Psychological Principles of Teaching

  Psychological principles teaching are those principles which make teaching stimulating and effective by taking into account the psychology of the child.

 

1.Principle of motivation or interests: It is said that half the battle is won if the students are truly motivated for the lesson. Motivation is the petrol that drives the mental engine. Motivation not only promotes but also facilitates learning. Motivation arouses the interest of the child and once he is genuinely interested, he become attentive and consequently learning becomes effective. Hence teacher should property motivate the students by creating interesting learning situations. Teaching should be linked with activities and purposes of life.

 

2.Principles of Sympathy and Kindness: Sympathetic attitude on the part of the teacher is an essential pre requisite of successful teaching successful teaching cannot take place in a situation that lacks sympathy and kindness with the interest and needs of students. The teacher should be good and kind to the students in order to teach them properly.

 

3.Principle of recreation: Successful teaching proves to be a source of creativeness and recreation. It awakens in the learners a desire to be creative and engages them in activity which is a source of pleasure to them.

 

4.Principle of readiness: If the pupils are not ready to learn, it is the duty of the teacher to make him ready for learning. Principle of readiness warns the teacher to take up only those tasks for teaching which are according to psychology of the pupils. i.e. their abilities, interests, attitudes, aspirations, maturation and developmental level.

 

5.Principle of feedback and reinforcement: A child learns quickly if he gets feedback and reinforcement in the form of appreciation of every step.

 

6.Principle of encouraging self learning: The teacher should inculcate the habit of self study, independent work and self learning among the students by providing proper opportunities and training to his students of this purpose.

 

7.Principle of change and rest: Monotony fatigue and lack of attention decrease the speed of learning change in stimulus and other types of changes in the contents, methods and teaching.

 

Principles of Teaching

 

.    General principles of teaching

 

1. Principle of definiteness of goals or objectives: Teaching should start with defining aim and objective. The teacher and students must be clear about the goals of teaching-learning. It helps them to be on the track. When the goals and objectives of the lesson are determined properly it will help the teacher to plan, execute and evaluate the phase of the teaching-learning process.

 

2. Principle of Planning: Planning in teaching is a very important step, teachers must plan properly before coming to actual classroom teaching. The successful teaching-learning process highly depends on teachers’ planning and execution in the class. The planning includes a lesson plan, Teaching aids, Strategy and Methods of teaching.

 

3. Principle of flexibility and elasticity: The teaching strategy must be flexible. It needs to be changed according to the classroom situations and the needs of students. Teachers should be imaginative and resourceful people so that they can adapt strategies according to the needs of the classroom environment.

 

4. Principle of utilization past experience: In effective teaching, the teacher must start a lesson with questions to know about the student’s previous knowledge. Prior knowledge could reduce the cognitive load leading to better learning engagement.

 

5. Principle of child centeredness: The modern education system is child centeredness. According to the  National Curriculum Framework (NCF), the students are the active participant and the teacher are the facilitator. So the teaching should be according to the child’s needs, abilities and interests and teaching should be activity-based so that students can be learned with the active participants.

 

6. Principle of making provision for individual differences:  As we know every child is different from each other. The teacher should be kept in mind Individual differences while teaching and he should teach according to the children’s attitudes, abilities, aptitudes, interests, achievements, aims, ambitions and aspirations. Teaching should make adequate provision for individual differences.

 

7. Principle of linking with actual life: According to the NCF-2005 the learning should go beyond the four walls of the school. Teaching should be linked with real-life experiences of everyday life. It not only motivates students but also makes them easy to learn a lesson. In teaching, lesson teacher should give an appropriate examples with the students day to day life activities.

 

8. Principle of correlating with other subjects: The correlating of one subject with another subject is very important in order to create interest in the subject. In effective teaching, the teacher gives correlates one subject with another to the overall development of the students.

 

9. Principle of effective strategies and instructional materials: Effective strategies in teaching are very important. The teacher should adopt effective teaching methods so that students can gain maximum knowledge and the teaching aids and other instructional materials should be used effectively.

 

10. Principle of active participation and involvement: In modern-day education, teaching and learning must be child centredness so that children can actively participate in learning. The teacher should use the activity-based teaching method so that the maximum number of students can be involved and active participants in the teaching-learning process. Teaching is ineffective if the students do not actively participate in the lesson. Learning becomes active and quicker if the student is made active physically as well as mentally.

 

11. Principle of conducive environment and proper control: The teacher should create such a conducive environment so that it becomes a motivating factor for learning. There must be proper arrangement of light, furniture and other needful resources. The teacher should maintain proper order and discipline by being sympathetic but at the same time, he must be firm.

 

12. Principle of knowledge and entering behaviour: The main purpose of any act of teaching is to bring about the desired changes in the behaviour of the students. To achieve this end, the teacher must have knowledge of the entry behaviour of the students.

 

13. Principle of Linking with Actual Life: Life and learning should become two poles of the same magnet; they become so interdependent that none can exist without the other. The teacher should not teach in water tight compartments.

 

14.  Principle of utilizing past experiences: For effective teaching, a teacher should link the new knowledge of his students with their previous experience. It will make the teacher process easy from stable and safe.

 

15. Principle of Suggestiveness: Good teaching is suggestiveness rather than authorities. The teacher behaves like a friend and a guide suggesting activities, materials and modes of response. Suggestion has the effect of provoking courteous response and inviting cooperation.

 

16. Principle of democracy: Successful teaching is democratic. The teacher should create democratic environments in the class.

 

B.   

Principles of Curriculum Construction

 The content of curriculum is determined on the basis of some academic principles which are stated below:

 (1) Aims of education and objectivity: Life is complex. A curriculum should reflect the complexities of life. In other words, in farming the curriculum one should take into consideration the aims and objectives of education.

 (2) Child-centric principle: The curriculum should be framed according to the actual needs, interests and capacities of the child. That means a curriculum must be child-centric as modern education is child-centered.

 (3) Principles of civic and social needs: Man is a social being. He lives in the society. The child develops in the society. Modern education aims at both developments of the individuality of the child as well as the development of the society.

 (4) Principle of conservation: Man has conserved experiences very carefully for better adaptability. Education is regarded as a means of deserving the cultural heritage of humanity. The school serves two-fold functions in this regard- preservation of the past experiences and transmission of experiences.

 (5) Principles of creativeness: Education not only conserves that past experiences of humanity but also helps an individual to develop his innate potentialities.

 (6) Principle of forward-looking: The aim of life-centered education is not limited to the present life-situations in the family and society. Hence, education must prepare the child of shouldering future responsibilities. So in farming the curriculum we must take into consideration the future needs of the child as well as the needs of the society.

 (7) Principle of preparation for living: The children should know the various activities of the environment around them and how these activities are enabling people to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, recreation, health and education.

 (8) Principle of integration and correlation: Subjects should be arranged logically and psychologically in accordance with the child’s developing interests.

 (9) Principle of learning ability: Every item should be learnt. An item should not only be learnable, it should also have utility.

(10) Principle of individual difference: The curriculum should be framed in such a way that every individual can have opportunity for self-expression and development. The curriculum should be based on the psychology of individual difference, which can meet the complexities of modern democratic society.

 (11) Principle of social relevancy and utility: Subjects should not be determined on the basis of their disciplinary value but on the basis of their intrinsic value, social relevancy and utility.

 (12) Principle for utilization of leisure: Variety of subjects such as games and sports, fine arts, subjects of aesthetic value are to be introduced in the school programme to utilize leisure.

 (13) Principle of variety and flexibility: The curriculum should include such activities and experiences, which may facilitate his normal development. The curriculum for girls should naturally be different from that of boys; boys and girls have different needs and attitudes.

 (14) Principle of time: Relative significance and importance of each subject in the curriculum has to be judged and determined in the light of the time available in the timetable, which is regarded as the mirror of the school programme.