Comments on: Effective teaching practices

By: Muhammad Musaud Asdaque

Muhammad Musaud Asdaque — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:08:47 +0000

Thanks for this useful article. It is nice to know that the world of teacher education has bright spots. I teach, as I share these ideas in every class session.

By: John Wills Lloyd

John Wills Lloyd — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:45:45 +0000

Ahh, Rosemary. Thanks for the encouraging note. It’s nice to know that the world of teacher education has bright spots. Folks in your classes would probably feel at home in a course I teach, as I restate these ideas in pretty much every class session.

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:47:34 +0000

Hello John L. You mentioned, “Sadly, this level of direct instruction (”little di” in my language) is not only not practiced in US classrooms, but is probably rejected in the so-called ‘teacher education’ many prospective teachers receive.”

I thought you would be pleased to know that your “little di” list is exactly what I am learning in my classes (MS EDUCATION). As a matter of fact your page popped up when trying to find resources for a paper about effective teaching strategies. Both the book and the instructor have drilled this system in our heads. So please, don’t sigh, we’re working on it.

By: John Tenny

John Tenny — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:54:36 +0000

The list of effective practices above is a solid set of practices to implement. It would be interesting to gather data on the fidelity of implementation of those practices, with tools like:

Distribution of Time which tracks the amount of time the teacher spends in review, teaching, guided practice, independent practice, and assessment.

Reference to Goals which tracks the number of times the teach refers

Teacher Talk which tracks the amount of time the teacher versus student has the floor

Student Question Type to track the student’s questions re procedure, clarification, content, and housekeeping

Time on Task-Group to track the time students are activity involved in learning.

Numerous tools to track questions, from Bloom’s Taxonomy, to Divergent Question Type, Questioning Rate, etc

Student Error Response to track how the teacher responds to students when they make an error

Repeat Directions to track how often the teacher repeats and repeats with changes directions to students

….and many more. None of this data is evaluative and can easily be gathered teacher to teacher. Having objective frequency and timer data on the fidelity of implementation of any desired practice will reduce the ‘black box’ effect where a school implements a curriculum/teaching method but only measures success by the student test scores.

All this and more is part of the eCOVE Observation Software, which I wrote after a full career in education. I’m glad to answer any questions – john@ecove.net You can search for eCOVE Software as well.