Teaching Methods

An integral part of preparing a lesson is the selection of the instructional methods you will use. The principal types of activities are telling-listening (lecture), discussing or problem-solving (discussion), showing-observing (demonstration), and doing (performance).

Classifying any one lesson may be inaccurate because an instructor will usually use combinations of these methods, often at the same time. For example, if you are teaching your students how to thread a motion picture projector you tell them about it while you demonstrate the mechanics involved. You ask them and they ask you questions. You have the students go through the procedures and help those who are having trouble by explaining and showing it to them again. In this case you have not limited yourself to one method, but are using all of them in combination.

The following paragraphs explain in detail the different methods of instruction. An understanding of these methods will enable you to combine, adapt, and modify them to meet your own needs and those of your students.