Effective teaching: Linking teaching to learning functions

Abstract

The quest for effective teaching remains a demanding, complex and daunting task. In spite of the wealth of research evidence on the nature of effective and ineffective teaching, there are still problems about spelling out what effective teaching really is. Most research efforts aim at investigating teacher effectiveness by probing the following dimensions: special characteristics of the teacher, which include cognitive dimensions, personality dimensions, perceptions of self and others, instructional procedures and interaction styles. An important aspect emanating from the last is the fact that teachers are the ones who contribute most to the educational enterprise and therefore need to ensure that the learner is engaged appropriately with the instructional material. In this regard, it is important that teachers are able to link teaching to learning functions in order to facilitate the optimal realization of learning outcomes. In this study the extent to which teaching assists the development of learning functions was examined by means of a quantitative research project. The findings indicated that, at present, teachers did not link their teaching to learning functions. Recommendations are made to improve the situation.

South African Journal of Education Vol. 27 (1) 2007: pp. 37-52