Introduction
For hundreds and thousands of years, the world has been experiencing a drastic change in the teaching strategies adopted by the teachers today. As compared to the olden times, students then were taught concepts and theories without much practical knowledge. Studies were not given much importance until the beginning of the 18th or 19th century, studies have been given prime importance in our lives. For studies to be optimal the best schools were chosen and subsequently, they had the best teachers. This confirmed the optimum education of a child. The major part has to be played by the teacher involved. The following paper discusses the teaching strategies from the book- “The Art and Science of Teaching” by Robert J. Marzano.
Main text
Teaching is believed by many to be a form of science. But, conversely, there is no formula for effective teaching. The three general characteristics of effective teaching have been articulated in the framework presented in the book- “The Art and Science of Teaching” are as follows:
- Use of effective instructional strategies
- Use of effective classroom management strategies
- Effective classroom curriculum design
The above characteristics are also known as “classroom pedagogy” and they are highly independent of each other.
The initial question, which keeps a teacher’s mind occupied, is “ What will I do to establish and communicate learning goals, track student progress, and celebrate success?”
After a teacher completes a particular section of the unit in the class, the teacher must ask questions regarding what has been taught in the previous section. Every student must get a chance to answer. At the end of the unit, completing it section-wise, every student gets a sense of accomplishment since each one knows something or the other about the unit.
One strong finding from the research on formative assessment is related to student academic achievement. Every test helps in increasing the student’s comprehension. Continuous tests must be scheduled to assess the student’s ability to understand the content of the unit.
Researches indicate that when verbal rewards are employed i.e. positive comments about good performance or acknowledgment of knowledge gain, the possibility of a student’s increasing scores and confidence increases manifolds. Occasionally, a learning goal involves a substantial amount of declarative and procedural knowledge. A teacher must frame his/her report in terms of
Students will understand _________ and be able to _______ (p.16).
Also, to rate a student according to his/her ability to comprehend, the teacher must write a rubric or scale for each Learning Goal. This rubric is as follows:
There is also a complex scale, which is a logical extension of the simplified scale. The teacher should also make sure that-
- He should make students chart their progress on each learning goal
- He must access students using a formative approach
- He must have students identify their own learning goal
- In the end, he must recognize and celebrate the student’s growth
The next puzzle is- “What will I do to help students effectively interact with new knowledge?”
Every student must be given a chance to express what has he/she understood of the unit taught and later allowed to be taken complete notes. Researchers Cobb, Yackel and Wood (1992) describe the process in the following way:
“The teaching-learning process is interactive in nature and involves the implicit and explicit negotiation of meanings.” (p.5, Accessed from: ‘The Art and Science of Teaching’: p.31)
Other questions in consideration are: “What should I do to help students practice and deepen understanding of new knowledge?”
“What should I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge?”
And “What should I do to engage students?”
Robert J. Marzano has also listed various macro strategies in the book. They are:
- Previewing
- Summarizing and note-taking
- Questioning students
- Co-operative learning
Previewing is an activity that starts students thinking about the content they will encounter in a critical input-output experience. These activities appear particularly useful for students who do not possess a great deal of background knowledge about the topic. (Mayer, 1979, West & Fensham, 1976)
Lastly, various action steps have also been listed by Marzano that are:
- Identify critical input-output experiences- by showing videos and demonstrations to the students.
- Preview the content prior to a critical input-output experience.
- Organize students into groups to enhance the active processing of information.
- Present new information in small chunks and ask for descriptions, discussions and predictions.
References
Cobb, Wood & Yackle (1992), In “The art and science of teaching”- Marzano J. R.
Mayer (1979), In “The art and science of teaching”- Marzano J. R.
West & Fensham (1976), In “The art and science of teaching”- Marzano J. R.