Teaching 101: The Development Lesson

The development lesson is a method of teaching in which something new is presented or developed. It may be a fact, a principle, a skill, a generalization, or some knowledge. It must be something the class did not know before.

This kind of lesson has two types: the formal and informal. The formal development lesson uses formal time-tested method with definite steps. It may use the question-and-answer or Socratic Method. It may use the conversational method or what some authors call "developmental method" where the child is encouraged to see the facts, form his judgement, discover truths for himself, and make a conclusion.

According to Thomas M. Risk (1965), "The developmental procedure is the antithesis of the authoritative method, through which the learner receives the information given by some authority--generally the teacher or the textbook. As ordinarily interpreted, the term " developmental study method" is appliead to a direct learning procedure, under the directions of the teacher, in which students participate step by step.

The informal development type can be found in the lessons in the primary grades where the logical thinking required by the inductive or deductive process is usually not in keeping with children's mental development, short attention span, and the short periods allotted to subjects.
Steps of the Informal development lesson :

1) Preparation. This consist of the cognitive and motivational aspects, reviewing of facts or recalling old experiences related to the lesson, establishing right mental set for the lesson and motivation of the lesson.

2) Presentatin or Development. In this stage, the teacher directs children's learning by means of questions and teaching aids, leading the class to examine, analyze, compare, contrast, generalize, observem judge or discover something.

3) Application. This step tests whether the pupils have really learned or not. If a pupil learned a rule in the lesson, he should be able to apply the rule in solving related exercises as well as be able to recognize a fact learned in other situations.

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