Hattie identifies the following as being indicators of effective teaching:
- learning intentions
- success criteria
- feedback
- directive teaching methods
I think that I manage 1, 2 and 3 pretty well. I have very high expectations, I share learning intentions and success criteria and I try to work as much time for feedback into lessons as possible. For number 4 I decided to look at Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction which is considered one of the best summaries of effective direct teaching methods. He identifies the following as things that the most effective teachers do:
- Begin each lesson with a review of previous learning
- Present new material in small steps, with practice after each step
- Ask lots of questions and check the understanding of all students
- Provide models
- Guide student practice
- Check for student understanding
- Obtain a high success rate
- Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks
- Require and monitor independent practice
- Engage students in weekly and monthly review
For me I feel I am strong on most of these points but one area I feel could use improvement is the idea of a weekly/monthly review and the related area of reviewing previous learning. Whilst I often start a lesson with a review of the previous lesson I don’t ask for recall of previous topics. The idea of interleaved practice is one that I know has promise but have never really incorporated into my practice. I think this may well be a way to improve things for my pupils, as I do notice a tendency for them to think ‘oh I’ve finished that topic’ and forget much of what they have learned, giving them much more to do when it comes to revision. I am hopeful that incorporating regular reviews of previous topics will help student’s recall and ultimately their performance.
I think that as Science teachers, it can feel a little difficult to interleave topics through a course. I was at ResearchEd Scotland the other weekend, and Robin MacPherson (of “what does this look like in the classroom?) gave a session where it was suggested you could also interleave through homework. This is something I’m planning on trying with my Higher pupils as we move through the session.
Ah I missed ResearchEd Scotland (baby related duties)! What Does this look like in the classroom is a fantastic book. Interleaving in homework is an interesting one. I’ll have a think about that! Thank you!
We want to do the best job we can as teachers; we want to help open up as many opportunities as possible for pupils’ futures. You have approached teaching and learning very systematically here and you are clearly looking for best ways to enable young people to learn. Your post makes me wonder what informs us (as teachers) of the most effective ways of learning? What guides us in the belief that we actually are doing the best for our pupils? I wonder if we have a good enough system of informing our practice and if that causes a lack of professional confidence. What informs you and gives you professional confidence?
Those are really good questions!
I think as teachers we have lots of potential sources of information about effective learning and it varies hugely.
For me an easy guide is ‘success’ (which for me depends on greatly on the pupil, but in general improvement is the goal rather than the actual mark/grade/whatever) in assessments. But I think that should only come after we are sure that young people in our care are safe, included and (ideally) happy and wanting to learn. I have over the last few years focused the most on practice that I think benefits the ‘lower’ end of the spectrum of abilities that I have to deal with.
My professional confidence comes from outside the ‘system’. Indeed I felt quite lost in it, there really wasn’t much guidance on ‘how to teach’ when I came through teacher training, or worse the guidance was perhaps not very good in hindsight. For me confidence has come with engaging with the wider world of teaching, first through Twitter and following on from that discovering research, blogs and thoughts of others, then things like Pedagoo events, teachmeets etc.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for a comprehensive and informative post. I too am a fan of Rosenshine’s work!
There is a useful blog on interleaved practice at http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/8/11-1 and you might also want to check out the article by Rohrer (2012) ‘Interleaving helps students distinguish among similar concepts’.
Emma’s questions have got me deep in thought! How DO we become an intelligent consumer of research? How do we develop professional scepticism? What content will support our development in this area?
Gill
Love the learning scientists! I’ll have a look at that paper as well – thank you!