Teaching Today, a Practical Guide, Fourth Edition
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A01.indd i 2/3/09 16:41:05 Text © Geoff Petty 2009 Original illustrations © Nelson Thornes Ltd 1997, 2002, 2004, 2009 The right of Geoff Petty to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or under licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited, of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in 1993 (Stanley Thornes Ltd) Second edition 1998 (Stanley Thornes Ltd) Third edition 2004 (Nelson Thornes Ltd) Fourth edition published in 2009 by: Nelson Thornes Ltd Delta Place 27 Bath Road CHELTENHAM GL53 7TH United Kingdom 09 10 11 12 13 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4085 0415 4 Illustrations by Liz Singh Cover photograph/illustration: René Mansi/istockphoto Page make-up by Pantek Arts Ltd Printed and bound in Spain by GraphyCems A01.indd ii 2/3/09 16:41:05 Contents Preface v Help with your teacher training assessments vii Part 1 The learner’s practical and emotional needs 1 How do we learn? 1 2 Learning skills by corrected practice 24 3 The learner’s needs 29 4 Teaching is a two-way process 39 5 Motivation 44 6 Praise and criticism 65 7 The teacher–learner relationship and equal opportunities 78 8 Classroom management 98 9 Discipline and problem-solving 110 10 What kind of teacher are you? 130 Part 2 The teacher’s toolkit Introduction 139 Teacher-centred methods 11 Teacher talk 162 12 The art of explaining 168 13 The art of showing 182 14 Questioning 190 15 The aide-memoire: note-making 206 Active methods 16 Supervised student practice 211 17 Discussion 222 18 Group work and student talk 231 19 Games and active learning methods 247 20 Role-play, drama and simulations 258 21 Games to teach language and communication skills 262 22 Seminars 269 23 Learning for remembering: review and recall 272 24 Whole-class interactive teaching: assertive questioning 281 iii A01.indd iii 4/3/09 15:43:25 Contents Student-centred methods 25 Reading for learning 288 26 Private study and homework 294 27 Assignments and projects 296 28 Essays and reports 304 29 Guided discovery: teaching by asking 312 30 Creativity, design and invention 322 31 Learning from experience 336 32 Whole-brain, visual and kinaesthetic methods 346 33 Independent learning 357 34 Self-directed learning 367 Part 3 Resources for teaching and learning 35 Visual aids: Microsoft PowerPoint® and interactive whiteboards 375 36 Students learning with computers: e-learning, ICT and ILT 391 Part 4 Putting it all together 37 Aims and objectives 409 38 Choosing activities for the lesson 422 39 Choosing activities to achieve affective objectives 435 40 Writing the lesson plan 442 41 Flexible and inclusive course organisation and record-keeping 450 42 Planning courses 469 43 Assessment 479 44 Summative assessment 496 Part 5 The professional in practice 45 Values and what teachers can achieve 507 46 Evaluating my teaching: the refl ective practitioner 516 47 Initial and diagnostic assessment: assessing learners’ needs 529 48 Providing learners with support 546 49 Evaluating courses and quality improvement 563 50 How to teach and remain sane 579 Appendix 1 Standards for the lifelong learning sector 583 Appendix 2 Differentiation strategies 587 Appendix 3 QTS standards for those training to teach in schools 589 Bibliography 595 Index 605 iv A01.indd iv 2/3/09 16:41:05 Preface This book is a straightforward and practical ‘how to teach’ book. It is intended for those teaching in either schools, colleges, universities or work-based learning – indeed for anyone interested in learning and teaching. Part 1 explores the emotional and practical needs which all learners have. Part 2 gives very detailed advice on the use of the most common teaching methods or learning strategies. Part 3 looks at how to make and use learning resources. Part 4 shows you how to go about planning lessons and courses, how to measure their effectiveness, and how to improve them. Part 5 is about your role and responsibil- ity as a teacher and how you work within your institution. Many teacher training courses start with Part 5, but you will of course fi nd that the earlier parts will greatly help your understanding of Part 5. For decades I taught an ‘ordinary timetable’ and trained teachers. So, whilst devel- oping my ideas and writing this book, I have had my nose rubbed daily in the messy reality of learning and teaching. If my ideas don’t work – well, my students are the fi rst to make this clear. I hope you will be able to learn from both my successes and my failures, and so take George Bernard Shaw’s advice: ‘Only a fool learns from experience; a wise man learns from the experience of others’. I am impatient with jargon, so throughout the book I have used the word ‘teacher’ to mean any of the following: ‘teacher’, ‘lecturer’, ‘trainer’, ‘instructor’ or ‘facilita- tor’. Similarly, I have used the words ‘student’ and ‘learner’ interchangeably, in places where I could also have written ‘pupil’, ‘trainee’, ‘course participant’ or ‘candidate’. In the lists of further reading at the end of each chapter, particularly useful or noteworthy books are signalled by an asterisk, with an additional comment where appropriate. I would like to thank Liz Singh for her unshakeable faith, her insistence that I make sense, and for her cartoons and drawings. This new edition includes some of what I have learned in studying for and writing Evidence Based Teaching, so it is informed by research. It has been extensively updated to meet the new standards for teachers in schools, and the new standards for teachers in the ‘lifelong learning’ or ‘post-compulsory’ sector. Geoff Petty, 2008 v A01.indd v 2/3/09 16:41:05 A01.indd vi 2/3/09 16:41:05 Help with your teacher training assessments Before attempting any assessment or assignment, read Chapter 28 which helps you to structure your writing (and that of your students). You are likely to be set assign- ments on the following topics. In each case I give chapters that will help you. The legislative requirements of a teacher: see the end of Chapter 7. Creating and evaluating a teaching resource: Chapters 35 and 36 are obviously relevant, but read about ‘graphic organisers’ on pages 158 to 162 and ‘decisions, decisions’ on page 257 too. To evaluate a resource see pages 400 and 409. Inclusion, personalisation etc. (making sure everyone learns well): highly related are equality, diversity and differentiation. Read Chapters 7 and 47 to see the individual differences and how they are discovered. Chapter 41 considers how to design a course that deals with these differences. Appendix 2 on differentiation looks at how to design lessons to deal with differences; the introduction to Part 2 deals with modern approaches to learning styles. Equality and diversity: see Chapters 7 and 41; also consider the chapters under inclusion above. Embedding functional skills or key skills or thinking skills into your teaching: see Chapters 38 and 42, especially the bits about double-decker lessons on pages 441 and 486; also see Chapter 30. Communication: see Chapter 4, ‘graphic organisers’ on page 158; see also Chapters 11, 12 and 13. Principles of learning: see Chapters 1–4 and 43. Writing lesson plans and schemes of work: see Chapters 37–40 and 42; see Chapter 41 for a top grade! What records should I keep?: see Chapter 41. What assessment methods should I use?: see Chapters 43 and 44; see Chapter 6 is also relevant. Evaluating my lessons and courses: see Chapters 46 and 49. Refl ective essay, refl ective learning journal: read Chapter 46. Relation of theory to practice: see Chapters 1 and 46. Professional values and codes of practice: see Chapter 45; see also Appendix 1 on standards which are also codes of practice. Government policies: see www.dcsf.gov.uk, then try arguing that most are wrong- headed and that we should be following evidence-based practice – see the fi rst few chapters of my Evidence Based Teaching! It really helps to look at the contents page carefully, so you know where to fi nd things. vii A01.indd vii 2/3/09 16:41:05 A01.indd viii 2/3/09 16:41:05 1 1 Part The learner’s practical and emotional needs How do we learn? Learning and memory What was the weather like on 4 March last year? You knew once! Psychologists are still not sure how we remember and why we forget, but they believe the process of remembering involves information passing from our short-term memory into our long-term memory. Information may be stored in the short-term memory for as little as a few seconds. The long-term memory can store information for a lifetime, but nearly all of what passes through our brain is promptly forgotten. The short-term memory (STM) An unfortunate man who has lost his short-term memory (STM), as a result of a head injury in a car accident, can still tell his doctor in great detail what he did in the war.