“But experts do differ in how they organize and use this content knowledge. Experts possess knowledge that is more integrated, in that they combine new subject matter content knowledge with prior knowledge; can relate current lesson content to other
subjects in the curriculum; and make lessons uniquely their own by changing, combining, and adding to them according to their students’ needs and their own goals.”
subjects in the curriculum; and make lessons uniquely their own by changing, combining, and adding to them according to their students’ needs and their own goals.”
—
John Hattie - http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/RC2003_Hattie_TeachersMakeADifference.pdf
Something to consider in light of the current review of digital content being conducted by WAG
1 month agoRecently my focus as a teachers has shifted toward getting the environment for learning right, and then letting the children take control of the learning.
4 months ago
“People are talking about the ‘flipped classroom’ and authentic learning in a Power Point, lecturing the audience in a manner that they say doesn’t work for kids. The audience sits in a row, obediently reading their marketing blurb in the zombie-con enviro bag. Nothing changes, except the rotation of speakers.”
“The mistake I was making was seeing feedback as something teachers provided to students—they typically did not, although they made claims that they did it all the time, and most of the feedback they did provide was social and behavioral. It was only when I discovered that feedback was most powerful when it is from the student to the teacher that I started to understand it better. When teachers seek, or at least are open to, feedback from students as to what students know, what they understand, where they make errors, when they have misconceptions, when they are not engaged—then teaching and learning can be synchronized and powerful. Feedback to teachers helps make learning visible.
Hattie, 2009; 173 [my emphasis]”
Hattie, 2009; 173 [my emphasis]”
“Problem-solving teaching” has an effect-size of 0.61 (2009 figures), and comes fairly naturally in most disciplines. But “Problem-based learning” overall had d=0.15, and developing it requires a very substantial investment in time and resources. So that’s a non-starter, isn’t it? Not necessarily; like a potent drug it needs to be correctly prescribed. For acquisition of basic knowledge it actually had a negative effect; but for consolidation and application and work at the level of principles and skills it could go up to d=0.75. Not much use in primary schools, but a different matter on professional courses at university (which is where it is generally found). (Hattie, 2009: 210-212)”
- Feuerstein developed a programme of great complexity called Instrumental Enrichment, which requires special training for a teacher to use. However it is worth looking closely at his general strategy. This was not to teach the metacognitive skills directly by explaining ‘how to do it’. This is a common approach in teaching thinking skills and study skills, used for example by Edward de Bono. Instead, he used a guided discovery approach where students had to construct for themselves the higher level thinking required. A similar process is used in Graham Gibbs' study skills programme described elsewhere. Roughly speaking his procedure was:
- Set Real Tasks: He asked students to do something real, that required information, planning, doing, and explaining your solution etc.
- Require Reflection on Metacognitive Strategies. When the task was done, he asked his students to reflect on how they did it. What had made them successful? What hindered them or caused difficulty?
- Establish Learning Points in the Students' Own Language. He asked students for very general advice on how to succeed with such tasks. This includes asking the students to name the strategies they used. The teacher then used the students’ names for these strategies.
- Bridging: Students are then asked to ‘bridge’ from this learning to other applications. That is, they were asked ‘where else might you be able to apply this principle?’ The learners are encouraged to see the application of the thinking processes that they have just described and named, in other contexts.
- This is called ‘mediation’. Learners often lack the ability to ‘see the wood for the trees’, they are swamped by the detail of the immediate experience, and need help to extract general principles from concrete experience. Then they need to be encouraged to see where else these same principles apply. The four part cycle above follows Kolb’s learning cycle: do, review, learn, apply.
“According to Ron Berger, the twin pillars of great project-based learning are ‘multiple drafts’ and ‘peer critique’. Without either of them, theatre - and almost all of the arts - would cease to function. And yet neither are seen much in schooling. Most curricula are so content-heavy that kids usually get a single shot at a task (if they’re lucky) and then they’re on to the next horse on the carousel. And the idea that other students would be able to offer advice on how to improve the project - well, that’s the teachers job, isn’t it? But, if we want to prepare kids for their working lives (and not just the next test) then they need to understand that multiple drafts and peer critique are part of the modus operandi of creative working”
