Theoretical Perspectives of Teaching

This essay discusses the theoretical perspectives of teaching and their application in language development for culturally diverse school children. It explores strategies for language enhancement using cognitivist, constructivist, and humanist approaches.

Running head: CASE STUDY: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHING
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1CASE STUDY: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHING
Introduction
As observed by Dudley, Cotton and Peralta (2015), theoretical approaches and
perspectives underlying the core processes of teaching and learning form the foundational
cornerstones of the educational process, due to their contribution in guiding the teacher towards
understanding the unique learning attributes possessed by each student. A number of theoretical
approaches and perspectives to teaching are prevalent, which dictate the unique learning
processes undertaken by students. The usage of such theoretical perspectives further pave the
way for development of various teaching tools, strategies and demonstrative learning activities
(Kay & Kibble, 2016). The following paragraphs of this essay aims to shed light on the various
theoretical learning objectives which can be applied pertaining to the given school case study,
followed by a range of teaching and learning strategies which can be employed for the purpose
of management of the scenario using the chosen theoretical approaches.
Discussion
Question 1: Case Overview
The given study focuses on the evaluation of the required teaching principles for
educating primary grade children studying in a school which is situated in an area prevalent with
communities belonging to a low socioeconomic group. The school’s population consists of a
group of children hailing from families of diverse cultures and ethnicities. The culturally diverse
group of children studying in the school has also been found to demonstrate a varied set of
backgrounds, capabilities and skills.

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At present, considering the varied cultural backgrounds and ethnicities of the student, it
can be evident that the children prevail from families whose primary language may not be
English. Hence, at present, the present educational concern which is observed to be happening in
this case scenario is the lack of adequate language development in the children. The reason for
emergence of this concern can be attributed to the non-English speaking backgrounds of the
children. As observed by Marcellino (2015), lack of adequate management of this concerning
issue may lead to communication difficulties and hindrance in adjustment towards the
mainstream society among the children in the future.
Further, considering the additional issue of the children being in possession of diverse
cultural backgrounds, the other concerning issue which is happening here is the lack of cultural
competence and cultural sensitivities among the teachers of the school, since they may be
prevailing from English speaking backgrounds. If not managed appropriately, as researched by
Salmona et al., (2015), this issue may result in a communication gap between the students and
teachers, further resulting in discord, distress and a perception of the school being culturally
disrespectful by the concerned families of the children.
Further, another cause of concern may be attributed to the lack of adequate teaching
abilities and strategies which may not effectively hone, develop or stimulate the prevalent skills
and abilities of the children in a culturally appropriate manner resulting in lack of enthusiasm or
eagerness of the children towards the existing curriculum (Merrell, Calderwood & Graham,
2017).

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Question 2: Strategies for Encouragement and Improvement
Cognitivist
A cogntivist approach to teaching is guided by the learning theory of cognitivism, which
emphasizes learning as being dependant on salient cognitive processes of logical reasoning and
thinking, problem-solving and memory. Hence, theoretical perspectives of cognitivist teaching
relies on the learner’s abilities to process the educational or teaching information followed by
understanding of the same, through categorization of information into concepts (Tanes, 2016).
Hence, teaching and educational strategies which undertake theoretical approaches of
cognitivism, must consideration enhancing the learner’s understanding of key concepts, in this
case, the English language, abilities to form connections between such concepts, such as reading,
spelling, writing and speaking, followed by breaking down the information into further minor
components, such as grammatical features and tense, followed finally by restructuring of these
language concepts for comprehensive understanding, such as practical application of the English
language during communication (Imenda. 2018). Hence, the strategies aimed at language
development, using a cognitivist approach to teaching and learning, may include the following:
 Active Reading and Grammatical Learning: According to (Kashefi et al., 2017),
cognitive learning is dependent upon enhancing the learner’s ability to understand
educational content by formulation of concepts. Hence, to encourage the same, the
teacher and provide students with various stories or scenarios, followed by instructing
each student to actively read out the passage in class in English. This teaching strategy
may then be followed the teacher asking students to identify specific grammatical
features in the passage such as tenses, voices or nouns. Such activities will not only

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enhance reading skills of the students, but will also demonstrate enhancement of their
basic concepts of language.
 Questions for Comprehension: As researched by (Noori & Hashemi, 2016), cognitivist
approach to learning focuses upon improvement and addition of novel concepts to
already existing information and concepts possessed by the individual. Hence, after
learning the basic grammatical concepts from the above English reading materials, the
teaching can then ask questions to the learners, regarding the characters of the story, their
experiences or identified morals of the story, and write or discuss them in English. This
will administer novel concepts of experiences, morals or situations in the students along
with development of expression of the same, in terms of the English language.
 Stimulatory Questions: Finally, as researched by Connolly (2018), a cognitivist
approach encourages learners to formulate connections between various concepts and
information, to result in the formulation of an additional concept. Hence, the teacher can
encourage the students to reflect on the stories which they have learned by asking
stimulatory questions like ‘what would you have done’ or ‘what do you think could have
happened in the future’ and instruct them to express the same by writing or dictating in
English. This strategy will further encourage practical application and understanding of
the English language by the students.
Constructivist
As observed by Weimer et al., (2017). constructivist theoretical approach to teaching is
outlined on the theoretical learning principles of Piaget and Vygotsky, which emphasize
individual leaning processes as an interplay of interactions between their individual ideas and
their personal experiences. Considering the same, a constructivist theory of teaching opposes the

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prevalent notion that students or learners undergo education through merely passively receiving
the required information. Hence, as researched by Bada and Olusegun (2015), a constructivist
theoretical teaching approach focuses on learners as being active participants in the derivation of
meaning and in the construction of knowledge, with the aid of personal experiences, personal
cultural characteristics and undertaking active initiative and participation in the learning process.
Thus, taking insights from the same, the theoretical principles of constructivist learning places
key emphasis on active involvement of learners, provision of a democratic environment,
execution of student-centered, interactive activities and an encouragement for students to
exercise principles of responsibility and autonomy (Juvova et al., 2015).
Hence, based on adoption of a constructivist theoretical approach, constructivist learning
strategies for enhancing language development in the school children will include the following:
 Class discussions: To enhance language development, the concerned teacher can initiate
one of the most widely used constructivist approaches to teaching, that is, conductance of
class discussions. Students can be encouraged to practically demonstrate their skills of
spoken English as well as develop skills of initiating speech, by being asked to discuss
their experiences in English. Further, to incorporate culturally competent teaching, the
each student can be asked to discuss in English, various unique cultural practices, habits
or festivals unique to their ethnicities (Akpan & Beard, 2016).
 Movies and films: In order to enhance children’s personal experiences through visual
learning, the teacher can show various notable children’s films where English is the
medium of media dissemination, followed by encouraging the children to reflect and
share their notions on the same, in English, in order to enhance cosntructivitism
principles of learner participation (Bryant & Bates, 2015).

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 Cultural assignments and Projects: In order to encourage participation, encouragement
and initiative along with cultural competence, students can be paired in groups of two,
where they may exchange a unique culturally distinctive food, festival, music or practice
with each other and present a project in the form of a picture book and written content in
English. This will not only enhance language development and cultural competency, but
will also lead to social interaction and enhanced learner comprehension of shared
experiences associated with visual stimulus – salient requisites of constructivist learning,
as researched by Garneau and Pepin (2015).
 Field trips: As a final strategy, teachers can ask students to highlight places, buildings or
sites, unique to each student’s cultures, and then conduct short field trips where the
concerned students may be asked to explain the cultural relevance of the area in English.
Such strategies enrich learner’s experiences through visual and participatory education,
along with dissemination of culturally respectful values (Ceti-Dindar, 2016).
Humanist
As observed by Fomari et al. (2018), the humanist theoretical approach to teaching
encompasses principles of humanism and person-centeredness during education, teaching and
learning, taking key insights from notable humanist psychologists such as Carl Rogers and
Abraham Maslow. In accordance to humanistic teaching principles, teachers must incorporate a
person-centered teaching plan, which must be genuine, empathetic and affectionate to the needs
of the students. Likewise, additional key concepts of a humanistic theoretical approach to
teaching include a holistic approach to education and redirection of the teacher’s role of being a
facilitator (Jo & An, 2015). Hence, a holistically designed humanistic teaching strategy, respects
the unique experiences of the learners coupled with encouraging their participation in the

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decision-making process during teaching plan formulation. Likewise, a teacher adhering to
humanistic theoretical perspectives, must serve to be a facilitator, resulting in a shifting of
perception regarding the teacher being the primary harbinger of knowledge followed by
respecting leaner’s needs, interest and opinions concerning the existing teaching plan (Shakirova
& Valeeva, 2016). Hence, considering the same, humanistic approaches to teaching will
encompass the following strategies for language development:
 Emotional support and Acceptance of Diversity: As researched by Kumar Bhowmik
(2015), provision of person-centered, holistic approach to education encompass one of
the key theoretical perspectives of outlining a humanistic approach to teaching. Hence,
instead of a traditional English language teaching curriculum, the teacher can first initiate
person-centered discussion, where students will be encouraged to their unique
experiences concerning their usage of the English language, coupled with any negative
experiences pertaining to stereotypes followed by teacher’s encouragement of the rest to
reflect on each student’s story. This will not only enhance cultural sensitivities, but will
also enable the teachers to identify each child as not just a learner, but also a unique
individual with varied experiences, needs and preferences – which are essential requisites
to a humanistic perspective to teaching (Crimmins, 2016).
 Student Centered, empathetic English curriculum: After actively listening and
empathizing with the experiences of the children, the teacher can then serve as a
facilitator of the educational process. Hence, prior to administration of the teaching plan,
the teacher must organize an open discussion where children will be encourage to share
their existing problems and shortcomings associated with the English language, followed
by obtaining their views on what they would prefer to be taught during English language

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development classes. Hence, this will encourage teachers to design and adopt a unique
teaching plan which incorporates the unique needs of every student instead of
formulating a traditional, autonomous curriculum which may not meet the diverse
cultural and emotional needs of the students (Jooste et al., 2015).
 Education through Discovery and Open Seminars: To further disseminate person-
centered mode of teaching, the teacher can provide unique cultural based topics to each
student and instead of highlighting any specific teaching format, the teacher can
encourage students to adopt their own ways of exploring the topic, albeit in English. This
will enhance diversity in cultural and intellectual perspectives. Likewise, the results of
the project can be expressed by the students in English in the form of open seminars,
where the teacher may take a back seat and allow each student to openly express or
‘teach’ others regarding what they learned, resulting in language improvement as well as
holistic learning through acceptance of diversity (Connolly, 2016).
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded, with the aid of various theoretical teaching perspectives,
strategies aimed at language development were developed successfully for the purpose of
educating culturally diverse school children. Cognitivist learning approaches aim to tap onto the
cognitive processes of thinking, memory and reasoning in the during language comprehensive.
Constructivist approaches on the other hand, focus extensively on practical, participatory and
demonstrative based learning of language. Likewise, humanistic strategies will aim to enhance
language development in the children through holistic and person centered approaches. Hence, to

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conclude, it is recommended that the teachers of the concerned school adopt teaching strategies
based on all of the above theoretical approaches to reap the best benefits.

10CASE STUDY: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHING
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