CHAPTER 5

SELECTION AND USE OF TEACHING STRATEGIES

“Different folks, different strokes”

Objectives:
1. Elaborate the guiding principles in the selection and use of teaching
strategies;
2. State the implications of these principles in the teaching –learning
process;
3. Relate the principles to different actual classroom situations;
4. Discuss the different brain-based strategies.

Guiding Principles in the Selection and Use of Teaching Strategies:

1. Learning is an active process – nobody can learn for us.

What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.
2. The more senses that are involved in learning, the more and the better
the learning.
Philip T.Torres, Learning Excellence, Training System Associates, Inc., 1994 p. 9:
Sight – 75%
Hearing – 13%
Touch – 6%
Taste – 3%
Smell – 3%
3. A non-threatening atmosphere enhances learning. A non-threatening and
conducive classroom atmosphere is not only a function of the physical condition
but more a function of the psychological climate (relationship between and
among us teachers and among our students) that prevails in the classroom.
How to create a positive classroom atmosphere?
 Cultivate a culture of respect ( believe on the persons worth and capacity)
 Make the students feel they belong to a community of learners. “Silver, 2000
said, Building comfort into the learning is essential if we expect students to
respond positively and constructively to their education”.
4. Emotion has the power to increase retention and learning. We tend to
remember and learn more those that strike our hearts.
The more intense the arousal, the stronger the imprint. Add an emotional touch
to learning.
Wolfe, 2001 cited by Corpuz and Salandanan, 2007 states that “our own
experience validates that we remember for a longer time events that elicit
emotion in us.
5. Learning is meaningful when it is connected to students’ everyday life.
Abstract concepts are made understandable when we give sufficient examples
relating to students’ experiences.
6. Good teaching goes beyond recall of information. Good teaching concerns
itself with higher-order-thinking skills to develop creative and critical thinking.
7. An integrated teaching approach is far more effective than teaching
isolated bits of information.

An integrated approach incorporates multiple intelligences and learning styles, research-

based and brain-based instructional strategies. Moreover it integrates research findings
about the brain.
 Intelligence Examples of Classroom Activities
Verbal Linguistic Discussions, debates, journal writing,
conferences, essays stories, poems,
storytelling, listening activities and
reading
Logical Mathematical Calculations, experiments,
comparisons, number games, using
evidence, formulating and testing
hypothesis, deductive an deductive
reasoning
Spatial Concept maps, graphs, art projects,
metaphorical thinking, visualization,
videos, slides, visual presentations
Bodily kinesthetic Role playing, dance, athletic
activities, manipulatives, hands-on
demonstrations, concept miming
Musical Playing music, singing, rapping,
whistling, clapping, analyzing sounds
and music
Interpersonal Community involvement projects,
discussions, cooperative learning,
team games, peer tutoring,
conferences, social activities sharing
Naturalist Ecological field trips, environmental
study, caring for plants and animals,
outdoor work, pattern recognition
Harvey F. Silver, et.al. So each may Learn, Virginia: Association of Supervision and
Curriculum Development, 2000, p. 20

Intelligence Examples of Classroom Activities

Mastery Direct Instruction
Exercise---Practice Drill and repetition
Demonstration
Competitions
Activities that focus on:
 Organizing and
managing information
 Practicing a skill
 Observing
 Describing
 Memorizing
 Categorizing
Interpersonal Team Games
Experience--- personalize Role playing
Group investigation
Peer tutoring
Personal sharing
Activities that focus on:
 describing feelings
 empathizing
 responding
  valuing
Understanding Inquiry
Explain---Prove Concept formation
Debate
Problem-solving
Independent study
Essays
Logic Problems
Activities that focus on:
 classifying
 analyzing
 using evidence
 applying
 comparing and contrasting
 evaluating
Self-Expressive Divergent thinking
Explore---Produce Metaphors
Creative art activities
Imagining
Open-ended discussion
Imagery
Creative problem-solving
Activities that focus on:
 hypothesizing
 synthesizing
 symbolizing
 creating
 metaphorical expression
 self-expression
Source: Harvey F. Silver, et.al. So Each may Learn, Virginia: Association of Supervision and
Curriculum Development, 2000. 37)

Integrated Approach incorporates research findings about the Brain( Wolfe, 2001)
1. rehearsal or constant practice
2. Learning is a process of building neural networks
 Concrete experience
 Symbolic learning
 Abstract learning
Strategies that make the students experience the concrete are:
 Field trips
 Use of realias
 Actual experience in solving authentic problems
3. Engaged students in learning experiences
4. Present lessons visually (I never forget a face, I see what you mean, I can picture
but I can’t recall the name”.
5. Information should be embedded with music

BRAIN-BASED STRATEGIES
 Real-life or Authentic Problem-solving
Ex. Student in fifth grade class were challenge by their teacher to determine whether
public opinion in their city match that of the country in public poll regarding the selection of
residential candidate.)
Projects (multimedia, investigatory projects etc.)
Simulation & Role plays
Using Visual Processing
Visuals are powerful aids in retention as well as understanding
Songs, jingle and raps
Mnemonic strategies (primary techniques that learner may employ to help them
retain and retrieve information most effectively) Ex. acronym, peg-word, sentence
construction, and association techniques)
Writing strategies
Makes students write their own word problems and make them asks their classmates
to solve them.(dialogue, speeches, newsletter, newspaper eulogies)
Active review (engage students in conducting review)
Hands-on –activities (concrete experience-one of the best way to make learning
lasting-learning by doing) “What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing”,
Aristotle.
An integrated approach ( interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary) Interdisciplinary
(science) – you interrelate and connect the topic “care for environment with the
kinds of pollution and global climatic changes;
Multi disciplinary- content in science is used to teach grammar and values.

There is no such thing as best teaching method. The best teaching method is the
one that works, the one that yields results.