GITAM Centre for Faculty Development
Community of Inquiry Model
Pre Learning
Models of Teaching: Concept and Importance
Models of teaching are really models of learning. As we help students acquire information,
ideas, skills, values, ways of thinking and means of expressing themselves, we are also teaching
them to learn. In fact, the most important outcome of instruction may be students' increased
capabilities to learn more effectively in the future, both because of the knowledge and skill they
have acquired and because they have mastered the learning processes. How teaching is
conducted has a large impact on student's abilities to educate themselves. Successful teachers
are not simply charismatic, persuasive or expert presenters. Rather, they present powerful
cognitive and social tasks to their students and teach the students how to make productive use
of them. Thus a major goal in teaching is to create effective learners who draw information,
ideas and wisdom from their teachers and use learning resources optimally.
Models of teaching thus serve as tools which influence the capabilities and strength of our
learners. They are evaluated not only by how well they achieve the specific objectives to which
they are directed but also by how they increase the ability to learn.
Information processing models
Information processing models emphasize ways of enhancing the human being's innate drive
to make sense of the world, by acquiring and organizing data, sensing problems, generating
solutions to them and developing concepts and language for conveying them. Some models
provide the learner with information and concepts; some emphasize concept formation and
hypothesis testing, and still others generate creative thinking. A few are designed to enhance
general intellectual ability. Many information processing models are useful for studying issues
of self and society and thus for achieving the personal and social goals of education. Some of
the important information processing models-are briefly described below: Concept attainment
model The concept attainment model as developed by American psychologists (Bruner, et al
1967) visualizes our environment to be a complex, consisting of innumerable objects, events
and phenomena. According to this model, in order to cope with this environment, we engage
in the process of categorizing in which we respond to the objects, events and phenomena. in
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terms of class membership, rather than their uniqueness. In other words, we invent categories
and form concepts. Categorization is the basic thinking process as it helps us reduce the
complexity around us. This process of categorization has two components namely:
• Concept formation
• Concept attainment
Concept formation is the act by which new categories are formed, while concept attainment is
the search for and listing of attributes (salient characteristics), that can be used to distinguish
exemplars from non-exemplars of various categories. In other words, concept formation
requires the students to decide the basis on which they will build categories. Concept attainment
requires a student to figure out the attributes of a category that is already formed, in another
person's mind by comparing and contrasting examples that contain the characteristics of the
concept (called attributes), with examples that do not contain those attributes. The concept
attainment model is highly useful in introducing extended series of inquiries into important
areas. It can also augment the ongoing inductive study. This model may be used with students
of all ages and grade levels. The concept attainment model is an excellent tool for evaluation,
when teachers want to determine whether important ideas introduced earlier have been
mastered, since it quickly reveals the depth of students' understanding. With abstract concepts,
the strategies nurture an awareness of alternative perspectives and sensitivity to logical
reasoning.
Inquiry training model
The inquiry training model originated with a belief in the development of independent learners.
Students are usually curious and eager to know and make sense of the world around them. The
inquiry training model capitalizes on their natural zeal for energetic explorations, giving them
specific directions, so that they explore new areas more forcefully. The inquiry training model
was developed by Richard Suchman to teach students a process for investigating and explaining
unusual phenomena. This model is the outcome of the analysis made of the methods employed
by physical scientists. According to this model, inquiry training begins by presenting students
with a puzzling event. Suchman believes that individuals faced with such a situation are
naturally motivated to solve the puzzle. We can use the opportunity provided by natural inquiry
to teach the procedures of disciplined searching, using a vast number of strategies involving
sequencing, ordering and simple experimentation. The inquiry training model can be used in
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all subject areas, although the construction of puzzling situations is a critical task because it
transforms curriculum content into problems to be explored.
Furthermore, this model promotes strategies of inquiry and attitudes , like tolerance of
ambiguity, tentativeness of knowledge and encourages autonomous learning. This model is
adaptable to all levels of learning.
Advance organisers model
This model, developed by David Ausubel is aimed at helping teachers organize and convey
large amounts of information as meaningfully and as efficiently as possible. According to this
model, the teacher organizes the subject content and presents information through lectures,
readings and designing tasks for the learners to integrate what they have learned. The learner's
primary role is to master ideas and information. Contrary to the inductive approaches which
lead the students to discover and rediscover concepts, the advance organizers, provide concepts
and principles to the students directly. The advance organizers model is designed to strengthen
students’ cognitive structures, a term Ausubel uses for a person's knowledge of particular
subject matter at any given time and how well organized, clear and stable it is (Ausubel, 1963).
According to him, there is a parallel between the way subject matter is organized and the way
people organize knowledge in their minds. He expresses the view that, each of the academic
disciplines has a structure of concepts that are organized hierarchically, with more abstract
concepts at the top and concrete ones at the lower end. This model rests on the premise that,
our mind is an information processing system akin to the conceptual structure of an academic
discipline. Like the disciplines, the mind is a hierarchically organized set of ideas that provides
anchors for information and ideas and serves as a storehouse for them. Ausubel maintains that
new ideas can be learnt and retained, to the extent that they can be related to already available
concepts or propositions that provide ideational anchors. The advance organizers model
enables the learners to develop habits of precise thinking and undertake meaningful
assimilation of information and ideas. It helps them to interrelate and integrate the material in
the learning task with previously learned material.
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Models of intellectual development
Models, based on studies of student's intellectual development (Kohlberg, 1976; Piaget, 1952;
Sigel, 1969; and Sullivan, 1967), are used to help us adjust instruction to the stage of maturity
of an individual student and to design ways of increasing the student's rate of development.
The long term goal of such models is to teach students to think effectively. They rest on the
assumption that matching curriculum to the students' stage of development and appropriately
organized instruction can accelerate intellectual development. Piaget, a major proponent of this
approach, maintains that human beings develop increasingly complex levels of thinking in
definite stages. Each stage is characterized by the possession of certain concepts or intellectual
structures called schemes. An individual uses these schemes as he interacts with the
environment. While interacting, new experiences are incorporated into the present patterns of
behavior which Piaget called as the process of assimilation. When the cognitive structure is
changed, to fit the new experience that occurs, it is termed as the process of accommodation.
Constantly, through the process of accommodation and assimilation, cognitive activities
are undertaken as per one's developmental progress. Alternatively, this model suggests the idea
of optimal mismatch i.e. by pitching instruction slightly above the current level of the students,
enabling them to push their way towards the next stages; an idea originally put forth by
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development.
Personalized models of teaching
Ultimately human reality resides in our individual consciousness. We develop unique
personalities and see the world from perspectives that are the products of our experiences and
positions. Common understandings are a product of the negotiations of individuals who must
live, work and create families together. The personal models of teaching-learning begin from
the perspective of the selfhood of the individual. They attempt to shape education so that we
come to understand ourselves better, take responsibility for our education and learn to reach
beyond our current development, to become stronger, more sensitive and self aware in our
quest for high quality lives. One the most widely used model within this approach is the
nondirective teaching model.
Non-directive teaching model
The non-directive teaching model focuses on facilitating learning. The primary goal of
nondirective teaching is to assist students in attaining greater personal integration, effectiveness
and a realistic self appraisal. A related goal is to create a learning environment conducive to
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the process of stimulating, examining and evaluating new perceptions. This model draws on
Roger's stance toward non directive counselling, in which the client's capacity to deal
constructively with his own life is respected. When operating non-directively, the teacher
attempts to see the world as the student sees it. This creates an atmosphere of empathic
communication in which the student's self-direction can be matured and developed. The
primary means used is the non-directive interview strategy, a mode in which the teacher mirrors
student's thoughts and feelings. The teacher in this mode gives up traditional decision-making
roles, choosing instead a role of the facilitator who focuses on students' feelings. The
relationship between a student and a teacher; in a non-directive interview is best described as
a partnership. The non-directive teaching model may be used for several types of problem
situations: personal, social and academic. It is designed to promote self awareness and
independence, enhance one's self concept, reflected in the establishment of 'open' classrooms.
It aims at flexibility in learning, group work, creative self expression and qualitative
evaluation.
Behavioural models of teaching
The behavioural models of teaching which have evolved from the classical conditioning
experiments of Pavlov (1927), the work of Thorndike on reward learning (1911, 1913) and the
influence of Skinnerian principles on human behavior( 1953). The models of teaching in this
category rest on the belief that all behavior is observable, identifiable, and contingent upon the
variables in the environment. It can be modified through learning principles.
Some of these models are:
Direct instruction
The term direct instruction has been used by researchers, to refer to a pattern of teaching, which
consists of the teacher explaining a new concept or skill, to a large group of students, having
them test their understanding by practicing under his/her direction (controlled practice) and
encouraging them to participate in their own seats under his/ her guidance (guided practice).
Because the model is highly structured and teacher directed, it can flourish only in an
environment which supports a traditional educational approach wherein the teacher is in control
and shapes the learning of his/her students. The model is, as the name suggests, direct. It
approaches academic content, systematically. Its design is shaped to generate and sustain
motivation through pacing and reinforcement. Through success and positive feedback it tries
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to enhance one's self esteem. As a model, it is highly structured. The role of the teacher,
according to this model is to provide the knowledge of results, help students pace themselves
and reinforce desirable behaviors. The direct instruction model plays a limited, but nevertheless
important role in a comprehensive educational programme. Research on direct instruction
indicates that this approach is effective in promoting student learning in reading and math,
especially for, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
Contingency management model
The contingency management model like other behaviourist models, perceives human behavior
as a function of the immediate environment, specifically, an eliciting stimulus and a reinforcing
stimulus. The contingency management model, we can thus say, is based on the operant
principle that all behavior is influenced by consequences that follow. It may otherwise be
described as the systematic control of reinforcing stimuli, such that it is presented at selected
times and only after the desired response has been given.
The ultimate goal of this model is transferability of the behaviors to new situations, which are
similar in nature. Also implicit in this goal is durability; the new adaptive behaviors which
become intrinsic, remain under the individuals self control and become self monitored. The
contingency management model has many uses. These include reducing undesirable or
maladaptive behaviors, like aggression, depression etc. This model is also valuable in
developing new skills, such as social skills, academic skills and self management skills etc. It
also helps in altering emotional responses like eliminating anxiety, curing phobias etc. In
implementing the contingency management model, there are a set of steps and techniques
which are-typically followed.
Self control model
The activities of the self control model are similar to those of contingency management
(discussed previously), with the major differences occurring in the orientation of the learner to
the strategy and the social system i.e. in initiating and having responsibility for carrying out the
model. In this model, the onus of responsibility lies upon the individual.
One of the main reasons for moving towards a self control model is that for many behaviors,
the environment is unlikely to provide incentives at the rate and time that the individual actually
needs them, to establish the new behavior, Studying, exercising, playing the piano and assertive
social behavior are some such examples. Consequently, it is important that the person has ways
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of rewarding himself or herself in order to monitor and regulate his behavior, S9 as to eliminate
undesirable or maladaptive behaviors. The structure of such models is moderate to low.
Although the instructor is important in initiating the possibility of the program, the student
ultimately has control over the situation and maintenance of activities, many of which are
carried out without the supervision of the teacher. This model not only targets maladaptive
behaviors by eliminating them, but also has powerful nurturing effects. It teaches individuals
that they can control their environments and themselves and this enhances self-esteem. It also
encourages people who perceive the world from a behavioural point of view, to note the
stimulus and reinforcements, in their interactions with people and things.
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