The Who, What, Where, When and Why of Individualized Teaching Techniques

To begin the week, the 2018 Student Teaching Cohort engaged in discussion regarding Individualize Teaching Techniques. In addition, at the end of the week we were presented with this week’s Weekly Investment reading that introduced the Who, What, Where, When, and Why of Individualized Teaching Techniques.

WHO:  

According to Methods of Teaching students have different needs, calling for individual or at least varying treatment in the development of the learning process they are to follow. Students’ goals differ. Some may want to become an animal nutritionist, whereas others only want and need to know the basics of animal nutrition. With Individualized Teaching Techniques, teachers can create projects for a student in an area, so that the content goes beyond the basics that the teacher typically teaches; therefore, this makes it that the whole class does not need to study that specific area. Simply put, an Individualized Teaching Techniques are for individual learners that have an interest in something beyond the classroom instruction.

WHAT:

In Methods of Teaching reading and class discussion, there were five types of Individual Teaching Techniques that were implemented into agricultural classrooms. The techniques presented include:

1.            Sheets

2.            Experiments

3.            Supervised Study

4.            Independent Study

5.            Student Notebooks

WHERE:

What is awesome about Individualized Teaching Techniques is that they can be implemented inside or outside the classroom. Throughout our discussion we shared our thoughts of using all the Individualized Teaching Techniques in each portion of the three-circle model. It may be obvious of how these can be implemented into the classroom and laboratory, but you are probably unsure how all these techniques can be used in SAE. It is okay if you are questioning how because once this was presented to us, we all pondered. We assumed it would just be supervised study because that is what the ‘S’ stands for in SAE. However, after pondering we brought our thoughts together, and realized that students have notebooks and sheets to keep records, some conduct experiments with research based SAE, and lastly students work on their SAE independently.

WHEN:

Another awesome thing about Individual Teaching Techniques is that because it can be implemented where ever, it can also be implemented whenever. This is because whenever the individualized teaching techniques listed above are used, students are individually involved in searching and seeking information. They are not waiting for the teacher to tell them what they need to know. Therefore, they are not limited by what someone else decides to tell them. Instead, they are in control of their own learning. They discover as much as their current level of capability allows.

WHY:

After reading this week’s Weekly Investment and engaging in class discussion, I can say that I realized the purpose of Individualized Learning Techniques. I realized that these techniques provide opportunities to all learners to discover and learn at their own pace with their own interest in mind. I also learned so ways to implement these techniques into the three-circle model. Therefore, I am more confident in implementing individualized teaching techniques throughout my student teaching experience and teaching experience.

Reference:

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.