based on these observations.
●​ Participate in a cooperative learning group that plans, teaches, and critiques a lesson.
●​ Create and critique plans for teaching and learning in primary school classes.

Outline
Unit: 1 Teaching and learning in school (2 weeks, 6 hours)
Week # Topics/themes
●​ Your experience as a student
●​ Students currently in school
●​ Published research
Sources of information ●​ Observations in classrooms
1
about effective teachers ●​ Reflections on classroom observation by yourself and with others
●​ Conversations with experienced teachers
●​ Theories about education and instruction
●​ The relationship between teaching and learning
●​ Your experience as a student
●​ Current students’ self-descriptions
●​ Published research, especially in cognitive and educational psychology
Sources of information ●​ Observations in classrooms
2
about learning in school ●​ Reflections on student interviews by yourself and with others
●​ Conversations with experienced teachers
●​ Theories about learning
●​ Cultural influences on teaching and learning
Unit: 2 Classrooms are busy places (2 weeks, 6 hours)
Week # Topics/themes
●​ Managing a crowded space
●​ Working with groups and individuals
Sources of complexity in ●​ Managing different activities occurring at the same time
3
the classroom ●​ Diversity among children
●​ Managing scarce resources
●​ Coping with unexpected events
●​ Learn names, interests, and learning strengths fast
●​ Establish rules and routines
4 Managing complexity ●​ Group students
●​ Organize books and other materials for easy access
●​ Create pairs of students to help each other
Unit: 3 Teacher-centred and student-centred methods (2 weeks, 6 hours)
Week # Topics/themes
●​ Distinction between lower- and higher-order learning
●​ Outcomes from lower-order learning
●​ Outcomes from higher-order learning
●​ Instructional activities that enable lower-order learning
5 Key concepts
●​ Instructional activities that enable higher-order learning
●​ Direct instruction: a method to enable lower-order learning
●​ Indirect instruction: a method to enable higher-order learning
●​ Different roles for teachers and students
●​ Template for direct instruction lessons
●​ Sample lessons
●​ Template for indirect instruction lessons
6 Model lessons
●​ Sample lesson
●​ Inquiry-based, problem-solving, and project-based learning: are these the same or different?
●​ Choice: teacher-centred, learner-centred, or both?
Unit: 4 Lecture, demonstration, discussion, questions, and cooperative learning (3 weeks, 9 hours)
Week # Topics/themes
●​ Peer teaching practice
7 Cooperative learning ●​ Rationale for cooperative learning
●​ Different models of cooperative learning
 ●​ Cooperative learning procedures
●​ Incentive structure of cooperative learning
●​ Limitations of cooperative learning
●​ Checklists as assessment devices
●​ Reasons to lecture
●​ Structure of a lecture
●​ Active lectures
Lecture, demonstration, ●​ Structure of a demonstration
8
and discussion ●​ Characteristics of good discussion
●​ Purposes of questions
●​ Questions in lectures, demonstrations, and discussions
●​ Wait time
●​ Open and closed questions
9 Asking questions
●​ Lessons taught in class
Unit: 5 Teacher-student and student-student interactions that support learning in the classroom (2 weeks, 6 hours)
Week Topics/themes
●​ Respect
●​ Credibility
Constructive interactions ●​ Fairness (justice)
10 between teacher and ●​ Trust
students ●​ Interest
●​ Enthusiasm
●​ Adaptive teaching
●​ Cooperative working relationships are central
Constructive interactions ●​ Examples of cooperative working relationship
11
between students ●​ Feelings are the foundation of thought
●​ Importance of trust and confidence
Unit: 6 Designing instruction: goals and objectives, assessment, plans, and materials (4 weeks, 12 hours)
Week # Topics/themes
●​ Learning principles
●​ Pakistan’s primary school curriculum
Sources of knowledge for
12 ●​ Definitions of standards, goals, and objectives
designing lessons
●​ Examples of standards, goals, and objectives
●​ Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Goals and Objectives
●​ Definition of assessment in schools
●​ Personal experience with assessment
●​ Assessment practices in schools in Pakistan
13 Assessment
●​ Purposes of assessment
●​ Distinction between formative and summative assessment
●​ Examples of formative assessment
●​ Sources of instructional materials, including textbooks, in Pakistan
●​ School budgets for instructional materials
14 Instructional materials ●​ Low-and no-cost materials to supplement or substitute for materials provided by the government
●​ Examples of materials created from local resources by teachers for mathematics, science, and
literacy
●​ Review of teaching methods and instructional and learning principles
●​ Review of students’ current personal theories of teaching and learning
15 Review and synthesis ●​ Search for synthesis
●​ Complete instructional design project (lesson plan)
●​ Presentation of lesson plans designed by students
Unit: 7 Self-regulated learning (1 week, 3 hours)
Week # Topics/themes
●​ Becoming your own teacher
●​ Parents and teachers attitudes towards self-regulated learning
16 Self-regulated learning ●​ Interdependence between learning and motivation
●​ Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
●​ Mastery learning goals and performance learning goals

Marks Distribution (40 internal marks)

Assignment: 5 Marks​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Quiz/Presentation: 5 Marks
Attendance: 10 Marks​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Midterm: 20 Marks