Effective Teaching Techniques: Domains, Objectives, and Teenagers

Effective Teaching Techniques

Teachers in the 21st century have access to a wide array of information about the latest research on how students learn. They should be knowledgeable and willing to apply such research to their classroom.

Language Acquisition in Childhood

Teachers must remember how the acquisition of language takes place in childhood:

  • Environment
  • Visualization
  • Life Experiences
  • Family Support
  • Teacher Guidance
  • Class – Practice

Bloom’s Taxonomy and Knowledge Acquisition

In childhood, the acquisition of new knowledge is based on three main domains stated in Bloom’s Taxonomy:

  • Cognitive
  • Affective
  • Psychomotor
  • External – Internal Factors

Total Physical Response (TPR) Objectives

The general objectives of Total Physical Response are to teach oral proficiency at a beginning level. Comprehension is a means to an end, and the ultimate aim is to teach basic speaking skills. A TPR course aims to produce learners who are capable of an uninhibited communication that is intelligible to a native speaker. Specific instructional objectives are not elaborated, for these will depend on the particular needs of the learners. Whatever goals are set, however, must be attainable through the use of action-based drills in the imperative form.

Affective Domain

Affective domains deal with changes in attitudes and changes in behaviors related to attitudes. An example of a content area with affective objectives would be diversity awareness and relating to people and beings from different backgrounds.

Verbs in the Affective Domain

Some verbs observed in the Affective Domain:

  • Listen, take an interest in, and passively participate
  • React, question and probe ideas, and actively participate
  • Decide the worth and relevance of ideas, accept or commit to a particular stance or action
  • Reconcile internal conflicts, integrate a new value
  • Act consistently with the new value

Psychomotor Skills

Psychomotor skills focus on physical and kinesthetic skills including keyboarding, using technical instruments, and other skills. This domain is characterized by progressive levels of behaviors from observation to mastery of a physical skill.

Key Verbs in the Psychomotor Domain

Below are key verbs associated with the Psychomotor Domain. Using verbs such as these is beneficial to writing effective learning objectives: bend, grasp, handle, operate, reach.

Cognitive Domain: Level, Age, and Class Purposes

Specific Objectives:

  • To identify animal farm.
  • To distinguish animals in a farm.
  • To describe the characteristics of animals in a farm.
  • To name the animals living in a farm.
  • To imitate animal sounds

Teaching Teenagers

Adolescence is a time in every individual’s life when they have to go through both physical (hormones) as well as emotional changes. They are trying to make their own identity, and thus mood swings are quite common, according to many psychologists. Many issues regarding looks, crushes, popularity in school, relationships, sexual development, and their future are a few of the many things occupying them.

Psychologists say teenagers tend to live more in their present moment, so they tend to experience things more intensely. In fact, some researchers say if they are being more independent, having their own viewpoints regarding an issue, and taking their own decisions, then parents must be happier about it as it shows healthy growth towards adulthood.

What Teachers Must Know About Teenagers:

  • Teenagers are hard to please.
  • Teenagers often do not like the materials that books provide.
  • Teenagers enjoy rebelling against a prescriptive approach.
  • Teenagers get bored quickly.

Motivation and Teenagers

It is widely agreed that motivation has a great effect on a student’s capacity to learn. Motivation can be broken down into extrinsic and intrinsic forms. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the learner, who wants to learn for the sake of learning. Although it is not impossible to find an intrinsically motivated teenage student, the good news for teachers of teenagers is that there are many things we can do in the classroom to increase the levels of extrinsic motivation.