Undesirable+Practices+in+the+Classroom

Undesirable Practices in the Classroom
On Sunday the second of January 2011, I conducted a workshop on the **[|Undesirable Practices in the Classroom]**. The following is a summary of the workshop objectives and points discussed during the workshop.

**Workshop Objectives **


 * Identify some of the negative practices in the classroom.
 * Improve instruction by avoiding these negative practices.
 * Make instruction more interactive.

**Phases of Instruction **


 * Planning phase
 * Pre-instructional phase (Starter)
 * Instructional phase (Main Body – Activity)
 * Practice phase
 * Assessment phase (Plenary)

**Planning Phase (The lesson plan) **

**Some teachers don’t: **


 * take lesson planning seriously
 * take the different phases of instruction into consideration when planning
 * think of the different phases of instruction in relation to the objectives of the lesson they are to teach
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">consider the anticipated problems and their possible solutions
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">prepare suitable visual aids that can facilitate their work
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">identify clear teacher’s or student’s roles
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">identify tasks for formative or summative assessment.

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Pre-instructional phase **

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;">Orientation (Starter) is seldom related to objectives. <span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"> It could be boring with no aim at all.

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Orientation (Starter) in this case doesn’t: ** **<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Instructional phase (Presentation) **
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Help draw students’ attention
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Prepare students to achieve the objectives
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Provide students with the prerequisites necessary for understanding the new stimulus.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Arouse students’ interest in the lesson

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;">Presentation (Main Body) is sometimes boring, vague, irrelevant and frustrating. **This is due to**:

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Practice phase (Formative assessment) **
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Lack of good preparation
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Unawareness of objectives
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Inappropriateness of teaching methods
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Lack of students’ participation
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Concentration on certain students
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Unavailability of useful visual aids

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Practice sometimes becomes useless or less effective when it is not **


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">well planned
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">varied, graded or related to the lesson objectives
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">challenging or does not encourage critical thinking

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Practice sometimes becomes useless or less effective when it does not **

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Assessment phase (Summative – Plenary) **
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">provide enough opportunity for students to participate effectively
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">enhance student’s learning
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">provide sufficient learning guidance
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">give immediate feedback on students’ performance

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Summative assessment is often ignored because **<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">:


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It needs careful planning
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Teachers are usually left with too little time for carrying it out
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It requires the teacher to collect students’ answers to mark them
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It requires the teacher to take decision regarding the students’ performance

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally I asked the teachers to think of ways to avoid these negative and undesirable practices in the classroom. **

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">You can download [|this presentation] [|here]. **