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1. CONSIDERATIONS IN EVALUATING
A METHOD OF TEACHING
Khansa AL-Qudaimi

2. The concept of Method
“Any procedure which applies
some rational order or systematic
pattern to diverse objects."
Morris. R. Cohen (1933)

3. The concept of Method
Justus Buchler (1963) has raised many
questions;
• What is the relation between method and
procedure?
• What does it mean to apply an order?
• What kind of order is rational and
systematic?
• What makes a method methodic?

4. Components of Method
•Buchler introduced Repeatability to
the concept of method.
•Methodic refers not only to the use or
reproduction of an achieved pattern,
but also to the invention and
refinement of pattern.

5. The value of Method
•Method is value-free.
oThere are viable methods and sterile
methods.
oThere are important methods and
unimportant methods.

6. The value of Method
•According to Kumar, method has an
ideological motivation.
•A method is but a “reflection of a
particular view of the world and is
articulated in the interest of unequal
power relations.”
Pennycook (1989)

7. Method in practice
Elements that may influence the
application of a teaching method:
•Teachers
•Students
•Society
•School system
•Curriculum
•Teaching supplies

8. Teachers and method application
“Human action typically employs
„mediational means‟ such as tools and
language, and that these mediational
means shape the action in essential
ways.”
Wertsch (1991)

9. Mediational
means
subject object
The mediational means

10. Mediational
means
teacher goal
Method of teaching

11. Teachers and method application
Why would a teacher choose a
certain method in delivering a
specific subject?

12. Mediational
means
teacher goal
Method of teaching

13. Teachers and method application
“The goal constrains the options for
action.”
Nikiforov (1990)

14. Teachers and method application
•Teachers‟ use of a technique that they
disapprove may be caused by the
goal-in-context.
•Sometimes, goals are „imposed‟ upon
teachers.

15. Teachers and method application
• When a mediational means has been used
frequently in a particular setting, the subject
begins to “appropriate” it.
• “Appropriation refers to the process
through which a person becomes sufficiently
familiar with a mediational means that he or
she is able to use it purposefully and flexibly
in particular social environments.”
(Grossman et al., 1999)

16. Teachers and method application
“Beliefs have a strong shaping effect
on behavior.”
Schoenfeld (1998)

17. Teachers and method application
• Beliefs have a significant influence on the
instructional and classroom practices
(Calderhead, 1996; Thompson, 1985).
• Inconsistencies between beliefs and practices
would result in tension and contradiction
which cause the teacher to attempt to change
(Lerman, 2002).

18. Teachers and method application
Why would some teachers not
try to fill the gap between their
beliefs and practices?

19. Teachers and method application
• Festinger‟s (1957) dissonance theory
principle:
Disharmony among cognitive “elements”
motivates cognitive changes designed to
restore harmony.

20. Teachers and method application
In order to restore harmony, one of the
following cognitive changes may occur:
1. The teacher avoids thinking about the
elements that conflict.
2. The teacher tries to change her practice.
3. The teacher changes her beliefs.
4. The teacher incorporates into her thinking
additional “consonant elements”.

21. Teaching
material
Teacher‟s
awareness
of the right
method
Teacher‟s
goal
beliefs
attitude

22. Students and method application
What’s the student’s role in the
learning process?

23. Students and method application
Teacher-centered approach
• The formal authority
approach
• The demonstrator
model approach
student-centered approach
•School system
•Curriculum
•Teaching supplies

24. Students and method application
Student
role
Teacher-
centered
approach
The formal
authority
approach
Demonstrator
model
approach
Student-
centered
approach
Guided
participation
concept

25. Students and method application
Issues that can be raised about student-
centered conceptions include the tendencies:
to promote active student engagement at
the expense of active teaching
to privilege individual experience over
linguistically-mediated cultural knowledge in
the development of higher-order knowledge
to confuse desired outcomes of education with
the developmental processes that lead to
those outcomes

26. Students and method application
Reflection is “an act of searching,
hunting, inquiring, to find material.”
Dewey (1933)

27. Students and method application
preparation
engagement in an
activity
the process of what
has been learned
Learning stages:

28. THANKS FOR LISTENING