| Method |
Advantages |
Limitations |
| Discussion |
- Allows students to actively practice problem-solving,
critical-thinking, and higher-level skills
- Is interesting and stimulating for teachers and
students
- Can change attitude and knowledge level
- Makes effective use of students' backgrounds and
experiences
|
- Students must have a common experience in order to
participate (read book, view video, activity)
- Teacher must prepare and possess discussion-leading
skills for the method to be effective
|
| Drill and Practice |
- Provides repetitive practice in basic skills
- Promotes low-level cognitive skills
- Helps build speed and accuracy
|
- Students can perceive it as boring
- Does not teach when and how to apply the facts
learned
|
| Tutorial |
- Provides optimum individualization instruction
- Provides the highest degree of student participation
- Expands the number of teachers in the classroom by
the number of computers
- Introduces new concepts in a sequenced, interactive
way
|
- May be impractical in many cases because appropriate
tutorial material is not available
- May encourage student dependency on human tutor
|
| Demonstration |
- Utilizes several senses
- Has dramatic appeal if the presenter uses good
showmanship techniques
- Provides holistic perspective
- Reduces hazards and trial-and-error learning
experiments or procedures
|
- May be difficult for all students to see the
demonstration
- Is time consuming
- Demonstrations do not always go as planned
|
| Presentation |
- Can be used with groups of all sizes
- Give students the opportunity to see and hear the
same information
- Provides students with an organized perspective of
lesson content
- Can be used efficiently to present a large amount of
content
|
- Requires little student activity
- Make assessment of student's mental involvement
difficult
- Doesn't provide feedback to students
- One-way approach
|
| Cooperative Learning |
- Promotes positive interdependence, individual
accountability, collaborative and social skills and group processing
- Encourages communication and leadership skills
- Facilitates student learning in academic and
social skills
- Involves students in active learning
|
- Requires a compatible group
- Group dynamics must be planned and organized
- Takes more time to cover the same amount of material
- Is less appealing to individuals who prefer to work
alone
|
| Discovery |
- Encourages higher-level thinking
- Provides intrinsic motivation
- Usually results in increased retention of knowledge
- Develops the skills and attitudes essential for
self-directed learning
|
- Allows for the discovery of "incorrect" or
unintended information
- Can be time consuming
|
| Problem Solving |
- Increases comprehension and retention
- Involves higher-level learning
- Provides students with the opportunity to learn for
their mistakes
- Develops responsibility as students learn to think
independently
|
- Limits the amount of content covered; can be time
consuming
- Selecting, modifying, and designing effective
instructional problems can be time consuming
- Requires teachers to have good management skills to
coach students without giving answers
|
| Games |
- Actively involves students and encourages social
interaction among players
- Can be incorporated into many instructional
situations to increase motivation
- Helps students learn to deal with unpredictable
circumstances
|
- May involve students with competition more than
content
- Can be time consuming to set up and monitor
- Can sometimes cause off-task behavior if students
loose content focus and become involved in winning the game
|
| Simulations |
- Provides practice and experimentation with skills
- Provides immediate feedback on actions and decisions
- Simplifies real-world complexities and focuses on
attributes or characteristics
- Is appealing, motivates intense effort and increases
learning
|
- Can cause deep emotional involvement (students
identify with the characters in the simulation)
- Both set-up and debriefing can be time consuming
|
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