Levels of Teaching – Memory, Understanding & Reflective Level
The profession of teaching & levels of teaching and imparting knowledge to a learner on any particular subject or skill seems easy but it’s quite a tough job. Teachers play a very important role in the life of student’s life and thus it is not wrong to say that the teaching job is one of the challenging professions in the world because of the multiple qualities it requires. A teaching job needs passion, dedication, responsible behaviour of shaping the students and the generations to come.
Teaching jobs demand different kinds of strategies, techniques, and methods as compared to other professions. Today, in this article we are going to discuss the desired level of thinking about teaching and how a teacher can use these levels for teaching.
There are three levels of teaching teach by Teachers. To achieve the desired educational objectives, the teachers have to keep in mind about the developmental stage of the learners. These are the levels of teaching:
- Memory level – Thoughtless Teaching
- Understanding level – Thoughtful Teaching
- Reflective level – Upper Thoughtful Teaching
Memory Level of Teaching
It is a memory level of teaching in which the teaching is done to provide textbook knowledge to students and the emphasis is more given to memorization rather than learning. It is not said to be the best level of teaching as memorizing anything is not good and importance should be given to understanding the concept. Well, this level helps in increasing the memory power.
Advantages of Memory Level:
- It is beneficial for young students
- Useful for slow learners
- Helpful to children for learning a new concept
- The basis for understanding the reflective level of teaching
Disadvantages of Memory Level:
- Not beneficial for higher classes
- Dominance of teacher
- Loss of recall and retention
- Interaction level is low in the classroom
- The problem of classroom management
- Students don’t get a chance of self-learning
Understanding Level of Teaching
Understanding level teaching is a more deliberate teaching method in which students interact with concepts and, as the name implies, comprehend the content. They evaluate the concepts and bring together the facts and other notions associated with them based on the students’ prior awareness and comprehension level. Teachers and students are also equally interested in this phase, and in this teaching stage, teachers use debates, seminars, explanations, and other similar methods. The classroom atmosphere is welcoming and stimulating.
Advantages of Understanding Level:
- Effective learning
- Development of different cognition leanings
- Sets stages for entering into the reflective level of teaching
- The interaction level is good
Disadvantages of Understanding Level:
- Ignore higher cognitive abilities
- Less emphasis on intrinsic motivation
- No individual learning
- Teacher centered
Reflective Level of Teaching
The introspective level of teaching is also known as the reflective level. This is the most advanced level of the teaching-learning method. This is because teaching does not end until the students have grasped the idea. It goes beyond comprehension and requires students to focus on what they have heard or understood.
This is a more advanced stage in which the learner advances one step further through the concept to comprehend the concept’s multiple dimensions. This is the level of instruction in which the instructor encourages and stimulates students to think about and reflect on the content and concepts they have learned.
Who Proposed Reflective Level of Teaching?
Hunt and bigge developed the reflective model so it is also known as bigge and hunt teaching model. This is the highest level of teaching-learning activity. According to bigge and hunt’s reflective level of teaching, the classroom atmosphere should be developed in such a way which is more alive, existing and critical.
Main objectives of Reflective Level of Teaching:
- To develop creative and critical thinking in students
- To develop the ability of decision making and independent thinking in students
- To develop the ability of problem solving in students
Advantages of Reflective Level:
- Thoughtful mode of operation
- Learner-centered
- Development of problem-solving skill
- Maximum flexibility
- Development of creativity
- Self-motivation
Disadvantages of Reflective Level:
- Not suitable for lower classes
- Time-consuming process
- Not suitable for Indian classroom
- Not applicable for dull students
- The burden on the teachers
These were the three levels of teaching as you can conclude Reflective level of teaching is the most beneficial.
What is the Teaching concept?
The chief task of education is, above all, to shape man, or to guide the evolving dynamism through which man forms himself as a man.”
Traditional concept:
Teaching is the act of imparting instructions to the learners in the classroom situation. It is traditional classroom teaching. In the traditional classroom teaching the teacher gives information to students, or one of the students or one of the students reads from a textbook, while the other students silently follow him in their not merely imparting knowledge or information to students. While imparting knowledge, the teacher should keep in mind the child as well as the orderly presentation of subject matter.
Modern concept:
Teaching is to cause the pupil to learn and acquire the desired knowledge, skills, and also desirable ways of living in the society. It is a process in which learner, teacher, curriculum, and other variables are organized systematically and psychologically to attain some predetermined goals.
Requirements of Teaching
There are three variables involved in the teaching process:
- Independent Variable
The teacher is called an independent variable who is responsible for functioning of students – the dependent variables.
- Dependent Variable
The student is called a dependent variable whom the efforts of the teachers and the teaching process are subjected to developments and changes.
- Intervening variables
These variables play the role to achieve the goals of teaching. So it is necessary to interact between the dependent and the independent variables.
Basic requirements of Teaching
- Professionalism
- The teacher-student relationship
- The Learner’s discipline
- The Subject
- The Suitable Environment
- The devotion towards teaching and learning by teachers & students
Nature and characteristics of Teaching
- The main character of teaching is to provide guidance and
- Teaching is the interaction between teacher and
- Teaching is an art to give knowledge to students with effective
- Teaching is a science to educate fact and causes of different topics of different
- Teaching is continuing
- The teacher can teach effectively if he has full confidence in the
- Teaching encourages students to learn more and
- Teaching is formal as well as informal
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