Demonstration is an activity which involves the students in observing real objects or manipulations. There are basically three stages of demonstration 1) teachers show how to perform a task step-by-step or show the results 2) students observe 3) teachers explain the concepts and ask or answer questions.
Roles of Instructor and Student
Traditionally, demonstration is instructor centered. This means, instructor is the one who decides to use demonstration strategy, designs and tailors it to a particular learning objective, and completes the demonstration task. The teacher will also explain the concepts and describe the reasons why it happens. The teacher will also ask and answer questions, and obtain feedback from observing student's responses. The student focuses on the demonstration, and answer teacher's questions. However, this instructional strategy can be modified in a more student-centered, and interactive way. For example, instructor provides studying materials before the class, invites one or several students to demonstrate, and facilitate discussions between the demonstrators and the audience. Students can either ask or answer questions, or even propose relevant demonstration contents that they are most curious about.
Advantages of Demonstration
As a teaching technique, a demonstration is a valuable alternative to getting students to learn by doing. Demonstration has many advantages. First of all, it makes learning highly effective by conveying accurate and direct stimulation to the students. These stimulation can be visual, auditory, kinetic, and linguistic. It also provides an opportunity to engage students in cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. In particular, it allows the instructors to insert some entertainment into the lesson. There is a very wide range of positive emotions which teachers can foster through their demonstration, such as curiosity, anticipation, uncertainty, wonder, and amazement. Specifically in science teaching, demonstration develops students key scientific skills. Students are encouraged to make predictions and verbally communicate their observations and conclusions as they watch.
Disadvantages of Demonstration
Pacing issue is one of the limitations of demonstration. Given a wide range of capabilities, some students may fall behind in a demonstration while others may have seen similar demo before and get bored. In a large classroom setting, or in a micro-scale demonstration, it will be hard for students to see the details without any technical aid. As mentioned before, traditionally demonstration is teacher-centered and not hands-on for students. However this could be easily fixed by designing the demonstration activity as student-lead discussions when applicable. For science demonstration, special reagent and equipment are usually required. Some schools may not have the resources. Instructors should at least prepare ahead of time and make appropriate arrangements.
Best Practices of Demonstration 1) Be clear with the learning objectives - I usually think about what I expect the students to learn in a lesson, and what the demonstration can help them achieve the learning objective first. And then decide if demonstration is a suitable strategy for it. Time and other factors (equipment and material need) should also be considered. A decent amount of time has to be used to set up a demo, engage the students in the demo, and facilitate discussions. If there isn't enough time, creating a video can be an alternative for in-class demonstration.
2) Prepare and Practice. Most of the times you would rather the demo works. Preparing demo properly and practicing it repeatedly are essential before the class. However, instructors should be able to deal with a failed demo, and discuss with students why it didn't work and how similar mistakes can be prevented in the future.
3) Engage the Students - Demonstration can begin from predictions. We help the students to recall prior knowledge and everyday experience, then use them to predict the demonstration. This in return assesses students prior knowledge, and enable the instructor to reinforce, and clarify the points better. Some showman ship is also useful too. To engage your students, the instructors should be engaged themselves first. We can show surprise at the results, use some funny signs or jokes to stimulate learning.
4) Explanation and Summarize - the explanation should be correct and easy to follow. Instructors can use think-aloud strategy, or even invite students to work out the explanations together.
5) Student Feedback - I often informally ask students after the class how they feel about the demo, do they think it is being effective, what they have learned through the demo, if there's anything else that they also want to see.
As I wrote earlier this month, I started using iPad airplay to mirror my presentation spot to the overhead projector. It is an effective way to solve the visibility problem. Flipped classroom is the emerging trend that offers new dimensions for traditional demonstration strategy too. You can either capture your demonstration in videos in order to save the time in class. I have also tried to let several students to demonstrate by following detailed handout. It works out very well and very effectively have everyone involved in the class activities.
Conclusion/Summary Overall, demonstration is an effective and interactive instructional strategy. It needs to be planned ahead thoughtfully, to meet the learning objectives and different learning styles. Demonstrations are tools - they have strengths and limitations. We need to understand these pros and cons in order to use the tool more effectively with our students and to achieve the goals.
References
Roles of Instructor and Student
Traditionally, demonstration is instructor centered. This means, instructor is the one who decides to use demonstration strategy, designs and tailors it to a particular learning objective, and completes the demonstration task. The teacher will also explain the concepts and describe the reasons why it happens. The teacher will also ask and answer questions, and obtain feedback from observing student's responses. The student focuses on the demonstration, and answer teacher's questions. However, this instructional strategy can be modified in a more student-centered, and interactive way. For example, instructor provides studying materials before the class, invites one or several students to demonstrate, and facilitate discussions between the demonstrators and the audience. Students can either ask or answer questions, or even propose relevant demonstration contents that they are most curious about.
Advantages of Demonstration
As a teaching technique, a demonstration is a valuable alternative to getting students to learn by doing. Demonstration has many advantages. First of all, it makes learning highly effective by conveying accurate and direct stimulation to the students. These stimulation can be visual, auditory, kinetic, and linguistic. It also provides an opportunity to engage students in cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. In particular, it allows the instructors to insert some entertainment into the lesson. There is a very wide range of positive emotions which teachers can foster through their demonstration, such as curiosity, anticipation, uncertainty, wonder, and amazement. Specifically in science teaching, demonstration develops students key scientific skills. Students are encouraged to make predictions and verbally communicate their observations and conclusions as they watch.
Disadvantages of Demonstration
Pacing issue is one of the limitations of demonstration. Given a wide range of capabilities, some students may fall behind in a demonstration while others may have seen similar demo before and get bored. In a large classroom setting, or in a micro-scale demonstration, it will be hard for students to see the details without any technical aid. As mentioned before, traditionally demonstration is teacher-centered and not hands-on for students. However this could be easily fixed by designing the demonstration activity as student-lead discussions when applicable. For science demonstration, special reagent and equipment are usually required. Some schools may not have the resources. Instructors should at least prepare ahead of time and make appropriate arrangements.
Best Practices of Demonstration 1) Be clear with the learning objectives - I usually think about what I expect the students to learn in a lesson, and what the demonstration can help them achieve the learning objective first. And then decide if demonstration is a suitable strategy for it. Time and other factors (equipment and material need) should also be considered. A decent amount of time has to be used to set up a demo, engage the students in the demo, and facilitate discussions. If there isn't enough time, creating a video can be an alternative for in-class demonstration.
2) Prepare and Practice. Most of the times you would rather the demo works. Preparing demo properly and practicing it repeatedly are essential before the class. However, instructors should be able to deal with a failed demo, and discuss with students why it didn't work and how similar mistakes can be prevented in the future.
3) Engage the Students - Demonstration can begin from predictions. We help the students to recall prior knowledge and everyday experience, then use them to predict the demonstration. This in return assesses students prior knowledge, and enable the instructor to reinforce, and clarify the points better. Some showman ship is also useful too. To engage your students, the instructors should be engaged themselves first. We can show surprise at the results, use some funny signs or jokes to stimulate learning.
4) Explanation and Summarize - the explanation should be correct and easy to follow. Instructors can use think-aloud strategy, or even invite students to work out the explanations together.
5) Student Feedback - I often informally ask students after the class how they feel about the demo, do they think it is being effective, what they have learned through the demo, if there's anything else that they also want to see.
As I wrote earlier this month, I started using iPad airplay to mirror my presentation spot to the overhead projector. It is an effective way to solve the visibility problem. Flipped classroom is the emerging trend that offers new dimensions for traditional demonstration strategy too. You can either capture your demonstration in videos in order to save the time in class. I have also tried to let several students to demonstrate by following detailed handout. It works out very well and very effectively have everyone involved in the class activities.
Conclusion/Summary Overall, demonstration is an effective and interactive instructional strategy. It needs to be planned ahead thoughtfully, to meet the learning objectives and different learning styles. Demonstrations are tools - they have strengths and limitations. We need to understand these pros and cons in order to use the tool more effectively with our students and to achieve the goals.
References
Demonstration (Teaching). (2014). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstration_(teaching)
Demonstration (Teaching). (2014). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstration_(teaching)
Glasson, G. E. (1989). The effects of hands-on and
teacher demonstration laboratory methods on science achievement in relation
to reasoning ability and prior knowledge. Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, 26(2), 121-131.
Kruse, J. (2011). Iowa Academy of Science.
Retrieved from The Problem of Demonstrations:
http://www.iacad.org/istj/38/2/editorial.pdf
Milne, C. (2007, jan). Understanding Engagement:
Science Demonstrations and Emotional Energy. Retrieved from Wiley
InterScience:
https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/uploads/000/402/Milne%20%26%20Otieno.pdf
The Use of Demonstration in Science Teaching. (2014). Retrieved from
http://alomshaha.com/2012/04/the-use-of-demonstrations-in-science-teaching.html
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