HIGH IMPACT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Excellence in Teaching and Learning
The Mulgrave Learning and Teaching Principles and Practices
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Highly effective student learning is central to Mulgrave’s mission; the promotion of personalised progress and learner confidence in education and life. Our culture of continuous improvement in teaching and learning is central to our Guiding Statements that Identify ‘personal best’ as a commitment that students will ‘grow beyond the normal developmental curve’
Our commitment to effective learning and teaching can be made because we have a community of ‘reflective practitioners’ who are motivated to seek out the tools to self improve and they themselves use an evaluation of learning to measure teaching impact and progress.
The following list of Learning and Teaching Principles and Practices:
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Provide a clear ‘learning language’ we can all reference and ‘classroom’ practice to which all teachers at Mulgrave aspire
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Support a common purpose for teachers seeking to become highly effective practitioners
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Provides tools and strategies for coordinators and teachers to review their own practice as part of ongoing professional growth and improvement through the TPGP process
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Strengthens the L4L process as our ‘learning language’ helps identify priority students needs and the subsequent evaluation of teaching strategies used to address these needs
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Definition of Learning & Teaching:
Learning is an active process, featuring dialogue and holistic engagement, that enables learners to make sense of the world by connecting new and existing ideas. Teaching involves evidence based interventions, strategies and practices that enable highly effective learning to occur*
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We are using the definitions of effectiveness from Dr Gerard Calnin from the IB. The outcomes of effective teaching are:
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1. Improved student achievement using outcomes that matter to their future success
2. Ensures all students learning positively so individuals flourish in their total development
3. Leads to student growth beyond the normal development curve
4. Creates equal citizenship in the classroom. Our moral imperative as a school is to ensure that each and every student has access to highly effective learning and teaching.
“The impact of highly effective teaching on educational outcomes within a school are greater than those that arise from students’ backgrounds outside of school” (Darling-Hammon 2000)
Learners experience supportive, respectful, and authentic relationships* with their teachers and peers. This relationship fosters a sense of belonging that provides the foundations for effective student progress. Fostering this relationally strong learning environment requires teaching that sets high expectations for everyone, particularly the most vulnerable/challenged students who also need effective goal setting to increase student learning outcomes. Effective differentiated teaching engenders student trust as learner confidence grows and research shows that a virtuous cycle occurs because the students expect to improve when effective teaching is introduced and this expectation alone accelerates actual learning.
Learners thrive in an environment that is both safe and challenging, where risk-taking and supported failure are seen as necessary developmental steps to improvement. Teaching that provides scaffolding of new learning, useful worked examples and timely, effective feedback are necessary precursors for creating the supportive classroom environment where risk taking occurs.
GTT Elements:
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1.4 Strategies and misconceptions
2.1 Teacher-student relationships
2.2 Student-student relationships
2.4 Climate of high expectations
3.3 Managing disruptive behaviour
4.4 Interacting​​​
Learners understand the purpose of their learning with their and see how their learning is preparing them for success. Teachers co-construct learning goals that clarify what success looks like, explain what students need to understand and what they must be able to do to achieve it (scaffolding). Research shows goals are essential for enhancing performance and it is important to set challenging but attainable goals, rather than ‘do your best’ goals. High expectation goals are identified to real world applicability to increase motivation and purpose.
GTT Elements:
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1.1 Deep and fluent knowledge
1.2 Curriculum sequencing
1.3 Relevant curriculum tasks
1.4 Strategies and misconceptions
2.4 Climate of high expectations
Learners readily connect new learning with previous knowledge, concepts and skills. This applies between and within lessons. Student achievement is maximised when teachers begin with overviews and/or review objectives, outline the content to be covered and signal transitions between lesson parts. Teachers call attention to main ideas and review at the end, creating predictable and purposeful routines. Students understand their learning goals and success criteria.
GTT Elements:
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1.1 Deep and fluent knowledge
1.2 Curriculum sequencing
1.3 Relevant curriculum tasks
1.4 Strategies and misconceptions
Learners feel individually challenged at an appropriate level that helps them build on prior learning and achieve further success. To enable this, teachers assess students’ prior knowledge and use evidence to differentiate learning goals for groups of students based on need. Effective personalised learning uses worked examples to show students how to do something and allows students sufficient time to practise what they have learned. Importantly, spaced practice via multiple exposures enhances differentiated student outcomes. Teachers provide support through checklists, student-teacher conferences, self-assessment and by assigning group content based on student readiness. There is also explicit teaching of metacognitive and executive functioning skills. Student response to these interventions often produces the most improved outcomes.
Learners have increasing agency in their learning, including having voice, choice and ownership about what, how and where they learn to personalise their learning experiences. Developing effective student agency also requires a number of explicit teaching interventions:
- teachers set and share appropriate learning targets that students can then run with;
- student exposure to worked examples and effective feedback = self-directed learning;
- students are taught how to select different media to demonstrate learning;
- students learn the different roles for collaborative work and how to effectively contribute.
Equally teaching provides enough time for students to practise new knowledge so they can develop independent learner confidence. Teachers develop an excellent questioning culture with appropriate wait time that encourages student voice. Effective student peer to peer learning emerges once great feedback and student response to feedback, has been established
Learners receive ongoing feedback and are able to ‘feed forward’. Feedback about their learning is timely, specific, recorded and leads to future growth. Please follow this link for teaching strategies that create effective feedback.
Learners experience a range of learning and teaching methodologies that engage, motivate and inspire them to learn effectively. This will involve a number of teaching strategies providing multiple exposures, guided inquiry, differentiated teaching techniques and explicit teaching methods to reach every student. Effective teaching ensures engaging classroom activities are both fun and purposeful. Differentiated teaching also includes the range of strategies that have been presented through our UDL training and identified in Teaching To Diversity (Katz).
Learners have ample opportunities to practise and apply their learning in real world contexts. Effective Explicit Teaching highlights how the teacher presents multiple worked examples to students and explains each step. Later, students can use worked examples during independent practice to review and embed new knowledge. Multiple Exposures highlights how essential giving students sufficient time to practise what they have learned in different contexts is to successful learning. Research demonstrates that student learning is embedded when you pause a topic but return to it a week later to reinforce the learning ‘out of sequence’ (Interleaving)
Learners have regular opportunities to collaborate with and learn from others. Effective student collaboration requires significant teacher input and scaffolding. Students need to understand the protocols for working collaboratively and the different specific roles for group work. The biggest effect size for collaborative learning involves effective peer to peer feedback. This requires student training in how to provide feedback and also in how to effectively moderate work.
Endnotes/Links:
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*Many of the elements of culturally responsive pedagogy and learnings gathered from ABAR training will enable teachers to define what ‘respect’ and ‘authenticity’ means for all students we engage with. Relationship building is hard work and requires informed strategies and approaches. Equally ensuring all students are seen and learn effectively means ensuring expectations are set high for every student, particularly those marginalised for reasons of identity, neurodiversity or other factors.
*Research shows that expectation based on the confidence that learning is effective adds to student outcomes beyond the actual mechanics of effective teaching. In other words as the student arrives to a class having the secure knowledge that this is a class where I know I will learn well means they do in fact learn better because of this expectation.
*Student participation in a wider variety of co-curriculars, that is maintained through the year, evidentially increases belonging and outcomes. Increases students sense of control of their learning and that they can influence their own outcomes
*Language of learning is progress and growth. The journey is iterative not linear. You must return to learning ideas where students might not have embedded a concept - multiple exposures. Language of effective learning is all students asking questions and bering encouraged to ask questions
*Agency for learning - the pre-conditions are: I am able to effectively ‘regulate’ in other words I am capable of completing a learning task when needed, I am inspired to do this work and therefore have a degree of enthusiasm and I am therefore willing to accept responsibility - all of this means a student will want to ask “where am I at in my learning? And what do I need to do next to get better?” I want to have control of that journey rather than thinking the teacher has to provide that answer
*For belonging therefore effective teaching seeks to light the candle of motivation and interest for every learner. In particular for learners who are demonstrating a lack of enthusiasm or self direction or connection
IB Research Leader in Evidence Based Practice
John Hopkins Best Evidence in Brief
High Impact Teaching Strategies from Melbourne University
Dr Gerard Calnin - IB Pedagogical Leadership Expert and Trainer