Lesson 1.1: How do Children Learn?

Lesson Summary
Children and adolescents learn by watching, listening, exploring, experimenting, and questioning.
Interest, motivation, and participation in learning are vital for children once they start school. Thus,
the role of the teacher in promoting an environment conducive to learning is very significant.
Knowing the different kinds of knowledge for expert teaching is likewise invaluable.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit, you will be able to:
1. Explain the four different kinds of knowledge essential for expert teaching:
a. Knowledge of content
b. Pedagogical content knowledge
c. General pedagogical knowledge
d. Knowledge of Learners and Learning
2. Conduct a teaching demonstration taking into consideration the four different kinds of

knowledge essential for expert teaching.

Motivation Question

What inspires you to become an expert teacher?

Discussion

Teaching in the Real World

This module is about learning, influencing it, and how we, as teachers, can contribute to it.
Our ability to enhance student learning strongly depends on our professional knowledge, which
occurs in various forms (Borko & Putnam, 1996). It is essential to develop that knowledge, so we
can make the most effective professional decisions possible.

Knowledge and Learning to Teach

About the middle of the 20th century, educational psychology experienced a significant shift
as theorists moved away from viewing learning as the acquisition of specific, observable
behaviors and seeing it as an internal, mental, and often thoughtful process (Mayer, 1998b). This
shift, commonly described as the "cognitive revolution," has resulted in a much greater emphasis
on teachers' knowledge and thinking in the process of learning to teach.

Studies of expertise in a variety of fields confirm the importance of knowledge in the

development of expert performance (Bruning et al., 1999), and this is true for teaching as well.

The accumulation of richly structured and accessible bodies of knowledge allows

individuals to engage in expert thinking and action.
In studies of teaching, this understanding of expertise has led researchers to devote
increased attention to teachers’ knowledge and its organization. (Borko & Putnam, 1996).

Research indicates that at least four different kinds of knowledge are

essential for expert teaching:

1. Knowledge of content

2. Pedagogical content knowledge

3. General pedagogical knowledge

4. Knowledge of Learners and Learning

Knowledge of content - To effectively teach about the American Revolutionary War, for example,
a social studies teacher must know not only basic facts about the war. He must also be
conversant about how the war relates to other aspects of history, such as the French and Indian
War, the colonies' relationship with England before the Revolution, and the colonies'
characteristics. The same is true for any topic in any content area.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge - Whereas content knowledge is an understanding of a

particular topic; pedagogical content knowledge can represent that topic so that it makes sense
to students.
Paradoxically, researchers have found that sometimes teachers with high levels of
content knowledge have trouble representing novice learners (Nathan, Koedinger & Alibali, 2001).
Because of their deep understanding, they have trouble "putting themselves in learners' shoes."
The importance of developing both the inclination and the ability to represent topics, so they are
understandable is impossible to overstate.
 Teachers who possess pedagogical content knowledge also recognize when topics are
hard to understand and illustrate these difficult-to-teach ideas with real experiences that make
them meaningful.

 Representations of Content exist in a variety of forms, such as:

1. Examples – A fifth-grade math teacher uses pieces of
chocolate to illustrate equivalent fractions. An eighth-grade
physical science teacher compresses cotton in a drink cup
to illustrate the concept density.
2. Demonstrations – e.g., A first-grade teacher uses water to
demonstrate that air takes up space and exerts pressure. A
ninth-grade earth science teacher demonstrates that planets
revolve around the sun in the same direction and the same
plane by swinging socks tied to strings.
3. Case studies – are effective ways to illustrate difficult- to-
represent or complex topics. For instance, an English teacher
illustrated the concept of internal conflict with this brief
vignette: "Andrea did not know what to do. She was looking
forward to the class trip, but she would not be able to take the
scholarship qualifying test if she went."

4. Metaphors –A world history teacher uses her students’

loyalty to their school, their ways of talking, and their
weekend activities as a metaphor for the concept
nationalism.
5. Simulations – An American government teacher creates a
mock trial to simulate the workings of our country’s judicial
system.
6. Models – A science teacher uses a model of an atom to
help students visualize the organization of the nucleus and
electrons.
If pedagogical content knowledge is lacking, teachers commonly paraphrase information in
learners’ textbooks or provide abstract explanations that are
not meaningful to their students.
Your study of educational psychology will help you develop pedagogical content knowledge by
increasing your understanding of the ways students learn and the kinds of examples and
representations that make topics meaningful for them.
General Pedagogical Knowledge involves an understanding of the general principles of instruction
and classroom management:
Instructional strategies
Regardless of the content area or topic, teachers must understand how to apply different ways
of promoting learning, including strategies and techniques to involve students in learning
activities, check their understanding, and keep lessons running smoothly.
Classroom management
Teachers must also know how to create classroom environments that are orderly and focused
on learning (Emmer et al.,2003; Evertson et al., 2003). To succeed at keeping 20 to 35 or more
students engaged actively and working together in learning activities, teachers must know how
to plan, implement, and monitor rules and procedures, organize groups, and manage student
behavior.
Knowledge of Learners and Learning
Knowledge of learners and learning is essential. Let us see how this knowledge can influence the
way we teach.
Knowledge of learners
We learned from item 1 in the Learning and Teaching Inventory that students need
abstract ideas illustrated with examples. It means that – even for older students – the more
concretely we can represent our topics, the more meaningful they will become.
Item 2 suggests that learners are often not good judges of either how much they know or
how they learn.
Items 6 and 7 have implications for the ways we interact with our students. Intuitively, it
seems that offering help and providing as much praise as possible would be positive and
effective. However, both research and theories of motivation help us understand why this is not
always the case.
Knowledge of Learning
The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that people do not behave like tape recorders; they do not
merely record in memory what they hear or read. Instead, they interpret information to make
sense of it (Bransford et al., 2000; Mayer, 2002). The process distorts meaning profoundly. For
instance, look at the following statements, actually made by students:
"The phases of the moon are caused by clouds blocking out the unseen parts."
"Coats keep us warm by generating heat, like a fire."
"Trousers is an uncommon noun because it is singular at the top and plural at the bottom."
"A triangle that has an angle of 135 degrees is referred to as an obscene triangle."
Students did not acquire these ideas from teachers' explanations. Instead, the students
interpreted what they heard, experienced, or read, related it to what they already knew, and
attempted to make sense of both.

Obviously, students didn’t acquire these ideas from teachers’ explanations. Rather, the students
interpreted what they heard, experienced, or read, related it to what they already knew, and
attempted to make sense of both.
These examples help us see why "wisdom cannot be told" (Bransford, 1993) and why
"explaining the stuff until blue in the face" usually is not enough. Effective teaching is much more
complicated than merely explaining, and expert teachers have a thorough understanding of the
way learning occurs and what they can do to promote it.
Experience is essential in learning to teach, and no one would argue that it is necessary.
However, we can already see that teachers will not acquire all the knowledge needed to be
effective from experience alone. It is the reason you are studying educational psychology. The
knowledge you acquire from it, combined with your experience, will start you on your way to
becoming an expert teacher.

Learning Tasks/Activities
1. Research studies indicate that at least four different kinds of knowledge are essential for
expert teaching. Read through the explanations in Column B and try to match them to the
"knowledge" in Column A where you think they fall. Discuss with a partner the reasons for
your answers. Afterward, turn to the next page to compare your work with the correct
answer.
 A B
Knowledge Description
1. Knowledge of Content - Is “arguably the most
important knowledge a teacher
can have”.
- Involves a grasp of general
2. Pedagogical Content principles of instruction and
Knowledge classroom management that
transcends individual topics or
subject matter areas
- Is an understanding of how to
3. General Pedagogical make a specific subject
Knowledge comprehensible to others.
-We cannot teach what we
4. Knowledge of Learners and don’t understand.
Learning

2. To explore this learning experience, answer the following questions briefly:

a. Representations of content exist in a variety of forms. Mention at least two and

explain how they enhance the students' comprehension of lessons based on your
personal experience as a student or as a teacher.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

b. What are the common constraints that hinder the teacher from making the lesson
comprehensible to students?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

3. a. How do you characterize an expert teacher?

______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
 b. How do students learn in the real world?
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
c. Indicate the teaching strategies which you consider most effective in
promoting the students' learning.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Assessment
1. Conduct a teaching demonstration showing the four different kinds of knowledge
essential for expert teaching. Video record your performance and present it to the class.
The class will evaluate the presentation using a rubric.

Instructions on how to submit student output

Kindly submit answers and outputs of the learning tasks and assessment in this module
seven days after finding them in the learning platform. Encode answers in a long bond paper,
providing a one-inch margin on all sides, single line spacing, with a font style of Roboto at size
12. Be sure to write your name, subject, class schedule, course instructor, and lesson number as
the header of the document. All requirements will be submitted preferably through the VSU E-
Learning Portal / email address of the instructor (in pdf format) but if internet connection is not
stable or you do not have an internet connection, you may send your exercises to the office
through the ff. options: (1) courier (ex. JRS, LBC, etc.), (2) VSU guard post, and/or (3) VSU drop
boxes in your respective LGU’s. Place the documents in a sealed brown envelope labelled with
your (1) Name, (2) Subject, (3) Department, and (4) Name of the Instructor.

Faculty name and office address: DR. ROSARIO P. ABELA, DEPARTMENT OF TEACHER
EDUCATION, COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, Visayas State University, Baybay City, Leyte,
Philippines.