I've been looking for a good read about quality teaching and the best evidence-based and proven practices in New Zealand and came across the following report:
Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis
by Adrienne Alton-Lee (2003)
(‘This report is one of a series of best evidence syntheses commissioned by the Ministry of Education. It is part of a commitment to strengthen the evidence base that informs education policy and practice in New Zealand. It aims to contribute to an ongoing evidence-based discourse amongst policymakers, educators and researchers.’)
It was an interesting read as it confirmed my thinking in a way that ‘quality teaching can optimise outcomes for diverse learners across the curriculum, and throughout Schooling.’
The research identified some practical areas of how to improve the quality of teaching that can be summarised and aligned with the High-Leverage Practices that Manaiakalani schools have been focusing on.
I decided to benchmark my teaching practice against some of the research-based characteristics of quality teaching to reflect on and identify areas for improvement.
Quality teaching promotes learning orientations and student self-regulation
- I use student voice to allow my student to take ownership of their learning and create student-driven content.
Teaching promotes metacognitive strategy use (e.g. mental strategies in numeracy) by all students.
- I use Number talk, choral counting and problem-solving in maths that require a lot of thinking, and Integrated learning that allows my students to apply their new knowledge in real-life situations.
Teaching scaffolds reciprocal or alternating tuakana teina roles in student groups, or interactive work.
- I use mixed ability groups and drama to provide opportunities for tuakana teina learning.
Teaching promotes sustained thoughtfulness (e.g. through questioning approaches, wait-time, and the provision of opportunities for application and invention).
- I use Talk Moves across the curriculum.
Teaching promotes critical thinking.
- My programme includes a lot of questioning, information analysis, compare and contrast tasks, and Learn-Create-Share projects.
Teaching makes transparent to students the links between strategic effort and accomplishment. - Just a recent example. My students worked on a play. I recorded their first attempt, then we watched it and discussed how we could improve their performance. The students came up with great ideas and continued to work on their play. Finally, we recorded it again and evaluated it. My students were very proud of their effort and the result.
It was a good exercise as this will help me continue to refine my own practice and support my team in their teaching journey.
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