Classroom practice - Five simple steps for raising achievement

Forget top-down measures and government diktats, the key to success is in your own hands. To boost learning, follow this guide
28th March 2014, 12:00am

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Classroom practice - Five simple steps for raising achievement

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/classroom-practice-five-simple-steps-raising-achievement

Such is the politicised nature of education, answers to the question “how do you raise achievement in schools?” are rarely free from ideological baggage, and almost always come from above after little consultation with us humble teachers.

It is no surprise, then, that the majority of measures aimed at raising achievement look at the administrative, political or management level of education. Some of these suggested solutions focus on school structures. Some look at the curriculum. Others consider the examination process. There have also been debates recently on the role of selection, vocational education and the burgeoning impact of technology.

As teachers, we soak up all the consequent diktats. But whatever the changes that take place around us, we will remain where we have always stood - in the classroom, interacting with students.

And it is here that politicians are consistently missing the most important factor in raising achievement: the quality and effectiveness of the teaching that students receive. Many factors affect this but ultimately teachers hold the key themselves. Unfortunately, the many interventions to raise achievement noted above - those that start from the top and work down - do not pay heed to this fact by giving teachers more help and guidance.

It is not as if there has been no research to let politicians know they are often looking at the wrong areas. A number of high-profile studies in recent years have identified the central role that teachers play in raising achievement. These include a report by social mobility charity the Sutton Trust on the impact of teachers on student achievement in the UK, Rand Education’s Teachers Matter and the Measures of Effective Teaching project from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In each case, the significant benefits of good teaching and high-quality interactions are clearly illustrated.

So rather than simply trying to determine how to make school systems better, it would be wise for the powers that be to look at how educators can be helped to improve student-teacher interactions in order to boost achievement. Numerous options are available, but these five, built on interventions singled out by Professor John Hattie in his book Visible Learning, will serve as a foundation for teacher progression.

1. Be clear

Every teacher has got to the end of a lesson and realised that their students just don’t get it. This is generally the result of lack of clarity. There are two key areas where communication can fall down.

  • When explaining ideas: you are most at risk of ambiguity when you are discussing a subject with which you are very familiar. This can lead to false assumptions about what the students already know and understand.
  • When giving instructions: again, familiarity with a subject can cause us to overestimate students’ prior knowledge, leading to a lack of clarity in what we are asking them to do.
    • So what can you do? Well, first up is modelling. This is where you demonstrate what you want the class to do: giving them a sentence starter, showing them how you would complete an activity or giving a visual representation of an idea (dropping a pen to demonstrate gravity, for example).

      You can also ask students to re-explain. This helps you to judge whether your explanation was clear and gives the students a second chance of absorbing the information. Ask two students to reprise your explanation, indicating that the first should re-explain and the second should listen in, ready to add anything they think has been missed.

      2. Give feedback

      Every time you communicate with students about what they are doing and how they might do or think about things differently, you are providing feedback. Doing this well will help students perform better. Here are three ways to give more feedback during your lessons.

      • When students are working, walk around the room and make suggestions or ask questions designed to aid the students’ understanding or to challenge their thinking.
      • During a group task, invite groups up to your desk in turn. Talk to them about where they are at and what they are doing. Give them feedback based on what you hear.
      • Talk to your class as a whole about how they are doing, where you would like them to go next and what they could do to make more progress.
        • Some teachers rightly observe that comment-based marking takes longer than simply assigning marks or grades. One way to speed up the process of giving formative feedback is to ensure that you are familiar with the success criteria relevant to your subject. Take 20 minutes out of your day to make a list of everything your subject requires in order for student work to be deemed successful. Every time you mark a set of books, have the list to hand and use it to help you write your comments more swiftly.

          3. Don’t label students

          Labelling students means that you attach certain expectations and judgements to them in advance of meeting, working with and getting to know them, usually based on what you have heard from colleagues or information from school data. This is simply wrong. Each student should start every lesson with a clean slate.

          That is not easy to ensure, of course, and nor is it an excuse to ignore or gloss over poor behaviour. Make it clear that negative or disruptive behaviour will be dealt with but that every student has the opportunity to start afresh every lesson. You’ll be surprised by how much expectations can influence behaviour and achievement.

          4. Build teacher-student relationships

          An excellent lesson will always have at its heart an excellent relationship between the teacher and their students. So here are three quick and easy ways to help you develop a good teacher-student bond.

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