Maximum participation of students during teaching is possible through

CONCEPT

Teaching methods differ in how much of the classroom work the learner actually performs. Participation is measured by the share of class time in which learners act — observing purposefully, handling materials, answering and practising — and not merely by how much information reaches them.

Where the flow of the lesson is one-way, from a speaker or a text to the learner, the activity stays with that source; where seeing, hearing and doing are combined, the activity moves to the class itself.

APPLICATION

In the demonstration method the teacher performs a process, an experiment or a skill with real materials in front of the class, explaining and questioning at each step.

The learners observe each step, ask about it, and then imitate and practise the same procedure themselves, so sight, hearing and manual work are engaged together and every learner has something to do at each stage.

Maximum participation of students during teaching is therefore possible through the demonstration method.

CROSS-CHECK / CONTRAST

• Lecture method: the teacher delivers the content in a continuous oral exposition while the class listens and takes notes, so the activity remains with the speaker.

• Demonstration method: purposeful observation is followed by the learners repeating the procedure themselves, which adds doing to seeing and hearing.

• Inductive method: the class examines particular examples and is led to the general rule, so the learner's work is verbal and mental and its pace is set by the teacher's questioning.

• Textbook method: the prescribed book supplies the content and the class reads the passage and works the exercises given in it, so the work is individual reading.