INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS/MODELS

Instructional
Method
Creative Problem
Solving

Tabas Concept
Development

Questioning

Description

Benefits

Limitations

The Creative Problem Solving Method is one that empowers

teachers and students to work together to encourage problem
solving. It is a strategy for addressing a variety of challenges
and opportunities. The Steps include the following:
1. Identify the Challenge and Develop a Challenge
Statement
2. Identify the facts about the students educational needs
and class activity
3. Generate direct and indirect ideas
4. Evaluate ideas and choose solutions
5. Refine ideas to develop and carry out an action plan

-New thinking, ideas, and solutions

-Allows student leadership

Concept Formation that allows students to practice

categorizing, developing, extending, and refining concepts.
This method is used to enhance the thinking skills of
students. Students will:
List
Group
Label
Regroup
Synthesize
During this process, students will first create a list of people,
places, or things that are related to the concept. Students will
then group them by specific category or similarity. They will
regroup items after careful evaluation with revised lists and
synthesize their findings.
Teachers and students ask and answer questions using
Blooms Taxonomy and Costas Level of Questions. There are
factual, conceptual, and provocative questions.
The opening question will allow students to enter and
participate in the class discussion. Their responses will
need to be on the board for everyone to see.
Lifting questions will direct students to pay attention to
relationships amongst information and data presented.
Extension questions give students the opportunity to

-Students compose their own

lists.
-Students are able to explain
their reasoning for choosing
significant groups.

-Parental
permission
consent is
limited
-Respect
student privacy
and
confidentiality
needs (not
reflected in all
lessons)
-Obtain student
consent
-May be
difficult for
gifted students
to grasp
-Does not work
well for
students who
are unable to
collaborate

-It costs very little.

-It does not require new books,
consumables, or computers
-Student achievement will not be
sacrificed

-Questions
have to be
developed
before the
lesson
-Questions
must reflect
higher order
thinking skills

elaborate on their ideas.

Questions to lead to making relevant generalizations
and combining ideas
Students are placed in real world-like situations which are
defined by the teacher. The teacher controls the world in
order to achieve instructional results.
There are three major components:
1. Students represent the real world and take roles that
force them to make decisions as if they were in unique
situations.
2. Students experience consequences for their decision
making as it relates to the situation they are placed in.
3. Students will monitor results of their actions and reflect
on their decisions and consequences and how they
relate.
Jerome Bruners method of instruction focuses on basic
structure of the discipline. He believes that grasping a subject
structurally is to understand it; that permits other things to
have a meaningful relation. Students generally act as
scientists and investigators. It should focus on the teaching
and learning of structure-not mastery of facts and techniques.
Step by Step:
1. Familiarity with the Discipline
2. Practicing the Discipline
3. Reflecting on the Discipline
4. Continued Practice and Reflection
Socratic Seminar consists of four interdependent elements:
1. The text
2. Questions raised
3. Seminar leader
4. Participants
Students will carefully read a text while taking notes.
Students will compose questions that they believe to be great
discussion starters/leading questions. The leader, a student,
will be a leader and participant. They will pose a question to
begin the discussion, while asking follow up questions in the
process. The participants will be split among inner and outer
circles, replicating a fishbowl. The outer circle observes, while
the inner circle participates in discussion. When the teacher
feels the inner circle has reached a good stopping point, they
will swap places with outer circle. The process repeats.

(costas level of
questioning)

Simulations

Bruners Structure of
the Intellect

Socratic Seminar

-Students gain social skills.

-Develop problem solving skills.
-Students have the ability to
experience real life situations.
-Demand flexibility in thinking

-Must be
planned ahead
of time
-Should not
take up too
much time
-Non-gifted
students may
have a
challenging
time

-Develop dispositions, values,

commitments, and attitudes to a
specific content area
-Understanding the organization
of a subject can make learning
more comprehensible

-Teachers
should act as
the expert
they are
teaching about
-Teachers
should know
about the
expertise they
are teaching

-Meaningful questions and

discussion about text
-Students are facilitating
discussion
-Leader has the right the reroute
the discussion if needed
-Active listening and thinking
skills

-Students are
NOT allowed
to debate;
they should
foster
discussion
-Not all
students
participate at
one time
-Teacher
participation

Participants should leave with more questions than they

started with.
Kohlbergs Moral
Dilemmas

Visual Thinking
Strategies

This instruction method is useful when making decisions with

moral dilemma. Kohlberg believed that all students have the
ability to move up developmentally, but not all would reach
the highest level. There are six steps to utilize in the problem
solving model.
Introduce and clarify the nature of the dilemma
Students clarify the facts of the situation and identify
issues involved
Students identify a tentative position on the action the
central character should take
Divide the class into small groups
Reconvene for a class discussion of the dilemma
Students reevaluate their original positions individually
A series of open-ended questions, along with group discussion
to force elaborate thinking when viewing a picture. The three
Visual Thinking Strategies Questions:
Whats going on in this picture?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What else can you find?

-Designed to give students

practice in examining all aspects
of a problem
-Open-endedness is emphasized
-Encourage more interaction
amongst students

-Teacher
participation
-Emotions not
taken into
account

-Addresses the interests and

strengths of viewers at their
stages-very helpful for beginner
viewers
-Develop critical and creative
thinking skills
-Peer learning; students learn
from each other how to observe,
support with evidence, and
thinking creatively
-Development of writing,
thinking, & communication skills

-Open ended
questions only