120 hr. TEFL Course Module 7-Pedagogy (Pt.8 Modelling)

Module 7: Pedagogy

7.2 Modeling

One of the best ways to help students understand new knowledge or grasp difficult skills is through modeling and scaffolding, which both involve the teacher showing students how things are done. Too often in education, teachers assume that students already know exactly what they need to do. More often than not, this is just not true. Students will always benefit from watching the teacher model a skill or an activity. Students are easily influenced and will often look to the teacher for how to act, what to do, and how to succeed. Here are some different ways that you can model for your students:

• Model desired personal characteristics: It can be extremely beneficial to present yourself as a role model for optimal behavior during a lesson. At any given time in your classroom, you are asking students to be responsible, creative, diligent, thoughtful, and respectful (to name a few). Students are much more likely to meet these expectations if they see you meeting them as well.

• Model a task: Let’s say you want to teach active reading and annotation strategies to your students. You can do one of two things. You could tell the students exactly what they should do and let them do it, or you could show them what they should do and help them work on it. Select a piece of reading and read it with the class, annotating it in the same way that you expect your students to annotate. This way there will be no confusion about what you are expecting from them.

• Model metacognitive thinking: When you are trying to help your students become better thinkers and arrive at conclusions more efficiently and effectively, it can help to show them how your thought process works. In math class, this works perfectly because you can walk your students through the process of solving a problem. In language classes, you could walk your students through how you would break down a word for proper pronunciation and potential meaning.

• Let the students do the modeling: Assess your students’ strengths and weaknesses, and give them opportunities throughout the year or course to model their strengths to the class. Not only will you be reinforcing their success and solidifying their mastery of the skill, but you will also be letting students learn from other students.

In whatever way you choose to use modeling, you will make a significant impact on how well your students understand the skill or knowledge that you are working on. Sometimes, students just need to see how it is done and not just hear how it should be done to be successful.