Ch 1: Basic Principles of Instruction
About This Chapter
Basic Principles of Instruction - Chapter Summary
Reacquaint yourself with instruction basics as you progress through these lessons. Let our instructors reinforce your understanding of how students learn, types of instructional methodologies and ways to apply this information in the classroom. These lessons present the following material:
- Psychological definition of learning
- Comparison of direct vs. discovery instruction
- Approaches to declarative and procedural learning
- Types of instructional strategies
Reinforce your retention of the material by taking our lesson quizzes and chapter tests. By clicking on the links in the quizzes that connect back to the videos, you can check or clarify points as the need arises. The dashboard feature allows you to track your work efficiently.
How It Helps
- Reviews learning styles: You can expand your knowledge of what learning is and why learning styles differ.
- Provides workable strategies: By incorporating techniques for procedural and declarative teaching into your overall approach, you will have effective tools to use in the classroom.
- Shows and tells: You will be able to integrate both direct and discovery methods in your classroom as appropriate.
Skills Covered
When you finish working through these lessons, you will have the resources to:
- Integrate hands-on, interactive and collaborative teaching strategies into your approach
- Teach concepts, content, skills and procedures effectively
- Use direct and discovery instruction to the best advantage
- Apply techniques that address a variety of learning styles

1. What is Learning? - Understanding Effective Classroom Strategies
We all learn new things every day, but how is 'learning' defined in educational psychology? This lesson covers the definition of learning, different types of learning, and discusses learning styles.

2. Direct Instruction & Discovery Instruction: Definition & Differences
Two of the most popular teaching strategies are direct instruction and discovery instruction, which are frequently discussed in contrast with each other. In this lesson, we define each type of instruction and discuss the differences between the two.

3. Teaching Strategies for Declarative vs. Procedural Knowledge
There are two types of knowledge: the knowledge of what and the knowledge of how. The knowledge of what is declarative and the knowledge of how is procedural. This lesson reviews these types of knowledge in a classroom setting.

4. Instructional Strategies: Hands-On, Interactive, Expository & Collaborative
In this lesson, we will use the fictional Academy of Magic to illustrate four types of instructional strategies that teachers use in the classroom: expository instruction, interactive instruction, hands-on instruction and collaborative instruction.
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Other Chapters
Other chapters within the Effective Instructional Strategies for Teachers course
- Instructional Planning
- Teacher-Centered Instructional Strategies
- Student-Centered Instructional Strategies
- Cross-Curricular & Content-Specific Instruction
- Instructional Strategies for Student Achievement
- Tools & Techniques for the Classroom
- Instructional Strategies for Language Skills
- Integrated Learning in the Classroom
- Technology for the Classroom
- Learning Environments