Making the grade: can you learn to be a better teacher

Extract from The Observer, 9th May 2010:
Doug Lemov thinks he knows what makes a teacher great. He's just written a book detailing the 49 techniques to help you "teach like a champion". But will they work in the classroom? Five teachers put them to the test

more . . .

Post by Claire Feehily

Definition IT, ICT, ILT

CR_IT_ICT_ILT

Using e-learning and technology with 14-19 year olds

Using Tech Elearning 1419 Agenda

Assessment for Learning

10 Principles - Assessment for Learning

Ten Pedagogies

Tttl Cards

Futurelab Handbook

Digital Inclusion Handbook

BlogPress

The Basics of Cognitivism

cognitivism_basics1

Basics of higher-level thinking

Higher-Level Thinking Basics

HOTs: Higher-Order Thinking Skills Tennis

According to eduscapes, 'Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning including skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing, analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hyphothesizing, and critquing.'

Curiosity is only aroused only when higher-level questions are being asked, otherwise students will tune-out and switch-off.

Helen's esponse cards used in the 'game' of Higher-Order Questionning; a technique for chunking up or down Bloom's Taxonomy in Q&A session. The teacher holds up one of the three cards according to level of appropriate questionning for the learner ('because', 'therefore' and 'however' in that order).

The learner holds up the card that best matches the type of response; the teacher can easily see these cards. The teacher's job is to challenge the learner to aswer higher level questions based on cues picked up from previous responses and the cards being held up by the learners. If the learner is ready for higher order thinking, then the teacher will sense this and move to a higher-order card. This is a powerful tool for differentiated questioning.

DTLLS Class

Thirsty work for the brain in one of Helen's lessons.

Power teaching

Wk 11 - Helen's dates and times

Please find below the timings for your tutorials and your presentations for the weeks after the Easter break.

April 20th – Individual tutorials.
Please only attend for your allocated time in our usual room. You are very welcome to come to use the library at any time.

2.30 Dave Smith

3.00 Andy Pierce

3.30 Catherine Kelly

4.00 Wendy Blair

4.30 Mark Eyre

5.00 Tony Bonello

5.30 Jason Poole

6.00 Emma Hill-Lonergan

6.30 Charlotte Cook

7.00 Emma Lowery

7.30 Claire Feehily
Mike will also be around on that night from 5.00 onwards if anyone would like to see him.


Presentations – Tuesday 27th April.
Only the people below need to attend:

3.30 Jason Poole

4.00 Mark Eyre

4.30 Emma Hill-Lonergan

5.00 Emma Lowery

5.30 Claire Feehily
Feedback will then be after the presentations


Presentations – Tuesday May 4th.
Only the people below need to attend:

3.30 Tony Bonello

4.00 Wendy Blair

4.30 Catherine Kelly

5.00 Andy Pierce

5.30 Dave Smith

6.00 Charlotte Cook

Feedback will then be after the presentations.

Tuesday 11th May.
My plan is that this will be a self-study session in preparation for hand in on May 14th. You will be able to book tutorials on this evening if you need to – we will leave it to nearer the time. Please don’t make plans for this evening just in case we need to call you in for any reason.

Tuesday 18th May.
Hopefully this will be enrolment into the second year so you will need to attend for a short time. Again, I’ll let you know nearer the time. Maybe Mike will take you all for a drink to celebrate the end of the 1st year – please keep it free!

Mike's session dates

After Easter my sessions will be as follows:

April 20th – I will be available for any problems, as mentioned below

April 27th – I would like to see the people who are coming in for Helen’s presentations for individual tutorials, as we have done this week and last week (please bring any completed work on my module)

May 4th – as previous week, individual tutorials with the other half who are in for Helen

Remember to include one ILT related development point in your ILP and put a copy in the appendices.

Wk 11 - Questioning Techniques

Questioning Techniques 2010

Wk 11 - Questioning: low-order, high-order

Questioning

Wk 10 - Evaluating own communication skills

Communication Resources 2

Wk 10 - Communication

Communication

LLUK - Professional Standards

Professional Standards for Itts 020107

Wk 07 Learning Styles Questionnaires

Wk 07 Learning Styles Questionnaires

Wk 09 Behaviourism and Education

Wk 09 BehaviourIsm and Education - Helen

Wk 09 DTLLS Paperwork

Paperwork for DTLLS Spring Term

Rationale and evaluation forms

for your observations this term.  I have also sent an electronic copy of the evaluation forms that will be used for your presentations – you don’t need them electronically, I just thought I would remind you that they are there.

Mentor information sheet

that you had at the beginning of the year.  If you have had a change of mentor during the year please will you fill this in and send it back to me.  There are several sheets missing from internal members of staff, so if you are not sure whether you filled one in please fill in another just to be on the safe side

Observation list for this term. 
It would be great if both groups could complete their observations before April 1^st – then there won’t be any pressure on you as you work towards compiling your portfolios before May 14^th.  Please remember both DTLLS Yr 1 and DTLLS yr 2 groups need to have a mentor observation this term and a teacher training team observation. 

Please make contact with your observer as soon as possible.

 

Wk 09 Theories and Principles Paperwork

Week 07 - Effective assessment using ILT

Effective Assessment

Week 08 - Reflection and evalution on ILT activity

Evaluation and Reflection

Dave has the answer!

Wk 07 - Learning Styles

Wk 07 Learning Styles

Aims - effective phrases to use

A successful lesson is all about setting realistic aims that meet the students' needs and achieving them!
Here's a list of aims and sub-aims, by no means exhaustive:

1. Introducing and practising new vocabulary.
2. Revising previously taught vocabulary.
3. Introducing a new grammatical point.
4. Introducing new functional language.
5. Revising or reviewing one or more grammatical points.
6. Revising or reviewing functional exponents.
7. Giving controlled/less-controlled/freer practice of a language point.
8. Contrasting two (or more) grammatical points.
9. Contrasting two (or more) functional exponents.
10. "Warmers/icebreakers" - getting to know your students.
11. Raising awareness/ear training and/or practising aspects of phonology:
   a) pronunciation of phonemes/individual sounds
   b) word stress
   c) sentence stress
   d) intonation
   e) features of connected speech
11. Error correction work (usually revising previously taught language)
12. Self-access work.
13. Learner training.
14. Developing reading skills - prediction/skimming/scanning/inferring, etc.
15. Developing listening skills - prediction/gist/for specific information/inference, etc.
16. Developing speaking skills - fluency/accuracy practice/ consolidating recently taught language.
17. Freer speaking (e.g. role play) for revision of previously taught language.
18. Developing writing sub-skills - paragraph-writing/focus on linking devices, etc.
19. Developing study skills - note-taking/summarizing.
20. Developing dictionary skills.
21. Promoting interest in the culture.
22. Using video to build awareness of non-verbal communication.
23. Integrating the four skills.
24. Simulations for revision of previously taught language / for fluency practice.
25. To create a relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere in the classroom.

Thanks to http://www.philseflsupport.com/ for these

Wk 06 - Scaffolding

Scaffolding

Wk 06 - Bruner theory of learning, worksheet

Bruner Theory of Learning

Wk 06 - Bruner theory of learning

Bruner

Test your knowledge of web page development . . .

Choose a topic . . .

• Definition of HTML
• What is an HTML tag? 
• Match the HTML tag descriptions

Wk 05 Assessing learning

Use of ILT in Assessment

Wk 05 Ticking the boxes

Ticking the Right Boxes[1]

Wk 04 Key features of ILT

Key Features of ILT

Wk 05 Inside the Black Box

Inside the Black Box

Wk 04 Blended Learning Styles

Blended Learning

Wk 05 Theories of Cognitive Development

Wk 05 Theories of Cognitive Development

Wk 04 The Theory of Andragogy

The main principles of andragogy as put forward by Malcolm Knowles (1983)


The need to know
Students from 6th form onwards need to know why they are learning something before they start to learn. This means providing a context for learning, being clear about aims and objectives and the link to previous learning. As a last resort, linking it to an assessment need can be enough for some learners.

Self-concept
Adult students need to see themselves as self-directed moving away from being teacher dependent. Classes can start as teacher lead but should move on to independent learning activities.


Experience
Adult learners have a wealth of experience on which to draw on providing a rich resource for learners and teachers. Initial assessment and arrival activities are  important for finding out what learners bring to the classroom.

Readiness to learn
Like need-to-know, adult learners are motivated to learn things will help them to deal with  real-life situations. Avoid activities that will make adult learners feel they are being treated like a child or being patronised.

Orientation to learning
Adult learners are orientated towards learning through problem solving linked to real-life situations.

Motivation
Adult learners are motivated to learn through intrinsic pressure and satisfaction as opposed to external pressure to perform. Intrinsic motivation is more likely to be exhibited if the problem to be solved is of interest or important to the adult learner.

Useful source:
Sales, P., 2008. Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Maidenhead: OU Press

Wk 04 Androgogy

Wk 04 Androgogy

Wk 03 The role of technology in learning

Aim: To consider the role of technology in learning

Objectives

• to define elements of e-learning
• to consider barriers to change in e-leraning
• to apply visual essay planning to the role of ILT in teaching and learning

Definitions used:

• IT - Information Technology (old-school, doesn't include internet)
  
• ICT - Information and Communication Technology (does include internet and other communication technolologies)
  
• e-learning - A Yorkshire term for learning supported by using computers, the internet and other forms of technology
• ILT - Information Learning Technology, technology specifically designed to support core learning activities

History of ICT

History of none-ICT technologies used in learning and teaching

A comparison of old and new

Barrier to change: skills, technology and resources, management - identified ways in which our barriers could limit the development of e-learning

Visual essay planning - Should ILT be integral to the learning process?

Wk 03 Bloom's Taxonomy

How do we differentiate learning in the classroom?

The three domains of learning:

• cognitive
• affective
• psychomotive
  

Bloom's taxonomy is different for each of the three domains.

• The taxonomy describes the staged development of learning and is used to plan differentiated learning activities.
• The level of the course determines how far up the ladder you can expect to go. Remember, different domains have different categories in the taxonomy; this can introduce some complexity when more than one domain is used in the subject being taught.
• Each activity leads the learner up the ladder to the next level in the taxonomy.
• Start activities are designed to assess low order learning first. The next activity builds on the first but requires a higher level of learning up to the final activity which should be the highest level up the ladder, appropriate to the level of the course (see handout).
•  Extended activities for the most able should stretch students to higher order learning activities.
  
• Differentiation is created by ensuring each activity contains lower order learning activities as well as higher so those who are less able, get to participate in ALL activities.

8 positive impacts of using differentiated learning and 8 negative impacts of not using it.
Then we played Snakes and Ladders!

Dave raises the stakes at a game of 'Snakes and Ladders'

BlogPress

Wk 03 Differentiation

Wk 03 Differentiation

Wk 02 Equality and inclusive Learning

The umbrella of widening participation!

Aim: To consider key concepts of inclusive practice within teaching and learning

Objectives:

    •    To define key concepts relating to inclusive practice
    •    To discuss the legislative framework for inclusive practice
    •    To explain the role of inclusive practice with reference to the LLUK standard


 Main points covered:

    •    Equality -  we must address the needs of all learners
    •    Diversity - gender, disability, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief
    •    Widening participation - bringing diverse groups into learning
    •    Inclusive learning - meeting the needs of all learners

All the above concepts work together and satisfy legislation for inclusive practice: see the Tomlinson and Kennedy reports. Refer to LLUK standards for inclusive practice.

Wk 02 Equality and Diversity - Inclusive Practice

Wk 02 Equality and Diversity - Inclusive Practice 2010

Learning Styles - Urban Myth?

Professor Frank Coffield conducted extensive research into over 70 theories relating to learning styles to see whether the various models corresponded to reality. The validity of learning-style questionnaires were tested to see if they really measured what they claimed. Little evidence was found to support these theories including Honey and Mumford, Dunn and Dunn and VAK.
Learning style sytems that did seem to work such as Herrmann's 'whole brain model', where a learner's learning style was considered to be adaptive to the context. Coffield's advice is:

• Don't label students then try to match learning strategies to their styles
• Use methods that address all styles; this is called 'whole brain' learning.
• Encourage learners to use unfamilliar styles, even if they dont like them at first
• Teach students how to use all styles of learning
• Students enjoy moving between styles; makes for varied and interesting lessons

Source: Coffield, F., Mosley, D., Hall, E. and Ecclestone, K. 2004. Should we be using learning styles? [Online] Available at: https://crm.lsnlearning.org.uk/user/order.aspx?code=041540 [Accessed: 19 Jan 2010]

Classroom Ground Rules

• The classroom environment must be maintained as blame-free
• It should be understood that learning takes time.
• Understanding the 'question' is what it is important
• The 'question' has to be challenging so as not to be humiliating if answered incorrectly; questions must not be too easy.
• Mistakes tell us where we are
• Foster an inquiring classroom; 'I don't understand' is good!
• Never ridicule students, it stops learning
• Give medal and mission feedback - forward looking and positive
• You only learn from mistakes if you find out how to do it without mistakes next time
• The 'helper' learns as much as the 'helped'

Peer Explaining: Summarising key points

In this strategy, pairs improve their summary of key points.

• Warn students first that you want them to summarise the topic to each other, in pairs.
• Design two challenging questions that summarise the key points of the topic you are about to teach.
• Require the students to identify the details and reasons why, or to stress the meaning and structure of information
• Number and make the questions clearly visible to the students.
• Then teach the topic using differentiated presentation of the information. Meanwhile, the students may try to work out the answers to the questions.
• Put students into pairs, give them one question each
• Students prepare what they will say to each other for a minute or so; they can work individually and write down what they will say to each other
• Students answer the questions, explaining the key points to each other
• Follow with a class discussion on what issues came up

Constuctivist teaching

"Piaget's approach is central to the school of cognitive theory known as "cognitive constructivism": other scholars, known as "social constructivists", such as Vygotsky and Bruner, have laid more emphasis on the part played by language and other people in enabling children to learn."

ATHERTON J S (2009) Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm Accessed: 12 January 2010

Wk 01 Barriers to Learning

Wk 01 Barriers to Learning

Medals, Missions and Goals

Sadler showed that empty 'praise' is not enough, information feedback about the quality of work is what is required to improve learning.

The Goal
The goal is the learning outcome your learners are aiming for including the characteristics of what constitutes 'quality work'. It is vital that all students understand what the goal is so they can work towards reaching it.

Medals
A medal is an cknowledgement of where the learner is now in relation to the goal. They can be given for how a learning activity was done successfully (the process) as well as what was done successfully (the product). Success here is measured in terms of how close to the goal is the product or process; is the learning moving in the correct direction?

The Mission
How will you close the gap between where the learner is now and the goal?

Feedback or Assessment for learning (ES 0.81)

This family of formative assessment strategies use the PAR model of teaching where the learner's constructs are improved towards clear learning goals through effective feedback.

P - presentation of information in a way that is inclusive and challenging
A - application of what was presented in the form of a product or a process, creating an opportunity for feedback
R - review; the act of creating a product or process gives feedback to the learner, teacher, and peers. Feedback is then used to improve learners' constructs through medals and a new mission towards a successful learning outcome (the goal).

Hattie - feedback has more impact on learning than any other general factor but it requires an activity and a product.

See Black and Wiliam 'Formative Assessment' (1998)

BlogPress

Location:B1256,Braintree,United Kingdom

Evidence Based Teaching

My notes on research by Hattie and Marzano cited in 'Evidence Based Learning', Geoff Petty

We know more about neural physiology and cognitive science, we understand a great deal more about how and why we learn. We need to know why strategies work in order to use and evaluate them effectively rather than relying on tradition and unproven strategies.

In order to manage our time wisely and deliver teaching and learning with more success, focus on strategies that have been tested and shown to work - this is known as 'Evidence Based Teaching'.

Such a research review was conducted by Hattie and Marzano in the nineties. Research reviews only tell us about how the average student learns however, we need to consider learning strategies in the context of our own teaching situation. Lets find the problems and fix them. No matter what methods you use, if the context in which you teach is faulty, no strategy will work. We need to find the MAIN contextual factors that most contribute to success as well as diagnosing the MAIN problems to be fixed. The main principles of Evidenced Based Learning:

1. We need all the evidence to make sound decisions

• compare the alternatives
• the views of experts

2. It's not enough to know what works, you need to know why it works

• to get the best out of teaching strategies
  
• it's your understanding of the teaching strategy that guides

3. Find the critical success factors that are failing in your teaching context and fix these first

• context is everything when understanding what inhibits attainment

4. Review your teaching constantly in the light of the evidence above

• what works in your classroom?
• do it and learn - experiment and take risks
  
• keep your teaching practice always under review

Evidence based teaching is not a how-to, rather it provides the evidence to enable you to focus your efforts on what's most effective. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. No more 'snake-oil', old school, traditions and following the crowd!

Location:Rainsford Rd,Chelmsford,United Kingdom