One way to start to think about a competent use of teaching and learning methodologies

to engage students is to consider the lecture. When it is done well, lecturing can be an
effective means of engaging students. However, avoiding common mistakes involves
planning lectures to ensure that the lecture engages students.
If you visited the website above on planning lectures, you will have seen that a range of
factors have to be taken into account in order to deliver an effective lecture. By
extension, the same is true for all forms of teaching. These factors can be divided into
two groups: effective planning (this section) and effective delivery of teaching to engage
students (next section).
One way to plan your teaching is to ensure that the three elements of the teaching process
- learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and student assessment - are
aligned. When this happens there are clear and logical relations between learning
outcomes (what you want students to know, understand, be able to do), learning activities
(tasks, interactions etc. to enable students to achieve outcomes) and student assessment
(to measure whether students have achieved the intended outcomes).

Teaching and Learning Activities

Teaching and learning activities are the activities that you design to help your students
achieve the intended learning outcomes for the course. Teaching and learning
activities include but are not limited to:

delivering a lecture;
holding a tutorial;
engaging students in a collaborative learning exercises;;
having a student work with a patient or client;
having a student practice a clinical skill on a model, mannekin or patient
simulator.

The key point here is that the design of the teaching and learning activities is driven by
the intended learning outcomes. For example, if we write learning outcomes that require
our students to demonstrate higher order thinking and/or to master a particular skill,

then we need to design teaching and learning activities that will help students to achieve
these outcomes. Examples of teaching and learning activities that encourage higher order
thinking might include a mini-lab project, or a case study that requires students to draw
on knowledge from different areas of the curriculum. Examples of activities that can help
students to master a skill include demonstration coupled with practice activities on e.g. a
human patient simulator with reinforcement through watching the skill performed in a
video clip.
Factors to Consider:
On teachers content knowledge:
1. What is the relationship between a teachers content knowledge and the
curriculum taught? Do teachers learn the mathematics they need and in particular
connections between concepts through curriculum study? What other learning
emerges as teachers study the curriculum?
2. How can we define a healthy relationship between teachers and curriculum?
Can a teacher grow by establishing such a relationship with the curriculum?
3. How do teacher educators support the development of a healthy relationship
between
teachers
and
the
curriculum?
On designing curriculum for teaching with understanding:
4. How do researchers promote the involvement of teachers in curriculum design?
What are the implications of such involvement on teaching? How does this
involvement relate to the continuous development of teachers in practice?
5. How do we map a specific design to a specific cultural background?
6. What type of curriculum promotes teaching with understanding? What kind of
curriculum structure improves mathematics teachers content knowledge?
After designing the curriculum:
7. How does a curriculum evolve in the light of social and educational demands?
Who should initiate curriculum changes?
8. Can a Teacher Educator become a leader and a bridge to improving a curriculum?