types of methodology in lesson plan

Teaching Methods and Strategies: The Complete Guide

You’ve completed your coursework. Student teaching has ended. You’ve donned the cap and gown, crossed the stage, smiled with your diploma and went home to fill out application after application.

Suddenly you are standing in what will be your classroom for the next year and after the excitement of decorating it wears off and you begin lesson planning, you start to notice all of your lessons are executed the same way, just with different material. But that is what you know and what you’ve been taught, so you go with it.

After a while, your students are bored, and so are you. There must be something wrong because this isn’t what you envisioned teaching to be like. There is.

Figuring out the best ways you can deliver information to students can sometimes be even harder than what students go through in discovering how they learn best. The reason is because every single teacher needs a variety of different teaching methods in their theoretical teaching bag to pull from depending on the lesson, the students, and things as seemingly minute as the time the class is and the subject.

Using these different teaching methods, which are rooted in theory of different teaching styles, will not only help teachers reach their full potential, but more importantly engage, motivate and reach the students in their classes, whether in person or online.

Teaching Methods

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

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is the theory that every learner is essentially a “clean slate” to start off and shaped by emotions. People react to stimuli, reactions as well as positive and negative reinforcement, the site states.

Learning Theories names the most popular theorists who ascribed to this theory were Ivan Pavlov, who many people may know with his experiments with dogs. He performed an experiment with dogs that when he rang a bell, the dogs responded to the stimuli; then he applied the idea to humans.

Other popular educational theorists who were part of behaviorism was B.F. Skinner and Albert Bandura .

Social Cognitive Theory

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Multiple Intelligences Theory

The Multiple Intelligences Theory states that people don’t need to be smart in every single discipline to be considered intelligent on paper tests, but that people excel in various disciplines, making them exceptional.

Created in 1983, the former principal in the Scranton School District in Scranton, PA, created eight different intelligences, though since then two others have been debated of whether to be added but have not yet officially, according to the site.

The original eight are musical, spatial, linguistic, mathematical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic and most people have a predominant intelligence followed by others. For those who are musically-inclined either via instruments, vocals, has perfect pitch, can read sheet music or can easily create music has Musical Intelligence.

Being able to see something and rearrange it or imagine it differently is Spatial Intelligence, while being talented with language, writing or avid readers have Linguistic Intelligence. Kinesthetic Intelligence refers to understanding how the body works either anatomically or athletically and Naturalistic Intelligence is having an understanding of nature and elements of the ecosystem.

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

Constructivism

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

Universal Design for Learning

The final method is the Universal Design for Learning which has redefined the educational community since its inception in the mid-1980s by David H. Rose. This theory focuses on how teachers need to design their curriculum for their students. This theory really gained traction in the United States in 2004 when it was presented at an international conference and he explained that this theory is based on neuroscience and how the brain processes information, perform tasks and get excited about education.

The theory, known as UDL, advocates for presenting information in multiple ways to enable a variety of learners to understand the information; presenting multiple assessments for students to show what they have learned; and learn and utilize a student’s own interests to motivate them to learn, the site states. This theory also discussed incorporating technology in the classroom and ways to educate students in the digital age.

Teaching Styles

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

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

Learning styles are the ways in which students learn best. The most popular types are visual, audio, kinesthetic and read/write , though others include global as another type of learner, according to Akdeniz . For some, they may seem self-explanatory. Visual learners learn best by watching the instruction or a demonstration; audio learners need to hear a lesson; kinesthetic learners learn by doing, or are hands-on learners; read/write learners to best by reading textbooks and writing notes; and global learners need material to be applied to their real lives, according to The Library of Congress .

There are many activities available to instructors that enable their students to find out what kind of learner they are. Typically students have a main style with a close runner-up, which enables them to learn best a certain way but they can also learn material in an additional way.

When an instructor knows their students and what types of learners are in their classroom, instructors are able to then differentiate their instruction and assignments to those learning types, according to Akdeniz and The Library of Congress. Learn more about different learning styles.

When teaching new material to any type of learner, is it important to utilize a strategy called scaffolding . Scaffolding is based on a student’s prior knowledge and building a lesson, unit or course from the most foundational pieces and with each step make the information more complicated, according to an article by Jerry Webster .

To scaffold well, a teacher must take a personal interest in their students to learn not only what their prior knowledge is but their strengths as well. This will enable an instructor to base new information around their strengths and use positive reinforcement when mistakes are made with the new material.

There is an unfortunate concept in teaching called “teach to the middle” where instructors target their lessons to the average ability of the students in their classroom, leaving slower students frustrated and confused, and above average students frustrated and bored. This often results in the lower- and higher-level students scoring poorly and a teacher with no idea why.

The remedy for this is a strategy called blended learning where differentiated instruction is occurring simultaneously in the classroom to target all learners, according to author and educator Juliana Finegan . In order to be successful at blended learning, teachers once again need to know their students, how they learn and their strengths and weaknesses, according to Finegan.

Blended learning can include combining several learning styles into one lesson like lecturing from a PowerPoint – not reading the information on the slides — that includes cartoons and music associations while the students have the print-outs. The lecture can include real-life examples and stories of what the instructor encountered and what the students may encounter. That example incorporates four learning styles and misses kinesthetic, but the activity afterwards can be solely kinesthetic.

A huge component of blended learning is technology. Technology enables students to set their own pace and access the resources they want and need based on their level of understanding, according to The Library of Congress . It can be used three different ways in education which include face-to-face, synchronously or asynchronously . Technology used with the student in the classroom where the teacher can answer questions while being in the student’s physical presence is known as face-to-face.

Synchronous learning is when students are learning information online and have a teacher live with them online at the same time, but through a live chat or video conferencing program, like Skype, or Zoom, according to The Library of Congress.

Finally, asynchronous learning is when students take a course or element of a course online, like a test or assignment, as it fits into their own schedule, but a teacher is not online with them at the time they are completing or submitting the work. Teachers are still accessible through asynchronous learning but typically via email or a scheduled chat meeting, states the Library of Congress.

The final strategy to be discussed actually incorporates a few teaching strategies, so it’s almost like blended teaching. It starts with a concept that has numerous labels such as student-centered learning, learner-centered pedagogy, and teacher-as-tutor but all mean that an instructor revolves lessons around the students and ensures that students take a participatory role in the learning process, known as active learning, according to the Learning Portal .

In this model, a teacher is just a facilitator, meaning that they have created the lesson as well as the structure for learning, but the students themselves become the teachers or create their own knowledge, the Learning Portal says. As this is occurring, the instructor is circulating the room working as a one-on-one resource, tutor or guide, according to author Sara Sanchez Alonso from Yale’s Center for Teaching and Learning. For this to work well and instructors be successful one-on-one and planning these lessons, it’s essential that they have taken the time to know their students’ history and prior knowledge, otherwise it can end up to be an exercise in futility, Alonso said.

Some activities teachers can use are by putting students in groups and assigning each student a role within the group, creating reading buddies or literature circles, making games out of the material with individual white boards, create different stations within the classroom for different skill levels or interest in a lesson or find ways to get students to get up out of their seats and moving, offers Fortheteachers.org .

There are so many different methodologies and strategies that go into becoming an effective instructor. A consistent theme throughout all of these is for a teacher to take the time to know their students because they care, not because they have to. When an instructor knows the stories behind the students, they are able to design lessons that are more fun, more meaningful, and more effective because they were designed with the students’ best interests in mind.

There are plenty of pre-made lessons, activities and tests available online and from textbook publishers that any teacher could use. But you need to decide if you want to be the original teacher who makes a significant impact on your students, or a pre-made teacher a student needs to get through.

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

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The Will to Teach

Creating Effective Lesson Plans: A Guide for Teachers

Lesson planning is the cornerstone of effective teaching, guiding educators in orchestrating engaging and purposeful student learning experiences. This article explores the art of crafting robust lesson plans, delving into why they are essential, strategies for different career stages, and examples that cater to novice and experienced teachers.

The Importance of Lesson Plans

Beginner level:, intermediate level:, experienced level:, new teacher, experienced teacher, frequently asked questions about lesson planning.

Lesson plans serve as a compass that guides teachers in delivering organized and meaningful instruction. They ensure that essential skills, learning objectives , and curriculum components are covered. Moreover, well-structured lesson plans make it seamless for relief teachers to take over the classroom if needed, maintaining instructional continuity.

Strategies for Crafting Lesson Plans

• Clear Objectives: Set specific learning objectives that align with curriculum goals. Identify what you want students to know, understand, and be able to do by the end of the lesson.
• Structured Format: Use a consistent format with sections like objectives, materials, introduction, activities, assessment, and closure.
• Engagement Strategies : Incorporate diverse instructional strategies to engage different learning styles, such as group discussions, visual aids, or hands-on activities.
• Differentiation: Tailor activities to cater to diverse student needs . Include extension tasks for advanced learners and additional support for struggling students.
• Assessment Strategies: Integrate formative assessments throughout the lesson to gauge student understanding. This can be quizzes, discussions, or group work.
• Technology Integration: Integrate technology tools that enhance learning experiences, such as interactive simulations or digital resources.
• Real-world Application: Design activities that relate to real-life scenarios, connecting classroom learning to practical situations.
• Student-Centered Approach: Foster student agency by incorporating opportunities for self-directed exploration and inquiry-based learning.
• Reflection and Adaptation: Incorporate a section for post-lesson reflection, where you analyze what went well and identify areas for improvement in future lessons.

Lesson Plan Examples

• Objective: Introduce students to basic fractions.
• Materials: Fraction manipulatives, whiteboard, markers.
• Introduction: Engage students with a relatable scenario involving pizza slices.
• Activities: Group work using fraction manipulatives to practice adding and subtracting fractions.
• Assessment: Quick quiz at the end of the class.
• Closure: Review key concepts and provide a preview of the next lesson.
• Objective: Analyze the impact of historical events on society.
• Materials: Primary source documents, multimedia resources.
• Introduction: Pose a thought-provoking question related to historical events.
• Activities: Small group discussions analyzing primary sources and creating presentations.
• Assessment: Peer review of presentations and individual reflections.
• Closure: Facilitate a class discussion on the broader implications of historical events.

Effective lesson planning is an art that evolves with experience. It ensures that teaching is purposeful, engaging, and aligned with educational goals. By tailoring lesson plans to your career stage and employing strategies that promote student engagement and understanding, educators can create impactful learning experiences that empower their students to succeed.

• Why is lesson planning important for teachers? Lesson planning provides a roadmap for teachers to organize their instruction, ensuring that learning objectives are met, curriculum requirements are covered, and students are engaged. It also facilitates smooth classroom management and allows for effective assessment of student progress.
• What should a well-structured lesson plan include? A comprehensive lesson plan typically includes clear learning objectives, a list of materials needed, an engaging introduction, interactive activities, assessment strategies, and a meaningful closure.
• How can lesson plans benefit substitute teachers? Well-crafted lesson plans make it easier for substitute teachers to seamlessly step into your role. Clear instructions, organized activities, and outlined objectives help substitute teachers maintain the learning flow in your absence.
• How can I make my lesson plans more engaging for students? Incorporate diverse instructional strategies, interactive activities, technology tools, and real-world applications to cater to various learning styles and make lessons more engaging.
• How can I ensure that students act on the feedback I provide? Encourage student self-assessment and reflection. Set specific goals for improvement based on your feedback, and revisit those goals periodically. Provide ongoing support and praise for their progress.
• Why should I share lesson plans with parents? Sharing lesson plans with parents fosters transparency and opens channels for meaningful conversations about their child’s learning. It helps parents understand the curriculum, learning objectives, and ways they can support their child at home.
• What is reflective teaching, and why is it important? Reflective teaching involves self-assessment and critical analysis of your instructional practices. It helps you identify strengths, areas for improvement, and adapt your teaching methods to better meet students’ needs.
• How can I make my reflections on teaching meaningful and regular? Set aside dedicated time for reflection, either daily or weekly. Use a journal or digital platform to record observations, successes, challenges, and strategies. Consider seeking feedback from peers or mentors to gain different perspectives.
• How can I effectively incorporate technology into my lesson plans? Integrate technology tools that enhance learning experiences, such as interactive simulations, multimedia presentations, and online resources. Ensure that technology supports the learning objectives and engages students.
• Can I use the same lesson plan format throughout my teaching career? While your basic lesson plan structure might remain consistent, adapting and refining your approach based on your experience and changing classroom needs is essential for continuous improvement.

Remember, lesson planning is an evolving process that grows with your teaching journey. By staying open to experimentation and incorporating feedback from both students and colleagues, you can refine your lesson planning skills and provide enriching educational experiences for your students.

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[2023] The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Methods and Strategies: Expert Advice for Classroom Success

• June 11, 2023
• Instructional Coaching

As educators and teachers, we understand that finding the right teaching methods and strategies is crucial for classroom success. With so many different options out there, it can be overwhelming to determine which approach is best. That's why our team at Teacher Strategies™ has compiled the ultimate guide to teaching methods and strategies, filled with expert advice and tips to help you find the best approach for your classroom.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The importance of teaching methods, lecture method, discussion method, demonstration method, cooperative learning method, inquiry-based method, project-based learning method, flipped classroom method, personalized education method, the pros and cons of different teaching methods, direct instruction, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, personalized learning, flipped classroom, interactive, self-discovery, instructional methods in education, quick tips and facts.

The success of any classroom largely depends on the effectiveness of the teaching methods and strategies employed by their teachers. Using outdated or ineffective methods can bore and disengage students, while innovative and engaging approaches can inspire learning and foster student success. The goal of this guide is to help you find the best teaching methods and strategies to suit your unique classroom and teaching style.

The right teaching method can make all the difference in student success. Effective teaching methods ensure that information is being delivered in a way that's engaging and meaningful. Not all students learn the same way, and using a variety of teaching methods can help ensure that every student is able to understand and retain information. Additionally, using innovative teaching methods shows students that you care about their learning and are willing to try new approaches to help them succeed.

Different Types of Teaching Methods and Strategies

Lecturing is a popular method of teaching that involves the teacher providing information to the students through a verbal presentation. This method is best suited for delivering large amounts of information in a relatively short amount of time, and it allows students to take notes and ask questions. However, lectures can be a passive form of learning for students and are not always the most engaging method.

The discussion method involves encouraging student participation through group discussions and debates. This method is excellent for developing critical thinking skills, encouraging student engagement, and promoting collaboration. However, it can be difficult to manage and may not be ideal for every subject.

The demonstration method involves teachers demonstrating how to complete a task or solve a problem. This method can be useful for subjects that require hands-on learning, such as science or art. However, it may not be effective for all students and may require more time for preparation.

Cooperative learning involves students working together in groups to achieve a common goal. This method promotes teamwork and collaboration, and can help to develop communication skills. However, it can be difficult to manage and may not work best with all students.

The inquiry-based method involves students exploring a topic or problem on their own, using critical thinking skills and problem-solving strategies. This method promotes self-directed learning and can be highly engaging for students. However, it requires a high level of preparation and may not be suitable for every subject or classroom.

Project-based learning involves students working on a long-term project to achieve a goal or solve a problem. This method promotes creativity, critical thinking, and teamwork. However, it can be difficult to manage and may require more time for preparation.

The flipped classroom method involves students learning material at home through a pre-recorded lecture, while the in-class time is spent on hands-on group activities and projects. This method allows for more personalized learning and fosters student engagement. However, it requires a high level of preparation and may not work best with all students.

Personalized education involves tailoring the learning experience to the individual student's needs, strengths, and interests. This method can be highly effective for engaging students and encouraging critical thinking. However, it requires a high level of preparation and may not be suitable for every subject or classroom.

No method is perfect, and understanding the pros and cons of each approach is essential. Here are a few pros and cons of each method:

• Pros: Fast delivery of information, cost-effective, and easy to implement.
• Cons: Passive form of learning, not suitable for all subjects, and requires the right environment to be successful.
• Pros: Encourages critical thinking, promotes collaboration, and engaging for students.
• Cons: Difficult to manage, can be hard to keep students focused, and not suitable for all subjects.
• Pros: Useful for hands-on learning, can be visual and engaging.
• Cons: Limited in effectiveness, may be costly, and time-consuming to prepare.
• Pros: Promotes teamwork, communication, and critical thinking skills.
• Cons: Can be difficult to manage, may be uncomfortable for some students, and not suitable for all subjects.
• Pros: Promotes critical thinking and creativity, fosters engagement and self-directed learning.
• Cons: High level of preparation, may not work with all students, and can be difficult to manage.
• Pros: Promotes critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork.
• Cons: Can be challenging to manage, may be time-consuming to prepare, and not suitable for all subjects.
• Pros: Allows for personalized learning, fosters student engagement, and promotes critical thinking and collaboration.
• Cons: Requires a high level of preparation, not suitable for all students, and can be difficult to manage.
• Pros: Tailored to individual needs and interests, fosters student engagement and critical thinking.
• Cons: Requires a high level of preparation, not suitable for all students, and can be challenging to manage.

What are the 5 Teaching Approaches?

There are five main teaching approaches that educators can use in the classroom. Understanding each approach can help you determine which is best for your classroom:

Direct instruction is a teacher-centered approach that involves lecture, demonstrations, and other activities designed to deliver large amounts of information to students quickly. This approach is best suited for subjects that require a lot of factual information and can be less engaging for students.

Inquiry-based learning is a student-centered approach that promotes self-directed learning through questioning and investigation. This method promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.

Cooperative learning involves students working together in groups to achieve a common goal. This approach promotes teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills.

Personalized learning tailors the learning experience to the individual student's needs, strengths, and interests. This approach can be highly engaging for students and encourages critical thinking and self-directed learning.

The flipped classroom approach involves reversing the traditional classroom model, with students learning material at home through a pre-recorded lecture, while the in-class time is spent on hands-on group activities and projects. This approach allows for more personalized learning, fosters student engagement, and promotes critical thinking and collaboration.

The Four Types of Instructional Methods

Instructional methods are the specific techniques or strategies used to deliver information to students. There are four main types of instructional methods:

Expository instructional methods involve lecturing, reading, or demonstrating to impart information to students. This method is best suited for subjects that require a lot of factual information.

Interactive instructional methods involve activities that require students to be actively engaged in the learning process. This method promotes critical thinking and problem-solving.

Mastery instructional methods involve teaching a skill or concept until the student has mastered it. This approach requires targeted instruction and assessment to ensure that students have a strong foundation before moving on to the next topic.

Self-discovery instructional methods involve encouraging students to explore a topic or problem on their own, using critical thinking skills and problem-solving strategies. This method promotes self-directed learning and can be highly engaging for students.

Instructional methods are essential in education, as they define how information is delivered to students. Different methods work best for different subjects, and some may be more effective than others depending on the teacher, curriculum, and goals of the lesson. As teachers, it's essential to approach instruction with an open mind, experimenting with new methods and techniques as needed.

• Understand your students' learning styles to determine which teaching methods will work best.
• Not all teaching methods work for every student or every subject – experimenting with different approaches can help you discover what works best for your classroom.
• Use a combination of teaching methods to keep students engaged and interested.
• Technology can be an effective tool for engaging students and delivering information in new and innovative ways.

What are the different types of teaching methods?

The different types of teaching methods include: lecture, discussion, demonstration, cooperative learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, flipped classroom, and personalized education.

What are the 5 teaching approaches?

The 5 teaching approaches are: direct instruction, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, personalized learning, and flipped classroom.

What are the four types of instructional methods?

The four types of instructional methods are expository, interactive, mastery, and self-discovery.

What are some teaching methods and strategies?

Effective teaching methods and strategies include using technology, personalized learning, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, and project-based learning.

What are instructional methods in education?

Instructional methods in education are the teaching techniques and strategies used to deliver information to students.

By understanding the different teaching methods and strategies available, you can develop a tailored approach that best suits your classroom and students. Experiment with different methods and techniques, and use technology to your advantage. With the right approach, you can inspire learning and foster student success. As a recommendation, we suggest starting with a mix of cooperative learning, project-based learning, and personalized education. Surveyed teachers have claimed these approaches enhance student engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking. Remember to always approach teaching methods with an open mind, and be willing to try new approaches to discover what works best for your students.

[1] https://learn.org/articles/Edutopia_An_Online_Community_for_Teachers_and_Students.html [2] [3] https://www.knewton.com/ [4] https://www.epa.gov/students [5] https://arapahoe.extension.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/Denver-STEM-resources-for-parents-and-teachers_.pdf [6] https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-importance

Marti is a seasoned educator and strategist with a passion for fostering inclusive learning environments and empowering students through tailored educational experiences. With her roots as a university tutor—a position she landed during her undergraduate years—Marti has always been driven by the joy of facilitating others' learning journeys.

Holding a Bachelor's degree in Communication alongside a degree in Social Work, she has mastered the art of empathetic communication, enabling her to connect with students on a profound level. Marti’s unique educational background allows her to incorporate holistic approaches into her teaching, addressing not just the academic, but also the emotional and social needs of her students.

Throughout her career, Marti has developed and implemented innovative teaching strategies that cater to diverse learning styles, believing firmly that education should be accessible and engaging for all. Her work on the Teacher Strategies site encapsulates her extensive experience and dedication to education, offering readers insights into effective teaching methods, classroom management techniques, and strategies for fostering inclusive and supportive learning environments.

As an advocate for lifelong learning, Marti continuously seeks to expand her knowledge and skills, ensuring her teaching methods are both evidence-based and cutting edge. Whether through her blog articles on Teacher Strategies or her direct engagement with students, Marti remains committed to enhancing educational outcomes and inspiring the next generation of learners and educators alike.

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Lesson Methodologies

Jabberwocky

Methodology is the way(s) in which teachers share information with students. The information itself is known as the content ; how that content is shared in a classroom is dependent on the teaching methods.

The following chart lists a wide variety of lesson methodologies appropriate for the presentation of material, which I will discuss here. Notice how these teaching methods move from Least Impact and Involvement (for students) to Greatest Impact and Involvement.

As you look at the chart, you'll notice that lecture, for example, is a way of providing students with basic knowledge. You'll also note that lecture has the least impact on students as well as the lowest level of student involvement. As you move up the scale (from left to right), you'll note how each successive method increases the level of impact and involvement for students. At the top, reflective inquiry has the highest level of student involvement. It also has the greatest impact of all the methods listed.

Knowledge is the basic information of a subject; the facts and data of a topic. Synthesis is the combination of knowledge elements that form a new whole. Performance refers to the ability to effectively use new information in a productive manner.

Across the bottom of the chart are three categories: knowledge, synthesis, and performance. These refer to the impact of each method in terms of how well students will utilize it. For example, lecture is simply designed to provide students with basic knowledge about a topic. Reflective inquiry, on the other hand, offers opportunities for students to use knowledge in a productive and meaningful way.

Now let's take a look at each of those three major categories and the methodologies that are part of each one.

How do you present basic information to your students? It makes no difference whether you're sharing consonant digraphs with your first-grade students or differential calculus with your twelfth-grade students; you must teach them some basic information. You have several options for sharing that information.

Lecture is an arrangement in which teachers share information directly with students, with roots going back to the ancient Greeks. Lecture is a familiar form of information-sharing, but it is not without its drawbacks. It has been overused and abused, and it is often the method used when teachers don't know or aren't familiar with other avenues of presentation. Also, many lecturers might not have been the best teacher role models in school.

Often, teachers assume that lecturing is nothing more than speaking to a group of students. Wrong! Good lecturing also demonstrates a respect for the learner, a knowledge of the content, and an awareness of the context in which the material is presented.

Good lectures must be built on three basic principles:

Knowing and responding to the background knowledge of the learner is necessary for an effective lecture.

Having a clear understanding of the material is valuable in being able to explain it to others.

The physical design of the room and the placement of students impact the effectiveness of a lecture.

Lecture is often the method of choice when introducing and explaining new concepts. It can also be used to add insight and expand on previously presented material. Teachers recommend that the number of concepts (within a single lesson) be limited to one or two at the elementary level and three to five at the secondary level.

It's important to keep in mind that lecture need not be a long and drawn-out affair. For example, the 10-2 strategy is an easily used, amazingly effective tool for all grade levels. In this strategy, no more than 10 minutes of lecture should occur before students are allowed 2 minutes for processing. This is also supportive of how the brain learns (see Effective Learning and How Students Learn ). When 10-2 is used in both elementary and secondary classrooms, the rate of both comprehension and retention of information increases dramatically.

During the 2-minute break, you can ask students several open-ended questions, such as the following:

“What have you learned so far in this lesson?”

“Why is this information important?”

“How does this information relate to any information we have learned previously?”

“How do you feel about your progress so far?”

“How does this data apply to other situations?”

These questions can be answered individually, in small group discussions, or as part of whole class interactions.

The value of the 10-2 strategy is that it can be used with all types of content. Equally important, it has a positive effect on brain growth.

Lectures are information-sharing tools for any classroom teacher. However, it's critically important that you not use lecture as your one and only tool. You must supplement it with other instructional methods to achieve the highest levels of comprehension and utility for your students.

Reading Information

With this method, you assign material from the textbook for students to read independently. You may also choose to have your students read other supplemental materials in addition to the textbook. These may include, but are not limited to children's or adolescent literature, brochures, flyers, pamphlets, and information read directly from a selected website.

In This Article:

Featured high school resources.

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The TeacherVision editorial team is comprised of teachers, experts, and content professionals dedicated to bringing you the most accurate and relevant information in the teaching space.

10 Selecting Instructional Strategies and Creating Lesson Plans

Introduction.

In stage three of Backward Design we plan instructional strategies, or the specific activities we will use to present content and engage our students, ranging from more traditional methods, such as lecture, to the active learning techniques discussed in Chapter 4.  This part of instructional planning can be exciting as we start to think about how we will interact with learners. But, for the same reason, it can also be a little scary. How do we choose among all the possible activities and strategies? Which activities will allow us to achieve the learning goals and keep our students interested?

This chapter addresses these questions by delving into the various instructional strategies available to us. The chapter begins with an overview of some general best practices that apply across teaching strategies, followed by a review of a variety of specific strategies and suggestions on how to implement them. The final section discusses how to pull the three stages of Backward Design together into a lesson plan.

Instructional Strategies: Best Practices

Regardless of which instructional strategies we employ, a few general best practices should guide us. These practices facilitate student learning and increase engagement and motivation, and they apply equally well to both online and face-to-face modalities.

Active Learning

The premise of active learning is that students learn better and are more engaged when they interact directly with material than when they sit passively and only watch or listen. As instructors, we can find myriad ways to integrate active learning into our sessions. Active learning was covered in depth in Chapter 4, but it is such a popular topic and so highly recommended that it bears repeating here as a best practice.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding acknowledges the role that prior experience and prerequisite knowledge play in learning and can be understood through the lens of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), discussed in Chapter 3. According to Vygotsky’s theory, there are three zones of development. The first zone represents tasks and activities that learners can accomplish on their own without help. The third zone represents tasks and activities which the learner cannot yet accomplish, even with guidance. The second area, the ZPD, represents the area of optimal learning. This area represents the tasks and activities that learners can accomplish with some guidance from instructors or more experienced peers. Students should find the work in this zone appropriately challenging; it is not so easy as to be boring nor so hard as to be overwhelming. In the ZPD, students are drawing on prior learning and adding new information in order to move to a different level of knowledge.

Scaffolding learning means to consciously present information in a sequence so that students are introduced to, and have time to become competent with, foundational knowledge or simpler skills before progressing to more complex information and skills. Beyond just sequencing material appropriately, scaffolding involves providing support to learners as they progress through the various stages. As the students gain in competence, the supports are gradually removed, and the students assume more responsibility for their learning (Larkin, 2002). Ellis and Larkin (1998) suggest a framework of four steps for scaffolded learning:

• The teacher demonstrates a skill. For instance, an instructor might demonstrate how to conduct a search in the library catalog or download an ebook on an app.
• The class practices the skill as a large group. In a session on searching, the instructor might lead the search and ask students for suggestions of search terms or limiters to narrow results.
• Students continue their practice. Working in pairs or small groups, students practice the skills, offering each other help and feedback.
• Individual students practice the skill on their own. At this point, students should be ready to search for and find materials for their projects.

Instructors can also offer scaffolding by breaking larger projects or assignments into smaller pieces and offering feedback at each step. For instance, rather than just assigning a research paper due at the end of the semester, the instructor could have students identify their paper topic early in the semester and help them refine their focus by providing feedback if the topic is too broad or narrow. Next, the teacher might ask students to submit an annotated bibliography of the sources they intend to use, again providing feedback if the sources are not appropriate or need to be supplemented. Finally, the teacher might ask for an outline of the paper to see how students are structuring their argument. In this way, learners should have more confidence and skill by the time they write the full paper because they have had support and feedback along the way. See Activity 10.1 for a brief example and activity related to ZPD and scaffolding.

Activity 10.1: ZPD and Scaffolding

One of the book authors, Laura, recently took a 10-week painting class. When reviewing Laura’s canvas one night, the art teacher told her she needed to do some shading. The teacher had discussed color and composition, but she had never talked about shading, and while Laura had a sense of what shading was, she did not know how to do it. After a few frustrating attempts, Laura explained she did not know what to do, so the teacher took the brush and did it for her. Later, when Laura told the story to a friend with an art background, he asked Laura to think about how light and shadow impact what we see, used examples from around the room, demonstrated how to replicate that lighting with a quick sketch on scrap paper, and invited Laura to try on her own while he offered advice.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion:

• How does this story reflect the Zones of Proximal Development and scaffolding, both with positive and negative examples?
• Think of some examples from your own experience as a learner. Have you had experiences where you were being asked to work beyond your ZPD? What feelings did you experience? What could the instructor have done to adjust the content or help you move to the next level?
• Have you had experiences where an instructor has provided the right level of support to help you move to a new level of understanding? What did that support look like?
• As you think about the learners or topics you anticipate teaching, how might you connect to prior learning or provide scaffolding in your own instruction sessions?

Drawing Connections to Existing Knowledge

According to several of the learning theories discussed in Chapter 3, including cognitivism and constructivism, learning occurs when students make connections between new information and existing knowledge. Cognitive scientists also argue that these connections between pieces of information improve memory, making it easier to recall facts and concepts. While students will make some of these connections on their own, instructors can facilitate the process by explicitly drawing on students’ own experiences or using metaphors and analogies to compare a new concept to something students already know. For example, if you are teaching a group how to use an ebook lending service like Overdrive, you could compare it to using an online retail site with which students might already be familiar, like Amazon. In both cases there are options to search and to browse, and users can narrow their search using different filters. An example of a metaphor would be saying that call numbers are the address of a book. As described in Chapter 7, we can use audience assessments to uncover students’ existing knowledge and prior experience to make connections to the current material. See Activity 10.2 for an exercise using metaphors.

Activity 10.2: Teaching through Metaphor

Metaphors and analogies can be great ways to help students connect ideas to each other and increase learning. For this activity, you will prepare a brief explanation of a library concept using an illustrative analogy or metaphor to connect new information to previous knowledge.

First, choose one term or phrase from the list below or choose a concept of your own, and then decide who your audience is (children, undergraduates, lawyers, etc.). Finally, develop an analogy, activity, or illustrative example that helps the audience understand what is being taught. Be sure that your language and examples are appropriate to the audience that you have selected.

• Subject headings
• Online catalog
• Peer review
• Bibliography
• Interlibrary loan
• Search string
• Boolean operators
• Primary source

Pair up with a classmate and share analogies.

• Does your classmate’s analogy help clarify the concept they are describing? Can you see the connections between the two ideas?
• Does the analogy seem appropriate to the intended audience? Why or why not?

(Used with permission from a class assignment designed by Vivienne Piroli.)

Using a Variety of Instructional Strategies

Another important practice is to vary our instructional approaches by presenting material in different formats and offering a variety of activities for learning and hands-on practice. We often hear advice for varying strategies tied to the idea of learning styles, or the belief that individuals have a preferred mode of learning or acquiring new information. Based on the theory that some students learn best through text, others through audio, and so on, instructors have been advised to present information in multiple formats to match these learning styles. The concept has been extremely influential, but multiple reviews have demonstrated a lack of scientific evidence to support the theory of learning styles (Coffield et al., 2004; Kaufmann, 2018), leading one research team to conclude “there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning styles assessments into general educational practice. Thus, limited education resources would better be devoted to adopting other educational practices” (Pashler et al., 2008, p. 105). Others have argued that the idea of learning styles is actually harmful, as it suggests that some students cannot learn in certain formats and can lead to fixed mindset thinking that interferes with learning and decreases motivation (Kaufmann, 2018).

Rather than trying to match instruction to perceived learning styles, instructors should reflect on what strategies are best aligned with their content (Willingham, 2005). For instance, visual approaches might align well with subjects that deal with spatial relationships like geometry, architecture, and drafting. We should also recognize that multiple approaches align with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles introduced in Chapter 6 by ensuring that learners can access and engage regardless of their background and ability. If we offer these approaches as choices, we can integrate some of the humanistic and democratic elements of self-directed learning discussed in Chapter 3.

Instructional Strategies and Learning Activities

The number of learning activities available to us is enormous, from the more instructor-centered approaches like lecture and demonstration to the more active and student-centered approaches like discussion and inquiry learning. This section provides a brief overview of several methods, keeping the emphasis on those most likely to be used in a library setting. Some of these strategies are also discussed in Chapter 4 and Chapter 9 as examples of active learning and assessment techniques, but they are included here because of their popularity and utility as general instructional strategies.

With all the emphasis on active learning, instructors often view lectures negatively. Lectures are invariably used as examples of passive learning and teacher-centered (as opposed to student-centered) classrooms. As a result, teachers often get the impression that all lecturing is bad, but lectures actually offer some important advantages. First, they are more efficient than active learning activities, making them valuable when we have a significant amount of content and/or a short time frame with which to work (Harrington & Zakrajsek, 2017). In addition, lectures can be effective tools for providing overviews of a topic, structuring and clarifying complex materials, or modeling a thought process (Brookfield, 2006). Because teachers are in control of the material in a lecture, they can be sure that the information is being communicated accurately, which can be especially important for learners who are new to a topic (Harrington & Zakrajsek, 2017). When done well, lectures can be engaging and even inspiring. So, how can we use lectures effectively in our teaching?

The first step is to be conscious about why we are choosing a lecture over (or in addition to) other formats. We should not lecture simply because it is the easiest or most comfortable method but because it makes sense for our learning outcomes, material, and audience. We can also share the reason for our decision with learners, which can help them understand our choices and expectations. Lectures can be good scaffolding tools to establish background knowledge, either by reviewing previous content or providing an overview of a new topic. They can also be helpful when tackling difficult or complex concepts, as the instructor can use examples and analogies to explain ideas (Brookfield, 2006). We might also use lectures to present more current information than can be found in the literature, synthesize information from different sources or different activities in class, and make content more relevant to students by connecting it to their experiences and points of reference (McKeachie & Svinicki, 2006).

Lectures should be carefully organized to present information in a logical sequence. The specific organization will depend on the content but likely will move from simpler to more complex ideas. Importantly, the lecture should not just reiterate content from the readings but should add value by introducing new ideas, making relevant connections to current events and learners’ experiences, and posing new questions. We should be careful to use clear language and to either avoid jargon or define jargon when we introduce it. Some instructors, especially newer ones, find it helpful to script their full lecture, but virtually anyone would benefit from having a solid outline and some brief notes. We should also decide if we will integrate any supporting materials. Chapter 11 provides more detail about instructional materials, such as slides, lecture outlines, and graphic organizers.

Next, we need to consider our presentation and delivery of the lecture. Undoubtedly, all of us have had the experience of sitting through classes where instructors read their notes or PowerPoint slides to us, delivered the entire lecture in a monotone, and never stepped away from the podium or whiteboard. Regardless of how good the content of such lectures might be, most of us have a hard time paying attention in those situations. How do we make our lectures dynamic and engaging? Chapter 12 provides more specifics on presentation skills, so this section will mention only a few important points. Even if we fully script out a lecture, we should be thoroughly familiar with the content and use notes for reference, rather than reading a script word for word. Similarly, slides should be used to reinforce points or provide visual aids, not to reiterate the whole lecture. We should avoid standing behind a desk or podium throughout a lecture but rather move around the classroom as we talk. This movement adds some energy to the lecture and helps us engage students beyond the first row of seats.

If a lecture will take more than 10 to 15 minutes to deliver, we should plan to “chunk” the lecture, or break it down into smaller parts. Brookfield suggests breaking lectures into 12- to 15-minute chunks and using “bridging activities” between them (2006, p. 105). Bridging activities could include a short pause to allow students to take notes, questions to prompt reflection or discussion, or a short demonstration or illustration of a point. Some instructors will also use cartoons or jokes to break up their lectures, although these should be linked to the content.

Chunking is at least as important for online lectures and videos as it is for face-to-face classes, and, in fact, advice for online sessions recommends even shorter chunks. Some researchers suggest keeping online lecture videos to under 10 minutes, as student attention seems to peak around six minutes and fall off drastically after 10 minutes (Gou, 2013). Research on instructional videos, which tend to demonstrate specific tasks or skills such as how to request an interlibrary loan, suggests an optimal length of 30 seconds to two minutes (Bowles-Terry et al., 2010).

Harrington and Zakrajsek (2017) provide a number of approaches to increase learner engagement with lectures. Some of these examples might be familiar. Demonstration lectures, which involve walking the class through a process or task while explaining the steps, are popular in library classrooms. Visually enhanced lectures are supported by visual tools, such as slides, images, infographics, or brief videos.

Storytelling can enliven lectures (Harrington & Zakrajsek, 2017), and presenters of the some of the most popular TED Talks recommend weaving stories into your presentation to capture listeners’ attention (Gallo, 2014). Stories can make information come to life and elucidate a point more convincingly than a direct statement can. A good story can capture listeners’ attention and help them see connections among pieces of information; research suggests that listeners remember information presented as a story better than information presented as discrete facts (Callahan, 2015).

Of course, you want learners to remember a story because of the information it conveys, not just because it was entertaining. To be effective, the story must relate to the lesson and should expand on a point, illustrate a skill or process, or elucidate connections within the material. As an example, many students consider themselves excellent searchers, so if a search of a database returns no relevant results, they assume that nothing has been written on their topic. In college classes, one of the textbook authors, Laura, often tells the following story:

I was a graduate student in a Master of Arts in Teaching program. For a final paper for one of my classes, I decided to write about the impact of service learning on students. I set myself up at a search terminal at the library and ran a few searches, all with no results. I tried a few different word combinations, but I knew nothing about subject searching, and I kept getting no results. Finally, I turned to one of my friends at a nearby terminal and told her that there was nothing on service learning and I was going to have to find a new topic. As it happened, a librarian sitting nearby overheard my conversation and came over to ask if he could help. Assuming that I knew what I was doing, I thanked him but told him I had already looked, and there was definitely nothing on service learning; then I turned back to the terminal and started searching for a new topic. A few minutes later, the librarian returned with a printed list of at least a dozen citations of articles on service learning and offered them to me. I was amazed! How could he have found all of these when I had already searched so thoroughly? He sat down with me to show me how he had done the searches, and I was able to write my paper on service learning after all.

Because so many students have had the same experience of changing topics because they cannot find relevant information, they seem to relate to this story much more than if the instructor simply told them that they are probably just executing poor searches when they find no results, or explained the difference between subject and keyword searching without the context of the story. The story also conveys that librarians are eager to help and can subtly encourage students to seek that help. Finally, the listeners get a little chuckle at the instructor’s hubris, which can lighten the mood, and alleviate any embarrassment that students might feel if they have had a similar experience. See Activity 10.3 for a short exercise on telling stories.

Activity 10.3: Storytelling in the Classroom

Following are several common issues, beliefs, or challenges of library patrons. Read through them, and then answer the questions that follow.

• Everything is on the Internet. If I cannot find it on Google , it does not exist.
• I do not need copyright permission to use images in my school presentation.
• Everybody is biased. The information in The New York Times is not any better than what I find in my Facebook feed.
• You should never use Wikipedia for your research because anyone can edit it, so the information is not trustworthy.
• Try to think of some experiences or stories relevant to any of these scenarios. You do not have to limit yourself to your own experiences but can think of examples from family, friends, and work as well.
• How could you use that story in an instruction session to engage your learners? What details would you include, and why?
• What larger points or connections does this story make?

Pair up with a classmate and share your stories with each other; then provide each other with some feedback.

• Does your classmate’s story seem relevant to the scenario? How so?
• Can you intuit the larger points that your classmate intended to make with their story?
• Are there any details you would cut from or add to the story? Why?

Lectures do not have to be entirely teacher-centered; we can integrate activities to encourage interaction and engagement. The lecture pause, introduced in Chapter 4, is a simple technique that can be easily integrated into any lecture. In this technique, the instructor stops the lecture and gives students a few minutes to reflect on what they have heard. We can suggest that students jot down notes about what they have learned or provide them with a question about the material for reflection. We can let students work individually or ask them to share their thoughts with a peer. Either way, this technique requires only a couple of minutes and can be used even in very large classes. If we have already chunked our lecture, we will have natural breaking points to insert a pause.

We can also invite some learner participation by integrating questions throughout the lecture. Questions could be fact-based, asking students to recall information or provide definitions, or they could be discussion-based, asking students to interpret information, expand on concepts, or share their own experiences. If questions are posed to the entire class, only a few students might have a chance to answer, especially if the class is large. To give more learners a chance to join the discussion, we can break students into pairs or small groups and give them a few minutes to talk amongst themselves before having a few people share with the entire class. Another technique is to provide students with graphic organizers or partial outlines of the lecture (discussed in more depth later in the chapter) to encourage them to take notes.

Demonstration

Demonstrations allow instructors to model skills and processes by walking learners through the steps in a task. Demonstrations are very common in information settings, where instructors use them to illustrate a wide range of skills and activities, such as how to create effective search strings, search specific databases, use technology tools, or request an interlibrary loan. Such demonstrations might be delivered live in the classroom or recorded as a screencast video. In either case, we must be careful to narrate each step in the process. We must remember that for many of our learners, this information is new and potentially confusing. We might find it helpful to script out a demonstration in advance to be sure we do not skip or gloss over any steps in our explanation. Demonstrations are often grouped together with lectures as teacher-centered activities but, like lectures, they can be made interactive. We can use polls to determine how familiar our audience members are with the process we are about to demonstrate; ask for their input on aspects of the demonstration, such as having them suggest topics to search; and invite learners to demonstrate some of the steps for the class. If we are in a computer classroom or learners have access to their own devices, we can encourage them to follow along with our demonstration as an opportunity for hands-on practice and engagement. We can also pose questions throughout the process to check for comprehension or encourage reflection.

Discussions are a popular way of integrating active learning, but they take some planning and skill to manage effectively. All of us have probably been part of class discussions that seemed strained or have flopped. All too often, instructors ask discussion questions only to be met with silence and blank stares. At other times, the class might engage in some discussion, and it might even be lively, but, ultimately, only a handful of students will have contributed to the conversation. In fact, often only about five to eight people will make up more than three-quarters of the class discussion, regardless of the size of the class (Howard, 2019). And even when a robust discussion does occur, at least some students are likely to leave the class without having taken notes, unsure of what aspects of the discussion were important or what the main takeaways were. While these issues are frustrating, with planning we can successfully integrate discussion into our classrooms. Several strategies can help us facilitate better discussions:

Set Expectations and Explain Why

One reason learners might not be eager join discussions is that they have been enculturated to believe their role in the classroom is one of “civil attention” (Howard, 2019). The notion of civil attention is linked to the “banking” model of education, in which the teacher transmits information and the students’ role is simply to engage in behaviors that signal they are paying attention, such as taking notes, laughing at jokes, and making eye contact with the instructor. Civil attention does not require any active engagement on the part of the student because by appearing to pay attention, students are fulfilling their role.

Instructors can disrupt this pattern by explaining that they expect learners to actively engage and participate in the class (Howard, 2019). School and academic librarians teaching credit-bearing courses could reinforce that expectation by making participation part of the course grade. Instructors can also signal their expectation for participation through their own behaviors. For instance, many instructors will begin class by introducing themselves, going over the agenda, and discussing learning outcomes. While this is important content, it means that the instructor does most of the talking for the first part of the class, replicating the model of civil attention. Imagine, instead, if the instructor opened the class with a question, so that students were immediately drawn into an active role.

Instructors should tell learners why their participation is important. If your teaching philosophy draws on constructivist and social-constructivist theories, you could share that with students, letting them know that you believe participation will help them construct new knowledge and deepen their learning. You could also share research demonstrating that active learning, including discussion, leads to better learning outcomes (Howard, 2019). These steps help learners understand that your use of discussion was a conscious decision based in best practice, not a sign of laziness or a way of evading your responsibility as a teacher.

Match Discussion to Outcomes

We tend to use the word “discussion” as though it refers to a single, well-defined entity. However, discussions can be implemented in different ways, and many different activities fall within the broad category of discussion. Herman and Nilson (2018) note that discussions can serve several different purposes, including motivating learners to prepare for class, increasing overall participation, encouraging active listening, and assessing learning. They recommend aligning discussion activities with the intended outcome. For instance, a “fishbowl discussion,” in which one group of students engages in a discussion while another group observes, takes notes, and then summarizes the main points, can help promote active listening, while activities like think-pair-share can increase participation by ensuring each student talks with at least one peer.

Ask Better Questions

Not all discussion questions are created equal. Closed-ended questions, which require only a yes-or-no answer, and fact-based questions with a single correct answer, such as who won the presidential election in 2008, do not lend themselves well to discussion. While these questions can be good for exploring learners’ knowledge, once the answer is given, there is little room left for discussion. Other problematic discussion questions are those that are overly broad or vague, such as “What did you think of the reading?” as students might not be clear about what is really being asked.

Fruitful discussion questions fall into a range of areas, including (Eberly Center, n.d.):

• Example: “What makes this article a good choice for your paper?”
• Example: “Why might certain members of the community have wanted to ban this book?”
• Example: “What steps could we take to improve our online security?”
• Example: “How might the repeal of net neutrality impact online access?”
• Example: “How might social media change if people had to pay to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter ?”
• Example: “What are some of the main takeaways from today’s discussion?”

While open-ended questions are typically best suited for discussion, Wiggins and McTighe (2005) point out that some closed-ended questions can be good entry points for discussion, especially if a broad question is likely to be overwhelming for the audience. For instance, a yes-or-no question like “Is this a trustworthy website?” could be followed by a question like “How do we know?”

Be Comfortable with Silence

Any instructor who has asked what they believe is an engaging discussion question only to be met with a wall of silence knows how nerve-wracking such silence can be. However, we also need to understand that some silence is expected and can even be productive. Learners often need a few moments to gather their thoughts before they volunteer to speak, and good discussion questions are meant to be thought provoking, so we should anticipate some time for students to process the question. Unfortunately, many instructors are uncomfortable with silence, often misinterpreting it as a lack of engagement or understanding and rushing to rephrase the question or provide the answer themselves. Such actions actually discourage discussion, suggesting that the instructor is not really interested in hearing from students and signaling that if students just wait, the instructor will give them the answer.

Herman and Nilson (2018) suggest that most learners need at least 15 seconds to gather their thoughts before joining a discussion, and they point out that English language learners, neurodiverse students, and students with learning disabilities might appreciate even more time. The authors suggest alerting students that you will pause for 15 or 30 seconds after asking the question, so they understand that the pause is intentional. Announcing the pause might also relieve anxiety for those students who need the time to think. Even just a few extra seconds of waiting after posing a question can increase the overall number of students who participate.

Create a Safe Climate

Discussion is a higher-risk activity than passive listening or watching, and learners might be reluctant to participate in discussions for fear of embarrassing themselves. They might be concerned that they will give an incorrect answer or that they will be criticized by the instructor or their peers (McKeachie & Svinicki, 2006). We can help mitigate these fears by creating a safe classroom climate that encourages learners to participate. One step to ensuring a safe environment is to establish some ground rules for the discussion, which should include active listening and respectful dialogue. Instructors can outline these guidelines at the beginning of class, or they can hold a “discussion about discussions” in which the class works together to determine its own guidelines (Howard, 2019). This approach models the democratic classroom favored by humanists and provides learners with some feeling of ownership and stake in the process.

We can also model active listening and respectful participation ourselves by providing supportive and constructive feedback to students during the discussion. Even if a student’s answer is off topic or includes inaccurate or misleading information, we can usually find a way to acknowledge the contribution even as we redirect the conversation or correct the inaccuracies. Usually we can build on some part of the response, while we respectfully challenge another part, perhaps saying something like, “I am really glad that you brought up this point, but I wonder if there are other ways to look at it?”

Finally, we can find alternative ways for students to participate beyond having to share their own thoughts in front of a large group. For instance, we could end a think-pair-share activity by asking the class, “Whose partner had a great answer or interesting idea?” This question invites learners to share their partner’s idea rather than their own, which might be easier and feel less risky for some students. Another option is to allow students to participate in online discussions. Some learners prefer online discussion because it gives them more time to organize their thoughts and craft their answers, and it removes the public-speaking aspect. One of the book authors creates an online discussion board she calls “continued conversations” for her face-to-face classes. At the beginning of the semester, she lets students know that the discussion board is optional, but any posts will count toward their participation grade. For many learners, these options will be first steps, and, as they gain confidence, they will be able to participate more easily in regular in-class discussions.

Manage Dominant Talkers

The flip side to quiet learners who are reluctant to participate are those who volunteer immediately to answer questions, interrupt others, or otherwise dominate the discussion. While these students might be well meaning and eager, they reduce opportunities for others to participate. One strategy for dealing with dominant talkers is to avoid immediately calling on the first people to raise their hands, but use the conscious pause described earlier to give more people a chance to volunteer. If some students have already talked quite a bit, we can thank them for their contributions but say that we would like to hear from some other voices as well.

McKeachie and Svinicki (2006) suggest assigning dominant talkers to be “observers” with the responsibility to listen to the discussion and summarize key points at the end. We can establish a guideline that once a person participates, that person cannot speak again until two other voices have been heard, or we can give each student three chips at the beginning of class and ask that they deposit one in a jar each time they speak (Herman & Nilson, 2018). Once learners are out of chips, they cannot participate any more. Herman and Nilson warn instructors to notice if students are asking questions that are off topic or of very narrow interest and, if so, to invite them to meet after class in order not to waste other students’ time.

Managing Challenging Comments

Some discussions will center on sensitive or controversial topics that might be challenging to navigate, and occasionally learners might make problematic statements or assertions. As discussed in Chapter 5, instructors must acknowledge and respond to such statements but should also “realize that rarely is a student’s intent harmful, so avoid an accusatory approach” (Herman & Nilson, 2018, p. 47). The exact response will depend on the context, but Herman and Nilson (2018) offer helpful strategies. For instance, if a student uses outdated terminology, the instructor should note that different language is preferred. If learners’ remarks are provocative or disrespectful, the instructor can remind them of the discussion guidelines established at the beginning of the session. If a statement is relevant to the course, the instructor could open it up for further discussion but must be sure that only the underlying ideas are being challenged, not the student who made them. If the discussion becomes heated or emotional, the instructor should step in to calm the situation, perhaps by asking learners to take a short break to reflect on and even write down their thoughts.

Summarize the Learning and Takeaways

Some students are resistant to discussions because they do not see value in them (Herman & Nilson, 2018; McKeachie & Svinicki, 2006). They might resent time spent listening to their peers when they believe the teacher has the knowledge and the “right” answers, and they might also view the discussion as a test to see if they can guess the answer the instructor wants, rather than seeing it as a true exchange of ideas. In addition to explaining the purpose and learning goals of the discussion at the outset, we can demonstrate the value of discussion and surface the learning that takes place by periodically summarizing the discussion and identifying the key takeaways. These summaries help make the learning visible and give the instructor an opportunity to fill in any gaps, correct inaccuracies, and answer lingering questions.

Despite some challenges, discussions can be effective and engaging activities. We can generally overcome any barriers by anticipating them and planning for discussion just as we would any other instructional activity. See Activity 10.4 for a brief exercise related to discussions.

Activity 10.4: Building Better Discussions

Below are three brief scenarios. Read each one and respond to the reflection questions.

Scenario 1: Lisa is an academic librarian who has been asked to guest lecture to sophomore-level psychology students preparing to write a research paper. Lisa is determined to make her presentation engaging, and she begins by asking the class if anyone would like to share a research topic so she can use it as an example for her search demonstration. A young man in the front row speaks up immediately. Lisa writes his topic on the board and then asks the class to suggest key words related to the topic. Later, she asks the students to suggest ways to combine the keywords and asks them which databases they think she should search. Before long, Lisa realizes that the same young man is answering all her questions. Occasionally, another student will raise a hand but, even if Lisa calls on others, the young man tends to jump in and talk over them. After giving the students time to search on their own, Lisa asks for volunteers to demonstrate their search for the class. The young man is the only volunteer.

• What strategies could Lisa use to manage the young man’s participation?
• Why do you think other students were slow to respond?
• Lisa is frustrated that the young man is the only one to volunteer to demonstrate his search. How might she handle the situation?

Scenario 2: Mike is a high school librarian. Mr. Smith has assigned a research paper to his 12th-grade history class and asked Mike to lead a session on plagiarism and show the students how to prepare bibliographies. Mike starts the class by reading from the student honor code and explaining that students can fail the assignment and face suspension if they plagiarize material. He then asks the class if anyone can explain what plagiarism is. One student timidly raises a hand and says, “Lying?” Mike shakes his head. “No,” he says, looking around the room again. “Anyone else?” No one else volunteers, so Mike defines plagiarism for them.

• Why might students have been reluctant to answer Mike’s question?
• Imagine you were a colleague observing Mike’s class. What advice might you give him?

Scenario 3: Angela is leading a workshop on evaluating health information. During the workshop, an older man raises his hand and says that he is afraid to get the flu shot because he has heard shots are not safe. Before Angela can answer, a woman near the front of the room complains that “anti-vaxxers” are making other people sick and tells the older man that the CDC recommends the flu vaccine and says it is safe. The man responds by saying it is “crazy” to trust government sites like the CDC. Angela can feel the tension in the room growing.

• How might Angela respond to the two patrons in her workshop?
• How can she calm the tension in the room?

Flipped Classrooms

A flipped classroom is one in which content is delivered outside of class time so that the instruction session can focus on hands-on practice and activities to apply the learning. This model “flips” the traditional classroom approach in which instructors deliver content during class, often through lecture and demonstration, and students apply the learning outside of class through assignments and projects. Learners gain background knowledge or “first-exposure” information (Walvoord & Anderson, 2010, p. 81) before class begins so class time can be spent on higher-order thinking skills and processes, such as evaluating, synthesizing, and creating. Further, because application is happening in the classroom, the instructor is available at the point of practice, where students are more likely to have questions, and where instructors can provide immediate feedback and guidance.

The flipped classroom can be implemented in different ways. Often, instructors will use video lectures and readings to deliver content before the class meeting. Of course, for the classroom activities to work effectively, students must have completed the pre-work. Walvoord and Anderson (2010) suggest incorporating exercises or other assignments into the pre-work to hold learners accountable. For instance, instructors could assign a brief questionnaire about the lecture and reading or ask students to write down the main points. In addition to holding students accountable, these checks can work as assessments, showing the instructors if there are misunderstandings or gaps in knowledge so they can be addressed before launching into activities.

In class, instructors can use any combination of active learning techniques to engage learners with the material. Students in a science class might conduct experiments, history students might examine primary source documents, and media students might use specialized equipment to create presentations. Library instructors can have students conduct their own searches and evaluate the materials, explore different technology platforms and applications, create projects in a makerspace, complete a scavenger hunt or play a game based on the content presented in the pre-work, or engage in peer instruction.

Librarians outside of a K-12 setting might face some challenges implementing a flipped model. The flipped model depends on learners completing some out-of-class work prior to the session, but academic and public librarians delivering one-shot sessions might find it challenging to assign pre-work, and learners in these sessions might not feel obligated to complete the assignments. Despite challenges, many librarians have successfully used the flipped model in their classrooms (see, e.g., Datig & Ruswick, 2013; Coan, 2016; Loo et al., 2016; Tingle, 2018). Some academic librarians have collaborated with faculty to integrate pre-work for a one-shot session into the larger course (Berg, 2018; Pannabecker et al., 2014). Faculty will include library tutorials or readings as an assignment and might offer students credit for completing the work. Datig and Ruswick (2013) assigned tutorials they had already developed for asynchronous and self-paced learning as pre-work for face-to-face sessions, thus getting more use from those materials. They found the flipped classroom more engaging for both the learners and the librarians, who had been experiencing “lecture fatigue.”

Some public libraries have implemented flipped classrooms by asking patrons to complete some work prior to the session. Public librarians in Georgia implemented a flipped-classroom model for some of their programs, providing content through videos and other formats ahead of sessions (Logan & Hadzhieva, 2018), while those at the Twinsburg Public Library in Ohio (2020) promote flipped English as a Second or Other Language courses, where learners watch videos and complete tutorials outside of class time. The Skokie Public Library in Illinois created a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) on HTML and web design for its patrons using a flipped classroom model (Coan, 2016). Pre-work should be clearly described in the promotional or registration materials for a workshop and made easily available.

Problem-Based Learning

In problem-based learning the instructor presents a messy, fuzzy, or ill-defined problem which the class works to solve, often in small groups. Rather than listening to lectures or following step-by-step experiments or demonstrations, learners must use their knowledge, engage in research, and test ideas to develop a solution or answer to the problem (Kretchmar, 2019). To be effective, the problems presented to students need to be complex, should not have a single right answer or a single path to a solution, and should be based in the real world. For instance, a library instructor could ask students how to combat the spread of disinformation or “fake news” on social media.

Problem-based learning is student-centered, and the instructor acts as a guide or facilitator rather than as an expert directing the learning. The instructor will present the problem, and then step back and let student groups devise not only a solution but a plan for engaging in whatever research and exploration they need to arrive at the solution. The instructor is on hand to offer guidance as needed but typically will not provide direct answers to questions, instead coaching students to think through the problem and find the answer for themselves. The process of investigating the issue and developing a solution is part of the learning, meaning that the process is as important as the content (Kretchmar, 2019). While the research suggests that overall levels of learning are similar in problem-based and traditional classrooms, students in problem-based classrooms report being more satisfied and have more positive attitudes toward the learning (Kretchmar, 2019).

True problem-based learning is very time-consuming, so it is unlikely that library instructors would be able to integrate it into a one-shot session or workshop. However, we can certainly integrate elements of this approach. For instance, rather than presenting students with a checklist of criteria for evaluating information, we could begin a class by posing a question, such as “How do we know which information to trust online?” We could then give students different news stories or resources and ask them to work together to decide if they would trust a certain source and why. As students report on their work, we can develop a list of criteria that will largely mirror the one we would have presented; however, with this approach, learners will have discovered those criteria on their own.

Games are a fun way to engage learners, and they can be used at any age level and in any setting. Games generally incorporate an element of competition, either between individuals or groups or with single learners challenging themselves, but a game’s purpose is to impart information or develop skills. A lot of writing on game-based learning focuses on online learning objects that function like video games. For instance, Liberation: Referencing is an online tutorial on citation styles that challenges the player to order components and identify proper formatting and punctuation, all while keeping a cat named Harvey alive. Analog games can be just as fun and usually take fewer resources to create. A scavenger hunt can get learners into different parts of the library and introduce them to the library layout and classification system. Instructors can adapt popular game shows for the classroom. For instance, in library Jeopardy , instructors present library terms, services, or concepts, and students volunteer answers—in the form of a question, of course.

Peer Instruction

As discussed in Chapter 4, a different way of flipping the normal classroom is to give learners responsibility for the instruction. Peer instruction gives students a chance to share their knowledge and expertise with one another, and learners are often particularly engaged by their peers. Peer instruction is not only engaging, it can lead to deeper learning by requiring students to put concepts in their own words and reinforce skills through practice. During peer instruction, the instructor should stay engaged and offer feedback or redirect if the peer instructors are providing inaccurate information.

Think-Pair-Share

Also discussed in Chapter 4, think-pair-share is one of the most popular active learning techniques and can be used in classes of all sizes, with all different ages. Because it incorporates time for learners to gather their thoughts before responding and requires students to interact only with one other person, think-pair-share is relatively low risk even for introverted or anxious students. Depending on the size of the class, the instructor might have each student share their thoughts with the class or ask for a few volunteers to sum up their discussion for the whole group.

Polls are a relatively simple and quick way to add some interaction to the class. Poll questions can be content-based questions of fact, or they could be scaled questions asking learners their level of familiarity with a concept or confidence in a task. Polls can be done by a show of hands or with polling software like Poll Everywhere or AnswerGarden . Many learning management systems and conferencing tools like Zoom have polling software embedded.

Writing Exercises

The process of putting concepts into writing requires learners to reflect on what they have learned, recall bits of information, and translate the ideas into their own words, all of which help reinforce and deepen learning. These exercises are flexible; we can focus them on almost any aspect of the content, and we can devote as much or as little time to them as we want. Some writing reflections require only one to two minutes of class time, making it easy to adopt them even in short workshops and one-shot sessions.

However, just as some students are less comfortable joining discussions or speaking in front of a group, other students find it difficult to articulate their thoughts in writing. In library classrooms, we will encounter learners with a wide range of literacy, language, and writing abilities. English language learners, younger patrons, and patrons with low literacy, among others, might find writing exercises particularly challenging.

Several best practices can make these exercises more effective, even for patrons who are less comfortable with writing. We can emphasize the low-stakes nature of the activity by explaining that the purpose is not to critique learners’ writing but to give them an opportunity to reflect. We might even say that writing “does not count,” or that we will not be paying attention to grammar or spelling. Often, librarians are not giving learners grades on their activities anyway, and this helps to keep the exercises low stakes. When appropriate, we might also offer learners different options for reflection, such as drawing a picture or providing a demonstration of a task, rather than writing out the steps.

This section provides a brief overview of some sample writing exercises. You can find many more examples online.

Pre-writing

Pre-writing is a form of brainstorming or capturing ideas before delving more deeply into a lesson. For instance, instructors might ask students to brainstorm paper topics or keywords and synonyms for their topics before beginning a lesson on searching. Learners could jot ideas down on paper, organize their thoughts into a concept map or list, or use a graphic organizer.

Minute Paper

The minute paper is meant to be very brief, typically just two or three questions. While we can ask any type of question, minute papers usually pose reflective questions, asking students to think about what they have learned and whether they still have questions. Common minute-paper questions include: What are one or two new things you learned from this lesson? Can you describe one or two ways you can use what you learned? What remains unclear from the lesson? What questions do you have about today’s lesson? Instructors can respond to students’ questions in writing or leave enough time to flip through the responses and answer questions at the end of the class. Minute papers can be left anonymous to keep the exercise low stakes, but in that case, we should take time to answer outstanding questions at the end of class, since we will not be able to follow up with individual students.

Graphic Organizers/Lecture Outlines

Graphic organizers and lecture outlines are a form of guided notetaking; they provide students with a framework for the lesson, drawing their attention to important points. As their name implies, graphic organizers are generally visual tools, such as figures or infographics, with space for learners to take notes or label parts of the figure. For example, during an orientation, librarians could provide patrons with a blank map of the library and encourage them to label the spaces on the map as they move through the tour. As another example, Chapter 3 provided you with a blank table to track learning theories, including the names of the theorists and the key points of each theory. Similarly, instructors can provide learners with a partial outline of a lecture, leaving spaces for students to fill in the missing information. Many learners, especially those who are new to a topic, can have trouble picking out the essential information from a long lecture or discussion. As a result, they either try to write down every word or leave with no notes at all. Tools like lecture outlines and graphic organizers can make lessons more engaging, and the prompts can help students identify the important points. Example 10.1 shows a sample lecture outline.

Example 10.1: Lecture Outline

Below is an excerpt of a lecture outline for a library instruction session on plagiarism and citations. The session starts with a brief lecture on plagiarism, including a definition and examples of when citations are needed. Next, the librarian explains the purpose of citations and demonstrates how to format citations according to APA guidelines by showing learners an example of a book citation and walking them through each element. Learners are encouraged to fill out the outline as they listen.

Plagiarism 101

Plagiarism is using someone else’s _________ or ___________ without giving them credit.

I should cite a source when:

Following is a book citation in APA format. Label the author, title, publication date, publisher.

Riordan, R. (2008). Percy Jackson and the lightning thief . Disney Hyperion Books.

According to the constructivist and social constructivist learning theories introduced in Chapter 3, human beings create meaning and new knowledge in part through their interactions with other people. Group work provides learners with opportunities for peer interaction to facilitate that process. Small groups can give everyone a chance to participate, even in larger classes, and many learners will find it less intimidating to talk and share ideas in a smaller group.

Several best practices apply specifically to group work. First, we need to be clear about the purpose, expectations, and tasks involved. Without clear directions, groups will be unsure of how to engage and are likely to end the activity feeling they have not been productive. Before starting any group activity, we should lay out the goals and provide directions, including any guiding questions or specific tasks. We should also be clear about the outcomes and any deliverables. Are groups expected to produce something tangible, like a concept map? Should the group take notes and be prepared to discuss its activities with the class? Providing a handout or displaying a slide with the directions can help the group stay on track.

Since group work tends to be more self-directed than other strategies, some instructors are unsure of their role and might disengage from the class. Even while groups work independently, we should be active in the classroom. Circulating throughout the room helps ensure groups stay on task and provides opportunities to respond to questions or concerns. We should be careful to allot an appropriate amount of time for the tasks. Too little time can be frustrating and leave groups feeling dissatisfied with their level of discussion, but extra time will probably lead to unrelated conversations. Circulating through the room and checking on progress also give us a chance to gauge the time and decide when to wrap up the activity.

Dozens of small group activities exist, and many instructional activities can be adapted for groups. For instance, scavenger hunts could be done in teams, or students could work in groups to complete worksheets or graphic organizers.

This section offers a few examples, and you can find many more online.

Guided Discussion

Provide learners with a question, scenario, case study, or similar prompt, and have them discuss their answers in small groups.

Break the class into groups and give each group an aspect of a topic to research or discuss. These groups develop expertise on their aspect of the topic. After a set amount of time, shuffle the groups so each new group has one representative from each original group. As students share their research from the original group, the new group will develop a full picture of the topic.

Circle of Voices

Break students into small groups and ask them to sit in a circle. Each student gets two to three minutes to speak without interruption in response to a question or prompt. Once everyone in the group has had a turn, the group can have a more general discussion on the topic. Students should try to build on their peers’ responses, rather than offering only their own ideas.

Debate/Pro-Con

Discussions can be structured to examine different perspectives on a question or the merits of different strategies. For instance, we could ask groups to debate the merits of using primary versus secondary sources when researching a historical topic or create a list of the pros and cons of different online browsers.

Combining Strategies

Teaching guides like this textbook tend to describe each instructional strategy separately. While this approach is useful for providing in-depth overviews of each approach, it can give the false impression that the strategies are mutually exclusive. In fact, few instructors will use only one instructional strategy in a lesson. For instance, flipped classrooms generally incorporate lecture; the difference is that those lectures are delivered outside of class time. Even in a problem-based classroom exercise, instructors often use lecture to provide background information or demonstrate methods students might use to research the problem and develop solutions. In other words, we can mix and match instructional strategies in any classroom. Brookfield asserts that we should think of strategies such as lecture, discussion, and other active learning techniques as “symbiotic” (2006, p. 98).  We simply want to make conscious decisions about which strategies we are using and consider why those strategies are appropriate.

Lesson Plans

Our instructional design decisions should culminate in a written lesson plan or detailed outline of the session. Some instructors might question whether a written plan is necessary, but putting the plan into writing ensures that we are addressing all the necessary details and thinking carefully through each decision. It also creates a record of the lesson, which can aid us in reflecting on the session later and implementing lessons consistently over time. Also, a written plan can be shared with colleagues, which can also ensure consistency when multiple people are teaching the same lesson.

Different models and templates for lesson plans exist, but most lesson plans start with the learning outcomes to set the purpose and expectations for the session. Including brief notes about the intended audience, length of the session, and any materials or equipment that will be necessary to carry out the lesson can also be helpful.

The bulk of the plan outlines the content, instructional strategies, and assessments for the lesson. The lesson plan should provide a step-by-step overview of each section or “chunk” of the session, with a brief explanation of what will take place during that section, including the instructional strategies and any assessments that will be employed. The plan should include enough detail that a colleague could envision or re-create the lesson but should not be a word-for-word transcript. Include only the major points of lecture content or the basic directions for an activity.

Each segment should include a time stamp, or a note about how much time is allotted for that section or activity. Instructors can find it challenging in the beginning to gauge the time needed for different activities, but the authors’ experience has been that new instructors often underestimate how much time they need, and, as a result, rush to fit all their material into the session. To be safe, you might allot more time than you initially think you need for each segment but have additional examples or backup activities that you can use if you have extra time at the end of the session. Conversely, you can note activities or examples to cut if you run out of time. Example 10.2 offers a sample lesson plan for a public library workshop on “fake news.” See Appendix B for additional sample lesson plans on different topics for a variety of information settings and audiences.

Example 10.2: Lesson Plan for an Instructional Session on Fake News

Fighting “Fake News”

This session takes place at the Anytown Public Library and is geared toward a general adult audience. The session will run on a weeknight and midday on a weekend to reach various segments of the audience.

Running Time: 60 minutes

• Laptop and screen projector
• Flip chart or whiteboard
• “Sample News Stories” handout

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Apply criteria for evaluating news stories.
• Discuss strategies for responsible sharing of news.

I. Welcome (5 minutes)

• Introductions and overview of learning outcomes

II. Lecture (10 minutes)

• What is the impact of fake news?
• What sources do you trust for your news?
• Historical examples
• Current landscape
• Definitions

III. Activity (25 minutes)

• Does this story seem trustworthy? Why or why not? List as many reasons as you can.
• What additional information about the source or the details of the story would help you evaluate this story? How could you find that additional information?
• The group will engage in a 10-minute debrief discussion. The instructor will call on pairs to share their discussion. As participants explain what made them trust or not trust each news story, the instructor will create a list of evaluation criteria on the flip chart.

IV. Debrief (10 minutes)

• The instructor will review the list of criteria and discuss how they can be applied, filling in any gaps in the list. The instructor will share another short news excerpt and ask the group as a whole to evaluate the story, making explicit connections to the list of criteria. Participants will discuss which stories they would share stories based on those criteria.

V. Wrap-up (5 minutes)

• Instructor will return to learning outcomes and highlight main takeaways.

VI. Reflection (5 minutes)

• Instructor will pass out a “minute paper” sheet asking participants to list two things they learned and any questions they have.
• Instructor will review the papers and answer outstanding questions.

In the final stage of Backward Design, we select the strategies we will use to interact with students and deliver the content of our lessons. For many instructors, this stage is the most fun because it centers on that part of teaching with which we all have experience as students—what happens in the classroom. The main points to keep in mind during this stage of instructional design are as follows:

• Best practices include focusing on active learning techniques to keep students directly engaged with content, scaffolding material to support students’ journey from simpler to more complex knowledge and tasks, making explicit connections between new information and prior learning, and selecting strategies that are appropriate for our audience, content, and time frame.
• Lectures have received some negative attention in recent years, but as an instructional strategy they have some advantages. We can take steps to make lectures interactive and engaging.
• Good discussions take planning and management, but they are an effective way to engage students and bring active learning to the classroom.
• We can choose from an array of active learning techniques, including those that can be completed by groups and those that can be done by individuals, those that take substantial class time and those designed to take only a few minutes. Regardless of the size of the class or the amount of time we have, we virtually always can find a way to incorporate some active learning.
• Our Backward Design should culminate in a lesson plan that lists the learning outcomes; identifies our topic, audience, and materials; and outlines the instructional strategies and assessments we will use.

Suggested Readings

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy sandbox . (n.d.). https://sandbox.acrl.org/resources

The Association of College and Resource Libraries has compiled this open access collection of lesson plans focused on The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education . Users can search for lesson plans and activities, along with a host of other materials, and can limit by frame or discipline. All materials are licensed through Creative Commons and can be reused and adapted with limited restrictions. The materials are designed for a college audience, but many could be adapted for other audiences.

Barkley, E.F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty . Jossey-Bass.

This book offers a wealth of information and advice on how to engage students. The first section provides background and theoretical information on student engagement, while the second section offers tips for motivating and challenging students and implementing active learning. The third section outlines 50 “student engagement techniques” or active learning activities. Each section describes the “essential characteristics” of the activity, its description and purpose, directions for implementing the activity, and concrete examples of the activity. Barkley also offers ideas for varying the activities and adapting them to an online environment.

Denver Public Library. (n.d.). Technology classes and workshops . https://www.denverlibrary.org/ctc-classes

The Denver Public Library provides free access to high-quality lesson plans and related materials for its technology workshops and classes. From the events page, click on a workshop title, and follow the link for class materials, all of which are licensed through Creative Commons.

Green, L. S. (2019). Flipped learning environments: An introduction for librarians who design and teach. Library Technology Reports, 55 (5), 11-16. https://www.journals.ala.org/index.php/ltr/article/view/7067

In this brief paper, Green offers librarians straightforward guidance on how to implement a flipped classroom, with some attention to the theory and the pros and cons of the approach.

Harrington, C., & Zakrajsek, T. (2017). Dynamic lecturing: Research-based strategies to enhance lecture effectiveness . Stylus Publishing.

In this volume, authors Harrington and Zakrajsek make the case that lectures can be active and engaging. The authors offer clear, research-based advice on how to plan, structure, and deliver a lecture that engages students and incorporates activity and reflection.

Herman, J. H., & Nilson, L. B. (2018). Creating engaging discussions: Strategies for ‘avoiding crickets’ in any size classroom and online . Stylus Publishing.

This excellent text offers a clear and thorough guide to implementing discussion successfully. The authors offer 12 principles for good class discussion, as well as advice on addressing common issues, such as learners who talk too much or too little, students who are not paying attention, microaggressions, and controversial topics. The second half of the book is a series of case studies that present specific strategies or activities for successful student engagement.

Marcotte, A. (2019). Tech trends: Library tech leaders recommend their favorite tips and tools. American Libraries, 50 (3/4), 5-7.

The author shares detailed overviews of a range of teaching technologies with an emphasis on free and open access tools. While geared toward the flipped classroom, these tools could facilitate active learning in many formats.

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2006). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers . Houghton Mifflin.

This handy volume provides clear and concise advice on a range of pedagogical topics. Chapters are brief and to the point, and integrate concrete examples and supplementary readings. Topics include effective lectures, facilitating discussions, active learning, problem-based learning, teaching culturally diverse students, and motivating students.

Atasoy, E., Yangin, S., & Tolu, H. (2018). Relationship between math teachers’ instructional styles and their educational philosophical backgrounds. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 6 (10), 54-68. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v6i10.3510

Berg, C. (2018). No assignment? Just flip it: The flipped classroom in first-year library instruction. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 25 (4), 372-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2018.1539366

Bolkan, S., & Griffin, D.J. (2017). Students’ use of cell phones for off-task behaviors: The indirect impact of instructors’ teaching behaviors through boredom and students’ attitudes. Communication Education, 66 (3), 313-329. http://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2016.1241888

Bowles-Terry, M., Hensley, M. K., & Hinchliffe, L. J. (2010). Best practices for online video tutorials in academic libraries: A study of student preferences and understanding. Communications in Information Literacy, 4 (1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2010.4.1.86

Brookfield, S.D. (2006). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom . Jossey-Bass.

Callahan, S. (2015, January 8). The link between memory and stories. Anecdote . https://www.anecdote.com/2015/01/link-between-memory-and-stories/

Coan, A. (2016). Flipped classroom tech teaching. Library Journal, 141 (10), 32. https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=flipped-classroom-tech-teaching-field-reports

Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review . Learning Skills & Research Centre.

Datig, I., & Ruswick, C. (2013). Four quick flips: Activities for the information literacy classroom. College & Research Libraries News, 74 (5). https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/8946/9680

De Meyer, J., Tallir, I. B., Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., Aelterman, N., Van den Berghe, L, Speleers, L., & Haerens, L. (2014). Does observed controlling teaching behavior relate to students’ motivation in physical education? Journal of Educational Psychology, 106 (2), 541-554. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0034399

Eberly Center. (n.d.). Discussions . Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/discussions.html

Ellis, E. S., & Larkin, M. J. (1998). Strategic instruction for adolescents with learning disabilities. In B. Y. L. Wong (Ed.), Learning about learning disabilities (2nd ed., pp. 585-656). Academic Press.

Fulkerson, D. (2014). The flipped classroom and media for library instruction: Changing library instruction. Against the Grain, 26 (4), 17-19. https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.6903

Gallo, C. (2014, March 4). 9 public speaking lessons from the world’s greatest TED Talks. Forbes . https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/03/04/9-public-speaking-lessons-from-the-worlds-greatest-ted-talks/#50d2328b4a9d

Gou, P. (2013, November 33). Optimal video length for student engagement. edX Blog. https://blog.edx.org/optimal-video-length-student-engagement

Howard, J. (2019, May 23). How to hold a better class discussion: Advice guide. The Chronicle of Higher Education . https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190523-ClassDiscussion

Kaufmann, S. B. (2018, December 8). Enough with the “learning styles” already! New research adds skepticism surrounding the adoption of learning styles in education. Beautiful Minds .. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/enough-with-the-learning-styles-already/

Kretchmar, J. (2019). Problem-based learning. Salem Press Encyclopedia . EBSCO.

Larkin, M. (2002). Using scaffolded instruction to optimize learning (ED474301). ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education.   http://www.vtaide.com/png/ERIC/Scaffolding.htm

Logan, A., & Hadzhieva, Y. (2018, October 24). Flipped classroom: Turning traditional library programs upside down [Webinar]. Georgia Library Association. https://vimeo.com/296958957

Loo, J. L., Eifler, D., Smith, E., Pendse, L., He, J., Sholinbeck, M., Tanasse, G., Nelson, J. K., & Dupuis, E. A. (2016). Flipped instruction for information literacy: Five instructional cases of academic librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42 (3), 273-280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2016.03.001

Miller, G. A. (1994). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 101 (2), 343-352.

Pannabecker, V., Barroso, C. S., & Lehmann, J. (2014). The flipped classroom: Student-driven library research sessions for nutrition education. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 19 (3/4), 139-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301.2014.975307

Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9 (3), 105-119. https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1539-6053.2009.01038.x

Saritas, E. (2016). Relationship between philosophical preferences of classroom teachers and their teaching styles. Educational Research and Reviews, 11 (16),1533-1541. http://doi.org/10.5897/ERR2016.2787

Tingle, N. (2018). Taking care of business (before class): Information literacy in a flipped classroom. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 23 (2), 183-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/08963568.2018.1510254

Twinsburg Public Library. (2020). ESOL . https://www.twinsburglibrary.org/content/ged-esol

Walvoord, B. E., & Anderson, V. J. (2010). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment in college . Jossey-Bass.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design . ASCD.

Willingham, D. T. (2005). Ask the cognitive scientist: Does tailoring instruction to ‘learning styles’ help students learn? American Educator, 42 (2), 28-33. https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2005/willingham

Zhang, L., Fu, M., & Li, D. T. (2019). Emotions and teaching styles among academics: The mediating role of research and teaching efficacy. Educational Psychology, 39 (3), 370-394. http://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2018.1520970

Instruction in Libraries and Information Centers Copyright © 2020 by Laura Saunders and Melissa A. Wong is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Engage-Study-Activate (ESA) Method of Teaching

When teaching English, you must prepare and plan to create a beneficial and constructive learning experience for your students.

Engage-Study-Activate (ESA) is the most effective teaching methodology.  Teachers who use ESA can productively organize their lessons.  Through ESA, students are focused and highly motivated to learn. 

First coined by Jeremy Harmer in his book “How to teach English”, ESA is a method of structuring your lessons in three elements. The different stages of ESA can be flexible and used to keep students engaged at all times.

The Engage Phase – Warming Up

It is essential to always start a lesson with the engage phase. It is here where students start starting and thinking in English. Before learning new content, students need to prepare for learning English. Games, showing pictures, discussions, listening to music, brainstorming vocabulary and storytelling are some excellent activities to engage and immerse students in the class.

It is paramount that all students participate and interact with the class during the engage phase.  Teachers should focus on facilitating engagement and making sure that every student has at least spoken once before moving on. 

Once the engage phase has finished, students should be thoroughly warmed up and eager to begin the next part of the lesson.

The Study Phase – Learning New Things

This phase is mainly the board work of the lesson. It is here where students will learn or review English language topics. Teachers can use textbooks, study materials, videos and drilling exercises to help students learn and use the English language accurately. Other activities include gap fill quizzes, matching exercises and word order arrangement.

After students learn the topic of the lesson, the teacher then checks their understanding. As a teacher,  you must never ask the question   “do you understand?”  as students are naturally inclined to answer yes despite not fully understanding.

Instead, ask a question about what’s been taught and see how they respond. If the student answers the question about the topic correctly, then they will have understood. In cases where students don’t understand, the teacher will go over the text again and ask more questions.

The Activate Phase – Using English Practically

The final aspect of an ESL lesson is the activate phase, where students use what they have learned in activities such as role-plays, dialogues, debates and surveys.

The purpose of the activate phase is to apply the topics learned in the study phase in a realistic situation. By doing this, students will begin to use the English language. As with the engage phase, it is vital that every student participates and speaks during the activities.

During this stage, teachers help students with their pronunciation, rhythm and fluency. Teachers can do this through elicitation and demonstration. Teachers must conduct the activate phase at the end of the lesson as the way students perform will be an indicator of how much they understood during the study phase. If there are gaps in the students’ learning at this stage, then teachers will need to focus more on improving the study phase.

Different Types of ESA Lessons

Straight-arrow esa lesson.

The most common application of the ESA method, teachers simply start with the engage phase and end with the activate phase.

An example lesson plan of a Straight-Arrow ESA lesson

Boomerang ESA Lesson

The structure of a Boomerang lesson is Engage-Activate-Study-Activate (EASA).

Unlike a Straight-Arrow lesson, a Boomerang lesson dives straight into the activate phase of the lesson before the study phase, then finishing by reactivating the students.

During the initial activate phase, students will most likely be unable to use the language correctly. They will make mistakes with grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, which will reveal gaps in the students’ knowledge. Once the students have learned the new topic, they will then do the activity again, filling in any gaps they may have had at the beginning of the lesson.

An example boomerang lesso n

Engage: Discussion of different jobs and occupations.

Activate: Role-play as different types of people e.g lawyer, police officer, firefighter, etc.

Study : Use boardwork and worksheets to enhance students’ vocabulary and understanding of different jobs.

Activate: Repeat the role-play. This time, students will have more vocabulary to use and thus make the activity more fun and exciting.

The objective of a Boomerang lesson is accuracy of the English language and consistently improving through good practice.

Patchwork ESA Lesson

A patchwork ESA lesson always begins with the engage phase and finishes with the activate phase. However, what happens between these phases can be arranged by the teacher as they see fit.

An example structure of a patchwork lesson can be E-A-S-A-E-S-A.

The patchwork lesson is flexible and can be used to target specific areas of student learning. If students need to increase their understanding of a topic, then a study phase will be conducted. To make a lesson more interesting, a teacher can initiate the activate stage or use the engage stage to introduce new topics. Anything is possible.

The ESA methodology is the most organized and time-efficient way of conducting a lesson. It will allow students to learn in an engaging, exciting, productive and fun way.

The engage phase sparks the initial interest in the topic, the study phase is the absorption of new knowledge, and the activate phase puts everything into practice.

This methodology can help you as an ESL teacher to structure your lessons to fit your style of teaching and educational needs of your students. It is by far the best method of teaching English.

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The Complete List of Teaching Methods

Teaching Methods: Not as Simple as ABC

Teaching methods [teacher-centered], teaching methods [student-centered], what about blended learning and udl, teaching methods: a to z, for the love of teaching.

Whether you’re a longtime educator, preparing to start your first teaching job or mapping out your dream of a career in the classroom, the topic of teaching methods is one that means many different things to different people.

Your individual approaches and strategies to imparting knowledge to your students and inspiring them to learn are probably built on your academic education as well as your instincts and intuition.

Whether you come by your preferred teaching methods organically or by actively studying educational theory and pedagogy, it can be helpful to have a comprehensive working knowledge of the various teaching methods at your disposal.

[Download] Get the Complete List of Teaching Methods PDF Now >>

The teacher-centered approach vs. the student-centered approach. High-tech vs. low-tech approaches to learning. Flipped classrooms, differentiated instruction, inquiry-based learning, personalized learning and more.

Not only are there dozens of teaching methods to explore, it is also important to have a sense for how they often overlap or interrelate. One extremely helpful look at this question is offered by the teacher-focused education website Teach.com.

“Teaching theories can be organized into four categories based on two major parameters: a teacher-centered approach versus a student-centered approach, and high-tech material use versus low-tech material use,” according to the informative Teach.com article , which breaks down a variety of influential teaching methods as follows:

Teacher-Centered Approach to Learning Teachers serve as instructor/authority figures who deliver knowledge to their students through lectures and direct instruction, and aim to measure the results through testing and assessment. This method is sometimes referred to as “sage on the stage.”

Student-Centered Approach to Learning Teachers still serve as an authority figure, but may function more as a facilitator or “guide on the side,” as students assume a much more active role in the learning process. In this method, students learn from and are continually assessed on such activities as group projects, student portfolios and class participation.

High-Tech Approach to Learning From devices like laptops and tablets to using the internet to connect students with information and people from around the world, technology plays an ever-greater role in many of today’s classrooms. In the high-tech approach to learning, teachers utilize many different types of technology to aid students in their classroom learning.

Low-Tech Approach to Learning Technology obviously comes with pros and cons, and many teachers believe that a low-tech approach better enables them to tailor the educational experience to different types of learners. Additionally, while computer skills are undeniably necessary today, this must be balanced against potential downsides; for example, some would argue that over-reliance on spell check and autocorrect features can inhibit rather than strengthen student spelling and writing skills.

Diving further into the overlap between different types of teaching methods, here is a closer look at three teacher-centered methods of instruction and five popular student-centered approaches.

Direct Instruction (Low Tech) Under the direct instruction model — sometimes described as the “traditional” approach to teaching — teachers convey knowledge to their students primarily through lectures and scripted lesson plans, without factoring in student preferences or opportunities for hands-on or other types of learning. This method is also customarily low-tech since it relies on texts and workbooks rather than computers or mobile devices.

Flipped Classrooms (High Tech) What if students did the “classroom” portion of their learning at home and their “homework” in the classroom? That’s an oversimplified description of the flipped classroom approach, in which students watch or read their lessons on computers at home and then complete assignments and do problem-solving exercises in class.

Kinesthetic Learning (Low Tech) In the kinesthetic learning model, students perform hands-on physical activities rather than listening to lectures or watching demonstrations. Kinesthetic learning, which values movement and creativity over technological skills, is most commonly used to augment traditional types of instruction — the theory being that requiring students to do, make or create something exercises different learning muscles.

Differentiated Instruction (Low Tech) Inspired by the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), enacted to ensure equal access to public education for all children, differentiated instruction is the practice of developing an understanding of how each student learns best, and then tailoring instruction to meet students’ individual needs.

In some instances, this means Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students with special needs, but today teachers use differentiated instruction to connect with all types of learners by offering options on how students access content, the types of activities they do to master a concept, how student learning is assessed and even how the classroom is set up.

Inquiry-Based Learning (High Tech) Rather than function as a sole authority figure, in inquiry-based learning teachers offer support and guidance as students work on projects that depend on them taking on a more active and participatory role in their own learning. Different students might participate in different projects, developing their own questions and then conducting research — often using online resources — and then demonstrate the results of their work through self-made videos, web pages or formal presentations.

Expeditionary Learning (Low Tech) Expeditionary learning is based on the idea that there is considerable educational value in getting students out of the classroom and into the real world. Examples include trips to City Hall or Washington, D.C., to learn about the workings of government, or out into nature to engage in specific study related to the environment. Technology can be used to augment such expeditions, but the primary focus is on getting out into the community for real-world learning experiences.

Personalized Learning (High Tech) In personalized learning, teachers encourage students to follow personalized, self-directed learning plans that are inspired by their specific interests and skills. Since assessment is also tailored to the individual, students can advance at their own pace, moving forward or spending extra time as needed. Teachers offer some traditional instruction as well as online material, while also continually reviewing student progress and meeting with students to make any needed changes to their learning plans.

Game-Based Learning (High Tech) Students love games, and considerable progress has been made in the field of game-based learning, which requires students to be problem solvers as they work on quests to accomplish a specific goal. For students, this approach blends targeted learning objectives with the fun of earning points or badges, much like they would in a video game. For teachers, planning this type of activity requires additional time and effort, so many rely on software like Classcraft or 3DGameLab to help students maximize the educational value they receive from within the gamified learning environment.

Blended Learning Blended learning  is another strategy for teachers looking to introduce flexibility into their classroom. This method relies heavily on technology, with part of the instruction taking place online and part in the classroom via a more traditional approach, often leveraging elements of the flipped classroom approach detailed above. At the heart of blended learning is a philosophy of taking the time to understand each student’s learning style and develop strategies to teach to every learner, by building flexibility and choice into your curriculum.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) UDL incorporates both student-centered learning and the “multiple intelligences theory,” which holds that different learners are wired to learn most effectively in different ways (examples of these “intelligences” include visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, musical, etc.). In practice, this could mean that some students might be working on a writing project while others would be more engaged if they created a play or a movie. UDL emphasizes the idea of teaching to every student, special needs students included, in the general education classroom, creating community and building knowledge through multiple means.

In addition to the many philosophical and pedagogical approaches to teaching, classroom educators today employ diverse and sometimes highly creative methods involving specific strategies, prompts and tools that require little explanation. These include:

• Appointments with students
• Art-based projects
• Audio tutorials
• Author’s chair
• Book reports
• Bulletin boards
• Brainstorming
• Case studies
• Chalkboard instruction
• Class projects
• Classroom discussion
• Classroom video diary
• Collaborative learning spaces
• Creating murals and montages
• Current events quizzes
• Designated quiet space
• Discussion groups
• DIY activities
• Dramatization (plays, skits, etc.)
• Educational games
• Educational podcasts
• Essays (Descriptive)
• Essays (Expository)
• Essays (Narrative)
• Essays (Persuasive)
• Exhibits and displays
• Explore different cultures
• Field trips
• Flash cards
• Flexible seating
• Gamified learning plans
• Genius hour
• Group discussion
• Guest speakers
• Hands-on activities
• Individual projects
• Interviewing
• Laboratory experiments
• Learning contracts
• Learning stations
• Literature circles
• Making posters
• Mock conventions
• Motivational posters
• Music from other countries/cultures
• Oral reports
• Panel discussions
• Peer partner learning
• Photography
• Problem solving activities
• Reading aloud
• Readers’ theater
• Reflective discussion
• Research projects
• Rewards & recognition
• Role playing
• School newspapers
• Science fairs
• Sister city programs
• Spelling bees
• Storytelling
• Student podcasts
• Student portfolios
• Student presentations
• Student-conceived projects
• Supplemental reading assignments
• Team-building exercises
• Term papers
• Textbook assignments
• Think-tac-toe
• Time capsules
• Use of community or local resources
• Video creation
• Video lessons
• Vocabulary lists

So, is the teacher the center of the educational universe or the student? Does strong reliance on the wonders of technology offer a more productive educational experience or is a more traditional, lower-tech approach the best way to help students thrive?

Questions such as these are food for thought for educators everywhere, in part because they inspire ongoing reflection on how to make a meaningful difference in the lives of one’s students.

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6 effective teaching methods and how to use them.

We discuss 6 of the most effective teaching methods so that you can discover which teaching style suits you and your subject area best.

As we explored in our recent World Teachers Day blog post, teachers are a completely essential part of our society, but teaching can be a difficult and stressful job at times. 

Particularly when working with children and teenagers, it can be hard to retain focus, manage behaviour, and encourage active participation. In addition, teaching adults can have its own challenges – it can be difficult for adult learners to absorb new things and change old thinking patterns.

One thing that may help you deal with some of these challenges is learning about the different teaching methods available. You don’t need to pick one method and stick to it, but you may find that certain methods and styles are perfect for different learning environments. 

For example, you might find that student-centred learning is perfect for KS2 children, and game-based learning works wonders for KS3. You may discover that using technology such as VR can elevate history and geography lessons, while experiential learning methods can be effective during science experiments and group projects. To find out more, read about our top 6 most effective learning methods below.

1. Online learning

Teaching online may not have been the norm for most teachers before the COVID-19 pandemic, but there have always been some teachers who prefer to work online. Online tutors often enjoy the freedom of working from home, choosing their working hours, and being their own boss.

But what exactly does teaching online consist of? Essentially, it’s the process of educating others using the internet, whether that’s through individual or group video calls, webinars, or messaging platforms. Normally it’ll be a combination of things to keep students engaged.

If you’re thinking about teaching online, or your current job requires you to teach online, you’ll need to be comfortable with technology and the internet. This is because all of your communication will be online, and you’ll need to create digital resources for your students. These resources might be presentations, lesson plans, worksheets, videos or audio lectures.

The great thing about online learning is that it’s accessible to many people. Not everyone is able to go to school, but more people have access to the internet. Of course, technology can be a barrier to education too, but as the years go by, this barrier is, fortunately, breaking down.

The best place to start if you want to learn how to be an excellent online teacher is our highly rated How To Teach Online: Providing Continuity for Students course. You’ll learn how to successfully move from face-to-face teaching to online teaching so that you and your students get the most out of learning.

Introductory

2. Experiential learning

If you haven’t heard of experiential learning before, it’s the idea that learning is a product of experience. If it sounds like something that you might be interested in, we have a whole article that explores how to apply experiential learning in the classroom and beyond.

We can only gain experience from interacting and engaging with the world and people around us. This learning theory comes from David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, and considers the role of all our experiences in learning, from emotions and cognition, to our environment. 

Kolb’s 1984 theory suggests that there are four main stages in the learning cycle:

• Concrete experience. This is when the learner has a new experience, such as riding a bike for the first time.
• Reflective observation. After the concrete experience, the learner must reflect on their actions and watch others perform that action.
• Abstract conceptualisation. The next step involves the learner making sense of their reflections and making a plan for going forward. They might come up with next steps and seek insight from experts.
• Active experimentation. During the final stage, the learner will consider their reflections and previous lessons and then retry the original experience to see if any progress has been made. This will lead to a new concrete experience, and so the cycle restarts.

Experiential learning is a great teaching method because it encourages creativity, helps students learn from mistakes, fosters reflective thinking, and prepares students for future experiences. It can be effective for several subjects, especially during science experiments, sports coaching, and group projects. 

Some simple ways to encourage experiential learning in your classroom include encouraging students to assess themselves regularly and reflect on what they’ve learnt. As a teacher, you might want to record yourself teaching or keep feedback journals so that you can reflect on previous lessons. 

3. Differentiation

Differentiated learning is a teaching method that tailors instructions to students depending on their individual needs. This method could be a great option if you’re teaching mixed-ability classes and want everyone to get the most out of each lesson. 

This is a fairly traditional approach to teaching mixed-ability classes, but it can be successful if managed sensitively. For example, some teachers may choose to teach entirely different content depending on student ability. However, this can cause students to feel embarrassed and teachers to feel burned out from trying to do too much at once. 

On this note, it’s important for teachers to ensure that they create an inclusive classroom where students of all abilities are welcome, regardless of gender, race, sexuality or disability. Differentiated learning should never be used to make some students feel inferior to others.

A better way to approach differentiation is to teach in a variety of ways, including books, films, images, and verbal presentations. This gives different students the opportunity to get involved and understand the lesson content. You can even go further than that and offer differentiated class activities and assessment styles.

For example, if the class topic is a Shakespeare play , you could allow students to demonstrate their understanding in a number of ways. They could write an essay, give an oral presentation , create an illustration or comic, or play to any other strengths they have.

4. Blended learning

The next teaching method we’ll be exploring is blended learning. Essentially, blended learning is a combination of traditional face-to-face learning and technology-based learning. Although blended learning did exist before the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s become more popular with schools and universities in the two years. You can read all about it in our blended learning blog post .

Using a blended learning model can be great for both students and teachers because it forms a middle ground between traditional and technology-based methods. It uses enough technology to keep students focused and interested, but it also provides opportunities for students to talk in-person to teachers and fellow classmates, which can be invaluable. 

Some great examples of blended learning include:

• Station rotation. Students rotate around different ‘stations’ during lessons, with these being a mixture of online and hands-on activities.
• Flex learning. Students are in class with teachers, but they primarily use online learning methods. Teachers are there for support and instruction whenever needed.
• Virtual Reality. Students are in a physical classroom but are able to use Virtual Reality (VR) to immerse themselves in an environment. This could be a historical landmark, art gallery, or natural wonder, with the aim of capturing their attention and furthering their learning.
• Enriched virtual learning. Activities and coursework are completed online using digital technologies, but students can arrange face-to-face sessions when required.

It’s likely that blended learning models will become more predominant as time goes on and our physical and digital lives become increasingly interlinked. If you’re looking for a short course on the subject, you might be interested in our Blended and Online Learning Design course by UCL, or our Making Blended Education Work course by the University of Edinburgh and EMBED.

You may also be interested in our Introduction to HyFlex Learning and Teaching course by the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, which focuses on the innovative HyFlex teaching approach, a combination of hybrid and flexible methods.

5. Game-based learning

If you want to focus on making your lessons more fun, engaging and interactive, then look no further. Game-based learning, also known as gamification ,  is a great way to engage students, particularly those in primary and secondary education. 

The definition of gamification is a strategy that implements game-like elements into non-gaming activities to enhance motivation. Since children are very interested in games, from video games and mobile applications to simple playground and board games, this can be a great place to start. 

As we explore in our blog post about gamification in education, playing video games has been linked to dopamine production . So, incorporating some ideas from video games into education can actually have positive effects on the mood of students, making them more determined to succeed.

However, it is worth mentioning that gamification shouldn’t necessarily be used in every context. Sometimes, lessons require more serious discussions. In addition, too much game-based learning is likely to remove some of the fun and increased motivation that children feel.

Here are some of the ways you can incorporate game-based learning into your lessons:

• Points systems
• Levels and progress bars
• Challenges and competitions
• Unique rewards
• Learning badges

You can find out more about Learning through Play in our course by Federation University.

6. Student-centred learning

You can probably guess what this approach focuses on – your students. While the success and happiness of students is always a high priority for teachers, student-centred learning is different to more traditional teaching methods. 

Teacher-centred learning, which is more common, requires the teacher to give classroom instructions and lead the class for the majority of the time. With student-centred learning, students are given more opportunities to choose what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. This is also known as personalised learning.

In student-centred learning approaches, students are encouraged to take an active role in the classroom, rather than taking part in more passive activities like listening to a lecture or writing an essay. They will have lots of discussions with their peers and teachers, and they’ll also be encouraged to ask questions, which is linked to inquiry-based learning.

Some great examples of this kind of approach include students taking part in debates, small group projects, and fun roleplay scenarios together. As a teacher, it’s your job to be an excellent facilitator. You should encourage open communication , curiosity, creativity and exploration. At the end of a classroom activity, the teacher should urge students to reflect on what they’ve learnt.

Final thoughts

Hopefully, this list of effective teaching methods has given you some ideas to bring to the classroom. You’ll find further details on many of these topics, as well as many more, with our teaching courses . These can help you work on some of the skills that can improve your lesson planning and execution, benefiting you and your students.

>> Discover our collection of online teaching degrees

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How to build a great lesson plan (with a template!)

Monica Mccutchen October 30, 2019

No matter what content or subject you’re teaching, having a lesson plan prepares you for class by providing a clear outline for the day. Your lesson plans don’t need to be complex or lengthy — they just need to contain elements about what you’re teaching, how you’re going to be teaching this material, and what goals and objectives you want your students to meet as part of the curriculum.

Regardless of the sections within a lesson plan, each class you teach should build on the previous lesson and move seamlessly into the next. Of course, it’s easier to build lesson plans that flow from class to class when you know what goes into creating one!

4 advantages of building a lesson plan

In any class, there are going to be things that you can’t predict. But the more prepared you are, the easier it will be to adapt to the unexpected so you can effectively teach and respond to your students. Here are some of the main benefits of lesson plans:

1. Inspire personal confidence

Having a lesson plan lets you stay in control of the class and the lesson. As your confidence comes across to students, you’ll find it easier to keep them focused and on track.

2. Evaluate your own lessons

Lesson plans allow you to evaluate your own teaching performance as you compare your methods with the plan you’ve prepared. This is a good way to make adjustments to your teaching style and/or techniques.

3. Organization

Lesson plans help you think in an organized manner, visualizing each step of the outline as you work from one concept to the next. A disorganized class presents too many opportunities for students to get off task and misbehave.

4. A guide for substitute teachers

With your lesson plan as a guide, substitute teachers will know exactly what your students are learning that day, making it easier for them to stay on track to meet any curriculum objectives that are set for your class.

The components of a great lesson plan

While there’s no single way to create a lesson plan, there are some important components that go into building each one.

Every lesson that you build is an entire segment that you create to teach your students something new. As you build a lesson it’s important to keep all your students in mind and ask the following essential questions before you begin:

Who are your students?

This may seem silly — of course, you know who your students are … right? Before you can write an effective lesson plan, you need to really know your students. This includes information such as their interests, ability levels, whether they work better independently or in groups, any special needs that may require lesson tweaks, and their backgrounds. Knowing their learning preferences can also be helpful — some students learn better with visual aids, while others do better as auditory learners. You can incorporate videos to appeal to both kinds of learners!

What do your students already know?

Knowing your students’ prior knowledge of a subject can help you plan lessons. If you’ve been building lesson plans all along to follow a curriculum, you’ll already know what you’ve previously presented to your students; this allows you to continue with the flow.

What’s the best way to get them to learn?

Determine the best ways to get your students to learn . Younger students may do well with a lot of interactive teaching, while an older class may do better with a lecture and slideshow. After the first few classes, you’ll have a better idea of how to keep your students engaged.

You can break down the teaching techniques that you can use in your lesson plan into:

• The types of students you have in your class; including auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners.
• The type of learning and goals you’re aiming for. As an exercise, fill in this blank: “By the end of today’s class, I’m hoping my students will have learned or be able to ___.”
• The resources, materials, and teaching environment that are available to you, such as a classroom, a field trip, or selected readings in a study hall.

Steps to building your lesson plan

Once you’ve identified the components that need to go into teaching your class, you’re ready to use these eight steps to build your lesson plan:

1. Identify the objectives

To build a lesson, you first need to identify the objectives of each class. What do you hope to accomplish by the end of the period? Are there specific things that your students should know or be able to do? If you’re teaching younger students, a lesson objective may be that they’re able to identify animals that live in the rainforest after reading a chapter about animals in Brazil. For older students, this goal may involve having learned how to solve algebraic equations.

2. Determine the needs of your students

With this particular lesson, are you introducing new material or reviewing what you’ve already taught in a previous class? At the start of the class, be sure to let students know what to expect so they can stay focused on meeting your objectives. When reviewing material, some of your students may need more encouragement than others. Identifying these needs in your lesson plan will help you prepare.

3. Plan your resources and materials

Make a list of the resources and materials you’ll need to teach this lesson, such as paper, pens, and rulers. Don’t forget to include technology resources in your plan when appropriate — laptops, and gamified learning tools, like apps or educational websites.

4. Engage your students

What’s the point of a lesson if your students aren’t engaged? You want them to be interested in what you’re teaching. Thus, to prepare, you need to get them interested in what this lesson is all about. Give them an outline of what you’re going to be presenting. Then, introduce the subject more informally. For example, if you’re teaching students a formula, try deriving it from scratch to build their intuition for where it comes from. Or, if you’re discussing certain historical events, try to draw parallels between those and any current events so students can relate to the material.

5. Instruct and present information

Once you’ve set the stage for what you’ll be teaching, it’s time to present the information to your students. This is the time to instruct and use whatever resources you’ve included in your lesson plan. Involve your students in the process whenever possible so they’re engaged. For example, you could ask students to come to the board and solve certain problems or answer questions.

Whether it’s reading from a book, using props such as blocks for younger students, or displaying graphics on the screen for older students, it’s all about presenting information and concepts in a meaningful way. Don’t forget to account for the different learning styles of your students so you can use teaching methods that work for everyone.

6. Allow time for student practice

After teaching new material, leave time for students to practice. There are three practice methods that, when worked in order, are a good way to reinforce what you’ve just taught:

• Guided practice — With a guided practice you’re taking students back through what they’ve just learned, letting them add their own input as they gain confidence with the new information.
• Collaborative process — With partners or in a group, the collaborative process is all about students talking with their peers as they explore these new concepts. Circulate among your class and offer additional instruction or help when needed to clarify points.
• Independent practice — After the collaborative practice, it’s time for students to practice what they’ve learned on their own. Adapt independent practice according to the material you’ve just presented, such as using worksheets or having students write a short essay.

7. Ending the lesson

Finish the lesson with a quick wrap-up. Do a brief overview of the lesson, including the main concepts the class learned. Ask students to identify the key ideas as a refresher, and leave them with a preview of the next lesson so they know what to expect.

8. Evaluate the lesson

Did you achieve your learning objectives? Provide students with the opportunity to show they know the material by using a short quiz or test. Depending on the results, your next lesson plan may include a review of information before moving on to new material.

Sample lesson plan template

You can find many teacher lesson plan templates online. You could even ask your colleagues to share their format! The lesson plan template included here is easy to use and you can adapt it to your own needs.

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Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning

Stiliana milkova center for research on learning and teaching.

A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting.  Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components:

• Objectives for student learning
• Teaching/learning activities
• Strategies to check student understanding

Specifying concrete objectives for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been accomplished (see Fig. 1).

Steps for Preparing a Lesson Plan

Below are six steps to guide you when you create your first lesson plans. Each step is accompanied by a set of questions meant to prompt reflection and aid you in designing your teaching and learning activities.

(1) Outline learning objectives

The first step is to determine what you want students to learn and be able to do at the end of class. To help you specify your objectives for student learning, answer the following questions:

• What is the topic of the lesson?
• What do I want students to learn?
• What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class?
• What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?

Once you outline the learning objectives for the class meeting, rank them in terms of their importance. This step will prepare you for managing class time and accomplishing the more important learning objectives in case you are pressed for time. Consider the following questions:

• What are the most important concepts, ideas, or skills I want students to be able to grasp and apply?
• Why are they important?
• If I ran out of time, which ones could not be omitted?
• And conversely, which ones could I skip if pressed for time?

(2) Develop the introduction

Now that you have your learning objectives in order of their importance, design the specific activities you will use to get students to understand and apply what they have learned. Because you will have a diverse body of students with different academic and personal experiences, they may already be familiar with the topic. That is why you might start with a question or activity to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject or possibly, their preconceived notions about it. For example, you can take a simple poll: “How many of you have heard of X? Raise your hand if you have.” You can also gather background information from your students prior to class by sending students an electronic survey or asking them to write comments on index cards. This additional information can help shape your introduction, learning activities, etc.  When you have an idea of the students’ familiarity with the topic, you will also have a sense of what to focus on.

Develop a creative introduction to the topic to stimulate interest and encourage thinking. You can use a variety of approaches to engage students (e.g., personal anecdote, historical event, thought-provoking dilemma, real-world example, short video clip, practical application, probing question, etc.). Consider the following questions when planning your introduction:

• How will I check whether students know anything about the topic or have any preconceived notions about it?
• What are some commonly held ideas (or possibly misconceptions) about this topic that students might be familiar with or might espouse?
• What will I do to introduce the topic?

 (3) Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson)

Prepare several different ways of explaining the material (real-life examples, analogies, visuals, etc.) to catch the attention of more students and appeal to different learning styles. As you plan your examples and activities, estimate how much time you will spend on each. Build in time for extended explanation or discussion, but also be prepared to move on quickly to different applications or problems, and to identify strategies that check for understanding. These questions would help you design the learning activities you will use:

• What will I do to explain the topic?
• What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?
• How can I engage students in the topic?
• What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students understand the topic?
• What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?

(4) Plan to check for understanding

Now that you have explained the topic and illustrated it with different examples, you need to check for student understanding – how will you know that students are learning? Think about specific questions you can ask students in order to check for understanding, write them down, and then paraphrase them so that you are prepared to ask the questions in different ways. Try to predict the answers your questions will generate. Decide on whether you want students to respond orally or in writing. You can look at Strategies to Extend Student Thinking , http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P4_4.php to help you generate some ideas and you can also ask yourself these questions:

• What questions will I ask students to check for understanding?
• What will I have students do to demonstrate that they are following?
• Going back to my list of learning objectives, what activity can I have students do to check whether each of those has been accomplished?

An important strategy that will also help you with time management is to anticipate students’ questions. When planning your lesson, decide what kinds of questions will be productive for discussion and what questions might sidetrack the class. Think about and decide on the balance between covering content (accomplishing your learning objectives) and ensuring that students understand.

(5) Develop a conclusion and a preview

Go over the material covered in class by summarizing the main points of the lesson. You can do this in a number of ways: you can state the main points yourself (“Today we talked about…”), you can ask a student to help you summarize them, or you can even ask all students to write down on a piece of paper what they think were the main points of the lesson. You can review the students’ answers to gauge their understanding of the topic and then explain anything unclear the following class. Conclude the lesson not only by summarizing the main points, but also by previewing the next lesson. How does the topic relate to the one that’s coming? This preview will spur students’ interest and help them connect the different ideas within a larger context.

(6) Create a realistic timeline

GSIs know how easy it is to run out of time and not cover all of the many points they had planned to cover. A list of ten learning objectives is not realistic, so narrow down your list to the two or three key concepts, ideas, or skills you want students to learn. Instructors also agree that they often need to adjust their lesson plan during class depending on what the students need. Your list of prioritized learning objectives will help you make decisions on the spot and adjust your lesson plan as needed. Having additional examples or alternative activities will also allow you to be flexible. A realistic timeline will reflect your flexibility and readiness to adapt to the specific classroom environment. Here are some strategies for creating a realistic timeline:

• Estimate how much time each of the activities will take, then plan some extra time for each
• When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each activity indicate how much time you expect it will take
• Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any remaining questions and to sum up key points
• Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you have time left
• Be flexible – be ready to adjust your lesson plan to students’ needs and focus on what seems to be more productive rather than sticking to your original plan

Presenting the Lesson Plan

Letting your students know what they will be learning and doing in class will help keep them more engaged and on track. You can share your lesson plan by writing a brief agenda on the board or telling students explicitly what they will be learning and doing in class. You can outline on the board or on a handout the learning objectives for the class. Providing a meaningful organization of the class time can help students not only remember better, but also follow your presentation and understand the rationale behind in-class activities. Having a clearly visible agenda (e.g., on the board) will also help you and students stay on track.

Reflecting on Your Lesson Plan

A lesson plan may not work as well as you had expected due to a number of extraneous circumstances. You should not get discouraged – it happens to even the most experienced teachers! Take a few minutes after each class to reflect on what worked well and why, and what you could have done differently. Identifying successful and less successful organization of class time and activities would make it easier to adjust to the contingencies of the classroom. For additional feedback on planning and managing class time, you can use the following resources: student feedback, peer observation, viewing a videotape of your teaching, and consultation with a staff member at CRLT (see also, Improving Your Teaching: Obtaining Feedback , http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P9_1.php and Early Feedback Form , http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/earlyfeedback.pdf).

To be effective, the lesson plan does not have to be an exhaustive document that describes each and every possible classroom scenario. Nor does it have to anticipate each and every student’s response or question. Instead, it should provide you with a general outline of your teaching goals, learning objectives, and means to accomplish them. It is a reminder of what you want to do and how you want to do it. A productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and instructors learn from each other.

Additional Resources

Video clips of GSIs at the University of Michigan actively engaging students in a practice teaching session: https://crlte.engin.umich.edu/engineering-gsi-videos/ 

Plan the First Day's Session: How to create to a lesson plan for the first day of class:  http://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/pre-semester-intro/first-day-plan/

Fink, D. L. (2005). Integrated course design. Manhattan, KS: The IDEA Center. Retrieved from https://www.ideaedu.org/idea_papers/integrated-course-design/

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• Teaching Tips

25 Effective Instructional Strategies For Educators

Engage, assess and motivate students with these 25 easy-to-use instructional strategies for any discipline

Christine Persaud

Instructional strategies refer to the techniques instructors use to deliver their lessons. Effective instructional strategies—also known as teaching strategies—help students become actively involved in the learning process. When done right, instructional strategies also support students in reaching their learning objectives. 

By reading the guide below ( our downloading this free list of instructional strategies ), you’ll gain a solid understanding of the various types of teaching strategies, why they’re important and how they can be applied to the learning process to benefit both professors and students.

In this guide, you’ll:

• Learn what instructional strategies are, and the various strategies educators can use to teach more effectively
• Gain a deeper understanding of how instructional strategies for teachers—including formal and informal assessments, case studies, debates, flipped classrooms and more—play into the overall student learning experience
• Get equipped to implement instructional strategies that are appropriate for your course in order to become more effective at teaching and engaging students
• Get access to a free instructional strategies list , packed with 25 easy-to-implement exercises for your next course

With this collection of teaching strategies, you’ll be ready to guide students towards success in any classroom setting. Plus, putting a few of these techniques into practice will ensure students come to class prepared to engage with the material, with their peers and with you.

Table of contents

• What are instructional strategies?
• What’s the difference between instructional strategies, teaching strategies, teaching techniques and teaching practices?
• Types of instructional or teaching strategies
• Active learning instructional strategies and teaching strategy examples
• Assessment-based instructional strategies
• Group teaching techniques
• Teaching strategy examples for advanced students
• Organizational instructional strategies
• Tiered instructional strategies

1. What are instructional strategies?

Instructional strategies encompass any type of learning technique a teacher uses to help students learn or gain a better understanding of the course material. They allow teachers to make the learning experience more fun and practical and can also encourage students to take more of an active role in their education. The objective of using instructional strategies beyond subject comprehension is to create students who are independent, strategic learners. The hope is, with time and practice, students will be able to select the right strategies on their own and use them effectively to complete tasks.

There are various instructional strategy examples that can be used effectively at all levels and subject areas, with a wide range of learning styles. These learning strategies motivate students by improving their engagement, capturing their attention and encouraging them to focus on not only remembering course material, but truly understanding it.

Educators who use instructional strategies allow students to make meaningful connections between concepts learned in class and real-life situations. They offer an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge and course correct on their own when needed. Teachers also benefit from using instructional strategies because they’re able to better monitor and assess student performance through different methods of evaluation.

2. What’s the difference between instructional strategies, teaching strategies, teaching techniques and teaching practices?

In the dynamic landscape of higher education, understanding the nuances between instructional strategies, teaching strategies, teaching techniques, and teaching practices is crucial for educators aiming to enhance their pedagogical approach. Instructional strategies encompass a broader framework, outlining the overarching plans and methods employed to facilitate learning. These strategies guide the selection of teaching methods and techniques, serving as the foundation for effective educational practices. On the other hand, teaching strategies delve into the specific approaches instructors use to convey information and engage students. These strategies act as the vehicles through which instructional goals are achieved, embracing diverse methodologies such as collaborative learning, active participation, and technology integration.

Zooming in further, teaching techniques are the tactical tools and methods employed within a specific teaching strategy. These are the hands-on practices educators implement to deliver content, foster understanding, and promote critical thinking. Examples include case studies, role-playing, and interactive discussions. Finally, teaching practices encompass the comprehensive application of instructional, teaching, and technical strategies in the classroom. It reflects the amalgamation of various methods tailored to the unique needs of learners and the subject matter. By dissecting these components, higher education professors can refine their pedagogical repertoire, fostering a rich and dynamic learning environment for their students.

3. Types of instructional or teaching strategies

There are far too many types of instructional or teaching strategies to catalog in one place. And there’s no single, specific way to group them together. While the categories below are by no means exhaustive, instructional strategies often fall under general groupings. These include: active learning , assessment-based , group-based , advanced strategies , organizational (or classroom management) and tiered .

4. Active learning instructional strategies and teaching strategy examples

4.1. exit tickets.

Before students leave your learning environment, ask them to answer a question related to a key concept discussed in the lesson that day. They can write it down on a piece of paper or index card. Questions can be simple, like asking students what they found most interesting about the lesson. Or, they can be more complex, such as having them draw a sketch that demonstrates what they learned, or asking them to connect the key concept they learned to a real-life situation. Have students hand the ‘tickets ‘ to you as they exit (or have them submit a response to your discussion board), then review the responses.

The feedback can help educators determine which students need additional teaching in specific areas. Using this approach, teachers gain a quick understanding of how the whole class is grasping and reacting to the material.

Use the information from the exit tickets to form groups in the class that follows. Place students at similar levels of understanding, or who have similar views on a topic, together. Conversely, group students with opposing views together in order to foster debate and conversation. Learn more about the types of exit tickets you can use in your next course—download an exit ticket template here .

4.2. Flipped classrooms

Regardless of where you teach, flipping your classroom is one of the most popular forms of active learning and among the most well-known instructional strategies. Instead of using classroom time for lecturing, educators provide students with a pre-recorded lecture to watch prior to class. They’re often concise, posted to sites like YouTube, or presented in the form of a podcast that students can listen to at home or during their commute. Educators can then use classroom time to engage students in learning activities related to the lecture they’ve already seen or heard.

Flipped classrooms are an effective teaching technique because they allow students to review and learn concepts on their own time. Students are then free to complete more interactive and collaborative work in class, including discussions and tasks with their peers and teacher. They can also collaborate and discuss material online, via forum discussions with peers and subject matter experts. In class, students can actively apply concepts via peer learning, group work, and presentations.

Flipped learning helps keep students continuously engaged in class instead of just passively listening. And it makes good use of downtime by allowing students to combine a workout or commute time with further learning, when it’s most convenient for them. Built to enable this strategy, Top Hat makes it simple to adopt a flipped classroom —simply run quizzes prior to your lecture and create interactive discussions for students to collaborate during class time.

Looking for more? Get 25 additional instructional strategies in this free guide .

4.3. Journals and learning logs

This instructional strategy lets students record their thoughts, feelings and reflections on a variety of topics. Journal entries could refer to something discussed in your lecture, or they can allow students to reflect on a relevant newspaper article or piece of media they came across. Journals can also be used for getting students to think critically about the course material and how it can be applied to the real world. This activity lets students make predictions, brainstorm ideas, connect ideas and even identify solutions to problems presented in class.

You might consider using the following prompts in advance of a journaling assignment to promote higher-level thinking. At the start of a lesson, you might ask, “What questions do you have from yesterday?” During the middle of a lesson, ask, “What do you want to know more about?” At the end of your lesson, ask, “How could you use these findings outside of class?” Encourage students to note any thoughts that come to mind at these three points. At the end of the semester, their journal can form the foundation of a more comprehensive study guide.

4.4. Minute papers

Pose a question about the day’s teaching, and give students a moment to reflect before writing down their answer on their own or in pairs. The responses can provide valuable insight into student comprehension of the material.

Minute papers can be presented in a number of ways, but the easiest is a “ticket out,” whereby educators wrap up class a few minutes early. (We saw this earlier in our instructional strategies list, under ‘exit ticket’ ). They then ask students to answer what the most important thing they learned today was and what questions they still have. The first question requires students to think quickly, recall class material, decide on the main points, and put it into their own words. For the second, they must think further about what they’ve understood thus far.

Teachers can use the responses to determine how well students understand the material. Minute papers can also help students understand where their own learning gaps are. Once this is realized, both students and teachers can identify and address weaknesses.

4.5. Muddiest point

The ‘muddiest point’ is another active learning instructional strategy. This activity asks students to use index cards (or an app), to anonymously submit what part(s) of the course material they’re having the most difficulty with. Educators can then use the responses to determine where extra instruction is needed and adjust lessons accordingly.

Alternatively, these topics can be addressed during student review sessions. Ask students to identify topics they feel they need clarification on and consolidate these into a list. Then get each student to select a term from the list they feel they can explain to the rest of the class.

Cross it off the list, and move on to the next. By the end, it will be easy to see which concepts students are having the most issues with by process of elimination. And if terms haven’t been selected, they are being avoided for a reason. Naturally, students will pick the terms they are most comfortable with.

Use that information to devise more instructor-led sessions on the concepts that most students are confused about, or that require more clarification, to eventually complete the entire list.

4.6. Reflection

Hand out blank index cards or a pre-designed worksheet at the end of a class session and ask students to use them to submit a response to a question about the day’s lesson. Alternatively, ask students to submit a discussion board response. The reflection prompt could be simple, like asking what they learned, or what they found the most interesting. Or, you can make your prompt more application-based, like asking them to connect what they learned to a real-life situation, or telling them to explain why what they learned is important.

The purpose of reflection is to encourage students to consider what they have learned. Like a number of other instructional strategies in this list, it also gives the teacher an idea of where students stand on a topic or issue so they can use this information to help better prepare for the next lesson. The added benefit is that having students express these thoughts on paper can result in better memory retention.

To drive this strategy in higher education, Top Hat’s interactive discussions make it easy for students to reflect on what was covered in class. Allow students to discuss concepts with their peers, with the ability to grade discussions as desired.

4.7. Think-pair-share

This active learning technique is another of the best-known instructional strategies. After presenting a lesson, pause the lecture for a moment to ask students to pair up with a partner. Have them discuss the material they just learned. Prepare questions, and, once they’ve had some time to discuss with their partner(s), get students to take turns presenting their observations to the rest of the class.

Make the question challenging, such that it could spark debate between the grouped or paired students. Give them just a few minutes to talk amongst themselves and come to a collective conclusion.

Think-pair-share can work especially well for the first few lessons of a class, keeping students on their toes and interested in the material that is to come. But it can also help recapture student enthusiasm near the middle of a term, reminding students that they aren’t alone in their learning and that others share their views or concerns, and that there are different perspectives to support an issue that are worth considering beyond their own.

5. Assessment-based instructional strategies

5.1. assessment.

One of the most used instructional strategies, assessments are considered any graded test, quiz, project, or exam. Informal checks of student progress throughout the year, such as discussions or presentations, can be included too. There are many different assessment-based instructional strategies (and a few follow in this group).

In general, there are various ways to run assessments and different ways to adapt them to class time. These include: asking certain groups of students to only complete specific parts of a test, allowing students to respond orally versus in writing, or asking students to demonstrate what they’ve learned in a more hands-on way, like building something or drawing a diagram.

The most critical thing to remember with assessments is to try and stay focused on evaluating the concept that’s most important for the student to grasp. This might mean your assessments have to be more practical. Asking a student to put the learning to work and actually do something can be a far better indicator of what they know than simple written or oral answers.

One tip is to include test or quiz questions that vary in complexity, and focus on different aspects of a concept. You could include one question mandatory for responding, but allow students to choose which ones they want to answer among the remaining ones.

→ Download Now: 25 Free Instructional Strategies

5.2. Cubing

“Cubing” is a version of the above. It involves writing a command or question on each of the six sides of a cube, then having students roll the cube like a die and respond to the question or command accordingly.

The questions can relate to describing, comparing, contrasting, applying, predicting or imagining concepts. Get students even more involved in this cooperative learning activity by having them come up with their own questions that they then exchange with classmates, taking turns to answer.

Take it to another level by creating multiple cubes with questions of varying levels of complexity. Assign students to work in groups—have each group of students write or dictate their answers to the questions on their cube. Use the data to determine which students should work on which concepts come assignment time.

5.3. Grade as you go

This instructional strategy is ideal for subjects that involve repetitive practices and rote memorization, such as mathematics and language. Have students work on assignments either alone or in pairs, checking and marking their work.

This teaching technique is motivational because students instantly know if they’re on the right track, allowing them to gauge their achievement level. But it also helps students immediately correct something they’re doing wrong. Once they identify the mistakes, they can translate that learning to subsequent questions, instead of completing the entire assignment incorrectly.

Instructional strategies such as ‘Grade As You Go’ also help educators pinpoint students who have a superior grasp of the material, allowing them to move on to a more challenging assignment.

By the time the assignment is completed, it’s far more likely that the entire class will be ready to move on to the next concept or skill. And since grades have already been given, it reduces after-class grading time for teachers. Put this strategy into practice this fall by relying on the Top Hat Gradebook . This comprehensive tool lets you view attendance, participation and completion data in one place and makes it easy to retroactively adjust grade weights as needed.

5.4. Homework practice

The purpose of homework , as one of the numerous assessment-based instructional strategies, is to extend learning beyond the classroom setting. Homework gives students extra time to master concepts studied in class and further refine their learning. To use this effectively, assign homework based on the student’s skill level, ensuring it aligns with the areas they need more practice in.

The amount and complexity of homework varies depending on subject and level. Students should be able to complete homework independently, with minimal involvement from tutors or peers. If they can’t, it should serve as a red flag to both the student and educator.

Built to enable this strategy, Top Hat makes it easy to create, personalize and assign interactive homework assignments . Choose from a variety of question types including fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice and embed discussion questions throughout your assessments.

5.5. Questions and quizzes

Question-asking is among the simplest of the instructional strategies, but it can still be strategically complex. The simplest way to gauge student understanding of course material is to ask them questions about it. During group discussions, pose several questions of varying complexity so that everyone has a chance to respond, including both those who are experiencing difficulties with the class, as well as those who are mastering the concepts. Strategically adjust the questions you ask based on who you plan to call upon. This helps build student confidence and ensures the class runs smoothly.

Timing is important, too. When the class starts, or there’s a pause between concepts or topics, you can administer a quick quiz or poll to get an understanding of how far along students are in their learning. In order to effectively assess comprehension, it’s best to not attach a grade to this activity. Students will inevitably worry if the quiz is going to impact their overall grade for the class. Platforms like Kahoot! can be used to facilitate informal games or trivia sessions at the start of class, setting the stage for what’s to follow in your lecture.

Use technology like clickers to administer things like multiple choice quizzes that can be tabulated immediately for large classes, with questions that challenge or check an assumption before a lecture begins. Then, administer the same or a similar quiz at the end of class, and compare the results.

Educators can determine how effective the lesson was and see if they need to revisit the subject matter again, or can confidently move on to the next topic.

6. Group teaching techniques

6.1. case studies.

Case studies, as instructional strategies or teaching techniques, are more spontaneous than structured group projects. But this is a good thing. It helps prepare students for when they enter the workforce, where problem solving on the fly is an essential skill. In a practical work environment, students can’t just do what they’re told and expect to succeed. Case studies can help prepare them for life after college or university.

To use case studies, put students into groups and task them with finding a way to apply the knowledge they’ve acquired from reading course materials and listening to lectures into real-world scenarios that match your assigned content area(s).

In a classroom setting, working on case studies encourages students to think critically about what they’ve learned, not just recite points back to the class.

6.2. Debates

Instructional strategies like these work as a structured form of argumentation. Debates require students to research concepts and think critically in order to present their positions in a convincing and justifiable way.

Most fitting for concepts with opposing points of view, debates help students develop listening and presentation skills. Once presented in class, having a debate can also introduce new perspectives on topics, and convince students to conduct further research in order to build stronger arguments, or intelligently counter those of the opposing side.

6.3. Peer instruction

With the teacher’s guidance, students can prepare and present course material in class, encouraging interaction with peers. Try to do this without the use of slides as an aid, so students have to communicate more with classmates and discover more creative ways to present the material.

It’s best to do these kinds of student-led instructional strategies at the beginning of a class, so students can teach one another about what they know, sharing their knowledge and experiences that relate to course material.

6.4. Role play

The use of simulations and games in your instructional toolkit can give you a deeper look at the impact of learning, as well as demonstrate how students can invent and experiment with learned concepts. Role playing also offers students a chance to practice their interpersonal skills in an environment in which they are comfortable and familiar.

Having the opportunity to visualize, model or role play in dynamic situations promotes curiosity, exploration and problem solving. It can aid students in working towards a greater understanding of the material. The more ways that students have of representing the knowledge they’ve acquired beyond writing and oral explanation, the better their comprehension and recall of the information will be.

In math and science fields, for example, students can experiment with simulated projects that would otherwise be difficult or cost-prohibitive to do in real settings. Examples include: designing a model of a roller coaster to understand slopes, angles and speed; using a hard-boiled egg to demonstrate Newton’s Law of Motion; or building a model volcano to understand what makes them erupt.

7. Teaching strategies examples for advanced students

7.1. curriculum compacting.

These instructional strategies encourage educators to identify students who already have advanced knowledge of a subject, skill or concept so they can spend less time on these areas. Curriculum compacting frees students up to focus more on the areas where they need to develop a greater understanding, versus concepts with which they’re already proficient. It’s ideal when working with individual students or small groups.

7.2. Independent study project

If students appear to be ahead of the class, assign them independent study projects. These projects should allow them to focus on a single concept around material discussed in class. They can also work on a separate but related topic for which they’ve expressed an interest or passion, making this an inquiry-based learning exercise.

Once the project is completed, the student can share what he or she learned with the class, demonstrating their mastery of the concept, and further educating the rest of the class on a specific area or example.

Independent study projects usually run anywhere from three to four weeks.

8. Organizational instructional strategies

8.1. agendas.

An agenda sets out a comprehensive list of the assignments, activities, projects and tests students are responsible for working on and completing throughout the year, along with a timeline for each. Students can decide how they want to complete the work and in what order. Do they want to focus on one area of learning for an entire week? Do they want to tackle the subject matter they’re most comfortable with first, or start with more difficult concepts? In addition to encouraging students to come up with a structure they can follow, agendas help them practice time management skills.

To get going, provide each student with a blank calendar to fill in with their own schedule, ensuring they’ve organized work in order to meet assignment and project due dates. If different students are working on the same part of an assignment at the same time, consider allowing them to work together during class. Take on the role of a facilitator here, helping students set reasonable deadlines according to their needs.

8.2. Anchor activities

Also referred to as ‘sponge’ activities, anchor activities are assignments that students must work on immediately in order to maximize instruction time. They can complete these activities at the beginning of every class or right after, but the idea is to keep the learning and educational process going.

Anchor activities might include the student revisiting a question posed in the previous day’s class and composing a response to it, or presenting and discussing an answer out loud to a partner. Another option could be drawing a picture to represent a concept they just learned, or writing down an opinion about a key issue. This instructional strategy for teachers can also be used to provide students with notes as a reference when they’re studying for exams.

Be mindful of anchor activities that are simply ‘busy work’ to pass the time. Just as a sponge soaks up water, the goal of anchor activities is to help students soak up a better understanding of a concept or skill.

8.3. Knowledge charts

Before delving into a new topic or concept, have students submit what they already know, what they want to know and what they’ve learned already. Then, assess their prior knowledge on the subject, and get a feel for how interested they are in a topic.

Knowledge charts, as instructional tools, can also be used at various times to see how students are progressing, and if their interest in the topic is waning or growing. In filling out these graphic organizers, teachers can get an idea of where students are at academically. Students themselves can gauge their own progress and see where more work is needed.

8.4. Learning contracts

Another one of the several instructional strategies aimed at more advanced students is the learning contract. Use it to help students who need to be challenged by providing a specific assignment and list of directives that they must complete within a set period of time. Work with the student to set out the requirements of the contract, and provide a blank calendar they can use to devise a doable timeline, determining what dates and times they need in order to complete different parts of the assignment. 

This is an effective instructional strategy to help students set their own learning goals and practice time management skills—both of which are useful in the working world. Once the contract and timeline are set, encourage students who are working on the same parts of the assignment at the same time to work together.

8.5. Portfolio development

Portfolios allow students to gather, organize and illustrate examples of their learning and academic achievements. Portfolio development is the process of creating, collecting, reflecting on and selecting work samples that best showcase students’ understanding of a given concept. Once students select their top pieces that best represent their learning outcomes, they can then use a binder or scrapbook to organize their work.

Work samples kept in a portfolio might include notes from an interview, a diagram, storyboards, essays, infographics and more. Portfolio development is a necessary and effective process for most humanities and STEM majors. Art students can use a portfolio to curate their top pieces—whether paintings, drawings or photographs—at the end of the semester. Alternatively, students in architecture or engineering courses can use a portfolio to house mockups and wireframes of a new building or the parts of an engine. No two students’ portfolios will include the same work since these differ based on discipline and course.

9. Tiered instructional strategies

9.1. tiered activities.

Set up three or four activities of varying complexity for students to participate in. Each should have the same common goal of helping students understand a specific element of the subject material. For example, it might be different experiments that all explain the basic concept of physics.

Start with a mid-level activity that would apply to most students in the class, then include one that’s a step-up in difficulty to challenge students with a better understanding of the material. Alternatively, offer a simplified version for students who are still working to gain a full understanding of the concept.

Place students in groups based on their perceived level, or give a brief description of each of the assignments and let them choose which level they feel most comfortable working in. Once completed, discuss and compare the results.

By the end of this collaborative exercise, each group will have a greater understanding of the material. If students are able to choose which group they join, the teacher will also get a feel for the comfort level of each student.

9.2. Tiered rubrics

Present a couple of rubrics (scoring guides) to students, based on their current level, so they have the skills needed in order to better focus and be successful in class.

The rubrics should all contain the same basic categories, but the point value or required elements should be adjusted based on the student’s readiness. For students equipped to take on greater challenges, add more categories or requirements. Conversely, remove some requirements and/or categories for students who need more assistance, or haven’t quite grasped the material just yet.

10. Conclusion

In exploring various types of instructional strategies, you’ll find that there’s something to suit every type of student level, subject and lecture format. When applied effectively, instructional strategies for teaching can help students gain a deeper understanding of course material and encourage critical thinking, beyond basic retention and surface understanding. Educators, too, can benefit by using different teaching methods throughout the semester to determine the efficacy of lesson plans, and how every student is progressing through each concept.

Download our free instructional strategies guide , filled with 25 effective activities and best practices to use in any college course.

Recommended Readings

The Complete Guide to Effective Online Teaching

5 Ways to Prioritize Educational Equity in Your Classroom

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List of 107 Classroom Teaching Strategies (With Examples)

Use this list of 107 classroom teaching strategies for your lesson plan or teaching portfolio. This can help demonstrate pedagogical knowledge and the ability to apply theory to practice.

Or, try some of these strategies out when you’re low on ideas and looking for a fresh way to teach in the classroom. Note that these are just some examples of teaching strategies – I’m sure there are even more out there!

Tip: Bookmark this page so you can come back to it every time you need some new teaching strategies!

Teaching Strategies Examples (List)

Click on the strategies to open detailed explanations and examples.

Flipped Instruction

Description

Flipped classrooms involve asking students to complete the reading, preparation and introductory work at home. Then, during class time, the students do practice questions that they would traditionally do for homework.

• Flipped instruction enables the teacher to offload the direct instruction elements of education like Introductions to homework. This enables teachers to spend more time on student-centered differentiated support .
• Students may not complete their assigned pre-class homework, which will undermine the lesson.

Theoretical Link

Social Constructivism / Socio-Cultural Theory : The teacher can spend more time supporting students in a student-centered environment.

• Assign a video introducing a concept for homework.
• Spend the first 10 minutes of the lesson assessing students’ comprehension of the video
• Jump straight into student-centered practice tasks
• Walk around the class helping students who need additional support for the rest of the lesson

See my full article on Flipped Classrooms Pros and Cons.

Play-Based learning

Students learn cognitive, social, and physical skills during play tasks. Tasks can be teacher-led with specific goals (e.g. volume transfer in a sandpit) or unstructured student-led play.

• Engagement: students may be more engaged during active play-based learning compared to teacher-centered instruction.
• Cognition : students get the opportunity to learn through discovery and trial-and-error, helping to build neural pathways
• Social: students play together, developing communication, groupwork, and negotiation skills.
• Physical: play engages fine and gross motor functions , helping to improve physical abilities.
• Many traditionalist, including many parents and potentially your head teacher, may consider play to have no educational or academic benefit.
• Parents may frown upon this method for older students, despite its benefits across age groups.
• Many people consider that the risks of injury during play-based learning are too high.

( Read More: Pros and Cons of Play Based Learning )

Social Constructivism. Students learn through social interaction and building knowledge in their minds through trial and error.

Play is also encouraged in all 5 Contemporary Early Childhood Perspectives (Froebel, Reggio Emilia, Forest Schools , Steiner-Waldorf Schools, and Montessori).

• Use modelled instruction to show students how to play with developmentally appropriate resource-rich toys and puzzles. Consider puzzles that require mathematical skills that link to current curriculum outcomes.
• Provide students with the puzzles and allow free unstructured play time
• Mingle with the students, helping them with prompting and guiding questions
• End the lesson with a whole group discussion of what they learned during the lesson.

See my full article on Play Based Learning Pros and Cons .

Project-Based learning (PBL)

Project-based learning requires students to spend an extended period of time (e.g. a week or more) on a single project to gain in-depth knowledge about the task. The projects should be personally meaningful and give students freedom to go in-depth on areas of interest.

• Students have the opportunity to become ‘experts’ on topics. By going deep on a topic, students may become very knowledgeable and feel empowered.
• A balance is struck between ensuring students focus on curriculum-linked projects and giving students the freedom to explore the details of a topic that are of personal interest.
• Students tend to have increased freedom using this approach. So, students need to learn self-regulation skills before beginning the task.

Constructivism in the Classroom : Students work independently using their own intellect and resources to learn. By doing personal research, students ‘construct’ knowledge in their minds and apply that knowledge to the project to demonstrate their knowledge.

• Teacher assigns students a research question, such as “What are the key characteristics of mammals?”
• Students work in small groups to come up with an idea for a poster, diagram, or presentation project on the topic.
• Teacher approves or asks for amendments of students’ proposed projects.
• Students are provided a series of lessons over a 2-week period in computer labs and in resource-rich classrooms to complete their project.
• Teacher checks-in intermittently to ensure standards are upheld and to stimulate students to improve upon their projects.
• The project concludes with students presenting their project to their parents.

Authentic Learning

Authentic learning involves having students learn about concepts in real-life (or near real-life) environments. Similarly, authentic assessment refers to assessments in real-life (or near real-life) environments

• By learning a task within its context, a student will understand its value for them outside of the classroom.
• Engagement: students may be more engaged in a task if they understand its practical application rather than just its theoretical purpose.
• Cognition and Memory: Students may find it easier to recall information if they can reflect on an instance in which they applied the knowledge to a real-life task.
• Authentic learning tasks are difficult to set-up from within a classroom.
• It is debatable whether so-called ‘authentic’ environments are genuinely authentic. A mock supermarket experience for practicing counting money, for example, lacks the potential for environmental distractions of a real-life situation.
• Some information is by its very nature academic and theoretical rather than practical, and this information is still of value to students.

Constructivism: Authentic learning environments are designed for students to be active learners who ‘construct’ knowledge through personal experience.

• An ESL teacher provides students with a set of conversational tasks to complete during a day’s field trip to the city.
• Students complete the tasks in the ‘real world’ by walking around the city asking for directions, buying lunch, etc.
• Class comes together at the end of the day to discuss and reflect on their experiences of applying their knowledge in the ‘real world’.

Discovery Learning

Discovery learning involves allowing students maximum freedom within a resource-rich environment to ‘discover’ answers to challenges. It requires students to build upon prior knowledge and use resources available in the environment to increase their own knowledge.

Discovery learning is often held in contrast to teacher-centered approaches, as students are not ‘told’ information; instead, they must discover knowledge for themselves..

• Students generate knowledge for themselves rather than being told what is right and wrong.
• By discovering truths, students will have a firmer understanding for the reasoning behind why something is true.
• Too much student freedom may distract students from the learning outcomes.
• This can be a time-consuming technique as students discover information at their own pace. It can therefore be difficult to implement in education systems that are packed with curriculum outcomes that must be met.

Construcitivism: Students generate their own knowledge through engagement with their environment rather than having truths ‘told’ to them by an authority figure.

• Teacher places the appropriate resources in the classroom to allow students to discover truths themselves. These resources may include science experiment stations, newspaper articles, etc.
• Teacher transparently presents the lesson objectives to the students, i.e. “What is heavier – sand or water?”
• Students are given minimal guidance, but sent to the learning stations to try to answer the prompt themselves.
• Teacher provides minimal guidance, recognizing that making mistakes and trying the ‘wrong thing’ is also a part of the discovery experience.
• Students get together at the end of the class to discuss what they ‘discovered’.

High Expectations

Setting high expectation involves requiring students to put in maximum effort during their lessons. HIgh expectations does not mean expecting all students to meet a certain standard. Rather, it means expecting each student to try to beat their own personal best.

• High expectations are necessary to ensure students continue to strive for improvement. Without high expectations in the classroom, students can become lazy and lose respect for education.
• Teachers need to be aware that sometimes students have ‘off days’ where they cannot succeed at their normal level. This may be due to health, hunger, or environmental factors .
• Teachers need to balance high expectations with compassion for their students. Try not to let burnout occur due to strenuous demands.
• Measure students’ prior knowledge to ascertain their current developmental level.
• Have students aim to achieve at or above their current ability in a given task.
• If students underperform, provide formative feedback and insist they readdress their work to make edits and improvements.
• Allow students to progress to subsequent tasks only when their work has met or exceeded the minimum standard you set for that individual.

See my full article on High Expectations in the Classroom .

Parent and Community Engagement

Parent and community engagement involves bringing students together with their community. It can involve bringing parents and community members into the classroom, or bringing students out into the community on field trips.

• By engaging with the community, students come to see themselves as a member of their community.
• It can help students to get to know important members of their community to give them a sense of belonging, and help them see (and, in the future, seek) support networks.
• By bringing role models into the classroom (especially minority and female role models), students can come to see that they could potentially become female firefighters, politicians of color, etc.
• Students can learn from more than just one teacher to get a variety of perspectives.
• Safety concerns often require teachers and community members to fill-in forms and complete background checks before community engagement can occur.
• Finding members of the community willing to work with teachers can be difficult.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory: Students learn within family and community contexts (children’s ‘first teachers’) in order to respect and carry-on culturally engaged learning.

• Teacher does networking to find community members willing to come into the classroom.
• Teacher finds relevant curriculum links that community members can help them teach about.
• Teacher and community members meet to discuss a lesson idea.
• Community members and teachers team-teach in the classroom.
• Students are given the opportunity for one-on-one time with community members.
• Students present the results of their lesson to community members before community members leave.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional positive regard involves teachers consistently and unconditionally viewing students as capable and competent. When students make mistakes, fail, or misbehave, it is the teacher’s role to continue to let students know that they believe in the student and their abilities.

• Empowering: when students are given unconditional positive regard, they know that their teacher believes in their ability to constantly do better.
• Shows Empathy and builds Trust: children come to learn to respect and trust their teacher when they know their teacher is always on ‘their side’.
• Teachers need to ensure that they still let students know that inappropriate behavior or lack of effort is unacceptable. The teacher should follow-up their discipline with comments about positive regard.

Humanist theory of Education : Humanist Carl Rogers invented this approach. He believed unconditional positive regard was necessary for building students’ self-confidence.

• “Even though you did not do well today, I expect that you will come to school doing better tomorrow.”
• “The quality of your work does not match your potential. Let’s talk about some strategies for improvement before you go away and do it again.”

See my full post on the Humanist approach to Education .

Modeled Teaching

Modeled teaching is an instructional strategy that involves the teacher ‘showing’ students how to do a task. The teacher shows the task while also breaking it down into small steps. This helps students to see how to complete the task.

• A very effective way to introduce new topics.
• The teacher maintains control when introducing a new idea to ensure students have appropriate understanding and safety knowledge before trying for themselves.
• Shows that learning can occur passively – students can learn simply by watching.
• Not appropriate as a standalone strategy. Students need to eventually try things alone to show competency. Therefore, consider matching modeled teaching up with the I Do, We Do, You Do method

Bandura’s Behaviorism: Bandura blends behaviorism with constructivism by showing that learning can occur through observation only.

See my full post on Behaviorism in Education , which has a segment on Bandura’s modelled instruction approach.

I Do We Do You Do Method

The I Do, We Do, You Do method is a scaffolding strategy that provides gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to the student. It involves three steps: (1) I Do: Teacher models the task; (2) We Do: Student and teacher do the task together; (3) You Do: Student attempts to complete the task alone.

• Students are provided an appropriate balance of support and freedom.
• Teacher has ample time to assess students’ abilities to make adjustments to their pedagogy as they move through the 3 steps (particularly in step 2)
• In large groups, students may fall behind at Steps 2 and 3.

Sociocultural Theory: Students learn through social interaction with a more knowledgeable other (see: Lev Vygotsky).

• Teacher asks all students to sit on a mat at the front of the class.
• Teacher models the steps required to complete the day’s task (I Do).
• Teacher re-does the task. This time, instead of telling the students the steps, the teacher asks students to raise their hand and tell the teacher what to do next (We Do)
• Teacher asks students to complete the task in small groups. Teacher walks around providing support (We Do)
• Students complete the lesson by doing the task alone. Teacher only intervenes for the few students who are still struggling (You Do)

See my full guide on implementing the I Do, We Do, You Do method .

Guided Practice / Cognitive Apprenticeship

Students follow along with their teacher as an ‘apprentice’. By working side-by-side, they learn the subtle little things (‘ tacit knowledge ’) required to know in order to master a skill.

• Students get very close one-to-one interaction with an expert, helping them learn.
• By learning-by-doing, the student learns not only the theory but also the skills required to complete tasks.
• An approach predominantly used for young children in Indigenous communities, which is not applicable on a wide scale in Western mass education systems.
• Requires one-to-one support, which is not often available.

Socio-Cultural Theory: Rogoff studied Guatemalan Indigenous teaching methods to come up with this approach. It fits under the socio-cultural theory because its emphasis is on social interaction between master and apprentice.

Common in trade schools for students studying to be mechanics, engineers, etc.

See my full guides on the Guided Practice teaching strategy and cognitive fexibility .

Scaffolding

Scaffolding involves providing support to students while they cannot complete a task alone. Then, when the student can complete the task alone, the teacher withdraws their support.

• Students feel supported while learning tasks that are just outside of their grasp at the present time.
• A clear way of guiding students towards new skills.
• May require a lot of one-to-one support, which can be difficult to provide in a classroom environment.

Socio-Cultural Theory: Scaffolding was invented by Jerome Bruner ( not Vygotsky).

• The teacher models a task before students try it themselves.
• The teacher provides the student with a visual aid (the scaffold, in this instance) that breaks the task down into small parts.
• After 15 minutes of practice with the visual aid, the aid is withdrawn and the students try the task alone.

Direct Instruction (a.k.a Explicit Teaching)

Direct instruction (also known as explicit teaching) is a teacher-centered approach that involves the teacher using simple straightforward language to explain concepts to students.

• Provides clear and direct knowledge to students
• Is sometimes the only way to teach something, particularly when introducing a new idea.
• Students cannot consolidate their knowledge with direct instruction alone. Explicit teaching should be followed-up with other teaching strategies that involve more active learning so students can practice and demonstrate their knowledge.

Behaviorism: Traditionally, direct instruction was embraced by behaviorists who believed in teacher-centered teaching. Today, it is used in most teaching approaches.

Repetition (Rote Learning)

Repetition involves giving students time to retry tasks over and over again until it is consolidated in their minds. The information should be safely in a student’s long-term memory before moving on.

• Repetition commits information to memory, and is often one of the only ways to ensure something is truly remembered long-term.
• Repetitive rote learning that lacks contextual background is hard to remember. Sometimes, giving context through doing tasks through real-life scenarios can be better for memory long-term.
• Repetition can disengage students and demotivate them.
• Doesn’t account for social and cognitive aspects of learning.

Behaviorism: Repetition is central to a behaviorist approach. Pavlov, a famous behaviorist found that he could teach his dog through repetitively associating a bell with food. The dog came to learn through repetition that the bell meant ‘food’.

See my full post on Behaviorism in Education.

Spaced Repetition

Spaced repetition builds on simple repetition. Spaced repetition involves gradually increasing the space between times you repeat something. Repetition of a task should be very common. Over time, the task should be re-examined less and less often.

The idea behind spaced repetition is that the concept being learned is re-engaged with just before it is forgotten so that it is consistently recalled into memory and gradually sedimented into long-term memory.

• Provides long-term support to ensure students remember information over a sustained period of time.
• Perfect for revision and standardized test preparation.
• Can be disengaging and boring for students who tend to prefer active learning.

Behaviorism: Spaced repetition was invented by behaviorist theorist Ebbinghaus in 1885.

• Provide students with a sprinkle of review tasks as a part of their weekly homework.
• Start lessons (or set aside some time each week) with revision of tasks from months previously to jog students’ memory.

Prompting involves providing students with nudges, guides and questions that will help them to move closer towards an answer. A prompt is a suggestion to a student that they pay attention to a particular aspect of a task that will help them get closer to the answer.

• Prompts are used regularly by teachers to get beyond blocks in student learning. Without prompts, students may never develop or improve.
• It is hard to know exactly how much prompting to give and at what stage. Students need time to think things through and make mistakes. Too much prompting too soon can prevent students from thinking for themselves.

Social Constructivism: Social constructivists believe teachers have a role in helping students to build knowledge in their minds. Teachers’ interventions can help spur knowledge development.

• A teacher might ask a question to get the student to look at the task from a different perspective.
• A teacher may point at a section of a diagram and ask them about that section.
• A teacher might start a sentence and ask a student to finish it.

Differentiation

Differentiation is a teaching strategy that requires teachers to change their teaching styles and educational materials to meet the diverse needs of students within a classroom. It generally involves grouping students into several sub-groups in the classroom based on ability, skillset or learning preferences.

• Enables the teacher to more effectively address the diverse needs of students in a large classroom.
• Ensures learning is more personalized in the hope that no child will be left behind in a lesson.
• Differentiation is often used as an excuse to dumb down a task – differentiated instruction should be paired with high expectations to ensure all students are working to their maximum potential.

Socio-cultural Theory: This approach acknowledges that all students have different social and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, each student requires a personalized learning approach. It realizes that one size fits all will not work because all students are different.

• Separate students into three ability groups: Advanced, Middle, and Lower. The advanced students can be provided with project-based learning tasks to complete while the teacher works with the middle and lower groups to provide additional support.
• Provide students with a range of tasks that addresses the same learning outcome. Students can choose between different tasks depending on their learning preferences.

Manipulatives

Manipulatives are physical educational toys (or: ‘tools’) which are used to support learning. Providing students with physical manipulatives during learning enables them to visualize their learning in a 3D space.

• Students can learn more actively when they have manipulatives than when learning through teacher-centered direct instruction methods.
• Helps students who need to visualize information to learn.
• Creation of physical models helps students to form mental models (‘ cognitive schemata ’).
• It can be expensive to gather enough materials for all students in a classroom.
• Providing students with toys can distract them from the task. Strong classroom management skills are required.

Constructivism: Constructivists including Freidrich Froebel and Maria Montessori have advocated for the use of educational toys to help students to explore and discover in student-led active learning contexts.

• Base Tens ‘Dienes Cubes’ are cubes that can be bunched into singles, groups of ten, groups of 100, and groups of 1000 to help students visualize the decimal system of counting.
• Colored beads can be used to help students in early childhood learn to recognize patterns.
• Froebel’s Gifts are 9 manipulative toys that students can use to solve developmentally appropriate puzzles.

Prior Knowledge Assessment

Prior knowledge assessment entails assessing students’ knowledge at the beginning of a unit of work in order to teach students at an appropriate level. If prior knowledge does not take place, teachers may teach content at a level that is either above or below a class’s optimal learning level.

• Ensures the content being taught is at an appropriate level.
• Respects the fact that students come into the classroom with pre-existing knowledge.
• Identifies misconceptions students may have about a topic.
• Enables teachers to take into account students’ cultural knowledge when preparing a unit of work.
• Ensure you assess prior knowledge well in advance so you can plan lessons based on prior knowledge. I’ve assessed prior knowledge at the start of a class before and realized the lesson I planned was completely useless!

Student-Teacher Conference

A student-teacher conference is a one-on-one discussion between a student and a teacher to take stock of a student’s needs. The conference usually involves a discussion of both strengths as well as areas for improvement. The conference should conclude with a list of goals for the teacher and student to mutually strive toward.

• An opportunity for both the teacher and student to express concerns and anxieties
• Helps students to feel ‘seen’, valued and cared for by the teacher
• Hard to achieve in every lesson. Teachers could consider systematically conferring with one or two students per lesson until all students are met with.
• There is a power imbalance in the student-teacher relationship which may prevent students from speaking candidly.

Socio-Cultural Theory: Interactions between teachers and students are important to learning within the socio-cultural approach.

• Print a list of your students with a column for ‘achievements’, ‘goals’ and ‘struggles’. Over the course of a week, meet up with your students and discuss with them what they’ve achieved in the current unit of work, what their goals are, and what the barriers are to achieving those goals.

Fill-In the Gaps (Cloze Passages)

A simple teaching strategy that involves asking students to fill-in an incomplete piece of text. This can happen verbally (starting a paragraph and asking students to complete it) and in writing (a traditional cloze passage).

• Helps students to jog their own memories by prompting them slightly.
• Enables teachers to quickly assess students’ knowledge (just-in-time assessment).
• Cannot be a consistently used strategy as students also need to learn through more challenging approaches such as discovery learning and project-based learning.
• Paper cloze passages involving a story in which the key phrases are removed.
• Prompting questions like: “Can you finish this sentence? The first king of England was …”

Peer Assisted Learning (PAL)

Has the teacher step aside and allows students to take charge of the learning environment.

• Students can often explain concepts to one another in a clear way because they’re on the same level and closer in their learning journey than the teacher, who probably learned the content years ago!
• Peer assisted learning is not the same as the students doing the teaching. Students should continue to view each others as partners in learning.

Socio-Cultural Theory: students learning through collaborative discussion fits firmly into the sociocultural theory of education .

• Invite students from a grade level above to come into the classroom and act as moderators of discussions on topics of interest.
• Pair stronger students with weaker students. Have the stronger students demonstrate their knowledge by supporting the weaker students. I find this works really well because children can often explain things in a clear language that other children can understand.

Poster Presentations

A poster presentation is a great way to demonstrate knowledge at the end of a lesson or unit of work. Provide the students with posters, pens, and printing materials if required.

• A fast, effective way of presenting knowledge to the class.
• Allows students to practice demonstration skills.
• Ends up with a physical product that can be photographed and added to the student’s portfolio to prove that outcomes have been met.
• Can be a lazy way to achieve presentation of knowledge. Ensure the focus remains on the content and not the coloring-in or drawing pretty pictures.
• Not useful for all lessons: when students can create a working model, diagram, etc. this would be preferred.
• Have students work in groups to write up their knowledge in a visually engaging way.
• Then, have each group verbally present their poster to the class.

Two-Minute Presentation

Two Minute verbal presentations, like posters, are an effective way of having students demonstrate their knowledge at the end of a lesson or unit of work. Each student gets two minutes to present their knowledge on a topic to the rest of the class.

• An effective, fast way of doing summative assessment.
• It is an inefficient use of other students’ time having them listen to 20 other two-minute presentations when they could be engaging in higher-order learning during that time. Students find it very boring and frustrating to sit through the assessment of other students.
• Use the two-minute presentation method for the final lesson in a series of lessons on one topic.
• Have students read over their notes from previous classes and write a summary of the top 10 points.
• Have students prepare their two-minute presentations by adding the notes to palm cards. With 10 points, students have about 12 second per point!
• Ensure students have time to practice with one another and instruct them on how to take additional notes on their palm cards for points they forgot during practice.
• If each student has a different topic or angle to present engagement may be enhanced during the class presentations.

De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats

De Bono’s 6 thinking hats strategy asks students to look at an issue from multiple perspectives. It can be used for groups or individuals. Depending on the hat a student is provided, they have to think from a different perspective.

The Six Hats

• White hat: Provide the facts.
• Yellow hat: Explore the positives.
• Black hat: Explore the negatives (devil’s advocate).
• Red hat: Express your feelings and intuitions . Include concerns, dislikes and likes.
• Green hat: Be creative. Come up with new ideas and alternatives.
• Blue hat: The manager who ensures all the hats are sticking to their lane.
• Helps students to think outside of their own perspectives.
• Encourages students to attack an issue from many different angles.
• Teachers group work skills if used in a group.
• I often find it’s hard to get groups of 6, so sometimes one student has to use two hats.
• Introduce a contentious topic with a video or reading.
• Distribute hats to the students.
• Have students spend some time brainstorming what they would say on the issue from their perspective. If you have a large class, group all the white hats together, red hats together, etc. to work in groups for this part.
• Then rearrange students into groups where there is one colored hat per group (groups of 6 is ideal, or 5 with one person taking the role of blue hat as well).
• At the end of the class, have a whole group discussion summing up our points and list the details of the topic on the white board. Hopefully students will see that the issue is a very complex one!

A pop quiz is a short test that takes place with no prior warning. The quiz can be formative or summative. Link the quiz to rewards to keep students motivated to do well and be prepared at any moment.

• Can be motivating for students who enjoy the challenge of competing with themselves or others.
• Keeps students on their toes which encourages ongoing review and homework on the part of the students.
• May worry some students who are unprepared.

Democratic Vote

Taking a democratic vote is a progressive education strategy that attempts to empower students in the classroom. Have students vote on what or how they will learn within the classroom. This can be done at a small scale in a lesson plan by asking students to vote on how a lesson will progress, for example.

• Can empower students, giving them a sense of ownership over the classroom.
• Can build trust and rapport between the students and the teacher.
• Helps the teacher take the pulse of the class and understand what they want and need.
• Teachers may lose their power and control over the class if they overuse this approach.
• Just because the majority supports something, it doesn’t mean it’s best. A small group of students may fall behind and have their voices drowned out by the majority.

Progressive Education: Progressive educators such as Alfie Kohn advocate for empowering students through increased democracy in the classroom.

See my full post on Citizenship Education .

Non-Verbal Gestures

Using non-verbal gestures are powerful ways to help students learn, as well as to manage the classroom. Educators can explicitly teach signs or use gestures common in society.

• Teachers can give individual students instant feedback that is subtle and does not disrupt the rest of the class.
• Students feel acknowledged when small gestures are used just for them.
• It is a non-intrusive way of prompting students.
• Cultural sensitivity required. Different cultures ascribe different meanings to non-verbal gestures.
• Nods of approval can let a student know you have recognized their good work without disrupting the flow of the lesson.
• Pointing can be used to direct students’ attention toward prompts around the room or on worksheets that may help stimulate thinking.
• Tapping a watch can remind students to pay attention to time limitations of a lesson.

Environmental Manipulation

Environments have a strong impact on learning. Temperature, lighting, seating plans , colors and posters on the walls can all affect learning.

• A non-intrusive way of supporting learning.
• Helps students feel more comfortable in the classroom.
• Your classroom has limitations which may prevent the ideal environmental settings.
• Different students may work better in different environments (e.g. heat settings)

Humanism: Teachers pay attention to the conditions required for creating an optimal learning environment.

Classical Conditioning (Behaviorism): Students are ‘conditioned’ by cause-and-effect mechanisms that are subtle and that they aren’t even aware of.

For more, see my full post on behaviorism in education.

• When a class is too loud, try subtly turning off the fan. It’s amazing how often this small environmental manipulation can quiet down a class.
• Ensure the classroom is not too dark. A dark classroom can impede reading, especially for students who do not have perfect eyesight.
• Heat and noise can both prevent learning.
• Calm colors on the walls can help students relax into the learning environment.

Associative Learning

Associative learning takes place when several ideas are introduced to a student that are mutually reinforcing. In the classroom, this means presenting students with several stimulus materials that help a student to recall a fact.

• Is very effective during revision for an exam.
• Has questionable long-term benefits as at this stage the concept is not yet solidly consolidated in long-term memory. The recall of information is dependant on other associated information.

Behaviorism (Pavlov’s Dog): Most famously, Pavlov managed to get a dog to associate the ringing of a bell with food. The dog would salivate whenever the bell rang, whether or not there was food around.

Cognitive Constructivism: while associative learning is most commonly associated with Pavlov, constructivists also have an explanation. The more associations someone has with a topic, the more neural pathways are created connecting ideas. This helps improve memory recall.

See Also: Non-Associative Learning

• The teacher presents students with rhyming pairs to help a student associate one word with another. This can be effective in teaching vocabulary.
• When attempting to recall a fact, you can try to reflect on where you were and what else you were talking about when that fact was first introduced to you.

Cooperative Learning (Group Work)

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy that involves having students work together rather than in competition. Usually, this takes place in small groups where the success of the group is dependant on the students working together to achieve a common goal (also known as positive interdependence). See more: Cooperative learning examples .

• Minimizes destructive competitiveness in the classroom which may undermine a collaborative and collegial atmosphere.
• Requires students to talk to one another which can help them learn from each other’s perspectives.
• Students need to be explicitly taught group work skills before participating.
• Some students may become lazy and let others do the work for the whole group.

Sociocultural Theory: Learning is stimulated when students converse with one another. They get to see others’ viewpoints which may help each student build upon or challenge their existing views.

Agenda Setting

The teacher presents the students with the agenda at the start of the day. The use of visual aids may be helpful here, allowing students to see a timeline of the day’s events on the board at the front of the classroom.

• Very effective for students with autism who often feel calmed knowing there is some structure to their day.
• Helps relax students into a day or even a lesson by giving them certainty about what’s to come.
• Any benefits that may arise lack scientific backing.
• Download a card set of images that represent different lesson types and activities. Use this card set to lay out a visual timeline for the students every morning.

Team Teaching

Instead of one teacher delivering a lesson to a group of students, several teachers get their classes together to teach one lesson to a larger group.

• Teachers can be more flexible. One teacher may take the role of presenter while the other acts as a support with students falling behind.
• Teachers can share the workload, particularly for preparation.
• Large groups may lead to some students falling behind without the teachers realizing.
• There is the potential for more noise distractions and subversive behavior in large groups.
• Teachers need to have the same work ethic for this to be effective.
• Large class sizes required.
• Consider having one teacher take the lead on all mathematics lessons and the other take the lead on all literature lessons. This enables each teacher to become more expert on their topic.

Directing Attention

Directing attention involves diverting students away from negative non-learning behaviors and towards positive behaviors by presenting them with engaging learning materials or ideas.

• Prevents negative behaviors without confrontation.
• Focuses on creating engaging lessons.
• Can be done multiple times in one lesson whenever a teacher sees a student is distracted.
• Tends to be more effective with younger children than older children.
• Use visual aids, worksheets and manipulatives to help direct and maintain students’ attention on something physical. With adults, I use flipchart paper (also known as butcher’s paper) as the prop to direct attention.

Visual aids are any objects used in the classroom to attract students’ eyes and therefore immerse them more into a lesson. Visual aids can have both cognitive benefits (see: cognitive tools) and engagement benefits.

• Engagement: students are more likely to pay attention if they have something to look at.
• Cognition: some students may benefit from visualizing a concept to help them order ideas in their minds.
• Visual learning : some learners prefer learning visually than aurally (see: learning styles).
• A visual aid needs an educational purpose. Consider why you are using the visual aid before deciding to use it.
• Graphic Organizers
• Educational toys (see: Manipulatives)

Allowing students to sit where they choose, rather than having assigned seating, has had a resurgence in popularity in the past decade. A flexible seating classroom often has a range of differently organized workstations, allowing students to select a spot to sit that’s most comfortable for them and which best suits the style of learning that will be occuring in that lesson.

• Can reduce sedentary periods of time by allowing students to move around more during a lesson.
• Enables students to sit at a table that best suits their learning (computer table, group table, individual table, on a bean bag, etc.)
• There is often not enough space at workstations, meaning students end up not actually sitting where they choose.
• Often students like to have a spot they can call their own. It helps give students a sense of place and belonging.
• This approach is very common in the Agile Learning Spaces and Flexible Classrooms movement.

See my full post on the Common Classroom Seating Arrangements .

36. Formative Assessment (a.k.a Assessment for Learning)

Formative assessment involves assessing students’ learning throughout the learning process, not just at the end. Formative assessments can take place at one point in a unit of work or regularly throughout a lesson.

• Allows teachers to adjust their teaching if students are not quite up to where you expected, or if they are exceeding your expectations.
• Students get feedback on their progress before the summative assessment, allowing them to adjust.
• Gives the teacher a better understanding of their students. If a student fails a summative assessment but the teacher knows the student could do the task at the formative stage, more investigation can take place to see why there is a discrepancy.
• Can be time consuming to constantly assess students’ abilities.
• Formative assessments often lack the authority of summative assessment pieces.
• Formative assessments can be simple stops to get feedback and ongoing questioning of students.
• They can also take the form of pop quizzes or student-teacher conferences.

37. Summative Assessment

Summative assessments take place at the end of a unit of work and are often the formal final / overall grading of a student’s knowledge.

• Summative assessments are necessary for providing a final grade for a student and are often required by school boards.
• Summative assessments give students something to strive toward which may keep them motivated and encourage them to study.
• They are seen as too high-stakes and can cause stress for students.
• If a student does poorly, the assessment is right at the end, so the teacher and student often don’t have any more time address the problems and help progress the student’s learning.
• Standardized tests.
• Assessments for student portfolios.
• End-of-year exams.
• Entry exams.

38. Gamification

Gamification involves implementing elements of gameplay in your lessons. This can be as simple as creating a competition out of a mathematics quiz.

Recently, computer software such as excel and programming languages have been used in the classroom as elements of ‘digital’ gamification.

Don’t confuse gamification with game-based learning, which is discussed next.

• Gamification can make boring lessons fun , thereby increasing the engagement and motivation of students.
• Teachers must not lose focus on the learning outcomes that must be met. ‘Fun’ is not the goal, it is the means for achieving the goal, which is always learning .
• Get your students into two groups and have them compete in a trivia contest based on your lesson content.
• Give students table groups and reward tables with points depending oh how well they do.

See my full article on the pros and cons of digital play.

39. Game-Based Learning

Not to be confused with gamification, game-based learning involves the use of actual games (board games, computer games, sports games, etc.) into a lesson.

While gamification involves using elements of gameplay into lessons (points, competitions), game-based learning involves using actual games in a lesson.

• Students often love video games at home, so they get excited that they can play them in school as well.
• Games can also support cognition by prompting students to complete and practice tasks to win games. See also: cognitive tools.
• Parents may feel playing games in the classroom is not acceptable. Make sure parents know your reasoning behind using games.
• Ensure the focus remains on the learning outcomes, not just on ‘having fun’.
• Minecraft is a very popular computer game that is used in classrooms.
• Sim City is a popular game for city design courses.
• Use card games to teach counting. I teach ESL students counting using the game UNO.

See my full article on game-based learning as well as my explanations about how to use minecraft and sandbox games in the classroom .

40. Coaching

A coach does not stand in front of players and simply tell them what the ‘facts’ are. A coach stands behind a player. He watches the player and gives feedback on their performance. His job is to encourage, suggest adjustments and be the support network for the player.

Coaching is one of the great metaphors for teaching . A teacher who uses coaching as a strategy tried to emulate the role of the coach: observing and offering support and suggestions for adjustments.

• Student-centered : the student is the focus and the teacher is the supporter.
• Personalized: each student will get unique feedback based on their performance.
• Sometimes the teacher needs to introduce new ideas, meaning coaching may not be as useful as another approach such as modeling or direct instruction.

Sociocultural Theory: In sociocultural theory, teachers tend to encourage active learning and provide social support.

41. Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry-based learning involves the teacher presenting a problem for the students to solve by making their own inquiries. It is similar to discovery learning, but is different in that inquiry based learning generally involves the teacher setting out a puzzling problem to solve at the start of the lesson.

• Students ‘find’ the answers rather than being given them by teachers.
• Answers emerge out of exploration, problem solving and discovery, meaning students learn why something is true, not simply what is true.
• Significant support is required to help guide students through their inquiry. Students need to be taught how to inquire and given the right inquiry tools (such as books, appropriate websites, etc.)

Constructivism: Students learn through constructing ideas in their heads rather than being told the facts.

42. Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching involves having students facilitate their own small group lessons. It is usually used in reading lessons.

The teacher first models how to guide group discussions before sending students off to facilitate their own lesson. In groups of four, students usually take the roles of: questioner, clarifier, summarizer and predictor. Students read stimulus materials then self-facilitate a group discussion about the text.

• Students learn self-regulation learning skills which are essential for later in their lives.
• When students are trained up, the classes work very effectively and the teacher can fade into the background.
• Students learn group work, communication and negotiation skills. They also learn how to speak up in a group.
• Students learn to be mature even when the teacher isn’t looking. By taking on responsibility as ‘teachers’, students should rise to the challenge.
• Requires a lot of pre-teaching so students have the required skills for these sorts of lessons to work.

Sociocultural theory: working in groups, communicating and sharing ideas help stimulate thinking and encourages students to challenge their own ideas in order to improve them.

Example (Modelled off the I Do, We Do, You Do approach)

• The teacher should model the four roles required in front of the whole class, with several volunteers to act as the demonstration group.
• The teacher assigns groups and the four group roles: questioner, clarifier, summarizer and predictor.
• When students do the activity in small groups for the first time, explicitly walk the students through the steps. Use a bell or similar audible cue to cycle students through the group work steps.
• Allow the students to work in independent groups – walk around and help groups who are struggling.

43. Blended Learning

Blended learning involves a mix of online instruction and face-to-face learning. This strategy can be employed by giving students part of their instruction as homework online and part of it in class. It differs from flipped learning because a flipped classroom involves at-home instruction and in-class practice. Blended learning can have both practice and instruction occuring at home and/or in class

• Gives the teacher flexibility to teach partially during homework time and partially in class.
• Students need access to technology at home unless the at-home parts are only reading and printouts.
• Usually only suitable for university students who are short on time. Blended learning allows them to do some of the learning in their own time.
• Used regularly for distance learning students and rural and remote students.
• Used regularly at university level.
• If using this method, I recommend taking a look at the flipped learning model for some ideas of how to split your distance and in-class segments efficiently.

See my List of 10 Pros and Cons of teaching Online .

44. Growth Mindsets

A growth mindset focuses on teaching students that they have the power to improve and succeed if they put their effort into it. The opposite would be students refusing to try because they don’t think they have the power in their own hands to succeed.

Teaching growth mindsets is all about modelling positive behaviors. Include growth mindset in your lesson plans by finding points in the lesson to discuss specific strategies to move toward success, strategies for studying, and positive thinking.

• Focuses on helping students see that they have ‘ agency ’ (in other words, they are capable of improving their lives)
• Motivates students to improve their own lives
• Many students have many barriers to success. If you ignore those barriers and simply say ‘you can work harder’, this will make students feel disempowered. Teachers need to show students the pathways to success.
• Ensure the content is actually achievable for your students.
• Break down tasks into manageable chunks so that students know the steps toward success. Then, use encouragement to motivate students to put in their effort.
• Celebrate success to show students that they are competent and capable.

45. Culturally Responsive Teaching

Culturally responsive teaching is an instructional strategy that involves ensuring students’ cultures are integrated into lessons. This includes celebrating students’ cultural backgrounds when relevant and using learning styles that are dominant within your students’ cultures.

• Includes children from cultures that have been traditionally marginalized within the classroom.
• Minimizes the impact of Westernization of education.
• May make new students from cultures that are different to the majority in the class to feel a sense of inclusion and belonging in the classroom.
• Helps all students see the world from a variety of perspectives and learn to respect pluralism.
• Teachers need to be sensitive to cultures different to their own.
• Teachers should consult parents and community members about best strategies for the cultural needs of the students in the class.

Sociocultural theory: sociocultural theory believes

• Have role models from minority backgrounds come into the classroom to share their backgrounds.
• Consult with parents about ideal teaching methods within their culture.
• Avoid nonverbal gestures that have different meanings in different cultures.
• Another example: eye contact is considered respectful in Western cultures but acts of defiance in Indigenous Austealian culture.

46. Teaching to Mastery

Mastery learning and teaching is a strategy for ensuring all students meet a certain standard of understanding or ability before moving on.

Teachers set a benchmark of knowledge 9r ability for students to meet. Then, all assessment in this method is formative, where students are given feedback and as much time as possible to improve before progressing.

• Students are not left behind and gaps in their knowledge are not overlooked.
• Students may feel less stressed or rushed with this approach.
• There is no talk of inability or failure in this method as teachers and students keep working away at the task until success is achieved.
• There is not enough time in traditional school systems for this approach.
• The difference in abilities between students means some students will get a long way ahead while others remain a long way behind.

Humanism: there are elements of unconditional positive regard in this approach (see Carl Rogers).

• An example.may be that all students must get 80% on a test to progress to the next unit of work.
• This approach is common for getting a “handwriting license” in primary / elementary school.

47. Stimulus Materials and Props

Stimulus materials are tools that a teacher provides during lessons to spur students into engaging with the lesson or thinking more deeply about the content provided. They include videos, educational toys (manipulatives), worksheets, visual prompts, objects from outside the classroom, and so on.

Without stimulus materials, the classroom feels empty and detached from real life. Bring stimulus materials into the classroom to help students make stronger connections to things going on outside.

• Provides something for students to focus on which can focus students’ minds.
• Helps students to learn actively if they have the opportunity to touch and manipulate the props.
• Can inspire and draw-in students at the start of the lesson.
• Stimulus materials can be very expensive.
• Students can get distracted playing with the materials rather than listening to their peers or the teacher.
• Students need to learn to share materials.

Constructivism: constructivists encourage the use of props so that students can ‘learn by doing’ and be ‘hands on’ in their learning.

• Place several props into a bag. Have the students put their hands in the bag and see whether they can guess what the props are.
• Place an unusual prop related to your lesson in the middle of the classroom. Get the students to guess what it is before beginning the lesson.

48. Service Learning

Service learning involves having students meet learning outcomes while contributing to and ‘giving back to’ their community. This often involves volunteer work, internships and placements within the community where assistance is needed.

• Students can increase their sense of belonging within the community.
• Connections between learning and life are made explicit in this sort of learning.
• Learning moves from the theoretical to the practical.
• Students can come to see how they are connected to a wider ecosystem, and that they have an important part to play in serving that ecosystem for the good of all.
• It can be hard to place all your students in a service learning placement if there are many students to allocate.
• It may be impractical given safety and security requirements.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory: EST highlights that people are situated within community from whom they get their values and beliefs. By being more connected to the community, students learn who they are and how they’re connected to a society and culture that surrounds them.

• Prepare your students in the classroom. Consider having organizers or community members come into the classroom to tell the students what to expect.
• Have students write preparatory notes about what the intend to learn, who they intend to speak to, and what their day-by-day goals will be whilst doing the service learning.
• Have students complete their service learning / voluntary work in groups or individually.
• Meet with the students intermittently during the service learning and have student-teacher conferences on how it is progressing. Intervene where needed.
• Have students come together at the end of the project to reflect on what was learnt and how their understanding of their place in the community has evolved. Discuss possible future involvement and engagement in the community to emphasize that community involvement is an ongoing project.

49. Situated Learning

Invented by Lave and Wegner, situated learning involves learning by being embedded within a professional environment and slowly picking up the ways of doing and speaking within that context.

It has similarities to other instructional strategies outlined in this article such as service learning and cognitive apprenticeships. However, its defining feature is the slow absorption of knowledge through prolonged exposure to an authentic professional setting.

• Students learn the most important practical information required for a job.
• Students learn the ways of speaking and behaving that are required within a professional situation.
• Not practical as a teaching strategy in classrooms. It works best as an apprenticeship model for new graduates from university.

Sociocultural theory: the situated learning approach emphasizes the importance of learning from ‘more knowledgeable others’.

50. Sixty-Second Strategy

The sixty second strategy involves having students review one another’s work in three steps which take 60 seconds each. The steps are: respond, reflect and review. This usually takes place after a student presentation where the students give a cumulative 3 minutes of feedback and reflection on the presentation.

The goal is not just to give feedback to the presenter, but for the listeners to also think about how they would have done the presentation and what their own thoughts on the topic are.

• Students learn how to give feedback to others in positive and constructive ways.
• It is a great way for students to actively engage with other students’ presentations.
• Students need to know how to be positive in feedback and not be hurtful.
• Have the student who is presenting their work give their presentation.
• The students who watched the presentation have 60 seconds to write their thoughts on the topic that was presented.
• Next, the students have 60 seconds to write down feedback on the presenter’s work.
• Then the students have 60 seconds to provide positive affirmation and praise.
• At the end, have the students share their feedback with the presenter in small groups so that the environment is not so intimidating for the presenter.

51. Thumbs Down, Thumbs Up

Thumbs down, thumbs up is a simple strategy for getting immediate feedback from students. During a lesson, pause after each step to get instant thumbs down, thumbs up feedback on whether students understand the previous step.

If there are thumbs down, the teacher should ask those students if they have direct questions or whether they might want that section to be covered again in different language or more slowly.

• Enables the teacher to gauge students’ reactions in real time.
• Gives the students an opportunity to give the teacher feedback immediately so that they don’t fall behind or become frustrated.
• If the majority of students give thumbs up but only one or two give thumbs down, this is not endorsement to move on. Rather, the teacher should make sure no students fall behind.

52. Summarizing and Paraphrasing

For this teaching strategy, either the teacher or student summarizes something someone previously said in their own words in order to ensure they understanding each other without any misconceptions.

• In having a student repeat the teacher’s statement in their own words, the teacher can see whether students actually understand something.
• In repeating a student’s statement in different language, the teacher can see whether they truly understand what the student means.
• The biggest risk here is in the teacher ‘putting words in the student’s mouth’. This may give the student a free pass.
• The teacher explains a concept, then asks the student to repeat it without using the same words. A pause of a few minutes between the teacher’s explanation and the student’s response can be helpful in preventing the student from directly copying the teacher’s language. As time passes, the meaning should stay but the exact words should be forgotten.
• Alternatively, the student makes a statement, and the teacher translates it in their own words and finishes with “Is that what you meant?”

53. Demonstration

Demonstration involves showing the students a practical example of something that is being learned in class.

The difference between demonstration and modeling is that a demonstration usually:

• does not involve explicit explanation of all the steps, and
• is usually not followed by students having a go themselves.

Demonstration (rather than modelling) may be necessary when the concept being demonstrated is dangerous or requires expertise.

• Having something complex or theoretical demonstrated can be exciting to link theory to practice.
• Demonstrations may require expensive field trips or inviting experts and expert equipment into the classroom.
• A demonstration could be as complex as going to watch a space rocket launch or as simple as a ranger demonstrating how to use bear spray.

54. Role Modelling

Role modelling involves demonstrating the requisite behaviors or ideal way of acting within a learning environment. Role modelling has the intention of positively influencing students into copying the teacher’s positive learning behaviors.

• Students are socialized into behaving and learning in socially appropriate ways.
• A teacher who sets personal high expectations for their own learning will have those high expectations flow on toward the students.
• A teacher needs to be aware that all of their behaviors rub off on students. This means they need to ‘put on their happy face’ despite what’s going on in their private lives.

Bandura (Social learning theory): Albert Bandura believed that observation was important in influencing how people will behave and learn. See his famous Bobo doll experiment where children were more aggressive toward a doll when they observed an adult being aggressive toward it.

• Male teachers may role model positive masculinity, such as politeness and respect to all people regardless of gender.
• A teacher can be a role model my demonstrating engagement and volunteering within the community, insisting on respectfully welcoming guests when they enter the classroom, or having high regard and respect for reading, learning, and apologizing.

55. Predicting

Predicting involves asking students to make predictions or ‘guestimates’ before a study is undertaken. The teacher may make a prediction for the students to respond to, or ask students to make predictions themselves.

• It stimulates students to think about the logical flow-on effects of the things they are learning about (such as in science: gravity, momentum, etc.)
• Students are asked to think forward rather than simply react in the learning environment.
• At the start of a lesson (before introducing too much information), ask students what they think will happen during the lesson.
• Show the students a diagram or comic strip demonstrating sequence of events with the last few events missing. Have students fill-in the gaps.

56. Intentional Mistakes

The teacher inserts intentional mistakes into their teaching materials (such as misspellings in their presentations) or their speech in order to:

• Check students’ depth of knowledge,
• Make memorable teaching moments, or
• Keep students critically engaged.
• It keeps students on their toes throughout the lesson, particularly during the boring parts.
• It can make learning into a game if you let the students know to look out for the mistakes in advance. You could also offer a reward for the person who identifies the mistake.
• It can lead to critical discussion about common mistakes that students make in a topic.
• You may risk having students believe you had made the mistakes intentionally.
• Students may believe the mistakes are truths and end up believing things that are untrue.
• Create intentional spelling errors in your worksheets and powerpoint presentations.
• Mispronounce a word and see if students realize.
• Flip two words in a sentence and see if anyone realizes.

57. Reflection-in-Practice / Immediate Feedback

Immediate feedback is any feedback that takes place during a lesson rather than after a lesson or exam has been completed.

There are two primary types of immediate feedback: feedback from students to teachers, and feedback from teachers to students.

The feedback’s purpose should be to make impromptu changes during the lesson before it is too late.

• Teachers can adjust their teaching methods in the moment to ensure the lesson is a success.
• Students can adjust the ways they are going about completing a task to ensure it is successful.
• In large groups, one-to-one feedback can be difficult.
• Teachers need to be able to think on their feet to make immediate adjustments.

David Schon’s ‘Reflection in Practice’: According to Schon, successful practitioners reflect in practice rather than just on practice. Reflection in practice requires practitioners to reflect on what they’re doing while they’re doing it.

• Asking for a thumbs up / thumbs down from students to see if they understand something.
• Looking over the shoulder at children’s work to see how they’re coming to their conclusions.
• Accepting ‘hands up’ questions at any point during an explanation or lecture.

58. Whole Group Class Discussion (a.k.a Circle Time)

A whole group class discussion gets all students in the class talking to one another in one group. When I use this strategy, I try to get students sitting in a conversation circle. The benefits of students sitting in a circle include:

• There is a neutral power structure with no one at the head of the discussion.
• All students can see one another.
• Whole class discussions encourage all students to develop the confidence to share their own views publicly.
• If the whole class gets into it, there can be a lot of great back-and-forth.
• Often, the loudest and most confident students dominate the discussion.
• Some students are too shy to speak up.
• It is easy to embarrass a student, so be careful to be sensitive.
• Use a speaking stick so only one person speaks at a time. The only person who can speak is the person with the speaking stick.
• Use discussion circles so that all students can see each other when talking.
• If conversation is slow to start, consider asking individual students direct questions.
• Use open-ended questioning to force students to answer in full sentences.

59. Concentric Circles

Concentric circles is a method that builds on the whole group circle time discussion. Students sit in two concentric circles with the inner circle facing the outer circle. The students in the inner circle should be paired one-to-one with a student in the outer circle (like speed dating).

The teacher poses a question and the pairs are given 60 seconds to discuss the problem. Then, the students from the inner circle rotate one person to the right so they are facing a new partner for the next question.

• Disagreements about pairing and students working with their friends are resolved because each student gets a turn working with another student.
• Students get to learn and communicate with other students they don’t usually spend time with.
• Discussion can help students see perspectives that they did not come up with on their own.
• There needs to be an even number of students in the class so each student has a partner to work with.

Sociocultural theory: students learn by interacting with others to help them test, challenge and extend their own ideas.

60. Hot Seat

One student takes the role of a character from a book, history, etc. They dit in front of the class and get interviewed by their classmates. The student must stay in character and answer the questions from the perspective of that character.

• Students explore topics from perspectives other than their own, helping them to develop lateral thinking skills .
• Students need time to research their character and brainstorm their character’s perspectives on various topics before being put in the hot seat.
• Shy students or students who are not confident with the material may be intimidated by this instructional strategy.
• This strategy can be linked up with strategies like De Bono’s thinking hats where students would answer questions from a particular perspective.

61. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are visual aids in the classroom designed to help students visualize and conceptualize ideas and their relationships with other ideas. Examples of graphic organizers include flowcharts, mind maps and venn diagrams. Use them to help students think more deeply about topics.

• Very useful for students who are visual learners.
• Provides a framework for deeper and critical thinking.
• Provides structure to help students who are unsure of how to proceed with critical thinking.
• Don’t stick to just one framework as the frameworks narrow the scope of thinking in exchange for depth. Mix up your graphic organizers.

Cognitive Constructivism: cognitive constructivists such as David Jonassen believe graphic organizers help students to share their cognitive load with the organizer, helping them to organize and sort ideas in their heads more effective.y

• Flow charts
• Venn diagrams
• Concept maps
• Network or family tree
• Spider diagram
• Compare-contrast matrix
• Series of events chain
• Character charts

62. Think Pair Share

This is one of the simplest, most frequently used, but also most effective classroom teaching strategies. Students think about a topic on their own. Then, they pair up with a partner and discuss, compare and contrast their thoughts together. Thirdly, the pair share what they discussed with the whole class.

• Moves students from individual thinking to social thinking in a clear process.
• Helps students to vocalize their own thoughts in small and large groups.
• Helps students to see other people’s perspectives by encouraging communication, compare and contrast.
• Students need the confidence to speak up in front of the whole class. I have found some students like to have the comfort of flip chart (butcher’s) paper as a prop when presenting their discussions to the class.

Sociocultural theory: learning through conversation allows students to see diverse perspectives and therefore improve on their own perspectives.

• Step 1: Think. Students are given 2 minutes to think about the topic on their own and take 5 bullet points on their own.
• Step 2: Pair. Students get together in pairs (or groups of 3 if appropriate) to compare and contrast their own ideas. Students discuss the ideas and come up with a collective group of ideas.
• Step 3: Share. Each group shares their own thoughts with the whole class. As each group presents, other classmates can challenge ideas or take additional notes to add to their own group’s thoughts.

63. Group Roles

Assigning group roles for students who are doing small group work is another simple instructional strategy to try. There are many group role types to be found online. I tend to use the roles of: timekeeper, moderator, notekeeper, and collector. All students should be equal discussion contributors, and this is managed by the moderator.

• Helps to structure the activity, give students certainty in what they are doing, and reduce the uncertainty from group work.
• Encourages communication to get students hearing other students’ ideas and perspectives
• Students must be explicitly taught the group roles and need time to practice them.

Sociocultural Theory: By communicating with peers, students widen their perspectives and (with more knowledgeable peers) have their knowledge scaffolded.

• Ensure you model the group roles before beginning the activity. Consider using a fishbowl method by having a sample group sit in the middle of a circle modeling the roles to the rest of the class.
• For the class’s first attempt at group roles, structure it very clearly by getting the students to follow a clear step-by-step guide. Slowly release responsibility to students when they are ready.

64. Barometer

The barometer method gets a measure of students’ opinions by asking them to stand on a line from 0 to 10 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = unsure or conflicted, 10= strongly agree).

• Students tend to find this a non-intimidating way of sharing their opinions.
• Can be a good way of getting students talking. Once they stand on the line, you can ask them to explain why they stood where they did.
• It may be beneficial to prevent students from taking a neutral “I don’t know” stance without sufficient defence of this position.

Critical theory : The barometer could be paired with critical theory if students critique assumptions in society with a focus on the perspectives of marginalized groups.

• Introduce a complex or controversial issue through a book, video or class discussion.
• Ask students to stand on an imaginary line from 0 to 10 representing their opinion.
• Place students into three groups based on their position in the line: agree, unsure and disagree. Have the three groups present their 5 best arguments to the class.

65. Cognitive Tools

Cognitive tools are educational technologies designed to promote thinking beyond what a student can do without the technology. This might include using wearable technologies to help students map out their own movements to then test their knowledge of geography, use of excel sheets to create financial estimations, etc.

• Educational technologies can help us do things we couldn’t do without them.
• Can engage students who love computers and technology in learning tasks.
• Teachers must ensure technology use is focused on helping students learn more or at a higher level of critical thinking than if they didn’t have technology.

Cognitive Constructivism: this approach, invented by david Jonassen, emphasizes that computer technologies should be used to extend and promote higher-order cognition.

See my full article: Examples of Congitive Tools in Education .

66. Anticipation / Guestimation

Anticipation and guestimation is an instructional strategy designed to get students thinking about the consequences or flow-on effects of actions. Teachers ask students to make predictions based on limited knowledge about a topic

• Students often have to use mathematics and logical reasoning to succeed in this task.
• Students are required to be resourceful and seek clues that will show them the possible consequences of action.
• It is important to strike a balance between giving enough information to make informed guesses and not too much information that the students can deduce the full answer.

67. Silent Conversation

A silent conversation is a way of getting students to communicate without having them speak up in front of the class. Students write their responses to a prompt on sheets of paper but cannot speak while doing so. They should then also write responses to one another’s points so that they are ‘conversing’ through writing.

• Students who are shy to speak up my be more willing to participate, especially if their written response can stay anonymous.
• It can often be easier to respond in writing than speaking because students have time to reflect and think about the wording of their response before writing it.
• Only one student at a time can write their response. Consider what other students will be doing during this time.
• Students must be competent writers.

Sociocultural theory: we learn and extend our knowledge through social interaction. By seeing others’ points, we can improve or amend our own.

• One way to do this is to have a flip chart paper sheet (butcher’s paper) on a wall with a discussion prompt written above. Have students walk up to the paper intermittently thought a lesson to write responses to the prompt. After the first few students write their responses, the rest of the students must respond not to the prompt but to the answers written by previous students – how can they add to or challenge what someone else has already said?
• The second common way of having a silent conversation is to pass a piece of paper around the class and have students write their responses to conversation chains on the piece of paper.

68. Devil’s Advocate

A devil’s advocate is someone who argues for an opposing point of view in order to stir up an argument and poke holes in other points of view. The devil’s advocate does not necessarily need to believe the points they are arguing. Either the teacher or students can be the devil’s advocate I’m this teaching strategy.

• Encourages students to see their own blind spots or misunderstandings.
• Helps students to see a diversity of points of view.
• Improves students’ debating skills.
• Students and parents may interpret you devil’s advocate position as an attempt to teach unsavory views in the classroom.

Critical theory: A devil’s advocate can help students with skills desirable within critical theory, like seeing views of people who are not commonly heard in society and the capacity to critique dominant narratives in society.

• The teacher can note in their lesson plan moments when they believe there are opportunities to play devil’s advocate role promote debate.
• The teacher can give students debating points where one person acts as devil’s advocate and another as the person defending the dominant perspective.

69. Strategic Pauses

Strategic pauses are one of the most important tools in a teacher’s toolbox of teaching strategies. A strategic pause is a gap between statements to let a point sink in or linger, or to give students a moment to think about an answer before the teacher moves on.

•  An excellent classroom management strategy
• Encourages students to think and not rely on teacher prompting
• Emphasizes important points
•  Can leave students confused
• Requires follow-up and knowledge testing

Cognitive load theory: Too much information at one time can cause a student to lose track. Time is required for the mind to interpret, sort, stack, save and withdraw information in their mind (‘create cognitive schemata’).

• Pause after a question for 10 seconds before discussing the answer.
• If the class has started getting unsettled, often a pause in the teacher’s speaking is enough to settle them again and remind them to re-engage with the learning materials.
• Slow speech with sufficient pauses between ‘chunks’ of information (seeL ‘chunking’ strategy) can help students arrange information in their minds appropriately.

70. Chunking

Chunking involves presenting information in manageable ‘chunks’ to allow students to sufficiently process information before moving on to the next section of a lesson or task.

Teachers should present only a manageable amount of information to students before giving them a chance to consolidate the information and practice their new knowledge.

Without giving sufficient time to consolidate information before giving new information to a student, the student will struggle to keep up with the information and old information may fall away before it is secured into their memory.

• Less students will be left behind, confused and disillusioned in the classroom if they are given consolidation time.
• There is often not enough time in a crowded school curriculum to chunk information well enough.
• It is hard to tell how much is ‘too much’ information, and how long is long enough before knowledge is consolidated into memory.

Cognitive Overload Theory: If students are given too much information, their mind becomes ‘overloaded’ and they are unable to process more information. We only have a limited amount of working memory space in our minds. See: John Sweller’s cognitive overload theory .

• Only teach two or three key points per lesson.
• Provide a lot of discussion and practice time before moving on to presenting new information.
• Consistently use formative assessment and reflection in action during the lesson to see when is the ideal time to move on.

71. Snowball Discussions

Snowball discussions are another twist on the think-pair-share method. For snowball discussions, students start in pairs and share their thoughts and ideas together. Then, the pairs join up with another pair to create a group of four. These four people share thoughts together, compare notes, debate ideas, and come up with an agreed list of points on a topic.

Then, groups join up again to make groups of eight. The groups of eight compare points and perspectives, then join up to create groups of 16, etc. until it ends up being a whole class discussion.

• An effective strategy for promoting discussion between students. It can be useful for getting students to compare how different groups of students approach points from different perspectives.
• The class group needs to be large (20+) for enough rounds of this strategy to happen.

Sociocultural theory: social interaction helps students see perspectives that are not their own and challenge their own views. This helps them pick holes in their own points and improve their misconceptions.

72. Homework: Knowledge Consolidation

Yes, homework is a teaching strategy! A traditional approach to homework sees it as an opportunity for students to consolidate information that was taught in class. Studying for upcoming exams is often also an important part of homework.

Other homework strategies like flipped classroom are possible – see the flipped classroom discussion earlier in this article.

• Help students to consolidate information learned in class.
• Ensures students have an opportunity to keep information fresh in their minds and be reminded of information learned in previous months.
• Excessive homework can impede students’ rights to enjoyment, sports and extracurricular activities out of school.
• Students often do not have support at home if they get stuck.

Behaviorism: repetition over time helps memory retention.

73. Active Listening

Active listening involves using strategies to pay close attention to what someone is saying. Teachers can explicitly model active listening by giving students strategies like pointing their bodies at the speaker, keeping their eyes on the speaker, nodding when they agree, and putting hands up to ask questions or clarification.

• Active listening encourages respect in the classroom.
• It could help students to remember better because it minimizes distractions.
• Students may be more likely to contribute questions if they are paying more attention.
• Some students (such as students with autism) need stress balls, fidget toys, etc to help them concentrate.

Examples that show active listening include:

• Facing the speaker square-on
• Eye contact
• Asking questions
• Repeating, paraphrasing or summarizing the speaker’s statement.

74. Connect, Extend, Challenge

The “connect, extend, challenge” teaching strategy is a three-step strategy designed to get student thinking about how their knowledge is progressing.

In step 1, students ‘connect’ what they’re learning to their prior knowledge. In step 2, students think about how the new knowledge ‘extends’ what they already knew. In step 3, students reflect on what ‘challenges’ they still face: what is still confusing to them?

• This is a framework that gets students to explicitly think about how they are progressing in their learning.
• The clear steps give students guidelines to help them achieve success.
•  Requires prompting and scaffolding

Social Constructivism: This strategy has implicit links to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Students look at how their backgrounds impact their thinking, what level they are at, and what is still sitting in their ‘zone of proximal development’ (.e.g what they need to learn next).

• Split a piece of paper into three columns to help students in this task: one column for ‘connect’, one for ‘extend’, and one for ‘challenge’.

75. Create a Headline

While a seemingly simple activity, this instructional strategy gets students to refine the topic they’re exploring down to one simple sentence that catches the essence of the issue.

For this strategy, have students come up with a headline for the lesson as if they’re a journalist reporting on the issue at hand. Get them to think about how it can be catchy, explain the problem at hand, and provide an engaging ‘hook’ to draw readers in.

• Helps students identify the key point of a lesson, forcing them to think about what is really important in the lesson.
• Some issues are complex and refining it down to one sentence may risk simplification.

To extend this activity, have students write a journalistic piece to go under the headline.

76. Lesson Objective Transparency

Being transparent about a lesson objective is a teaching strategy designed to help students understand the purpose of the lesson. By knowing the objective from the outset, the students are less likely to get confused about the purpose and direction of their lesson.

• Students are aware of the purpose of the lesson, which may make it more relevant .
• Students can more objectively measure how successful they have been in the lesson.
• Lesson objectives are often worded for adults not children, so the wording may just confuse the students at times.
• Write your lesson objectives on the first slide of lecture slides if relevant.

77. Open-Ended Questioning

Open-ended questioning involves asking questions that require an elaboration in the response. In other words, it cannot be a question that can be answered with “yes” or “no”.

• Students are required to provide explanations and justifications for the points they make.
• Teachers get a more detailed appreciation of students’ levels of knowledge .
• Make a habit of using open ended questions when talking to students about their work.
• Write all assessment tasks with open ended questions.
• Pose open ended questions as stimulus prompts.

78. Fishbowl

The fishbowl strategy gets a small group of students to sit in a circle in the center if the classroom with the rest of the class sitting in a circle around the group.

The students in the middle of the circle complete a discussion or task as a demonstration for the students observing.

• Teachers can use advanced students in the middle of the group as a way of modeling skills or behaviors for the remainder of the class.
• More knowledgeable students can model behavior for less knowledgeable students.
• Students get a chance at performing in front of others.
• Many students will find doing a task I’m front of their peers intimidating.

Bandura’s observational learning : Bandura argues that students can learn from observing the modeling of others.

• Get older students from higher grades to sit in the middle of the fishbowl.
• Or, use the fishbowl as the “we do” step in the I do, we do, you do method.

79. Four corners

Use the four corners of the classroom as different stations for answering questions proposed by a teacher.

The stations may have answers like: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree. Another example may be periods of time for a history exam: the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. Or, the corners may have specific answers in the corners related to the questions being asked.

• This activity may be appealing for kinesthetic learners who want to move about to stay engaged.
• Provides a visual comparison between different views of students in the class.
• When students head to the corners, the teacher needs to ask students to explain their decisions to ensure depth is achieved in the lesson.

Multiple Intelligences: The lesson can help students who are kinesthetic learners.

80. Give One, Get One

This strategy involves getting students to trade ideas with one another.

Students write down their answer or thoughts to a TEACHER’S question. Then, they pair up. The students give their answer to their partner and take their partner’s answer. They discuss the differences between and merits of each answer.

Students then split up and find a new partner to repeat the activity.

• Writing down an answer ensures all students participate and that all students provide an explicit response.
• Seeing other people’s answers helps students get a broader perspective on a topic.
• Pre-plan for what to do when you don’t have an even number of students in the class.

Sociocultural theory: students learn from their peers through discussion. Discussion can help broaden horizons and allows students to see multiple perspectives on an issue.

• Present a discussion topic or question to the class.
• Have each student write down 3 points on a piece of paper to answer the question.
• Pair students up to discuss their answers. Get them to consider similarities and differences as well as pros and cons of each answer.
• Have students break apart and trade answers in another pair.

81. Brainstorming

Brainstorming involves asking students to come up with their initial thoughts on an issue. The thoughts do not have to be refined or correct. Instead, the students should use the brainstorming time to get their mind flowing and discussion started. Usually, this activity takes place using flip chart / butcher’s paper.

• A good way to start discussion among students, especially if they don’t know each other well or are shy.
• The students may need to assign some roles to group members. Consider rotating the role of ‘writer’ between students (usually one person writes an idea for the whole group on the brainstorming paper).
• A good way of doing this activity is to place students in small groups and provide them a large sheet of paper to write down all their initial thoughts.
• Students can then report all their thoughts back to the class.

82. Expert Jigsaw

The expert jigsaw method teaching method involves having students split into groups of ‘experts’ and then ‘topics’.

First, each ‘expert’ group focuses on a sub-area of a topic to develop their ‘expertise’ as a group.

Once the initial group work discussion has concluded, the ‘expert groups’ split.

The teacher then forms new ‘topic groups’ with one student from each of the original expert groups in the new groups.

The idea is that each group in the second part of the lesson will have an ‘expert’ on a particular area of a topic. Every expert will be able to contribute their perspective to the group

For example, if the topic is dinosaurs, the initial ‘expert groups’ may get together to discuss separate issues: Group 1 will discuss extinction, Group 2 will discuss bones, Group 3 will discuss diets, and Group 4 will discuss geographical locations.

When the ‘topic groups’ converge, they should contain one expert on extinction, one expert on bones, one expert on diets and one expert on geographical locations. The topic group will therefore have a broad range of expert knowledge to discuss and share.

• Gives each student a sense that they have something meaningful to contribute because they will be an expert on something when converging in the ‘topic’ groups.
• Encourages collaboration and positive interdependence in group work.
• Requires forethought and organization by the teacher.

Social Constructivism: social interaction helps students construct ideas in their minds. Each student gets to hear the expert perspective of another student who is a ‘more knowledgeable other’, while also acting as the more knowledgeable other when it is their turn to share their expertise.

83. KWL Charts

A KWL chart is a type of graphic organizer that can be used throughout the course of a lesson to help students keep track of their learning.

The chart can be on a simple piece of paper split into three columns: (K) What I already know; (W) What I want to know in this lesson; (K) What I learned.

At the start of the lesson the students can fill out the first two columns. The first column will help the teacher assess prior knowledge. The second column will help the teacher and students guide the lesson by outlining what they want out of it.

At the end of the lesson, the third column can be filled-in: (L) What I learned in the lesson. This helps students reflect on the lesson to show them that they did actually learn something!

• Students can keep track of their own learning.
• There is physical evidence of what was learned that teachers can use in students’ final report card comments and teaching portfolios.
• It is a good structured tool to help guide a lesson.
• It would be good if there was a fourth column for ‘what I still want to know’ so student can leave the lesson with more questions that can be addressed in future classes.
• Students sometimes place topics in the (W) What I want to know column that are relevant but not covered in a pre-made lesson plan. This can require the student to get a bit creative in re-arranging their lesson on the fly.

84. SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is a teaching tool used to help students identify their own Strengths , Weaknesses , Opportunities , and Threats .

It is often used at the beginning of a term or unit of work to help students self-identify how best to proceed in their studies.

A SWOT analysis starts with a piece of paper split into four quadrants. The top-left has ‘Strengths’, top-right has ‘Weaknesses’, bottom-left has ‘Opportunities’ and the bottom-right has ‘Threats’.

There are plenty of templates online you could download also.

Students then fill out the SWOT sheet, identifying their strengths and weaknesses (e.g. ‘I am organized’ or ‘I am time poor’) and opportunities and threats (e.g. ‘I have the opportunity to work with my peers to improve’ or ‘I have an upcoming swim meet that will take up more of my time’).

• Students are taught to self-assess and plan ahead to avoid upcoming challenges in their lives.
• Students can balance affirming statements about their own skills with honest recognition of their weaknesses.
• I often find students use generic phrases copied from their neighbors. It’s a good idea to insist on depth of engagement and thinking when doing this strategy .

85. Read Aloud

Read aloud is a strategy that involves the teacher reading a text out loud to students. The strategy relies on the teacher using strategic pauses, pitch and tone changes, pace and volume changes, and questioning and comments. These reading aloud strategies help students to become more engaged in a lesson and get more out of the reading experience.

• Can be more engaging than getting students to read to themselves.
• By using strategic pauses and asking questions of students, the text can both be read and analyzed at the same time. This may improve comprehension.
• I’ve found many pre-service teachers get nervous doing this task. Remember that people of all ages love being read to.

86. SIT: Surprising, Interesting, Troubling

A SIT analysis asks students to list aspects of a lesson that were surprising, interesting and troubling. It is useful following the viewing of a short film or reading a book about a topic that seems bizarre or a fact that is counterintuitive.

Like a KWL chart, you could do this task by splitting paper into three columns: one for ‘surprising’, one for ‘interesting’ and one for ‘troubling’.

• Gets students to take a critical stance and make judgements (particularly for ‘troubling’)
• Is a good way to take stock of students’ interests in order to create follow-up lessons based on topics the students have already demonstrated concern for.
• The ‘troubling’ part is often hard for students to complete – consider explicitly modeling a sample response before asking students to complete it alone.

Critical theory: students can use a SIT analysis to critique the justice or inequality issues presented in a text.

87. Higher Order Thinking

When writing a lesson plan, it’s often a very good idea to note any time you’re encouraging higher order thinking – especially if there’s a column in your lesson plan for ‘teaching strategies’. This help people reading the lesson plan to see that you’ve been intentional about promoting higher order thinking.

Following Bloom’s taxonomy, higher order thinking usually includes tasks that involve verbs like : Judge, Appraise, Evaluate, Compare, Criticize, Assess, Estimate, Deduce, Hypothesize and Generalize.

• Helps a teacher to be more explicit in their language and to ensure a lesson is challenging for students.
• Ensures students are practicing their critical thinking skills rather than just repeating a teacher’s ‘facts’.
• For higher order thinking tasks, it’s important that you don’t give students the answers. Instead, give them hints, pointers and resources that will help them to come up with the answers on their own.

Constructivism: Bloom was a constructivist who believed learning happens when students build knowledge in their mind rather than just copying facts from an authority figure in the classroom.

88. Debating

Getting students to debate an idea is a great way of getting them to build coherent and logical arguments in defence of a position. It requires them to gather, analyze and sort facts before they present them to an audience.

• Students learn to identify positive arguments on a topic even if they disagree with it, helping them to see things from multiple perspectives.
• Students may require resources to do background research to come up with strong points for or against a position.
• Split the class into two groups and assign each group a position for or against a statement.
• Give each group 15 minutes to come up with some arguments for their side of the argument. Each student in the group should have one argument to make for the team. The student writes their argument down on a piece of paper.
• Line the two groups of students up facing one another.
• Go down the lines getting each student to make their point for or against the position. Zig-zag from one group to the next as you go down the line
• Once the students have completed, do an anonymous poll of the class to find out which position is most convincing. For the poll, students do not have to vote for their team’s position.

89. Note Taking (Cornell Method)

Note taking involves getting students to actively listen out for key points in a speech or video and synthesize it into key points for remembering later.

A popular framework for not taking is the Cornell method. This involves splitting a page into two columns.

The column on the left is a ‘Cue’ column. In the cue column write key words, phrases or Quotes as if they were headings or headline points to remember.

The column on the right is the note taking column. This column is larger and allows space to add detail and diagrams explaining the ‘cues’ that were written on the left in more detail.

• Turns passive learning during a didactic explicit instruction lesson into a more active learning environment.
• Helps students organize and synthesize their thoughts.
• Helps with studying for exams later on.
• Teachers may talk too fast for students to take detailed notes. Remember to use strategic pauses and remind students at strategic times that they need to be taking notes.
• Feel free to download cornell method worksheets off the internet. Just look for them on your favorite search engine!

90. Lesson Recording

Recording a lesson involves using either video, audio or Screencast technology to save the lesson for revision later on.

• This method is very useful for students with learning disabilities who may require more time to process information. They can rewatch later on and make use of pause, rewind and slow functions during the revision.
• Great for when students miss a day so they can catch up.
• Whenever you work with technology, be prepared for issues to arise that may delay the lesson.
• Use Screencasts when teaching a lesson online.
• Screencasts can also save your work when writing on an Interactive Whitenoard. Revision at a later date will show the steps you took in doing the ‘working out’.

91. Word Wall

Word walls are sections on the walls of a classroom where teachers and students can record new vocabulary, quotes or key terms they encounter during a unit of work.

• Word walls can be visible evidence of progression through a unit.
• Students can refer to the word walls when trying to explain their points and ideas to the class.
• During exams, remember to cover the word walls so students can’t cheat by looking over at the answers.
• Word walls can be great props for refreshing students’ memories at the start of a lesson. Start the lesson by reviewing the vocabulary learned in the previous lesson.

92. Goal Setting

Goal setting involves explicitly instructing students on how to set short (within a lesson), medium (within a unit of work) and long term (through the year) personal targets for success.

The goals can be for a whole group or individual.

• Goal setting gives students something to strive toward.
• It is a way of gamifying education. Students can challenge themselves to reach their step by step goals.
• It helps students understand where they are headed and what the purpose of the lesson is.
• Ensure goals are achievable lo that students do not become disillusioned.
• Have students prepare their daily goals at the end of the previous day or start of the current day.
• Reflect on medium-term goals weekly.

93. Worked Examples

A worked example is a completed piece of work that students can look to as models for their own work.

A worked example could be a sample of a completed diagram our 3D model, a completed essay or anything else that is a finished product of something the students are about to attempt.

• Students feel more secure knowing what they are working toward.
• Students can get ideas from the worked sample that they can adapt for their Ken work.
• Sometimes students copy the sample too closely rather than using their own thinking. Consider using a sample that requires similar skills and processes but a different end product.
• Make sure you spend time discussing the steps it takes from going from nothing to the completed product.
• Provide students with past examples of creative writing pieces and discuss the strategies used by the authors.
• Show samples that are good and poor. Get students to discuss how the poorer samples could be improved.

94. Multiple Intelligences

Students have different learning styles (or more accurately, different learning preferences ).

One theory proposes that there are eight ‘intelligences’. A student may have one that is dominant and others that are weaker.

The eight intelligences are:

• Visual-Spatial : Prefers learning through images and visual arts. Uses diagrams to model relationships between concepts.
• Linguistic-Verbal : Prefers learning through storytelling, reading and writing.
• Interpersonal : Good at working in social situations, gets energy from social interaction, and can empathize with others easily. Enjoys group work.
• Intrapersonal : An introverted person who prefers learning alone. They do a lot of thinking and reading but mostly like to think through things in their own time (see: intrapersonal skills ).
• Logical-Mathematical : Sees patterns easily. Enjoys mathematical puzzles.
• Musical : Enjoys learning through music, songs and rhymes.
• Bodily-Kinesthetic : Learns through movement. Prefers lessons that require moving about.
• Naturalistic : Has an affinity with nature. Learns well in calm natural environments.

A teacher can integrate different activities into a lesson plan that appeal to different people’s learning preferences. In this way, they create a more inclusive classroom for multiple different types of learners.

• Inclusion: Teachers can use this theory to engage students who do not learn well in traditional lessons.
• Attempts to be student-centered and teach in ways that are appealing to students.
• In 2004, a detailed study in Scotland found no evidence or scientific toxic basis for the theory that different people have learning styles. Furthermore, it argued that the 8 styles in the multiple intelligences model were a arbitrarily contrived. Thus, learning styles may simply be learning preferences.
• It is unclear whether a teacher should create lessons catered to a student’s learning preference or help students strengthen their skills in areas students identify as their weaknesses.
• If students are not given a chance to practice all “styles” (not just their preferences) they may miss important skills, such as mathematical skills or literacy skills.

Howard Gardner: The theory of multiple intelligences was invented by Howard Gardner in the United States.

95. Non-Interventionism

Non-interventionism involves a teacher taking the role of ‘unobtrusive observer’ while students learn. The students are left to come to their own conclusions, face up to their own challenges, and ‘struggle’ through the lesson.

The teacher’s intervention may come through changing what they plan for the next lesson based on what they see, or lightly intervening after the students have struggled for some time.

Other reasons for intervention may be for safety or fairness reasons.

• Struggling to find an answer is Important for learning. Students can make mistakes and learn why the mistakes are wrong instead of just being told what us correct.
• Without a teacher imposing their views, students can come up with creative and thoughtful solutions to problems that the teacher dis not foresee.
• Students develop independent minds.
• Many parents and mentors watching your lesson may come away with a sense that you were lazy or did not do enough to help the students. This approach needs to be clearly explained and justified in lesson plans (I’d recommend referring to Montessori in your justification) and situations when you would go from observer to intervener should be spelled out in advance.
• If students are struggling too much, learning may not occur – there is a limit to this approach!

Montessori Classrooms: The role of the teacher as “unobtrusive observer” was pioneered by Maria Montessori.

Montessori argued that children learn best when placed in resource rich environments and left to explore. Our interventions may impede creativity, self-belief, autonomy and self-discovery.

96. Constructive Alignment

Constructive alignment involves explicitly linking the lesson assessment tasks to the compulsory learning outcomes in the curriculum.

This is an impressive thing to see in a lesson plan.

Use language (including verbs and nouns) from the learning outcome in the assessment task. Furthermore, make sure to provide a criteria for what constitutes pass or fail.

• Teachers can easily justify their lesson choices to their boss or assessor.
• The assessment tasks are always relevant and focused.
• Students can see the relevance of the assessment task to their learning goals.
• If the language of the curriculum objectives are complex or obtuse, it may just confuse students to use that language in their assessment task.

Biggs: Constructive alignment was invented by John Biggs who designed this method to ensure all lessons are relevant and move students a step closer to completing all learning outcomes.

97. Zone of Proximal Development

The ‘ zone of proximal development ‘ is a phrase used to explain the ideal difficulty level for a lesson.

A lesson that is too easy won’t help a student progress.

A lesson that is too hard will disengage a student who just won’t be able to do the task.

But a lesson that is difficult but achievable with effort will push a student forward. These lessons that are just hard enough but not too hard are lessons in the “zone of proximal development”.

• Students get lessons catered to their own needs.
• There is always catered support for any student in the class.
• By creating lessons that are always challenging, you are setting high expectations for all students.
• Differentiation like this can lead to bug Differences in ability levels across the whole class.
• You’re often under pressure to teach content that is too hard for students to meet standardized curriculum requirements

Sociocultural theory: Lev Vygotsky, one of the most famous educational psychologists, invented this approach to help teachers provide lessons that are at the right level for progressing a student’s learning.

• Weave the ZDP into a lesson plan by stating that you will assess a student’s current ability then teach them the thing that is the logical next.step.
• Another way to do this is create three student worksheets for three different ability levels. State in your lesson plan that you will assess each student’s ability and give them the appropriate worksheet. Each worksheet should build on the previous to help students move through their ZPD one step at a time.

98. Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is the use of praise, stickers, candy or other rewards to show students that they have done a good job.

Teachers can stack positive reinforcements so students can take steps to get small, medium and large rewards to encourage students to keep on trying and working hard consistently.

• Students get clear signals to know when they have done well.
• Students get encouragement to keep going and keep trying in order to get the reward.
• Too much positive reinforcement can come across as insincere and lose students’ respect. Furthermore, students may become desensitized to praise if it occurs too much. Praise ‘scarcity’ makes occasional praise more valuable.
• Explicit reinforcements are extrinsic motivation . The best sort of motivation is intrinsic motivation (wanting to do something for the pleasure of doing it). For more, see my full guide on intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation .

Behaviorism: Positive reinforcement is believed to be beneficial for changing behavior over time. See: John Watson’s operant conditioning examples .

• Sticker charts
• A subtle nod or wink
• Certificates and awards

99. Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement involves the removal of a privilege, points or tokens when a student gets an answer wrong.

This is often confused with punishments. For me, negative reinforcements should not punish but be used in limited learning scenarios as part of the learning ‘game’.

An example might be losing points in a gamified lesson so the student is less likely to win against their opponents. Students know it is part of the game and not a punishment designed to distress the student.

• Provides very clear messages to students about what is correct and incorrect, helping them to learn quickly.
• Parents often do not like any negative reinforces, so be very careful to set clear guidelines and use this strategy in limited circumstances.
• Be careful not to embarrass students in front of their classmates.

Behaviorism: Watson brought negative reinforcements into education, arguing that repeated use of them can change students’ behaviors.

• Losing points in a class contest.
• Failing a level in an educational computer game.

100. Drop Everything and Read

Drop everything and read (DEAR) involves getting students to stop what they are doing and read for 10 minutes.

It is a strategy that helps build students’ literacy skills (especially when students can choose their own book). However, it is also useful for helping students get more depth of knowledge on a topic being taught when you give them all an article or book to read to help them have more knowledge for subsequent parts of the lesson.

• An effective way of getting students to spend intense time learning about a topic.
• Helps integrate literacy into your daily activities.
• There will always be a small group of students who squirm and struggle when asked to read. Consider alternatives like the Read Aloud strategy or using videos instead if DEAR doesn’t work for your class.
• Make sure to follow up DEAR time with discussion and comprehension tasks.
• Introduce a topic with initial information to engage the class.
• Set a 10 minute silent reading task based on the topic.
• Discuss what was read with comprehension prompts.

101. Gallery Walk

A gallery walk involves a teacher placing stimulus questions on flip chart paper (butcher’s paper) around the walls of the classroom.

The charts the teacher has put up are stations that students will stop at during the activity.

The teacher places students into groups. If there are 5 stations around the room, the teacher will create 5 groups.

Students get a set amount of time at each station to read the prompt questions. The students can write on the chart paper with their group response and also respond to other groups who have already written their points.

Once all students have rotated through the stations, the students end up back at the station where they began. The teacher the. gives each group 3 minutes to present to the class a summary of the comments written on the paper at their station.

• Students get to learn from others and see other groups’ responses.
• The students are up and moving about which may help the concentration of bodily-kinesthetic learners.
• Some students may not participate fully. Consider getting students to rotate who writes on the paper at each station to mitigate this challenge a little.

102. Metacognition

Note whenever you would encourage metacognition in a lesson within your lesson plan. This will help anyone reading it know that you’ve thought about giving students strategies for “thinking about thinking”.

Metacogntion is about thinking about how you think. Strategies include:

• Thinking aloud
• Writing your steps to reach an answer
• Explaining your thought processes
• Reflecting on your learning and considering faster ur more efficient processes
• Helps students understand the processes required for thinking deeply about an issue.
• Gives students the strategies and skills to learn any task, not just the ones at hand.
• Metacognition is difficult because it requires explanation of your thinking. However, it is necessary if people want to know how to think .

103. Case Studies

Case studies are in-depth examples of an issue being examined. A case study should show how an issue or theory looks in real life. Teachers can present case studies through videos, newspaper articles, magazine articles, guests coming into the classroom, etc.

• Case studies help students to see how theories and ideas look in real life. This can also help a student understand the relevance of the topic being studied.
• A case study may help students make sense of a complex idea by putting it in real concrete terms.
• Case studies might not be representative of a generalized issue – they may be outliers or flukes. Pick your case study carefully and discuss whether it is a typical or outlier sample.
• A case study of city planning may be an innovative city that has recently been designed.
• A case study in mathematics may include looking at the mathematics underpinning a famous bridge’s construction.
• A case study during a unit of work on refugees might look at the experiences of one real-life refugee.

104. Mystery Making

Educators can create ‘mystery’ in their classroom by carefully structuring lessons that give ‘clues’ to a mystery that needs to be solved by the students. Ask the students to act as detectives and place clues around the classroom (like a gallery walk). Have students move around the classroom taking notes on the mystery which will reveal an answer after thorough investigation.

• Creates a sense of excitement in the classroom, helping students to engage.
• Forces students to use critical, logical and lateral thinking in order to find the answer.
• Ensure the mystery is not too far outside a student’s zone of proximal development so that the mystery can be solved.

105. Storytelling

Storytelling in the classroom involves teaching through narrative-style stories rather than telling (‘didactic learning’). Teachers can tell stories by reading books (see: Read Aloud strategy), turning a dry explanation into an allegorical story off the cuff, or bringing people into the classroom who have an engaging personal story to tell.

• Stories can draw students into a topic through the creation of a sense of excitement and entertainment.

Steiner-Waldorf Schools: Rudolf Steiner called the teacher the ‘chief storyteller’ whose role is to create a sense of enchantment around learning through stories.

• Invite guests into the classroom who have stories to tell.
• Use stories that have a moral of the the story, then analyze the moralistic message.

106. Newspaper Clippings

Use newspaper clippings to link topics and theories to current affairs. Teachers can bring in recent newspapers to let students search through them for relevant stories or use old newspapers to search for how a topic was discussed in the past. Alternatively, teachers can get students to search for newspaper articles online.

Teachers could also assign reading through newspapers and bringing newspapers to class as a part of their homework.

• Newspaper stories can show students how the topic being discussed plays out in real life.
• They also show students how the topic is relevant to the present-day lives of people in the community,
• Newspapers are increasingly uncommon – consider adjusting this to use online news sites and printing out articles from the web.
• Some topics won’t have relevant news articles associated with them. Do a search in newspapers and online yourself for articles before using this teaching strategy.

107. Self-Paced Learning

Self-paced learning involves.letting students progress from activity to activity in their own time. For this approach, a teacher lays out a list of 10 – 20 lessons that students can work on at their own pace. Students work on the activities while the teacher walks around and gives support.

• Students are encouraged to reflect on their own learning development and only move on when they are confident that they have consolidated the knowledge from an assessment.
• Less students will fall behind if the teacher doesn’t pressure them to move on.
• Teachers have time to work one-on-one with students while students work away at student-led tasks.
• Fast students will need extension tasks or personal projects to complete once they have finished and are waiting for slower students.
• There is often not enough time for slower students to finish.

Related Article: 25 Teaching Styles Examples

These teaching strategy examples are clearly not the only ones out there – there are probably thousands! But, in my time teaching, these have been the most effective and common teaching strategies that I have come across. Use this teaching strategies list for your own lesson plans to demonstrate pedagogical knowledge and depth of understanding of how to educate a range of different learners.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Self-Actualization Examples (Maslow's Hierarchy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Forest Schools Philosophy & Curriculum, Explained!
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Montessori's 4 Planes of Development, Explained!
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Montessori vs Reggio Emilia vs Steiner-Waldorf vs Froebel

4 thoughts on “List of 107 Classroom Teaching Strategies (With Examples)”

this is valuable in my course production of Instructional materials in social studies. maraming Salamat!

Thank you very much for these valuable teaching strategies & techniques which can be used to enliven the classroom atmosphere, encourage students to do their tasks and learn more in the process. God bless!

As a student of Curriculum and Pedagogic Studies and also the Curriculum Lead in my school, this is best of resources I have had on the subject of teaching strategies. Thanks so much.

Thank you so much, these are very helpful and remind me that some of my teaching styles are already mentioned here.

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Create Your Course

How to build a lesson plan (+ templates), share this article.

So you’ve got a great course topic , you’ve built a course outline to help you deliver, and now you’re all set to start your first lesson plan.

When it comes to building an online course that delivers, you need to be strategic about your lessons. Each lesson plan is a building block that ladders up to your overarching course goals.

Let’s talk about how to build a lesson plan that hits home.

Or grab them here for google docs or word!  

Skip ahead:

What does a good lesson plan look like? 

5 steps for building a lesson plan from scratch .

A well-designed lesson plan has seven key elements: 

Class objectives 

Objectives, at a basic level, are what the lesson sets out to achieve — think of them as your North Star. Objectives communicate three key things:

• Why students need the lesson
• What they’ll be able to do at the end of the lesson
• How they’ll demonstrate knowledge. 

Say one of the lessons in your social media course is “choosing the right channels.” In that case, your objective could be: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to compare different social media channels and choose the one that best aligns with their content goals. 

Teaching and learning are more effective when all the stakeholders understand the purpose of the lesson. When anyone veers off the track, they can easily realign themselves with the North Star.

Hook is what grabs the attention of your students. It is usually a statement surfacing the problem they are having — which is why they signed up for your course in the first place. This is your chance to prove that you understand their problem and can solve it. 

Back to our previous example, the hook could be a story about a creator who switched channels and finally got traction on social media after trying for many years. Or you could share data around how social channels affect how much money creators make.  

Learning activities 

Here, you spell out everything the lesson entails — from class activities and instruction time to independent work time and even assessments. Everyone involved needs to know what the lesson covers so they can prepare ahead of time. 

Again, referring to our earlier example, the learning activities might look like this: 

• Worksheets 
• Instructor-led sessions
• One Q and A session at the end of the class 
• Independent work time (which doubles as assessment) 
• Class discussions 

Learn more: Blended learning and scheduled class activities  

Timeline shows the duration of each activity in the lesson. More than showing how long the class will take, assign time limits to the different sessions within each lesson, including assessment, main instruction, breaks, and student participation. 

Build in a buffer between each session to take care of any unforeseen issues. Say you want to spend 15 minutes on a class presentation; assign 20 minutes to it instead. 

Having a realistic lesson timeline helps you stay on track, making sure you have enough time to cover all the key areas of your lesson. 

This is where you highlight what students need to make the most of your class — to set them up for success. The last thing you need is for your course to lose credibility because a particular student wasn’t sufficiently equipped for it. 

Maybe they need to complete a foundational course first to bring them up to the level of knowledge required for the lesson. Or they need access to certain tools and equipment. Tell them all about it here. 

For a social media class, for instance, students must have active accounts and maybe a certain number of followers. 

Closure is how you wrap up the class. It typically involves a recap of the key points covered in the lesson and a quick review of the class objectives. 

The instructor might ask reflective questions such as “What was the most challenging part of the lesson for you?” or “What would you like to learn more about in this topic?” Or ask students to create a mind map of the key points covered in the lesson.

At this point, students and instructors can reflect on the lesson activities at the end to see if they met their goals. Students can also ask last-minute questions before the final assessment. 

Assessment 

This is the parameter for measuring how well a student understands what they’ve learned in a particular lesson. It helps the course instructor assess students fairly. 

The assessment can take several forms. One might administer a summative test — like an end-of-class quiz. Or conduct a survey with open-ended questions at intervals to gauge students’ knowledge. 

Whichever method you choose, make sure you inform students ahead of time so they prepare adequately for it. 

Before you begin

Before you dive into lesson planning, start with a few key questions to determine the goal of your lesson. As the topic expert, the breadth of this course content is clear in your head, but your students are still figuring it out as they go along. 

Keep a narrow focus for each lesson while keeping the bigger picture in mind – this will help your students build knowledge in context so they can use it independently and remember it forever!

• What do your students already know? This is back to what you’ve covered in previous lessons or what foundational knowledge you expect students to have. Do they have all the definitions they need to understand today’s topic? Are there any gaps you need to close before you dive in? That will be your starting point for this lesson.
• What do they need to learn today? Eyes on the prize here – keep your goal clear, or you’ll get lost along the way! Set yourself a single goal for this lesson: should students understand the formula for a unique value proposition, or should they be able to write a great cover letter? What single concept or skill do you want this lesson to impart to your students? Remember to keep it simple; if it’s too complex, you might want to consider splitting it into smaller lessons to avoid confusing your students with information overload.
• What’s the best way to lock it into place? Now that you’ve locked down the goal for today’s lesson, you can decide on the best way to deliver the information. Is this something best delivered through video, or is it better explained with text and diagrams? Could you represent this as an infographic? What practice activities would help your students lock in their newly acquired skills?

Related: How to do a training needs assessment

It’s not always about downloading your brain onto the page. You need to consider how you explain things so your students fully understand not only the new facts, but the context surrounding them – that’s the key to them being able to apply these new skills independently when the course is over. 

With the Thinkific course builder, you have so many teaching tools and resources at your disposal – use them in harmony with one another to give your students a dynamic learning experience .

Now that you’ve got those three guiding principles in mind, let’s put them to work in your lesson plan.

Set the stage

Begin each new lesson by setting the stage for your students. You can do this in three key steps:

• Take a brief moment to look back at what you covered in the last lesson,
• Give a high-level overview of what today’s lesson will entail, and
• Tell students the key skills or takeaways they will have conquered by the end of the lesson.

In particular, consider if any content from previous lessons is applicable to the new lesson. Never miss an opportunity to name-drop or draw examples from old content while introducing new material! It’s a great opportunity to help your students build context between what might feel like a confusing array of new facts. When you build bridges between old and new knowledge, it creates that lightbulb moment for students to see how all the pieces fit together.

This is more than just summarizing or expectation-setting – it’s a strategic educational principle. By reminding students of previous lessons, you help them draw connections between old and new content so they can understand how everything fits together. 

When you share the key touchpoints for today’s lesson, you set up a framework for them to contextualize everything that follows. If they know what the final goal is, they will naturally be more attuned to anything you say about those skills from that point onwards. This brief process at the beginning of each lesson provides anchors for students to shape their understanding throughout the rest of the lesson.

Explain new information

This is the main component of any lesson plan. When it’s time to introduce new content, make sure to do so clearly and simply. Explain new concepts in the most straightforward way possible. Consider your weakest student, and explain things with them in mind – even your strongest students will still benefit from that simplicity!

Be sure to use lots of examples to help students develop context with new information. One tip here is to use a mix of examples that draw from general knowledge and subject-specific knowledge. For example, you can and should give concrete examples grounded in the course subject matter; for more abstract concepts, however, it can be helpful to explain things using everyday examples that everyone can relate to. 

Related: The Ultimate List of Free Online Course Lesson Plan Templates

Consider using apples and oranges to explain abstract economic concepts, or using nursery rhymes to explain music theory. This doesn’t mean you have to come up with mysterious hypothetical examples like the ones you might have found on a high school math quiz – just look for everyday situations you can use to explain more difficult concepts, so your students can ground their new understanding in something familiar.

Students learn in a myriad of different ways – some through text, others through video, and still others through graphic design or activities like writing by hand. While explaining things clearly in a well-produced video or article is always a great place to start, consider using a variety of methods to make your lesson plan stick.

• Create an infographic to illustrate key points from the lesson
• Provide fill-in-the-blank notes so students can follow along with you and pay attention for key information queues
• Link key words and concepts to external articles or videos to provide students with additional learning resources
• Create a slide deck of key points that students can use as a review tool
• The sky’s the limit – if you can think of an alternative way to present your information, your students will benefit! The Thinkific course builder has a number of different content types to suit your needs, wherever the inspiration leads you.

Learn more about different learning styles and how to teach to them . 

Practice makes perfect

After introducing new material to students, it’s vital to give them an opportunity to put their new skills into practice . This is what helps them lock new information into their brains and build contextual links with other skills. It’s also an important tool to help students master the content from this lesson before they move on to the next – as they work through practice activities and find themselves stuck on particular concepts or tasks, it will become clear which aspects of the material they didn’t quite understand. That gives students a targeted opportunity to ask good questions or go back through the course material until they master that skill.

Even in an online course , there are a number of practice activities you can prompt students to use:

• Ask students to define key concepts and use them in a paragraph, so they have an opportunity to put things into their own words
• Suggest students rephrase concepts by converting your notes into questions, like those they might expect to see on a quiz
• If you have a community or online group, ask students to share their summaries or reflections with each other in a dedicated lesson thread

Related: 8 ways to make online classes more interactive  

Assessments

Sometimes, you also need to assess student knowledge. While you won’t do this for each and every lesson, it’s a helpful tool to check student understanding at important course milestones.

Thinkific’s course platform makes it easy to deliver student assessments with quizzes, exams, and assignments to put your students to the test, but you should keep future assessments in mind while you plan lessons. As you build a series of lessons, keep these questions in mind for future assessments:

• What facts and skills from this lesson are necessary for a student to succeed in this course?
• Are there any facts in this lesson that students need to be reminded of to make sure they stick?

Keep a running list of these answers as you build your lessons. By the time you reach a course milestone and you’re ready to build an assessment, you’ll already have a list of key questions to use in your quiz or assignment. By drawing questions from across a series of lessons, you help students build contextual links between different batches of information and end up with a more cohesive learning experience.

Get ahead with our free lesson plan template

Building a lesson plan from scratch is challenging and quickly gets complicated if it’s your first time. To help you, we’ve created a customizable template you can tweak to suit your needs fast. 

You’re well on your way to building a great course , with solid principles that help you deliver dynamic lessons to your students!

Put your learning into action with Thinkific:

This blog was originally created in August 2020, it has since been updated in August 2023 to become even more useful!

Jenny is a Content Marketer at Thinkific. A lifelong learner, she loves writing about anything from Byron to blockchain. Formerly from Cape Town, she now spends her spare time wandering Vancouver in search of the perfect coffee.

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• Welcome to this free course on 'General Teaching M...
• Information that is not to miss
• Alternative format
• Tell us what you think of this course
• Acknowledgements & references
• Course guide
• TOPIC 1 - QUIZ
• TOPIC 2 - QUIZ
• TOPIC 3 - QUIZ
• TOPIC 4 - QUIZ
• TOPIC 5 - QUIZ
• Introduction
• 1.1 DEFINITIONS, TYPES & PROCESSES OF LEARNING
• What is learning
• Behaviourism
• Constructivism
• Social-constructivism
• Cognitivism
• Conclusion on learning theories
• 1.2 LEARNING STYLES
• Introduction to learning styles
• Overview of learning styles
• Interpersonal learners
• Intrapersonal learners
• Kinesthetic learners
• Verbal learners
• Visual learners
• Logical learners
• Auditory learners
• Identifying learning styles
• 1.3 LEVELS OF COGNITION
• Introduction to Bloom's taxonomy
• How Bloom’s Taxonomy is useful for teachers
• 2.1 FOUNDATION AND RATIONALE
• Introduction to Active Teaching and Learning
• Defining Active Teaching and Learning
• Rationale for Active Teaching and Learning
• 2.2 METHODS, TECHNIQUES & TOOLS
• METHODS FOR ACTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING
• Problem-based learning
• Project-based learning
• Learning stations
• Learning contracts
• TECHNIQUES FOR ACTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING
• Demonstration
• Presentation
• Brainstorming
• Storytelling
• TOOLS FOR ACTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING
• Low cost experiments
• Charts and maps
• Student portfolio
• 2.3 BARRIES IN INTEGRATING ACTIVE TEACHING
• Identifying Barriers
• 3.1 INTRODUCTION TO CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION
• Defining classroom management
• The role of the teacher
• Defining classroom organization
• Classroom seating arrangement
• Overview of classroom seating arrangement styles
• Benefits of effective classroom management and organization
• 3.2 STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
• The teacher as a model
• Desired learner behaviour
• Rewarding learners
• Types of rewards
• Reinforcing learners
• Delivering a reinforcement
• 3.3 LESSON PLANNING
• Definition of a lesson plan

Components of a lesson plan

• 4.1 INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
• Definition of assessment
• Formative vs. summative assessment
• Assessment for learning
• Assessment vs. evaluation
• 4.2 CLASS ASSESSMENT TOOLS
• Assessment rubrics
• Self-assessment
• Peer-assessment
• 4.3 REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
• Definition of reflective practice
• The reflective cycle
• 5.1 CONCEPT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
• Introduction to teaching and learning materials
• Purpose of teaching and learning materials
• 5.2 TYPES OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
• Traditional and innovative resources
• Screencasts
• Educational videos
• Educational posters
• Open Educational Resources (OERs)
• 5.3 CHOOSING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
• Integrating instructional materials
• Factors to consider when selecting instructional materials

About this course

• 11 hours study
• 1 Level 1: Introductory
• Course description

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General Teaching Methods

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A lesson plan is a step-by-step guide on what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. A teacher’s lesson plan includes many components, watch the video below to discover the key components of a lesson plan:

Overview of key components:

The course subject, class and the topic.

Learning outcomes What should be achieved at the end of the lesson.

Learning materials

The materials needed to deliver the lesson.

Lesson phases

A lesson has a middle, beginning and end. 

Learning activities

Types of activities learners will need to engage in.

Active Teaching and Learning

Methods, techniques and tools to make learning meaningful and interactive.

Estimation of how much time each of the activities will take.

Differentiation

Differentiation in instruction to address different learning styles.

Lesson plan template

Click on the below link to view and download a lesson plan template for lower secondary education and get an overview of all its necessary components to be considered prior to teaching. Note that the structure of a lesson plan is determined by the demands of the curriculum of a specific context.  It is therefore necessary to observe that this lesson plan can be modified to suit a context. 

 Lesson plan template                                                       

    Definition of a lesson plan                                                                                          TAKE QUIZ 3

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Instructional Methods: Activities to Include in Your Lesson Plans

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• Lesson Plans

Each student has his or her own learning style. In order to create an effective lesson plan that meets all of these different needs, teachers, tutors, and home school parents should include a variety of instructional methods. This article outlines several useful teaching methods.

No two children are exactly alike. This is true in the classroom as well as out. Each student, after all, has his or her own unique learning style. While some students learn by seeing, others learn by hearing and others learn by doing.

In order for a teacher to be effective she must be able to reach her students using methods that work best for them. Mixing things up in this fashion will also help alleviate boredom, engaging students, and helping them truly retain their lessons.

Here are a few instructional methods to consider:

Direct Teaching

Direct teaching is the most common form of teaching. It occurs when a teacher addresses the class using whatever means they choose, relaying the information to students as a group. Lessons are well organized, and this method is effective for teaching specific facts and skills, but the format of this type of teaching can stifle creativity.

Cooperative Learning

Group projects not only give children the opportunity to learn by doing, but allow them to work with, teach, and learn from their peers. While some students do not work well in groups, others excel in them.

As one might guess, a lecture is simply a lecture. While some incorporate other media, many simply involve a teacher orally relaying a message. Teachers can engage students and test their understanding by injecting group discussion into the lecture, which breaks up the monotony of a speech.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming occurs when a teacher introduces an issue and asks the students to reach a conclusion on their own, through a moderated, guided thought process. While this works well in courses that emphasize critical thinking and creativity, it is not appropriate for math, science, and other analytical subjects.

Videotapes/ Slides/ Digital Presentations

Including new media in your lessons will not only encourage your students to focus, but will appeal to senses regular lectures do not stimulate. They also allow the teacher to metaphorically break out of the classroom and enter the real world, allowing cameras to take students places teachers simply cannot.

Role Playing

The essence of learn by doing, role playing allows the students to act out a lesson and test their skills and knowledge. This method allows students to assume the roles of others and appreciate another point of view, but some students may feel self-conscious or threatened, so be sure to take the needs of such students into account.

Guest Speakers

Guest speakers allow students to learn from those who have first-hand knowledge in the discipline of interest. These guests can not only share real-world information about a subject that students' ordinary instructors have not had the opportunity to acquire, but also breaks up the daily routine, inspiring student engagement.

Other Articles You May Be Interested In

Technology is becoming an increasingly relevant part of students' lives. This article discusses ways to best utilize technology and multimedia elements in the classroom.

Teachers often find themselves altering and adapting their lesson plans to the ever changing curriculum standards. This article discusses ways to make changing and developing lesson plans less stressful.

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Methodology

Methodology is a system of practices and procedures that a teacher uses to teach.

It will be based on beliefs about the nature of language, and how it is learnt (known as 'Approach').

Example Grammar Translation, the Audiolingual Method and the Direct Method are clear methodologies, with associated practices and procedures, and are each based on different interpretations of the nature of language and language learning.

In the classroom Many teachers base their lessons on a mixture of methods and approaches to meet the different needs of learners and the different aims of lessons or courses. Factors in deciding how to teach include the age and experience of learners, lesson and course objectives, expectations and resources.

Further links:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/scott-thornbury-british-council-armenia

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/methods-post-method-m%C3%A9todos

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/starter-teachers-a-methodology-course-classroom

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• Lesson Sequencing Strategies: A Comprehensive Overview

Learn all about lesson sequencing strategies, including why they're important, different approaches, and best practices for implementation.

When it comes to lesson sequencing strategies, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. With the ever-evolving landscape of education, teachers must be able to adapt and tailor their lesson planning and sequencing to the needs of their students. In this article, we'll provide a comprehensive overview of lesson sequencing strategies, from the basics to more advanced techniques. We'll discuss why lesson sequencing is important, how to create an effective sequence, and what strategies can be used to ensure that students are engaged throughout the lesson.

For example, the spiral approach is a strategy where the same concepts are revisited multiple times over the course of a school year, allowing students to explore them more deeply each time. Alternatively, the 5E model is a popular approach for sequencing lessons that involves engaging students in activities such as Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, Evaluation, and Extension. When implementing lesson sequencing strategies, there are several best practices to consider. Teachers should begin by developing a sequence of lessons that are connected by a single topic or concept.

It is also important to ensure that each lesson builds on the previous one by providing additional information and introducing new ideas. Additionally, teachers should assess student understanding throughout the sequence to gauge their progress and make any necessary adjustments. To demonstrate effective implementation of lesson sequencing strategies, consider the following example. A teacher might begin by introducing a unit on the water cycle with an exploration activity.

This could involve having students observe and describe the different parts of the water cycle in their environment. Next, the teacher could have students explain how the water cycle works using a diagram or model. Following this, the teacher could elaborate on the concept by having students research additional facts about the water cycle. This could then be followed by an evaluation activity in which students answer questions or write short summaries about the water cycle.

Different Approaches to Sequence Lessons

There are many different approaches to sequencing lessons, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. The spiral approach focuses on revisiting topics over time, allowing students to build on their prior knowledge. This approach allows for greater retention of the material, as well as providing opportunities for reinforcement and review. The 5E model is another popular approach to lesson sequencing.

The Importance of Lesson Sequencing Strategies

By properly sequencing lessons, educators can provide students with a sense of structure and coherence that can help them better understand and retain the material they are learning. For example, when teaching biology, a teacher might begin by introducing the topic and then move on to a discussion of the various components of the subject. By sequencing lessons in this way, the teacher can ensure that students understand the overall context before delving deeper into the details. This approach also helps students make connections between different ideas, which can further enhance their understanding of the material.

Sequencing lessons can also help improve student engagement. When students are presented with a well-structured lesson, they are more likely to stay focused and interested in the material. Additionally, sequencing lessons in a logical order ensures that students have a clear understanding of how one topic relates to another, which can help them better understand and remember the material. Finally, sequencing lessons can help maximize student achievement. By presenting material in a logical order, teachers can ensure that students gain a thorough understanding of the concepts being taught.

Best Practices for Implementation

Teachers should also consider the resources available to them, such as textbooks, online materials, and other instructional aids. By taking all of these factors into consideration, teachers can create a lesson sequence that is tailored to the needs of their students. Once a sequence is created, it is important to ensure that each lesson builds on the previous one. This can be accomplished by ensuring that each lesson has a clear purpose and includes activities that will help students progress towards the overall learning objectives. Additionally, it is important to make sure that students are given time to review what they have learned in previous lessons before moving onto new material. Finally, it is important to assess student understanding throughout the sequence.

Examples of Effective Lesson Sequencing Strategies

For example, when teaching about photosynthesis, a teacher could start off by having students identify the basic components of photosynthesis, followed by activities that require them to explain the process in detail and then design experiments to observe it. This gradual increase in difficulty allows students to become more comfortable with the topic and develop more comprehensive understanding. In conclusion, lesson sequencing strategies are an essential component of successful science instruction. Different approaches to sequence lessons can be tailored to meet the needs of individual students and classes, and best practices for implementation should be followed to ensure an effective learning experience. Examples of effective lesson sequencing strategies include the use of pre-assessment activities, scaffolding, and cooperative learning strategies.

Ultimately, lesson sequencing strategies can be used to create engaging, meaningful learning experiences for students.

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Shahid Lakha is a seasoned educational consultant with a rich history in the independent education sector and EdTech. With a solid background in Physics, Shahid has cultivated a career that spans tutoring, consulting, and entrepreneurship. As an Educational Consultant at Spires Online Tutoring since October 2016, he has been instrumental in fostering educational excellence in the online tutoring space. Shahid is also the founder and director of Specialist Science Tutors, a tutoring agency based in West London, where he has successfully managed various facets of the business, including marketing, web design, and client relationships. His dedication to education is further evidenced by his role as a self-employed tutor, where he has been teaching Maths, Physics, and Engineering to students up to university level since September 2011. Shahid holds a Master of Science in Photon Science from the University of Manchester and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Bath.

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Planning Assessments

Assessment is a critical component of the instructional planning process and should have a prominent role in the learning process. This means that teachers should plan to integrate multiple forms of assessment and use the data to understand how well their students are learning the content and skills specified by the learning objectives. An assessment used during the learning process is referred to as a formative assessment. In this section, you will learn about the second stage in the Backward Design process of ensuring alignment between your learning objectives and your assessment plan.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Determine acceptable evidence of student learning; and
• Select and/or design formative and summative assessments aligned with learning objectives to support, verify, and document learning.

Stage 2: Determining Acceptable Evidence

Now that we understand the value of having clear learning objectives, we can start to look at the second stage of the Backward Design model (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) where we determine what types of evidence will be acceptable to demonstrate that our students have met our goals. When considering potential evidence, Popham and Baker (1970) contend that teachers must develop skills to differentiate between different types of practice to ensure that the evidence they collect aligns with their stated learning objectives. The assessment piece you choose, whether it be a quiz, assignment, essay, test, or project, will provide you with evidence of student learning. However, Popham and Baker suggest that you should evaluate what you are asking students to do based on the following practice types:

• Equivalent: practice the specific desired objective
• Analogous: practice is similar to the desired objective but not identical.
• En-route: skill needed before performing the desired objective
• Irrelevant: any practice or activity that does not align with the desired objective

Recognizing what type of practice you are requiring students to engage in will help guide your selection, adoption, and creation of assessments in stage 2 of the Backward Design process. The key to remember is that students should be given the opportunity to practice the specific skill(s) defined by your learning objectives (Popham & Baker, 1970). This second stage requires that you understand the differences between formative and summative assessment which is foundational information necessary to ensure you provide practice and feedback for your students during the learning process. In addition, we will investigate a variety of assessment types and their pros and cons in order to select the best format for your assessment.

Formative Assessment

Examples (Sidebar)

For an in-depth look at formative assessment beyond what is discussed in this textbook, check out the series of videos by Dr. Heidi Andrade of the University at Albany about designing valid formative assessment tools .

Formative assessment includes all the practices teachers use to check student understanding throughout the teaching and learning process. Often, formative assessment is said to be an assessment for learning.

Definition of Formative Assessment*

Formative assessment refers to the ongoing process teachers and students engage in when selecting a learning goal(s), determining student performance in relation to the goal, and planning steps needed to move students closer to the goal. This ongoing process is implemented through informal assessments, assessments that can easily be incorporated into day-to-day classroom activities. Informal assessments are content and performance-driven and include questioning students during a discussion, student work (exit slips; assignments), and direct observation of students working. Rather than being used for grading, formative assessment is used to inform instructional planning and to provide students with valuable feedback on their progress. Formative assessment data can be collected as a pre-assessment, during a lesson, or as a post-assessment at the closing of a lesson.

In the video below, Rick Wormeli, author of Fair Isn’t Always Equal and Differentiation, explains the difference between summative and formative assessment and how formative assessment helps you offer better feedback to your students.

Listen to Jeoy Feith and Terri Drain discuss what assessment for learning in a PE setting looks like (show notes available if you what to read instead).

Adjusting Instruction Based on Formative Assessment*

Using assessment information to adjust instruction is fundamental to the concept of assessment for learning. Teachers make these adjustments “in the moment” during classroom instruction as well as during reflection and planning periods. Teachers use the information they gain from questioning and observation to adjust their teaching during classroom instruction. If students cannot answer a question, the teacher may need to rephrase the question, probe understanding of prior knowledge, or change the way the current idea is being considered. Teachers need to learn to identify when only one or two students need individual help and when a large proportion of the class is struggling so whole group intervention is needed.

After the class is over, effective teachers spend time analyzing how well the lessons went, what students did and did not seem to understand, and what needs to be done the next day. Evaluation of student work also provides important information for teachers. If many students are confused about a similar concept, the teacher needs to re-teach it and consider new ways of helping students understand the topic. If the majority of students complete the tasks very quickly and well, the teacher might decide that the assessment was not challenging enough.

Formative Assessment Strategies

Wondering where to begin? Check out Gretchen Vierstra’s blog post where she has suggested a variety of formative assessment strategies that you can use today, tomorrow, and next week.

Selecting and administering assessment techniques that are appropriate for the goals of instruction as well as the developmental level of the students is a crucial component of effective formative assessment. Teachers need to know the characteristics of a wide variety of classroom assessment techniques and how these techniques can be adapted for various content, skills, and student characteristics (Seifert, 2011). There is a vast array of formative assessment strategies that have been proven to be effective. For example, Natalie Reiger has compiled a list of 60 formative assessment strategies along with guidance on how to use them successfully in the classroom. Finding different strategies to try has never been easier as dozens of books have been written on the topic and hundreds of videos have been posted online demonstrating effective strategies. The key is not knowing all the possible formative assessment strategies but being able to distinguish which strategy best fits your assessment needs.

Technology & Formative Assessment*

Using Tech Tools for Formative Assessment

Technology is a powerful ally for teachers, especially in measuring student learning. With digital formative assessments, teachers can expedite their ability to assess and provide student feedback in real-time. Timmis, Broadfoot, Sutherland, and Oldfield (2016) encourage teachers to reflect on the “four C’s” when using technology to enhance a lesson. Ask yourself, does technology allow for increased collaboration or critical thinking opportunities? Are students able to communicate their ideas uniquely and are students able to demonstrate creative thinking? Following this format provides lessons that foster student engagement, with technology as an enhancement tool. Digital formative assessments provide teachers the opportunity to give individual feedback quicker and in real-time compared to traditional non-digital paper and pen formative assessments.

Educators now have access to a variety of tools that allow for instant feedback. Google Forms , Socrative , Kahoot , Quizziz , Plickers , Formative , PollEverywhere , Edpuzzle , Nearpod , and Quizlet are all educational technologies that allow teachers and students to attain instant results on the learning taking place. The students may access the system using a variety of different technological tools including a learning management system (LMS) or a mobile device.

Looking for a quick and easy way to assess your students without devices in everyone’s hands? Read how Joey Feith uses Plickers in his PE classroom. This strategy could easily be adapted for all content areas.

Teachers can have students work through retrieval practice together (such as when using a polling tool like PollEverywhere or a game-like tool like Kahoot). There are also educational technology tools that are more self-paced and provide opportunities for learners to work at their own pace. Many of these services are starting to allow for either approach to be used. Quizlet flashcards and some of their games such as Scatter, Match, and Gravity can be used in a self-directed way by students. Quizlet also has a game called Quizlet Live that can be used with a group of students at one time for retrieval practice. Beyond assessment, teachers can utilize student devices, typically smartphones, to enhance learning in a variety of ways.

Exit Tickets

Exit Tickets are a great way to practice the backward design model on a small scale. Exit Tickets are brief mini-assessments aligned to your daily objective. Teachers can provide their students a short period at the end of the class session to complete and submit the Exit Ticket. By considering the content of the Exit Ticket before planning, teachers can ensure that they address the desired skills and concepts during their lesson. Teachers can then use the evidence gathered from Exit Tickets to guide future planning sessions for remediation purposes.

See It in Action: Exit Tickets

Check out this resource from the Teacher Toolkit website. They provide a video of a teacher using Exit Tickets and tips on how and when to use Exit Tickets.

Summative Assessment*

Assessment  of  learning  is a formal assessment that involves assessing students to certify their competence and fulfill accountability mandates. Assessment of learning is typically summative , that is, administered after the instruction is completed (e.g. end-of-unit or chapter tests, end-of-term tests, or standardized tests). Summative assessments provide information about how well students mastered the material, whether students are ready for the next unit, and what grades should be given (Airasian, 2005).

Assessment Methods

Learning objectives guide what sort of practice is appropriate. There are four classifications for learning objectives: knowledge, reasoning, skill, or product (Chappuis et al. 2012). The action defined by the objective will determine which assessment method is best appropriate for gathering evidence of learning. The table below outlines commonly used words and descriptions of each classification.

Classifications of Learning Objectives

Source: Classroom Assessment of Student Learning (Chappuis et al. 2012)

It is important to understand the focus of your learning objective because it will define what type of assessment tool to use. There are many methods to assess students learning but three common types are selected response, constructed response, and performance tasks (Chappuis et al. 2012). The visuals below from Chappuis et al. (2012) and Stiggins (2005) show how some assessment methods are better suited for certain learning targets than others.

Target-Assessment Method Match

Assessment Method

Links between achievement targets and assessment methods. Source: Student-involved assessment for learning (Stiggins, 2005)

In his book Grading Smarter Not Harder, Myron Dueck provides suggestions on how teachers might vary traditional multiple-choice tests to allow students to share their thinking. Consider how this option might change a test for your students. Dueck proposes an alternate response sheet that encourages students to place the choice they think is correct in the first space. If students are considering two answers, or believe there is more than one correct response, they can place the second letter in the space provided. Also, for each question that students place more than one response, they must also provide a written explanation to represent their thinking/debate.

The first and arguably most common form of assessment used in secondary classrooms is selected response. By asking various questions at varying levels of knowledge, selected-response assessments are an efficient way to measure student knowledge and understanding. However, the limitations of multiple-choice, true-false, matching, and fill-in-the-blank style assessments are that they can only provide a limited amount of evidence of student reasoning skills and are incapable of demonstrating a student’s ability to apply skills. A benefit to selected response assessments is that they are great at collecting information quickly and are easy to grade, thus decreasing the feedback loop. Therefore, selected-response can be a great tool to use for formative assessment. Not that it can’t or shouldn’t be used as a summative assessment tool, but if your learning objectives require action above recall of knowledge, you should probably look for another method.

The second form of assessment often used is constructed response. Constructed responses are often chosen to elicit evidence of students’ thinking regarding reasoning, understanding of connections, and application of content knowledge. This assessment form may be more heavily used in some disciplines than others. Lastly, the third type of assessment is the performance assessment. Performance tasks are best suited for gathering evidence of a student’s ability to perform a specific skill or create a product. With the increased pressure on schools to prepare students for college and careers, there has been a push to integrate more performance-type assessments into the teaching and learning process. The idea is that by adding more performance-based assessments, students will develop a deeper understanding of content and be able to not only retain information but also apply and transfer that knowledge to new areas.

Understanding which assessment method to use is crucial to accurately assess student learning. However, learning when and how to use assessment to further learning and measure learning is also necessary. Consider reviewing the Teacher Made Assessment Strategies resource for a deeper dive into the strengths and weaknesses of different assessment types. In the next sections, we will look at how to ensure that our assessments measure accurately.

Considerations for Formatting Assessments

If you choose to summatively assess your students with a performance assessment, then a well-designed rubric can provide students with feedback on how they did on each objective. However, traditional assessments (MC, free response, etc.) often lack detailed feedback on student learning objectives. To provide better feedback to students, consider either grouping assessment items based on learning objectives or tagging items with information that points back to specific objectives or standards for reference.

Grouping or tagging assessment items allows a teacher to track student progress and provide specific feedback to students. Tracking individual learning objectives on an assessment provides a clearer picture of student learning of the objectives than an overall score. By providing subscores for each learning objective, students can see their strengths and weaknesses and use your feedback to guide any remediation efforts. If your assessments are broken into sections based on learning objectives, you might allow students to re-test specific sections of a unit versus taking the whole assessment again. This could save time and stress for students and the teacher.

High-Quality Assessments*

To be able to select and administer appropriate assessment techniques, teachers need to know about the variety of techniques that can be used as well as what factors ensure that the assessment techniques are high quality. We begin by considering high-quality assessments. For an assessment to be high quality, it needs to have good validity and reliability as well as the absence of bias.

Validity  is the evaluation of the  “adequacy and appropriateness of the interpretations and uses of assessment results”  for a given group of individuals (Linn & Miller, 2005, p. 68).

For example, is it appropriate to conclude that the results of a mathematics test on fractions given to recent immigrants accurately represent their understanding of fractions?

Is it appropriate for the teacher to conclude, based on her observations, that a kindergarten student, Jasmine, has Attention Deficit Disorder because she does not follow the teacher’s oral instructions?

Obviously, in each situation, other interpretations are possible that the immigrant students have poor English skills rather than mathematics skills, or that Jasmine may be hearing impaired.

It is important to understand that validity refers to the  interpretation and uses made of the results of an assessment procedure, not of the assessment procedure itself. For example, making judgments about the results of the same test on fractions may be valid if all the students understand English well. A teacher, concluding from her observations that the kindergarten student has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) may be appropriate if the student has been screened for hearing and other disorders (although the classification of a disorder like ADD cannot be made by one teacher). Validity involves making an overall judgment of the degree to which the interpretations and uses of the assessment results are justified. Validity is a matter of degree (e.g. high, moderate, or low validity) rather than all-or-none (e.g. totally valid vs invalid) (Linn & Miller, 2005).

Content validity  evidence is associated with the question: How well does the assessment include the content or tasks it is supposed to?  For example, suppose your educational psychology instructor devises a mid-term test and tells you this includes chapters one to seven in the textbook.  All the items in the test should be based on the content from educational psychology, not your methods or cultural foundations classes. Also, the items in the test should cover content from all seven chapters and not just chapters three to seven—unless the instructor tells you that these chapters have priority.

Teachers have to be clear about their purposes and priorities for instruction before  they can begin to gather evidence related to content validity .  Content validation determines the degree that assessment tasks are relevant and representative of the tasks judged by the teacher (or test developer) to represent their goals and objectives (Linn & Miller, 2005). In their book, The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units, Wiggins & McTighe share a method that teachers can use to determine the validity of their assessments. Consider how the Two Question Validity Test (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011, p. 91) below might help you evaluate how well your assessment measures student understanding versus recall abilities, effort, creativity, or presentation skills.

Construct validity evidence is more complex than content validity evidence. Often, we are interested in making broader judgments about students’ performances than specific skills such as doing fractions. The focus may be on constructs such as mathematical reasoning or reading comprehension.

A construct is a characteristic of a person we assume exists to help explain behavior.

For example, we use the concept of test anxiety to explain why some individuals when taking a test have difficulty concentrating, have physiological reactions such as sweating, and perform poorly on tests but not in class assignments. Similarly, mathematics reasoning and reading comprehension are constructs as we use them to help explain performance on an assessment.

Construct validation  is the process of determining the extent to which performance on an assessment can be interpreted in terms of the intended constructs and is not influenced by factors irrelevant to the construct.

For example, judgments about recent immigrants’ performance on a mathematical reasoning test administered in English will have low construct validity if the results are influenced by English language skills that are irrelevant to mathematical problem-solving. Similarly, construct validity of end-of-semester examinations is likely to be poor for those students who are highly anxious when taking major tests but not during regular class periods or when doing assignments. Teachers can help increase construct validity by trying to reduce factors that influence performance but are irrelevant to the construct being assessed. These factors include anxiety, English language skills, and reading speed  (Linn & Miller 2005).

The third form of validity evidence is called criterion-related validity.  Selective colleges in the USA use the ACT or SAT among other criteria to choose who will be admitted because these standardized tests help predict freshman grades, i.e. have high criterion-related validity. Some K-12 schools give students math or reading tests in the fall semester in order to predict which are likely to do well on the annual state tests administered in the spring semester and which students are unlikely to pass the tests and will need additional assistance. If the tests administered in the fall do not predict students’ performances accurately, the additional assistance may be given to the wrong students illustrating the importance of criterion-related validity.

Reliability

Reliability refers to the consistency of the measurement (Linn & Miller 2005). Suppose Mr. Garcia is teaching a unit on food chemistry in his tenth-grade class and gives an assessment at the end of the unit using test items from the teachers’ guide. Reliability is related to questions such as: How similar would the scores of the students be if they had taken the assessment on a Friday or Monday? Would the scores have varied if Mr. Garcia had selected different test items, or if a different teacher had graded the test? An assessment provides information about students by using a specific measure of performance at one particular time. Unless the results from the assessment are reasonably consistent over different occasions, different raters, or different tasks (in the same content domain) confidence in the results will be low and so cannot be useful in improving student learning.

We cannot expect perfect consistency. Students’ memory, attention, fatigue, effort, and anxiety fluctuate, and so influence performance. Even trained raters vary somewhat when grading assessments such as essays, science projects, or oral presentations. Also, the wording and design of specific items influence students’ performances. However, some assessments are more reliable than others, and there are several strategies teachers can use to increase reliability

• First, assessments with more tasks or items typically have higher reliability.

To understand this, consider two tests one with five items and one with 50 items. Chance factors influence the shorter test more than the longer test. If a student does not understand one of the items in the first test the total score is very highly influenced (it would be reduced by 20 percent). In contrast, if there was one item in the test with 50 items that was confusing, the total score would be influenced much less (by only 2 percent). This does not mean that assessments should be inordinately long, but, on average, enough tasks should be included to reduce the influence of chance variations.

• Second, clear directions and tasks help increase reliability.

If the directions or wording of specific tasks or items are unclear, then students have to guess what they mean undermining the accuracy of their results.

• Third, clear scoring criteria are crucial in ensuring high reliability  (Linn & Miller, 2005).

Absence of bias

Bias occurs in assessment when there are components in the assessment method or the administration of the assessment that distort the performance of the student because of their characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, or social class (Popham, 2005).

• Two types of assessment bias are important: offensiveness and unfair penalization.

An assessment is most likely offensive to a subgroup of students when negative stereotypes are included in the test.  For example, the assessment in a health class could include items, in which all the doctors were men and all the nurses were women. Or, a series of questions in a social studies class could portray Latinos and Asians as immigrants rather than native-born Americans. In these examples, some female, Latino or Asian students are likely to be offended by the stereotypes, and this can distract them from performing well on the assessment.

Unfair penalization occurs when items disadvantage one group not because they may be offensive but because of differential background experiences. For example, an item for math assessment that assumes knowledge of a particular sport may disadvantage groups not as familiar with that sport (e.g. American football for recent immigrants). Or an assessment on teamwork that asks students to model their concept of a team on a symphony orchestra is likely to be easier for those students who have attended orchestra performances—probably students from affluent families. Unfair penalization does not occur just because some students do poorly in class. For example, asking questions about a specific sport in a physical education class when information on that sport had been discussed in class is not unfair penalization as long as the questions do not require knowledge beyond that taught in class that some groups are less likely to have.

It can be difficult for new teachers teaching in multi-ethnic classrooms to devise interesting assessments that do not penalize any groups of students. Teachers need to think seriously about the impact of students’ differing backgrounds on the assessment they use in class. Listening carefully to what students say is important as is learning about the backgrounds of the students.

Assessments in the PE Setting

If you are teaching in a PE setting and you are thinking that assessment “looks different,” then you might consider reviewing some of the resources below to see how the principles above can help you gather evidence of student learning and skill development.

Formative assessment is most commonly referred to as assessment for learning, as the purpose is to inform your instructional decisions to guide student learning. In contrast, summative assessment is referred to as assessment of learning, as the purpose is to measure what students know at the conclusion of learning. To effectively use formative or summative assessment in the classroom, teachers must clearly define their learning objectives, choose assessment techniques that provide reliable individual evidence of student learning, and use data of student understanding to adjust their instruction. Technology should be considered when planning assessments as it may assist in increasing student motivation and analyzing resulting data.

Summarizing Key Understandings

Peer examples, references & attributions.

Attribution: “Definition of Formative Assessment” was adapted in part from GSC Lesson Planning 101 by  Deborah Kolling and Kate Shumway-Pitt, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Attribution: “Adjusting Instruction Based on Assessment” was adapted in part from Educational Psychology by Kelvin Seifert, licensed CC BY 3.0 . Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]

Attribution: “Technology & Formative Assessment” was adapted in part from Igniting Your Teaching with Educational Technology by Malikah R. Nu-Man and Tamika M. Porter, licensed CC BY 4.0

Attribution: “Summative Assessment” was adapted in part from Ch. 15 Teacher made assessment strategies by Kevin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

Attribution: “High-Quality Assessments” section is adapted in part from Ch. 15 Teacher made assessment strategies by Kevin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

Airasian, P. W. (2004). Classroom Assessment: Concepts and Applications 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw Hill.

Chappuis, J., Stiggins, R. J., Chappuis, S., & Arter, J. A. (2012). Classroom assessment for student learning: Doing it right – using it well. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Linn, R. L., & Miller, M. D. (2005). Measurement and Assessment in Teaching 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Popham, W.J. (2005).

Popham, W. J. (2017). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know, 8th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson

Popham, W. J., & Baker, E. L. (1970). Planning an instructional sequence. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Seifert, K. (May 11, 2011). Educational Psychology. OpenStax CNX. Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]

Stiggins, R. J. (2005). Student-involved assessment for learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Timmis, S., Broadfoot, P., Sutherland, R., & Oldfield, A. (2016). Rethinking assessment in a digital age: Opportunities, challenges and risks. British Educational Research Journal, 42(3), 454-476.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Planning Assessments Copyright © by Jason Proctor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Scientific Revolution

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Before class, students will be asked to read two World History Encyclopedia articles.

Introduction (10-15 minutes)

Hook: Start with a thought-provoking question: "How would you determine whether something is true or not? What process would you use?"

Write students’ responses on the board to highlight different approaches, such as personal experience, advice from others, intuition, or logical reasoning.

Explain that before the Scientific Revolution , people often relied on methods like tradition, philosophical reasoning, or religious teachings to determine the truth.

Introduce the idea that the Scientific Method emerged as a new approach to discovering truth, emphasizing that this method is based on observation, experimentation, and evidence rather than solely on abstract reasoning or accepted beliefs.

Hands-On Activity (25-30 minutes)

Present the following scenario to the class: "A farmer notices that some crops in his field are growing poorly while others are thriving. He wants to understand why this is happening."

Divide the class into an even number of small groups. Half of the groups will receive Handout 1: Philosophical Approach and the other half will receive Handout 2: Scientific Method Approach.

Instruct each group to brainstorm solutions to the farmer's problem based on their assigned approach.

Philosophical Approach: Groups might suggest reasons based on general principles, such as the alignment of the stars, the will of the gods, or moral interpretations of natural events.

Scientific Method Approach: Groups should focus on making specific observations, forming testable hypotheses, designing experiments, and collecting data.

Pair each Philosophical Approach group with a Scientific Method Approach group. Have the paired groups present their ideas to each other. Encourage them to discuss and debate the differences between the philosophical reasoning and the scientific method.

Class Discussion and Reflection (15-20 minutes)

Reflect on the activity, highlighting the strengths and limitations of each approach and the importance of the Scientific Method in advancing knowledge and solving problems.

Summarize key takeaways from the lesson, emphasizing how the Scientific Method has led to a more systematic and evidence-based approach to knowledge.

Reflect on how the Scientific Method has shaped modern knowledge and technology and ask students how they might use the Scientific Method in their own lives or future careers.

Homework/Extension

Students will pick one scientist from the collection of 12 Great Scientists of the Scientific Revolution , read their biography, and answer questions on the worksheet (see below). If needed, further research can be done to complete the worksheet.

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Uploaded by Taleen Aktorosian , published on 28 May 2024. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike . This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

Converting Fractions into Decimals – Methods, Facts, Examples

What is fractions-to-decimals conversion, how to convert fractions into decimals, when do fractions turn into terminating and repeating decimals, solved examples on converting fractions into decimals, practice problems on converting fractions into decimals, frequently asked questions about converting fractions into decimals.

Converting a fraction into its equivalent decimal form is known as fraction-to-decimal conversion. Converting fractions to decimals allows for more accurate and precise mathematical calculations. 

Fraction to a decimal formula is given as a ÷ b, where a is the numerator and b is the denominator of the fraction. In simple words, to turn fractions into decimals, we simply divide the numerator by the denominator.

In this conversion, you express a fraction as a decimal number with a whole number part and a decimal part.

Example: When you convert the fraction $\frac{3}{4}$ to a decimal, you get 0.75. Here, 0 is the whole number part, and 0.75 is the decimal part.

There’s no specific fraction-to-decimal formula for conversion. Let’s learn two ways to turn fractions into decimals:

1. Long division method

2. By converting the denominator of the fraction into a power of 10

How to Convert Fractions into Decimals Using the Long Division Method

In this method, we treat the numerator as a dividend and the denominator as the divisor . We carry out the long division till we get 0 as the remainder or at least three decimal places in the quotient. Using the long division method, let’s take examples to understand how to convert a fraction into a decimal. 

Example 1: Find the decimal form of the fraction $\frac{7}{5}$ using the long division method.

Example 2: Find the decimal form of the fraction $\frac{3}{5}$ using the long division method.

Example 3: Convert $\frac{2}{11}$ into a decimal.

How to Convert Fractions into Decimals by Changing the Denominator into a Power of 10

In this method, we multiply both the numerator and denominator by an appropriate number such that the denominator changes into a power of 10. Simply put, we try to convert the fraction into a decimal fraction. A fraction whose denominator is a power of 10 can be easily converted into a decimal by simply moving the decimal point.

Note: 

• When we multiply both the numerator and denominator by the same number, we are not changing the value of the fraction. We are just finding the equivalent fraction with the denominator as a power of 10.
• This method is perfect for fractions whose denominator can be changed into a power of 10. For fractions like $\frac{3}{7}$ or  $\frac{1}{3}$ , this method is not suitable.

Example 1: Convert $\frac{4}{5}$ into a decimal.

Numerator $= 4$

Denominator $= 5$

Think of a number by which we can multiply 5 to turn it into a power of 10.

5 times 2 is 10.

$5 \times 2 = 10$

Thus, multiply the numerator and denominator by 2.

$\frac{4}{5} = \frac{4 \times 2}{5 \times 2} = \frac{8}{10} = 0.8$

Example 2: Find the decimal form of the fraction $\frac{3}{8}$ .

Numerator $= 3$

Denominator $= 8$

We know that $8 \times 125 = 1000$

Thus, multiply the numerator and denominator by 125.

$\frac{3}{8} = \frac{3 \times 125}{8 \times 125} = \frac{375}{1000} = 0.375$

Related Worksheets

Fraction-to-Decimal Chart

The Fraction to Decimal chart simplifies the conversion by displaying common fractions and their decimal equivalents.

• In proper fractions, the numerator is less than the denominator. Thus, the resulting decimals are also less than 1.
• In improper fractions, the numerator is greater than or equal to the denominator. Thus, the resulting decimals are greater than or equal to 1.

Let’s convert some common fractions to decimals and list them in a chart.

• If the denominator of the fraction in its lowest form has the prime factorization consisting only of 2s and/or 5s, then the fraction results in a terminating decimal. 

Example: $\frac{7}{16}$

The fraction is already in its lowest form.

Denominator $= 16 = 2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2$

The prime factorization of the denominator only contains 2s.

$\frac{7}{16} = \frac{7 \times 625}{16 \times 625} = \frac{4375}{10,000} = 0.4375$ …terminating decimal

• If the denominator of the fraction in its lowest form has the prime factorization consisting of factors other than 2s and 5s, then the fraction results in a repeating decimal. 

Example : $\frac{10}{24}$

$\frac{10}{24}$ in lowest form $= \frac{5}{12}$

Denominator $= 12 = 2 \times 2 \times 3$

The prime factorization of the denominator has 2s and 3s.

$\frac{10}{24} = \frac{5}{12} = 0.416$ …repeating decimal

Alt tag: Converting 5/12 into a decimal

Facts about Converting Fractions into Decimals

• Reducing fractions to the lowest terms simplifies division by making numbers smaller and more manageable.
• Fraction-to-decimal conversion involves expressing a fraction as a decimal number.
• Proper fractions always result in decimal values less than 1.
• Improper fractions can give decimal values equal to or greater than 1.
• The decimal value of a fraction is determined by dividing the numerator by the denominator.
• Some fractions, when converted into decimals, result in repeating or recurring decimals.
• Equivalent fractions have the same decimal representation.

In this article, we learned about the fraction-to-decimal conversion with two methods and several examples. Let’s take a look at a few more solved examples and practice problems for better comprehension.

Example 1: Convert $\frac{2}{5}$ into decimal form using the long division method.

$\frac{2}{5}$

To convert $\frac{2}{5}$ to a decimal, divide the numerator 2 by the denominator 5. 

$\frac{2}{5} = 0.4$

Example 2: Find the decimal form of $\frac{9}{25}$ .

Numerator $= 9$

Denominator $= 25$

We know that “25 times 4 is 100.”

Thus, multiply both the numerator and the denominator by 4.

$\frac{9}{25} = \frac{9 \times 4}{25 \times 4 = \frac{36}{100} = 0.36$ 

Thus, $\frac{9}{25} = 0.36$

Example 3. Compare $\frac{11}{20}$ and 0.5.

Let’s convert $\frac{11}{20}$ into a decimal form to compare it with 0.5 easily.

To convert $\frac{11}{20}$ to a decimal, multiply both the numerator and the denominator by 5.

$\frac{11}{20} = \frac{11 \times 5}{20 \times 5} = \frac{55}{100} = 0.55$

We know that 0.5 < 0.55

Thus, 0.5 < 11 20 .

Converting Fractions into Decimals - Methods, Facts, Examples

Attend this quiz & Test your knowledge.

Which of the following fractions has a decimal equivalent of 0.6?

What is the decimal equivalent of the fraction $\frac{5}{8}$, to convert a fraction into a decimal,, a proper fraction always results in a decimal, what is the decimal equivalent of the fraction $\frac{7}{10}$.

What is a terminating decimal?

A terminating decimal is a decimal number that ends or terminates after a finite number of decimal places. For example, $\frac{1}{5} = 0.2$ is a terminating decimal.

What is a repeating decimal?

A recurring decimal is a non-terminating decimal with a non-zero digit or sequence repeating repeatedly without ever ending. For example, $\frac{1}{6} = 0.1666$… has the repeating digit “6.”

Can all fractions be converted into decimals?

Yes, all fractions can be converted to decimals.

What is the relationship between fractions and decimals?

Fractions and decimals are two different ways to represent the parts of a whole.

Are all fractions rational numbers?

Yes, all fractions are rational numbers.

RELATED POSTS

• Proper Fraction – Definition, Examples, Facts, FAQs
• Denominator – Definition, Examples, Facts, FAQs
• Adding Fractions –  Definition With Examples
• Addition and Subtraction of Fraction: Methods, Examples, Facts, FAQs
• Convert Decimal to Fraction: Definition with Examples

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What Is Time Management? 6 Strategies to Better Manage Your Time

Manage your time to reduce stress, raise productivity, and increase well-being with these tips.

In school, work, and daily life, we may encounter people who seem to have it all together. They are productive, stress-free, high achievers. But chances are, they were not born that way. Managing, organizing, and distributing time are skills that we can learn. Doing so can help you control your time and promote overall satisfaction.

Here are some tips and methods that can help you harness your time for better well-being.

What is time management?

Time management is the process of consciously planning and controlling time spent on specific tasks to increase how efficient you are. You may be familiar with setting deadlines, writing to-do lists, and giving yourself small rewards for accomplishing certain activities.

Motivating ourselves is a core part of time management—and it takes a bit of effort not only to motivate yourself but to cultivate good habits to work and live more efficiently.

To develop good routines and habits, you can start by knowing what strategies and best practices are out there. You can experiment with them in your own life to see what works for you.

Benefits of time management

Good time management can lead to a healthy, balanced lifestyle that may manifest as:

Reducing stress

Increasing energy

Achieving goals more efficiently

Prioritizing what's important

Accomplishing more in less time

Reducing procrastination

Boosting confidence

Getting further in your career or education

How we spend our days...

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim,” wrote Annie Dillard in her book The Writing Life [ 1 ] .  

This quote summarizes how humans conceptualize time and how we can develop skills and schedules to maximize productivity and achieve our goals. 

6 time management strategies

If you’re looking to take control of your time, here are six tips and strategies to get you started:

1. Conduct a time audit.

Start by assessing where you actually spend your time. Create a visual map of the approximate hours you spend on work, school, housework and chores, commuting, social media, and leisure activities. Then, you can drill in on school or work, dividing your previous week into days, then hours. How much time did it take to finish that paper? Did a work project take longer because you were scrolling on your phone?

Set goals based on this outcome. Planning ahead and setting time limits on your tasks and priorities can free up time for what’s most important to you, like spending more time with friends and family.

Start by dedicating a half hour every Sunday to intentionally planning your week ahead and setting daily goals.

Awareness, arrangement, adaptation

At the core of time management methods are the basic skills of awareness , arrangement , and adaptation [ 2 ]. This means being mindful of your time, structuring it, and adjusting it as you go, is the secret to effective time management. Executives now point to behavioral skills as the most important for the modern workforce, with “time management skills and the ability to prioritize” ranking second in IBM’s skills gap survey [ 3 ].

2. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to set your priorities.

The Eisenhower Matrix is a popular tool that helps you distinguish between tasks that are important, not important, urgent , and not urgent . The quadrant has four boxes in which you can split your tasks to prioritize what you should focus on first. They also correspond with the 4 D’s of execution: do, defer, delegate, and delete .

Quadrant 1: Important and urgent. Do these tasks first. These are the priorities that are most relevant to your goals.

Quadrant 2: Important but not urgent. Defer these for later in your schedule.

Quadrant 3: Urgent but not important. Delegate these to others, if possible, especially if they do not contribute to your long-term goals.

Quadrant 4: Not important and not urgent. Delete these tasks, or do them when you have free time because they are distractions from your priorities.

For an even simpler approach, create a task list and mark each item as urgent or important. Often, we prioritize urgent tasks instead of important ones—such as tasks that may be creative, important, and fulfilling but do not have a deadline—so identifying and labeling them can be a helpful step toward accomplishing your personal and professional goals.

3. Employ methods to “chunk” your time.

Once you have a better idea of what your priorities are, setting limits can be an excellent time management tool. There are several options for chunking your time into digestible pieces.

Try the Pomodoro method . This technique was developed in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, a university student who was overwhelmed by studying and assignments. The Pomodoro method requires using a timer to break down your work into 25-minute intervals, separated by 5 minutes of break time. After four pomodoros, you may take a longer 15-30 minute break. Pomodoro (“tomato” in Italian) promotes concentration and relieves mental fatigue, which is especially useful for open-ended work like conducting research, studying for an exam, or finishing a consulting project.

By “chunking” time, you make big projects and goals less daunting. Less procrastination, more productivity.

Try an app to help you focus

Download Pomodor on your desktop or the Focus Keeper app for your phone.

4. Focus on one thing at a time. 

For most of us, multitasking is generally less efficient than focusing on one task at a time. In fact, one study found that only 2.5 percent of people are able to multitask effectively [ 4 ]. Doing too many things at once can impact your cognitive ability, making you feel unproductive or dissatisfied with your progress. Arranging your time so that you complete one task before starting another can boost your confidence.

Further, it may be helpful to compartmentalize tasks. If you are a writer, for example, you might dedicate Monday to research, Tuesday through Thursday to writing, and Friday to editing. 

5. Give yourself a reward.

Rewards can be a great source of motivation for adopting good time management habits. For each important task you accomplish, you can give yourself a little treat. It doesn't need to be extravagant or expensive. Here are some simple ways to motivate yourself:

Taking a break to enjoy your favorite snack

Going for a short walk outside

Call a friend or family member

Meditate for five minutes

Listen to a podcast episode or a chapter of an audiobook

For bigger rewards, you can indulge in activities like reading a book in the bath, planning a night out with friends, or booking a getaway. Exciting rewards can help you push through an especially tough project or work period.

6. Use apps to block out distractions.

Sometimes, rewards and good intentions are not enough to keep us focused. An app or browser extension can help you minimize distractions by blocking you from using social media or touching your phone. Here are some apps and extensions you can try:

Forest is an app that helps you stay focused and off your phone. The company partners with an organization called Trees for the Future to plant trees when you spend virtual coins earned in Forest.

StayFocused is a browser extension that prevents you from using time-wasting websites like Reddit, Twitter, Wikipedia, Instagram, and more. It’s highly configurable, so you can customize it to your specific distractions.

Freedom is a tool that can block both websites and apps on all of your devices, simultaneously. Take advantage of their free trial to know if it’s right for you.

How to create your own time management strategy

Now that you have some potential time management tips and methods in your toolkit, it’s time to create a strategy. You might experiment with several techniques before establishing the most effective long-term habits and routines for you. 

Establish goals and priorities.

Consider your lifestyle, whether you are a student or a working professional (or both), whether you have a family or aspire to become a digital nomad (or both!). Think of your long- and short-term goals for your career and personal development. Make sure the goals are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. What will it take to achieve them? How can you manage your time to maximize your productivity?

Once you have established your goals, prioritize them in order of importance. It may be helpful to use Post-its or pen and paper to visualize them.

Choose the best method for you.

Using the list of tips above, decide upon a method or two to implement. Based on what has worked for you in the past, you can mix and match different time management skills. If you are unsure of which ones will work for you, pick one at random and give it a try.

Plan and implement.

Apply your chosen method over a period of time. A month is typically enough time to evaluate whether a strategy is working. Over 30 days, monitor your progress. Take notes on how you feel after one or two weeks. Was one method more effective than the other? 

Take action today

Use a physical planner, Google calendar, or a simple notebook to set your monthly and weekly goals. For daily tasks, write a to-do list every morning with achievable (Swiss Cheese) goals. Feel free to buffer your days for flexibility and sprinkle in plenty of little rewards.

After one month of your new time management methods, it’s time to reassess. What’s working? What’s not working? Adjust your strategy and plan to be more effective. Continue to practice these habits each month, adapting them as your priorities change. What works for you when you are a student may not be the same as when you start a new job.

Remember, practicing time management is an ongoing process, and life happens. It’s about progress, not perfection.

Learn how to manage your time effectively

Learn more effective time management tips from instructors at top universities with a course like Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity from the University of California Irvine. This course is offered on its own as well as part of the Career Success specialization.

Give your team access to a catalog of 8,000+ engaging courses and hands-on Guided Projects to help them develop impactful skills. Learn more about Coursera for Business .

Article sources

Dillard, Annie. “ The Writing Life , https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Writing_Life.html?id=it8NwjEKwCMC." Accessed July 14, 2023.

Harvard Business Review. “ Time Management Is about More than Life Hacks , https://hbr.org/2020/01/time-management-is-about-more-than-life-hacks." Accessed July 14, 2023.

IBM. “ Research Insights the Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap , https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/epymnbja." Accessed July 14, 2023.

Springer-Verlag. “ Supertaskers: Profiles in Extraordinary Multitasking Ability - Psychonomic Bulletin and Review , https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/PBR.17.4.479." Accessed July 14, 2023.

Keep reading

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This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

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How To Create A Project Communication Plan [+ Template]

I'm sharing my tried and tested, step-by-step guide to write and create an effective communication plan, complete with examples and a template so you can communicate and collaborate more effectively with your team and stakeholders.

Just as you develop a project plan to prepare for project execution, you should develop a project communication plan to strategize about how you intend to communicate with key stakeholders.

If project managers had a mantra, it might be that those who don’t plan, plan to fail, and managing stakeholders relationships is a key job function that project managers need to plan for.

What is a Communication Plan?

A communication plan is a strategic blueprint that outlines how information will be exchanged among the project team and stakeholders. It details the methods, frequency, and channels for communication, ensuring everyone involved is informed, aligned, and can collaborate effectively. 

In simpler terms, it is like a map that shows how everyone in a project talks to each other, including internal communication between team members. It tells you what each person's communication needs are: who needs to get what type of information, when they need it, and how it will be sent to them.

A project communication plan doesn’t need to be formal, but it should be documented for reference. This ensures everyone knows what's going on, agrees on things, and works well together, especially when working online or with digital communication tools.  

Here's a (very) quick overview:

How to Write a Communication Plan

Here are the steps to write and create a solid project communication plan:

• Understand your project parameters
• Define your communication goals
• Identify stakeholders
• Define the frequency of communication
• Define communication methods

1. Understand your project parameters

Sit down and make sure you understand and define the parameters of the project, including project size, information about the client’s company, project deliverables, timeline, and who the project team is.

Consider your team’s and client’s communication styles:

• How successful have communications been to date?
• Has your client indicated any communication preferences—ie. do they tend to reach for the phone when they have a question, or are they email-centric?
• Have you met in person or over video?
• How frequently does your team interact with you directly on a project? Do they prefer written context over meetings?
• What public relations needs exist, if any?

Once you have an understanding of the team and clients you’re working with, you can start to codify this in a project communication plan.

2. Define your communication goals

Consider what defines successful project communication, not only for your client, but for your team also. Use this list to guide communication-related decisions. Include a list of metrics or KPIs that you can use to measure whether you're achieving successful communications.

This might include the number of emails you're sending or receiving each week, the number of emails or messages that go unread, etc. Include these KPIs in your communication plan as well.

3. Identify stakeholders

Identify who needs to be kept in the loop on your project and what information they want or need to receive. The key stakeholder on the client side might want detailed status updates about individual tasks or who's working on them, but that person's boss might only need high level project updates less often.

Make a note of everyone's contact information and keep this in your plan.

4. Define the frequency of communication

Based on the project goals, consider how frequently to communicate with different stakeholders and what content to include.

You might use multiple approaches, such as weekly check-ins to review project timeline and budget, daily check-ins for on-the-fly questions, and regular meetings to present major project milestones.

Keep your project parameters and goals in mind—these should help you identify what types of information need to be communicated more often or less often.

5. Define communication methods

Some stakeholders might prefer to receive updates through email, Slack, or via a dashboard you've set up for status updates. This kind of information is also important to include in your communication plan, and it keeps stakeholders happy.

Sometimes the info you're communicating dictates the right method of communication. For example, it's best to conduct project kickoffs through in person meetings (or over video call), but quick questions can be dealt with via Slack or email. Note which methods your stakeholders prefer and when you'll need for them for bigger milestone meetings so they're aware in advance.

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What to Include in a Project Communication Plan

While the specifics of your project management communication plan may vary depending on the project type and scope, there are a few key items you should include in every project communication plan you create.

Key stakeholders

Note the key stakeholders, including your primary client contact. Add contact information, such as phone numbers and emails, so that anyone who accesses the communication plan can find this information.

Team members

Include each of the project team members, along with their roles. This is handy for anyone new to or unfamiliar with the project. Identify which team members are responsible for producing deliverables, leading strategic discussions, and/or handling technical conversations with stakeholders.

Communication methods

Outline the primary communication methods and channels you use to contact stakeholders, such as email, phone calls, meetings, Slack, or others. Include notes on stakeholders’ preferred channels.

Communication types

List the project communications plus how to share the information, what to include, and the target audience. For example, you might be providing weekly project status reports to the client. Consider the communication mechanism, distribution list, and what information to include in the report.

Communication styles

Differentiate by stakeholder and communication method. For example, does a certain stakeholder prefer formal communications only, or can you be a little more casual in your tone?

Meeting schedule

While you can adjust this as needed throughout the project, having an initial idea of how often you meet with stakeholders is helpful. Depending on the scope of the project , you might also want to outline how often you email the client. Be sure to include internal team meetings also.

Key messages

For each stakeholder, determine the key message or information that you wish to communicate. What’s the right message that resonates with that group? This should also include any information or feedback you need to collect.

Communication goals 

A good communication plan includes communication goals. This helps ensure that you make decisions with your desired outcomes in mind.

Project Communication Plan Example

Based on the items we outlined above, here’s what a sample project communication plan could look like.

Communication goals

List the project communication goals upfront, so everyone who accesses the plan can get on board with decisions that work toward achieving those goals. Make sure they’re measurable.

Stakeholder information and communication preferences

A table can be useful for listing project stakeholders and their preferences. 

For more complex projects, you might wish to break down the notes column to share further details (ex. you could create an additional column to share stakeholder availability or any other information that’s crucial to how and when you communicate.)

Types of communication

Use this section to consider the ways you communicate with your stakeholders. This helps ensure that communication is consistent, meaningful, and successful.

Benefits of Project Communication Plans

Developing and documenting a communication strategy makes your projects run more smoothly and helps you avoid project failure .

Find more communication strategies in project management here .

Improved project planning

A project communication plan supplements your project plan by outlining more details about how the team will work together.

If you've made decisions in advance about how you'll deliver critical information, including which communication channel to use, by whom, and at what frequency, you won't have to do this later when you have urgent updates but no idea who to share them with.

Accurate stakeholder expectations

You have to define expectations upfront for communication to have any chance of the project going smoothly.

By letting the client know early in the project process what they can expect, you set the tone for the entire project. It’s also helpful for stakeholders to know in advance what you need from them so they can be prepared when the time comes.

Easier stakeholder management

The best way to get stakeholder buy-in is to set a communication plan, follow that plan, and use it to conduct successful communication to align on the goal and milestones (and then realign as needed).

A project communication plan fosters a shared understanding of the comms workflow so everyone knows what is happening and what should be happening on your project.

Download Project Communication Plan Template

Looking for a project communication plan template? Would a filled-in sample help?

Download our template for an easy way to gather all of the contact info and instructions you’ll need for your projects. The sample also shows best practices for filling out the template.

How to Use a Project Communication Plan

1. share it with your team.

Sharing the plan with your team informs them of your communication cadence—which affects their work and delivery dates—but also gives them more context around how you communicate and with whom. Sharing this information means your team can support you as you execute the plan.

2. Stay on track

Book any key project meetings as soon as you have a plan in place, and add reminders to your calendar for regular check-ins and even project emails so that you stay on track with the important items you’ve defined in your plan. 

If you find yourself straying from your communications plan at any point and have trouble getting back to it, reconsider the approach you’ve defined:

• Does it still align with your project goals?
• Have the goals—or stakeholders—changed in any way since the project started?
• Are there more effective ways to communicate project information at this point?

For help tracking project progress and providing accurate information to stakeholders, check out this list of project management software .

What Do You Think?

What tactics do you find most effective in creating project communication plans? Join the conversation in Slack with 100's of other digital project managers with DPM Membership !

9 Key Project Communication Strategies & How To Best Use Them

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Explore how Microsoft's partnership with Khan Academy is enhancing the future of education with AI innovation and tools for teachers >

• AI in education
• Published Jan 23, 2024

Meet your AI assistant for education: Microsoft Copilot

• Content Type
• Microsoft Copilot

With new advancements in AI happening faster than ever before, you might be wondering how you can use these tools in your classroom to save you time and energy. Educators worldwide are making strides to understand and integrate AI into their work and often find it to be a valuable tool. You can use AI to save time creating rubrics, personalized content for students, and educational materials such as quizzes and lesson plans.   

Generative AI is a newer piece of technology and a unique category of AI that focuses on creating new content. With generative AI you can generate new content like text, images, code, or audio. It achieves this by learning patterns from existing data and understanding the context and intent of language. This provides you with new opportunities for content creation, personalization, and innovation. Because this technology is creating new content, checking for accuracy in generative AI is essential—especially in the field of education.  

Microsoft Copilot is a tool that uses generative AI to serve as a helpful assistant to you in the classroom. Copilot can help you save time, differentiate instruction, and enhance student learning. With Copilot, you can easily create lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, and other class resources for any level of learner.  

5 ways to use Copilot in education 

Here are just a few examples of the many ways you can use Microsoft Copilot to save time and energy: 

• Personalized learning: Copilot can support personalized learning by helping you create content, tailored feedback, and guidance for students based on their individual needs and learning styles. 
• Brainstorming: You can use Copilot to brainstorm new ideas for activities, lesson plans, supporting materials, and assignments.  
• Lesson planning: Copilot can help you plan lessons by suggesting or drafting activities, resources, and assessments that align with learning objectives. You can also use Copilot to start a rubric for the lessons. 
• Provide feedback: Copilot can help you draft initial feedback and ideas for students on their work, which you can edit and personalize for your students.  
• Get quick answers: Copilot can help you get quick answers to your questions without having to read through multiple search results. Also, Copilot provides links to content sources so you can assess the source or dive deeper into the original content. 

Microsoft Copilot showing suggested prompts for educators. Copilot uses generative AI to serve as a helpful assistant to you in the classroom. 

Getting started with Microsoft Copilot

To get started with Microsoft Copilot, you can follow these steps:  

• Open copilot.microsoft.com or select the Copilot icon on the sidebar in your Microsoft Edge browser. 
• Type your prompt into the chat window. 
• Review the sources linked at the bottom by “Learn more.” You can fact-check the information provided or dive deeper into a topic by accessing the original articles, studies, or reports. 
• Review the response to make sure the output is what you want and accurate. You are the expert, and you decide what goes into the classroom. 
• To get the most out of Copilot, you can keep the conversation going by following up on your prompts. This helps you collaborate with Copilot to gain more useful, tailored responses.   

You can also give feedback to Copilot based on the quality of its responses to help the AI learn and match your preferences.  

How to write a prompt for AI 

To effectively guide generative AI, you want to give it clear and concise instructions, known as prompts. A well-crafted prompt enhances the generative AI’s output in the quality, relevance, and diversity. A good prompt should be clear, specific, and aligned with the goal of the generation task. A bad prompt can lead to ambiguous, irrelevant, or biased output. To get the best response from Copilot, consider the following tips:  

• Define clear objectives.  Determine the main goal of the prompt and the role AI should take. Whether creating a syllabus, drafting a quiz, or revising lesson content, have a clear vision of the end goal. 
• Be specific.  Chat experiences operate best when given detailed instructions. Specify grade level, subject, topic, or any other relevant parameters. For instance, “secondary math quiz on algebraic expressions” is clearer than “math quiz.” 
• Structure the prompt.  Break complex tasks into smaller parts. Instead of asking the AI to draft an entire lesson, request an outline, then delve into specific sections. 
• Iterate and refine.  The first response from AI might not always align perfectly with expectations. Don’t hesitate to rephrase the prompt, ask follow-up questions, or provide more context based on the initial output. 
• Combine expertise.  Use AI as a tool to enhance and streamline work but remember to overlay its suggestions with your educational expertise. AI can suggest content, but the educator decides the best way to edit and present it to their audience.   

A infographic about how to write AI prompts to get better answers from Copilot. A good prompt should be clear, specific, and aligned with the goal of the task. 

Want a fun way to practice creating effective prompts? Minecraft Education just announced Prompt Lab for Minecraft Educators , a free playbook on how to use Microsoft Copilot to write compelling prompts, develop interactive learning content and assessments, and generate creative ideas for Minecraft lesson plans.   

Create images from text with Copilot 

You can use Image Creator from Designer in Copilot to create personalized, engaging visuals for all sorts of lessons or topics. You can type in a description of an image, provide additional context like location or activity, and choose an art style. Image Creator generates an image straight from your imagination. Prompts can begin with “draw an image” or “create an image.” You can use this tool to create images for a class newsletter, lesson, or Teams post.   

• Get started in Copilot prompting “create an image…”  
• Then build out your prompt with adjective + noun + verb + style.  
• Click on your favorite image to open the result in a new tab and save the image. 

 An example would be “Create an image of an adorable black puppy wearing a hat in photorealistic style.” 

An example of Copilot creating an image of a black dog wearing a hat in a photorealistic style, based on text descriptions. 

Try creating an image in Copilot for your lesson, or just for fun!   

Protected AI-powered chat

At Microsoft, our efforts are guided by our AI principles and Responsible AI Standard and build on decades of research on grounding and privacy-preserving machine learning. Copilot provides commercial data protection and delivers a secure AI-powered chat service for educational institutions. This means user and organizational data are protected, chat prompts and responses in Copilot are not saved, Microsoft has no eyes-on access to them, and they aren’t used to train the underlying large language models. Additionally, our  Customer Copyright Commitment  means education customers can be confident using our services and the output they generate without worrying about copyright claims.  

Get to know your Copilot 

Dive deeper into the world of generative AI and unlock its full potential for your classroom.  

• The new  AI for Educators Learning Path  on  Microsoft Learn is made up of three modules to help educators learn about and benefit from AI. 
• Prompt Lab for Minecraft Educators demonstrates how to use Microsoft Copilot with Minecraft Education to design engaging learning experiences. Level up your Minecraft teaching with this useful new resource! 
• AI classroom toolkit provides instructional information for educators and students to use generative AI safely and responsibly. 
• AI for education on  Microsoft Learn is a collection of resources and courses on how to use AI for educational purposes.  

Ready to elevate your teaching with Microsoft Copilot? Start using Copilot today! copilot.microsoft.com  

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