The Literature of Concepts, Skills, Tactics, Strategies, and Organiziers

Although an almost inexhaustible variety of instructional concepts, skills, tactics, strategies and organizers exist, we restrict this section to providing an introduction to that literature. As mentioned in Chapter 2, we often hear the word 'pedagogy'. For us pedagogy is the collective term that refers to the instructional concepts, skills, tactics, strategies, and organizers available to teachers to create learning environments that encourage students to learn. We strongly believe that pedagogical knowledge and the action taken as a result of the knowledge, are key defining attributes of teachers as professionals.

This section has five components -- each component involves a brief explanation of some of the major instructional options available to teachers in terms of instruction. These five areas are explained in detail in the Book: Beyond Monet.

Within each of those five components, we discuss the staff development implications concerning the research. As well, within each component we discuss the relevant literature that teachers might consider accessing to go deeper in certain areas. Last, we discuss the literature that attempts to present a more integrative conceptualization of the teaching and learning process.

Note: we realize there are other categories such as assessment, beliefs, values, religion, technology, philosophies, materials etc. that also form part of the teaching and learning process. In this book, however, we are focusing more specifically on the instructional processes as they relate to interaction of these 5 components.

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