Philippine E-Journals

A case study of a university teacher’s extent of adherence to teaching for understanding tasks

Eufrecina Jean dela Rosa Ramirez

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Recent empirical data indicate that many students are scared of Genetics because they believe that they cannot understand it or have not understood it in the past. Today, more than ever, the vital role of the teacher in the promotion of understanding of science concepts, processes and relationships cannot be underestimated. “Teaching for understanding,” as a pedagogical act and as an instructional framework, advocates a constructivist view of effective classroom instruction in which the primary focus is the enhancement of the kind of cognitive outcomes or conceptual understanding students have. To achieve this end, the teacher, as an indispensable element in the teaching-learning process, must have extensive knowledge of the subject being taught and how it should be taught. The intent of this qualitative-case study is to capture a university teacher’s extent of adherence to tasks requiring conceptual understanding. With the use of audiotaped classroom proceedings, instructional episodes which explicitly highlight the tasks inherent in teaching for understanding, namely: explaining, finding evidence, generalizing, applying, and analogizing were identified and described.

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