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Lesson 1 - Introduction / Teaching Cycle

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Lesson 1 - Introduction / Teaching Cycle

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2024-01-08 - HE - Creative Education - AW

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Group teaching videos already on padlet. 

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Group teaching videos already on padlet. 

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2024 03 04   HE   Creative Education   L R

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2024-01-17 - HE - Creative Education - EJ

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Use this website to create an interactive quiz or powerpoint that learners can join through their phones / personal devices.

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Demonstration of Research Methods: using internet and digital resources, library archives, journals, teacher resource packs, specifications and unit and grading criteria.
Secondary Research Skills: (Qualitative and Quantitative methods) from trusted and viable sources, Harvard referenced and accessing a range of performing arts based resources (Live and pre-existing)
Understanding of research collated: Annotate, format, collate and quote relevant information.

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Using google Scholar and google books;
- Find an article and a book on Teaching methodologies for your age group.
Find one type of teaching methodologies (sometimes called Teaching methods, Teaching Styles, Classroom styles, Teaching styles) and give an explanation of this teaching methodologies.
You must Harvard Reference this information.
Upload to your own Padlet.

(FE= Further Education or level 1,2,3, A levels.)
(HE= Higher Education, University Level, Level 4, 5, 6 or Teaching Degree)

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1. Your lesson plan and evaluation/ reflection from your micro teach
2. A completed SOW for your chosen area (this should include all the information for the top of the SOW and at least 4 lesson of delivery

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There’s no exact recipe for how to plan a lesson - everyone is different. However, below is a simple checklist of things you might want to include and the different phases of a lesson plan.

1. Lesson Objectives

2. Related Requirements

3. Lesson Materials

4. Lesson Procedure

5. Assessment Method

6. Lesson Reflection

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Auditory

If you are an auditory learner, you learn by hearing and listening. You understand and remember things you have heard. You store information by the way it sounds, and you have an easier time understanding spoken instructions than written ones. You often learn by reading out loud because you have to hear it or speak it in order to know it.

As an auditory learner, you probably hum or talk to yourself or others if you become bored. People may think you are not paying attention, even though you may be hearing and understanding everything being said.

Here are some things that auditory learners like you can do to learn better.

Sit where you can hear.

Have your hearing checked on a regular basis.

Use flashcards to learn new words; read them out loud.

Read stories, assignments, or directions out loud.

Record yourself spelling words and then listen to the recording.

Have test questions read to you out loud.

Study new material by reading it out loud.

Remember that you need to hear things, not just see things, in order to learn well.

Visual

If you are a visual learner, you learn by reading or seeing pictures. You understand and remember things by sight. You can picture what you are learning in your head, and you learn best by using methods that are primarily visual. You like to see what you are learning.

As a visual learner, you are usually neat and clean. You often close your eyes to visualize or remember something, and you will find something to watch if you become bored. You may have difficulty with spoken directions and may be easily distracted by sounds. You are attracted to color and to spoken language (like stories) that is rich in imagery.

Here are some things that visual learners like you can do to learn better:

Sit near the front of the classroom. (It won't mean you're the teacher's pet!)

Have your eyesight checked on a regular basis.

Use flashcards to learn new words.

Try to visualize things that you hear or things that are read to you.

Write down key words, ideas, or instructions.

Draw pictures to help explain new concepts and then explain the pictures.

Color code things.

Avoid distractions during study times.

Remember that you need to see things, not just hear things, to learn well.

Tactile

If you are a tactile learner, you learn by touching and doing. You understand and remember things through physical movement. You are a "hands-on" learner who prefers to touch, move, build, or draw what you learn, and you tend to learn better when some type of physical activity is involved. You need to be active and take frequent breaks, you often speak with your hands and with gestures, and you may have difficulty sitting still.

As a tactile learner, you like to take things apart and put things together, and you tend to find reasons to tinker or move around when you become bored. You may be very well coordinated and have good athletic ability. You can easily remember things that were done but may have difficulty remembering what you saw or heard in the process. You often communicate by touching, and you appreciate physically expressed forms of encouragement, such as a pat on the back.

Here are some things that tactile learners like you can do to learn better:

Participate in activities that involve touching, building, moving, or drawing.

Do lots of hands-on activities like completing art projects, taking walks, or acting out stories.

It's OK to chew gum, walk around, or rock in a chair while reading or studying.

Use flashcards and arrange them in groups to show relationships between ideas.

Trace words with your finger to learn spelling (finger spelling).

Take frequent breaks during reading or studying periods (frequent, but not long).

It's OK to tap a pencil, shake your foot, or hold on to something while learning.

Use a computer to reinforce learning through the sense of touch.

Remember that you learn best by doing, not just by reading, seeing, or hearing.

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What's Your Learning Style? 20 Questions

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Auditory If you are an auditory learner, you learn by hearing and listening. You understand and remember things you have heard. You store information by the way it sounds, and you have an easier time understanding spoken instructions than written ones.

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So what are educational learning theories and how can we use them in our teaching practice? There are so many out there, how do we know which are still relevant and which will work for our classes?
There are 3 main schemas of learning theories; Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. In this article you will find a breakdown of each one and an explanation of the 15 most influential learning theories; from Vygotsky to Piaget and Bloom to Maslow and Bruner.
Swimming through treacle!

That's what it feels like when you are trying to sort through and make sense of the vast amount of learning theories we have at our disposal.

Way back in ancient Greece, the philosopher, Plato, first pondered the question "How does an individual learn something new if the subject itself is new to them" (ok, so I'm paraphrasing, my ancient Greek isn't very good!).

Since Plato, many theorists have emerged, all with their different take on how students learn. Learning theories are a set of principles that explain how best a student can acquire, retain and recall new information.

In this complete summary, we will look at the work of the following learning theorists.

Despite the fact there are so many educational theorists, there are three labels that they all fall under. Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is based on the idea that knowledge is independent and on the exterior of the learner. In a behaviorist's mind, the learner is a blank slate that should be provided with the information to be learnt.

Through this interaction, new associations are made and thus learning occurs. Learning is achieved when the provided stimulus changes behavior. A non-educational example of this is the work done by Pavlov.

Through his famous "salivating dog" experiment, Pavlov showed that a stimulus (in this case ringing a bell every time he fed the dog) caused the dog to eventually start salivating when he heard a bell ring.

The dog associated the bell ring with being provided with food so any time a bell was rung the dog started salivating, it had learnt that the noise was a precursor to being fed.

I use a similar approach to classroom management.

I adapt my body language.

I have taught my students that if I stand in a specific place in the classroom with my arms folded, they know that I'm getting frustrated with the level of noise and they start to quieten down or if I sit cross-legged on my desk, I'm about to say something important, supportive and they should listen because it affects them directly.

Behaviorism involves repeated actions, verbal reinforcement and incentives to take part. It is great for establishing rules, especially for behavior management.

Cognitivism

In contrast to behaviorism, cognitivism focuses on the idea that students process information they receive rather than just responding to a stimulus, as with behaviorism.

There is still a behavior change evident, but this is in response to thinking and processing information.

Cognitive theories were developed in the early 1900s in Germany from Gestalt psychology by Wolfgang Kohler. In English, Gestalt roughly translates to the organization of something as a whole, that is viewed as more than the sum of its individual parts.

Cognitivism has given rise to many evidence based education theories, including cognitive load theory, schema theory and dual coding theory as well as being the basis for retrieval practice.

In cognitivism theory, learning occurs when the student reorganizes information, either by finding new explanations or adapting old ones.

This is viewed as a change in knowledge and is stored in the memory rather than just being viewed as a change in behavior. Cognitive learning theories are mainly attributed to Jean Piaget.

Examples of how teachers can include cognitivism in their classroom include linking concepts together, linking concepts to real-world examples, discussions and problem-solving.

Constructivism

Constructivism is based on the premise that we construct learning new ideas based on our own prior knowledge and experiences. Learning, therefore, is unique to the individual learner. Students adapt their models of understanding either by reflecting on prior theories or resolving misconceptions.

Students need to have a prior base of knowledge for constructivist approaches to be effective. Bruner's spiral curriculum (see below) is a great example of constructivism in action.

As students are constructing their own knowledge base, outcomes cannot always be anticipated, therefore, the teacher should check and challenge misconceptions that may have arisen. When consistent outcomes are required, a constructivist approach may not be the ideal theory to use.

Examples of constructivism in the classroom include problem-based learning, research and creative projects and group collaborations.

1. Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget is an interesting character in Psychology. His theory of learning differs from many others in some important ways:

First, he focuses exclusively on children; Second, he talks about development (not learning per se) and Third, it's a stage theory, not a linear progression theory. OK, so what's he on about?

Well, there are some basic ideas to get your head around and some stages to understand too. The basic ideas are:

Schemas: The building blocks of knowledge.

Adaptation processes: These allow the transition from one stage to another. He called these: Equilibrium, Assimilation and Accommodation.

﻿Stages of Cognitive development: Sensorimotor; Preoperational; Concrete Operational; Formal Operational.

So here's how it goes. Children develop Schemas of knowledge about the world. These are clusters of connected ideas about things in the real world that allow the child to respond accordingly.

When the child has developed a working Schema that can explain what they perceive in the world, that Schema is in a state of Equilibrium.

When the child uses the schema to deal with a new thing or situation, that Schema is in Assimilation and Accommodation happens when the existing Schema isn't up to the job of explaining what's going on and needs to be changed.

Once it's changed, it returns to Equilibrium and life goes on. Learning is, therefore, a constant cycle of Assimilation; Accommodation; Equilibrium; Assimilation and so on...

All that goes through the 4 Stages of Cognitive Development, which are defined by age:

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

The Sensorimotor Stage runs from birth to 2 years and the child spends their time learning basic Schemas and Object Permanence (the idea that something still exists when you can't see it).

The Preoperational Stage runs from 2 years to 7 years and the child develops more Schemas and the ability to think Symbolically (the idea that one thing can stand for another; words for example, or objects). At this point, children still struggle with Theory of Mind (Empathy) and can't really get their head around the viewpoints of others.

The Concrete Operational Stage runs from 7 years to 11 years and this is the Stage when children start to work things out in their head rather than physically in the real world. They also develop the ability to Conserve (understand that something stays the same quantity even if it looks different).

The Formal Operational Stage runs from 11 years into adulthood and this is where abstract thought develops, as does logic and cool stuff like hypothesis testing.

According to Piaget, the whole process is active and requires the rediscovery and reconstructing of knowledge across the entire process of Stages.

Understanding the Stage a child is in informs what they should be presented with based on what they can and cannot do at the Stage they're in.

Piaget's work on cognitivism has given rise to some brilliant work from people like John Sweller who developed the fantastic Cognitive Load Theory and John Flavell's work on metacognition

2. Vygotsky's Theory of Learning

Vygotsky takes a different approach to Piaget's idea that development precedes learning.

Instead, he reckons that social learning is an integral part of cognitive development and it is culture, not developmental Stage that underlies cognitive development. Because of that, he argues that learning varies across cultures rather than being a universal process driven by the kind of structures and processes put forward by Piaget.

Zone of Proximal Development

He makes a big deal of the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development in which children and those they are learning from co-construct knowledge. Therefore, the social environment in which children learn has a massive impact on how they think and what they think about.

They also differ in how they view language. For Piaget, thought drives language but for Vygotsky, language and thought become intertwined at about 3 years and become a sort of internal dialogue for understanding the world.

And where do they get that from? Their social environment of course, which contains all the cognitive/linguistic skills and tools to understand the world.

Vygotsky talks about Elementary Mental Functions, by which he means the basic cognitive processes of Attention, Sensation, Perception and Memory.

By using those basic tools in interactions with their sociocultural environment, children sort of improve them using whatever their culture provides to do so. In the case of Memory, for example, Western cultures tend towards note-taking, mind-maps or mnemonics whereas other cultures may use different Memory tools like storytelling.

In this way, a cultural variation of learning can be described quite nicely.

What are crucial in this learning theory are the ideas of Scaffolding, the Zone of Proximal Development ( ZPD) and the More Knowledgeable Other ( MKO). Here's how all that works:

More Knowledgeable Other

The MKO can be (but doesn't have to be) a person who literally knows more than the child. Working collaboratively, the child and the MKO operate in the ZPD, which is the bit of learning that the child can't do on their own.

As the child develops, the ZPD gets bigger because they can do more on their own and the process of enlarging the ZPD is called Scaffolding.

Vygotsky Scaffolding

Knowing where that scaffold should be set is massively important and it's the MKO's job to do that so that the child can work independently AND learn collaboratively.

For Vygotsky, language is at the heart of all this because a) it's the primary means by which the MKO and the child communicate ideas and b) internalizing it is enormously powerful in cementing understanding about the world.

That internalization of speech becomes Private Speech (the child's "inner voice") and is distinct from Social Speech, which occurs between people.

Over time, Social Speech becomes Private Speech and Hey Presto! That's Learning because the child is now collaborating with themselves!

The bottom line here is that the richer the sociocultural environment, the more tools will be available to the child in the ZPD and the more Social Speech they will internalize as Private Speech. It doesn't take a genius to work out, therefore, that the learning environment and interactions are everything.

Scaffolding is also an integral part of Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction.

3. Bloom's Domains of Learning

In 1956, American educational psychologist, Benjamin Bloom, first proposed three domains of learning; cognitive, affective and psycho-motor. Bloom worked in collaboration with David Krathwohl and Anne Harrow throughout the 1950s-70s on the three domains.

The Cognitive Domain (Bloom's Taxonomy)

This was the first domain to be proposed in 1956 and it focuses on the idea that objectives that are related to cognition could be divided into subdivisions and ranked in order of cognitive difficulty.

These ranked subdivisions are what we commonly refer to as Bloom's taxonomy. The original subdivisions are as follows (knowledge is the lowest with evaluation being the most cognitively difficult):

However, there was a major revision of the subdivisions in 2000-01 by Bloom's original partner, David Krathwohl and his colleague, Lorin Anderson (Anderson was a former student of Bloom's).

The highlights of this revision were switching names of the subdivisions from nouns to verbs, thus making them easier to use when curriculum and lesson planning.

The other main change was the order of the top two subdivisions was reversed. The updated taxonomy is as follows:

The Affective Domain

The affective domain (sometimes referred to as the feeling domain) is concerned with feelings and emotions and also divides objectives into hierarchical subcategories. It was proposed by Krathwohl and Bloom in 1964.

The affective domain is not usually used when planning for math and sciences as feelings and emotion are not relevant for those subjects. However, for educators of arts and language, the inclusion of the affective domain is imperative wherever possible.

The ranked domain subcategories range from "receiving" at the lower end up to "characterization" at the top. The full ranked list is as follows:

1. Receiving. Being aware of an external stimulus (feel, sense, experience).

2. Responding. Responding to the external stimulus (satisfaction, enjoyment, contribute)

3. Valuing. Referring to the student's belief or appropriation of worth (showing preference or respect).

4. Organization. The conceptualizing and organizing of values (examine, clarify, integrate.)

5. Characterization. The ability to practice and act on their values. (Review, conclude, judge).

The Psychomotor Domain

The psychomotor domain refers to those objectives that are specific to reflex actions interpretive movements and discreet physical functions.

A common misconception is that physical objectives that support cognitive learning fit the psycho-motor label, for example; dissecting a heart and then drawing it.

While these are physical (kinesthetic) actions, they are a vector for cognitive learning, not psycho-motor learning.

Psychomotor learning refers to how we use our bodies and senses to interact with the world around us, such as learning how to move our bodies in dance or gymnastics.

Anita Harrow classified different types of learning in the psycho-motor domain from those that are reflex to those that are more complex and require precise control.

1. Reflex movements. These movements are those that we possess from birth or appear as we go through puberty. They are automatic, that is they do not require us to actively think about them e.g. breathing, opening and closing our pupils or shivering when cold.

2. Fundamental movements. These are those actions that are the basic movements, running, jumping, walking etc and commonly form part of more complex actions such as playing a sport.

3. Perceptual abilities. This set of abilities features those that allow us to sense the world around us and coordinate our movements in order to interact with our environment. They include visual, audio and tactile actions.

4. Physical abilities. These abilities refer to those involved with strength, endurance, dexterity and flexibility etc.

5. Skilled movements. Objectives set in this area are those that include movements learned for sport (twisting the body in high diving or trampolining), dance or playing a musical instrument (placing fingers on guitar strings to produce the correct note). It is these movements that we sometimes use the layman's term "muscle memory".

6. Non-discursive communication. Meaning communication without writing, non-discursive communication refers to physical actions such as facial expressions, posture and gestures.

4. Gagné's Conditions of Learning

Robert Mills Gagné was an American educational psychologist who, in 1965 published his book "The Conditions of Learning". In it, he discusses the analysis of learning objectives and how the different classes of objective require specific teaching methods.

He called these his 5 conditions of learning, all of which fall under the cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains discussed earlier.

Gagné's 5 Conditions of Learning

Verbal information (Cognitive domain)

Intellectual skills (Cognitive domain)

Cognitive strategies (Cognitive domain)

Motor skills (Psycho-Motor domain)

Attitudes (Affective domain)

Gagné's 9 Levels of Learning

To achieve his five conditions of learning, Gagné believed that learning would take place when students progress through nine levels of learning and that any teaching session should include a sequence of events through all nine levels. The idea was that the nine levels of learning activate the five conditions of learning and thus, learning will be achieved.

1. Gain attention.

2. Inform students of the objective.

3. Stimulate recall of prior learning.

4. Present the content.

5. Provide learning guidance.

6. Elicit performance (practice).

7. Provide feedback.

8. Assess performance.

9. Enhance retention and transfer to the job.

Benefits of Gagné's Theory

Used in conjunction with Bloom's taxonomy, Gagné's nine levels of learning provide a framework that teachers can use to plan lessons and topics. Bloom provides the ability to set objectives that are differentiated and Gagné gives a scaffold to build your lesson on.

5. Jerome Bruner

Bruner's Spiral Curriculum (1960)

Cognitive learning theorist, Jerome Bruner based the spiral curriculum on his idea that "We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development".

In other words, he meant that even very complex topics can be taught to young children if structured and presented in the right way. The spiral curriculum is based on three key ideas.

1. Students revisit the same topic multiple times throughout their school career. This reinforces the learning each time they return to the subject.

2. The complexity of the topic increases each time a student revisits it. This allows progression through the subject matter as the child's cognitive ability develops with age.

3. When a student returns to a topic, new ideas are linked with ones they have previously learned. The student's familiarity with the keywords and ideas enables them to grasp the more difficult elements of the topic in a stronger way.

Bruner's 3 Modes of Representation (1966)

Following the idea of the spiral curriculum, Bruner presented the idea of three modes of representation. These modes of representation refer to the way knowledge is stored in memory. Unlike Piaget's age-related stages, Bruner's modes are loosely sequential.

1. Enactive (age 0-1 years). Representation of knowledge through physical actions.

2. Iconic (age 1-6 years). Visual representation of knowledge stored via visual images.

3. Symbolic (age 7+ years). The use of words and symbols to describe experiences.

6. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

The basic premise for Maslow's hierarchy of needs is that students progress through a set of sequential needs from physiological to self-actualization. As they move up through the levels, they feel more comfortable in their learning environment and have the confidence to push further.

It's important to note that any group of students will have learners at different levels, some may not have the lower levels met at home so making sure these students feel safe and secure is of the utmost importance as they will find it very hard to move to the upper levels.

Maslow's theory lends itself more to building student/teacher relationships rather than lesson or curriculum structure. You can have the best resources and most tightly planned lessons in the world but if you don't show enthusiasm, passion and empathy it will be very difficult for your students to feel their needs have been met.

Further reading: simplypsychology.org

7. Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner is an American developmental psychologist and professor of cognition and education at the Harvard graduate school at Harvard University. He studied under Erik Ericson (Below) and Jerome Bruner (above).

He published "Frames of Mind" in 1983, in it, he laid out his theory of "multiple intelligences".

Gardner perceived intelligence as the ability to solve problems or make products that are useful in one or more cultural settings.

He developed a list of criteria he would use to judge possible contenders for the title "intelligence". Candidates had to satisfy a range of the conditions on his list and also be able to solve genuine problems of difficulties. Initially, Gardner named seven intelligences.

Gardner's 7 Intelligences

1. Linguistic intelligence. The ability to learn and use language in written and spoken forms to express oneself.

2. Mathematical intelligence. The ability to solve problems logically, to solve mathematical problems and to perform scientific investigations.

3. Musical intelligence. Having skill in appreciation, composition and performance of musical patterns, including the ability to recognize tone, pitch and rhythm.

4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Using mental abilities to coordinate body movements to solve problems.

5. Spatial intelligence. Being able to recognize and use patterns in a wide or confined space.

6. Interpersonal intelligence. The capacity to understand the desires, motivations and intentions of other people.

7. Intrapersonal intelligence. The capacity to understand your own fears, feelings and motivations.

The Importance of Multiple Intelligence in the Classroom

Gardner suggested that the intelligences rarely operate independently and compliment each other as students learn new skills and solve problems. He also commented that the intelligences are amoral, meaning they can be used for constructive or destructive purposes.

Whilst Gardner's theory hasn't been hugely accepted in the field of Psychology, it has had a strong positive response in education, especially in the US.

In the face of criticism that it is hard to teach things in the frame of a certain intelligence, Gardner replied by stating that the seven intelligences give 7 ways to teach a subject, allowing multiple strategies to be used, thus allowing all students to make progress.

Gardner believes that all seven intelligences are required to live life well and education systems should include all seven not just the more academic first two.

Naturalist Intelligence

Since its original publication, Gardner has since added an eighth intelligence; Naturalist intelligence. This deals with an individual's ability to perceive, recognize and order features from the environment.

8. Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychological Development

Erik Erikson was a stage theorist who developed Freud's "Psychosexual Theory" and adapted it into a psychosocial (having both psychological and social aspects) theory encompassing eight stages.

According to Erikson, we experience eight stages of development during our life span. Within each stage, there is a dilemma that we must resolve in order to feel a sense of competence and will allow us to develop as a well-adjusted adult.

Erikson's 8 Stages

1. Trust Vs. Mistrust (Age 0 - 1.5). In this first stage, infants must learn that adults can be trusted. If treated poorly children may grow up feeling mistrust towards people.

2. Autonomy Vs. Shame (Age 1.5 - 3). The "me do it' stage, children start to make decisions and show preferences of elements in their environment such as what clothes to wear or what toy they prefer. If children are not allowed to explore these preferences they may develop low self-esteem and shame.

3. Initiative Vs. Guilt (Age 3 - 5). This stage involves children learning to plan and achieve goals involving others. If parents or teachers allow children to explore this and support their choices they will develop a sense of purpose and strong self-confidence.

4. Industry Vs. Inferiority (Age 5 - 12). In this stage, children start comparing themselves with their peers. Success at this will result in a sense of accomplishment in their school work, social and family activities and sports.

5. Identity Vs. Role Confusion (Age 12 - 18). Students in this stage are asking themselves "Who am I" and "What do I want to do in my life". They will try out multiple roles during this time to find what one "fits" best. A strong sense of identity and an ability to defend their core beliefs in the face of other opinions would be considered success at this stage.

6. Intimacy Vs. Isolation (Age 18 - 40). As students progress into early adulthood their focus shifts to making and maintaining strong, intimate relationships with others.

7. Generativity Vs. Stagnation (Age 40 - 65). In middle adulthood, people are concerned with contributing to society either through their work or parenthood. Continued self-improvement for the benefit of other people figures strongly here.

8. Ego Integrity Vs. Despair (Age 65+). Those in late adulthood reflect on their lives, feeling a sense of satisfaction or failure. Those who feel failure will often obsess with ideas of what they "should have" or "could have" done.

Educational Implications of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

Within an educational frame, Erikson's work gives us as teachers a framework to base our teaching on. Knowing what questions our students are asking of themselves and the world around them allows us to plan effectively.

Problems arise when our class has children at different stages in it, in this case, we must carefully differentiate our pedagogy to allow supportive learning for all students.

9. Kolb's Experiential Theory

Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle

David Kolb, an American education theorist proposed his four-stage experiential learning theory in 1984. It is built on the premise that learning is the acquisition of abstract concepts which can then be applied to a range of scenarios.

"Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience"
- Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Each stage in the cycle both supports and leads into the next stage. Learning is achieved only if all four stages have been completed, however, a learner may travel around the cycle multiple times, further refining their understanding of the topic.

No one stage is an effective learning strategy on its own, for example, if the reflective observation stage is skipped, the learner could continue to make the same mistakes.

10. The Peter Principle

The Peter Principle was developed by American educational theorist Laurence Peter and was explained in the book "The Peter Principle" that Peter wrote with his colleague, Raymond Hull.

Originally the book was supposed to be a satirical view on how people are promoted in organizations but it became popular as it actually made a valid point.

Whilst not strictly a learning theory, it does have some crossover to the classroom. The Peter Principal deals with four levels of competence. They could give a teacher planning a long term teaching strategy a framework to use when thinking about how students progress.

1. Unconscious Incompetence. Not knowing how to do a task without knowing you don't know.

2. Conscious Incompetence. You still don't know how to do the task but now you know you don't know. You are aware of a gap in your knowledge.

3. Conscious Competence. You can now do the task but it requires a lot of concentration.

4. Unconscious Competence. You can perform the task with ease. This is achieved by repeated practice.

I'm sure you can see how this would translate to a student's learning journey.

Further Reading: Peter, L. J., & Hull, R. (1969). The peter principle.

11. Laird's Sensory Theory

In 1985 Dugan Laird stated in his book Approaches to Training and Development that learning occurs when the senses are stimulated.

He quoted research that found that 75% of an adult's knowledge was obtained by seeing. 13% was through hearing, the remaining 12% was learned through touch, smell and taste combined.

Based on this research, providing visual prompts for students will enhance their learning. However, making your lessons a multi-sensual experience will enhance learning even further. It's worth considering this when planning your lessons.

12. Skinner's Behaviorist Theory

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is based on Thorndike's "Law of Effect" (1898), in which it is proposed that behaviors that are followed by positive responses are likely to be repeated and those that are followed by negative responses, not repeated.

Skinner refined the Law of Effect by introducing "reinforcement" into the descriptions. Using Skinner's new description we end up with; those behaviors that are reinforced are repeated (strengthened) and those not reinforced tend to dissipate (are weakened).

Positive Reinforcement

From a classroom management perspective, positive reinforcement is an essential strategy for teaching students how to act and conduct themselves.

Positive reinforcement (e.g. praise) should be given for behaviors that are desirable, for example, verbally answering questions in class. Initially, this should be done for all answers given, regardless of whether they are correct. This will build a culture of answering questions.

As the behavior in question becomes commonplace, the teacher should then both reduce the frequency of the reinforcement and, as in our above example, only give it for correct answers.

Ultimately the teacher will reduce the frequency of the positive reinforcement to only those responses of the highest caliber. This will create a culture of desired excellence in the students.

13. Rogers' Humanist Theory

Developed by the American psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1980s, facilitative learning is a humanistic approach to learning.

Humanism was developed to contrast cognitivism and behaviorism. Both Rogers and Maslow (see above) based their work in humanism. The key perspectives of humanism are as follows:

People have a natural desire to learn in order to achieve self-actualization (see Maslow's theory above).

It is not the outcome that is the most important part of education, it is the process of learning itself.

The students themselves should be in control of their learning and it should be achieved through observing and exploring.

The teacher should be an encouraging role model, motivating, guiding and supporting students on their own personal journey.

Facilitative Learning

Rogers' views the teacher as a facilitator to learning rather than just a conveyor of knowledge. The success of the teacher is in their ability to build positive relationships with students.

Roger's proposed three attitudinal core characteristics that a teacher should possess for facilitative learning to be successful:

Realness. The teacher should be themselves and use their own personality when teaching. Being "real" with students breeds an ethos of trust between students and a teacher. The teacher should be able to convey their feelings rather than just being a monotonal, monochromatic robot.

Prizing, Accepting and Trusting. A teacher should care about their students and accept their feelings, regardless of whether they assist or detract from learning. Through these characteristics, deeper trust and respect is built.

Empathy. Understanding the student's perception of learning and their feelings.

The effectiveness of facilitative learning also requires certain traits to be present in the student. They should be motivated, aware of the facilitative conditions they have been provided with and aware that the task they have been given is useful, realistic and relevant.

If all these characteristics are present then, in the words of Rogers himself:

"learning becomes life, and a very vital life at that. The student is on his way, sometimes excitedly, sometimes reluctantly, to becoming a learning, changing being".- Rogers, Carl R. The Interpersonal Relationship in the Facilitation of Learning. In Humanizing Education: The Person in the Process. Ed. T. Leeper. National Education Association, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, p1-18. 1967.

14. Canter's Theory of Assertive Discipline

Assertive discipline is a structured system to enable teachers to manage their classrooms. It focuses on the teacher developing a positive behavior management strategy rather than being dictatorial.

Canter's proposition is that the teacher has the right to decide what is best for their students and that no student should prevent any other from learning.

The teacher should very clear boundaries as to how they expect their students to behave and work, the students should know what these boundaries are and any deviation should be met with an assertive action from the teacher.
This all sounds quite draconian, right?
However, if the teacher gives a firm, clear instruction and those instructions are met, they should be followed by positive reinforcement (see Skinner above). Any deviation from the instruction should be met with negative consequences that the students have prior knowledge of.

The behavior management guru, Bill Rogers, bases his strategies on the assertive teacher model, which I know from personal use, works incredibly well.

15. Dreikur's Classroom Management Theory

Rudolf Dreikur proposed the theory that mutual respect should be the basis for discipline and that this mutual respect motivates learners to display positive behaviors.

He believed students have an innate desire to feel like an accepted member of a group and to feel like they have value and confidence to contribute to that group. Dreikur called this desire to belong, the "genuine goal of social behavior".

If students are unable to achieve this goal, they start a series of "goals of misbehavior". The resulting misbehavior is a misguided attempt at gaining the sense of belonging they are missing.

Dreikur's 4 Goals of Misbehavior

If a student fails to gain social status by gaining attention, they move on to trying to gain power and control, failure at each successive level ultimately ends with feelings of inadequacy.

How to Combat the 4 Goals of Misbehavior.

Gain Attention. Ignore the attention-seeking and use positive reinforcement when positive behavior is shown. Distract the student by offering alternate actions or choices e.g. "Please could you hand out the books".

Gain Power and Control. Focus on all the good behavior in the class, while ignoring the attempt to gain power, on no account should you engage in a battle for power. Bill Rogers, the behavior expert, calls this the black dot, white square approach.

Gain Revenge. Remember that the student is trying to gain a sense of belonging and this revenge-seeking is a masked attempt to gain it. Away from other students, let the student know that you care about them and their education, that despite their actions you want the best for them.

Display Feelings of Inadequacy. At this stage, the student has given up on themselves. This stage will manifest in the form of "not doing" (not doing homework, not participating etc.). Students at this stage should be shown how to recognize small successes and achievements. Showing an interest in them and their work will always help slowly bring a student out of this stage.

Learning Theories Summary

I know what you're thinking. "How the hell am I supposed to do all of these" or "which ones should I use" or "I'm more confused than ever!".

That's how I felt when I was doing my teacher training. The truth is, great teaching involves a cocktail of most of these at some point (and a few actual cocktails at the weekend to recover!).

If you are just starting out on your journey as a teacher and you are worried that you'll do it wrong, just remember these basic principles:

1. Building positive relationships with students is the bedrock of EVERYTHING.

2. Setting clear boundaries that students are aware of.

3. Consequences of breaking those boundaries are also known in advance.

4. Focus on and reward the positive things that happen in your classroom (positive reinforcement).

5. Treat your students as people with thoughts and feelings of their own that, while may seem irrelevant to you, they are not to them.

6. It is easier and more effective to change your perspective to theirs than make them change to yours.

7. Remember, their world is not the one you grew up in.

I hope you found this article useful, I know it reminded me of a good few things that I may have been slacking with. Feel free to share it with your teacher friends, I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Learning Theories FAQ
What Are Learning Theories? What Is Behaviorism? What Is Cognitivism? What Is Constructivism?
Similar Posts:

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15 Learning Theories in Education (A Complete Summary)

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A complete summary of the 15 most influential learning theories. Includes Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, Maslow, Bruner, Kolb and many more.

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Tes - Education Jobs, Teaching Resources, School Software & Magazine

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Tes is dedicated to supporting the world's teachers. Our mission is to enable great teaching by helping educators to find the tools and technology they need to excel and by supporting them throughout their career and professional development.

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Green = must be completed in relation to the level you are teaching

Yellow = have a go at completing, you might not have all the answers.

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Our promise to you...

Get rewarded with the future that you want. Our Skills Promise means you can be sure that when you complete your course, you'll not only have an industry recognised qualification, you'll be job ready with the transferable skills you need to make an impact in your chosen industry or profession.

In addition to your qualification, you will also gain a variety of skills and qualities that will give you a head start in your career and make you stand out when applying for jobs.

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Get rewarded with the future that you want. Our Skills Promise means you can be sure that when you complete your course, you'll not only have an industry recognised qualification, you'll be job ready with the transferable skills you need to make an impact in your chosen industry or profession.

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VARK is outdated and shouldn't be used to 'pigeon-hole' learners.

Use the acronym for Visual, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinaesthetic to ensure you have a range of activities to engage all learners throughout as each learner may learn from different styles of tasks.

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I'm often asked for some tips regarding delivering a micro teach session so I thought I would write something here. I've also added a short video.

What is a micro teach session?

Most learners taking a teaching qualification will at some point deliver a short session to their peer group. This is the opportunity to demonstrate skills, knowledge and understanding in a non-threatening environment. A point to remember is that the session is not about you - it's about the learning taking place. Time will go quickly so it's best to rehearse the session in advance.

1. Planning your session

Think carefully about the topic you will deliver and have a realistic aim which can be achieved within the time allocated. Prepare a session plan which shows the teaching, learning and assessment activities to be used (along with timings for each) and shows the resources which will be used.
There are lots of things you will need to ask in advance, such as:

1. How long will my session be, when and where will it take place?

2. Who will observe me, will they need a copy of my plan, will they make a visual recording for me to view later?

3. What equipment and resources are available to me to use?

4. How many people will there be in the group?

5. How can I find out their learning preferences, any individual needs, and any prior knowledge?

6. Can I show a video clip? If so, how long can it be?

7. How will I receive feedback afterwards?

Your session should have a beginning (the introduction), a middle section (the development) and an ending (the summary/conclusion) which should show a logical progression of learning. You should not be speaking for the majority of the session and your learners should be active not passive.

2. Delivering your session

You may feel nervous which is quite normal. However, try to imagine you are acting a role and this should help boost your confidence and calm your nerves. You are the teacher in this situation; you need to stay focused, be in control, and not let any personal issues affect you.
A few tips:

Before you start, take a few deep breaths, smile and use eye contact with everyone; this should help you to relax. You can then introduce yourself by saying Hello, my name is ..., followed by your session aim.

Don't tell your learners if you are nervous as it probably won't show.

Be aware of your posture, speak a little more loudly and slowly than normal as being anxious or nervous may make you speak softly or quickly.

If you feel you are shaking, it is highly likely no one will notice.

If your mind suddenly goes blank, take a couple of deep breaths for a few seconds and look at your plan to help you refocus; it might seem a long time to you but it won't to your learners.

You will need to establish a rapport with your learners and engage and interact with them from the start. Asking the question What experience, if any, do you have of this topic? is a good way of involving your learners in your subject from the start and helps you check any prior learning.

Keep your plan handy as a prompt. If you feel you might forget something, use a highlight pen beforehand to mark key words which you can quickly glance at.

Keep things simple, don't complicate things or try to deliver too much too quickly. Conversely, don't expect too much from your learners, as your subject may be very new to them.

Try to use names when talking to your learners and if possible address everyone in the group at some point during the session. Having your learners' names written down in advance will help, perhaps on a sketch of the seating plan.

Encourage your learners to ask questions, perhaps if they need to clarify any points at any time.

Develop your session by using a variety of teaching and learning approaches to reach all learning preferences and to keep your learners motivated.

Ask questions, summarise, and recap regularly to reinforce your points. Don't be afraid to repeat things.

It's useful to have a spare activity if you have extra time, and to know what you can remove if you are short of time.

The timing of activities needs to be followed carefully; if you are only delivering a 15-minute session you may not have time for group activities. If you do set activities, think what you will be doing while your learners are working, i.e. moving around them and observing or asking questions shows you are in control.

Longer sessions benefit from a mixture of teaching and learning approaches and different assessment activities. If you have delivered a practical task, you will need to observe that your learners have the skill to demonstrate it, and have the required understanding to explain why they are doing it that way.

3. Assessing learning

At some point during your micro-teach session, you will need to assess that learning has taken place by each learner. Assessment should take place at key points, for example, by asking open questions to check knowledge (ones that begin with who, what, when, where, why and how).

Try to use the PPP (Pose, Pause, Pick) method when asking questions. If you have a small group, you could plan to ask one open question to each learner. You might like to plan your questions in advance.

If you are assessing group activities, you will need to determine what each individual has achieved.

Once you have assessed that learning has taken place, you need to give feedback to your learners in a constructive way. If you don't, they won't know if they have been successful or not. Assessment should not be in isolation from teaching and learning and feedback should not demoralise your learner.

If you are unsure of how to end your session, simply say Thank you, I've enjoyed my session with you today. This will indicate to your group you have finished. Make sure you tidy the area afterwards.

4. Evaluating your session

Evaluating your session is an important aspect of your own learning and development. You might think you have done really well, but you might have received some helpful feedback afterwards, from your tutor and your peers, which could help you improve further. Listen carefully and ask questions to clarify any points you are unsure of. Try not to interrupt or become defensive, and don't take anything personally.
When evaluating yourself and your session, consider:

your strengths

areas for development

any action and improvements required.

from both a teaching and training perspective and a subject perspective.
Ann Gravells is an author, creator of teacher training resources and an education consultant

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I'm often asked for some tips regarding delivering a micro teach session so I thought I would write something here.

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What is the difference between  feedback and feed forward 

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What is the difference between  feedback and feed forward 

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Task- you have 10 mins to-
1. state what feedback is
2. state what feedforward is
3. Why is feed forward important?

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Teaching methodologies/ Teaching Styles for your chosen age group
1. A resource from Tes website
2. Book (Google book search)
3. Select a teaching style that would be relevant to you, why/ how

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Differentiated Instruction: Why, How, and Examples

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Ella - Choreography.

Wednesday. 10:45 - 11:30.

17th January 2024

24th January 2024

31st January 2024

Abby - Choreography

Monday - 9:00 - 9:45

8th January 2024

15th January 2024

22nd January 2024

Suzy - Singing

Level 2 - Monday 3:30 - 4:30

15th Jan 2024

22nd Jan 2024

29 Jan 2024.

Lydia - Devising

Year 2 Acting - Monday 9:00 - 10:00

4th March 2024

11th March 2024

18th March 2024

Taianne - Movement/Devising - Beavers

30th January 2 x Sessions

6th Feb 1 x Longer Session

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2024-01-22 - HE - Creative Education - AW

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Witnessed by Catherine Palfreyman

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2024-01-24 - HE Dance - Creative Education - EJ

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Another app in which you can create polls, word clouds, interactive discussions.

However, the free version only allows for 2 slides.

I usually put a QR code into a normal powerpoint for learners to access this.

Sometimes the link is blocked so googling Mentimetre is a better option.

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By Terri Eichholz For a more recent post on student agency and engagement, click here.
This blog originally ran on FusionYearbooks.com.

In his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink argues that extrinsic motivations such as grades, standardized tests and financial rewards are merely temporary incentives that cannot provide a sustainable framework for quality learning and careers.
The question then is how can we educators encourage our future world citizens to develop their own determination to learn and succeed? Although it seems paradoxical to us to extrinsically motivate our students to intrinsically motivate themselves, there are five main areas in which we can help to create an environment that will offer the perfect conditions for intrinsic motivation to develop.

Establish relationships with students and build on their strengths

According to Robert Marzano, "Positive relationships between teachers and students are among the most commonly cited variables associated with effective instruction. If the relationship is strong, instructional strategies seem to be more effective." Here are some great ways to gain the trust of your students and learn what is meaningful to them.
1. Give students an opportunity to show what they value most.
In the art project pictured right, students cut out silhouettes of themselves and then decorate them with symbols to represent their interests and important experiences. This is a fun way to start your school year, and can give you useful insights into the lives of your students. Consider doing one yourself, so they can learn about you, too!
2. Make better decisions by collecting clear data on your students.
By collecting data digitally, you can instantly refer to it throughout the year when making decisions about class projects and assessments, allowing you to build on the strengths and interests of individual students. Thrively is a great online tool that will provide a detailed picture of each student's interests and skills.

3. Ask students what they expect from you and make sure you meet their expectations.
When students feel that you have a genuine interest in what you can do to gain their respect, they will be more willing to do what they can to gain yours. Asking for their opinions about what constitutes a good teacher in their eyes, and doing your best to live up to their descriptions, will show students that what they say matters to you.

Give the students choices whenever possible

Many educators, such as teacher and author Larry Ferlazzo, agree with Daniel Pink that a sense of autonomy is a major factor in intrinsic motivation. Though there are many requirements for teachers regarding the required skills for each level, we do, generally, have autonomy over the way we can teach and assess these skills. This is where we have the opportunity to offer some choices to the students. We can:
4. Let students choose what they want to learn.
"Genius Hour" (also called, "20% Time" or "Passion Time") has become a huge trend in education. Originally based on a concept used in some famous companies such as Google and Federal Express where workers were given time during their work week to pursue their own creative projects, teachers around the world have developed ways to include this in their own school schedules. One of the most popular pages on my website, Engage Their Minds, is the Genius Hour Resources page, which offers examples and resources on how to facilitate Genius Hour in your own classroom.
5. Give students options for how they want to learn something.
Perhaps you don't have the freedom to allow students to choose their own learning topics. That doesn't mean they can't still have choices. You can give students their own options for how to achieve their learning objectives. Many teachers offer their students "Choice Boards," allowing them to tailor their own learning activities to individual preferences. This example of an art history choice board for primary students provides learning styles options to help students make their decisions.
6. Let students choose their own assessments.
We know that we need evidence of learning from our students so we can report this to their parents and the school. However, assessments can come in many forms. Choice boards can be used to suggest ways to demonstrate learning, just as they are used to present a variety of learning activities. A great digital tool for product suggestions is " The Differentiator," which was adapted from David Chung and The Flip Book, Too by Sandra N. Kaplan, Bette Gould & Victoria Siegel by Ian Byrd, a gifted educator and author of Byrdseed.com.

Whenever you can't give students choices, find ways to make it relevant
11. Create vision boards using Canva.
This is where the interest inventories and other relationship-building activities will become useful. Students need to see connections between what they are learning and their own lives in order to feel compelled to exert effort. How many times have we heard, "When are we going to use this?" from our students (or said it ourselves)? If we can show how our lessons apply to our students' lives, their engagement will be stronger-and, of course, that leads to greater motivation! Try some of these ideas to make real-world connections.
7. Leverage social media.
Teenagers love Instagram. So, why not use Instagram to find out what your students know about Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men? That's what Laura Randazzo did in this assignment. She learned that this method increased engagement and included the added bonus that the students loved teaching her the nuances of Instagram.

8. Create authentic learning experiences instead of abstract challenges.
Like Nathan Lang, who tweeted the image below, many educators have found value in using authentic problems as a foundation for learning. In this example from Education World, second grade students use problem-solving, collaboration and research to help a classmate get a much-needed bed to sleep in. This article from CNN has a section on Project Based Learning, and cites how a fender bender in the school parking lot became a springboard for a class project

9. Integrate pop culture into your lessons using song lyrics, memes and clips from movies and television shows.
Teach Arguments with Pop Culture uses commercials to motivate students to learn more about rhetoric. Mr. Wasko gives students examples from videos and music to teach about figurative language. Students will be much more motivated to access the History for Music Lovers Youtube channel which features a plethora of history lessons sung to the tune of popular songs such as Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" to learn about the French Revolution instead of watching a dry PowerPoint presentation on the topic.

Model goal-setting and goal-tracking

When students are intrinsically motivated, they are not concerned about receiving the highest grade in the class or winning a trophy for their accomplishments. They care more about measuring their own learning and progress and less about comparing themselves to others. Here are some ways you can help them to monitor goals and achievements:
10. Publicize goals to help students to stay accountable.
If you've ever made a New Year's resolution, then you know that keeping it a secret makes it easier to give it up. Making goals visible to others makes your commitment more binding. Students are more likely to reflect on their goals when they know that others are aware of them and will know if and when success has been achieved.

Makeavisionboard.com defines a Vision Board as "a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal. Literally, a vision board is any sort of board on which you display images that represent whatever you want to be, do or have in your life." In this tutorial from Marquette Sharie, students can learn how to make their own Vision Boards using Canva.
Terri Eichholz teaches gifted students in kindergarten through 5th grades in San Antonio, TX. Follow her on Twitter: .
12. Give opportunities to reflect on those goals.
Goals are meaningless if you don't regularly track your progress and think about what can help you to achieve them. Use reflection sheets like the one below on a daily or weekly basis to encourage students to consider the actions they've taken toward accomplishing their goals. My favorite part of the example below is the word, "yet." This small word can make a big difference in student effort!

Offer Consistent and Constructive Feedback

One of my college professors used to underline my entire assignments as he read them, then write a "B" at the top of the papers-with no explanation. As you can imagine, this information was meaningless to me, and gave me no opportunity for growth. Frequent and thoughtful feedback will increase the intrinsic motivation to learn in students as they realize their hard work has value and their instructor is genuinely interested in providing support.
13. Give effective and objective feedback.
Mark Barnes' SE2R Feedback model provides an alternative to using subjective grades and their averages for assessment, which often don't give a true picture of student learning. With SE2R, students receive objective feedback regularly that gives them opportunities for improvement and higher learning. You can learn more about Mark's solutions for assessment in his book, Assessment 3.0: Throw Out Your Grade Book and Inspire Learning.
14. Give meaningful praise that will help students to know what they are doing right.
"You are smart," can actually decrease motivation in the long-run, as children who receive this kind of praise become reluctant to try anything that might disabuse people of the notion that they are intelligent. The graphic below offers some alternatives that can help your students to identify what they are doing well so they will be sure to do it again. Read this article by Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychology professor, on how to best use praise effectively.

15. Give timely feedback.
If you have ever used a fitness tracker like the Fitbit, then you know the importance of receiving feedback throughout your activities-not just at the end when it's too late to improve. By frequently administering formative assessments such as comments in Google Docs, or using student response options like Plickers, Kahoot or Socrative to get a better sense of the level of learning, teachers and students can make improvements that will maximize the potential for learning.
In a world that relies too often on extrinsic motivators to encourage and measure success, it can be a challenge to forgo these for the sake of helping our students to build a stronger foundation that will not disintegrate the moment the "carrot and the stick" disappear. It is our duty as educators, however, to dissuade our students from continuously searching for immediate gratification.
As we show our students that they can trust us to care about what is important to them and to work in their best interests, they will gradually learn the value of learning for their own sakes. They will find it is much more fulfilling to drive themselves than to have others drive them.
For more, see:

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15 Actionable Strategies for Increasing Student Motivation and Engagement

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By Terri Eichholz - Here are 15 ideas for educators to help encourage students to develop their own intrinsic motivation to learn and succeed.

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To obtain the higher Criteria you should;
· Demonstration of Research Methods: using internet and digital resources, library, archives, journals, teacher resource packs, specifications and unit and grading criteria. (Use the resources on here)

· Secondary Research Skills: (Qualitative and Quantitative methods) froklobxm trusted

and viable sources, Harvard referenced and accessing a range of performing arts

based resources (Live and pre-existing)

RRR
Research-
Research the information required, and include link, pictures, articles and any other information.

Reference-
Harvard reference the information you are including

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Put in your own own/ summarise/ conclude the information. The best way to do this is to make sure you say 'With the subject of dance, or within my age group of those ages 16, or on a level 3 course.'

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The Submission point will be open on canvas, you can upload all documents to a padlet page or you can upload them individually

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1. Prior Learning: What do you need to know before you begin your lesson planning for a class?

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1. Prior Learning: What do you need to know before you begin your lesson planning for a class?

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As part of the new Ofsted Framework, teachers are asked to have a sound understanding of learning from previous year groups. This should feed into the lesson aim. Teachers also need to prepare children for future learning.

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Many people recognize that each person prefers different learning styles and techniques. Learning styles group common ways that people learn. Everyone has a mix of learning styles. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that you already use well.

Many people recognize that each person prefers different learning styles and techniques. Learning styles group common ways that people learn. Everyone has a mix of learning styles. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that you already use well.

Using multiple learning styles and ï¿½multiple intelligencesï¿½ for learning is a relatively new approach. This approach is one that educators have only recently started to recognize. Traditional schooling used (and continues to use) mainly linguistic and logical teaching methods. It also uses a limited range of learning and teaching techniques. Many schools still rely on classroom and book-based teaching, much repetition, and pressured exams for reinforcement and review. A result is that we often label those who use these learning styles and techniques as ï¿½bright.ï¿½ Those who use less favored learning styles often find themselves in lower classes, with various not-so-complimentary labels and sometimes lower quality teaching. This can create positive and negative spirals that reinforce the belief that one is "smart" or "dumb".

By recognizing and understanding your own learning styles, you can use techniques better suited to you. This improves the speed and quality of your learning.

The Seven Learning Styles

Visual (spatial):You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.

Aural (auditory-musical): You prefer using sound and music.

Verbal (linguistic): You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.

Physical (kinesthetic): You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.

Logical (mathematical): You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.

Social (interpersonal): You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.

Solitary (intrapersonal): You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

Why Learning Styles? Understand the basis of learning styles

Your learning styles have more influence than you may realize. Your preferred styles guide the way you learn. They also change the way you internally represent experiences, the way you recall information, and even the words you choose. We explore more of these features in this chapter.

Research shows us that each learning style uses different parts of the brain. By involving more of the brain during learning, we remember more of what we learn. Researchers using brain-imaging technologies have been able to find out the key areas of the brain responsible for each learning style.

For example:

Visual: The occipital lobes at the back of the brain manage the visual sense. Both the occipital and parietal lobes manage spatial orientation.

Aural: The temporal lobes handle aural content. The right temporal lobe is especially important for music.

Verbal: The temporal and frontal lobes, especially two specialized areas called Brocaï¿½s and Wernickeï¿½s areas (in the left hemisphere of these two lobes).

Physical: The cerebellum and the motor cortex (at the back of the frontal lobe) handle much of our physical movement.

Logical: The parietal lobes, especially the left side, drive our logical thinking.

Social: The frontal and temporal lobes handle much of our social activities. The limbic system (not shown apart from the hippocampus) also influences both the social and solitary styles. The limbic system has a lot to do with emotions, moods and aggression.

Solitary: The frontal and parietal lobes, and the limbic system, are also active with this style.

Where to next?

Click the links in the navigation menu on the left (or above) to learn more about the individual learning styles, or go to the learning styles inventory page to try a test to discover your own learning styles.

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No two students are alike, and the way every person learns will vary. Our brains are all unique, and our experiences all contribute to the different ways we learn. Psychologists have spent countless hours performing tests to better understand how students learn.

Current and aspiring teachers need tobe educated to be prepared for teaching students every day, and an important part of teacher education is understanding different ways of learning. There are many solidified learning theories that teachers can learn from as they prepare to help students in the classroom. Teachers who understand learning theories can use different techniques in their classrooms to cater to different kinds of learning. This can help all students find success in learning.

There are five main educational learning theories that educators can utilize to help them enhance their classrooms and make them better learning environments for all students.

Cognitive learning theory looks at the way people think. Mental processes are an important part in understanding how we learn. The cognitive theory understands that learners can be influenced by both internal and external elements.

Plato and Descartes are two of the first philosophers that focused on cognition and how we as human beings think. Many other researchers looked deeper into the idea of how we think, spurring more research. Jean Piaget is a highly important figure in the field of cognitive psychology, and his work focuses on environments and internal structures and how they impact learning.

Cognitive theory has developed over time, breaking off into sub-theories that focus on unique elements of learning and understanding. At the most basic level, the cognitive theory suggests that internal thoughts and external forces are both an important part of the cognitive process. And as students understand how their thinking impacts their learning and behavior, they are able to have more control over it.

Cognitive learning theory impacts students because their understanding of their thought process can help them learn. Teachers can give students opportunities to ask questions, to fail, and think out loud. These strategies can help students understand how their thought process works, and utilize this knowledge to construct better learning opportunities.

Behaviorism learning theory is the idea that how a student behaves is based on their interaction with their environment. It suggests that behaviors are influenced and learned from external forces rather than internal forces.

Psychologists have been developing the idea of behaviorism since the 19th century. Behavioral learning theory is the basis for psychology that can be observed and quantified. Positive reinforcement is a popular element of behaviorism-classical conditioning observed in Pavlov's dog experiments suggests that behaviors are directly motivated by the reward that can be obtained.

Teachers in a classroom can utilize positive reinforcement to help students better learn a concept. Students who receive positive reinforcement are more likely to retain information moving forward, a direct result of the behaviorism theory.

Constructivism learning theory is based on the idea that students actually create their own learning based on their previous experiences. Students take what they're being taught and add it to their previous knowledge and experiences, creating a reality that's unique to them. This learning theory focuses on learning as an active process, which is personal and individual for each student.

Teachers can utilize constructivism to help understand that each student will bring their own past to the classroom every day. Teachers in constructivist classrooms act as more of a guide to helping students create their own learning and understanding. They help them create their own process and reality based on their own past. This is crucial to helping many kinds of students take their own experiences and include them in their learning.

Humanism is very closely related to constructivism. Humanism directly focuses on the idea of self-actualization. Everyone functions under a hierarchy of needs. Self-actualization is at the top of the hierarchy of needs-it's the brief moments where a person feels all of their needs are met and that they're the best possible version of themselves. Everyone is striving for this, and learning environments can either move toward meeting needs or away from meeting needs.

Teachers can create classroom environments that help students get closer to their self-actualization. Educators can help fulfill students' emotional and physical needs, giving them a safe and comfortable place to learn, plenty of food, and the support they need to succeed. This kind of environment is the most conducive to helping students learn.

Connectivism is one of the newest educational learning theories. It focuses on the idea that people learn and grow when they form connections. This can be connections with each other or connections with their roles and obligations in their lives. Hobbies, goals, and people can all be connections that influence learning.

Teachers can utilize connectivism in their classrooms to help students make connections to things that excite them, helping them learn. Teachers can use digital media to make good, positive connections to learning. They can help create connections and relationships with their students and with their peer groups to help students feel motivated about learning.

While these five learning theories are the main educational learning theories for teachers who want to support their students' learning, there are additional theories they may want to understand. Some may work as good supplemental theories for teachers to bolster their educational support with a new approach.

Transformative learning theory is a great approach for adult education and young adult learning. Also referred to as transformation learning, transformative learning theory focuses on the idea that learners can adjust their thinking based on new information.

This learning theory was founded by Jack Mezirow, who discovered it after doing studies on adult women who went back to school. His initial research found that adults don't apply their old understanding to new situations and that having a new perspective helped them gain a new understanding of things as they change. Mezirow also believed that students had important teaching and learning opportunities connected to their past experiences and that critical reflection and review could lead to a transformation of their understanding.

This approach works well for adult students, as children don't have the same kind of transformation with their learning experiences-and with life experience. Adult students could draw on childhood experiences and transforming those beliefs and understandings using critical reflection, leading them to an understanding of what they should believe and understand as adults.

Overall, the theory states that our worldview is changed the more we learn, which helps us grasp new concepts and ideas. By getting new information that helps evaluate past ideas, students are able to make a dramatic educational shift beyond standard learning. Teachers can employ this learning theory by encouraging their students to learn new perspectives while questioning their assumptions and open the floor for discourse to cement their new train of thought.

Using social learning theory can be a valuable tool for dealing with difficult students who like to disrupt the classroom and cause trouble. This theory focuses on the concept of children learning from observing others by acting on or not acting on what they see exhibited by their classmates. For example, they may see a classmate politely asking for a treat and getting one, or maybe they hear another classmate talking about something new they've learned, which teaches the student something new even if it's not something they try themselves.

This learning theory was founded by Albert Bandura. He conducted an experiment called the Bobo doll experiment in the early '60s, during which he studied children's behavior after they watched an adult act aggressively with a doll-like toy. He noted how the children reacted when the adult got rewarded, punished, or suffered no consequences after they attacked the doll. Bandura wrote about his findings in 1977, detailing social learning theory and how it affected the behavioral development of students.

There are four elements to social learning theory:

Attention, which calls upon different or unique lessons or activities to help children focus.

Retention, focusing on how the student will internalize information and recall it later on.

Reproduction, drawing on previously learned behavior and when it's appropriate to use it.

Motivation, which can extend from seeing other classmates being rewarded or punished for their actions.

By using social modeling based on these elements, teachers have a very powerful tool in their arsenal that can effectively guide their students to be more active in their learning, pay more attention, and channel their energy into their schooling.

Experiential learning theory focuses on learning by doing. Using this theory, students are encouraged to learn through experiences that can help them retain information and recall facts.

Experiential learning theory, or ELT, was identified by David Kolb in 1984. Though his influence came from other theorists such as John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget, Kolb was able to identify four stages of ELT. The first two stages, concrete learning and reflective observation, focus on grasping an experience. The latter two, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation are about transforming an experience. To Kolb, effective learning is seen as the learner goes through the cycle of experiential learning theory. Students can enter the cycle in any way and at any point.

Some examples of this form of learning include taking students to the zoo to learn about animals instead of just reading about them or growing a garden to learn about photosynthesis instead of watching a video about it. By creating environments where students can learn and experience at the same time, teachers offer students the opportunity to immediately apply their knowledge and get real-world experiences. This approach also encourages teamwork and is shown to improve motivation.

Teachers can create specific strategies and techniques to apply these learning theories in their classrooms. Teachers need to first focus on getting a well-rounded education to learn about all kinds of techniques for teaching and classroom management. Teachers need to understand learning theories to be prepared to utilize them in their classrooms.

An understanding of learning theories helps teachers connect to all different kinds of students. Teachers can focus on different learning styles to reach different students, creating teaching that focuses directly on student needs and aptitudes.

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When considering the best approach to helping students learn, teachers may call upon learning theories to support their educational pursuits. Read on to discover the five main educational theories and three supplemental theories that can make a big difference in how students learn.

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Visual learners are those who prefer learning by observing things. Using pictures, images, diagrams, whiteboards and more helps these types of learners understand information better. These students can easily visualize information, have a good sense of direction and usually likes to draw and doodle.

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You will perform a Micro teach lesson- This can be any on subject matter you wish, however must be suitable for this room.
The lesson should be between 10-15 in length.
You will need to complete the lesson plan in detail and submit this on the date of the micro teach.

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Creative Education Simplified Session Plan

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Creative Education Simplified Session Plan

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1. When you have began your teaching placement, reflect upon what you have taught and evaluate any changes you may make/did make between sessions in response to learners' ability/engagement/understanding etc. Add these thoughts to your padlet page.

If you are struggling to structure a reflection, consider:

'What went well...'
'Even better if...'
'Next steps'

2. Request feedback from the learners you have taught. This can be informal or a formal questionnaire linked to the information you would like to use in your evaluation. Use this to inform your evaluation after you have completed your teaching resources.

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Kitchen Pedagogy 1:1 You Establish What You Establish

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Gather a room of teachers together and they will give you as many teaching strategies as there are topics in the primary curriculum.
This article introduces the 13 most important teaching strategies you should be using - the ones that have been proven to work in schools like yours and the ones that we use every week with the 7000 pupils we teach in our one-to-one interventions.
We also include the 6 learning strategies that your pupils should also know about to enable them to move their own learning forwards.
Teaching and learning strategies taken from the best of UK education research

One of the great advances that has been made in the last 5 years in the education sector in the UK is the increasing influence of large scale research and evidence informing what we know about how children learn, and consequently how we can better teach them.

Whether that's a greater awareness of the EEF Toolkit and their randomised controlled trials, the growing ResearchEd movement, or even just the vibrant #edutwitter community, many more teachers now are taking their professional development into their own hands.

More teachers than ever are aware of John Hattie's 'Index of Teaching and Learning Strategies', and wary of implementing new instructional strategies unthinkingly; no-one wants to be stung by another 'learning styles' waste of effort.

But even when you know there may be better and more efficient ways to develop your students' understanding, choosing which of these teaching strategies to start with can be a challenge. This article aims to guide you through this.

What are teaching strategies?

Teaching strategies are methods and techniques that a teacher will use to support their pupils or students through the learning process; a teacher will chose the teaching strategy most suitable to the topic being studied, the level of expertise of the learner, and the stage in their learning journey.

In one lesson a teacher may use many different teaching strategies with different end goals. The most effective teaching strategies are those proven to work over large scale trials. There is no requirement for a teaching strategy to be innovative although of course some of them are.

List of teaching strategies for primary school

These are the 13 most important teaching strategies that you and all the teachers in your school should at least have in your teaching toolkit.

No-one is suggesting you will use them in every lesson, but an awareness of what they are and the results you can expect is essential to move your practice on.

And of course if you're a school leader, or responsible for CPD in your school, knowing what's current and evidence-backed is key so that you can make an informed choice the next time somebody suggests implementing a new or innovative teaching technique. One way to stay up-to-date is by reading educational blogs and listening to the best educational podcasts.

1. Know Your Pupils and Develop Their Respect

This may sound basic, but the basis of all good teaching is an understanding of your pupils and their learning needs. Allied to this is the respect you are held in by your pupils. The relationship between teacher and student is a vital element of the learning experience. Take time to get to know a new class from the first day, understand what motivates them their barriers to learning. This is an often overlooked teaching strategy.

All our one-to-one tutors are made aware before working with a pupil if they have any special educational needs, and take the time to get to know each pupil throughout the 1-to-1 lessons by asking about their hobbies and interests or the kinds of things they've been learning in school.

Read more: How to Support a Child with Autism in the Classroom

In this way, whenever possible a tutor can personalise a lesson or a teaching technique as appropriate to the child with a real world example.

2. Appropriate use of Summative and Formative Assessments

The first stage here is making sure you know the difference between formative and summative assessment. It may sound obvious but you'd be surprised how many teachers don't use each appropriately.

To cover them quickly:

Summative assessment refers to an assessment that takes place after a block of work has been completed, whether this is a term or a year. They are best thought of as assessments of learning.

Formative assessments are those that take place day-to-day and are used to gauge pupils' understanding of a topic - they are assessments for learning. Formative assessment is often used in a diagnostic capacity, to help us identify whether pupils are struggling with a topic in the moment. This then guides and adapts our instruction during the lesson, to better meet children's needs.

Diagnosis of children's gaps using formative assessments

We advocate the use of these kinds of diagnostic assessment to identifies a child's misconceptions. Usually this is best achieved through a set of multiple choice questions.

As well as the correct answer, we can include multiple distractors - answers that are incorrect based on a misconception a child may have e.g. around multiplying. If a child chooses an incorrect answer therefore, we can easily identify exactly where their thinking has gone wrong.

You can download our sample diagnostic quizzes (all including distractors and explanations of them) for free.

For pupils on our one-to-one maths interventions, we use a diagnostic quiz a the start of the intervention which is responsive based on answers to an earlier question. This helps us more clearly identify not just misconceptions and weaknesses, but also where a child's strengths lie and what therefore needs less time spent on.

3. Teach the Vocabulary

With the new focus in the curriculum on knowledge organisers, there's no excuse for children being without the relevant topic vocabulary. They need the words to be able to create the thoughts and the sentences to confidently speak about a given topic.

This is why our tutors will always talk through any specialist maths words at the start of a lesson with their pupils, explaining any new terms and checking for understanding of previously covered ones.

We recommended co-creating your maths vocabulary lists with your pupils. This Maths Vocabulary List is a great start.

4. Explicit Instruction

Also known as direct instruction, this teaching strategy is highly teacher-led, and focuses on frequent questioning and guided practice to help pupils learn a topic.

The backbone of explicit instruction is the use of the worked example in an Example-Problem Pair. This involves demonstrating a worked example in its entirety in silence alongside a problem that pupils will then attempt.

Silence is important in order to ensure pupils' attention is not split between the example and the spoken explanation, making it more likely that both will be more fully absorbed and retained.

A pupil on a Third Space Learning's online maths intervention programme will necessarily have all other distractions eliminated so they can focus entirely on the information on their screen and what the tutor is asking them to do; tutors can present a worked example in real time in a learning environment without any visual or auditory disruptions.

5. Effective Questioning Techniques

While we are all aware of the importance of questioning as a tool to gauge pupils' understanding of a topic, there are definite techniques to improve the efficacy of your questioning in the classroom.

Questions such as "Are you sure?" and "How do you know?" encourage pupils to engage in some basic critical thinking to establish how confident they are in an answer and why, while others such as "Is there another way?" help to highlight where multiple methods to derive a solution may exist.

Our tutors encourage pupils to verbalise their reasoning and ask questions to ensure pupils have really got to grips with the topic at-hand: "How do you know that answer is right?", "Can you tell me how else you could work it out?" or "What do you need to do first to answer this question?" are all questions that come up frequently during our lessons!

Goal free problems are another questioning strategy worth considering using in your classes.

6. Deliberate Practice

One of the most effective ways of introducing new concepts to a class, Deliberate Practice involves breaking learning down into a series of sub skills, each of which is deliberately practiced in turn.

The 5 steps involved in deliberate practice are:

You can find a full explanation of each of these stages in our blog post on deliberate practice in education.

But as an example, when teaching long multiplication method at KS2 we might use deliberate practice thus:

Identify (isolate) each specific sub skill involved in the long multiplication method;

Practise (develop) each of these one by one;

assess pupils' use of these skills before moving on;

have pupils put them all together for a final performance - in this case a full long multiplication problem;

return to this topic in later weeks and months to check pupils still retain those skills.

At the beginning of every Third Space Learning intervention session pupils are given a warm-up question related to a previously covered topic; this enables tutors to check that they have retained the relevant skills (and where they have not, to return to the topic).

7. Differentiation

Far more than simply "splitting the whole class into small groups based on attainment", positive and effective differentiation at the primary school level can be difficult to achieve - poor differentiation strategies risk actually widening the attainment gap we're attempting to close.

But there are plenty of impactful differentiation strategies; techniques such as interleaving and phased learning, as well as the use of maths manipulatives and formative assessment, are among those proven to have a beneficial impact on pupils when properly employed.

As we've already discussed, formative assessment is a significant aspect of how Third Space's tutors gauge pupil progress. But we also make use of several other differentiation strategies during lessons, such as spaced practice, interleaving and a mixture of direct instruction and inquiry-based learning.

8. Reinforcing Effort/Providing Recognition

Helping pupils make a link between putting effort into a task and receiving recognition is an important step in developing a classroom environment that fosters active learning.

Encouraging pupils to put more effort into activities only goes so far without something to provide them with the motivation to do so. Praise and recognition are motivators that pupils are already familiar with; shifting them from being correct to giving full effort can be highly effective.

Third Space Learning's tutors establish an effort-focused environment right from the first session, encouraging pupils to talk through their answers and celebrate their mistakes as learning opportunities, ensuring they approach each intervention as another chance to try.

Since we began our intervention programmes, our tutors have celebrated and rewarded pupil effort by awarding over 32 MILLION Effort Points!

Literally 'thinking about thinking', metacognition has been recognised by the EEF as one of the most effective, lowest cost teaching strategies there is, with pupil making an average of seven months' additional progress.

Metacognition in primary schools often incorporates some of the other effective teaching strategies, such as questioning in the classroom - "How do you know?" not only asks pupils to justify their solutions, but has them thinking about their own thought processes for deriving that solution.

Teaching pupils how to learn maths, plan, monitor and self-evaluate their learning also improves pupil motivation and encourages them to work harder in lessons. Metacognition is also one of the most effective intervention strategies for schools.

All our tutors are trained to use a variety of metacognitive strategies as standard during sessions, and we provide pupils with numerous moments for self-reflection both during and after sessions.

10. Personalised Learning

It might sound obvious, but pupils are more likely to engage with learning when is more targeted to them and appeals to their interests! This may be difficult to achieve early on - especially with a full class of 30 pupils - but as familiarity and rapport builds throughout the year it should become easier to make activities and even questions more personalised to individual children.

At Third Space, we've built our online interventions on personalisation; all our pupils undertake an Initial Diagnostic Assessment when they begin their programmes, which identifies their strengths and weaknesses in maths and allows us to design a lesson plan that helps them make progress where they need it.

Our tutors then build on this by adding a personal touch to those lessons, incorporating pupils' interests into lessons with ease thanks to our online platform.

11. Collaborative Learning

Also referred to as 'cooperative learning', the idea of having pupils work in groups for certain classroom activities won't be new to most teachers.

But the EEF notes that the impact of group work can vary widely, and that to make it most effective teachers should focus on well-structured tasks that promote talk and interaction between pupils.

The concept of 'competitive' collaborative learning (where groups of students compete against one another) has been shown to have some impact, but caution is advised in case pupils focus more on the competition rather than the learning.

12. Explicitly Teach Thinking Skills & Problem Solving Techniques

Mathenatical problem solving techniques don't always come naturally to pupils; while metacognitive strategies such as those mentioned above make it more likely that pupils will be able to apply critical thinking to a problem, there is no set way to ensure that this will happen.

Research into the topic suggests that context-agnostic deployment of problem solving techniques only occurs once pupils have secure domain knowledge, and the opportunity to practise.

Without these, pupils often fall into the trap of attributing importance to the so-called 'surface features' of a problem, which we naturally discount as irrelevant to the actual maths involved.

That said, explicit teaching of thinking skills is still of considerable importance; once domain knowledge has been (relatively) secured, teaching pupils how to recognise and focus on the 'deep structure' of problems enables them to apply their knowledge more effectively.

Try using several 'Same Surface Different Deep' SSDD problems in lessons - where the surface features of the questions are the same, but the deep structure varies (e.g. division, multiplication, addition etc.).

These questions eliminate any confusion regarding surface features and thus allow pupils to focus on differentiating the deep structures.

In the run-up to the SATs, your Year 6 pupils may unintentionally revert to focusing on the 'surface features' of questions when encountering the reasoning papers.

To help combat this, make sure you and they are aware of the different types of maths reasoning questions in year 6 to help them identify not just the maths problem solving techniques they need to know, but the types of questions that are likely to require certain techniques.

13. Modelling and Scaffolding

You may already be familiar with the "I do, We do, You do" method of scaffolding, but it's worth taking some time to dive into why it's as effective as it is.

Modelling is one of the most important factors in ensuring student learning of a particular topic, but it is most impactful when it can introduce new concepts without increasing pupils' cognitive load - hence the 'I, We You' approach.

By building from teacher-led, to joint construction, to independent working, we create a structure that presents learning as less of a step-change and more of an actual process. It also allows us greater flexibility; more time can be spent on one stage e.g. joint construction is it becomes necessary.

Gradual scaffolding with support slides

All Third Space Learning intervention lessons make use of this kind of gradual scaffolding method, and our online platform lends even more flexibility to the scaffolding structure - tutors can pull from a bank of 'support slides' if spending more time on a concept or process is necessary.

Other Teaching Strategies To Consider

The teaching strategies above form the basis of our one-to-one lessons, but some other teaching practices you'll need to consider in your own classroom include : Use of education technology
Knowing when and where to bring technology into the classroom is a delicate balancing act. While children tend to react well to technology-based lessons, there's always the risk that they focus on the tech over the learning.
Read more: How To Do An Education Technology Audit In Your School

Behaviour management
Effective classroom management is its own topic, but there's no doubt that a well-behaved class (not necessarily a perfectly-behaved one) is far more likely to engage with lessons.

Inquiry-based learning
While triggering the curiosity of your pupils for a topic is the necessary first step in inquiry-based learning, presenting them with the opportunity to research and report on the topic is where learning really occurs.

How you manage class discussions e.g. 'Think, pair, share'
Somewhat related to behaviour management, class or group discussions are most beneficial when they have a clear, well-established structure to them. Students should not only feel they have the opportunity to share their thoughts, but understand that others' thoughts also have value.

Feedback process and understanding
The single most impactful teaching strategy when used correctly, feedback (whether from the teacher or another source e.g. peer marking) needs to be specific, encouraging and actionable - pupils need to be able to understand where they could improve, and how.
Read more: Why My School Banned Marking

Growth Mindset
Separate from praise and rewarding effort, developing growth mindset can be a very valuable tool in developing pupils' resilience and fostering a more positive attitude towards both maths specifically and learning in general.
Read more: How To Get Growth Mindset Right In Primary Schools

Read more

List of Learning Strategies

Last, but not least, central to any good teaching practice is explicitly teaching learners of all ages about learning strategies. These are the 6learning strategies we think every student should be familiar with by the end of Year 6.

1. Spaced Practice

Ensuring that learned material is revisited at regular intervals instead of all at once much later on, when more of it is likely to be forgotten. For older students, study calendars can be of immense help in the run-up to major milestones such as the KS2 SATs.

2. Retrieval Practice

Retrieval is the process of recalling information purely from memory, without the aid of learning materials. Effective retrieval practice helps embed information more thoroughly in our minds, since we no longer need context to recall it.

3. Elaboration

Tied into questioning in the classroom, elaboration puts the onus on pupils to do more than 'just' recalling information. The use of open ended questions such as "How did I get that answer" help pupils to make connections between the things they've learnt rather than seeing them as several unrelated facts.

4. Interleaving

A wealth of research is now available that suggests the benefits of interleaving - mixing practice of different skills with one another - in helping pupils better identify the necessary strategies to solve different problems. Interleaving with connected topics (e.g. division and multiplication) amplifies this effect. Our Year 6 maths revision programme is built on this.

5. Concrete Examples

As maths educators the Concrete Pictorial Abstract Approach is embedded into the way we teach. Within our online tuition, we have many different ways of explaining a topic and as an extension we may ask pupils to come up with their own concrete examples for concepts, based on the examples we've used in explaining the concept to them.

6. Dual Coding

Combining words and visuals in teaching materials. This isn't referring to speech (as we established earlier), but having pupils create some kind of visual aid (e.g. a sketch, a diagram) to accompany written text can help them reinforce the concept in their brain in two different ways, making it easier to recall. Anyone who's created slides for their pupils will be familiar with the challenge of imparting information through words + pictures.

References

Do you have pupils who need extra support in maths?
Every week Third Space Learning's maths specialist tutors support thousands of pupils across hundreds of schools with weekly online 1-to-1 lessons and maths interventions designed to plug gaps and boost progress.

Since 2013 we've helped over 150,000 primary and secondary school pupils become more confident, able mathematicians. Learn more or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school's needs and how we can help.

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The 13 Teaching Strategies Proven To Work In Primary Schools

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Find out which evidence based teaching strategies are the most effective in schools; and which are the top learning strategies for your pupils to know.

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Differentiating Instruction: How to Plan Your Lessons

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Featured benefits With HN Global, students can get access to course specific core textbooks, work on their CV, improve their study skills by completing online learning modules targeted at common development areas.

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Witnessed by Catherine Palfreyman

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Schools are using various methods to keep pupils interested and motivated when learning remotely. @EducationGovUK has been working with schools to develop this series, based on the current experiences and practices of teachers and school leaders.

Many schools have found that engagement and motivation are strongly linked to other areas such as wellbeing and curriculum design.

Teachers may wish to work with parents to create an encouraging learning environment at home by referring to guidance published for parents on supporting their children's education during coronavirus.

This guidance is part of Remote education practice for schools during coronavirus (COVID-19).

Motivating pupils remotely

Some schools have found that tasks which are short, snappy and easy to understand prevent pupils from feeling overwhelmed when they are being educated remotely. Showing pupils the value of the topic they are studying can help to keep them motivated.

"Within this environment, bite-sized information is the way to sustain interest and engagement," explained Neelam Parmar of ULT (Ashford School). "Start by offering new content via flipped learning methods to initiate learning (where pupils are introduced to material before class), then add more information during lesson time... and finish off by offering group work and/or activities to deepen learning."

Stephen Trask of Harris Federation also had a useful suggestion: "Point out the value of learning that topic, beyond just for exams purposes. Again, something like Ted Talks helps here because it gives pupils the 'bigger picture'."

Varying activities

Using a variety of appropriate teaching methods and activities can have a positive effect on engagement. Some schools have found collaborative tasks, which involve peer-to-peer interaction, are particularly important for pupils. Neelam Parmar of ULT (Ashford School) said: "I have found that it is effective to use live sessions to introduce new material and/or connect with the pupils for the first 10 to15 minutes and then later offer a pre-recorded presentation or task."

Stephen Trask of Harris Federation made the recommendation to "build in collaborative elements and tasks that will spark interest (for example, a virtual tour of a museum or Google HQ)."

Jonathan Bishop of Cornerstone Academy Trust emphasised the value of "creating opportunities for, and allowing, discussion and socialisation between pupils during a day."

Ensuring existing practice works remotely

Some schools have needed to adjust existing practice and resources to ensure they are still engaging for pupils working remotely. Pupils may need more and clearer instructions for independent tasks and they may take more time than usual.

"Reviewing learning resources that colleagues had uploaded into Google Classroom highlighted how vital it is to make your learning instructions extremely clear," said Bukky Yusuf of Edith Kay Independent School. "For example, think of it from the perspective of your pupils (especially if they prefer to engage with the learning resources you have uploaded for independent learning rather than during a live online lesson)."

Stephen Trask of Harris Federation made a recommendation to "adjust timing expectations. What would take a typical class one hour might take two or three in a remote setting."

Monitoring pupil engagement

Pupil engagement can be monitored through the completion of set tasks and assignments. Some schools have used technology solutions to enable them to track this.

Steve Smith of HISP Research School at Thornden shared his experience. "The conversation bar on Microsoft Teams allows pupils to make comments during lessons," he said. "This can also be used as a simple learning check by the teacher to gauge the level of basic understanding via multiple choice quizzes. It allows teachers to see which pupils have sent their work in and to then follow up missing work via emails to pupils and Heads of Year, who in turn email parents."

"For some staff," Steve continued, "this has simply been pupils sending in a photo of their work at the end of each lesson for evidence of engagement. Some staff have then used one or two pieces of pupil work sent in to 'live mark' with the class the following lesson. This offers feedback and the opportunity for pupils to improve their own work."

Read case studies from schools sharing their experiences on keeping pupils motivated remotely:

Published in

keeping primary and secondary pupils motivated and engaged at a distance

supporting engagement in learning for primary pupils when direct communication is limited

Student view

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Keeping students motivated and engaged | FE News

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Lesson objectives list what students will be able to do after completing the lesson.

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Lesson objectives list what students will be able to do after completing the lesson.

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These objectives let you easily tell if your lesson has effectively taught your students new concepts and skills.

It can feel overwhelming to pin down specific takeaways for a lesson, but you can break the process into steps to do it in a breeze!

First, it’s best to view your lesson objectives as goals for your class and students.

One of the most popular goal-setting strategies is the “SMART” criteria, which ensures goals are focused.

In the context of lesson planning, you can use the SMART criteria to determine your lesson objectives:

Is the objective specific?

Is the objective measurable?

Is the objective attainable by all students?

Is the objective relevant to your class and students?

Is the objective time-based to align with your syllabus?

For each objective, it’s important to start with an action that relates to what students should be able to do after the lesson.

Depending on what topic you’re teaching and the level of knowledge your students have, these actions will vary.

For example, when teaching brand new concepts, you may define actions like define, identify, explain, and determine.

However, if your lesson involves more advanced tasks, the objectives may include actions like create, use, perform, or measure.

To see these phrases in context, let’s look at examples that a computer teacher might choose when teaching Microsoft Word.

For an introductory lesson about Microsoft Word, objectives could be:

Identify parts of the ribbon menu

Determine methods of selecting text in a document

Define fonts and font styles

In a more advanced class, objectives might include:

Insert a document header

Use document themes

Add a page border

When creating your lesson objectives, keep in mind that it’s easier to measure student success when you have specific goals.

Once you’ve put your lesson objectives together, it’s time to tie them in with the next part of your lesson plan -- the related requirements!

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Upload presentations here and on your own padlet 

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Upload presentations here and on your own padlet 

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Sound and music are a strong suit for these types of learners who typically have a good sense of rhythm. These learners are usually singers or musicians who are familiar with different instruments and the sounds they make. Aural learners are good listeners who normally learn best through verbal presentations like lectures and speeches

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Typically they include

Information about the session at the top: the date, the time, the topic, class size and the aim of the lesson

A breakdown of the lesson in to different parts or sections

Timings in the actual time (ie 9.45) or time in the lesson (ie 0:10)

Learning outcomes / aims / objectives for each part of the session

Learner activities, what the students will be doing in each part of the session

Tutor activities, what the tutor will be doing in each part of the session

Assessment methods for each part of the session

Resources needed for each part of the session

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In my work I have the privilege of being able to watch lots of teachers teach in a wide range of contexts. I see lots of superb teachers and lots of great lessons. Where I have constructive feedback to give, I find that there are a few common areas for improvement that come up time and time again. Here are the main things I find I say most often under the heading of 'even better if': - now updated to include youtube clips where I explain each one.

Behaviour: Be more assertive; establish what you want to establish

Where lessons do not have impeccable behaviour, most of the time (not all of the time) I find it is because the teacher falls short of absolutely insisting that students meet the standards they would like. They might continue to talk when there are clearly students talking in the room, they might allow off-task chatter to go un-challenged; they might let learning drift as students lose focus with a task without taking action to push them on; they might not sustain the level of reinforcement needed for their particular class.

There are lots of practical things teachers can do to address all of this, before needing to get into sanctions and wider school systems. I find this can usually be summed up by the need for more assertiveness and Bill Rogers' idea of ' you establish what you establish'. In detail this might require:

taking a more prominent position in the physical space of the classroom and being more conscious about using a whole-class radar to scan what is happening all the time.

reinforcing and rehearsing routines for entry, for questioning, for common practical tasks.

making more eye contact, setting up spaces so students can all be seen and looked in the eye.

using an agreed signal for attention instead of raised voices

pausing to secure attention before speaking - from absolutely everyone, always.

setting time cues for tasks and rehearsing good stop/start routines.

Sometimes it's about communicating a stronger, more intense sense of commitment to the standards so a teacher's disapproval for being late, not having equipment, calling out persistently, messing about in any way - is all that is needed to suggest 'do not do this'. Or it can be about using the warnings or consequences system in a way that is consistent and proportionate.

Of course all teachers need the back-up of some form of system - but what I see is that there is a lot of mileage in improving behaviour through teachers' actions setting higher expectations and then insisting on them being met. It's not about blaming teachers for students' behaviour; it's about saying - you have the power to engineer significant change simply through your own actions - so use it.

Questioning: Ask more students more questions; involve everyone.

With questioning, it's often not a black and white case of do X instead of Y - it's about degrees of intensity. Great teachers tend to ask lots of questions in a deep, probing fashion and consciously include everyone in the class. The most common feedback I give where questioning needs to improve includes the following:

Use cold-calling: Avoid letting a small number dominate by allowing them to call out answers or always taking hands-up.

Consciously include the students who are quiet, under the radar, not contributing spontaneously

Probe. For every answer, have a follow-up - or several follow-ups. Why, how did you know, is that always true, what else could you add, are you sure? (See Probing)

Check for understanding: after any exposition or giving instructions, ask students to repeat back what they've understood. Can named/cold-called students explain it back?

Avoid all these Bad Question Klaxons:

Does anyone have any questions?

Is everyone ok with that?

Does everyone understand?

Do you all know what to do?

Give students more practice with the same question type so they can consolidate the skills; I often find there is not enough repetition and students are moved on prematurely. Drills and over-learning can be very powerful - simply practising multiple examples, especially in maths but also in other areas.

Finally, it's often not about doing this stuff or not doing it - it's about how intense. A teacher might think 'I do cold calling; I do probe' - but I'm seeing that it needs to include lots more students. You can ask the same question to lots of students to check they are following, involved, engaged in the reasoning - even if the previous student gave a good response. It pays to keep bringing students in: Do you agree, what was your answer, say it back to me, can you explain it differently.?

Importantly, teachers need to mix the behaviour management with the questioning. Where they are less confident with holding attention, the questioning slips with students dropping out of the whole-class sphere, losing focus. The skill needed is to continually scan, hold attention and bring students into the questioning process; often students answer one question and then drop back assuming their work is done.

Marking and Feedback: Make all marking an instruction for action

When I see books during any lesson observation process, I'm usually looking to see how learning is mapped out over time in terms of curriculum progression, what resources students have to support their learning and the opportunities they have to improve. The 'even better if' feedback I give most often is this:

Don't mark work with comments or suggestions for improvement unless your students will be given time to act on them immediately. Try to regard all marking as an instruction for a task students will undertake as soon as they receive it. ( See this on feedback as actions.)

There is still quite a lot of 'marking to impress the scrutineer' or 'marking to show I read the work' - which is all time-consuming and ultimately pointless in terms of securing improvement unless it is responded to. Another way to see it is this: Marking that is not responded to looks worse than no marking at all - because it suggests that you didn't really mean it.

I suggest using simple systems like green pen (i.e. a commonly understood signal that work is being done in response to feedback) or simply using headings: 2nd draft; DIRT activity - or whatever. Evidence of work improving matters more than evidence of marking or the perverse idea of evidencing verbal feedback. It IS the evidence of feedback.

Knowledge and Recall: Specify what students should know; check that they do; give time for practice

In some lessons I find that the weaker learners can be unsure of what exactly they are meant to know as a result of an exposition or discussion. I often give the feedback that teachers need to be much more explicit about this. So, after reading a section of text, watching a video, hearing an extended discussion, completing a practical task or a comprehension activity - whatever it is - there is significant value in consolidating all the ideas:

The main facts to know are A,B,C,D,E,F

These are the key points in the argument: X,Y,Z.

The sequence of events is always 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

The main advantages are A, B and C; the main disadvantage is D.

The steps in this type of problem are always 1, 2 and then 3.

These points then needed to be recorded. This can all be supported with knowledge organisers, structured note taking or any number of resources provided that everyone, especially the least confident learners, has access. Some students need a lot more scaffolding for note taking than others.

I often need to suggest teachers avoid the trap of assuming that students know things without checking that they do. The first and most important layer of assessment is questioning: Have you understood? This then requires numerous cold call questions checking in with students to establish whether the key points have registered.

I often feel that students needed more time for rehearsal of these key points. For example, with learning new words - have they said them, used them, written them, pronounced them correctly? (See this on learning vocabulary) Can they run through the three key points with their partner to check they've understood?

Finally, crucially, students need to be quizzed on these bits of knowledge at a later point with prior learning reviews forming a routine part of lessons, revisiting knowledge systematically with all students involved in the recall process: What were the main points from yesterday, last week, the previous unit?

Setting the standards: Define excellence for any task.

The last area of common feedback is around the issue of standards. This can sometimes be assumed or teachers focus heavily on task completion rather than the quality of what is meant to be completed - leaving students to see 'finishing' as more important than doing things well.

In nearly every activity students engage in, it is possible to define what would constitute excellence. If you have done this task extremely well, what would it look like? I often suggest that teachers would secure much better outcomes if they have that discussion explicitly before letting student get on:

What is the expected length/scale of the work?

Which features of presentation are expected?

How many questions should you aim to complete in the time given?

Which language features must be included?

Which common errors should you avoid?

If you have examples of excellence to share in advance, that helps to set the standards in a way students can relate to. Sometimes success criteria can be rather obscure until illustrated with an example.

Finally, I often suggest that standards setting begins in verbal exchanges.
That's a good start, but now say it again better; add the correct terminology and try to link those ideas together.
If teachers go through the standard-setting process routinely, expectations rise and students get used to formulating more sophisticated responses. If you always accept one-word answers or half-formed responses, that's what you continue to get. If students are left to guess the pace, the depth or the quality required, then you'll get mediocrity when excellence might have been within reach.

Obviously all of this 'even better if' feedback goes hand in hand with the 'what went well' and there is always a subject specific context and a teaching group context where the feedback needs to focus particular aspects of the curriculum or the needs of learners. However, I've been interested to see just how common improvement issues can be across disciplines that might seem radically different - from construction, to maths, to French, to barbering to history. The nature of the teaching process is basically the same so the feedback often is too.

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The five forms of feedback I give to teachers most often...

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In my work I have the privilege of being able to watch lots of teachers teach in a wide range of contexts. I see lots of superb teachers and lots of great lessons. Where I have constructive feedback to give, I find that there are a few common areas for improvement that come up time and...

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Every teacher has her or his own style of teaching. And as traditional teaching styles evolve with the advent of differentiated instruction, more and more teachers are adjusting their approach depending on their students' learning needs.

But there are a few fundamental teaching styles most educators tend to use. Which one is yours?

You've Got Style

These teaching styles highlight the five main strategies teachers use in the classroom, as well as the benefits and potential pitfalls of each.

The Authority, or lecture style

The authority model is teacher-centered and frequently entails lengthy lecture sessions or one-way presentations. Students are expected to take notes or absorb information.

Pros: This style is acceptable for certain higher-education disciplines and auditorium settings with large groups of students. The pure lecture style is most suitable for subjects like history, which necessitate memorization of key facts, dates, names, etc.

Cons: It's a questionable model for teaching children because there is little or no interaction with the teacher. Plus it can get a little snooze-y. That's why it's a better approach for older, more mature students.

The Demonstrator, or coach style

The demonstrator retains the formal authority role by showing students what they need to know. The demonstrator is a lot like the lecturer, but their lessons include multimedia presentations, activities, and demonstrations. (Think: Math. Science. Music.)

Pros: This style gives teachers opportunities to incorporate a variety of formats including lectures and multimedia presentations.

Cons: Although it's well-suited for teaching mathematics, music, physical education, or arts and crafts, it is difficult to accommodate students' individual needs in larger classrooms.

The Facilitator, or activity style

Facilitators promote self-learning and help students develop critical thinking skills and retain knowledge that leads to self-actualization.

Pros: This style trains students to ask questions and helps develop skills to find answers and solutions through exploration; it is ideal for teaching science and similar subjects.

Cons: Challenges teacher to interact with students and prompt them toward discovery rather than lecturing facts and testing knowledge through memorization. So it's a bit harder to measure success in tangible terms.

The Delegator, or group style

The delegator style is best suited for curricula that require lab activities, such as chemistry and biology, or subjects that warrant peer feedback, like debate and creative writing.

Pros: Guided discovery and inquiry-based learning place the teacher in an observer role that inspires students by working in tandem toward common goals.

Cons: Considered a modern style of teaching, it is sometimes criticized as eroding teacher authority. As a delegator, the teacher acts more as a consultant rather than the traditional authority figure.

The Hybrid, or blended style

Hybrid, or blended style, follows an integrated approach to teaching that blends the teacher's personality and interests with students' needs and curriculum-appropriate methods.

Pros: Inclusive! And it enables teachers to tailor their styles to student needs and appropriate subject matter.

Cons: Hybrid style runs the risk of trying to be too many things to all students, prompting teachers to spread themselves too thin and dilute learning.

Because teachers have styles that reflect their distinct personalities and curriculum-from math and science to English and history-it's crucial that they remain focused on their teaching objectives and avoid trying to be all things to all students.

What you need to know about your teaching style

Although it is not the teacher's job to entertain students, it is vital to engage them in the learning process. Selecting a style that addresses the needs of diverse students at different learning levels begins with a personal inventory-a self-evaluation-of the teacher's strengths and weaknesses. As they develop their teaching styles and integrate them with effective classroom management skills, teachers will learn what works best for their personalities and curriculum.

Our guide encapsulates today's different teaching styles and helps teachers identify the style that's right for them and their students. Browse through the article or use these links to jump to your desired destination.

Emergence of the teaching style inventory

How have teaching styles evolved? This is a question teachers are asked, and frequently ask themselves, as they embark on their careers, and occasionally pause along the way to reflect on job performance. To understand the differences in teaching styles, it's helpful to know where the modern concept of classifying teaching methods originated.

The late Anthony F. Grasha, a noted professor of psychology at the University of Cincinnati, is credited with developing the classic five teaching styles. A follower of psychiatrist Carl Jung, Grasha began studying the dynamics of the relationship between teachers and learning in college classrooms. His groundbreaking book, Teaching with Style, was written both as a guide for teachers and as a tool to help colleagues, administrators and students systematically evaluate an instructor's effectiveness in the classroom.

Grasha understood that schools must use a consistent, formal approach in evaluating a teacher's classroom performance. He recognized that any system designed to help teachers improve their instructional skills requires a simple classification system. He developed a teaching style inventory that has since been adopted and modified by followers.

Expert: Similar to a coach, experts share knowledge, demonstrate their expertise, advise students, and provide feedback to improve understanding and promote learning.

Formal authority: Authoritative teachers incorporate the traditional lecture format and share many of the same characteristics as experts, but with less student interaction.

Personal model: Incorporates blended teaching styles that match the best techniques with the appropriate learning scenarios and students in an adaptive format.

Facilitator: Designs participatory learning activities and manages classroom projects while providing information and offering feedback to facilitate critical thinking.

Delegator: Organizes group learning, observes students, provides consultation, and promotes interaction between groups and among individuals to achieve learning objectives.

Although he developed specific teaching styles, Grasha warned against boxing teachers into a single category. Instead, he advocated that teachers play multiple roles in the classroom. He believed most teachers possess some combination of all or most of the classic teaching styles.

How does differentiated instruction affect teaching styles?

Carol Ann Tomlinson, a professor at the University of Virginia, is an early advocate of differentiated instruction and a pioneer in the development of learning-based teaching styles. If Grasha laid the groundwork for 20th-century teachers to adopt styles tailored to match their personalities and strengths, Tomlinson has advanced this theme into the 21st century by focusing on differentiated instruction.

In the simplest terms, differentiated instruction means keeping all students in mind when developing lesson plans and workbook exercises, lectures, and interactive learning. These student-focused differences necessitate instructional styles that embrace diverse classrooms for students at all learning levels and from various backgrounds without compromising the teacher's strengths.

What teaching style is best for today's students?

Whether you're a first-year teacher eager to put into practice all of the pedagogical techniques you learned in college, or a classroom veteran examining differentiated instruction and new learning methodologies, consider that not all students respond well to one particular style. Although teaching styles have been categorized into five groups, today's ideal teaching style is not an either/or proposition but more of a hybrid approach that blends the best of everything a teacher has to offer.

The traditional advice that teachers not overreach with a cluster of all-encompassing teaching styles might seem to conflict with today's emphasis on student-centered classrooms. Theoretically, the more teachers emphasize student-centric learning, the harder it is to develop a well-focused style based on their personal attributes, strengths, and goals.

In short, modern methods of teaching require different types of teachers-from the analyst/organizer to the negotiator/consultant. Here are some other factors to consider as teachers determine the best teaching method for their students.

Empty vessel: Critics of the "sage on the stage" lecture style point to the "empty vessel" theory, which assumes a student's mind is essentially empty and needs to be filled by the "expert" teacher. Critics of this traditional approach to teaching insist this teaching style is outmoded and needs to be updated for the diverse 21st-century classroom.

Active vs. passive: Proponents of the traditional lecture approach believe that an overemphasis on group-oriented participatory teaching styles, like facilitator and delegator, favor gifted and competitive students over passive children with varied learning abilities, thereby exacerbating the challenges of meeting the needs of all learners.

Knowledge vs. information: Knowledge implies a complete understanding, or full comprehension, of a particular subject. A blend of teaching styles that incorporate facilitator, delegator, demonstrator, and lecturer techniques helps the broadest range of students acquire in-depth knowledge and mastery of a given subject. This stands in contrast to passive learning, which typically entails memorizing facts, or information, with the short-term objective of scoring well on tests.

Interactive classrooms: Laptops and tablets, video conferencing, and podcasts in classrooms play a vital role in today's teaching styles. With technology in mind, it is imperative that teachers assess their students' knowledge while they are learning. The alternative is to wait for test results, only to discover knowledge gaps that should have been detected during the active learning phase.

Constructivist teaching methods: Contemporary teaching styles tend to be group-focused and inquiry-driven. Constructivist teaching methods embrace subsets of alternative teaching styles, including modeling, coaching, and test preparation through rubrics scaffolding. All of these are designed to promote student participation and necessitate a hybrid approach to teaching. One criticism of the constructivist approach is that it caters to extroverted, group-oriented students, who tend to dominate and benefit from these teaching methods more than introverts; however, this assumes introverts aren't learning by observing.

Student-centric learning does not have to come at the expense of an instructor's preferred teaching method. However, differentiated instruction demands that teachers finesse their style to accommodate the diverse needs of 21st-century classrooms.

The 'sage on the stage' meets the 'tiger mom'

The objective of blending teaching styles to leverage the teacher's strengths while meeting the demands of diverse students has become increasingly difficult, as parents take a decidedly proactive role in child-learning techniques.

The traditional authoritative/expert, or "sage on the stage" lecture style, has come under attack by some parents-and contemporary educational leaders-who emphasize that a more diverse approach to teaching is necessary to engage students. This is compounded by the rise of "tiger moms," a term made popular by parents devoted to improving the quality of education with laser-precision focus on A-list schools and a highly competitive job market.

Age of the proactive parent

Regardless of what style a teacher adopts, it's important for teachers to develop positive attitudes, set goals, and establish high expectations for students.

"Assume students can excel!" education authors Harry and Rosemary Wong declare. As former teachers with a combined 80-plus years of educational experience, the Wongs emphasize in their best-selling book, The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher and their more recent, The Classroom Management Book that successful teachers share three common characteristics:

effective classroom management skills

lesson mastery

positive expectations

All instructors, when developing their teaching styles, should keep in mind these three goals, as well as the primary objective of education: student learning.

How does classroom diversity influence teachers?

It is abundantly clear that today's teachers are responsible for students with a diverse range of learning abilities. The 21st-century teacher does not have the luxury of "picking the low-hanging fruit" and then leaving the rest of the tree for experts who specialize in children with behavioral issues or learning disorders.

Today's teachers must develop instructional styles that work well in diverse classrooms. Effective teaching methods engage gifted students, as well as slow-learning children and those with attention deficit tendencies. This is where differentiated instruction and a balanced mix of teaching styles can help reach all students in a given classroom-not just the few who respond well to one particular style of teaching.

The wonderment of teaching, what author/educator Dr. Harry Wong refers to as "that a-ha moment" when a child "gets it," is one of the most rewarding and seemingly elusive benefits of becoming a teacher. This transfer of knowledge from expert to student is an art form and a skill. Fortunately, both can be learned and perfected.

Knowing how to engage students begins with selecting the teaching style that's right for you. And remember, even though you may prefer one teaching style over another, you must find the style that works best for your students! Try different styles to meet different objectives, and always challenge yourself to find ways to reach each student.

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Teaching Styles: Different Teaching Methods & Strategies | Resilient Educator

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List of effective teaching styles: Authority, Demonstrator, Facilitator, Developer, Hybrid - examples of the best teaching methods for diverse learners.

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What is Differentiation in the Classroom?

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What is Differentiation in the Classroom?

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Differentiation in the classroom means to tailor learning instructions to suit the needs of the student. Sometimes teachers differentiate content, process, products or the learning environment in order to keep learning fresh and appropriate. Let's have a look at some of these aspects of differentiation.

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Featured benefits With HN Global, students can get access to course specific core textbooks, work on their CV, improve their study skills by completing online learning modules targeted at common development areas.

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by TeachThought Staff

The best lessons, books, and materials in the world won't get students excited about learning and willing to work hard if they're not motivated.

Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is a key factor in the success of students at all stages of their education, and teachers can play a pivotal role in providing and encouraging that motivation in their students. Of course, that's easier said than done, as all students are motivated differently and it takes time and a lot of effort to learn to get a classroom full of kids enthusiastic about learning, working hard, and pushing themselves to excel.

Even the most well-intentioned and educated teachers sometimes can find it difficult to keep kids on track, so whether you're a new teacher or an experienced one, try using these methods to improve student motivation and to encourage them to live up to their true potential.

1. Give students a sense of control

While guidance from a teacher is important to keeping kids on task and motivated, allowing students to have some choice and control over what happens in the classroom is actually one of the best ways to keep them engaged. For example, allowing students to choose the type of assignment they do or which problems to work on can give them a sense of control that may just motivate them to do more.

2. Be clear about learning objectives

It can be very frustrating for students to complete an assignment or even to behave in class if there aren't clearly defined objectives. Students want and need to know what is expected of them in order to stay motivated to work. At the beginning of the year, lay out clear objectives, rules, and expectations of students so that there is no confusion and students have goals to work towards.

3. Create a threat-free environment

While students do need to understand that there are consequences to their actions, far more motivating for students than threats are positive reinforcements. When teachers create a safe, supportive environment for students, affirming their belief in a student's abilities rather than laying out the consequences of not doing things, students are much more likely to get and stay motivated to do their work.

At the end of the day, students will fulfill the expectations that the adults around them communicate, so focus on can, not can't.

See also 60 Non-Threatening Formative Assessment Techniques

4. Change your scenery

A classroom is a great place for learning, but sitting at a desk day in and day out can make school start to seem a bit dull for some students. To renew interest in the subject matter or just in learning in general, give your students a chance to get out of the classroom. Take field trips, bring in speakers, or even just head to the library for some research. The brain loves novelty and a new setting can be just what some students need to stay motivated to learn.

5. Offer varied experiences.

Not all students will respond to lessons in the same way. For some, hands-on experiences may be the best. Others may love to read books quietly or to work in groups. In order to keep all students motivated, mix up your lessons so that students with different preferences will each get time focused on the things they like best. Doing so will help students stay engaged and pay attention.

6. Use positive competition

Competition in the classroom isn't always a bad thing, and in some cases can motivate students to try harder and work to excel. Work to foster a friendly spirit of competition in your classroom, perhaps through group games related to the material or other opportunities for students to 'show off' their knowledge or skills.

7. Offer rewards

Everyone likes getting rewards, and offering your students the chance to earn them is an excellent source of motivation. Things like pizza parties, watching movies, or even something as simple as a sticker on a paper can make students work harder and really aim to achieve. Consider the personalities and needs of your students to determine appropriate rewards for your class.

8. Give students responsibility

Assigning students classroom jobs is a great way to build a community and to give students a sense of motivation. Most students will see classroom jobs as a privilege rather than a burden and will work hard to ensure that they, and other students, are meeting expectations. It can also be useful to allow students to take turns leading activities or helping out so that each feels important and valued.

9. Allow students to work together

While not all students will jump at the chance to work in groups, many will find it fun to try to solve problems, do experiments, and work on projects with other students. Social interaction can get them excited about things in the classroom and students can motivate one another to reach a goal. Teachers need to ensure that groups are balanced and fair, however, so that some students aren't doing more work than others.

10. Give praise when earned

There may be no other form of motivation that works quite as well as encouragement. Even as adults we crave recognition and praise, and students at any age are no exception. Teachers can give students a bounty of motivation by rewarding success publicly, giving praise for a job well done, and sharing exemplary work.

11. Encourage self-reflection

Most kids want to succeed, they just need help figuring out what they need to do in order to get there. One way to motivate your students is to get them to take a hard look at themselves and determine their own strengths and weaknesses. Students are often more motivated by creating these kinds of critiques of themselves than by having a teacher do it for them, as it makes them feel in charge of creating their own objectives and goals. See Metacognitive Prompts For Students To Reflect On Their Learning.

12. Model enthusiasm for learning!

One of the best ways to get your students motivated is to share your enthusiasm. When you're excited about teaching, they'll be much more excited about learning. It's that simple.

13. Know your students

Getting to know your students is about more than just memorizing their names. Students need to know that their teacher has a genuine interest in them and cares about them and their success. When students feel appreciated it creates a safe learning environment and motivates them to work harder, as they want to get praise and good feedback from someone they feel knows and respects them as individuals.

14. Harness student interests

Knowing your students also has some other benefits, namely that it allows you to relate classroom material to things that students are interested in or have experienced. Teachers can use these interests to make things more interesting and relatable to students, keeping students motivated for longer.

15. Help students find intrinsic motivation

It can be great to help students get motivated, but at the end of the day, they need to be able to generate their own motivation. Helping students find their own personal reasons for doing classwork and working hard, whether because they find material interesting, want to go to college, or just love to learn, is one of the most powerful gifts you can give them to improve student motivation.

16. Manage student anxiety

Some students find the prospect of not doing well so anxiety-inducing that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. For these students, teachers may find that they are most motivated by learning that struggling with a subject isn't the end of the world. Offer support no matter what the end result is and ensure that students don't feel so overwhelmed by expectations that they just give up.

17. Make goals high but attainable

If you're not pushing your students to do more than the bare minimum, most won't seek to push themselves on their own. Students like to be challenged and will work to achieve high expectations so long as they believe those goals to be within their reach, so don't be afraid to push students to get more out of them.

18. Give learning feedback and offer chances to improve

Students who struggle with classwork can sometimes feel frustrated and get down on themselves, draining motivation. In these situations, it's critical that teachers provide effective learning feedback to help students to learn exactly where they went wrong and how they can improve next time. Figuring out a method to get where students want to be can also help them to stay motivated to work hard.

19. Track progress

It can be hard for students to see just how far they've come, especially with subjects that are difficult for them. Tracking can come in handy in the classroom, not only for teachers but also for students. Teachers can use this as a way to improve student motivation, allowing them to see visually just how much they are learning and improving as the year goes on.

20. Make things fun

Not all classwork needs to be a game or a good time, but students who see school as a place where they can have fun will be more motivated to pay attention and do the work that's required of them than those who regard it as a chore. Adding fun activities into your school day can help students who struggle to stay engaged and make the classroom a much more friendly place for all students.

21. Provide opportunities for success

Students, even the best ones, can become frustrated and demotivated when they feel like they're struggling or not getting the recognition that other students are. Make sure that all students get a chance to play to their strengths and feel included and valued. It can make a world of difference and improve student motivation.

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21 Simple Ideas To Improve Student Motivation

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While guidance from a teacher is important, allowing students to have choice and control is a useful strategy to improve student motivation.

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Decide what area and level you will be teaching and there for researching (e.g. level 3 Acting, level 4 Dance)
After researching your area you will need to collect this into as information summarizing your findings

You will need to research the following-
Teaching methodologies-
The term teaching method refers to the general principles and management strategies used for classroom instruction.

Your choice of teaching method depends on what fits you — your educational philosophy, classroom demographic, subject area(s) and school mission statement.

Learning styles-
What are the different types of learners styles and how this can impact on your students way of learning.

Differentiation-
Differentiation in teaching means tailoring your lessons for students with individual needs. This involves changing the content, delivery, or methods of learning to ensure every child learns in a way that’s suitable for them.

Motivation and engagement-
How to increase motivation in the classroom and how to help keep learners engaged

Feedback and feedforward-
How do your learners receive feedback and how do you plan to give feedback.

Peer-to-peer learning-
How can this be effective for your learners, do you plan to use

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You may need to teach to the national Curriculum.
Every lesson you teach should help you hit those requirements. Listing them in your lesson plans helps you satisfy those requirements while focusing on the end goal of your class!

On top of that, some administrators require teachers to distinctly show how they will teach course standards in each lesson.

If you put them on your lesson plans, you’ve got a quick reference to prove you’re on the ball!

When listing course standards or certification items on your lesson plan, it’s smart to use the exact organizational system found on your standards to make sure your class aligns.

If you don’t have the specific outline for your course standards, ask another teacher or your administrator where you can find them.

To get detailed certification requirements, check the certification provider’s website for an exam outline or test plan.

Laying out each lesson plan according to your requirements can be tedious work, but it will ultimately help you stay organized and aligned with what you’re supposed to teach!

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You've got your curriculum plans all mapped out for the year ahead, so now what?

I'm sure many curriculum intentions have already been set out for the year ahead. I'm sure there are one or two schools that are panicking, overhauling all of the curriculum maps, schemes of work and lesson plan templates to demonstrate intent, implementation and impact. The question is, why?

Just like the rest of the teaching world, I think about the curriculum. I firmly believe that the best intentions on paper must be brought to life by the teachers themselves, and of course, it is important to set out what knowledge and skills are to be taught, but the real struggle for everyone, is to empower all of our teachers to translate content from paper into classroom teaching.

It is also my belief that every middle leader should have schemes work firmly set out, aligned with the school's vision, and in keeping with the requirements of subject specifications. These things should already be in place. Wherever you are on your journey, I've set a number of questions below to stir your thinking.

Intent

1. How do you know that your curriculum is flexible, broad and balanced?

2. How does your school manage curriculum change?

3. If you are reading this in England, does the English Baccalaureate feature high or low on the agenda?

4. Did you know, that only 221 schools currently meet the government's target?

5. What oversight do your governors play?

6. What 'say' have parents had if any at all?

7. If students want to study a particular subject, is the request honoured?

Implementation

1. Does the curriculum reflect statutory requirements? If you are an academy, what 'freedoms' are you providing?

2. How does your school develop wider skills and capabilities across the curriculum?

3. How often do all teaching staff will review the curriculum? And not just over the last 12 months ...

4. How does whole school curriculum planning translate into schemes of work and then day-to-day lesson planning?

5. Are these intentions outlined in your school's development plan? The department/year team development plan?

6. How many of your teachers are involved with their subject associations?

7. How many of your teachers are subject examiners?

8. What curriculum monitoring activities do you use?

9. If somebody visited your school tomorrow, how will you demonstrate curriculum intent?

10. What professional development opportunities (implementation) will you provide your teaching staff?

Impact

1. What do your students say about their personal, social and health curriculum?

2. Is eSafety on the agenda, and not just during eSafety week?

3. What methods do you use to ensure evaluations are robust?

4. How does this inform future planning/research?

5. If you are rethinking your curriculum, has it added to teacher workload?

6. Beyond examination results, how you demonstrate impact?

7. What other 'values' could we evaluate?

8. In terms of standards attained across the curriculum, what barriers to learning are improving or hindering groups of students when compared to those of their peers?

9. Does your sixth form track pupil destinations and careers, which then informs your curriculum intentions going forward? For example, if your school is located near the sea and the vast majority of your students leave and go on to work on an oil rig as an engineer, is your curriculum adapted to support more STEM-related teaching?

10. Let's end with the hardest question: How do you know you have a quality curriculum?

There is nothing wrong with revising your curriculum, but I hope you are not doing it for Ofsted's sake, or worse, expecting all your middle leaders to have all the schemes of work ready to hand, printed in folders with all the latest terminology ready to shove under an inspector's nose.

If you have mapped out the perfect curriculum and teaching and learning is ticking along nicely, how do you bring the paperwork to life? Curriculum is nothing new, but it is important to reconsider as our assessment demands evolve ...

There is a post-publication PDF resource of this blog post with additional questions added.

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Are Your Curriculum Plans All Mapped Out? Great, Now Can Your Teachers Deliver? by @TeacherToolkit

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The curriculum is nothing new, but it's important to reconsider as assessment evolves. The key question is, how do you bring curriculum plans to life?

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Whether it’s by using their body or hands, these learners are all about the sense of touch. Physical activities and sports play a big part in these student’s lives. Getting hands-on is a must for these learners who love to tinker and learn best when they can do rather than see or hear.

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Written by Dr. Kris MacDonald, reviewed by EducationCorner.com Team

You've completed your coursework. Student teaching has ended. You've donned the cap and gown, crossed the stage, smiled with your diploma and went home to fill out application after application. Suddenly you are standing in what will be your classroom for the next year and after the excitement of decorating it wears off and you begin lesson planning, you start to notice all of your lessons are executed the same way, just with different material. But that is what you know and what you've been taught, so you go with it. After a while, your students are bored, and so are you. There must be something wrong because this isn't what you envisioned teaching to be like. There is.

Figuring out the best ways you can deliver information to students can sometimes be even harder than what students go through in discovering how they learn best. The reason is because every single teacher needs a variety of different teaching methods in their theoretical teaching bag to pull from depending on the lesson, the students, and things as seemingly minute as the time the class is and the subject. Using these different teaching methods, which are rooted in theory of different teaching styles, will not only help teachers reach their full potential, but more importantly engage, motivate and reach the students in their classes, whether in person or online.

Teaching Methods

Teaching methods, or methodology, is a narrower topic because it's founded in theories and educational psychology. If you have a degree in teaching, you most likely have heard of names like Skinner, Vygotsky, Gardner, Piaget, and Bloom. If their names don't ring a bell, you should definitely recognize their theories that have become teaching methods. The following are the most common teaching theories.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is the theory that every learner is essentially a "clean slate" to start off and shaped by emotions. People react to stimuli, reactions as well as positive and negative reinforcement, the site states. Learning Theories names the most popular theorists who ascribed to this theory were Ivan Pavlov, who many people may know with his experiments with dogs. He performed an experiment with dogs that when he rang a bell, the dogs responded to the stimuli; then he applied the idea to humans. Other popular educational theorists who were part of behaviorism was B.F. Skinner and Albert Bandura.

Social Cognitive Theory

Social Cognitive Theory is typically spoken about at the early childhood level because it has to do with critical thinking with the biggest concept being the idea of play, according to Edwin Peel writing for Encyclopedia Britannica. Though Bandura and Lev Vygotsky also contributed to cognitive theory, according to Dr. Norman Herr with California State University, the most popular and first theorist of cognitivism is Piaget.

There are four stages to Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development that he created in 1918. Each stage correlates with a child's development from infancy to their teenage years.

The first stage is called the Sensorimotor Stage which occurs from birth to 18 months. The reason this is considered cognitive development is because the brain is literally growing through exploration, like squeaking horns, discovering themselves in mirrors or spinning things that click on their floor mats or walkers; creating habits like sleeping with a certain blanket; having reflexes like rubbing their eyes when tired or thumb sucking; and beginning to decipher vocal tones.

The second stage, or the Preoperational Stage, occurs from ages 2 to 7 when toddlers begin to understand and correlate symbols around them, ask a lot of questions, and start forming sentences and conversations, but they haven't developed perspective yet so empathy does not quite exist yet, the website states. This is the stage when children tend to blurt out honest statements, usually embarrassing their parents, because they don't understand censoring themselves either.

From ages 7 to 11, children are beginning to problem solve, can have conversations about things they are interested in, are more aware of logic and develop empathy during the Concrete Operational Stage.

The final stage, called the Formal Operational Stage, though by definition ends at age 16, can continue beyond. It involves deeper thinking and abstract thoughts as well as questioning not only what things are but why the way they are is popular, the site states. Many times people entering new stages of their lives like high school, college, or even marriage go through elements of Piaget's theory, which is why the strategies that come from this method are applicable across all levels of education.

The Multiple Intelligences Theory

The Multiple Intelligences Theory states that people don't need to be smart in every single discipline to be considered intelligent on paper tests, but that people excel in various disciplines, making them exceptional. Created in 1983, the former principal in the Scranton School District in Scranton, PA, created eight different intelligences, though since then two others have been debated of whether to be added but have not yet officially, according to the site. The original eight are musical, spatial, linguistic, mathematical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic and most people have a predominant intelligence followed by others. For those who are musically-inclined either via instruments, vocals, has perfect pitch, can read sheet music or can easily create music has Musical Intelligence. Being able to see something and rearrange it or imagine it differently is Spatial Intelligence, while being talented with language, writing or avid readers have Linguistic Intelligence. Kinesthetic Intelligence refers to understanding how the body works either anatomically or athletically and Naturalistic Intelligence is having an understanding of nature and elements of the ecosystem.

The final intelligences have to do with personal interactions. Intrapersonal Intelligence is a matter of knowing oneself, one's limits, and their inner selves while Interpersonal Intelligence is knowing how to handle a variety of other people without conflict or knowing how to resolve it, the site states. There is still an elementary school in Scranton, PA named after their once-principal.

Constructivism

Constructivism is another theory created by Piaget which is used as a foundation for many other educational theories and strategies because constructivism is focused on how people learn. Piaget states in this theory that people learn from their experiences. They learn best through active learning, connect it to their prior knowledge and then digest this information their own way. This theory has created the ideas of student-centered learning in education versus teacher-centered learning.

Universal Design for Learning

The final method is the Universal Design for Learning which has redefined the educational community since its inception in the mid-1980s by David H. Rose. This theory focuses on how teachers need to design their curriculum for their students. This theory really gained traction in the United States in 2004 when it was presented at an international conference and he explained that this theory is based on neuroscience and how the brain processes information, perform tasks and get excited about education. The theory, known as UDL, advocates for presenting information in multiple ways to enable a variety of learners to understand the information; presenting multiple assessments for students to show what they have learned; and learn and utilize a student's own interests to motivate them to learn, the site states. This theory also discussed incorporating technology in the classroom and ways to educate students in the digital age.

Teaching Styles

From each of the educational theories, teachers extract and develop a plethora of different teaching styles, or strategies. Instructors must have a large and varied arsenal of strategies to use weekly and even daily in order to build rapport, keep students engaged and even keep instructors from getting bored with their own material. These can be applicable to all teaching levels, but adaptations must be made based on the student's age and level of development.

Differentiated instruction is one of the most popular teaching strategies, which means that teachers adjust the curriculum for a lesson, unit or even entire term in a way that engages all learners in various ways, according to Chapter 2 of the book Instructional Process and Concepts in Theory and Practice by Celal Akdeniz. This means changing one's teaching styles constantly to fit not only the material but more importantly, the students based on their learning styles.

Learning styles are the ways in which students learn best. The most popular types are visual, audio, kinesthetic and read/write, though others include global as another type of learner, according to Akdeniz. For some, they may seem self-explanatory. Visual learners learn best by watching the instruction or a demonstration; audio learners need to hear a lesson; kinesthetic learners learn by doing, or are hands-on learners; read/write learners to best by reading textbooks and writing notes; and global learners need material to be applied to their real lives, according to The Library of Congress. There are many activities available to instructors that enable their students to find out what kind of learner they are. Typically students have a main style with a close runner-up, which enables them to learn best a certain way but they can also learn material in an additional way. When an instructor knows their students and what types of learners are in their classroom, instructors are able to then differentiate their instruction and assignments to those learning types, according to Akdeniz and The Library of Congress.

Learn more about different learning styles.

When teaching new material to any type of learner, is it important to utilize a strategy called scaffolding. Scaffolding is based on a student's prior knowledge and building a lesson, unit or course from the most foundational pieces and with each step make the information more complicated, according to an article by Jerry Webster. To scaffold well, a teacher must take a personal interest in their students to learn not only what their prior knowledge is but their strengths as well. This will enable an instructor to base new information around their strengths and use positive reinforcement when mistakes are made with the new material.

There is an unfortunate concept in teaching called "teach to the middle" where instructors target their lessons to the average ability of the students in their classroom, leaving slower students frustrated and confused, and above average students frustrated and bored. This often results in the lower- and higher-level students scoring poorly and a teacher with no idea why. The remedy for this is a strategy called blended learning where differentiated instruction is occurring simultaneously in the classroom to target all learners, according to author and educator Juliana Finegan. In order to be successful at blended learning, teachers once again need to know their students, how they learn and their strengths and weaknesses, according to Finegan. Blended learning can include combining several learning styles into one lesson like lecturing from a PowerPoint - not reading the information on the slides -- that includes cartoons and music associations while the students have the print-outs. The lecture can include real-life examples and stories of what the instructor encountered and what the students may encounter. That example incorporates four learning styles and misses kinesthetic, but the activity afterwards can be solely kinesthetic.

A huge component of blended learning is technology. Technology enables students to set their own pace and access the resources they want and need based on their level of understanding, according to The Library of Congress. It can be used three different ways in education which include face-to-face, synchronously or asynchronously. Technology used with the student in the classroom where the teacher can answer questions while being in the student's physical presence is known as face-to-face. Synchronous learning is when students are learning information online and have a teacher live with them online at the same time, but through a live chat or video conferencing program, like Skype, or Zoom, according to The Library of Congress. Finally, asynchronous learning is when students take a course or element of a course online, like a test or assignment, as it fits into their own schedule, but a teacher is not online with them at the time they are completing or submitting the work. Teachers are still accessible through asynchronous learning but typically via email or a scheduled chat meeting, states the Library of Congress.

The final strategy to be discussed actually incorporates a few teaching strategies, so it's almost like blended teaching. It starts with a concept that has numerous labels such as student-centered learning, learner-centered pedagogy, and teacher-as-tutor but all mean that an instructor revolves lessons around the students and ensures that students take a participatory role in the learning process, known as active learning, according to the Learning Portal. In this model, a teacher is just a facilitator, meaning that they have created the lesson as well as the structure for learning, but the students themselves become the teachers or create their own knowledge, the Learning Portal says. As this is occurring, the instructor is circulating the room working as a one-on-one resource, tutor or guide, according to author Sara Sanchez Alonso from Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning. For this to work well and instructors be successful one-on-one and planning these lessons, it's essential that they have taken the time to know their students' history and prior knowledge, otherwise it can end up to be an exercise in futility, Alonso said. Some activities teachers can use are by putting students in groups and assigning each student a role within the group, creating reading buddies or literature circles, making games out of the material with individual white boards, create different stations within the classroom for different skill levels or interest in a lesson or find ways to get students to get up out of their seats and moving, offers Fortheteachers.org.

There are so many different methodologies and strategies that go into becoming an effective instructor. A consistent theme throughout all of these is for a teacher to take the time to know their students because they care, not because they have to. When an instructor knows the stories behind the students, they are able to design lessons that are more fun, more meaningful, and more effective because they were designed with the students' best interests in mind. There are plenty of pre-made lessons, activities and tests available online and from textbook publishers that any teacher could use. But you need to decide if you want to be the original teacher who makes a significant impact on your students, or a pre-made teacher a student needs to get through.

Read Also:
- Blended Learning Guide
- Collaborative Learning Guide
- Flipped Classroom Guide
- Game Based Learning Guide
- Gamification in Education Guide
- Holistic Education Guide
- Maker Education Guide
- Personalized Learning Guide
- Place-Based Education Guide
- Project-Based Learning Guide
- Scaffolding in Education Guide
- Social-Emotional Learning Guide

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Teaching Methods and Strategies: The Complete Guide

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Using these different teaching methods you will engage, motivate and reach the students in your classes, whether in person or online.

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Content. This is what the student needs to learn and what materials they have access to in order to facilitate their learning.

Process. These are the sorts of activities and games used by the teacher to engage the student and make sense of the learning content.

Products. An array of projects which asks the students to test, apply and build on what the learner already knows about a topic.

Learning environment. The way the classroom is set up and how it feels to inconsistently learn in that environment.

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2024-03-04 - HE - Creative Education - LR

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APATHETIC KIDS

Are you trying to motivate students to behave better, to work hard, or to accomplish and achieve greatness?
....There are a lot of things a teacher can do to help motivate their students, but the person who controls how much work the kid does is the kid, not the teacher.

"Nonschool factors do influence student achievement, but they are largely outside a school's control Some research suggests that, compared with teachers, individual and family characteristics may have four to eight times the impact on student achievement. But policy discussions focus on teachers because it is arguably easier for public policy to improve teaching than to change students' personal characteristics or family circumstances. Effective teaching has the potential to help level the playing field. www.rand.org

This article outlines seven potential reasons why kids won't work. Then, possible solutions to the problem are listed as well as a few resources I found helpful and valid. I hope you find something here that will help a student in your classroom! If you see any more good resources, please let me know!

WHY ARE THEY UNMOTIVATED?

..............possible reasons for student apathy:

1. LACK OF UNDERSTANDING

They don't understand how or what to do.

The student is a perfectionist; trapped in a faulty mindset that every line has to be perfect and is easily frustrated with mistakes. (Click on this link for Growth Mindset resources.)

Entitlement mindset: The student has been previously (erroneously) taught that the artwork s/he does is always perfect, that there can be no room for improvement because art represents who they are.

The student has "learned helplessness" and wants constant feedback from the teacher instead of buckling down and getting to work.

S/he believes Art is not important and thus hard work is unnecessary.

2. LACK OF DISCIPLINE AND/OR CHARACTER

The student wasn't paying attention during the demonstration/lesson.

The student has friends in the class and is more motivated to play than work.

The student doesn't feel like working/doesn't want to work.

S/he doesn't have to pass the class to advance a grade.

Defiant attitude - the student doesn't want to submit to the teacher because either s/he has an inflated ego or the teacher has not yet won the respect of the student.

The student is seeking attention by talking too much, not working, or wanting excessive help.

The student knows the teacher will not hold him/her accountable for working hard.

The student is afraid of failure, of looking stupid and incompetent.

The student has had a pattern of failure at school, and has given up. S/he believes the work is too difficult to attempt.

The teacher's experience and attitude can either help or harm student motivation:

The teacher gives vague instructions, is unenthusiastic, negative , talks too much or too fast, expects students to perform at a too high (or too low) level than they are capable, or does not take into consideration the interests of the student. Also, if the teacher inconsistently hold students accountable (ignores misbehavior), this can create a chaotic environment in which the temptation to be lazy flourishes.

All in all, I have found that secondary teachers' number one issue is dealing with unmotivated students. Kids come to us believing they don't have to work hard because "It's just art, right?" In middle school, they know they don't have to pass my class to go on to the next grade, and they usually start out the year much more motivated to talk and play than to do their work. I also have to be very creative at finding ways to encourage my students to produce QUALITY work because they do not have to pass my class to advance a grade.

I tell them that they will not like everything they create, and that some people who love to draw don't like the unpredictable nature of paint/clay: some people who dislike drawing are gifted designers, etc. I throw out a lot of different kinds of projects so they can find something they can be successful with! Also, I try to p rovide as many choices as possible and to create an environment where it is okay to fail. ("The road to success is paved with failure.") The bottom line, though, is that 99% of success is hard work. Chuck Close once said, "Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and work. Every idea I ever had came out of the work."

Five powerful, PROACTIVE ways you can motivate your students to succeed:

Developing positive relationships with kids is one of the MOST powerful things a teacher can do to help a student do well in class...

"Many popular teachers are strict; yet, at the same time, they treat students in a friendly and respectful manner, they make their classes as interesting as possible, and they try to make every student feel a part of the class. Such teachers are both liked and respected, and they wield a great deal of power with students." Dr. Irvin King, "One Man's Perspective of Discipline in the Schools"

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Steven Covey ... Have you surveyed your students to find out about their likes/dislikes? Do you know what kinds of projects they enjoy and which they hate?

.....Try something messy like paper mache or clay instead of drawing. There are actually very few kids who are highly motivated to draw really nice, sophisticated drawings. However, almost all students are motivated to get their hands dirty and build! Most students we teach will not become professional artists, and it is important to foster an appreciation for art, keeping it fun.

Make your instructions clear and concise to avoid student confusion...do they understand the "big idea" behind what they are doing? How does it relate to their lives? What's the point of doing it? How exactly do they accomplish the objectives of the project? Detailed rubrics really help make the "invisible visible" for my students. If it is clearly in writing, they are much more likely to try to meet the criteria for the project.

Giving students as much ownership in their learning as possible will go a long way toward engagement! Teaching For Artistic Behavior (TAB): this pedagogy is one that I am currently researching in order to try it in my classroom. It is an excellent way to motivate kids, and it seems to be one of the BEST ways to foster creativity and problem solving in the classroom. It takes a lot of courage to hand the reigns over to students, putting them in charge of their learning! Providing as many choices as possible within the constructs of an assignment is a win-win. Resource website: Teaching For Artistic Behavior..... Facebook Resources: TAB Choice & Midwest TAB Choice, and here is one of the best breakdowns of how to set up a TAB classroom: TAB MAEA Shared, (Google Docs)

This quote from Melissa Purtee sums up the TAB Choice philosophy quite well: "'I am learning because I want to do it,' vs. 'I'm learning because you want me to do it.'"

Teach them how to think; teach them about their own unlimited capabilities; teach them about the universal power of visual art.
"When students respect the teacher for the knowledge s/he possesses, when they master significant knowledge and skills, and when they feel good about themselves because they are achieving, they are less likely to misbehave." Dr. Irvin King
Behavior Expectations and How To Teach Them; Aaron Hogan, Edutopia.org
Advocate...teach your students about the value of art: Why Art Teachers Are the Most Important Teachers In the School, Matt Fussell, virtualinstructor.com

Allow yourself to make mistakes in front of them so they can see how you handle it. Make your thought processes visible to the kids, be an example.

Also, teach your students about the Growth vs. Fixed Mindset.

If they think they will be unsuccessful with a project, show them all the ways they have already succeeded...look for ways to praise their efforts. Have high expectations for your students! Everyone has the capability to learn, and we all learn in different ways. There are no excuses for not trying just because we think the end result will be mediocre at best. Everyone has to start somewhere! These videos might help:

"One reason many students seem unmotivated is because of lack of hope and optimism. Low socioeconomic status and the accompanying financial hardships are correlated with depressive symptoms (Butterworth, Olesen, & Leach, 2012). Moreover, the passive "I give up" posture may actually be learned helplessness, shown for decades in the research as a symptom of a stress disorder and depression. Research from 60 high-poverty schools tells us that the primary factor in student motivation and achievement isn't the student's home environment; it's the school and the teacher (Irvin, Meece, Byun, Farmer, & Hutchins, 2011). Effort can be taught, and strong teachers do this every day." How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement, Eric Jensen

4. DISCIPLINE; if students won't work, and you know there isn't another issue (health, lack of understanding, etc.), they just might need a little motivation in the form of a negative consequence. Click on this link to read more about discipline. ... This link takes you to the page, "Discipline Assignments For Art."

Providing authentic praise and encouragement, and even rewards can help tremendously. Use rewards and incentives carefully, though; overuse can backfire, leading to a lack of motivation. These also lose effectiveness with older students.

The more positive remarks you make, the more you look for ways to authentically praise your students' efforts, the more they will be encouraged to do well.

editor's note: you can find lots of tips about motivating elementary students here: ELEMENTARY TIPS AND TRICKS

Whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right.

Is This Good Enough?, article by Mrs. Anna Nichols
"I Hate Art!", article by Mrs. Anna Nichols

Making Art Fun For a Perfectionist Kid, arthistorykids.com, by Lotus Stewart

Strategies To Build Intrinsic Motivation, by David Palank, edutopia.org
6 Ways We Kill Students' Motivation, by Chase Mielke, weareteachers.com
"8 Ways to Fuel Your Students' Intrinsic Motivation," by Michael Linsin

5 Innovative Methods For Maximum Motivation, by Ian Sands, theartofed.com
3 Ways To Channel Your Fears Into Creativity, by Meera Lee Patel, www.artsy.net
Artists Are Re-drawing Their Old Work To Show How Much They've Improved, by Sara Barnes, mymodernmet.com

How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement, Eric Jensen
Nudges That Help Struggling Students Succeed, David L. Kirp, The New York Times

What To Say To Calm An Anxious Child, lemonlimeadventures.com

Jessica Balsley (theartofed.com) has a list of 50 Positive Ways to Reward students in the art classroom.
175 PBIS Incentives for High School, pbisrewards.com

8 Things Teachers Do To Cause Boredom, Michael Linsin
Simple Classroom Management Solutions For the High School Art Room, Timothy Bogatz, theartofed
Essential Steps To Turn Art I Students Into Artists, by Matt Christenson, theartofed.com
Avoiding Learned Helplessness, Andrew Miller, Edutopia

NAESP; Getting Beyond the Entitlement Mindset, Edwin Colbert
Five Signs of Entitlement In Our Kids, Tim Elmore

19 Daily Habits of Artists That Can Help Unlock Your Creativity, Katherine Brooks, Huffington Post Arts & Culture
What I Really Wish I Would Have Said To The Teacher Who Called To Talk About My Child's Behavior, Cherie Lowe, Today Parenting Team
3 Ways To Motivate Your Students On Tough Days, Melissa Purtee, theartofed.com
Dan Pink on Motivation, TED Talk, author speaks about motivation in a business setting, suitable for high school
"Students who show little or no effort are simply giving you feedback. When you liked your teacher, you worked harder. When the learning got you excited, curious, and intrigued, you put out more effort. We've all seen how students will often work much harder in one class than in another. The feedback is about themselves-and about your class. Take on the challenge. Invest in students who are not putting out effort. In a study of more than 1,800 children from poverty, school engagement was a key factor in whether the student stayed in school (Finn & Rock, 1997)." How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement, Eric Jensen

"It is a lot easier to be satisfied in life when you have low standards. It is easy to be lazy. We learn to stick with what we are already good at, avoid what we are not good at, and try to steer clear of looking foolish and taking risks. We learn to have low expectations for ourselves. We learn low standards and laziness and the defiant attitude that no one can judge me or try to hold me to a higher standard." Matt Appling, Life After Art

"Lack of confidence or an impossible ambition may both cause failure but if we work realistically, accepting ourselves as we are, confidence will come or vaulting ambition learn a moderation that leads to success. As the power of achievement grows, we shall find that we have it in us to do work stamped with our own distinctive character, because character develops inevitably with the things we do, and that we shall be making a contribution in itself unique to our surroundings.

The only fatal thing is to give up trying, to allow that sense of innate ability to become submerged, turning to a feeling of frustration and finally indifference. By so doing we shall cheat ourselves of some of the best things in life.

Once started on the good road to craftsmanship there is no knowing where a man will stop. One thing has an odd way of leading to another, interests and accomplishments grow and thrive by the way. To the end of our days we shall probably feel conscious of the things we might have done and did not, but in so far as we were willing to pay the price of achievement we shall have something to show for having lived."

Editor's note: Managing student behavior involves far more than
discipline techniques. In order to create an environment for student success, the teacher needs to provide quality instruction as well as appropriate motivation. Most importantly, the teacher needs to have the right attitude for leadership in the classroom. Finally, having a solid classroom management plan with rules and procedures set up from the beginning of the year is also extremely important - students need to be very clear about what the teacher's expectations are.

disclaimer: These are a set of ideas about being proactive in teaching based on classroom experience as well as various education authors. Many times there are circumstances in the classroom that are beyond any teacher's control, especially when serving at-risk populations or in environments where those in administration fail to provide effective leadership in a school. Sometimes, regardless of the prevailing theories about teacher responsibility, the teacher is not to be blamed for out of control students. Finally, we do NOT recommend that you put any of these strategies into practice if your administration disagrees with them.

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APATHETIC KIDS Are you trying to motivate students to behave better, to work hard, or to accomplish and achieve greatness...