Subject-Specific Teaching Methods
What this domain tests
This section tests lesson planning, instructional objectives, teaching methods, teaching–learning materials and assessment in the candidate’s subject. It asks whether you can choose a method that matches the objective and the learners.
Core rules and concepts
- Write objectives with an observable action verb: identify, explain, compare, construct, analyse. Bloom’s revised taxonomy runs Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create.
- Match method to content: demonstration for science processes, manipulatives for mathematics, maps and sources for social science, communicative tasks for language, inquiry for hypothesis testing.
- The 5E model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate.
- Assessment must align with the objective: oral questioning for recall, rubric-based practical work for process skills.
Worked example
Objective: “Students will explain that light is necessary for photosynthesis.” Reasoning: Begin with a variegated leaf or a leaf partly covered with black paper (Engage). Let students test for starch with iodine (Explore). Only the exposed part turns blue-black, showing starch formation (Explain). Students then design a control (Elaborate) and write a conclusion (Evaluate). A lecture alone would not test the explanation objective.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing “students will understand” - not observable or assessable.
- Using an activity with no link to the objective.
- Choosing only lecture for process skills that need practice.
- Assessing recall when the objective is application or analysis.