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What is pedagogical content knowledge?

Have you ever noticed it's better to use a visual representation for introductions and conclusions when teaching 5-paragraph essays or use an audio file to introduce rhyme and meter in your poetry unit?

Have you seen better test scores when you teach electricity before fluid mechanics in physics or the circulatory system before the digestive system in biology?

While you might call these "tricks of the trade" or "experience," these are examples of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

When you combine your knowledge of the content with how to teach it, you transform the content through pedagogy.
The Principles of Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Lee Shulman coined the term pedagogical content knowledge in the mid-80s. He stated that teacher-training programs separated the what (content) from the how (pedagogy) when preparing educators for the field. Good educators, according to Shulman, move beyond simply knowing their subject matter and knowing how to teach; they transform the subject matter through teaching. He says good educators find "ways of representing and formulating the subject that make it comprehensible to others."

PCK is (1) knowing how to organize and present the curriculum for learners, (2) being aware of misconceptions, prior knowledge, and particular problems learners may have when learning new subject matter; and (3) having specific methods or strategies for the classroom situation or environment.

Self-Reflective Teaching

How do you achieve PCK without waiting 20 years? Shulman proposed a framework of six steps: comprehension, transformation, instruction, evaluation, reflection, and new comprehension. To obtain PCK, educators need self-reflective teaching. Refer to this paper for a complete explanation of Shulman's process.

If you're not already using a teaching journal, or are unsure how to begin using PCK, a great way to start would be to use this table of content representation (CoRe). The Teaching & Learning Research Initiative in New Zealand developed it. Dr. Christopher Eames led a group to create a tool for developing PCK. Young educators received this tool to see how it helped their preparation and delivery of lessons. You might want to try it as you prepare your lessons and units for next fall.

PCK has been called craft knowledge, but you may call it good teaching. Being aware of PCK and your growing understanding of the art of teaching can help you progress from a good to a great educator more quickly and easily. Shulman said it best when he took an old cliche and made it new again:

"Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach."

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Pedagogical Content Knowledge - Learning Bird

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Pedagogical content knowledge helps educators move beyond simply knowing their subject matter, and knowing how to teach; they transform the subject matter.

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As quoted and adopted from:
Saskatchewan Education.
Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice
Regina, SK: Saskatchewan Education.

Planning a unit or lesson involves a number of instructional decisions. The teacher must identify the following: the content and processes to be addressed, the strengths, needs, and interests of students, the Common Essential Learnings that could be incorporated, and the most effective instructional approaches. Such decisions are critical and must be made consciously and purposefully.

As Glickman (1991) states:

"Effective teaching is not a set of generic practices, but instead is a set of context-driven decisions about teaching. Effective teachers do not use the same set of practices for every lesson . . . Instead, what effective teachers do is constantly reflect about their work, observe whether students are learning or not, and, then adjust their practice accordingly (p. 6).

Because there are so many variables for teachers to consider when making decisions about teaching and learning, it is essential that they have a conceptual base for understanding Saskatchewan's Core Curriculum and a framework for understanding the levels associated with instructional decision making. This chapter deals first with the conceptual base and instructional framework, then goes on to define instructional models, strategies, methods, and skills.

The instructional approaches identified in the document are flexible enough to incorporate the Common Essential Learnings and to accommodate individual student needs, abilities, interests, and strengths through the Adaptive Dimension. The following discussion focuses specifically upon the instructional portion of the Conceptual Base.

The Instructional Framework

Figure 2, the Instructional Framework, identifies and illustrates the interrelationship among instructional approaches that, properly used, are acknowledged to be consistent with sound educational practice. The approaches are referenced to the goals of education and apply to the objectives of the various curricula. Figure 2 also illustrates the levels of approaches in instruction ranging from an instructional model, a broad approach, to an instructional skill, which represents a specific teaching behavior or technique. Within each level the potential exists for developing both the science and the art of teaching.

Defining the Instructional Framework
The following definition of terms will help to interpret the framework and to clarify the relationships between and among the levels.

Instructional Models
Models represent the broadest level of instructional practices and present a philosophical orientation to instruction. Models are used to select and to structure teaching strategies, methods, skills, and student activities for a particular instructional emphasis. Joyce and Weil (1986) identify four models: information processing, behavioral, social interaction, and personal.

Instructional Strategies
Within each model several strategies can be used. Strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives. Strategies can be classed as direct, indirect, interactive, experiential, or independent.

Instructional Methods
Methods are used by teachers to create learning environments and to specify the nature of the activity in which the teacher and learner will be involved during the lesson. While particular methods are often associated with certain strategies, some methods may be found within a variety of strategies.

Instructional Skills
Skills are the most specific instructional behaviors. These include such techniques as questioning, discussing, direction-giving, explaining, and demonstrating. They also include such actions as planning, structuring, focusing, and managing.

Figure 3 illustrates the relationship among instructional models, strategies, methods, and skills.

The Instructional Framework is intended to encourage teachers to examine their own instructional practice. Reflective assessment of the use of strategies, methods, and skills may lead teachers to broaden and deepen their repertoire of instructional approaches. Expanding the knowledge and expertise regarding various instructional approaches can enrich the artistry of teaching and, in turn, enhance the effectiveness of instruction. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a study of specific instructional models, strategies, methods, and skills.

Instructional Strategies

Decision making regarding instructional strategies requires teachers to focus on curriculum, the prior experiences and knowledge of students, learner interests, student learning styles, and the developmental levels of the learner. Such decision making relies on ongoing student assessment that is linked to learning objectives and processes.

Although instructional strategies can be categorized, the distinctions are not always clear-cut. For example, a teacher may provide information through the lecture method (from the direct instruction strategy) while using an interpretive method to ask students to determine the significance of information that was presented (from the indirect instruction strategy).

Five categories of instructional strategies and the interrelationship between and among strategies are illustrated in Figure 4. Explanations of the five categories follow. Although samples of instructional methods pertaining to each category are sometimes included, these will be explained further in the section "Instructional Methods".

Direct Instruction
The Direct instruction strategy is highly teacher-directed and is among the most commonly used. This strategy includes methods such as lecture, didactic questioning, explicit teaching, practice and drill, and demonstrations.

The direct instruction strategy is effective for providing information or developing step-by-step skills. This strategy also works well for introducing other teaching methods, or actively involving students in knowledge construction.

Direct instruction is usually deductive. That is, the rule or generalization is presented and then illustrated with examples. While this strategy may be considered among the easier to plan and to use, it is clear that effective direct instruction is often more complex than it would first appear.

Possible Methods

Indirect Instruction
Inquiry, induction, problem solving, decision making, and discovery are terms that are sometimes used interchangeably to describe indirect instruction. In contrast to the direct instruction strategy, indirect instruction is mainly student-centered, although the two strategies can complement each other. Examples of indirect instruction methods include reflective discussion, concept formation, concept attainment, cloze procedure, problem solving, and guided inquiry.

Indirect instruction seeks a high level of student involvement in observing, investigating, drawing inferences from data, or forming hypotheses. It takes advantage of students' interest and curiosity, often encouraging them to generate alternatives or solve problems. It is flexible in that it frees students to explore diverse possibilities and reduces the fear associated with the possibility of giving incorrect answers. Indirect instruction also fosters creativity and the development of interpersonal skills and abilities. Students often achieve a better understanding of the material and ideas under study and develop the ability to draw on these understandings.

In indirect instruction, the role of the teacher shifts from lecturer/director to that of facilitator, supporter, and resource person. The teacher arranges the learning environment, provides opportunity for student involvement, and, when appropriate, provides feedback to students while they conduct the inquiry (Martin, 1983). Indirect instruction relies heavily on the use of print, non-print, and human resources. Learning experiences are greatly enhanced through cooperation between teachers, and between teachers and the teacher-librarians.

The indirect instruction strategy can be used by teachers in almost every lesson. This strategy is most appropriate when:

thinking outcomes are desired;

attitudes, values, or interpersonal outcomes are desired;

process is as important as product;

students need to investigate or discover something in order to benefit from later instruction;

there is more than one appropriate answer;

the focus is personalized understanding and long term retention of concepts or generalizations;

ego involvement and intrinsic motivation are desirable;

decisions need to be made or problems need to be solved; and,

life-long learning capability is desired.

In order for students to achieve optimum benefits during indirect instruction, it may be necessary for the teacher to preteach the skills and processes necessary to achieve the intended learning outcomes. Skills and processes include observing, encoding, recalling, classifying, comparing/contrasting, inferring, interpreting data, predicting, elaborating, summarizing, restructuring, and verifying.

Indirect instruction, like other strategies, has disadvantages. Indirect instruction is more time consuming than direct instruction, teachers relinquish some control, and outcomes can be unpredictable and less safe. Indirect instruction is not the best way of providing detailed information or encouraging step-by-step skill acquisition. It is also inappropriate when content memorization and immediate recall is desired.

Possible Methods

Interactive Instruction
Interactive instructionrelies heavily on discussion and sharing among participants. Seaman and Fellenz (1989) suggest that discussion and sharing provide learners with opportunities to "react to the ideas, experience, insights, and knowledge of the teacher or of peer learners and to generate alternative ways of thinking and feeling" (p. 119). Students can learn from peers and teachers to develop social skills and abilities, to organize their thoughts, and to develop rational arguments.

The interactive instruction strategy allows for a range of groupings and interactive methods. These may include total class discussions, small group discussions or projects, or student pairs or triads working on assignments together. It is important for the teacher to outline the topic, the amount of discussion time, the composition and size of the groups, and reporting or sharing techniques. Interactive instruction requires the refinement of observation, listening, interpersonal, and intervention skills and abilities by both teacher and students.

The success of the interactive instruction strategy and its many methods is heavily dependent upon the expertise of the teacher in structuring and developing the dynamics of the group.

Possible Methods

Experiential Learning
Experiential learningis inductive, learner centered, and activity oriented. Personalized reflection about an experience and the formulation of plans to apply learnings to other contexts are critical factors in effective experiential learning. Experiential learning occurs when learners:

participate in an activity;

critically look back on the activity to clarify learnings and feelings;

draw useful insights from such analysis; and,

put learnings to work in new situations. (Pfeiffer & Jones, 1979)

Experiential learning can be viewed as a cycle consisting of five phases, all of which are necessary:

experiencing (an activity occurs);

sharing or publishing (reactions and observations are shared);

analyzing or processing (patterns and dynamics are determined);

inferring or generalizing (principles are derived); and,

applying (plans are made to use [earnings in new situations).

The emphasis in experiential learning is on the process of learning and not on the product. A teacher can use experiential learning as an instructional strategy both in and outside the classroom. For example, in the classroom students can build and stock an aquarium or engage in a simulation. Outside the classroom they can, for example, observe courtroom procedures in a study of the legal system, or conduct a public opinion survey. Experiential learning makes use of a variety of resources.

Possible Methods

Independent Study
For the purposes of this document, independent study refers to the range of instructional methods which are purposefully provided to foster the development of individual student initiative, self-reliance, and self-improvement. While independent study may be initiated by student or teacher, the focus here will be on planned independent study by students under the guidance or supervision of a classroom teacher. In addition, independent study can include learning in partnership with another individual or as part of a small group.

The importance of independent study is captured in the following statement:

Independent learning has implications for responsible decision-making, as individuals are expected to analyze problems, reflect, make decisions and take purposeful actions. To take responsibility for their lives in times of rapid social change, students need to acquire life-long learning capability. As most aspects of our daily lives are likely to undergo profound changes, independent learning will enable individuals to respond to the changing demands of work, family and society. (Saskatchewan Education, 1988, p. 53)

Possible Methods

Instructional Methods

After deciding on appropriate instructional strategies, a teacher must make decisions regarding instructional methods. As is the case with strategies, the distinction between methods are not always clear cut although they are categorized for the purposes of this document. Figure 5 illustrates how various methods relate to the five strategies presented in the previous section. It should be noted that the methods appearing in the diagram are examples only, and are not intended to be inclusive of all instructional methods.

A sampling of instructional methods with accompanying explanations is presented in this section. The methods are organized by instructional strategy, as they appear in Figure 5.

Strategy: Direct Instruction

Lecture
Lecture is a valuable part of a teacher's instructional repertoire if it is not overused and if it is not used when other methods would be more effective. If the presenter is knowledgeable, perceptive, engaging, and motivating, then lecture can stimulate reflection, challenge the imagination, and develop curiosity and a sense of inquiry. Criteria for the selection of the lecture method should include the types of experiences students will be afforded and the kinds of learning outcomes expected. Because lecture is teacher-centered and student activity can be mainly passive, the attention span of students may be limited. Many students, because of learning style preferences, may not readily assimilate lectured content. In addition, lectured content is often rapidly forgotten.

Didactic Questioning
Didactic questioning offers the teacher a way to structure the learning process (McNeil & Wiles, 1990). Didactic questions tend to be convergent, factual, and often begin with "what," "where," "when," and "how." They can be effectively used to diagnose recall and comprehension skills, to draw on prior learning experiences, to determine the extent to which lesson objectives were achieved, to provide practice, and to aid retention of information or processes. Teachers should remember that didactic questions can be simplistic, can encourage guessing, and can discourage insightful answers or creativity. However, effectiveness of this method can be increased by the appropriate addition of "why" questions, and the occasional use of "what if" questions.
Strategy: Indirect Instruction
Indirect Instruction
Inquiry, induction, problem solving, decision making, and discovery are terms that are sometimes used interchangeably to describe indirect instruction. In contrast to the direct instruction strategy, indirect instruction is mainly student-centered, although the two strategies can complement each other. Examples of indirect instruction methods include reflective discussion, concept formation, concept attainment, cloze procedure, problem solving, and guided inquiry.

Indirect instruction seeks a high level of student involvement in observing, investigating, drawing inferences from data, or forming hypotheses. It takes advantage of students' interest and curiosity, often encouraging them to generate alternatives or solve problems. It is flexible in that it frees students to explore diverse possibilities and reduces the fear associated with the possibility of giving incorrect answers. Indirect instruction also fosters creativity and the development of interpersonal skills and abilities. Students often achieve a better understanding of the material and ideas under study and develop the ability to draw on these understandings.

In indirect instruction, the role of the teacher shifts from lecturer/director to that of facilitator, supporter, and resource person. The teacher arranges the learning environment, provides opportunity for student involvement, and, when appropriate, provides feedback to students while they conduct the inquiry (Martin, 1983). Indirect instruction relies heavily on the use of print, non-print, and human resources. Learning experiences are greatly enhanced through cooperation between teachers, and between teachers and the teacher-librarians.

The indirect instruction strategy can be used by teachers in almost every lesson. This strategy is most appropriate when:

thinking outcomes are desired;

attitudes, values, or interpersonal outcomes are desired;

process is as important as product;

students need to investigate or discover something in order to benefit from later instruction;

there is more than one appropriate answer;

the focus is personalized understanding and long term retention of concepts or generalizations;

ego involvement and intrinsic motivation are desirable;

decisions need to be made or problems need to be solved; and,

life-long learning capability is desired.

In order for students to achieve optimum benefits during indirect instruction, it may be necessary for the teacher to pre-teach the skills and processes necessary to achieve the intended learning outcomes. Skills and processes include observing, encoding, recalling, classifying, comparing/contrasting, inferring, interpreting data, predicting, elaborating, summarizing, restructuring, and verifying.

Indirect instruction, like other strategies, has disadvantages. Indirect instruction is more time consuming than direct instruction, teachers relinquish some control, and outcomes can be unpredictable and less safe. Indirect instruction is not the best way of providing detailed information or encouraging step-by-step skill acquisition. It is also inappropriate when content memorization and immediate recall is desired.

Concept Formation
Concept formation provides students with an opportunity to explore ideas by making connections and seeing relationships between items of information. This method can help students develop and refine their ability to recall and discriminate among key ideas, to see commonalities and identify relationships, to formulate concepts and generalizations, to explain how they have organized data, and to present evidence to support their organization of the data involved.

In this instructional method, students are provided with data about a particular concept. These data may be generated by the teacher or by the students themselves. Students are encouraged to classify or group the information and to give descriptive labels to their groupings. By linking the examples to the labels and by explaining their reasoning, the students form their own understanding of the concept.

Concept formation lessons can be highly motivational because students are provided with an opportunity to participate actively in their own learning. In addition, the thinking process involved helps them create new and expanded meaning of the world around them as they organize and manipulate information from other lessons and contexts in new ways.

Inquiry
Inquiry learning provides opportunities for students to experience and acquire processes through which they can gather information about the world. This requires a high level of interaction among the learner, the teacher, the area of study, available resources, and the learning environment. Students become actively involved in the learning process as they:

act upon their curiosity and interests;

develop questions;

think their way through controversies or dilemmas;

look at problems analytically;

inquire into their preconceptions and what they already know;

develop, clarify, and test hypotheses; and,

draw inferences and generate possible solutions.

Questioning is the heart of inquiry learning. Students must ask relevant questions and develop ways to search for answers and generate explanations. Emphasis is placed upon the process of thinking as this applies to student interaction with issues, data, topics, concepts, materials, and problems.

Divergent thinking is encouraged and nurtured as students recognize that questions often have more than one "good" or "correct" answer. Such thinking leads in many instances to elaboration of further questions. In this way students come to the realization that knowledge may not be fixed and permanent but may be tentative, emergent, and open to questioning and alternative hypotheses.

Deductive Inquiry

The focus in deductive inquiry is on moving students from a generalized principle to specific instances that may be subsumed logically within generalizations. The process of testing generalized assumptions, applying them, and exploring the relationships between, specific elements is stressed. The teacher co-ordinates the information and presents important principles, themes, or hypotheses. Students are actively engaged in testing generalizations, gathering information, and applying it to specific examples. Deductive inquiry is based upon the logical assimilation and processing of information.

Inductive Inquiry

The information-seeking process of the inductive inquiry method helps students to establish facts, determine relevant questions, develop ways to pursue these questions, and build explanations. Students are invited to develop and support their own hypotheses.

Through inductive inquiry, students experience the thought processes which require them to move from specific facts and observations to inferences. To help students accomplish this, the teacher selects a set of events or materials for the lesson. The student reacts and attempts to construct a meaningful pattern based on personal observations and the observations of others. Students generally have some kind of theoretical frame when they begin inductive inquiry. The teacher encourages students to share their thoughts so that the entire class can benefit from individual insights.

Strategy: Interactive Instruction

A. Classroom Group Interaction
The teacher often works with the class as a whole, particularly when presenting information or modeling a process. The class is viewed as a work group, engaged in a productive academic enterprise. Teachers should establish a positive, productive learning climate and provide group participation training. Students need to acquire group process and discussion skills if they are to learn through the interactive process. Students that have been helped to develop these processes and abilities often do better academically because positive interaction fosters self concept. The most frequently used classroom group interaction methods are discussion, and question and answer. These are described below.

Discussion
Educators recognize that knowledge is more than correct answers and can be gained through creative inquiry and active participation by students. Discussion can be meaningfully adapted to many classroom situations. For example, whole class discussion may occur if, during a presentation, the teacher notices that students are particularly interested in a topic and initiates a discussion. Whole class discussion can help build a positive classroom climate and lead to student interest in a school subject. In addition, the teacher can model active listening and build on student responses.

Effective discussions are normally based on material familiar to the students. The problem or issue can be one that does not require a particular response, or one where it is important for students to discover an answer. The teacher should stress with students that opinions must be supported, and then ensure that the terms and concepts needed are understood. Discussion should conclude with consensus, a solution, clarification of insights gained, or a summary (preferably one provided by the students). Students should have a clear understanding of the major points and their applications to other situations. It should be noted that some discussions can lead students to conduct further research.

Question and Answer
When the question and answer method is used effectively, students feel they are being personally addressed by the teacher. When responding, students should speak, not only to the teacher, but also to their peers. Frequent use should be made of probes, prompts, and redirecting techniques. 'Wait time," the pause between asking a question and soliciting a response, should be used to advantage by the teacher to increase participation and improve the quality of student responses. An important aspect of the question and answer method is the wording of questions in order to help students think more deeply about the material or unit under study.

B. Small Group Interaction
Small groups are particularly effective when the intention is to develop social as well as academic abilities. In a small group, everyone has an opportunity to contribute. Students get more chances to talk, listen, and receive feedback than would be possible in whole-class instruction.

Co-operative Learning Group
The basic elements of co-operative learning can be considered essential to all interactive methods. Student groups are small, usually consisting of two to six members. Grouping is heterogeneous with respect to student characteristics. Group members share the various roles and are interdependent in achieving the group learning goal. While the academic task is of primary importance, students also learn the importance of maintaining group health and harmony, and respecting individual views.

A substantial body of research has shown that co-operative learning is effective. Johnson and Johnson (1989) state:

Co-operative learning experiences, compared to competitive and individualistic ones, promote higher achievement, greater motivation, more positive interpersonal relations among students, more positive attitudes toward the subject area and teacher,greater self esteem and psychological health, more accurate perspective taking, and greater social skills (p. 8-9).

In addition, Slavin (1987) indicates that two conditions must be established if cooperative learning is to fulfill its claim of enhancing student achievement substantially. Slavin believes that "students must be working toward a common goal . . . [and] success at achieving the goal must depend on the individual learning of all group members" (p.9).

Co-operative learning can take place in a variety of circumstances. For example, brainstorming and tutorial groups, when employed as instructional strategies, provide opportunities to develop co-operative learning skills and attitudes.

Strategy: Experiential Learning

Simulation
To initiate a simulation, the teacher presents an artificial problem, situation, or event that represents some aspect of reality. Because the experience is a simulation, any serious risk or complication that may be associated with the real life phenomenon is removed. In addition, the level of abstraction or complexity is purposefully reduced so that students may become directly involved with underlying concepts. Simulation also allows for types of experimentation that cannot take place in the real environment. The simulation method may involve the use of models, game formats, structured role plays, or an interactive computer or video program. In most instances, students are easily motivated to participate.

During simulation activities, students become active participants in the learning process. A variety of learning objectives may be associated with the simulation. Some focus on the application of previous knowledge, skills, and abilities, while others emphasize the acquisition of new knowledge, understandings, insights, and appreciations. Many simulation activities promote and develop critical and creative thinking or involve interactions which develop interpersonal and social skills, attitudes, and values.

Focused Imaging
Imaging, the process of internally visualizing an object, event, or situation, has the potential to nurture and enhance a student's creativity (Bagley & Hess, 1987). Imaging enables students to relax and allow their imaginations to take them on journeys, to "experience" situations first hand, and to respond with their senses to the mental images formed.

In the classroom, imaging exercises nurture and develop students' creative potentials. Teachers can encourage divergent thinking by asking students to transform a teacher guided image into several others of their own creation, to imagine various solutions for spatial or design problems, or to visualize a particular scene or event and then imagine what might happen next.

Imaging provides a focus and an opportunity for open-minded exploration of new concepts in all areas of study. It can help broaden students' conceptual understanding of subject area material, especially complex concepts and processes. Imaging allows students to connect their prior experiences to new ideas under investigation.

Assigned Questions
Assigned questions are those prepared by the teacher to be answered by individuals or small groups of students. Students discuss their responses among one another or with the teacher. Particular positions or points-of-view should be supported by evidence. In some instances, it may be desirable for students to generate their own set of questions.

This instructional method is effective when questions are well-phrased so that answering involves more than mechanical searching and copying from a book or other reference. It can be an efficient way for the teacher to introduce or review facts, concepts, generalizations, arguments, and points-of-view. Well-selected assigned questions can stimulate higher-level thinking, problem solving, decision making, and personal reflection. Questions should allow for multiple responses. Because student abilities and learning styles differ, this method may require some adaptation in order to maximize learning for all students.

Learning Contracts
Learning contracts provide a method of individualizing instruction and developing student responsibility. They permit individual pacing so that students may learn at the rate at which they are able to master the material. Learning contracts can be designed so that students function at the academic levels most suitable to them and work with resource materials containing concepts and knowledge that are appropriate to their abilities and experiences. Although this method focuses on the individual, learning contracts also provide an opportunity for students to work in small groups. The teacher may select this approach for some students to support them as they learn to work independently.

When a student is first beginning to use learning contracts, the teacher provides learning objectives, identifies a choice of resources, and sets some basic time parameters for the project. As students become more experienced with learning contracts, the teacher may choose to involve them in setting the learning objectives. Learning contracts usually require that students demonstrate the new learning in some meaningful way, but students are provided choice in the selection of a method or activity.

Learning contracts can be highly motivating for students. As they become skillful in making appropriate choices and as they begin to assume more responsibility for their own learning, they become increasingly independent, learn to use resources to their advantage, and take pride in their ability to teach themselves and share their new learning with others.

Instructional Skills

Instructional skills are the most specific category of teaching behaviors. These are used constantly as part of the total process of instruction. They are necessary for procedural purposes and for structuring appropriate learning experiences for students. No matter how experienced or how effective a teacher may be, the development and refinement of these skills and processes is a continual challenge.

A variety of instructional skills and processes exist. Some are broader than others and more complex in their nature. Some factors which may influence their selection and application include student characteristics, curriculum requirements, and instructional methods. For the purpose of illustrating instructional skills, two examples follow: explaining and demonstrating, and questioning.

Explaining and Demonstrating

The teacher spends much classroom time explaining or demonstrating something to the whole class, a small group, or an individual. Student resource materials typically do not provide extensive explanations of concepts, and students often need a demonstration in order to understand procedures.

Explaining

Some explanations are given to help students acquire or deepen their understanding of a concept, while others help students understand generalizations. Concerning the former, the teacher must select an appropriate concept definition and appropriate examples and nonexamples. Regarding the latter, Shostak (1986) suggests that an explanation can show:

a cause and effect relationship (for example, to show the effect of adding an acid to a base);

that an action is governed by a rule or law (for example, to show when to capitalize a noun);

a procedure or process (for example, to show the operation of solving a mathematical equation); or,

the intent of an activity or process (for example, to show the use of foreshadowing in drama).

Demonstrating

Much student learning occurs through observing others. A demonstration provides the link between "knowing about" and "being able to do." Research reveals that demonstrations are most effective when they are accurate, when learners are able to see clearly and understand what is going on, and when brief explanations and discussion occur during the demonstration (Arenas, 1988).

Questioning

Among the instructional skills, questioning holds a place of prominence in many classrooms. When questioning is used well:

a high degree of student participation occurs as questions are widely distributed;

an appropriate mix of low and high level cognitive questions is used;

student understanding is increased;

student thinking is stimulated, directed, and extended;

feedback and appropriate reinforcement occur;

students' critical thinking abilities are honed; and,

student creativity is fostered.

Good questions should be carefully planned, clearly stated, and to the point in order to achieve specific objectives. Teacher understanding of questioning technique, wait time, and levels of questions is essential. Teachers should also understand that asking and responding to questions is viewed differently by different cultures. The teacher must be sensitive to the cultural needs of the students and aware of the effects of his or her own cultural perspective in questioning. In addition, teachers should realize that direct questioning might not be an appropriate technique for all students.

Questioning Technique

The teacher should begin by obtaining the attention of the students before the question is asked. The question should be addressed to the entire class before a specific student is asked to respond. Calls for responses should be distributed among volunteers and non-volunteers, and the teacher should encourage students to speak to the whole class when responding. However, the teacher must be sensitive to each student's willingness to speak publicly and never put a student on the spot.

Wait Time

Wait time is defined as the pause between asking the question and soliciting a response. Providing additional wait time after a student response also allows all students to reflect on the response prior to further discussion. Increased wait time results in longer student responses, more appropriate unsolicited responses, more student questions, and increased higher order responses. It should be noted that increased wait time is beneficial for students who speak English as a second language or English as a second dialect.

Levels of Questions

While the need for factual recall or comprehension must be recognized, teachers also need to challenge students with higher level questions requiring analysis, synthesis, or evaluation. The consideration of level is applicable at all grade levels and in all subject areas. All students need the opportunity to think about and respond to all levels of questions. Teacher probes or requests for clarification may be required to move students to higher levels of thinking and deeper levels of understanding.

Summary

Because there are so many variables for teachers to consider when making decisions about teaching and learning, it is essential that they have a conceptual base for understanding Saskatchewan's Core Curriculum and a framework for understanding the levels of instructional decisions. This chapter described the conceptual base and an instructional framework. It provided an overview of instructional models, strategies, methods, and skills. In addition, it illustrated the inter-relatedness of these four levels of the instructional framework."

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Instructional Approaches: Chapter 2: Instructional Models, Strategies, Methods, And Skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As quoted and adopted from: Saskatchewan Education. Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice Regina, SK: Saskatchewan Education. Planning a unit or lesson involves a number of instructional decisions. The teacher must identify the following: the content and processes to be addressed, the strengths, needs, and interests of students, the Common Essential Learnings that could be incorporated, and the most effective instructional approaches.

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"Education in is an on going effort towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, in order to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically, balanced and harmoniously, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral standards and who are responsible and capable of achieving a high level of personal well being to contribute to the betterment of the nation, family and society.

The quotation from the FPK "... Produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious, based on a firm belief and devotion to God..." suggested the religious factor that present in FPK. Malaysia is a multiracial and multi religion country but with Islam as the official religion in . While other religion is also freely embrace and worship by other such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and etc. At the same time based on the National Principe first sentence Believe in God is made into a part of the FPK. also focuses the importance of religion being a part of a balanced person.

Another factor is social factor that can be seen on the quotation"...to produce Malaysian citizen that are capable of achieving a high level of personal wellbeing to contribute to the betterment of the nation, family and society. is a unique land with various races inhabit here. The harmony and prosperity of the nation depends very much on the citizen's practice of tolerance, cooperation and mutual respect among the various citizens. It is through the correct practice then we can attain the peace, harmony and the stability of society and nation.

Specialization happens where Malaysians are trained with special skill in various fields can assist in the development of the national economy by upgrading their productivity. Such an aim can be accomplish with the production of individuals who are knowledgeable and competent, responsible and capable to contribute towards the betterment of the nation, family and society. The great ambition of to be economic strong country becomes the prime objective of the national education on the FPK.

Process of education is claimed to be able to develop the potential of an individuals. These individual's potentials cover all intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical aspects. Holistic development by integrating all potential of individual in such a manner that produce balanced and harmonious citizens. Following this positive attitude is tried to be inculcate in individuals, enjoy spiritual peacefulness and ever ready to face challenges in life.Thus the ambition to produce balanced and harmonious individuals was also one of the aspirations of FPK.

The last factor is International factor is International factor. Another influential that could not be ignored is the International factor that spreads their influence through international education seminars and forum that have a degree of influence in the design of FPK. One of the examples is the lifelong learning which were discussed and adapted by the UNESCO in the eighties. Its importance could be seen from the beginning where Education in is an on-going effort..., which clearly stated that the concept of lifelong learning education with the respect to globalization of educations.

International ties or also known as global cooperation also play an important key in developing a nation. A good image and relationship with other countries gain many advantageous. Because of this reason, tries to play her role in the international arena, such as contribution to peace and prosperity, fostering good relationship with other countries. This effort is made sure to be followed by future generation. Hence the national education programme is mould to produced educated, competent and high moral citizens, who will be able to serve and contribute not only to the progress of the nation but also provide their service to maintain international peace and stability.
4.0 ELEMENTS AND IMPORTANT ASPECT IN FPK
Lastly the important aspects are harmony and the prosperity of society and nation. Racial harmony can be achieve through the practice of proper attitude such as tolerance, cooperation, mutual respect and foster unity among various races in Malaysia to promote the harmonious and peaceful of the nation. The harmonious environments will help in the development of the economy and advancement of all fields. Harmonious environment encourage investor to invest in our country and also the blooming of our tourism industry.

Encourage and motivate student in learning. Be concern of the student's problem. Report to the teacher in charge based on the problem.

1. An important document for teachers and pupils to study, to understand, to heed and to follow closely.

2. Educators need to realize successfully the aims and aspirations of FPK by having profound understanding on it.

3. Is the main reference in all education planning and activities since its official proclamation in 1988.

1. Organization of the schools was to be restructured to create conducive atmosphere.

2. Upgrading existing facilities for student to develop their potentials in the aspects of intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical, harmonious and well - balanced.

3. Reorganize social activities to foster the development of the school culture. Activities that are held are believed to inculcate the noble value within student.

4. School environment is altered to encourage the love for knowledge, and finally establish learning culture among students.

5. Co curriculum activities will become an important component in the school curriculum, with the aim to develop the emotional and social aspects of the pupils, and to foster unity among various races through social interaction.

Schools in had undergone several stages of reformation on education system.

To act as agent of change to bring along innovations to fulfill the aspirations and progress of pupils, society and nation, so as to realize the objectives of National Education based on FPK.

In conclusion the National Education Philosophy (FPK) gives a very big impact on the development of education that involves the ministry of education, formation of various new concepts in education, curriculum, co-curriculum, schools, teachers and students. In addition FPK actually gives the educator a big push to betterment and great improvement in giving the aim and direct guidelines in their noble route in impart knowledge. Overall this causes a great improvement of the citizen of the nation as mention in the FPK in the formation of balanced and harmonious individuals physically, intellectual, emotional, spiritually and socially, citizen that lives in harmony , believes in god and loyal to the king and the country and other great aims as mention in FPK. As a future teacher is our great voyage in doing our best in understanding the FPK and applies it in our teaching in the future.

Through the School Based Experience done in the school I think there is some recommendation that help in pushing schools for greater improvement.

Based on the problem of obese among student there should be more action takes by the school in helping the government in solving this problem. My suggestion :

2. As emphasized in FPK in developing the spiritual development in school but there seem to be lack of effort in developing this aspect compared to intellectual aspects. The current effort is:

Soon Sang Mok (2006). Penghantar Pendidikan Teras. Subang Jaya.Kumpulan Budiman Sdn Bhd.

Soon Sang Mok (2003). An Educational Course for KPLI. Subang Jaya.Kumpulan Budiman Sdn Bhd.

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NATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION "Education in Malaysia is an on going effort towards further developing the potential of individuals in ...

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The Actualization of the Malaysian National Education Philosophy in Secondary Schools: Student and Teacher Perspectives

Abstract

In the Malaysian context, all educational processes at the national level are envisioned by the National Education Philosophy (NEP). The NEP was formed in 1988 in line with the National Principles ( Rukun Negara) with the ultimate aims of building a united and progressive society (Ministry of Education, 2001). However, there is uncertainty whether the NEP has been actualized in the educational processes, transmitted successfully by teachers to students and further personalized by students. This paper aims to report findings of study which analyzed the actualization of the NEP in government and private secondary schools based on student and teacher perspectives. The research followed a survey design through two sets of questionnaires; one for teachers and the other for students. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient value for the teacher and student questionnaire was 0.96 and 0.98 respectively. A total of 185 Form 4 students and 45 teachers from both private and government secondary schools in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia participated in this research. 77.3% of students and 64.4% of teachers rated the level of actualization of the NEP as high, with a mean score of 7.67 and 7.28 out of 10 as rated by the students and teachers respectively. The paper further discusses the finding of the study from both teacher and student perspectives. It also provides a brief discussion on the limitations of this study and on its implications. It concludes with general implications of the study to the educational processes in the country in general and to the national education system in specific.

Journal Metrics

h-index : 62
i10-index: 604

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The Actualization of the Malaysian National Education Philosophy in Secondary Schools: Student and Teacher Perspectives | Al-Hudawi | International Education Studies | CCSE

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The Actualization of the Malaysian National Education Philosophy in Secondary Schools: Student and Teacher Perspectives

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A lesson plan is a teacher's daily guide for what students need to learn, how it will be taught, and how learning will be measured.
Lesson plans help teachers be more effective in the classroom by providing a detailed outline to follow each class period.

This ensures every bit of class time is spent teaching new concepts and having meaningful discussions - not figuring it out on the fly!
The most effective lesson plans have six key parts:
Because each part of a lesson plan plays a role in the learning experience of your students, it's important to approach them with a clear plan in mind.

Let's start with the first part of every lesson plan -- the lesson objectives!

1. Lesson Objectives

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

In a more advanced class, objectives might include:

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!

2. Related Requirements

Related requirements are national, state, or school standards that dictate what you need to teach in a class.

If you teach a CTE course you likely need to tie your lessons to certification requirements as well.

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!

3. Lesson Materials

The third section on your lesson plan is the list of materials that you need to teach the lesson and measure student outcomes.
This section prepares you to deliver your lessons every day.

Without this list, you may accidentally forget to print an important document or sign out the shared laptop cart!

Common types of lesson materials include:

The list of materials for each lesson depends on what you plan to teach, how you'll teach it, and how you'll measure lesson objectives.

Because of this, many teachers compile their list of lesson materials in tandem with their lesson procedure!

4. Lesson Procedure

Your lesson procedure is an in-depth explanation of how the lesson will progress in the classroom.
The lesson procedure is essentially step-by-step instructions that walk you through everything from the time students enter the classroom until the bell rings at the end of the period.

It's smart to be very detailed in this portion of your lesson plan. After all, there will be cases when another teacher or substitute needs to fill in for you!

When writing your lesson procedure, you need to choose the type of activities that will help students meet the lesson objectives.

To do that, you can answer a list of questions, including:

How will you introduce the topic?

What's the best way to teach this information to your students?

How can you incorporate problem solving and critical thinking?

What real-life scenarios relate to this topic?

It's also a great idea to find out how other teachers address the topics in the classroom. You can do this by talking to coworkers, joining an online community, or searching for lesson ideas on educational blogs.

After writing out a rough draft of your lesson procedure, many teachers outline it according to a specific teaching strategy.

At AES, we recommend teachers use the four phases:

Phase 1 - Explore
In the Explore phase of your lesson, you'll introduce the objectives of the lesson and discuss key concepts students should know.
This portion of your lesson procedure may entail an icebreaker activity to get students thinking about a new concept.

In other cases, you might introduce the information by using a presentation to lecture while your students take notes.

Ultimately, the strategy you use in the Explore phase will depend on the topics you'll be teaching and your students' prior knowledge.

Phase 2 - Learn & Practice
In the Learn & Practice phase, your students will work independently to get into the details of your lesson.
If you use a textbook as your main curriculum resource, your students can read through an assigned passage to take notes or complete a worksheet.

If you use a digital curriculum system, it's the perfect time for students to work through the digital lessons and guided notes.

You may also incorporate a class activity, group work, or skills practice to further engage your students in what they're learning.

Overall, this phase will make up the bulk of your lesson time, so be sure to detail everything out in your lesson procedure!

Phase 3 - Reflect
In the Reflect phase, students will look back (and reflect on) what they've learned in the lesson.
Most often, teachers lead a class discussion with critical thinking questions for students to answer aloud or in their class journal.

It's important to list the questions you plan to ask within the lesson procedure, to make sure you don't forget anything!

Phase 4 - Reinforce
In the Reinforce phase, students will apply what they've learned through critical thinking activities.
Depending on the lesson, you may want students to complete these tasks individually or as part of a group.

This portion of the lesson procedure helps you gauge if your students will achieve the lesson objectives and often tie in with the assessment method!

5. Assessment Method

The assessment method measures whether your students learned a lesson's information and met your lesson objectives.
The methods listed on your lesson plan will most often be formative assessments and vary from lesson to lesson.

To start, there are dozens of ways to measure student learning through formative assessments. Some of the most common assessment options include:

In addition, your assessment method may be an in-class assignment or homework for students to complete prior to the next class.

When choosing your assessment method, it's important to incorporate your lesson objectives.

If an objective was related to understanding a concept, consider an assessment that requires students to explain that concept.

If an objective was for students to demonstrate a skill, design an assessment to confirm they can do that skill.

Also, while many assessments receive grades in a class, formative assessments don't always need to be graded!

Ultimately, the purpose of this assessment is to measure how well your students learned a lesson's material based on the way you presented information.

This measurement will help you wrap up each lesson plan with the lesson reflection.

6. Lesson Reflection

The lesson reflection portion of a lesson plan encourages teachers to take notes on how to improve a lesson after it has been completed.
By this point, your lesson has clear objectives, a plan for teaching, and a way to assess student learning.

But if you don't critically consider whether you succeeded, you're doing a disservice to your future students!

When completing your lesson reflection, ask yourself questions like:

Did a part of the lesson take longer than expected?

Was there a portion that students asked for a lot of help with?

Did students breeze through the information with no problem?

Were students engaged and interested in the lesson?

Essentially, you want to note any part of your lesson that didn't go as expected.

In addition, it's smart to record ideas for improvement or adjustments in this section as well.

That way, when you go to teach your lessons in the future, you have all of the information for improvement in one place!

Lessons Are Just the Beginning

Lesson plans are the first steps in creating a full-fledged curriculum for a class.

They dig into the details that ensure you teach the right information to your students at the right time, and they simplify your career by giving you a roadmap to follow each and every day.

But what about the big picture?

This is one of the hardest parts of teaching for educators throughout the world. It's not just the individual lessons that need your attention - it's the class as a whole!
To do that, you need to create a curriculum.
So where do you start?

Learn how to create your own curriculum now!

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What Is a Lesson Plan and How Do You Make One?

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Need to create lesson plans, but have no idea where to start? Learn the 6 key parts of every lesson plan and how to create one!

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7 Components of an Effective Classroom Lesson Plan

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Whether you teach in one or several content areas, lesson plans matter. The quality of your lesson plans will in great part determine how efficiently class time is used and how much content your students learn.

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7 Effective Teaching Strategies For The Classroom

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Teaching Strategies we are Using Inside the Classroom

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Teaching & Learning - University of Tasmania, Australia

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Constructive alignment diagram, Beale Gurney & Nell Rundle, CC BY-SA
"Constructive alignment is a design for teaching in which what it is intended students should learn and how they should express their learning is clearly stated before teaching takes place. Teaching is then designed to engage students in learning activities that optimise their chances of achieving those outcomes, and assessment tasks are designed to enable clear judgments as to how well those outcomes have been attained" (Biggs, 2014, pp. 5-6).

The constructive alignment approach recognises "knowledge is constructed by the activities of the learner" (Biggs, 2014, p. 9) rather than being directly transferable from teacher to student. "Learning takes place through the active behavior of the student: it is what he does that he learns, not what the teacher does." (Tyler, 1949)

Alignment occurs when the learning activities that we ask students to engage in help them to develop the knowledge, skills and understandings intended for the unit and measured by our assessment. A constructively aligned unit capitalises on the powerful effect of assessment on students' learning experiences. If assessment drives students' learning, then students are most likely to achieve our intended outcomes if the assessment is aligned with our intentions.

The framework of constructive alignment is represented in the University's recommended approach to unit design:

1. Identify the intended learning outcomes

2. Design assessment tasks to measure attainment of the learning outcomes

3. Plan learning activities to enable students to develop the skills, knowledge and understandings described in the intended learning outcomes and measured by assessment

4. Choose the content (topics/examples/resources/materials) required to support the learning activities

The MyLO Module PLaNT: Constructive Alignment provides an opportunity to explore constructive alignment and its application to your teaching practice. Modules can be accessed through Discover Course Catalog in MyLO.

References

Biggs, J. (2014). Constructive alignment in university teaching. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 1, 5-22.

Tyler, R.W. (1949). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Constructive alignment diagram, Beale Gurney & Nell Rundle, CC BY-SA "Constructive alignment is a design for teaching in which what it is intended students should learn and how they should express their learning is clearly stated before teaching takes place.

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Aligning assessments to subject learning outcomes is about making sure students build the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.

About learning outcomes

Subject learning outcomes set out the key knowledge and skills our students need to master. They're developed through consultation and accreditation processes.

As academics, we need to make sure:

our teaching and learning activities help students learn the identified knowledge and skills

students have mastered the knowledge and skills before they move onto the next step, whether that's a new session or a professional workplace.

Elements of a subject learning outcome

Subject learning outcomes include:

an action or skill, usually identified through a verb such as describe, analyse, evaluate, design or create which indicates the development of skill which can be a cognitive skill or one used in professional practice

an area of knowledge

a context, such as a professional environment or practice in which the student can apply the skills and knowledge.

Each element is highlighted in the example below:

Be able to evaluate (action) digital media content (area of knowledge) from the perspective of consumers and producers (context).

How to analyse a learning outcome

Analysing your learning outcome is the first step in choosing your assessment method. To analyse a learning outcome:

Identify the skills or actions you want students to demonstrate. Is it a cognitive skill or a professional or practical skill?

Think about the level of thinking you want students to demonstrate. Are they lower order thinking skills or higher order thinking skills?

The level of thinking is related to the verb in the learning outcome indicating what skill the student is expected to achieve. Look at Revised Blooms Taxonomy to get a sense of what each level might be expected to do in relation to your learning outcome.

It's also essential that the learning outcomes meet the level of learning required by the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Examples of terminology usually associated with each level of taxonomy are listed below.

Reflective checklist

Review your subject's learning outcomes and assessment tasks and ask yourself:

Do the learning outcomes articulate the knowledge, skills and application students need to learn in this subject?

Do the assessment tasks give students an opportunity to show they've met the subject's learning outcomes? That is, does the task make sense in light of the subject learning outcomes?

Is each outcome covered in at least one assessment task?

Is the assessment task clearly described in plain English? Does it include clear guidance on the required content and format?

Does the name of the task match the description? For example, an essay task that asks for an executive summary and other subheadings should be called a report.

Can you make the assessment tasks more authentic? That is, do the tasks you've chosen reflect how a graduate would apply this knowledge in the workplace?

For more information on reviewing assessment items, visit Assessment review.

Changing subject learning outcomes

Subject learning outcomes (SLOs) align with the Course Level Outcomes (CLOs) to support the achievement of these by the end of a course. Each subject plays a part in ensuring students meet the CLOs, and their assessment tasks are the evidence for this. SLOs are most often reviewed and adjusted as an outcome of a comprehensive course review.

Sometimes, however, SLOs need to be adjusted for currency, accreditation and clarity. There is a process to follow to ensure that any changes do not impact the mapping to CLOs, or to external accreditation requirements.

These are the steps required to do this:

Collaborate with the discipline team, subject convenor and teaching team.

Review the knowledge, skills and application in the subject and make adjustments to ensure alignment with the SLOs. Review the assessment tasks to inform decisions about changes within the subject.

If a change to the subject learning outcomes (SLO) is still required, consult with the Course Director for their course-wide perspective.

If a modification is required, you will need to follow the approval processes, working with the Course Director to complete the necessary steps.

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Aligning assessments to subject learning outcomes is about making sure students build the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. Subject learning outcomes set out the key knowledge and skills our students need to master. They're developed through consultation and accreditation processes.

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*Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.

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Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.

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As a framework to support teaching and learning, Bloom's taxonomy is the most widely used and enduring tool through which to think about students' learning. Originally created by the American educational psychologist, Benjamin Bloom in 1956, Bloom's taxonomy provides a hierarchical ordering of cognitive skills and is used worldwide to help inform successful teaching practice.

The creation of Bloom's taxonomy after the Second World War reflects the increasing importance of formal education to industrialised society. In a world in which formal education began to play a greater role than ever before, Bloom's taxonomy quickly became popular as a way to formalise teaching and learning practices, help write exams and develop curricula.

The fact that Bloom's taxonomy can be applied to any (cognitive) content intended for students to learn, is what makes this framework so powerful. It can be seen, to a greater or lesser extent, in all mark schemes and assessment objectives provided by all examining bodies in almost any curriculum subject. For teachers, Bloom's taxonomy is a practical tool to use, providing a framework in which to plan challenging lessons that help to ensure students' progress is maximised - a fundamental tenet of successful teaching. Among its many uses, Bloom's taxonomy provides an excellent foundation for lessons, as it can be used as a framework in which to deliver appropriate activities, assessment, questioning, objectives and outcomes.

It is worth taking the time therefore, to become familiar with the categories of the taxonomy, their order and their meaning. I illustrate Bloom's taxonomy[1] here, including some examples of keywords associated with each level (shown in italics).

Level 1, Remembering, is the most basic, requiring the least amount of cognitive rigour. This is about students recalling key information, for example, the meaning of a word.

Level 2, Understanding, is to do with students demonstrating an understanding of the facts remembered. At this level, the student who recalls the definition of a word, for example, would also be able to show understanding of the word by using it in the context of different sentences.

Level 3, Applying, is concerned with how students can take their knowledge and understanding, applying it to different situations. This usually involves students answering questions or solving problems.

Level 4, Analysing, is about students being able to draw connections between ideas, thinking critically, to break down information into the sum of its parts.

Level 5, Evaluating, is reached when students can make accurate assessments or judgements about different concepts. Students can make inferences, find effective solutions to problems and justify conclusions, while drawing on their knowledge and understanding.

Level 6, Creating, is the ultimate aim of students' learning journey. At this final level of Bloom's taxonomy, students demonstrate what they have learnt by creating something new, either tangible or conceptual. This might include, for example, writing a report, creating a computer program, or revising a process to improve its results.

As Bloom's taxonomy is a hierarchy of progressive processes ranging from the simple to the complex, in which it is necessary to first master those lower down the pyramid before being able to master those higher up, the framework promotes what Bloom termed 'mastery learning'. In other words, by moving up the taxonomy, students become more knowledgeable, more skilled and develop an improved understanding of the content they are learning. Thus, by creating lesson plans and tasks, using the examples of verbs (in italics) provided, teachers can align with the different levels of the taxonomy.

By simply moving to the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy, these verbs can serve as the basis for learning objectives, questions or activities. They describe what we want students to be able to do, cognitively, with the content about which the students are learning. The higher up the pyramid of course, the more complex are the cognitive processes involved and, as such, ask students to engage in more challenging cognitive work connected to their lesson's content. As part of successful teaching practice, it can be necessary to scale back challenge in accordance with the response it draws, moving down the taxonomy as necessary.

A lesson could be planned about the benefits of renewable resources, the Roman empire, building a website or one of Shakespeare's sonnets. In all these examples, Bloom's taxonomy can be applied. An important point to consider, however, is that there can be occasions, particularly when first introducing a topic, where it is necessary to spend longer on the lower levels of the taxonomy. On such occasions, we do not seek to scale multiple levels of the taxonomy in a single lesson, instead choosing to do this over the course of a few lessons, due to the nature of the content (Gershon, 2015, pp. 103).

For example, for a series of Computing lessons that teach students how to build a webpage, the first lesson could explain to them about HTML, leading to a discussion about an example of HTML script and how it translates into a webpage (Level 1 - Remembering), before asking them to explain the purpose of different parts of the HTML script (Level 2 - Understanding). Students would move on to applying their knowledge and understanding of HTML, to begin building their own basic webpage, requiring them to solve any problems in their script (Level 3 - Applying), and then investigating additional features that could be added to their webpage (Level 4 - Analysing). As the lessons continue, students could be challenged further to critique their website, assessing its strengths and how it could be improved (Level 5 - Understanding). At the pinnacle of Bloom's taxonomy, it would be expected for students to create something completely new or original, producing a website that fulfils a particular purpose (Level 6 - Creating).

Similarly, for a series of literacy lessons looking at John Yeats' poem, 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', the following tasks could be set according to each category of Bloom's taxonomy. After reading the poem together as a class, students could be asked to recite the first stanza of this poem (Level 1 - Remembering), before being asked where Yeats would like to be, London or the Lake Isle of Innisfree (Level 2 - Understanding). Afterwards, students could move on by describing the structure of Yeats' poem, explaining his use of rhythm and rhyme (Level 3 - Applying). In the subsequent lesson, students might be asked to analyse the mood of this poem, exploring how mood is created (Level 4 - Analysing). Later on, students could be asked to pick one of the images from the poem, evaluating its effectiveness (Level 5 - Evaluating). Finally, an appropriate activity to this finish off the topic might be to get the students to write their own poem on a similar theme (Level 6 - Creating).

Another point to make clear is that the separate processes of the taxonomy can be adapted according to the age-group and ability of students, enabling them to access the different levels of taxonomy according to the overall depth of their cognition. Level 6, Creating, for example, is obviously not going to be the same for a five-year old as it would be for a sixteen-year old. Nevertheless, the hierarchy of the different levels of the taxonomy remains the same.

In this way, Bloom's taxonomy is related to Bruner's notion of the spiral curriculum. This idea posits that students should return to key concepts and ideas at different points on their learning journey, each time meeting them at a more advanced stage of development. At whatever depth of cognition students access their lesson's content then, Bloom's taxonomy can help teachers to ensure that students are challenged.
Activities & Questioning
Activities and questioning are the fundamental tools all teachers use daily. Both activities and questioning require students to use different cognitive processes to interact with lesson content. The quality of activities set and questions asked has a direct impact on the progress that students make. By aligning these with Bloom's taxonomy, cognitive demands are made on students, which can facilitate more challenge and help ensure rapid learning.

In the tables that follow, I provide exemplar question stems and sample activities for each level of Bloom's taxonomy. Having made several minor changes, I have assembled these tables using ideas from Dalton & Smith (1986), adapting their work according to the revised taxonomy. Although these lists are not exhaustive, they do provide an excellent starting point for how to use Bloom's taxonomy in the classroom.

As a final example, let's take a look at a stepped questioning activity, in which a series of questions are asked (written down or verbally) that gradually move up the levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Such an activity could be carried out during one single lesson:

1. What can you remember about the story? (Remembering)

2. Summarise the story in your own words. (Understanding)

3. Suggest how the main lessons in this story could help other young people. (Applying)

4. Why did the different characters in the story behave the way that they did? (Analysing)

5. Evaluate the strength of the main character's decision to leave. (Evaluating)

6. Rewrite the ending of this story, to show a different outcome. (Creating)

The framework is logical: each question becomes increasingly more challenging in terms of the cognitive demand placed on students. Stepped questions like these can be set as a single activity, with students working individually or in pairs. There is differentiation by outcome, as some students will get further than others, depending on their prior knowledge and understanding.

As all these examples highlight, Bloom's taxonomy provides a strong basis for tailored questioning and bespoke activities, in which we adapt and modify questions and activities in order to more closely meet the needs of the students. For instance, the teacher could start with a series of 'remembering' (knowledge) questions or activities before moving onto a set that focus on comprehension. It may well become apparent at this stage that the students are getting stuck at this level. The point is, depending on the answers elicited, the teacher can move up the taxonomy more quickly or more slowly until the appropriate level of challenge is reached. Having arrived at the appropriate level of challenge, successful teaching would pursue question stems and relevant activities such as those listed, to help push students' cognition, or to help them become unstuck in areas that were previously too challenging.

[1] The original Bloom's taxonomy was revised in 2001 Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl. Among several changes made, the revision uses verbs (Remembering, Understanding, etc.) instead of nouns, providing learners with clearer objectives for what is expected of them. 'Synthesis' was replaced with 'Creating', and the new version also swaps the final two levels, Synthesis/Evaluation, making 'Creating' the ultimate level achievable. Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl were well placed to make these revisions; Lorin Anderson was Benjamin Bloom's former student, and David Krathwohl was one of Bloom's partners who helped to devise the classic cognitive taxonomy. I refer here only to the new version.
References
Anderson, L. W & Krathwohl, D. R., eds. 2001. A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Allyn and Bacon.

Bloom, B. S., Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., Krathwohl, D. R. 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.

Gershon, M. 2015. How to use Bloom's Taxonomy in the Classroom - The Complete Guide.

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Applying Bloom's Taxonomy to the Classroom - Technology for Learners

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As a framework to support teaching and learning, Bloom's taxonomy is the most widely used and enduring tool through which to think about students'

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If you're conducting research on a topic, you'll use various strategies and methods to gather information and come to a conclusion.

Two of those methods are inductive and deductive reasoning.

So what's the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning, when should you use each method, and is one better than the other?

We'll answer those questions and give you some examples of both types of reasoning in this article.

What is Inductive Reasoning?

The method behind inductive reasoning

When you're using inductive reasoning to conduct research, you're basing your conclusions off your observations. You gather information - from talking to people, reading old newspapers, observing people, animals, or objects in their natural habitat, and so on.

Inductive reasoning helps you take these observations and form them into a theory. So you're starting with some more specific information (what you've seen/heard) and you're using it to form a more general theory about the way things are.

What does the inductive reasoning process look like?

You can think of this process as a reverse funnel - starting with more specifics and getting broader as you reach your conclusions (theory).

Some people like to think of it as a "bottom up" approach (meaning you're starting at the bottom with the info and are going up to the top where the theory forms).

Here's an example of an inductive argument:

Observation (premise): My Welsh Corgis were incredibly stubborn and independent (specific observation of behavior).
Observation (premise): My neighbor's Corgis are the same way (another specific observation of behavior).
Theory: All Welsh Corgis are incredibly stubborn and independent (general statement about the behavior of Corgis).

As you can see, I'm basing my theory on my observations of the behavior of a number of Corgis. Since I only have a small amount of data, my conclusion or theory will be quite weak.

If I was able to observe the behavior of 1000 Corgis (omg that would be amazing), my conclusion would be stronger - but still not certain. Because what if 10 of them were extremely well-behaved and obedient? Or what if the 1001st Corgi was?

So, as you can see, I can make a general statement about Corgis being stubborn, but I can't say that ALL of them are.

What can you conclude with inductive reasoning?

As I just discussed, one of the main things to know about inductive reasoning is that any conclusions you make from inductive research will not be 100% certain or confirmed.

Let's talk about the language we use to describe inductive arguments and conclusions. You can have a strong argument (if your premise(s) are true, meaning your conclusion is probably true). And that argument becomes cogent if the conclusion ends up being true.

Still, even if the premises of your argument are true, and that means that your conclusion is probably true, or likely true, or true much of the time - it's not certain.

And - weirdly enough - your conclusion can still be false even if all your premises are true (my Corgis were stubborn, my neighbor's corgis were stubborn, perhaps a friend's Corgis and the Queen of England's Corgis were stubborn...but that doesn't guarantee that all Corgis are stubborn).

How to make your inductive arguments stronger

If you want to make sure your inductive arguments are as strong as possible, there are a couple things you can do.

First of all, make sure you have a large data set to work with. The larger your sample size, the stronger (and more certain/conclusive) your results will be. Again, thousands of Corgis are better than four (I mean, always, amiright?).

Second, make sure you're taking a random and representative sample of the population you're studying. So, for example, don't just study Corgi puppies (cute as they may be). Or show Corgis (theoretically they're better trained). You'd want to make sure you looked at Corgis from all walks of life and of all ages.

If you want to dig deeper into inductive reasoning, look into the three different types - generalization, analogy, and causal inference. You can also look into the two main methods of inductive reasoning, enumerative and eliminative. But those things are a bit out of the scope of this beginner's guide. :)

What is Deductive Reasoning?

The method behind deductive reasoning

In order to use deductive reasoning, you have to have a theory to begin with. So inductive reasoning usually comes before deductive in your research process.

Once you have a theory, you'll want to test it to see if it's valid and your conclusions are sound. You do this by performing experiments and testing your theory, narrowing down your ideas as the results come in. You perform these tests until only valid conclusions remain.

What does the deductive reasoning process look like?

You can think of this as a proper funnel - you start with the broad open top end of the funnel and get more specific and narrower as you conduct your deductive research.

Some people like to think of this as a "top down" approach (meaning you're starting at the top with your theory, and are working your way down to the bottom/specifics). I think it helps to think of this as " reductive" reasoning - you're reducing your theories and hypotheses down into certain conclusions.

Here's an example of a deductive argument:

We'll use a classic example of deductive reasoning here - because I used to study Greek Archaeology, history, and language:

Theory: All men are mortal
Premise: Socrates is a man
Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal

As you can see here, we start off with a general theory - that all men are mortal. (This is assuming you don't believe in elves, fairies, and other beings...)

Then we make an observation (develop a premise) about a particular example of our data set (Socrates). That is, we say that he is a man, which we can establish as a fact.

Finally, because Socrates is a man, and based on our theory, we conclude that Socrates is therefore mortal (since all men are mortal, and he's a man).

You'll notice that deductive reasoning relies less on information that could be biased or uncertain. It uses facts to prove the theory you're trying to prove. If any of your facts lead to false premises, then the conclusion is invalid. And you start the process over.

What can you conclude with deductive reasoning?

Deductive reasoning gives you a certain and conclusive answer to your original question or theory. A deductive argument is only valid if the premises are true. And the arguments are sound when the conclusion, following those valid arguments, is true.

To me, this sounds a bit more like the scientific method. You have a theory, test that theory, and then confirm it with conclusive/valid results.

To boil it all down, in deductive reasoning:

"If all premises are true, the terms are clear, and the rules of deductive logic are followed, then the conclusion reached is necessarily true." (Source)

So Does Sherlock Holmes Use Inductive or Deductive Reasoning?

Sherlock Holmes is famous for using his deductive reasoning to solve crimes. But really, he mostly uses inductive reasoning. Now that we've gone through what inductive and deductive reasoning are, we can see why this is the case.

Let's say Sherlock Holmes is called in to work a case where a woman was found dead in her bed, under the covers, and appeared to be sleeping peacefully. There are no footprints in the carpet, no obvious forced entry, and no immediately apparent signs of struggle, injury, and so on.

Sherlock observes all this as he looks in, and then enters the room. He walks around the crime scene making observations and taking notes. He might talk to anyone who lives with her, her neighbors, or others who might have information that could help him out.

Then, once he has all the info he needs, he'll come to a conclusion about how the woman died.

That pretty clearly sounds like an inductive reasoning process to me.

Now you might say - what if Sherlock found the "smoking gun" so to speak? Perhaps this makes his arguments and process seem more deductive.

But still, remember how he gets to his conclusions: starting with observations and evidence, processing that evidence to come up with a hypothesis, and then forming a theory (however strong/true-seeming) about what happened.

How to Use Inductive and Deductive Reasoning Together

As you might be able to tell, researchers rarely just use one of these methods in isolation. So it's not that deductive reasoning is better than inductive reasoning, or vice versa - they work best when used in tandem.

Often times, research will begin inductively. The researcher will make their observations, take notes, and come up with a theory that they want to test.

Then, they'll come up with ways to definitively test that theory. They'll perform their tests, sort through the results, and deductively come to a sure conclusion.

So if you ever hear someone say "I deduce that x happened", they better make sure they're working from facts and not just observations. :)

TL;DR: Inductive vs Deductive Reasoning - What are the Main Differences?

Inductive reasoning:

Based on observations, conversations, stuff you've read

Starts with information/evidence and works towards a broader theory

Arguments can be strong and cogent, but never valid or sound (that is, certain)

Premises can all be true, but conclusion doesn't have to be true

Deductive reasoning:

Based on testing a theory, narrowing down the results, and ending with a conclusion

Starts with a broader theory and works towards certain conclusion

Arguments can be valid/invalid or sound/unsound, because they're based on facts

If premises are true, conclusion has to be true

And here's a cool and helpful chart if you're a visual learner:

That's about it!

Now, if you need to conduct some research, you should have a better idea of where to start - and where to go from there.

Just remember that induction is all about observing, hypothesizing, and forming a theory. Deducing is all about taking that (or any) theory, boiling it down, and testing until a certain conclusion(s) is all that remains.

Happy reasoning!

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Inductive VS Deductive Reasoning - The Meaning of Induction and Deduction, with Argument Examples

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If you're conducting research on a topic, you'll use various strategies and methods to gather information and come to a conclusion. Two of those methods are inductive and deductive reasoning. So what's the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning, when should you use each method, and is one better than

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Inductive arguments are an essential tool for living in a world where we make decisions based on predictions but without absolute certainty. Inductive arguments cannot logically guarantee the truth of a conclusion. If we can't guarantee truth, the best we can do is use terms like "probable" or "highly likely." Often, we ignore that in our day-to-day speech and written communication, but it's a key point to remember.

Inductive arguments can't guarantee the truth of a conclusion because they're based on experience, which is always limited.

Inductive arguments move from specific to general. A deductive argument is one that moves from general to specific.

We begin with a general (universal) claim, which happens to be a definition (a dog is a mammal), and we end up with a specific conclusion about an individual dog, Buddy.

With an inductive argument, we start instead with specific pieces of evidence and then we move to a generalization.

The premises of an inductive argument are believed to support the conclusion, but do not ensure it. Thus, the conclusion of an induction is regarded as a hypothesis.

Being able to distinguish between deductive and inductive arguments, and to be aware that no inductive arguments can be logically absolutely true, but at most highly probable, is a first step for the evaluation of an argument.

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Inductive arguments are an essential tool for living in a world where we make decisions based on predictions but without absolute certainty. Inductive arguments cannot logically guarantee the truth of a conclusion. If we can't guarantee truth, the best we can do is use terms like "probable" or "highly likely."

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Direct instruction - A practical guide to effective teaching

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According to
research,
direct instruction is one of the most effective teaching strategies. Although
often misunderstood, students who are taught using the direct instruction
method perform better in reading, maths, and spelling than those who weren’t.

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Contructivist Teaching and Learning
By: Audrey Gray

SSTA Research Centre Report #97-07: 25 pages, $11.

Back to: Instruction

The SSTA Research Centre grants permission to reproduce up to three copies of each report for personal use. Each copy must acknowledge the author and the SSTA Research Centre as the source. A complete and authorized copy of each report is available from the SSTA Research Centre.
The opinions and recommendations expressed in this report are those of the author and may not be in agreement with SSTA officers or trustees, but are offered as being worthy of consideration by those responsible for making decisions.

Constructivist Teaching and Learning

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction rather than passively receiving information. Learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. Constructivist teaching fosters critical thinking and creates motivated and independent learners.

This report examines constructivist teaching and learning by looking at the distinctive features of a constructivist programme, the qualities of a constructivist teacher, and the organization of a constructivist classroom. A constructivist teacher and classroom differ from a traditional classroom in a number of ways: the learners are interactive and student-centered; and the teacher facilitates a process of learning in which students are encouraged to be responsible and autonomous.

Part One of this report provides a definition of an a rationale for constructivist teaching. Part Two examines the characteristic features of a constructivist classroom interweaving the research literature on constructivist teaching with the narrated experiences of a practising constructivist teacher. Part Three presents a discussion of the professional development of a constructivist teacher. Part Four considers implications of and possibilities for this research on constructivist teaching and suggests recommendations for schools, colleges and school boards.
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Constructivist Teaching and Learning

This report presents a summary of a Master's thesis by Audrey Gray, University of Saskatchewan, entitled "'The Road to Knowledge is Always Under Construction': A Life History Journey to Constructivist Teaching".

The research in "'The Road to Knowledge is Always Under Construction': A Life History Journey to Constructivist Teaching" explores the journey of Pat Gray, a Saskatoon English language arts teacher, towards the development of a constructivist approach to teaching. It looks at the influences, incidents, and insights that prompted Pat to make changes in the direction of constructivism, focuses on his growth and development of a constructivist approach, and explores the ways he incorporates constructivist ideas and strategies into his teaching practices.

Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction as opposed to passively receiving information. Learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. Construcivist teaching fosters critical thinking, and creates motivated and independent learners.

This summary report examines constructivist teaching and learning by looking at the distinctive features of a constructivist programme, the qualities of a constructivist teacher, and the organization of a constructivist classroom. A constructivist teacher and a constructivist classroom are distinguished from a traditional teacher and classroom by a number of identifiable qualities: the learners are actively involved; the environment is

democratic; the activities are interactive and student-centered; and the teacher facilitates a process of learning in which students are encouraged to be responsible and autonomous.

Pat's developmental transition from traditional forms of instruction to a constructivist approach to teaching provides insight into the process of teacher change and development. The research shows that, for Pat, change to a constructivist approach to teaching was a developmental process that occurred over time and involved a paradigm shift. The research raises questions about the process of teacher change and development that have implications for the way constructivist and transactional curricula are implemented.

Part One of this report provides a definition of and a rationale for constructivist teaching. Part Two examines the characteristic features of a constructivist classroom interweaving the research literature and the significant findings of constructivist teaching. Part Three presents a discussion of the professional development of a constructivist teacher. Part Four considers implications and possibilities resulting from this research on constructivst teaching and suggests recommendations for schools, colleges and school boards.
Table of Contents
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

What is Constructivism?

Constructivism is a view of learning based on the belief that knowledge isn't a thing that can be simply given by the teacher at the front of the room to students in their desks. Rather, knowledge is constructed by learners through an active, mental process of development; learners are the builders and creators of meaning and knowledge. Constructivism draws on the develomental work of Piaget (1977) and Kelly (1991). Twomey Fosnot (1989) defines constructivism by reference to four principles: learning, in an important way, depends on what we already know; new ideas occur as we adapt and change our old ideas; learning involves inventing ideas rather than mechanically accumulating facts; meaningful learning occurs through rethinking old ideas and coming to new conclusions about new ideas which conflict with our old ideas. A productive, constructivist classroom, then, consists of learner-centered, active instruction. In such a classroom, the teacher provides students with experiences that allow them to hypothesize, predict, manipulate objects, pose questions, research, investigate, imagine, and invent. The teacher's role is to facilitate this process.

Piaget (1977) asserts that learning occurs by an active construction of meaning, rather than by passive recipience. He explains that when we, as learners, encounter an experience or a situation that conflicts with our current way of thinking, a state of disequilibrium or imbalance is created. We must then alter our thinking to restore equilibrium or balance. To do this, we make sense of the new information by associating it with what we already know, that is, by attempting to assimilate it into our existing knowledge. When we are unable to do this, we accommodate the new information to our old way of thinking by restructuring our present knowledge to a higher level of thinking.

Similar to this is Kelly's theory of personal constructs (Kelly, 1991). Kelly proposes that we look at the world through mental constructs or patterns which we create. We develop ways of construing or understanding the world based on our experiences. When we encounter a new experience, we attempt to fit these patterns over the new experience. For example, we know from experience that when we see a red traffic light, we are supposed to stop. The point is that we create our own ways of seeing the world in which we live; the world does not create them for us.

Constructivist beliefs have recently been applied to teaching and learning in the classroom.
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Why Is Constructivism Important?

Educational curricula and teaching methods are changing. One component of the current redevelopment of all subject area curricula is the change in focus of instruction from the transmission curriculum to a transactional curriculum. In a traditional curriculum, a teacher transmits information to students who passively listen and acquire facts. In a transactional curriculum, students are actively involved in their learning to reach new understandings.

Constructivist teaching fosters critical thinking and creates active and motivated learners. Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde (1993) tell us that learning in all subject areas involves inventing and constructing new ideas. They suggest that constructivist theory be incorporated into the curriculum, and advocate that teachers create environments in which children can construct their own understandings . Twomey Fosnot (1989) recommends that a constructivist approach be used to create learners who are autonomous, inquisitive thinkers who question, investigate, and reason. A constructivist approach frees teachers to make decisions that will enhance and enrich students' development" in these areas. These are goals that are consistent with those stated by Saskatchewan Education in the the 1984 government report, Directions, that launched the restructuring of Saskatchewan's curricula. This demonstrates that constructivism is evident in current educational change.
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PART TWO: CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING AND LEARNING

Pat Gray, a Saskatoon teacher, has intuitively acquired a constructivist theory of teaching English language arts over the course of his career. While many people struggle with the concept of transactional instruction, Pat, for many years, has been experimenting with a variety of transactional instructional forms. Making students active agents in their learning appears to be something that he does naturally.

A Classroom Example of Constructivist Teaching

As a researcher of constructivist teaching, I visited Pat Gray's classroom. His secondary language arts programme exemplified the attributes of constructivist teaching: learner-centered instruction in a democratic environment; active learners who build and create meaning and knowledge; learners who hypothesize, question, investigate, imagine and invent; learners who reflect and make associations with prior knowledge to reach new understandings.

Colourfully illustrated children's dictionaries, student-created serial postcards storying imaginary holiday adventures, and visual responses to poetry decorated the hallway leading into Pat's classroom. In the classroom itself, an abundance of student work was displayed throughout the room. Posted on all available bulletin board space was an uncommon and diverse array of written and visual student productions, sometimes several revised drafts of a written creation being exhibited to demonstrate the process involved in the product. In one corner of the ceiling was a compelling mobile, an imaginative and sensitive response to literature, as evidenced by the representation of characters, Laura, Amanda, Tom, and Jim, the characters from Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. There they hung, delicately suspended in their own separate worlds, connected only by a thin filament of thread, the infrangible ties of family and past history. And at the back and center of the room was an imposing five foot tall oak tree! With some ordinary construction paper, marking pens, and an interesting and resourceful treatment of various other types of art materials, an inventive group of students had depicted an intriguing and fascinating response to To Kill A Mockingbird . The oak tree was, in fact, a museum to house important artifacts from the story.

A number of years prior to this visit, I had been a guest in Pat's classroom, and the same kind of richness of student work and activity had greeted me at that time, and a warm image of an elementary classroom had been brought to mind. I remember the room was filled with red geraniums in terra cotta pots and contained round tables instead of the usual student desks, and although the first class of the day hadn't yet begun, the room already contained many configurations of grade nine students with an obvious sense of ownership of the classroom as they engaged themselves in an assortment of activities. One student busied herself watering the geraniums while two students, contorted faces pressed close to the aquarium glass, tried to engage the goldfish (Oscar and Syd Fishes, I was later informed) in a conversation. At a corner table, a huddled couple intently examined a Life magazine while next to them, a lively group of three or four students was occupied in transforming a rather large chunk of white bristol board into a lively looking collage. Their teacher was surrounded by a small group of laughing students involved in some discussion, and I remember I was impressed by the ease and comfort with which they interacted with him, and the affection they seemed to have for him, it being only the second week in September and Pat being new in the school. It was obvious to me that people enjoyed living there!

And now, as a graduate student, my research took me back to Pat's classroom where the experience, once again, was memorable.

A class of grade ten students arranged themselves in the groups in which they had been working the previous day. They were involved in a group translation into contemporary English of Julius Caesar, each of five groups translating a different act. In their attempts to modernize and present Shakespeare's work, students were required to come to an understanding of characters and events in the play, which would determine verbal and nonverbal representations. Later, the students would enact, in full costume, one scene of their choice from their contemporary constructions, with the remainder of the scenes to be presented in a readers' theatre. While the costumes for the enactment would be contemporary, the students had to make decisions regarding the most appropriate costumes for each character based on their own interpretations of and transactions with Shakespeare's text. The exercise was, as Pat later told me, an experience from which they would come to an understanding of linguistic evolution and character development. As I wandered from group to group, I encountered interesting and often entertaining discussions as students in the groups negotiated interpretations of Shakespearean discourse and debated how particular characters might say their new constructions. In the meantime, Pat was visiting each group, providing assistance where necessary, and probing to elicit personal responses and to encourage depth in their discussions.

"Who's your favourite character in your act?"

"Cassius".

"Tell me about Cassius. Why do you like him?

And so the conversation and the class continued.
Table of Contents
The Constructivist Classroom

A constructivist teacher and a constructivist classroom exhibit a number of discernable qualities markedly different from a traditional or direct instruction classroom. A constructivist teacher is able to flexibly and creatively incorporate ongoing experiences in the classroom into the negotiation and construction of lessons with small groups and individuals. The environment is democratic, the activites are interactive and student centered, and the students are empowered by a teacher who operates as a facilitator/consultant.

Constructivist classrooms are structured so that learners are immersed in experiences within which they may engage in meaning-making inquiry, action, imagination, invention, interaction, hypothesizing and personal reflection. Teachers need to recognize how people use their own experiences, prior knowledge and perceptions, as well as their physical and interpersonal environments to construct knowledge and meaning. The goal is to produce a democratic classroom environment that provides meaningful learning experiences for autonomous learners.

This perspective of learning presents an alternative view of what is regarded as knowledge, suggesting that there may be many ways of interpreting or understanding the world. No longer is the teacher is seen as an expert, who knows the answers to the questions she or he has constructed, while the students are asked to identify their teacher's constructions rather than to construct their own meanings. In a constructivist classroom, students are encouraged to use prior experiences to help them form and reform interpretations. This may be illustrated by reference to a personal response approach to literature, a constructivist strategy first articulated by Rosenblatt (1938). Rosenblatt (1978) argues for a personal and constructive response to literature whereby students' own experiences and perceptions are brought to the reading task so that in transacting with that text, the realities and interpretations which the students construct are their own. A reader response approach to literature rejects the idea that all students should necessarily come to the same interpretation of a selection of literature, that single interpretation being the teacher's or someone else's. A reader response approach allows students to explore variant interpretations, the teacher's own interpretation being only one possible interpretation in the classroom.

In a traditional classroom, an invisible and imposing, at times, impenetrable, barrier between student and teacher exists through power and practice. In a constructivist classroom, by contrast, the teacher and the student share responsibility and decision making and demonstrate mutual respect. The democratic and interactive process of a constructivist classroom allows students to be active and autonomous learners. Using constructivist strategies, teachers are more effective. They are able to promote communication and create flexibility so that the needs of all students can be met. The learning relationship in a constructivist classroom is mutually beneficial to both students and teachers.
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A Construcivist Classroom is Student-Centered

A Construcivist Classroom is a Student-Centered Classroom. The student-centeredness of a constructivist classroom is clearly apparent in a reader response approach to literature. Recognizing the significance of the unique experiences that each reader brings to the reading of a selection of literature, the teacher in a response-centered approach seeks to explore the transaction between the student and the text to promote or extract a meaningful response (Rosenblatt, 1978). This places the student in a central position in the classroom since exploring this transaction seems unlikely to occur unless the teacher is willing to relinquish the traditional position of sole authority, thereby legitimating the unique experiences that all members of the class bring to the reading rather than just those experiences the teacher brings. The resulting perception and effect in the classroom is evident in students' recognition that the discussion is a legitimate one involving questions to which nobody knows the answer. It isn't a treasure hunting game where they are trying to guess what is in their teacher's head, but a process that creates meaning and knowledge.

From a constructivist perspective, where the student is perceived as meaning-maker, teacher-centered, text-centered and skills-oriented approaches to literature instruction are replaced by more student-centered approaches where processes of understanding are emphasized. In a discussion of language arts instruction based on constructivist theories of language use and language development, Applebee (1993) suggests that

[r]ather than treating the subject of English as subject matter to be memorized, a constructivist approach treats it as a body of knowledge, skills, and strategies that must be constructed by the learner out of experiences and interactions within the social context of the classroom. In such a tradition, understanding a work of literature does not mean memorizing someone else's interpretations, but constructing and elaborating upon one's own within the constraints of the text and the conventions of the classroom discourse community. (p. 200)

A constructivist student-centered approach places more focus on students learning than on teachers teaching. A traditional perspective focuses more on teaching. From a constructivist view, knowing occurs by a process of construction by the knower. Lindfors (1984) advises that how we teach should originate from how students learn.
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Constructivism Uses a Process Approach

What is essentially involved in constructivist strategies and activities is a process approach to learning. Applebee (1993) remarks that "rather than emphasizing characteristics of the final products, process-oriented instruction focuses on the language and problem-solving strategies that students need to learn in order to generate those products" (p. 5). And as students interact with their teacher and with each other as part of either whole class activities, small group activities, or individual activities, they practise using language in a variety of contexts developing and honing many different skills as they do so.

In a process approach, Langer and Applebee (1987) explain, a context is created within which students are able to explore new ideas and experiences. Within this context, a teacher's role in providing information decreases and is replaced by a "strengthened role in eliciting and supporting students' own thinking" (p. 77) and meaning-making abilities. In a process approach to learning,

ideas are allowed to develop in the learner's own mind through a series of related, supportive activities; where taking risks and generating hypotheses are encouraged by postponing evaluation; and where new skills are learned in supportive instructional contexts. (Langer and Applebee, 1987, p. 69)

Applebee and Langer argue that in such contexts "students have the best chance to focus on the ideas they are writing about and to develop more complex thinking and reasoning skills as they defend their ideas for themselves" (p. 69).

Constructivist activities in any subject area can range from very simple to sophisticated and complex depending on the teacher's learning objectives. If a teacher were to devise a construcivist activity, the first thing that she or he would have to do is establish an educational objective. The teacher would then need to think of a meaningful activity which would, at the same time, help students to reach the objective and to explore and construct knowledge based on what they're reading and what they already bring to the activity. The teacher would also need to reexamine the mechanics of how to run a class and would have to entrust a lot to the

students. This is demonstrated in the following activity involving The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, which Pat developed to achieve a variety of language arts objectives.

My class and I began by examining the linguistic evolution of the English language including Middle English in which Geoffrey Chaucer writes. I then provided each student with Chaucer's text in Middle English. Next, I gave each a pronunciation guide. Finally, to the whole class, I read the Introduction to the Prologue in Middle English, and as a class, we translated it. I then provided a brief character sketch of each character in the Prologue after which each student elected to join a character group of his or her choice, for example, the squire, the group's task being to become an expert on the particular character which they had selected. Each group was then provided with a chart on which they were to record the various aspects of their character's 'condicioun'. The group's next undertaking was to rehearse a dramatic oral reading of their character's portion of the Prologue. In so doing, each group began, with assistance when required, to come to an understanding of their character. Then each group was expected to thoroughly research their character in order to come to a better understanding of the historical persona on whom Chaucer based his literary rendering and to place that character into a social, historical, and cultural context. The preexisting character groups were then split up, and students were instructed to form new groups of three or four none of which could contain more than one of the same character. Then their task was to complete an activity called Table Talk at the Tabard in which each group was asked to create and script a playlet among the three or four characters, the purpose of which was to bring to life each of the characters. By the time the students had seen everybody else's presentation, they had at least a passing knowledge of, and an appreciation of, all of Chaucer's characters along with the language of Chaucer's time.

The possibilities for constructivist activities are limitless. It is important, however, regardless of subject area, to provide enough activities for student choice and to encourage student-generated activities.

Constructivist teaching is an exceptionally interesting and exciting way to teach because students are involved in learning activites they appear to enjoy, and much more student-teacher contact is possible. It extends one's impact as a teacher.
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Constructivist Teaching Involves Negotiation

Negotiation is an important aspect of a constructivist classroom. It unites teachers and students in a common purpose. Smith (1993) confirms that negotiating curriculum means "custom-building classes every day to fit the individuals who attend" (p. 1). Boomer (1992) explains that it is important when negotiating for teachers to talk openly about how new information may be learned and about constraints such as obligatory curriculum. He comments on the meaning of negotiating the curriculum:

Negotiating the curriculum means deliberately planning to invite students to contribute, and to modify, the educational program, so that they will have a real investment both in the learning journey and the outcomes. Negotiation also means making explicit, and then confronting, the constraints of the learning context and the non-negotiable requirements that apply. (p. 14)

Cook (1992) explains why negotiating the curriculum with students is important:

Learners will work harder and better, and what they learn will mean more to them if they are discovering their own ideas, asking their own questions, and fighting hard to answer them for themselves. They must be educational decision makers. Out of negotiation comes a sense of ownership in learners for the work they are to do, and therefore a commitment to it. (p.16)

A constructivist teacher offers his or her students options and choices in their work. Rejecting the common practice of telling students what to do, he or she engages their trust and

invites them to participate in a constructivist process that allows them to be involved in decisions about their learning. Students actively involved in their own learning is a vital reality in a constructivist classroom. Students may participate in the construction of the curriculum by negotiating the themes that will be the focus of their work along with the selection of literature from a predetermined range of literature. Students may also participate in the design of their assignments, although the parameters for these may be established by their teacher. Finally, students may have some involvement in the way their assignments are evaluated.
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The Teacher in a Constructivist Classroom is a Researcher

A crucially important aspect of a teacher's job is watching, listening, and asking questions of students in order to learn about them and about how they learn so that teachers may be more helpful to students. Calkins (1986) notes that there is a thin line between research and teaching. At the same time that we teach children, they also teach us because they show us how they learn; we just have to carefully watch them and listen to them . This kind of watching and listening may contribute to a teacher's ability to use what the classroom experience provides to help him or her create contextualized and meaningful lessons for small groups and individuals. The ability to observe and listen to one's students and their experiences in the classroom contributes to his or her ability to use a constructivist approach. Paradoxically, a constructivist approach contributes to one's ability to observe and listen in the classroom. Thus, the process is circular.
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Students and Teachers are Interactive in a Constructivist Classroom

Another quality of a constructivist class is its interactive nature. Authenthic student-student and student-teacher dialogue is very important in a constructivist classroom. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986) inform us that constructivists distinguish didactic talk, when participants report experiences but no new understanding occurs, from real

talk where careful listening creates an environment within which emerging ideas can grow. Perhaps this defines the difference between teacher talk in a direct instruction classroom, and purposeful talk by students in a student-centered constructivist classroom where meaningful discussion occurs and meanings emerge. Belenky et al (1986) explain that in "real talk", domination is absent, while reciprocity, cooperation, and collaborative involvement are prominent. Consequently, constructivist activities in the classroom that focus on speaking and listening promote not only constructivist thought but also important connections between teacher and students.
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Organization and Management of a Constructivist Classroom are Democratic

The organization and management of a class contribute appreciably to the creation of a classroom environment that promotes constructivist learning. A democratic classroom environment emphasizes shared responsibility and decision-making. It is generally accepted that practices which typify democratic classrooms include acknowledgement of the importance of human experience in learning; accommodation of small groups, individuals, and, occasionally, the whole class in instruction; creation of an environment that supports the active involvement of students in collaborative and empowering activities such as the exchange of ideas and opinions, and responsibility for making decisions about learning and for generating flexible rules; and teacher focus on students' learning rather than on teacher performance (Lester and Onore, 1990; McNeil, 1986; Dewey, 1916; Dewey and Bentley,1949) . Lester and Onore (1990) suggest that the attitudes, values, and beliefs of a teacher, specifically those related to the belief of student as constructor of knowledge, make it possible to create a democratic environment. A democratic classroom is self-regulating. Rather than overtly controlling the

students, a constructivist teacher structures the classroom so that students and teacher can share in the control of their environment. Students are directly involved in all matters that occur in the classroom that affect their being there as learners and as people. However, as Lester and Onore (1990) discovered, "changing any one aspect of a classroom, in particular, how language is used, isn't possible without simultaneously changing who has power and control over knowledge" (p. 5). Indeed, since student empowerment and autonomy are major goals in constructivist teaching, changing the power structure in the classroom is a desired course of action.
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Power and Control in the Constructivist Classroom are Shared

Student empowerment is, in fact, at the center of of a constructivist teacher's philosophy. Like parents who, from the moment their child is born, do everything possible to ensure that their child has the skills and abilities to live independently of them, so a constructivist teacher, from the moment a new set of students enters his or her classroom, does everything he or she can to provide those students with the skills and abilities to be confident and autonomous learners and citizens. And like parents who take pride in their children's accomplishments but not credit, a constructivist teacher doesn't take the glory for the accomplishments of his or her students, but rather empowers them with a feeling of competence and success.

Student empowerment and autonomy may be aided by encouraging students to ask questions and by making them active learners. Calkins (1986) laments that in most classrooms, we neither teach students to ask questions in schools nor allow students to ask questions, but simply require them to answer our questions, although asking questions is a challenging and important part of thinking and learning, especially if students are continually encouraged to ask more probing, more appropriate, and more effective questions. By asking their own questions, students acquire more consciousness of and control over their thinking.

Students having "control over their thinking" is an important matter in a constructivist classroom. The lack of opportunity for students to ask their own questions is a very real concern in many classrooms, and so exploring ways of getting students to ask questions, rather than the teacher asking all the questions, may make a significant contribution to making students independent as language learners. The person who has the questions not only has the answers but also the power. Power is a key element in a constructivist classroom. Power is not wielded by a constructivist teacher, and control is not imposed on students. Instead, a constructivist teacher uses an indirect form of control and empowers students by involving them, by giving them responsibility, and by encouraging them to be self-controlling and autonomous. While the teacher relinquishes power and control to empower the students, neither the teacher nor the classroom is out of control. A constructivist classroom is, in fact, highly organized. Students are given a lot of choices within the classroom, but those choices may be contained within parameters. Students are able to negotiate themes, but must abide by the range of literature that their curriculum prescribes. Students may design their own assignments, but the assignments must accommodate curriculum variables.

The apparant paradox in this 'constrained freedom' is highlighted by Daniel Sheridan (1993), who comments on the use of structure in a constructivist classroom:

Structure is one of the conditions of freedom. Yet we cannot leave it at that, for paradoxically there can be no freedom without some element of constraint. Thus within the structure of a learning situation there are always some constraints--yes, even in the most apparently "free" classroom, . . . . [S]tudents are constantly making language choices. Still, they are not "free" in any radical or idealized sense . . . there is a lot of structure . . . (p.116).

What Sheridan is saying here is exemplified in a constructivist class. Unless kids are provided with behavioural parameters, nothing gets accomplished because they don't know what it is they're really supposed to do. But once these behavioural parameters are established, there can be a lot of choices within.

The paradox about student centered instruction is the more control you turn over to the students the less you need to worry about control, and, in fact, the students are quite able to look after themselves and, even more, look after each other. In a constructivist classroom, control comes from students' involvement in responsibility rather than external imposition, freeing the teacher to focus on students learning, a profitable situation for both students and teachers.

Actively and interactively involved students, negotiated curriculum, and redistribution of power, control, and responsibility all contribute to a relationship between students and teacher that promotes a situation where learning thrives. With the development of a constructivist philosophy, a teacher of any discipline is able to create a classroom environment within which students are able to become autonomous learners.
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PART THREE: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF A CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHER

Constructivist classes reveal a shift in thinking in which the underlying assumptions about what knowledge is, about how people learn, and about what is important are different. One can grow from a traditional view of teaching in which one seeks to control one's subject area and students to becoming comfortable with a subject area that is less predictable and more ambiguous. This enables one to make the shift in thinking that may be necessary to be a constructivist teacher. The idea that our beliefs about teaching and learning affect our classroom practice, as well as our ability to change our practice, is explained by Lester and Onore (1990). Support for this idea comes from Kelly's (1991) personal construct theory.

Lester and Onore (1990) indicate that teachers' personal beliefs about teaching (their construct systems) account for the kinds and extents of change that teachers are able to make. We view our situation through the lens of our personal construct system. Our beliefs about teaching and learning account for how we think and act as teachers. Specifically, teachers' definitions of what knowledge is, how people acquire it, and how we determine whether knowledge has been acquired account for the degree and kind of change teachers will experience.

Personal construct theory was devised by Kelly in 1955. The theory proposes that, like scientists, we continually hypothesize about experience, formulating expectations based on a template of reality we have created through experience and reflection. We come to believe something through accumulated experience about it and then interpret experience according to those beliefs. These hypotheses, or personal constructs, may be modified with new experiences, but some are continually reinforced and confirmed, until, over time, they may actually shape experiences whereas when they were developing, experience molded them. It is for this reason, Lester and Onore (1990) believe, that beliefs and practices about schooling are so difficult to change. They suggest that we need to examine the constructs or beliefs that influence our decisions about teaching and learning in order for change to occur. They believe that by changing our beliefs about teaching and learning, we are able to change our practice.

Lester and Onore (1990) suggest that the main construct affecting a teacher's ability to teach in a transactional, constructivist way is the belief that knowledge is constructed by human beings. And so teachers would need to make a shift in thinking and change what they believe about knowledge in order to really change their teaching.

Lester and Onore (1990) propose that genuine learning or change comes not from disregarding all prior learning in order to relearn, but "from questioning or reassessing our existing beliefs about the world" (p. 41):

Change can occur through having experiences that present and represent alternative systems of beliefs and trying to find a place for new experiences to fit into already held beliefs (p. 41).

Reflecting on one's teaching practice contributes to one's ability to cross the bridge in terms of the way one thinks and believes about teaching. This enables him or her to move, for example, from a transmissional instructional practice to a constructivist and transactional one.

Reflection, Mezirow (1990) explains, involves a critique of the assumptions on which our beliefs have been built, and through reflection, our perspectives are transformed.

Giroux (1986) notes that teachers are often trained to use various models of teaching and evaluation, yet are not taught to be critical of the assumptions that underlie these models. He advises that teachers must be more than technicians but transformative intellectuals engaging in a critical dialogue among themselves.

The underlying assumptions about teaching and learning of a constructivist and a nonconstructivist teacher are quite different. Changing the gimmicks we use to teach in the classroom without changing the way we think about teaching and learning is, according to Lester and Onore (1993), insufficient to change our practice. A complete rethinking of what teaching and learning are is necessary if we are to really change what happens in the classroom.

In a constructivist classroom, teachers create situations in which the students will question their own and each other's assumptions. In a similar way, a constructivist teacher creates situations in which he or she is able to challenge the assumptions upon which traditional teaching and learning are based. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986) report that at the constructivist level of knowing and thinking, we continually reevaluate our assumptions about knowledge; our attitude towards "the expert" is transformed; we are not troubled by ambiguity but are enticed by complexity; and we take on a never-ending quest for truth and learning where truth is seen as a process of construction in which the knower participates. A constructivist teacher's perception of expertise in the classroom is based on the experience of his or her students in interaction with each other and with their teacher, and his or her ability to tolerate ambiguity is high as evidenced in the tendency to create complexity.

Holding a constructivist view of knowledge, Lester and Onore (1990) point out, enables a teacher to explore and form new ideas about teaching and learning. But the job of translating this belief into daily classroom practice is still present. This job is often made difficult with all that impinges on it, for example, the existing school system and its policies, and the school culture.

Teachers are individuals who are often drawn into teaching by a love of kids. Constructivist teachers develop skills and abilities to empower students and to make them feel competent and significant. Perhaps some of what a constructivist teacher does is intuitive. Constructivist teaching also requires intelligence, creativity, patience, responsiveness, and the ability to live with ambiguity permitting one to spontaneously abandon a plan in order to accommodate specific individual or classroom situations. And while the job of being a constructivist teacher is demanding, its value is evident in the impact on students' learning and personal development.
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PART FOUR: CONCLUSION

Implications and Recommendations

Research suggests that constructivist teaching is an effective way to teach. It encourages active and meaningful learning and promotes responsibility and autonomy. Because constructivist teaching is beneficial in achieving desirable educational goals for students, it is important for teachers to grow professionally towards a constructivist practice.

My research and analysis of Pat Gray's life and career in "'The Road to Knowledge is Always Under Construction': A Life History Journey to Constructivist Teaching" reveal that for Pat, change to a constructivist approach to teaching English language arts has been a developmental process that occurred over time and involved a complete paradigm shift. The development of Pat's constructivist practice was a very active process during which much of the time practice preceded theory. His story of teacher change, growth, and development underscores an aspect of teacher development that is often ignored: curriculum development occurs, not through imposition of new ideas on teachers, but through personal development.

These findings have implications for the way constructivist and transactional curricula are implemented. They confirm that the responsibility for the professional development of teachers falls largely on the teachers themselves. This concept is generally recognized by teachers; however, the incentive to pursue personal professional development over the course of one's career is frequently lacking in teachers. For example, the importance of collegial sharing and support is widely accepted yet infrequently practised except informally. Similarly, teachers who are familiar with reflective practice resist it even though they recognize its importance in encouraging an awareness of how our students learn and, therefore, in how we need to teach. To encourage incentive, this research suggests that teachers need to be provided with opportunities, resources, support, encouragement and recognition in their professional development pursuits. They need to know that their efforts are being supported by their colleagues, administrators and school boards.

Considering the constructivist nature of many new curricula, it is important that the theory and concepts of transactional and constructivist teaching be communicated to administrators as well as teachers and student teachers of all grades and disciplines through on going, supportive professional development activities. The importance of administrative support for teachers attempting transactional and constructivist strategies needs to be communicated to school administrators through professional literature and professional inservice.

University instructors in colleges of education need to model constructivist practices and provide supportive assistance to preservice and inservice teachers as they grapple with these practices in their practicums and internships.

Transactional and constructivist practices may be modelled, and constructivist activities and strategies may be presented to teachers in teacher inservices and workshops. A discussion of the implications of such practices for teachers and students needs to be included in these inservices. Issues and concerns of teachers as they begin to make their transition to constructivist teaching need to be acknowledged and addressed through discussion, explanations of what to expect, practical suggestions, reassurance, and supportive understanding of teachers' concerns.

Resource information about constructivist philosophy and practices written in a nonthreatening style that respects teachers' current personal and practical knowledge would perhaps make personal and professional development toward a constructivist practice appealing. Information presented in a friendly and creative style may encourage teachers to embark on their own professional development journeys and may encourage teachers to be less reticent about risking innovative practices, thus beginning a developmental process of change. Indeed, an outcome of my study is that change is a developmental process in which practice often precedes theory, and teachers, encouraged to attempt constructivist practices and to be self reflective, and inspired by the success of those practices, may, in time, acquire the philosopy that underpins that practice.
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Concluding Remarks

This research raises some possibilities for improving educational practice in Saskatchewan and some questions about the way professional development has traditionally been delivered and new curricula implemented. New curricula emphasize an holistic and constructivist rationale, and the implementation of these new curricula necessitates that teachers make significant changes in the way they teach. In addition to understanding the constructivist philosophy upon which these new curricula are based, teachers, administrators and others involved in implementing these new curricula need to understand the kinds of changes teachers need to undertake as they make the transition from more traditionalist forms of instruction to constructivist strategies as well as how they can make these changes. Generally speaking, professional and curriculum development is an evolving, personal developmental process that in itself is constructivist. This process can be greatly assisted by a supportive collegial and administrative medium that allows teachers to change their own personal constructs about teaching.
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References

Applebee, A.N. (1993). Literature in the secondary school: Studies of curriculum and instruction in the United States. Urbana, Il: National Council of Teachers of English.

Belenky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M., Goldberger, N.R., & Tarule, J.M. (1986). Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. New York: Basic Books.

Bentley, A.F. & Dewey, J. (1949). Knowing and the known. Boston: Beacon Press.

Boomer, G. (1992). Negotiating the curriculum. In G. Boomer, N. Lester, C. Onore, & J. Cook (Eds.), (1992). Negotiating the curriculum: Educating for the 21st century (pp. 4-14). London: The Falmer Press.

Calkins, L. (1986). The art of teaching writing. Portsmith, NH: Heinemann.

Chaucer, G. The prologue to the Canterbury Tales. In C.T. Fyfe (Ed.), (1959). A book of good poems. Vancouver: The Copp Clark Publishing company.

Cook, J. (1992). Negotiating the curriculum: Programming for learning. In G. Boomer, N. Lester, C. Onore, & J. Cook. (Eds.), (1992), Negotiating the curriculum: Educating for the 21st century (pp. 15-31). London: The Falmer Press.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: The MacMillan Company.

Giroux, H. (1986). The politics of schooling and culture. Orbit, 17 (4), 10-11.

Kelly, G.A. (1991). The psychology of personal constructs: Volume one - A theory of personality. London: Routledge.

Langer, J. (1992). (Ed.). Literature Instruction: A focus on student response. Urbana, Il: National Council of Teachers of English.

Langer, J. & Applebee, A. N. (1987). How writing shapes thinking: A study of teaching and learning. National Council of Teachers of English.

Lee, H. (1962). To kill a mockingbird. New York: Fawcett Popular Library.

Lester, N.B. & Onore, C.S. (1990). Learning Change: One school district meets language across the curriculum. Portsmith, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.

Lindfors, J. (1984). How children learn or how teachers teach? A profound confusion. Language Arts, 61 (6), 600-606.

McNeil, L. (1986). Contradictions of control: school structure and school knowledge. New York: Routledge.

Mezirow, J. and Associates. (1990). How critical reflection triggers transformative learning. In J. Mezirow and Associates (1990), Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: A guide to transformative and emancipatory learning (1-20). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures. (A. Rosin, Trans). New York: The Viking Press.

Rosenblatt, L. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale, Il: Southern Illinois University Press.

Rosenblatt, L. (1938). Literature as exploration . New York; London: D. Appleton- Century.

Saskatchewan Education. (1984). Directions. The Author.

Shakespeare, W. Julius Caesar. In R. Gill (Ed.), (1979), Oxford School Shakespeare. London: Oxford University Press.

Sheridan, D. (1993). Teaching secondary English: Readings and applications. New York: Longman.

Smith, K. (1993). Becoming the "guide" on the side. Educational Leadership, 51(2), 35- 37.

Twomey Fosnot, C. (1989). Enquiring teachers, enquiring learners: A constructivist approach for teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.

Williams, T. (1945). The glass menagerie. New York: New Directions Books.

Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., & Hyde, A. (1993). Best practice: New standards for teaching and learning in America's schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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Contructivist Teaching and Learning By: Audrey Gray SSTA Research Centre Report #97-07: 25 pages, $11. Back to: Instruction The SSTA Research Centre grants permission to reproduce up to three copies of each report for personal use. Each copy must acknowledge the author and the SSTA Research Centre as the source.

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Everyone loves games.

Albert Einstein himself indicated they are the most elevated form of investigation. He knew games are avenues for something deeper and more meaningful than a childish waste of time. Games promote situated learning, or in other words, learning that occurs in groups of practice during immersive experiences. Oftentimes, playing games are the first method children use to explore higher-order thinking skills associated with creating, evaluating, analyzing, and applying new knowledge.

See also 50 Questions To Help Students Think About What They Think

This article is written in two parts. The first, written by Ryan Schaaf, Assistant Professor of Technology at Notre Dame of Maryland University, introduces gamification in an educational context, its many elements, and some products that emulate gamified practices. The second part, shared by classroom teacher and coach Jack Quinn, provides a firsthand account with perspective from a gamified learning practitioner. Below are our combined insights.

Gamification In An Educational Context

Games have many elements that make them powerful vehicles for human learning. They are commonly structured for players to solve a problem; an essential skill needed for today and tomorrow. Many games promote communication, cooperation, and even competition amongst players. Some of the most immersive games have a rich narrative that spawns creativity and imagination in its players. Finally, depending on how they are designed, games can both teach and test their players. They are incredible packages of teaching, learning, and assessment.

The structural elements of games are also especially suited to serve this current generation of learners. Commonly known as gamification (or gameful design according to Jane McGonigal), this approach of adding game elements such as storytelling, problem-solving, aesthetics, rules, collaboration, competition, reward systems, feedback, and learning through trial and error into non-game situations has already experienced widespread implementation in such fields as marketing, training, and consumerism with rampant success (see http://www.cio.com/article/2900319/gamification/3-enterprise-gamification-success-stories.html) for more details.

In the education realm, gamification is starting to pick up steam. With success stories such as Classcraft, Class Dojo, and Rezzly leading the charge, the potential for gamification to spread to more and more classrooms is a forgone conclusion. There are also pockets of educators in the teaching landscape that are designing their own 'gamefully-designed' learning environments. The next section explores such an environment by sharing Jack's experiences with his own class.

See also 10 Specific Ideas To Gamify Your Classroom
Gamification: From Theory to Practice
I have been involved with gamification for quite some time now. In my 9 years of experience, I've found games are great at resolving several common classroom issues such as: student participation/talk time, student engagement, differentiation, data tracking, and increasing student achievement.

As an ancillary language teacher on Jeju Island in South Korea, gamification helped me increase student talk time by 300%. My 250 students completed over 27,000 'quests,' a.k.a. additional homework assignments they chose to do. My top 10% of participants spent an hour outside of class speaking their target language daily. I was even startled on more than one occasion to arrive early to work and find my students had beaten me there and were eagerly awaiting my arrival so they could begin their daily quests.

As a classroom teacher in the Houston Independent School district serving schools with a 95% free and reduced lunch population, I have taught both 3 rd- grade reading and 5 th- grade science. Each of these is a state-tested subject (that I taught for two years).

On average in my first year of instruction, my students have performed 1.39 times the district norm and 1.82 times the district norm in my second year teaching the subject. Or put another way, traditional methods would take 14 to 18 months to achieve what I can do with games in 10.

I credit much of this success to following the advice of Gabe Zicherman from his Google Tech Talk, Fun is the Future: Mastering Gamification , where he advises game designers to "incentivize whatever you want people to do." (Zicherman, n.d.)

As such I strive to identify the key actions my students need to practice then build games and reward systems around those actions.
12 Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom 1. Giving points for meeting academic objectives
Do students need to be citing details from the text and evidence for conclusions in class discussions? Answers without evidence are now worth 1 point, a correct answer with 1 piece of evidence is worth 2 points, a correct answer + 2 pieces of evidence = 3 points.
2. Giving points for meeting procedural/non-academic objectives
Need to solve a classroom issue such as shortening the time it takes to check homework? All students who have their homework out ready to be checked before being prompted by the teacher now receive 2 points.
3. Creating playful barriers
These sorts of barriers can be academic or behavioral, social or private, creative, or logistical. The point is, one of the primary tenets of gamification is the use of encouragement mechanics through the application of playful barriers-challenges, for example.
4. Creating competition within the classroom
Teacher vs. Class: Students must follow a rule that the teacher sets. Anytime a student follows the rule, the Class gets a point. Anytime a student does not follow a rule, the teacher gets a point. This is particularly great for introducing procedures and behavioral expectations. If the Class wins, use a sustainable reward, such as a 1-minute dance party, extended recess time, or fewer homework problems.
5. Comparing and reflecting on performance in nuanced ways personalized for each student
At the end of some video game levels, the player's performance is broken down into countless details offering enormous data, achievements, and ways to reflect and document their performance and compare with others.

For example, one game might offer statistics of which objectives were met and how, assigned a 'badge' based on that particular performance 'style,' then track every minute detail around that performance you can imagine: total number of jumps, number of enemies alerted, number of different ways a specific problem was solved, etc.
6. Creating a range of unique rewards desirable for a range of unique students
In my class, students get sunglasses to wear until the period is over at 5 points, the privilege to take off their shoes at 10 points, a positive text to their parents at 15, and if the high score is over 15, whoever has it may 'steal' the teacher's chair.
7. Using levels, checkpoints, and other methods of 'progression'
Track points over multiple classes, when students reach an important milestone such as 100 points let them level up, as they progress further give out sustainable milestone rewards, such as eating lunch with the teacher or a free dress pass (if your school wears uniforms).

Competitive students will race to have the highest level in their class and grade which can be leveraged by creating quests that require them to recruit lower-level students in quests that require both to practice target skills.
Other Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom
8. Grading backward- start grading at 0 instead of 100. Every assignment, demonstrated mastery of skill, or desired behavior earns points for them towards 100/letter grade/certificate, or whatever reward you'd like to provide.

9. Creating challenges with more than one way to be solved and emphasize the different approaches.

10. Giving learning badges instead of (or in addition to) points or grades.

11. Letting students set their own goals, then track their own progress in a fun/visual/social/personal way.

12. Helping students assume specific perspectives in learning-as a judge, designer, father, etc. This element of fantasy role-play is a big draw of video games.

13. Incentivizing student 'exploration' of content by offering bonuses, 'easter eggs,' and other benefits of achieving supplementary goals beyond the main lesson objective itself.

14. Create problems or challenges with more than one way to solve

Bonus: Using a scoreboard seating chart

Draw or project a seating chart onto a whiteboard/screen, and then award students points for all activities that you want to incentivize with sustainable rewards/recognitions at different point levels.
Conclusion
Make sure to be creative and respond to student interests. In my class, students don't take practice tests; they battle the evil emperor, Kamico (the maker of popular test prep workbooks used at my school). We don't just test objects for conductivity; we search out the secret object which will turn on the alien spaceship's 'prepared to launch' light.

While students are collecting points, leveling up, and competing against each other, I am collecting data, tracking progress, and tailoring the rules, rewards, and quests to build positive class culture while pushing student achievement. Students become eager to participate in the activities that they need to do to improve, and when students buy-in, they make school a game worth playing.
References & Further Reading McGonigal, J. (2011). Gaming can make a better world. | TED Talk | TED.com [Video file]. Retrieved from: Schaaf, R., & Mohan, N. (2014). Making school a game worth playing: Digital games in the classroom . SAGE Publications. Schell, J. (n.d.) When games invade real life. | TED Talk | TED.com [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life Zicherman. (n.d.). Fun is the Future: Mastering Gamification [Video file]. Retrieved from youtube.com 12 Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom

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12 Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom

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Examples of gamification include additive grading, using levels of progress, creating learning badges or trophies to include, and more.

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Effective questioning sessions in classroom require advance preparation. While some instructors may be skilled in extemporaneous questioning, many find that such questions have phrasing problems, are not organized in a logical sequence, or do not require students to use the desired thinking skills.

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There are some topics that are so broad, so overwhelming that it's hard to know where to begin. For teachers, classroom management can be one of those topics. It is a critical skill; some say it's more important than content knowledge. And yet, there is no single method or protocol to follow to ensure success. So what's a new teacher, or a teacher returning to the classroom after many years away, to do? No worries-we've got you. Here are the basics, along with amazing resources to get you started or give you inspiration to try something new.

What is classroom management?

Simply put, classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to ensure that their classroom runs smoothly, without disruptive behavior from students. According to teacher Ben Johnson, it boils down to having a structured learning environment with clear rules that promote learning as well as consequences that diminish or eliminate behaviors that get in the way of learning.

This can look different depending on which subject and age group you teach, how many students you have, and most importantly, your core personality. What works for a type-A, highly organized, routine-loving teacher may not work for a more laid back, roll-with-the-punches kind of teacher.

Of course, the ultimate goal for any teacher is an academically productive classroom with focused, attentive, and on-task students. Unfortunately, any teacher can tell you this is way harder than it sounds and usually takes years to accomplish. Even for teachers who consider themselves relatively skilled managers, things often change depending on the new mix of students they teach every year. So really, being skilled at management is an ongoing process, part of the lifelong learning that makes teaching so interesting.

The bottom line is this: Effective classroom management i s an absolute must. It impacts your ability to be an effective educator and your job, and it impacts your students' success as learners. If your classroom is out of control, it won't matter how passionate you are about your subject or how much you are truly dedicated to children, learning will be negatively impacted.

So where do I begin?

Luckily, there is no shortage of resources available to help you master the art of classroom management. There are mountains of books, podcasts, seminars, and classes dedicated to the subject. We've teased out the main components from some of our favorites to help you begin.

First, take time to build relationships with students.

Get to know your students. What are their strengths? Their challenges? What are they really into? Investing in them as individuals builds trust, and that is the key to successful classroom management. Integrate social-emotional learning into your day. Teaching your students social-emotional skills builds a cohesive classroom community.

For more about building relationships, read:

Second, have a solid plan.

Jennifer Gonzalez, in her blog Cult of Pedagogy , emphasizes the importance of having a well-thought-out plan before your students even arrive on day one. In the first few days and weeks, teach your plan in excruciating detail. The more front-loading you do with your students, the more successful your year will be. Enforce your rules and consequences consistently. Finally, she recommends getting student buy-in by " getting students excited about the year, about the learning they're going to do and the community they will create."

For more on creating a solid plan, read:

Third, have clear, reliable routines and procedures.

When kids know exactly what is expected of them on a daily basis, they feel safe and secure. It's our job as teachers to create a space that is predictable and productive. Create daily routines that make it easy for students to live up to your expectations.Have an arsenal of predictable cues for your students to keep them on track when they are chatty or disruptive.

For more on creating procedures and routines, read:

Finally, keep your sense of humor.

Managing a classroom can be a grind, so find ways to have a laugh instead of pulling your hair out. Kids will be kids. After all, they're still learning. And humor helps us keep our perspective, so we can help our students along in the kindest and most effective way.

For humorous takes on classroom management, read:

Learn more about classroom management:
What are your most successful classroom management tips? Share in the comments below!

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What is classroom management? It may be the most important skill teachers need for a successful career. Get all the tips you need here.

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1. Take Care of Yourself to Take Care of Your Students

As the airline safety videos say: Put on your own oxygen mask first.

To learn effectively, your students need a healthy you, said our experienced teachers. So get enough sleep, eat healthy food, and take steps to attend to your own well-being. In her first year of teaching, Jessica Sachs "was working 15-hour days and was completely stressed out. My husband finally said to me, 'The most important thing that you do at school is make decisions. If you are too tired to do that properly, it won't matter how well-prepared you were the night before.'" A few deep breaths can go a long way to helping you identify frustration before you act on it. Mindy Jones, a middle school teacher from Brownsville, Tennessee, notes that "a moment of patience in a moment of frustration saves you a hundred moments of regret."

Countless studies corroborate the idea that self-care reduces stress, which can deplete your energy and impair your judgment. While self-care is more of a habit or practice for your own well-being than an actual classroom management strategy, the benefits include improved executive function, greater empathy, and increased resilience-all qualities that will empower you to make better decisions when confronted with challenging classroom situations.

2. Focus on Building Relationships

This was the theme we heard the most: Building healthy student-teacher relationships is essential to a thriving classroom culture, and even sets the stage for academic success. The phrase "build relationships" occurred 27 times during the Facebook and Instagram discussions, and other variants of that wording appeared 78 times.

"Rapport is huge!" confirmed middle school teacher Kim Manzer, before adding that she always makes the time to talk to students as a whole class or one on one. Simple efforts like greeting kids outside the classroom before the start of the day pay outsized dividends. "They appreciate it so much when I just stop to listen and take interest." Teacher Amanda Tait from Prince George, British Columbia, adds a little spice to the ritual: "I always meet them at the door and we do a 'high-five, chicken-five,' touching elbows with a 'wing.'"

Yes! We high-five, chicken-five in agreement.

Many educators noted that a teacher's ability to balance warmth and strong boundaries is key to successful relationships-and classroom management. "Be consistent but flexible. Love them unconditionally, but hold them accountable. Give them voice but be the leader," said Rae Rudzinski.

3. Set Rules, Boundaries, and Expectations (and Do It Early)

Students don't thrive amid chaos. They need some basic structure-and consistency-to feel safe and to focus.

But maintaining a culture of mutual respect doesn't mean your goal is to "make pals," noted middle school reading coach Heather Henderson. "You can't be their friend. You can be kind, loving, and supportive, but you still have to be their teacher." Establish the code of conduct early in the year, and be sure that everyone-including the teacher-makes an effort to stay true to it. Predictability counts: "Follow through with rewards and consequences. If you say it, mean it. And if you mean it, say it. Be clear, be proactive, and be consistent," said Lori Sheffield.

There was broad consensus among educators that modeling appropriate classroom behavior sets the tone for children: "You make the weather," said Diana Fliginger from Minot, North Dakota. "Your attitude as the teacher really determines what the tone and environment of your classroom is like. If you want calm and productive, project that to your kids." Many others cautioned that while enforcing rules consistently is critical, it's important to pick your battles too-especially if those confrontations are going to be public: "Instead, say, 'You and I will talk about this later,'" advises Denise Tremblay Drapeau. "That way you can still address the issue while saving face. It completely changed the vibe in my classroom."

4. Take a Strength-Based Approach

In a long back-and-forth about classroom management practices, it might have been the most memorable quote: "Find ways to make your hardest kid your favorite kid," said Karen Yenofsky, turning a nearly perfect phrase and triggering an avalanche of teacher love. "When you connect with them... it makes everything smoother."

That's not easy, of course. A strength-based lens means never forgetting to look beneath the surface of behavior, even when it's inconvenient. "Find the root of the problem," urged teacher Judi Michalik of Bangor, Maine. "I have never met a student that doesn't want to be successful. If they are misbehaving it is kind of like when a baby cries; there is something wrong in their world. If they are misbehaving for attention then find out why they need the attention and how you can give them what they need."

And don't forget to continue to work to deepen the connection, being mindful of the context and using language thoughtfully. "Don't sound surprised when remarking on struggling students' successes," said Jenni Park, a teacher from Asheville, North Carolina. "Instead of saying, 'Wow! That was amazing,' it's better to say, 'I'm proud of you, but not surprised. I always knew you could do it.'"

Finally, cultural differences can also play an unconscious role in our expectations of whether a student will succeed, so it's important to reflect on any stereotypes that come up for you. "Don't look at a single one of your kids as if they are deficit and in need of 'guidance' to become better," says elementary educator Elijah Moore, drawing over 230 positive reactions. "Cultural difference does not equal cultural deficiency."

5. Involve Parents and Guardians

"Never forget that every student is someone's child," writes Molly Francis, echoing many teachers in our thread. "Parents/guardians/caregivers want to hear that you see the good in their child. A positive connection with home can often help in the classroom."

The popular apps Remind and ClassDojo were frequently praised, and appear to be well on the way to replacing phone calls-both from teachers to guardians, and in the other direction, too. "Let's be honest," wrote middle school teacher Kristin Ward. "If some parents had my personal cell number they would be calling all the time!"

The majority of teachers send home reports of both positive and negative behaviors-it's critical to do the former, too-and also use email and text services to communicate about upcoming events, due dates, and student progress. "Catch them doing good and call their parents to let them know you noticed," suggests Barbara Rawson. And Kim Manzer (she's so nice we quoted her twice) reminds fellow teachers that the benefits of parental communication find their way back to the classroom: "It's important that parents are involved and know what's going on so they can support and reinforce at home."

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5 Principles of Outstanding Classroom Management

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When we asked our community for their best classroom management practices, over 700 ideas rolled in.

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What Makes Teachers Special? - Pedagogical Content Knowledge

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Teaching Methods for Inspiring the Students of the Future | Joe Ruhl | TEDxLafayette

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