Module 4 Teaching and learning strategies

Module 4 Teaching and Learning Strategies

Chapter 1. Instructional techniques: An overview

Strategies for teaching later years that appeal to me

Marzano's 9 strategies (La Trobe University, 2016)- Because they address the different aspects of teaching and learning such as, how to create an environment for learning, helping students develop understanding, and extend and apply knowledge (transfer of learning). They are 9 very different strategies, so it is less likely to be repetitive or boring for the students or the teacher. It also seems to support all the behaviour theories we have learnt in CSD, and in child development in LPP. 

Tate (2010) identifies 20 instructional strategies for effective understanding and long term retention of information. They all appeal to me. I would say that as an Outdoor Education (OE) leader the strategies that I have used and are most natural to my teaching are:

1. Brainstorming

2. Reciprocal teaching

The level of this depends on the age of the students; how long we have been on a camp; and their prior experiences. As much as possible I have them work out problems and issues. In my experience, this makes them more self-reliant and better at decision making. Additionally- and importantly- on a 5 day camp, I cannot be doing everything and explaining everything 24/7, it would be unsustainable and I would burn out.

3. Drawing 

4. Writing

These are good tools for students to explore environments or aspects of environments, and can be used in different ways, such data collection relating to biological observations, evidence of historical practices, geological movement, understanding of place, and much more.

5. Field trips

6. Project-based and Problem-based Instruction

7. Work Study

This of course is a major part of OE. I'm a big believer of learning in the real-world, and/or making learning relevant to the real-world.
12. Manipulatives
13. Technology

Again, OE is all about engaging with the content that is being taught.
14. Movement 
15 Role play
The practical side of OE mostly involves movement while learning such as, tying different knots for rock climbing or for putting up a tarp. I use role playing in all of my teaching on camps, the students rotate through leadership groups. For this I guide them when necessary, and show leadership examples. This helps the groups to self-manage.
16. Metaphor, Analogy and Simile

I use life related metaphor/analogy/similes, creating activities for the students to consider things like how a river relates to their personal journeys.
I'm not sure if this is a simile, but I like to teach about things that we come across and seeing if the students can relate it to other things we've seen or which I've taught them about. For example, Australian trees have evolved different adaptions to survive bush fires. I will teach them about these adaptions. Then we may come across a tree that has been cut down by a person and is sprouting lignotuners, and the students can talk about why the tree is reacting in this way. Or we may come across other trees that have been burnt in a fire and are dead. The students can talk about reasons why the tree may not have survived e.g. they have learnt that pre European settlement, the Indigenous practised  seasonal burning- perhaps this tree was not burnt at the right time to re-germinate, or perhaps the fire was too hot or lasted too long.

19. Storytelling

20. Visualisation

 I feel the students are able to gain more understanding when learning things such as Astronomy, and Geomorphology if I can make a picture or story of it for them. I personally learn better this way, rather than just learning wrote facts about why something is the way it is. It makes it makes more sense for me, as well as being much more interesting, thus holding my attention.

The CSDE (2016) strategies in many situations for OE need to be transferred from literacy activities to hands-on OE activities, but are still applicable. The ones that appeal to me are:

The directed reading and thinking activity- this should help students focus on what is important by thinking a lot more about what they are reading, what they already know, focussing on smaller chunks of the material, making educated predictions, evaluation and discussion. I think it's teaching more holistically and relating to more students. It should help their help with their comprehension.  

Question and answer relationship- In OE, teaching students to competently apply this will go towards helping them to self-manage as a group, which is a great for them and their future, and great for me as it is more sustainable when on camp. 

KWL Chart- I have never used this, but it, or something similar to this would be helpful for student guided learning where they identify what they know, what they want to know, and progressively what they learn.

Response Notebooks- I have used journals for recording, writing and drawing. I think these are great for learning in the outdoors.

Anticipation guides- I think if this is structured and done collaboratively, it could show students the different views that people take on issues, and how we have to respect others ideas. A related assignment allows them to have more informed views.

Chapter tour- I always learnt better when I was able to see the big-picture before I started learning. I'm not sure where to store information when I don't know where it fits, so I'm less likely to retain it.

Visualising- Same as for Tate (2010) Visualisation which I explained above.

Obstacle courses- I use these often in OE to encourage teamwork, leadership, or other characteristics, or to prove competence in a skill, such as the different canoe paddling strokes or navigation.

Walk this way- Talk this way- Look this way- I like teaching about environmental issues, this would be helpful for the literacy side of that, such as identifying the authors and assumptions, values and biases.

Concept of definition map- I think this could be helpful with adding and grouping new information about different aspects of the outdoors.

List- Group- Label- Activating prior knowledge about a topic helps in the development of a clearer understanding about concepts to be learned.

Semantic feature analysis- "The semantic feature analysis activity requires students to make predictions about attributes related to specific vocabulary words or concepts, to set a purpose for reading or researching, and to confirm predictions" (CSDE, 2016). This would work well learning new and related tinge in the outdoors.

Chapter 2. Strategies for note taking, class discussions and vocabulary development

Notes on these strategies, and how I would be able to use them in my teaching.

Notes on these strategies, and how I would be able to use them in my teaching

Note taking

La Trobe University (2016) 5 best methods for note taking:

Outline method- Simple, based on hierarchical bullet points with headings, and points below relating to the headings.

Cornell method- Has 3 sections on paper. Top left: Cue, Top right: Note taking, Bottom: Summary. During class take notes. ASAP after class write down questions or cues to help you review later. Also write a summary of the class. Cue and Summary help you when reviewing your notes and you don't have to re-work your notes so much.

I haven't heard of this before, I think it sounds great if people have the will power to write the extra information after class. I'll have to try it to see how it works.

Mind map method- Main topic of class in middle of paper. Then branch off and add sub-topics, and branches off that with the information within sub-topics.

Flow method- Don't need to get every detail or transcribe. The point is to learn while you are sitting in class, and to learn it once. The goal is to produce an original document of your understanding of the subject. I haven't tried this either, but it sounds really good to, and definitely worth teaching.

Write on the sides method- As it sounds. I used this all the time in uni. I would read the lectures beforehand to get a grasp on it, and then write on the slides. It worked well if I did my first step that isn't actually included in the Youtube video.

- I will teach students different methods of note taking, how to order it, and how to link it to knowledge already learned. Different methods will work for different learning styles.

- Show students how to review those notes so they will achieve more in their learning.

Class Discussions

Strategies for student centered discussions (La Trobe, 2016):

1. Establish the learning goal of the day

2. Ask students to start with a reflection of topic

3. Aks for student thoughts- this is good if they've had a bit of time to think about it and write it down. These might be things to unpack further in the discussion.

4. Start with a guiding question, or work off student thoughts

5. Guided discussion- on the question or thought. Hand owness of discussion to students. Ask them to back up ideas and opinions with evidence. Ensure all are taking turns speaking and listening, and building on what each other says and responding to and acknowledge each other.

6. Introduce a focus of the lesson

This strategy sounds like you can get amazing results in learning, exploring of ideas, analysing and collaborative working.

Vocabulary Development

Edutopia (2014) says that every classroom should have a library with high-interest age appropriate books. The strategy described for developing vocabulary is:

Selecting words- choose the words I think are important in my subject to teach. Take into account what the students want to know.

Ranking words- in tiers: 1. Basic words 2. High frequency words 3. Related to fields of study words (suggested that there is the most benefit in focusing on tier to in vocabulary instruction).

Marzano's 6 steps to teaching words- 1. Explain new word 2. Student explains word in their own words 3. Student creates non-linguistic representation of word 4. Students engage in activities to deepen their knowledge of the new word 5. Students discuss the new word 6. Students play games to review new vocabulary 

Marzano's 6 steps to teaching words would be good when learning new terminology related to map reading, or weather reading etc. And really, I already do this, except for possibly step 2. 

Chapter 3. Strategies to encourage deep learning

Points of interest and useful ideas form the following 3 articles that I could incorporate in my teaching 

Students Approaches to Learning (UTS, 2012).

• Deep approach to learning mean the student will have a more in depth understanding, and ability to use the knowledge, as well as acquiring positive learning skills/strategies that go along with it.
• Surface approach to learning have little understanding of the big picture. Can reproduce information. Is basically memorising. They are not acquiring positive learning skills/strategies.
• Achieving approach is competitive in academics. Enhance their ego and self esteem through competition. This seems to be extrinsic motivation as they need the reward of obtaining higher grades, rather than the intrinsic reward when you learn something new.
• An achievement approach can go together with either of the other approaches.
• A deep and achieving approaches (together) lead to a better understanding.
• Surface approaches generally lead to low retention and an inability to use information in new contexts, adding the achievement approach to this just makes the surface approach more efficient.
• Good teaching should encourage a deep approach.
• Approaches are not fixed characteristics, teachers can encourage some above others.
• Asking students why they are taking their chosen approach can inform the teacher what they need to do to change that.
• Sharing my own passion in the subject, emphasizing relevance, or drawing connections to the 'real-world' can encourage intrinsic interest.
• Align assessment tasks with desired learning outcomes.
• Don't make the workload too heavy so they have time to practice a deep approach.

Teaching Practice- Promoting Deep Learning (RMIT, 2014,  pp. 1-3). 

• Also describes deep and surface learning in the same way as the previous article.
• Learners can use both approaches to learning depending on their perception of the task.
• It is the educators role to make the learning meaningful for the student.
• Give students some owness over the learning content, this will help to ensure they find meaning or interest in it.
• Important in deep learning is: active student involvement; interest in subject from both teacher and learner; background knowledge and skills; making connections and links; reflection on one's own learning; well constructed, thought provoking assessment tasks; Reflective analysis of learning and assessments; and,  learning environments that allow students to explore new concepts and new knowledge without fear of failure.

The Role of Questions in Teaching, Thinking and Learning (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013).

• It might be good to ask questions rather than give answers to encourage deep thinking. Thinking is driven by questions, not answers. Feeding students endless content does not mean they're learning, they need to be turning questions over in their minds.
• When people ask questions they are thinking. Answers end in a full stop.
• I could give a examination/test where the students ask all the questions they have on the subject, including the questions generated by their first list of questions. This would create interest/intrigue.
• They need to be asking thought-stimulating questions, not 'dead questions'.
• I can stimulate their thinking by asking thought provoking questions that will lead to the students asking further questions.

Notes on approaches to reading for meaning

High school text books are structured in a way that is very difficult for students to read and learn from, and they are usually the main source of class reading. 

When high school students struggle with a text book (Edutopia, 2014).

• Identifying purpose- Select sections that align with what you want them to learn and they have difficulty prioritising.
• Giving a good reading homework assignment- following 'identifying a purpose', teachers can add a 3 part homework assignment: "the purpose for the reading, how students should approach the reading, and how students will use the information"(Edutopia, 2014). The next day, the teacher will have devised an activity in which the students can use the knowledge they've gained from their homework activity. This rewards the students who've done their homework, and re-visits the content, helping to cement it.
• Teaching students to self monitor for understanding- Get the students to use sticky notes during their reading to mark things that they don't understand. First they can ask themselves, or their peers, but if they need extra clarification they will bring it up in the class discussion on the reading. If they do this, they will have more practice reading academically, improving their understanding.

Learning through reading and writing (BOSTES, 2016).

4 strategies for teachers to develop students’ reading and writing skills: 

• Stage 1- preparing for reading 

- Step 1. Discuss with students background knowledge they already posses relating to the content. If it is all new information, the teacher needs to take some time to talk about and teach them about it to build up some background knowledge.
- Step 2. Teacher summarises the text step-by-step for the students, using words that they understand.

• Stage 2- detailed reading 

Level 1. Long texts: Reading paragraph by paragraph. Teacher instructs students to mark key pieces of information that will later be used to form a summary if the paragraph, and all together of the whole thing. Students will get better at picking key information.

Level 2: Short texts: Sentence-by-sentence. Takes a lot of time and should only be done for important sections. Teachers guide students  to identify important, information in each sentence, and they all discuss it. Students will get better at doing this by themselves.

• Stage 3- note-making.

Students collaborate and write notes on the board which they highlighted in their texts. They are also practising collaboration, writing, spelling and pronouncing words.

• Stage 4- joint construction.

Class jointly re-writes the text in their own words. The teacher balances the use of leading questions to guide them and allowing them to generate their own ideas. 

Improving literacy in the secondary school : An information to knowledge innovation (Munro. n.d.).

It says 7 procedures on LMS and in the article, but I've counted 8??  (Munro, n.d., pp. 3-4).

7 Literacy Teaching Procedures:

1. Teachers ask students to get all their existing knowledge together related to the subject matter, and to translate it verbally. This shows their knowledge is valued.

2. Study between five and ten key relevant words or phrases that were the building blocks of the knowledge to be learnt. Students (1) said accurately each concept, (2) read and spelt it, (3) suggested synonyms and antonyms for it, (4) clarified its meaning and linked it with other concepts.

3. Read aloud short portions of relevant text.

4. Visualise and / or paraphrase (or say in their own words) each sentence in the text.

5.  Say questions that each sentence in the text answers.

6. Summarise the text read, usually paragraph by paragraph.

7. Predict or anticipate ideas in the text, ‘read between the lines’, infer ideas.

8. Review, consolidate and show comprehension of what has been learnt by reading silently a written summary of the content covered.

(Munro, n.d., pp. 3-4).

Strategies I could use to encourage active listening in my students:

Active Listening: Hear What People are Actually Saying (Mindtools, 2012).

5 steps for being an active listener: pay attention; show that you're listening; provide feedback; defer judgement; respond appropriately. 

Active Listening: Seven Ways to Help Students Listen, Not Just Hear (Faculty Focus, 2012).

1. Get to know students—and let them get to know you: They're more likely to listen to me if I've made an effort to get to know them.

2. Talk less: The aim is still to get them to learn the subject content, and there are other and better ways of teaching. If I have to do a lecture, make it a mini one.

3. Let others do the talking: Working things out with peers is better than me telling them everything. A guest speaker or good video can also be helpful teaching tools where they need to practise active listening.

4. Hold them accountable for listening: Give them a reason to listen. Don't give them all the information in text, give them just the skeleton, so they need to fill in the rest with the information I provide. Also ask impromptu questions or discussions relating to the information I've presented. 

5. Model good listening behaviour: Show that I am actively listening by paraphrasing what a student has said to me. I could ask them to practice this with each other.,

6. Let them help each other listen: I could allocate a few minutes for "not check" where students compare notes with the people around them so they can fill in anything they've missed.

7. Keep ‘em on their toes: Don't be monotonous. Students should know that they might be called upon to answer a question, participate in a discussion or work on a task at any moment.

Listening (ACS Distance Education, 2016).

• A good teacher is good at communicating, giving and receiving messages, speaking and listening.
• Listening skills develop empathy and understanding with students and enable me to assess their understanding of what I am teaching them.
• By not giving them all the answers I will also be teaching them to find answers in other aspects of their lives.
• Stages of listening:

1. open yourself to the 'incoming message'- Listen for ideas, implications and feelings and the facts to decipher the real underlying message. Use eye contact.

2. begin to interpret, or reconstruct, what is being said- Listen with full attention and really try to understand message, withhold judgements, withhold my conclusions till they've finished speaking. Don't speak till they're finished.

3. evaluate what is being said after having made a reasonably objective interpretation of the message- reflect on information and options, sift through evidence.

4. responding: Demonstrate I've been listening by asking for clarification or more information, or smiling, nodding or frowning while they speak.

Some obstacles to listening include: anxiety/distraction; bias; language problems; and, attitude, tone and words.

Key features of Wait Time that I could use in my teaching

Teach Like a Champion Technique 25- Wait Time (La Trobe University LMS, 2016).

• Give students 1.5-2 seconds time before asking for a response to a question
• or 3-5 seconds
• More students should have answers, they will be better answers, using more evidence to back them up
• Students will need training and articulation to become better at this and make it a habit. To do this use I could use 'narrated wait time'- guidance of what they should be doing with their 3-5 seconds. This is teaching while you wait and reinforces specific behaviours.

Increasing Wait Time (Improving Teaching, 2013). 

• Wait 3 seconds before asking or answering a question.
• Pause before answering students questions.
• Wait before asking students to respond to each other.
• Count the clock ticking for 3 seconds.
• Position myself away from the front of the room.
• Only try to learn/implement/practice between 1-3 new things in my teaching at a time.

Chapter 4. Active Learning Strategies

3 Active learning strategies I can use with later years students in Outdoor Education and Geography

1. Activating prior knowledge- find out what the students know and build on that knowledge. In Geography I would get them to review their prior learning through brainstorming individually, then in pairs, and then discuss it with the class.
2. Then I would introduce new material using quality visual imagery/materials through a variety of media, and allow experimentation and manipulation of material.
3. Promote independent practice and application through research strategies and time management that simulate life and work scenarios, and is relevant to the students e.g. regional catchment studies using the location of the school as a model for which they need to identify where the natural and man made catchments are, what the managing body for this is, and to choose an element of regional catchment or catchment management to investigate further for an assessment task. They would need practice and reinforcement of learning learning through revision, worksheets, tests and demonstrations, for which I would provide regular and meaningful feedback.

References

ACS Distance Education. (2016). Listening. Retrieved from http://www.acs.edu.au/info/education/trends-opinions/listening-skills.aspx

BOSTES. (2016). Learning through reading and writing. Retrieved from http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/7-10-literacy-numeracy/literacy-strategy.html

Bright Hub Education. (2012). Lesson ideas: Teach students how to take notes. Retrieved from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-middle-school/6562-ideas-for-teaching-students-how-to-take-notes/

BSSS. (2016). ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies. Retrieved from http://www.bsss.act.edu.au/curriculum/courses

CSDE. (2016). Section 7: Instructional strategies that facilitate learning across content areas. Retrieved from http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/curriculum/section7.pdf

Edutopia. (2014). Doing it differently: Tips for teaching vocabulary. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/vocabulary-instruction-teaching-tips-rebecca-alber

Edutopia. (2014). When high school students struggle with a text book. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/students-struggle-with-textbook-reading-sheila-valencia 

Faculty Focus. (2012). Active Listening: Seven Ways to Help Students Listen, Not Just Hear. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/active-listening-seven-ways-to-improve-students-listening-skills/

Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2013). The role of questions in teaching, thinking and learning. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-role-of-questions-in-teaching-thinking-and-learning/524

Improving Teaching. (2013). Increasing wait time. Retrieved from http://improvingteaching.co.uk/2013/08/17/increasing-wait-time/

La Trobe University LMS. (2016, April 5). How to take notes in class: The 5 best methods- College info geek [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AffuwyJZTQQ

La Trobe University LMS. (2016, April 5). Introduction Marzano's nine strategies for effective instruction [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGqfA5MaFCk

La Trobe University LMS. (2016, April 5). Strategies for student-centered class discussions [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/strategies-for-student-centered-discussion

La Trobe University LMS. (2016, April 6). Teach Like a Champion Technique 25- Wait Time [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lecW6Ie9dVo

La Trobe University LMS. (2016, April 5). The first three Marzano strategies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aryPsMgJjnc

La Trobe University LMS. (2016, April 5). The second three Marzano strategies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vKbC4P6pUo

La Trobe University LMS. (2016, April 5). The third three Marzano strategies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsfKD6PnEa0

Mind Tools. (2012). Active Listening: Hear What People are Actually Saying [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2z9mdX1j4A

Munro, J. (n.d.). Improving literacy in the secondary school : An information to knowledge innovation. Retrieved from https://students.education.unimelb.edu.au/selage/pub/readings/literacyld/Art_D_Brydon__04__sec_sent_.pdf

RMIT. (2014). Teaching practice- Promoting Deep Learning. Retrieved from https://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/bus/public/transnational/pdf/Teaching%20practice%20-%20Promoting%20deep%20Learning.pdf

Tate, M. L. (2010). Worksheets don't grow dendrites. Thousand Oaks, CA: Cornwin.

UTS. (2012). Students approaches to learning. Retrieved from http://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-and-learning/learning-and-teaching/students-approaches-learning

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