Organising instruction & study: 7 recommendations to improve student learning

This blog is a summary of a Practice Guide by Pashler et al. from 2007, which sets out to provide teachers with specific strategies for instruction and study.

I came across it in a roundabout way via this paper by Dunlosky et al cited in the “What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research” by Rob Coe et al.

The central tenet of this particular Practice Guide is that learning depends on memory, which can in turn be strengthened by concrete strategies. These strategies help students to master new knowledge and skills, without forgetting what they have learned.

A note on Practice Guides

The Health Care professions have been using practice guides for some time now to communicate evidence-based advice to medical practitioners.

The recommendations contained within Practice Guides are intended to be:

• Actionable by practitioners
• Coherent in their approach
• Explicitly connected to the level of supporting evidence

Levels of evidence are determined by the types of studies used to draw conclusions, ranging from stronger levels of evidence that come from RCTs, with more moderate levels of evidence coming from non-randomised studies, down to lower levels of evidence that are drawn from the opinions of respected authorities.

Practice Guides are not systematic reviews or meta-analyses that have been subject to detailed literature surveys. Instead they rely more on their authors’ expertise to identify the most important research relative to the recommendations made, in order to characterise its meaning and provide specific, actionable steps. The recommendations contained in this Practice Guide have been agreed by the authors concerned and subjected to independent peer review.

Recommendations

1: Space learning over time – moderate level of evidence

Most of the research in this area has been focused on the acquisition of facts and remembering definitions of terms. To improve retention, students should be exposed to material at least twice, with a delay of weeks to months between exposures. Short delays of less than about 5% of the time between exposure and testing should be avoided. In other words, if you want students to remember material for a test in 6 months time, avoid re-exposure within less than a week or two. “Overshooting” the delay is better than reviewing too soon.

Teaching strategies:

• Regular, in-class review of previously covered material.
• Inclusion of previously covered material in homework assignments.
• Mid-term and final testing that includes cumulative material.

2: Interleave worked examples with problem solving exercises – moderate level of evidence

Experiments and some classroom studies have shown that students learn more when switching between studying examples of worked-out solutions to problems and solving similar problems independently. In the studies cited, alternating and interleaving was more successful than giving students only problems to solve, or a block of worked examples followed by a block of problems to solve. Increasing the amount of variability between successive examples and problems was also beneficial. The scaffolding provided by the worked examples should gradually be removed with time by “fading” more and more stages of the worked examples into problems.

Teaching strategies:

• Provide a worked example for every other problem, e.g. for 10 questions, make questions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 worked examples.
• Model the solution to a problem with the class, and then ask students to solve the next problem independently (just one!)
• Ask some students to present their solutions, while others explain the steps (a worked example in its own right) followed by another problem to solve independently.

3: Combine graphics with verbal descriptions – moderate level of evidence

Adding visual representations, e.g. graphs, diagrams or other graphic formats to text descriptions can lead to better learning than just using text. Any accompanying text should be positioned as close as possible to the relevant section of the diagram. This can be further improved with the use of verbal descriptions to accompany visual representations, which allow for both elements to be scrutinised simultaneously.

Teaching strategies:

• Provide visual representations to support the explanation of processes or concepts.
• Highlight the relevant parts of the visual representation while describing processes or concepts.
• Using simplified diagrams that show the relevant parts, rather than more complex representations is sometimes more beneficial.
• Share multiple visual representations, e.g. pictures, models, real objects etc. to illustrate how a single concept can be depicted in different ways.

4: Connect and integrate abstract and concrete representations of concepts – moderate level of evidence

Here, the research seems to suggest that teaching concepts using only concrete representations supports initial understanding but doesn’t support transfer to novel, but relevant contexts. Whereas, using only abstract representations initially can take longer to develop initial understanding, this greater initial difficulty is compensated for via improved application to different situations.

One proposal suggested to utilise the benefits of both is “concreteness fading” with initial concrete examples being gradually and systematically replaced by more abstract representations. Another is to explicitly identify and draw students’ attention to the relationship between the concrete and abstract components in representations of the same concept.

Teaching strategies:

• Show the same idea in multiple forms to show that deep structure is constant despite surface changes.
• Connect abstract ideas to relevant concrete representations and situations.
• Highlight relevant features across both abstract and concrete representations.
• Avoid using the same type of example repeatedly, i.e. examples all from one area, e.g. “sports”
• Avoid knowledge becoming “inert” by allowing time to draw connections between multiple, interleaved examples that vary in their concreteness or abstractness.
• Anchor new ideas in stories or scenarios that are familiar and interesting.

5a: Use pre-questions to introduce a topic – low level of evidence

Pre-questions are thought to activate prior knowledge and focus students’ attention on the material to be learned.

Despite recommending it as way to improve student learning, the panel deemed the level of evidence for quizzing to be low, as most of the research had been completed with college students, or based on laboratory experiments carried out on reading from written text, rather than tested as a component of regular classroom instruction.

The research does seem to suggest, however, that when pre-questions are used to preview the content of assigned material, there will likely be gains in learning of the pre-questioned material, providing students don’t read selectively based on the content of the pre-questions used.

Teaching strategies:

• Direct students’ attention to important facts and concepts by using pre-questions to introduce new topics.
• Prepare several pre-questions that students can attempt immediately on entering the lesson as part of the “do now”

5b: Use quizzes to re-expose students to information – strong level of evidence

The act of practising recalling information from memory enhances learning, reduces the rate of forgetting and cements information to memory.

Laboratory experiments across a wide range of materials and ages have repeatedly demonstrated that testing promotes remembering of material on a later test, and is almost always more powerful than spending additional time studying material.

Teaching strategies:

• Take every opportunity to prompt students to retrieve information.
• Use closed book quizzes after teaching material, prior to final testing.
• Ensure corrective feedback is provided following testing to ensure errors don’t remain.
• Use websites, e.g. http://www.quia.com to share or create quizzes.

6a: Teach students how to use delayed judgement of learning techniques to identify concepts that need further study – low level of evidence

The evidence in support of this recommendation comes mainly from experimental research in the laboratory, rather than in the classroom.

Without training, most learners cannot accurately assess what they know and what they don’t, and typically overestimate how well material has been mastered – “the illusion of knowing.” Knowing what you have and haven’t mastered accurately, is therefore essential in identifying what you still need to spend time studying, which in turn increases the likelihood of performing better when tested.

The “cue-only delayed judgement of learning procedure” is thought to be a key technique for breaking this illusion, which works as follows:

1. Students should test their mastery of material after a meaningful delay.
2. Students should only have access to “the cue” and not the answer when testing whether they know concepts or not, i.e. multiple choice questions should not be used for this purpose.
3. Students should judge how likely they are to get the answer right, as well as answering the question.

A similar technique, the “delayed keyword technique” supports students to judge how well they have retained material they have read after a delay, for example a section of a textbook or a chapter of a book, by asking them to generate keywords or sentences that summarise the main points.

Teaching strategies:

• Pre-prepare 10 questions (for example) that capture the core content to be learned.
• Give the students the questions one at a time, asking them to use a scale of 1 to 100 to judge how likely they feel they would be able to answer the question correctly tomorrow
• Ask students to review the material, use a text or ask the teacher to find out and record the answer to any question they did not score as 100.
• Use repeatedly over the course of the year, teaching students how to use this technique independently.
• Teach students to use the “delayed keyword technique” to generate four key terms and definitions following assigned reading out of class, followed by re-reading if they are unable to do this.

6b: Use tests and quizzes to identify content that needs to be learned – low level of evidence

The evidence in support of this recommendation comes mainly from experimental research of college students and laboratory tests, rather than in the classroom.

As previously stated: Inaccurate judgements by learners of what they have and haven’t learned well can mean subsequent study is focused on the wrong items.

Quizzing is thought to help students identify which items are not well learned, as does re-reading material when a test is interspersed between readings.

Teaching strategies:

• Closed book quizzes following presentation of material.
• Very short “spot check” quizzes covering material from the previous night or prior classwork.

7: Help students build explanations by asking and answering deep questions – strong level of evidence

The evidence base includes over a dozen experimental studies each, in both school and college settings, plus a large number of laboratory experiments.

Shallow knowledge is concerned with basic facts or skills, whereas deep knowledge is when learners are able argue with reason and logic, explore relationships between facts or concepts or answer “why?”

Interventions that specifically train students how to ask deep level questions while studying new material, e.g. classroom discussion, provision of exemplar materials and modelling how to ask and answer questions, have been shown to improve the rate and depth of student questions, as well as their comprehension of the material.

Teaching strategies:

• Identify and prepare deep level questions that require deep level responses.
• Ask questions that challenge students’ prior beliefs and assumptions.
• Model the process of asking and answering deep questions.
• Model and encourage students to “think aloud”.
• Encourage students to respond to explanations by their peers.
• Allow plenty of time to answer deep level questions.

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The IES Practice Guide: Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning by Pashler et al (2007) is available here.

 

10 Research Based Principles of Instruction for Teachers

I recently read an American Educator article from 2012 by Barak Rosenshine that set out 10 principles of instruction informed by research, with subsequent suggestions for implementing them in the classroom. It was also one of the articles cited in the “What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research” by Rob Coe et al and provided further elaboration on one of their six components of great teaching thought to have strong evidence of impact on student outcomes, i.e. quality of instruction.

Here’s my summary of the key messages from each of the 10 principles.

1: Begin with a short review of prior learning

Students in experimental classes where daily review was used had higher achievement scores. A 5-8 minute review of prior learning was said to strengthen connections between material learned and improve recall so that it became effortless and automatic, thus freeing up working memory.

Daily review could include, for example:

• Homework
• Previous material
• Key vocabulary
• Problems where there were errors
• Further practise of knowledge, concepts and skills

2: Present new material in small amounts or steps

Working memory is small and can only cope with small chunks at a time. Too much information presented at once overloads it and can confuse students, who won’t be able to process it. Sufficient time needs to be allocated to processes that will allow students to work with confidence independently. More effective teachers in the study dealt with the limitation of working memory by presenting only small amounts of new material at a time.

3: Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students

Questions allow students to practise new material and connect new material to prior learning. They also help teachers to determine how well material has been learned and whether additional teaching is required. The most effective teachers asked students to explain the process they used and how they answered the question, as well as answering the question posed.

Strategies suggested for checking the responses of all students included asking students to:

• Tell their answers to a partner
• Write a short summary and share it with a partner
• Write their answers on a mini-white board or similar, followed by “show me”
• Raise their hands if they know the answer or agree with someone else

4: Provide models

Students require cognitive support to reduce the cognitive load on their working memory and help them to solve problems faster. Examples include:

• Providing clearly laid out, step-by-step worked examples
• Identifying and explaining the underlying principles of each step
• Modelling the use of prompts
• Working together with students on tasks
• Providing partially completed problems

5: Guide student practice

New material will quickly be forgotten without sufficient rehearsal. Rehearsal helps students to access information quickly and easily when required. Additional time needs to be spent by students summarising, rephrasing or elaborating on new material so that it can become:

• Stored in long-term memory
• Easily retrieved
• Used for new learning and problem solving

The quality of storage relies on:

• Student engagement with the material
• Providing feedback to the students to correct errors and ensure misconceptions aren’t stored

The rehearsal process can be facilitated and enhanced by:

• Questioning students
• Asking students to summarise the main points
• Supervising students during practice

In one study, the more successful teachers spent more time guiding practice, for example by working through initial problems at the board whilst explaining the reasons for each step or asking students to work out problems at the board and discuss their procedures. This also served as a way of providing multiple models for students to allow them to be better prepared for independent work.

6: Check for student understanding

More effective teachers frequently checked for understanding. Checking for understanding identifies whether students are developing misconceptions as well as providing some of the processing required to move new learning into long-term memory.

The purpose of checking is twofold:

1. Answering questions might cause students to elaborate and strengthen connections to prior learning in their long term-memory
2. The answers provided by students alert the teacher to parts of the material that may need reteaching

A number of strategies can be used to check for understanding, e.g:

• Questioning
• Asking students to think aloud as they work
• Asking students to defend a position to others

7: Obtain a high success rate

When students learn new material, they construct meaning in their long-term memory. Errors can be made though, as they attempt to be logical in areas where their background knowledge may still be weak. It was suggested that the optimal success rate for fostering student achievement is approximately 80%. Furthermore, it was said that achieving a success rate of 80% showed that students were learning the material, whilst being suitably challenged. High success rates during guided practice led to higher success rates during independent work. If practice did not have a high success rate, there was a chance that errors were being practised and learned, which then become difficult to overcome. The development of misconceptions can be limited by breaking material down into small steps, providing guided practice and checking for understanding.

8: Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks

Scaffolds are temporary supports that help students to learn difficult tasks, which are gradually withdrawn with increasing competence. The use of scaffolds and models, aided by a master, helps students to serve their “cognitive apprenticeship” and learn strategies that allow them to become independent.

Scaffolds include:

• Thinking aloud by the teacher to reveal the thought processes of an expert and provide mental labels during problem solving
• Providing poor examples to correct, as well as expert models
• Tools such as cue cards or checklists
• Prompts such as “Who?” “Why?” and “How? that enable students to ask questions as they work
• Box prompts to categorise and elaborate on the main ideas
• A model of the completed task for students to compare their own work to

9: Require and monitor independent practice

Independent practice follows guided practice and involves students working alone and practising new material. Sufficient practice is necessary for students to become fluent and automatic. This avoids overcrowding working memory, and enables more attention to be devoted to comprehension and application.

Independent practice should involve the same material as guided practice, or with only slight variation. The research showed that optimal teacher-student contact time during supervision was 30 seconds or less, with longer explanations being required an indication that students were practising errors.

10: Engage students in weekly and monthly review

As students rehearse and review information, connections between ideas in long-term memory are strengthened. The more information is reviewed, the stronger these connections become. This also makes it easier to learn new information, as prior knowledge becomes more readily available for use. It also frees up space in working memory, as knowledge is organised into larger, better-connected patterns.

Practical suggestions for implementation include:

• Review the previous week’s work at the beginning of the following week
• Review the previous month’s work at the beginning of every fourth week
• Test following a review
• Weekly quizzes

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The full report by Barak Rosenshine: Principles of Instruction – Research based strategies that all teachers should know is available here.

Teach Like a Champion: Part 3 – Term 1 Review

This post is the third in a series of posts written by our Associate AHT for Pedagogy and Practice, Julie Ryder.  You can read Teach Like a Champion: Part 1 – Introducing TLaC here and Part 2: Training the Trainers here.

I do not see the TLaC techniques as a teaching rule book or an instruction manual for creating a perfect teacher. What the techniques mean to me are an opportunity to reflect and work on fine tuning the teaching I already do. As a child and young adult over a period of 15 years I competed on my horse and was considered a confident and competent horsewoman, however I still chose to have lessons once a fortnight to fine tune and perfect my technique. This allowed me to focus my practice and work on specific areas to perfect my skills. This is how I see TLaC, those working in the PPD group are competent and confident teachers with a huge range of skills and experience who want to fine tune their practice to be even better. These are good teachers who want to be better, what more could I ask for.

Session breakdown

During term 1 we looked at the following two techniques in depth however we also introduced “100%” and “Show Call.”

Setting High Academic Expectations
No Opt Out	A sequence that begins with a student unwilling or unable to answer a question ends with that student giving the right answer as often as possible even if they only repeat it.
Engaging Students In Your Lessons
Cold Call	In order to make engaged participation the expectation, call on students regardless of whether they have raised their hands.

I chose “No Opt Out” and “Cold Call” as they are suggested to have the biggest impact on the culture of expectations in the classroom above any other combination.

We met sometimes as a whole group and sometimes as two smaller groups depending on the focus or activity, sessions were held weekly during PPD time for one hour throughout the term. Role play, though difficult for some, has an important place in developing the techniques and making them your own.

Session	Intentions	Notes
1	Introduction to TLAC, research behind the programme and outline of No Opt Out and Cold Call	Background to TLAC and video clips of techniques from Uncommon Schools.
2	To produce and practice a roll out speech for introduction of Cold Call to students.	I shared an example of a Roll Out speech and Cold Call practice by myself and a few colleagues. We then practiced our Roll Out in groups.
3	Practicing Cold Call using resources from the Train the Trainers workshop	We used the resources to work in groups to practice our responses to cold call with students during a questioning session.
4	No Opt Out practice using our own resources and offering feedback.	During these sessions we used a series of questions from our own subject areas. We prepared questions and answers for the rest of the group. In addition I produced “behaviour” cards for the class so that not only did we try the Cold Call technique but also had the opportunity to use No Opt Out and 100% as we went. The cards were handed out after shuffling for each round of Cold Call and though most were “model student” cards there were “I don’t know”, “hands up” , “chewing”, “shouting out” “not paying attention” etc. cards too. After each round we provided feedback:I liked it when………………………………Next time try ……………………………….
5	Group feedback on how things worked In the classroom.	Back together as a full group. A few of the group had the opportunity to share Cold Call with us all and we looked at some video resources from TLaC. We shared and discussed how the techniques had worked for us in the classroom.
6	To look at a few techniques that support pace, challenge and climate for learning. Improve our ability to determine when to give students a consequence or a correction in different classroom scenarios and look at how and why 100% is so important.	One of the trickiest aspects of managing a classroom is deciding when to give a consequence versus a correction. The question is tough because we must decide each scenario on a case-by-case basis and must do so swiftly, consistently, and repeatedly.The 100% strategy focuses on the need to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Studies show that multi-tasking actually doesn’t exist and isn’t even possible- rather the brain is constantly switching from activity to activity one at a time. This therefore suggests that students actually are unable to learn from a teacher while they are focused on something else no matter what it is.

Review of impact

As the school PPD programme has now been running for a term, staff were asked to give a brief review of its impact on students and their own professional practice.

All staff involved responded positively to the TLaC sessions and suggested that they are using the Cold Call and No Opt Out techniques more in lessons with positive results. Wait time and 100% are also having an impact in lessons.

In what ways has your participation in the TLAC PPD programme had impact on your professional practice?

“TLAC has made a big difference to my questioning across the board. The role play aspects while “uncomfortable” make you realise what’s involved in the execution of the new techniques. I feel I am learning lots of tweaks to what I do and I think about how students are answering much more. No opt out has been a revelation – going back to the student to ask again has kept them on their toes!”

“I am continuing to trial these techniques with classes and use them to improve my questioning.”

 “Cold Call has proved particularly useful.”

“It has taken me back to my early years of teaching and forced me to reflect on who and how to question in a positive, less threatening way.”

“Teach Like a Champion has made me think about the techniques I use to question and assess students. It has given me a greater range of ideas to use in lessons and the opportunity to see these in action.”

“I love the TLaC sessions and I am conscious that my classroom practice in questioning has improved as a result. I have enjoyed the sessions and also reading further in my own time. I am confident that the methods used so far have improved the climate and my use of questioning in classroom.”

“TLaC has given more structure to the beginning of lessons causing a reduction in the number of disruptions.”

 “Participating in the PPD program (Teach Like a Champion) has meant I have got to know a wider range of staff, and I have appreciated the cross curricular comparison of the use of questioning. I have included pictures and prompts in my questioning, as demonstrated in Art and Technology which has made students who I found would be less inclined to answer a question, more likely to do so.”

 “The Teach Like a Champion material has helped me hone some valuable skills in classroom management. It has improved my questioning technique and is improving behaviour in the classroom. I am less likely to enter into a debate with pupils about issues and simply stick to expectations and ‘what to do’ rather than dwelling on the negatives by telling them ‘what not to do’. ‘Doing it again’ has helped establish routines and improve resilience. Circulating during ‘Cold Call’ has helped establish universality. I try to adjust my wait time to allow greater thinking time for pupils and impact of the question. Being more economical with my language in setting tasks or expectations has had a positive impact. Being specific, concrete and sequential has reduced opportunities to misbehave and led to less exploitation of grey areas by pupils. I think I am improving the balance between correction and consequence and applying these at more appropriate times.”

Has being involved in the TLaC PPD had any impact on students?

“Yes, as seen in my lesson observations, I feel that this has had a positive impact on the students’ motivation and retention.” 

“Yes – especially No Opt Out – they are all now more engaged throughout a questioning episode.”

“Cold calling is now embedded in the lesson, 100% is working well too – basic, but a useful reminder not to accept 98%, as I had been guilty of that!”

“I think that Cold Call in particular has impacted the most on students in my class as they are more engaged when they know that they may be ‘called upon’ without having actually volunteered an answer.”

“Wait time has also improved the number of students who volunteer answers as I am now more aware of giving them appropriate thinking time before choosing a student to provide a response.”

“I have observed increased confidence overall and their expectations appear to have changed. Students know the lesson is a No Opt Out zone but also they now feel safer in contributing. I feel this has led to increased satisfaction with their work. Students appear to be more motivated and enthusiastic.”

“Students are much more prepared to answer questions as they know I may ask them at any time rather than them relying on those who put up their hands. This allows me to gain trust from less confident students by giving them questions I know they will be able to answer and then in turn they become more confident in their ability. I am looking forward to future sessions as the techniques are becoming more developed and natural the more I use them.”

“I have found it has improved engagement in class discussions, where speaking without volunteering is a requirement, but also in their written work in order to be prepared.”

“Pupils are now more focused as they are prepared for answering questions rather than ‘switching off’. Pupils are more aware of classroom expectations and this has improved behaviour in the classroom. Pupils don`t take corrective instructions as personally now when I maintain anonymity. This is helping promote positive relationships which I recognise from the past may have caused friction. Adjusting wait time (and emphasising key points) has led to better quality of responses when completing a Cold Call and more hands up when not.”

Next steps

It has been an absolute pleasure for me to work with a great group of colleagues promoting the TLaC techniques and reading about the impact this is having on both their professional practice and their students.

Term 2 will see us continuing with the techniques already looked at and ways to share good practice with each other in the classroom. In addition we will be adding more techniques to our tool box as we begin by looking at “Everybody Writes” which sets students up for rigorous engagement, by giving them the opportunity to reflect first in writing before discussing. We will also be looking at “Stretch It” where a sequence of learning does not end with the right answer, we reward right answers with follow up questions that extends knowledge and tests for reliability.

I look forward to updating you!

Teach Like a Champion: Part 2 – Training the Trainers

This post is the second of three written by our Associate AHT for Pedagogy and Practice, Julie Ryder.  You can read Teach Like a Champion: Part 1 – Introducing TLaC here.

In October 2014 I had the opportunity to attend a two-day work training event led by Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway. This event had been in my diary for months and was a highlight of my CPD in 2014. Not only did I have the opportunity to learn from Doug and the TLaC team themselves, but also to work with different teachers/leaders from both the UK and the USA. Everyone there was keen to develop their own practice, irrespective of their current role in school, to enable them to return to their schools equipped with resources that would allow them to lead on TLaC.

As an introduction Doug talked us through the identification of the TLaC techniques. He used data from the findings of his research from across a large number of schools to identify where students are achieving the highest grades despite being in the lowest socio-economic groups. Doug doesn’t profess to have a finite list of the answers and indeed states that with regard to TLaC: “at least some of it is wrong.” Considering he can only highlight what he has been able to see (so far), he admits he may have missed or misunderstood a technique, for example.

The new Teach Like a Champion 2.0 book that has just been released has 62 identified techniques compared to the 49 from the first edition. Doug was honest in explaining that not all of the techniques made the cut from the first to the second book, that some of them are new or slightly different. I personally like the fact that these techniques are evolving and adapting to suit the teachers and their students in the classrooms they are taught in.

The structure of the two days was relatively straight forward in that we looked at a number of techniques and practised using them ourselves and giving feedback in terms of:

“I liked it when…………….”
and
“Next time try……………..”

Perfect practice makes perfect

The key to success is centred on the practice of the techniques. Here is where we meet a hurdle, as there are a few major misconceptions around what practice is, who it is for, and the benefits. In Practice Perfect, Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway, and Katie Yezzi when asked about the importance of practice replied:

• When we practice we should focus on practising strengths as we will get stronger results this way.
• We should not stop practising when we achieve competence. What marks champions is their excellence at something. They may have weaknesses, but their strengths are honed and polished to the level of brilliance. The value of practice begins at mastery!
• Although practice certainly has a reputation for being a bleak necessity. It is in fact, fun, exciting, and ideal for adults.

All of us, if we give it some thought, practice something in our professional and/or personal lives. What Doug and TLaC are suggesting is that we should also practice techniques to use in the classroom.

I am not one for role play, however I have to admit to enjoying the opportunity over the two training days to practice the techniques before using them when leading the TLaC group back at school and in my classroom. You can read more about how I turned the training into PPD practice in my school, and how much our staff have enjoyed the opportunity to work together on these techniques here and in Part 3.

Over the two days I found the opportunity to look at the video clips of champion techniques and discuss what we could see extremely valuable. It gave us an opportunity to focus on the teaching – not so that we could emulate the style or method, but to critique and identify aspects that were good. We were not attending the training to become ‘TLaC clones’ nor to take back to our schools a set of rules for using the techniques to be copied. Indeed the practice is intended to avoid us doing this as we practice through a range of techniques and develop them in our own style. We had the opportunity to look at the importance of the stages of the techniques, the research and science behind the method and to consider the essential underlying principles. The delivery style may well change depending on the target audience – only the classroom teacher will know what method will work best for their students. It is however important that we share with our students our expectations and the reasons behind using some of the techniques.

The opportunity to observe Doug, Colleen and Erica practice the rollout speech and receive feedback from each other and the delegates and the workshop was particularly useful. In our classrooms this rollout speech is an opportunity to say: “This is my classroom and this is how it works in my classroom.” It’s like sharing the success criteria and “what good looks like” for the students’ participation and expected engagement, taking ownership of the classroom back.

Take aways

What did I take away from the training, to share back at my school with the TLaC group?

• A renewed enthusiasm to take back to my classroom, my department and my colleagues.
• A toolkit of resources to use to elicit change, remembering that change is hard and new habits will require repeated practice if they are to become embedded into teaching practice.
• The classroom will be what YOU make it, take ownership do fewer things but do them better
• The classroom will mirror the teacher – if you set your expectations at 100% and accept nothing less, then that is what you will get.
• That buy in will be an outcome of the sessions, not a pre requisite.
• That the best teachers check for understanding all lesson long, they recognise when students do not understand and change. They are constantly gathering data and acting on it.

TLaC is not just a book or set of techniques that you might read about and use in the classroom having understood the concept and method. TLaC is a commitment to ensure that you are the best you can be in all aspects of your teaching. It’s about recognising what works and perfecting what you do through collaborative work and feedback. It is not a definitive list nor is it designed to be used to the exclusion of all other techniques or methodologies.

Further reading

• You can read Doug Lemov’s blog reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice here
• Do read Harry Fletcher-Wood’s blogs here and here about his visit to Uncommon Schools in New York.
• Do read Michael Slavinsky’s blog here about his views on the TLaC programme and here about his trip to the Train the Trainer workshop.

Coming next

Teach Like a Champion: Part 3 – Term 1 Review

Teach Like a Champion: Part 1 – Introducing TLaC

This post was written by our Associate AHT for Pedagogy and Practice, Julie Ryder.

TLaC, PPD and other acronyms……

Staff in our school have been offered a broad range of opportunities to develop as teachers and are able to select areas for their own Personal Practice Development (PPD). You can read all about them towards the end of this post.

One of my main roles is to develop and deliver a rolling CPD programme based on the Teach Like a Champion (TLaC) techniques.  Twenty five colleagues signed up to follow the programme at the start of the year as part of their PPD. Those involved have very differing levels of classroom experience – from NQTs to HODs and AHTs. Despite this, the staff involved are united in their aim to develop as great teachers.

What is TLaC?

At the start of the year I shared some background information about TLaC and Doug Lemov‘s work with Uncommon Schools.

The TLaC programme has a proven track record of transforming students at risk of failure into achievers and believers. It is based on a taxonomy of effective teaching practices and is focused on micro-techniques rather than more generalised strategies, e.g. “questioning”.

Doug became interested in schools serving high need students that were getting the best results. He wanted to identify the teachers in those schools who were doing exceptional work. Directed by the data, Doug sat in the back of these exceptional teachers’ classrooms to observe and identify what they were doing that explained the exceptional results they were getting. As Doug spent more time in these great teachers’ classrooms he began to notice some commonalities: From these he identified a list of techniques which he called The Taxonomy of Effective Teaching Practices.

Doug now leads a team of Uncommon educators continuously studying and describing great teaching – breaking that greatness down into concrete, replicable actions, then designing the training to make it manageable and accessible. The belief is that all teachers can learn the simple, concrete actions that allow the achievement gap to be narrowed – lesson by lesson, classroom by classroom.

As a result of this research of teachers who consistently achieve high outcomes with students, Doug produced the Teach Like a Champion book, which included 49 instructional techniques that outline how superior instruction can overcome socio-economic barriers to student achievement.

Data suggests that in the UK the achievement gap between pupils of different socio-economic backgrounds is greater than almost all other developed countries. Yet we often encounter the view that certain students have a limit to their achievement. In an ideal classroom, however, no child’s educational success should be limited. Doug suggests that through the introduction of the TLaC techniques, high academic expectations, increased participation and depth of thinking, every student should achieve more.

I explained that the aim of our TLaC programme would be to use some of the techniques as an approach to staff development. It’s about us working together to build systems of classroom culture and instruction.

The Belmont TLaC programme

At the first meeting of our TLaC group in school I asked colleagues to share what they hoped to get out of the sessions. The results were as follows:

The key messages I see above are linked to teaching strategies that improve student engagement. From my own experience I would wholeheartedly agree that this is exactly how my classroom and lessons have improved. No matter the class, the year group or the lesson time, I expect, and am consistently striving for 100% engagement. Yes, my students are kept on their toes, yes I work really hard to maintain this, yes the pace has increased and yes I am still learning and trying to improve what I do in the classroom! Just like the rest of the TLaC group, I want to get better, I want to raise students’ expectations of their achievement and I want the support of regular PPD to discuss, try out, and perfect my teaching practice.

Introducing the techniques

I chose to begin with Cold Call and No Opt Out as these techniques are suggested to have the biggest impact in the classroom and improve the culture of expectations more quickly than any other combination.

Cold Call is about engaging students in your lessons. In this technique the intention is to make participation and engagement the expectation and to call on students regardless of whether they have raised their hands.

No Opt Out is about setting high academic expectations. In this technique a questioning sequence that begins with a student who is unwilling or unable to answer ends with that student giving the right answer as often as possible, even if they only repeat it.

Perfect practice makes perfect

We begin by practicing how we will explain to our students what Cold Call is and the expectations from them. The whole idea of meeting as a group is so that we can try ideas and receive feedback: “I like it when……..” and “Next time try…………”

As with everything in our TLaC programme we begin by modelling the practice. Myself and two colleagues recorded a demonstration practice Roll Out Speech and Cold Call. Modelling the practice and showing how receiving critique helps us to get better made it easier to ask others to do the same in our TLaC sessions that followed.

You can view our modelling the practice in the following clip:

Our growing popularity now puts our group at 29, which for practical reasons and time we have split into 2 groups for some of the practice sessions. Over the next four sessions we write, practice, critique and improve our Roll Out Speeches and No Opt Out questioning using resources from the Train the Trainers workshop I attended in London (which you can read about in Part 2).

No Opt Out: Staff engaged and enjoying working together to share, advise and improve their teaching practice, what more could you ask for in a PPD session?

Coming next……

Part 2 – Train the Trainers workshop in London with Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway and Colleen Driggs

Part 3 – Belmont TLaC programme update

Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College and Teach Like a Champion Field Guide: A Practical Resource to Make the 49 Techniques Your Own are also available from our T+L Library.