Approaches to Effective Teaching - Essay Example

?Chapter One: Introduction 1Background information According to Magolda (2000) in the late 1980s, educationists unleashed a new emphasis on ’ competency level, in order to demonstrate the quality of teaching and the effectiveness of the approach that had been employed. Prior to this shift in focus, educationists had noted that the teaching strategies that were applied in schools were not fully effective in engaging learners and making them part of the learning process, since the teacher played a dominant role rendering the learners as simply receivers of knowledge. This had detrimental effects on learners’ ability to develop critical thinking skills that were beyond their level of knowledge and comprehension. Moreover, Magolda (2000) stated that previously the teaching strategy seemingly favored learners who had high level of intelligence, as compared to those who required their intelligence level to be sharpened through the educational approach (learning). This is mainly because the previous education system did not focus on enabling learners to construct their own knowledge but rather it focused on constructing learners’ knowledge on their behalf (Bain, 2004). However, there has been increased advocacy for empowering learners with the skills to manage their own learning process, which sufficiently prepares them to tackle real-life case problems. In this regard, Moskal and Keneman (2011) stated that it was indeed necessary to develop learning and teaching strategies that give learners an active role in the learning process thereby enabling learners to construct their own knowledge and make the learning process more exciting. In the application of these strategies, it will be necessary for the teachers to realign the strategies with the intelligence level of each student in order to ensure that learning is effective. This present dissertation focuses on a particular teaching strategy/ tool that has being introduced in schools in order to make the learning process enjoyable, and engage the learners whilst enabling them to construct their own knowledge. Therefore, the teaching strategy/ tool that will be discussed in the paper offers a remedy to the flaws that had been noted about the traditional teaching strategy/ tool. The teaching strategy/ tool that will be the focal point of this study is the interactive whiteboard technology (IWB), which has been described by Cuthell (2006), as a tool that enable computer images to a appear on a board. The interactive whiteboard contains a digital projector and touch-screen technology that has been incorporated onto the board, which enable teachers to manipulate the figures and/ or words that are appearing on the board by either using a mouse or their fingers. This is to say that a teacher is able to click, copy, and drag the figures, words, and numbers that appear on the board whilst he or she is teaching. Because of the fact that the interactive whiteboard has an internal memory, it means that teachers are able to save the notes or instructions they have written on the board. Then using the network connections that are available on the board the teacher can transfer these notes to the students’ personal computers, so that they can use it for further reading and revisions (Gage, 2006). According to Marzano and Haystead (2010), the ability of the board to display pictures and even stream live videos from a site such as YouTube, enables the teacher to improve the learning experience for learners and ensure they remain active in the learning process as well as fully engaged. 1.2 Research questions Based on the interactive whiteboard technology, this research study intends to investigate teachers’ use and their own evaluation of the interactive whiteboard in second language classroom. This infers that the research study will focus on investigating how teachers at the research center are using the interactive whiteboard to teach English as a second language. Secondly, the research study will aim at discovering what teachers who are using the board perceive as its benefits. RQ 1: How teachers are using the Interactive whiteboards (IWB) technology in Second language classrooms? RQ 2: What teachers perceive the benefits of using (IWB) technology to be? 3 Origin of research question The origin of the research has professional interest and it was also motivated by previous research studies that have been done on the same topic. As for professional interest, this research study offers an opportunity to determine the use as well as the perception of the interactive whiteboard technology in a second language classroom. The findings of this research study will not only be useful in deciding whether to recommend the use of this board for teaching purposes (education) but it will also help interested parties to know how best to use this board to improve the effectiveness of learning. In regards to previous research studies, the preliminary internet search that was conducted indicated that there was no such particular research study, which focused on the use of the board in specifically teaching English as a second language to Omani students. Therefore, this research study will make a significant contribution to the current body of research that focus on the interactive whiteboard technology. 1.4 Research strategy This research study will employ the use of both secondary and primary research methods. Under the secondary research method, the researcher will collect relevant data from scholarly books, journals, articles, and even internet sources. Under primary research method, the techniques that will be employed are questionnaire and observation techniques. 1.5 Overview of the chapters The dissertation generally has five chapters of which the first chapter will offer an introduction to the research study, the objectives as well as how the study will be conducted. The second chapter, spells out the findings of the secondary research that was carried out, which also addresses the objective of the study. The third chapter states the methodology as well as the procedures that have been applied in order meet the research objective and answer the research questions. The Fourth chapter entails the results and an analysis of the research findings. The fifth chapter will present discussion on the findings. Finally, the last chapter contains the conclusion of the entire study. Read More