Best Practices in Education and Instruction

I love the idea of 'Best Practices in education/instruction'. What this means to me is that the education community is sharing their experience of instruction and approaches to education, whether purely scientific or merely  anecdotal, which can only have positive benefits resulting in better overall educators -- for those that seek out new information at least. This is a lot like a division of the Army called the Center for Army Lessons Learned. This program began as early as World War II when the Army would send out pamphlets alerting the ranks about safety issues concerning equipment or new tactics or training methods other units have found useful. I had been wondering why it appeared like the teaching profession seemed to be reinventing itself every decade or so, and not circulating the 'lessons learned' from successful classrooms. A bit naive I know, and now I've learned that information is available if one asks. However as there is no one single governing body for education, like there is in the military, it is obviously more difficult bringing about change much beyond the district level.


Best Practices in Education:

Taking a cue from the drama teacher or choral director can work for math as well. The idea here is that in order to create an environment where students are ready to actively participate in class the teacher can prepare the class to learn. An example of this is leading the class in some sort of warm up, such as clapping out rhythms and having the class respond. This serves to get the students thinking about what's coming next, and by challenging them with a sort of physical game you are engaging the students kinesthetically, aurally and visually. The idea of this is great because every moment the students are in the classroom is precious and valuable and you want them all to be at their most receptive, especially if you are making the supreme effort of creating novel and engaging lesson plans and only have a short time with your students.


Parental involvement is crucial to a students success academically. This is true for students regardless of social class or wealth. When parents are involved in their children's academic life those children are significantly more likely to get better grades, graduate, and move on to a postsecondary education. I learned, while I was earning my degree in Psychology while working at a YMCA day care for two years, that if I did not have the support of the parent then any progress I might have with a child could be overwritten in the course of only a weekend. If the values and skills the students are learning in school are not modeled and/or positively reinforced at home then affecting longterm change in a student can be a daunting proposition. I would love to work at a school that had high expectations for its parents as well as its students. I would gladly go on home visits if the school sanctioned and supported this type of outreach and family/community involvement.


Best Practices in instruction:

Encouraging cooperation between students in the classroom, eg. Think, Pair, Share; or small group projects and presentations has long been a method many teachers use in the classroom. However current research and a growing collection of anecdotal evidence suggests that incorporating even more sharing between students can significantly aid in recall of specific facts as well as dramatically helping to solidify a concept within the students mind. I am very much in favor of having students teach/learn/discover a subject together. By allowing more student interaction you are, after a fashion,  crowd sourcing your teaching by allowing one student to help you teach another student. This means that both students win. The one helping, is strengthening their understanding of a subject while the one being helped is being given the information in a new light, therefore the concept or subject has a greater chance of gaining purchase. Einstien said that to really understand a subject one should be able to explain it in the simplest of terms. Couple that observation with research that shows that the first born child on average does better in school and earns more money than their siblings because they have had so much more opportunity to teach their younger siblings, and you've got a great recipe for learning.


Another significant element in student achievement is their own belief, or their self efficacy; which is the belief that one has the ability to do something. Marzano believes that student's attitudes and beliefs have a significant effect on their success in school. I've always believed this, and one of my favorite quotes from Einstein is, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." This quote actually embodies the power self efficacy as well as the power those around us have over our own self efficacy.