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by Terry Heick

Purpose: Improving our chance for a common language in discussing existing and emerging learning trends, models, and technology in hopes of innovation in classrooms, and collectively, education at large.

Audience: K-12 & higher ed educators, researchers, institutions, and organizations globally.

Form: An index of learning models, theories, forms, terminology, technology, and research to help you keep up with the latest trends in 21st-century learning. This page was created and is updated by Terry Heick, who you can contact directly with suggestions for terms, improved citations, corrections, or additions to the index.

Revisions: Persistently updated. In addition to new definitions, models, and strategies, citations and references will also be added periodically, as will updates, corrections, edits, and revisions.
Ed note: As stated, this is an ambitious work in progress that we're choosing to share as we proof, revise, iterate, and generally improve for wider dissemination. When you find typos, dead links, missing sentences, inconsistencies, or flat out lies, let us know. ; ^ ) A Dictionary For 21st Century Teachers: Learning Models & Technology 1:1
A description of a learning environment where there is one "screen" for each student (whether an iPad, laptop, etc.)
Activity-Based Learning
According to Harvard University, "in Activity-Based Learning courses, students do public service, fieldwork, community-based research and internships in conjunction with in-class work. ABL pedagogy aims to enrich students' academic experience and learning outcomes by connecting theory with practice, and concepts with methods, using data and insight they obtain through engagement with the larger world." (1)
Andragogy
The study of teaching adults.
BYOD
An initialism that stands for "Bring Your Own Device." BYOD programs allow students to use their own technology (usually smartphone or tablet) in a classroom. BYOD is often seen as a way of solving budget concerns while increasing the authenticity of learning experiences, while critics point to the problems BYOD can cause for district IT, privacy concerns, and more.
Blended Learning
Blended learning is a learning model that combines digital and face-to-face learning experiences. The Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation defines Blended Learning "a formal education program in which a student learns: (1) at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; (2) at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home; (3) and the modalities along each student's learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience." It is generally accepted that there are four models of blended learning: Rotation, Flex, A La Carte, and Enriched Virtual. The Christensen Institute clarifies that "the Rotation model includes four sub-models: Station Rotation, Lab Rotation, Flipped Classroom, and Individual Rotation." (3)

There is some thought that a certain percentage of instruction must be digital to qualify as 'blended learning,' but there is no clear industry standard.
Challenge-Based Learning
Challenge-Based Learning is a learning model pushed by Apple that promotes the academic classroom as a think tank to solve authentic problems. It is similar to place-based education and project-based learning as a teaching tool.

Apple defines Challenge-Based Learning as "an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages learners to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems. Challenge Based Learning is collaborative and hands-on, asking students to work with peers, teachers, and experts in their communities and around the world to ask good questions, develop deep subject area knowledge, identify and solve challenges, take action, and share their experience." (5)
Cognitive Apprenticeship
Cognitive apprenticeship focuses on "learning-through-guided-experience on cognitive and metacognitive skills and processes" (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989, p. 457), instead of the physically concrete craft or trade that is the focus of traditional apprenticeships.

"The method is aimed primarily at teaching the problem-solving processes that experts use to handle complex tasks. Cognitive apprenticeships are intended to enable apprentices to learn strategies and skills in the context of their application to realistic problems, within a culture focused on and defined by expert practice." (6)
Communal Constructivism
A learning theory "in which networked learners not only construct and assimilate their own knowledge from their own learning opportunities but deliberately contribute their own learning to a community resource base."( Holmes & Gardner 2006). (7)
Connected Learning
A learning model by Digital Media & Learning that emphasizes the role of social interactions as a catalyst for learning. (See "Connected Learning: The Power Of Social Learning Models".) Characteristics of Connected Learning include: Interest-Powered, Production Centered, Peer-Supported, Shared Purpose, Academically-Oriented, and Openly-Networked. (15)
Constructionism
According to Seymour Papert, constructionism is, put roughly, learning by making.

That Papert is known to struggle with the idea of defining Constructionism by a "pipeline" of knowledge-giving hints at its nature-open-ended, learner-centered, playful, non-institutional, non-academic, and so difficult to describe in an academic context.

Papert explained that, while close in meaning and spelling as Constructivism, it is suitably unique:

"Constructionism-the N word as opposed to the V word-shares constructivism's connotation of learning as "building knowledge structures" irrespective of the circumstances of the learning. It then adds the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it's a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe."

Papert went on to describe Constructionism as a kind of learning which "allows full range of intellectual styles and preferences to each find a point of equilibrium. (Papert, Harel 1991) (16)
Constructivism
A learning theory suggests that "people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences" (Christie 2005). (14)
Differentiation
According to differentiation expert Dr. Carol Tomlinson, differentiation is not a teaching strategy, but rather a way of thinking about learning. In terms of application, the definition of differentiation is the specific design of "content, process, or product" according to a student's readiness, interest, or learning profile. (Citation needed).

Tomlinson explains that "differentiation does not presume different tasks for each learner, but rather just enough flexibility in task complexity, working arrangements, and modes of learning expression that varied students find learning a good fit much of the time." (22)

In short, differentiation is the process of personalizing universal learning goals for groups of students. As such, it is closely related to (but different than) personalized learning and individualized learning.

See here for The Ultimate List: 50 Strategies For Differentiated Instruction
Digital Citizenship
Karen Mossberger, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, defines digital citizenship simply as "the ability to participate in society online." (9)

Terry Heick offers a definition of digital citizenship as "The quality of habits, actions, and consumption patterns that impact the ecology of digital content and communities." (10)
eLearning
Learning expressly through online courses and related digital resources.
Flipped Classroom
Stated simply, a flipped classroom is one where students are introduced to content at home through digital tools (usually video), and then practice it at school under the guidance of a teacher. This is the reverse of the traditional pattern, where students are introduced to content at school, and then practice it at home without the guidance of the teacher (i.e., More Knowledgeable Other).
Flow
A tenet of Eastern philosophy and thought for millennia, and more recently repopularized by Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, flow is the complete merging of task and doer-a state of being where a body, mind, and task resonate effortlessly and result in improved performance and extraordinary satisfaction.

A useful example of flow from Diane Ackerman's Deep Play:

"In Bone Games, climber Rob Schultheis recalls how he felt descending a mountain after a harrowing near-death fall: "The person I became on Neva was the best possible version of myself, the person I should have been throughout my life. No regrets, no hesitation; there were no false moves left in me. I really believe I could have hit a mosquito in the eye with a pine needle at thirty paces; I couldn't miss because there was no such thing as a miss."
Game-Based Learning
Learning through games (from physical to digital).
Gamification
The application of game-like 'encouragement' mechanics to non-game entities. Put another way, it is making a game out of something that's not.
Genius Hour
The allotment of a specified amount of time in a formal learning environment for the purpose of self-directed learning. (23)
Google Apps for Education
A collection of software bundled by Google that is available on a subscription model for schools and classrooms. Services include Google Drive, Google Docs, Gmail, and more.
Google Classroom
Google describes their Google Classroom as "designed to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly, including time-saving features like the ability to automatically make a copy of a Google Document for each student. It also creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student to help keep everyone organized. Students can keep track of what's due on the Assignments page and begin working with just a click. Teachers can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback and grades right in Classroom.

Classroom is "available to anyone with Google Apps for Education, a free suite of productivity tools including Gmail, Drive, and Docs."
Heautagogy
A term coined by Stewart Hase, heautogogy is the study of self-directed learning. (Citation needed)
Inside-Out Learning Model
A school model developed by Terry Heick and inspired by Wendell Berry designed to immerse student learning in local communities. Rather than an outcomes-based and standards-driven approach, it instead seeks local accountability, new knowledge types, and overtly 'human' learning models.
Individualized Learning
The customizing of universal content (e.g., Common Core) for individual students.

See also Personalized Learning, Differentiated Learning, and Self-Directed Learning.
Informal Learning
Informal Learning has been defined as "any activity involving the pursuit of understanding, knowledge or skill which occurs without the presence of externally imposed curricular criteria. Informal learning may occur in any context outside the pre-established curricula of educative institutions. The basic terms of informal learning (e.g. objectives, content, means and processes of acquisition, duration, evaluation of outcomes, applications) are determined by the individuals and groups that choose to engage in it. Self-directed or collective informal learning is undertaken on our own. Informal education or training is distinguished from such self-directed informal learning only by the presence of some form of institutionally-recognized instructor. (Livingstone 2001). (13)
Learning Simulation
Often (not necessarily) digital, a learning simulation is a recreation of a context that allows a learner to bring strategy, tactics, and skills to experiment, play, or otherwise interact with that context's manipulatives.

Learning Simulation Clark Aldrich defines a learning simulation as "an abstracted interactive environment (or) structure for education in which a learner can take actions and make decisions, and get ongoing feedback and consequences."
Learning Through Play
The process of acquiring knowledge, skills, or conceptual understandings through play.

According to Johan Huizinga in the critical anthropological text Homo Ludens, play is "an activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted, and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility. The play-mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm, and is sacred or festive in accordance with the occasion. A feeling of exaltation and tension accompanies the action.

See also Flow & Play.
Learning Taxonomies
Any framework for thinking (and thus understanding), including Bloom's Taxonomy, Heick's Taxonomy, and Understanding by Design's 6 Facets of Understanding. These taxonomies can be used to plan units, lessons, assessments, and other teaching and learning processes.
Mastery Learning
According to Vahid Motamedi of Tarbiat Moallem University, "Mastery learning is a method of instruction where the focus is on the role of feedback in learning. Furthermore, mastery learning refers to a category of instructional methods which establishes a level of performance that all students must "master" before moving on to the next unit (Slavin, 1987). Thus, through one or more trials, students have to achieve a specified level of content knowledge prior to progression on to the next unit of instruction."

"Mastery learning is used in order to advance an individual's potential for learning. Compared to traditional learning models, sufficient time, attention, and help are afforded to each student." (11)
MOOC
An acronym for Massively Open Online Course, a digital course that allows asynchronous access to content.
Mobile Learning
The United Nations defines mobile learning as "Mobile learning involves the use of mobile technology, either alone or in combination with other information and communication technology (ICT), to enable learning anytime and anywhere. Learning can unfold in a variety of ways: people can use mobile devices to access educational resources, connect with others, or create content, both inside and outside classrooms. Mobile learning also encompasses efforts to support broad educational goals such as the effective administration of school systems and improved communication between schools and families." (12)
Model-Based Learning
A learning strategy by Terry Heick in which learners analyze an existing model of some kind, isolate one compelling idea, and then transfer that idea into a new circumstance.
Modeling Instruction
Modeling Instruction is an evolving, research-based pedagogy for high school and middle school science. It emphasizes constructing and applying conceptual and mathematical models of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena as a central aspect of learning and doing science. It is a robust methodology for developing student abilities to make sense of physical experience, understand scientific claims, articulate coherent opinions of their own and defend them with cogent arguments, and evaluate evidence in support of justified belief. It was developed at Arizona State University. It is sustained and expanded nationwide by the American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) in approximately 60 multi-week Modeling Workshops each summer.
Personalized Learning
The process of designing a learning experience for an individual learner, including content, learning model, assessment forms, and mode of knowledge application.

Personalized learning can arise from any learning experience that is self-initiated and self-directed in pursuit of outcomes that are first personal (e.g., curiosity-based, self-prioritized, etc.)
Place-Based Education
Place-Based Education "immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences, uses these as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum, and emphasizes learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community." (citation needed) (24)
Play
Play can be described as a pattern of free and joyful experimentation with voluntary barriers.

Rather than a merely recreational activity, Terry Heick describes play as "a state of being" often "characterized by unencumbered, courageous, and joyful interactions with people, objects, interfaces, or circumstances." Heick goes on to say that play is more a matter of "tone and possibility than form or function." (citation needed) Through play, learners are able to develop a range of intellectual, moral, strategic, physical, or creative capacities.

In Deep Play, Diane Ackerman describes play as cultural and evolutionary.

"Our culture thrives on play. Courtship includes high theater, rituals, and ceremonies of play. Ideas are playful reverberations of the mind. Language is playing with words until they can impersonate physical objects and abstract ideas....

For all we know, what we call intelligence may be a characteristic exclusively of primates. It may not be life's pinnacle at all, but simply one mode of knowing, one we happen to master and cherish. Play is widespread among animals because it invites problem-solving, allowing a creature to test its limits and develop strategies. In a dangerous world, where dramas change daily, survival belongs to the agile not the idle. We may think of play as optional, a casual activity. But play is fundamental to evolution. Without play, humans and many other animals would perish." (17)
Problem-Based Learning
What is problem-based learning? An approach to learning where the identification, analysis, and solving of problems drives student learning.

Similar to challenge-based learning, problem-based learning is a learning framework that uses (ideally authentic and highly personal) problems to frame learning experiences. Problem-based learning, then, uses the problem to necessitate a need to know in the student, which ideally would create a sense of both motivation and context for the learning experience.
Project-Based Learning
A method of framing curriculum that results in students learning through projects (rather than simply completing projects). (3)

ASCD explains that the "core idea of project-based learning is that real-world problems capture students' interest and provoke serious thinking as the students acquire and apply new knowledge in a problem-solving context. The teacher plays the role of facilitator, working with students to frame worthwhile questions, structuring meaningful tasks, coaching both knowledge development and social skills, and carefully assessing what students have learned from the experience. Advocates assert that project-based learning helps prepare students for the thinking and collaboration skills required in the workplace." (4)
Question-Based Learning
A learning strategy developed by Terry Heick that encourages learners to form, reframe, and improve questions as they are gather information and adjust their thinking in response.
Scenario-Based Learning
Scenario-based learning is a mode of learning that functions as a social simulation, requiring students to use authentic contexts to solve problems. Sounds a lot like problem-based learning, doesn't it? It is, but the scenario doesn't have to be a "problem." Massey University explains.

"Scenario-based learning (SBL) uses interactive scenarios to support active learning strategies such as problem-based or case-based learning. It normally involves students working their way through a storyline, usually based around an ill-structured or complex problem, which they are required to solve. In the process students must apply their subject knowledge, and critical thinking and problem solving skills in a safe, real-world context. SBL is often non-linear, and can provide numerous feedback opportunities to students, based on the decisions they make at each stage in the process. Scenario-based learning may be self-contained, in that completing the scenario is the entire task, or it may be the first part of a larger assignment requiring the student to complete the scenario, and then provide a written or oral reflection and self-assessment on the process.

As for the research basis, Massey University goes on to offer that SBL "is based on the principles of situated learning theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991), which argues that learning best takes place in the context in which it is going to be used, and situated cognition, the idea that knowledge is best acquired and more fully understood when situated within its context (Kindley, 2002)"
Self-Directed Learning
Self-directed learning is a model of learning where the student designs learning goals, pathways, and application. It can be used both formally and informally, for learning both academic and non-academic, in classrooms, homeschool settings, and workplaces. (See Google's 80/20 rule, or video game developer Valve for more on what this might look like in a professional setting.)

As a phrase, it is often used interchangeably with self-managed learning or independent learning, where students execute teacher-designed learning processes designed from institutional learning goals.

Note: While at TeachThought we think of self-directed learning as something "whole" and entirely personal, we recognize the subjectivity of language, and the relative obscurity, opaqueness, and ambiguity of much of educational terminology (thus this page). In that way, one person's "SDL" may be another person's "independent project," and we respect our own biases, and thus general impotence in the face of this problem.

See also Genius Hour and TeachThought's self-directed learning model.
Self-Organized Learning Environments
A Self Organized Learning Environment is a program designed to support self-directed education. Sugata Mitra, an education scientist, first popularized the term in 1999, referencing an approach he developed following his Hole in the Wall experiments. ( Wikipedia)
Situated Cognition
A learning theory that emphasizes the absolute and permanent relationship between knowledge and context, or "situation," situated cognition suggests a taut relationship between what one knows, and what one does with what one knows (i.e., knowledge and behavior).

This creates a problematic collision between "the different instructional goals of 'knowing what' and 'know how' result in different structures and practices of our education system," and harmfully "decontextualized learning resulted from separation between learning and doing." (Brown, Collins and Duguid (1989).

Clancey offers, "The theory of situated cognition...claims that every human thought is adapted to the environment, that is, situated, because what people perceive, how they conceive of their activity, and what they physically do develop together" (Clancey, 1997).

See also, Cognitive Apprenticeship. (19, 20)
Sync Teaching
A teaching strategy developed by Terry Heick that seeks to merge self-directed learning in an outcomes-based learning environment. Also known as Second-Screen Learning, the idea is to give students freedom to follow their curiosity (while adjusting for their own background knowledge) while still be requiring to 'sync' with the teacher as the teacher sees fit (e.g., within a time frame, a learning target, etc.)

In this model, the teacher chooses what, when, and how the students 'sync'-which would seem to suggest each student have their own screen, but doesn't necessarily require it. Imagine a teacher is delivering 'Content 1,' and each student or group of students are then accessing 1A, 1B, 1C. The topic could be the causes and effects of war, which could also act as the 'sync point.' The students direct their own learning around that idea while the teacher facilitates, and chooses when (in terms of timing), where (in terms of space), and why (in terms of purpose) the "sync" occurs (i.e., students redirect attention from their screens to teacher as guide).

Whether this is done in 4 groups with 4 tablets, or 28 individual students in 1:1 or BYOD classrooms, the big idea is the same: students accessing (or creating) personalized content while the teacher guides and facilitates the core of the lesson. (8)
Team-Based Learning
According to Dr Rachel Maxwell, for University of Northampton, England, team-based learning is an effective, structured and learner-centred approach to teaching on-campus modules where students work effectively in groups. A combination of individual work, group work and feedback is used to create a motivational framework in which learners increasingly hold each other accountable for coming to class prepared and contributing to discussion.

Use your class time for more than simply covering content, and focus instead on providing students with opportunities to apply their learning of core course concepts to solve problems.

References & Citations

1. Harvard Education Center For Teaching & Learning

2. Clayton Christensen Institute For Disruptive Innovation

3. The Difference Between Projects & Project-Based Learning from TeachThought

4. What The Research Says About Project-Based Learning

5. Challenge-Based Learning by Apple

6. Cortland.edu

7. University of East London Research in Teacher Education

8. The Sync Teaching Method by TeachThought

9. MIT on Digital Citizenship

10. A Definition for Digital Citizenship (Heick 2012)

11. (updating)

12. United Nations ICT in Education

13. Adults' informal learning: Definitions, finds, gaps, and future research

14. (updating)

15. 6 Characteristics of Connected Learning

16. Situating Constructionism (Papert & Harel 1991)

17. How To Create Learning Through Play (Heick 2013)

18. Deep Play (Ackerman 1999)

19. Dr. Jennifer Brill at The University of Georgia

20. Brent G. Wilson and Karen Madsen Myers at the University of Denver

21. The Difference Between Personal Learning & Personalized Learning

22. (Understanding Differentiated Instruction: Building a Foundation for Leadership Tomlinson, 2000)

23. Six Principles of Genius Hour in the Classroom
A Dictionary For 21st Century Teachers; A Dictionary For 21st Century Teachers: An ongoing index of emerging learning models and learning theories for progressive teaching.

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The TeachThought Dictionary: Learning Models & Technology

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by Terry Heick Purpose: Improving our chance for a common language in discussing existing and emerging learning trends, models, and technology in hopes of innovation in classrooms, and collectively, education at large. Audience: K-12 & higher ed educators, researchers, institutions, and organizations globally.

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** If you are interested in activities and strategies to use during inquiries, please also see: Making thinking visible, Thinking routines 1, Thinking routines 2 and Thinking routines 3.
You can see more from Kath Murdoch on the post: IDEA: Kath Murdoch and Inquiry Learning

An integrated curriculum is a way to teach students that attempts to break down barriers between subjects and make learning more meaningful to students. There are various planning models and approaches for integrated curriculums.

An advantage being the value of helping students to make connections within and across learning areas. Other advantages for teachers and learners using an integrated curriculum are: reflection, challenge, catering for variety, management, meeting outcomes in context, making sense, provision of student control, encouragement, meaningful structure, enablement of transference of learning, up-skilling, making explicit links and an enrichment of learning.

Kath Murdoch's inquiry-based Framework for a sequence of activities and some strategies that you can plan to utilise when you teach your inquiry:

Brainstorming

Bundling (when brainstormed words e.g. on a topic, are bundled together (those that belong together) onto strips of paper making categories and each is given a title/label.)

Chatterboxes

Cover puzzles

Finish the sentence

Graffiti board (the key word, phrase or question is put in the middle of a large sheet of paper; students are free to write or draw any ideas that are sparked by the words displayed.)

Mind mapping

Mystery boxes (object to do with topic is placed secretly in a box and students have to ask yes/no answer questions to reveal its identity.)

Paired interviews (children interview each other about their understandings of a topic)

Pass the ball (like hot potato)

People bingo

Picture priorities

Possible sentences

Post-a-question

Question of the day

Rocket writing (chn write everything they know in a very short time)

Silent jigsaw

Something from home

Startling statements

The question game

Think, pair, share

Think, wink, decide

Topic wheels

Visualisation and prediction

Visual representation (labelled diagrams, comic strips, plasticine models, collages, 3D models, maps/floor plans, flow diagrams, cut-away/X-ray pictures)

Word associations and definitions

* finding out

Finding out:

Animals and plants in the classroom

Ask an expert

CD-ROMs

Excursions

Experiments

Film, video and television

Interviews and surveys

Letter writing

Newspapers and magazines

Paintings, photographs, drawings and other visual images

Picture books and novels

Phone calls

Shared book experience

Structured observations

The internet

* sorting out

Sorting out:

Through dance and drama

Through media and visual arts

Collage

Dioramas

Models

Visual artwork (paint, crayon, charcoal, pencils, pastels, chalk)

Diagrams (X-ray, comic strips, flow charts, cut-aways, maps, before-and-after)

Using fabrics (quilts, patchwork, wall hangings, puppets, table cloths, dolls and other figures)

Making videos

Multimedia presentations

Mobiles

Radio plays

Thaumatropes

Through mathematics

Classifying

Fact finding

Graphs (pictographs, pie graphs, line graphs, bar graphs, 3D graphs, dot graphs, stem plots)

Maths projects

Maps

Problem-solving

Scale models and drawings

Timelines

Venn diagrams

Through music

Through english

Writing using a range of text types (personal descriptions, technical descriptions, scientific reports, explanations, instructions, manuals, recipes, directions, reviews, diaries, personal recounts, stories, fables, fairy tales, poems, letters, advertisement, chants, scripts, banners)

Build a story

Compare and contrast

Data charts

DRTA (Directed thinking and reading activities)

Oral presentations

Told us... made us wonder

Written conversation

Wall stories and charts

Read and retell

Three-level guide

Poetry

Bookmaking

Puzzle cards

Readers theatre

* going further

Going further:

Individual projects

Contracts

Cooperative group tasks

Expert groupsSeven at once: multiple intelligence work station

Other independent activities for going further

* making connections

Making connections:

Board games

Bloom's box

Concept maps

Connectit

Content-based cloze

Consensus 1-3-6

Cross-impact grid

Crossword puzzles

Diamond display

De Bono's 6 thinking hats

Effects wheels

In my club

Laying it on the line

Learning maps

Similes and metaphors

PMI: plus-minus-interesting

Putting you in the picture

Question ball

Question me an answer

Statements of generalisation

Two trues and a false

Time capsules

What am I?

* taking action

Taking action:

Advertising campaigns

Annotated exhibitions

Arts in the local community

Designing self-guided walks

Develop an action plan for the school

From here to there

Global links

Hear all about it

Letter writing

Meet the press

Personal pledge

Read all about it

More strategies for action (fund raising, publishing, signs, sponsoring, auditing, stunted representative council)

See: http://www.inquiryschools.net/page10/files/Kath%20Inquiry.pdf

"It's not just what you plan - it's the way that you teach it!"

Other strategies for sharing, discussion and reflection:

Sharing and discussion

Carousel sharing

Class meetings

Concentric circles

Conversation counters

Cumulative listening

Discussion dissection

Focused reporting

Jigsaw sharing

Talking stick

Print walk

Watch this space

Reflection and self-assessment

Class diary

Group work pie chart

Learning logs

Photojournals

Reflection roundabouts

Self-assessment

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IDEA: Kath Murdoch strategies for integrated learning

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What is integrated learning? ** If you are interested in activities and strategies to use during inquiries, please also see: Making thinking visible, Thinking routines 1, Thinking routines 2 and Thinking routines 3. You can see more from Kath Murdoch on the post: IDEA: Kath Murdoch and Inquiry Learning An integrated curriculum is a way to teach students that attempts...

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From online teaching resources to in-room consultations, the Center for Teaching and Learning supports instructors by helping them take their teaching to the next level.

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18 Teacher-Tested Strategies for Differentiated Learning

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18 Teacher-Tested Strategies for Differentiated Learning

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Should we focus on teaching or learning?

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"Inquiry happens when you focus on the art of teaching." Kath Murdoch. This is an interesting moment in Kath's conversation with teachers. I lose focus on my note-taking as I pursue this thought... I tend to say 'focus less on teaching and more on learning', and here is Kath Murdoch, inquiry guru, expressing what, on the face of it,...

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Education Week - Peter DeWitt's Finding Common Ground

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If it's done correctly, teaching is both rewarding and complicated. The rewarding part is when we see students achieve or overcome some new learning, whether that's social-emotional or academic. In these days of social media, teaching is rewarding because we get to see students who we had in our classrooms long ago, grow up and find a passion in their choice of career.

However, teaching is also complicated because it's not just about teaching students " stuff." Teaching is about using a variety of strategies to help students learn information they need for the future, and it's about teaching students how to ask questions in order to have some level of control over their own learning, so they find a love for learning.

To the outside perspective, teaching may look like we all open up a textbook and teach the next concept that comes on the next page as students sit at their desks waiting for us to tell them what that concept may be and how they can use it. Perhaps, in some classrooms...or far too many classrooms...that may be how teaching actually is for the students sitting in the classroom.

However, in other classrooms teaching and learning come together fluently. Teachers ask questions but don't dominate the talk in the classrooms, and students ask questions back to the teacher or in partnership groups with peers. They use different strategies to acquire the learning, which coincides with all of those questions going back and forth around the room.

Surface Level vs. Deep Level Strategies
John Hattie, someone I work with as a Visible Learning trainer, recently published a research paper with Gregory Donoghue called Learning Strategies: A Synthesis and Conceptual Model. In their research one area they focused on was surface, deep and transfer learning.

This is important for teachers, school leaders and instructional coaches to understand because when we all come together to talk about learning in our schools (i.e. faculty meetings, teacher observations, walkthroughs, etc.), we should spend part of that time focusing on how to get students from surface level learning, to a deeper level, and then ultimately get them to the place where they transfer that learning...which may become their passion when we meet them later on Facebook and Instagram.

In Hattie's work it all begins with learning intentions and success criteria. This can be controversial for teachers, because success criteria means showing students what success looks like before they complete a learning task in the classroom. This should not be so controversial. Imagine sending a child into a soccer game without ever having watch a soccer match on television or in real life.
We would never do that.
In the paper, Hattie and Donoghue write,

"Knowing the success criteria. A prediction from the model of learning is that when students learn how to gain an overall picture of what is to be learnt, have an understanding of the success criteria for the lessons to come and are somewhat clear at the outset about what it means to master the lessons, then their subsequent learning is maximized. The overall effect across the 31 meta-analyses is 0.54, with the greatest effects relating to providing students with success criteria, planning and prediction, having intentions to implement goals, setting standards for self-judgements and the difficulty of goals."

When students know the learning intentions and success criteria, they can go from surface level to deep, and even transfer learning better than they could if they never had it before. After teachers use learning intentions and success criteria, they can move on to different strategies that will lead to each level of learning.

Hattie and Donoghue focus on acquiring and consolidating the different levels of learning. When teachers work with students on acquiring surface level learning, they are teaching students to use strategies like highlighting, note taking, mnemonics, underlining, and imagery. When students go to the next level of consolidating surface level learning, they are using strategies like test taking, rehearsal, and learning how to receive feedback.

Hattie and Donoghue go on to focus on acquiring deep level, and suggest strategies such as organization, strategy monitoring, concept mapping, and metacognitive strategies. The next step is to consolidate that deep learning by using strategies like self-questioning, self-monitoring, self-explanation, self-verbalizing, peer tutoring, collaboration, and critical thinking techniques.

Teaching students these strategies, and how to use them, will all help lead to transfer learning, which is the ultimate goal for us as teachers. This, of course, takes us back to the success criteria we used to start all of this in the first place. Hattie and Donoghue write,

If the success criteria is the retention of accurate detail (surface learning) then lower-level learning strategies will be more effective than higher-level strategies. However, if the intention is to help students understand context (deeper learning) with a view to applying it in a new context (transfer), then higher level strategies are also needed.

In the End
Why does all of this matter? In Hattie's research he found that project-based learning (PBL), something many teachers like to use, has an average effect size of around .15 which is well below the .40 which represents a year's worth of growth for a year's input. One of the reasons for the low effect size is that we often throw students into PBL without providing them with surface level learning first...nor do we provide the strategies needed when they come to a point that is very challenging.

Talking about surface level, deep level and transfer learning, as well as the strategies to use at each point and the questions to ask, will help strengthen the learning that happens in the classroom, and can ultimately lead to a higher level of student engagement.

Imagine having the time in our PLC's or faculty meetings to explore topics like questioning and learning strategies, instead of spending our time solely on pacing, testing or random adult issues where they complain about a lack of student engagement instead of focusing on the questions we ask which may actually increase student engagement.

Peter DeWitt, Ed.D. is the author of several books including Collaborative Leadership: 6 Influences That Matter Most (September, 2016. Corwin Press). Connect with Peter on Twitter.

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What Are the Best Strategies for Surface to Deep Learning?

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We hear a lot about surface to deep learning. In this blog, Peter DeWitt explains the different between the two citing a recently released paper by John Hattie and Gregory Donoghue which explores the two levels of learning and what specific strategies go with them.

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If you want to use IT as a tool in your teaching and learning, this site has all the best apps and programs for you.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

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Formative assessment strategies in the classroom provide both teachers and students with invaluable information about what students understand, and what they don't. These ungraded assessments are valuable guides for students to help them enhance their performance. They also help teachers determine if further instruction is necessary.

When formative assessments are used consistently, and effectively, neither teachers nor students are surprised by their final grades. Some formative assessments can take just a few minutes, while others require longer periods of time. The following are 5 great formative assessment strategies for teachers.

1. Analysis of Student Work

A great deal of information can be learned from students' homework, tests, and quizzes-especially if the students are required to explain their thinking. When teachers take the time to analyze student work, they gain knowledge about:

A student's current knowledge, attitudes, and skills about subject matter

Strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles

Need for further, or special, assistance

The analysis of students' classroom work allows teachers to modify their instruction so that they will be more effective in the future.

2. Strategic Questioning Strategies

Questioning strategies may be used with individuals, small groups, or the entire class. Effective formative assessment strategies involve asking students to answer well-thought-out, higher-order questions such as "why" and "how." Higher-order questions require more in-depth thinking from the students, and help the teacher discern the level and extent of the students' understanding.

Another strategic questioning strategy used in formative assessment is to give the students a "wait time" to respond. Studies have found that most students become more engaged in classroom dialogue when higher-order questions are combined with a wait period.

3. Think-Pair-Share

This is one of the many formative assessment strategies that is simple for teachers to use. The instructor asks a question, and students write down their answers. Students are then placed in pairs to discuss their responses.

Teachers are able to move around the classroom and listen to various discussions, gaining insight into an individual's levels of understanding. After a time, the students discuss their responses with the entire class.

Research has indicated that when students are responsible for their own learning, their performance is enhanced. This is another benefit of formative assessment strategies, especially this one.

4. Exit/Admit Tickets

A simple but effective formative assessment is the Exit Ticket. Exit Tickets are small pieces of paper, or index cards, that students deposit as they leave the classroom. Students are required to write down an accurate interpretation of the main idea behind the lesson taught that day, and then provide more detail about the topic.

Teachers review the responses, and gain insight as to which students have fully learned the concept, and those that are still struggling. The information obtained can be used to plan a whole-group or partial-group lesson to re-teach the concept.

Admit Tickets are done at the very beginning of the class. Students may respond to questions about homework, or on the lesson taught the day before.

5. One-Minute Papers

One-minute papers are usually done at the end of the day. Students in groups (or individually) are asked to answer a brief question in writing. The papers are collected and analyzed by the instructor to gain awareness of the students' understanding. One-minute papers have been found to be more effective when done on a frequent basis. Typical questions posed by teachers center around:

Main point

Most surprising concept

Questions not answered

Most confusing area of topic

What question from the topic might appear on the next test?

Without formative assessments, the first indication that a student doesn't grasp the material is when they fail a quiz or a test. Effective and engaging formative assessment strategies like this can take failure out of the classroom.

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5 Great Formative Assessment Strategies That Never Miss

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Formative assessment strategies in the classroom provide both teachers and students with invaluable information about what students understand, and what they don't. These ungraded assessments are valuable guides for students to help them enhance their performance. They also help teachers determine if further instruction is necessary.

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Six Strategies for 21st Century Early Childhood Teachers

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Six Strategies for 21st Century Early Childhood Teachers

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It's no secret that the face of education has changed dramatically over the past ten years or so. Teachers across the country are working hard to equip children with the skills needed for success in the 21st century world. In addition to instilling in students the flexibility to readily adapt to changing technologies, teachers must foster learning environments that encourage critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, global awareness, and social responsibility. Listed below are six strategies early childhood teachers are currently using in classrooms to prepare kids for the boundless future ahead.

1) Integrated Technology

Today's youngsters were born in the age of the Internet. Many are more technologically savvy than the adults assigned the task of teaching them. To connect with these kids, teachers must learn to speak their language and become conversant with the technology that comes so naturally to the young. Integrating technology means tapping into students' interests and strengthening their technical skills, all while providing enriching learning opportunities. As with any new development, many teachers, eager to keep up with the latest fashion, simply go through the motions of integrating technology. However, if they are to succeed with it, they need more than the motions - they need a deep understanding of the tools available, as well as meaningful reflection about how to use them to enhance learning. In addition, the increased connectivity that accompanies this technology makes it vital that teachers stress the importance of Internet safety. NetSmartzKids, an interactive website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, teaches kids to use the Internet responsibly. Also, be sure to check out ECE Technology: 10 Trending Tools for Teachers, which outlines many innovative tools that can enhance student learning.

2) Cooperative Learning Structures

Teacher-centered instruction has had its day. Effective teachers are increasingly using a student-centered approach. Cooperative learning sparks engagement in classrooms by encouraging interaction among the students themselves. The teacher, rather than calling on one student at a time, allows children to discuss class materials with buddies or in groups, thus maximizing the level of participation. The students work just as hard as the teachers. No longer a one-man show, the teacher's role becomes that of a facilitator instead. This, in turn, leads to higher achievement, while promoting both team and class building. Kagan Cooperative Learning has developed over 200 practical, easy-to-implement instructional strategies, or "structures," that turn classrooms into lively scenes of both movement and stimulating discussion. Laura Candler's Cooperative Learning Resources features a variety of activity sheets and blackline masters for teachers, useful for accountability during cooperative learning.

3) Differentiated Instruction

Teachers can tailor learning experiences to differentiate among the individual needs of students in the classroom. There are three main learning styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Cognitive Learning Styles of Children describes the characteristics of these learners as well as the types of activities in which they best thrive, with the caveat that it is only learning styles being described, to be distinguished from cognitive styles (holistic, analytic, field-dependent, etc.). Teachers can also differentiate by matching assignments to readiness levels, offering appropriate intervention or extension activities as required. Allowing children to select activities based on areas of interest is another great way to differentiate. Offering choices is an excellent motivator for kids. Small-group work is one of the most effective ways to meet the needs of diverse learners in large class settings. Differentiation Central offers insightful information, as well as a short video of educator, author and speaker Carol Ann Tomlinson sharing her experiences and views about classroom differentiation.

4) Goal Setting

Involving children in the goal-setting process is an excellent way to encourage them to take ownership of their learning. In the early stages, goal setting needs to be done in a very clear and simplistic way - for example, frequent two-way conversations with children about their progress in specific areas. Teachers can further facilitate goal setting through the use of organizers, anchor charts and similar aids. Free Printable Behavior Charts provides models of personal charts for early learners. Teaching and Tapas shares a class's goal charts geared specifically towards reading and writing. K-5 Math Teaching Resources shows a selection of goal charts for math instruction. In general, helping children reach their goals calls for teachers to provide specific, frequent feedback as well as ample time for self-reflection.

5) Cross-Curriculum Teaching

In contrast to the traditional teaching of subjects in isolation, teaching multiple subjects simultaneously can help students go much deeper in learning concepts and skills. Naturally, this approach asks more from the teacher. It can be easy to blend math, science, or social studies content with reading or writing. However, it is more challenging to combine all the subjects at once. Here are some of the major approaches to simultaneous learning. Project-based learning involves children carrying out a project that ends up with a concrete result of some kind. Problem-based learning asks the teacher to guide children in developing solutions to real-world problems. In inquiry-based learning, children generate their own questions according to their curiosities or interests, which they then investigate. These methods work so well because teachers don't simply tell students what they should know, but instead they engage children in exploring and uncovering the information in a more meaningful way in which all the subjects come into play together. Check out this video of a group of five-year-olds participating in project-based learning at Auburn Early Education Center. These methods are not only fun, they are highly motivating for children and encourage collaboration, as well.

6) Assessment for Learning

Assessment for Learning, or Formative Assessment, is a data-gathering process used by teachers to help them customize instruction to match students' needs. Summative assessments don't always give a clear picture of what a student knows. Also, by the time the data is gathered, it's already too late! The teacher is already moving to the next objective, leaving many students behind who haven't fully grasped the previous content yet. To prevent this problem, teachers can monitor how the children are learning as they teach, using observations, questioning strategies, class discussions, exit tickets, learning logs, peer assessments, self-assessments, and slate work, among other methods. Teachers can gauge the progress of individuals, groups, or the whole class, and they can adjust the process by supporting or challenging students as needed. The article What is Assessment for Learning? provides additional insight into this technique. These ongoing assessments allow teachers to keep their fingers on the pulse of the classroom to ensure that students are learning.

To connect with these kids, teachers must learn to speak their language and become conversant with the technology that comes so naturally to the young.

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Six Strategies for 21st Century Early Childhood Teachers

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It's no secret that the face of education has changed dramatically over the past ten years or so. Teachers across the country are working hard to equip children with the skills needed for success in the 21st century world.

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Formative Assessment Strategies and the Key Concepts

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Formative Assessment Strategies and the Key Concepts