TEACHING APPROACHES

An approach is a way of looking at teaching and learning. Underlying any language teaching
approach is a theoretical view of what language is, and of how it can be learnt. An approach gives rise to
methods, the way of teaching something, which use classroom activities or techniques to help learners learn.

TEACHER-CENTERED APPROACH- The teacher is perceived to be the only reliable source of

information in contrast to the learner-centered approach.

LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACH- In which it is premised on the belief that the learner is also
an important resource because he/she too knows something and is therefore capable of sharing
something.

SUBJECT MATTER-CENTERED APPROACH- Subject matter gains primacy over that of the
learner.

TEACHER DOMINATED APPROACH- In this approach, only the teacher’s voice is heard. He/she
is the sole dispenser of information.

INTERACTIVE APPROACH- In this approach, an interactive classroom will have more student
talk and less teacher talk. Students are given the opportunity to interact with teacher and with
other students.

CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH- The students are expected to construct knowledge and meaning
out for what they are taught by connecting them to prior experience.

BANKING APPROACH- The teacher deposits knowledge into the “empty” minds of students
for students to commit to memory.
INTEGRATED APPROACH- It makes the teacher connects what he/she teaches to other lessons
of the same subject (intradisciplinary) or connects his/her lessons with other subjects thus making
his/her approach interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary.
DISCIPLINAL APPROACH- It limits the teacher to discussing his/her lessons within the boundary
of his/her subject.
COLLABORATIVE APPROACH- It will welcome group work, teamwork, partnerships, and group
discussion.
INDIVIDUALISTIC APPROACH- It wants the individual students to work by themselves.
DIRECT TEACHING APPROACH- The teacher directly tells or shows or demonstrates what is to
be taught.
INDIRECT, GUIDED APPROACH- The teacher guides the learner to discover things for
himself/herself. The teacher facilitates the learning process by allowing the learner to be engaged
in the learning process with his/her guidance.
RESEARCH-BASED APPROACH- As the name implies, teaching and learning are anchored on
research findings.
WHOLE CHILD APPROACH - The learning process itself takes into account not only the
academic needs of the learners, but also their emotional, creative, psychological, spiritual, and
developmental needs.
METACOGNITIVE APPROACH- The teaching process brings the learner to the process of
thinking about thinking. The learner reflects on what he learned and on his/her ways of learning.
PROBLEM-BASED APPROACH- As the name implies, the teaching- learning process is focused on
problems. Time is spent on analyzing and solving problems.

TEACHING STRATEGIES
Refer to the structure, system, methods, techniques, procedures and processes that
a teacher uses during instruction. These are strategies the teacher employs to assist student learning.

1. Be clear about what you want your students to learn.

2. Tell your students what they need to know & show them what they need to be able to so.
3. Use questions to check that your students understand things.
4. Have students summarize new information in a graphical way.
5. Give your students plenty of practice spaced out over time.
6. Provide your students with feedback so they can refine their efforts.
7. Allow time for every child to succeed.
8. Get students working together in productive ways.
9. Teach students strategies as well as content.
10. Nurture metacognition.

Visualization- bring dull academic concepts to life with visual and practical learning experiences,
helping your students to understand how their schooling applies in the real-world.
Examples include using the interactive whiteboard to display photos, audio clips and videos, as well as
encouraging your students to get out of their seats with classroom experiments and local field trips.
Cooperative learning- encourage students of mixed abilities to work together by promoting small
group or whole class activities.
Through verbally expressing their ideas and responding to others your students will develop their
self-confidence, as well as enhance their communication and critical thinking skills which are vital
throughout life.
-Solving mathematical puzzles, conducting scientific experiments and acting out short drama
sketches are just a few examples of how cooperative learning can be incorporated into classroom
lessons.
Inquiry-based instruction- pose thought-provoking questions which inspire your students to think
for themselves and become more independent learners. Encouraging students to ask questions and
investigate their own ideas helps improve their problem-solving skills as well as gain a deeper
understanding of academic concepts. Both of which are important life skills.
-Inquiries can be science or math-based such as ‘why does my shadow change size?’ or ‘is the sum
of two odd numbers always an even number?’. However, they can also be subjective and encourage
students to express their unique views, e.g. ‘do poems have to rhyme?’ or ‘should all students wear
uniform?
Differentiation- differentiate your teaching by allocating tasks based on students’ abilities, to
ensure no one gets left behind.
-Assigning classroom activities according to students’ unique learning needs means individuals
with higher academic capabilities are stretched and those who are struggling get the appropriate
support.
-This can involve handing out worksheets that vary in complexity to different groups of students, or
setting up a range of work stations around the classroom which contain an assortment of tasks for
students to choose from.
Technology in the classroom- Incorporating technology into your teaching is a great way to
actively engage your students, especially as digital media surrounds young people in the 21st
century.

-Interactive whiteboards or mobile devices can be used to display images and videos, which helps
students visualize new academic concepts. Learning can become more interactive when technology
is used as students can physically engage during lessons as well as instantly research their ideas,
which develops autonomy.

Behaviour management- Implementing an effective behaviour management strategy is crucial to

gain your students respect and ensure students have an equal chance of reaching their full
potential.

-Noisy, disruptive classrooms do no encourage a productive learning environment, therefore

developing an atmosphere of mutual respect through a combination of discipline and reward can be
beneficial for both you and your students.

- Examples include fun and interactive reward charts for younger students, where individuals move
up or down based on behaviour with the top student receiving a prize at the end of the week.
‘Golden time’ can also work for students of all ages, with a choice of various activities such as games
or no homework in reward for their hard work.

Professional development- Engaging in regular professional development programmes is a great

way to enhance teaching and learning in your classroom.

-With educational policies constantly changing it is extremely useful to attend events where you can
gain inspiration from other teachers and academics. It’s also a great excuse to get out of the
classroom and work alongside other teachers just like you!

-Sessions can include learning about new educational technologies, online safety training, advice on
how to use your teaching assistant(s) and much more.
1. Alternative assessments 13. Tiered Rubrics

2. Anchor activities 14. Varied Products

3. Grade as you go Compare/Contrast Ideas

4. Homework options 15. Cubing

5. KWL charts 16. Sticky Note Graph

6. Learning contracts 17. Think-Tac-Toe

7. Menus/Agendas 18. Think-Pair-Share
8. Mini-White Boards Form Groups

9. Question Choices 19. Appointment Clocks

10. Reflection/Response 20. Cubing

11. Think-Pair-Share 21. Curriculum Compacting

12. Tiered Activities 22. Four Sides

23. Jigsaw 36. Anchor Activity

24. Learning Contracts 37. Appointment Clocks

25. Mini White Boards 38. Learning Centers

26. Question Choices 39. Cubing

27. Think-Tac-Toe 40. Four Sides
28. Varied Texts 41. Grade as you Go
Get Moving
42. Heads Together
29. Appointment Clocks
43. Jigsaw
30. Four Sides
44. Literature Circles
31. Heads Together
45. Menus/Agendas
32. Jigsaw
46. Mini White Boards
33. Literature Circles
47. Reading Buddies
34. Reading Buddies
48. Sticky Note Graph
35. Sticky Note Grap
49. Think-Tac-Toe

50. Tiered Activities

Work Together
Adapt Content

51. Alternative Assessments 58. Learning Contracts

52. Learning Centers 59. Literature Circles

53. Cubing 60. Menus/Agendas

54. Curriculum Compacting 61. Orbitals

55. Grade as you Go 62. Question Choices

56. Homework Options 63. Reading Buddies

57. Jigsaw 64. Scaffolding

65. Think-Tac-Toe Mistakes

66. Tiered Activities If you’ve ever accidentally spelled a word

wrong on the board, you know that students
67. Tiered Organizers love to identify mistakes. When you’re
teaching a new skill, make an example riddled
68. Varied Products with mistakes. Let students practice the skill
by identifying and fixing the mistakes for you.
69. Varied Texts
Feedback
Share Ideas & Opinions
Students don’t always know if they’re doing a
good job without you telling them so. Regularly
70. Anchor Activities provide written or verbal feedback for individual
or group assignments.
71. Learning Centers
Also, it can be beneficial to turn the tables
72. Cubing sometimes. Let the students provide you
feedback to tell you how you’re doing, too.
73. Four Sides
Experiential Learning
74. Heads Together
Students learn by doing, so create
75. KWL Charts experiences for them to see the concepts in
action. Let them practice the concepts in a
76. Literature Circles safe environment. Then, they should reflect
on the experience and discuss what they
learned from it. Classroom activities that you
77. Mini White Boards
could do for experiential learning include
fungames, experiments, or simulations.
78. Reflection/Response
Lesson Objective Transparency
79. Sticky Note Graph
Rather than letting your students figure out
80. Think-Tac-Toe what they should be learning on their own,
just tell them. Clearly state your lesson goals
81. Think-Pair-Share or objectives. You could announce it in class
or write it on the board. Just make it simple
82. Tiered Rubrics and clear for all of your students to
understand. Then, they know what they’re
Modeling working towards and what they should know
by the end of the class. This also really helps
After telling students what to do, it’s to reduce student anxiety come test time.
important to show them exactly how to do it.
Model how you expect them to complete an
assignment, so they understand what they’re
supposed to do. This will help your students
who are visual learners too.
SIMULATION
-Simulations are instructional scenarios where the learner is placed in a "world" defined by the teacher. They
represent a reality within which students interact. The teacher controls the parameters of this "world" and
uses it to achieve the desired instructional results. Students experience the reality of the scenario and gather
meaning from it.

Simulations take a number of forms. They may contain elements of:

 a game
 a role-play, or
 an activity that acts as a metaphor.

Simulations are characterised by their non-linear nature and by then controlled ambiguity within
which students must make decisions. The inventiveness and commitment of the participants
usually determines the success of a simulation.

Why use simulations?

Simulations promote the use of critical and evaluative thinking. Because they are ambiguous or
open-ended, they encourage students to contemplate the implications of a scenario. The situation
feels real and thus leads to more engaging interaction by learners.

Simulations promote concept attainment through experiential practice. They help students
understand the nuances of a concept. Students often find them more deeply engaging than other
activities, as they experience the activity first-hand, rather than hearing about it or seeing it.

Simulations help students appreciate more deeply the management of the environment, politics,
community and culture. For example, by participating in a resource distribution activity, students
might gain an understanding of inequity in society. Simulations can reinforce other skills indirectly,
such as Debating, a method associated with some large-scale simulations, and research skills.

Common issues using simulations

Resources and time are required to develop a quality learning experience with simulations.
Assessment of student learning through simulation is often more complex than with other methods.

Simulated experiences are more realistic than some other techniques and they can be so engaging
and absorbing that students forget the educational purpose of the exercise.

If your simulation has an element of competition, it is important to remind the students that the
goal is not to win, but to acquire knowledge and understanding.

How to achieve effective teaching with case studies

In a simulation, guided by a set of parameters, students undertake to solve problems, adapt to

issues arising from their scenario and gain an awareness of the unique circumstances that exist
within the confines of the simulation.
Some simulations require one hour, while others may extend over weeks. Scope and content varies
greatly. However, similar principles apply to all simulations.

1) Prepare in advance as much as possible

 Ensure that students understand the procedures before beginning. Frustration can arise
when too many uncertainties exist. Develop a student guide and put the rules in writing.
 Try to anticipate questions before they are asked. Some simulations are fast-paced, and the
sense of reality is best maintained with ready responses.
 Know what you want to accomplish. Many simulations have more than one instructional
goal. Developing evaluation criteria, and ensure that students are aware of the specific
outcomes expected of them in advance.

2) Monitor the process closely

Teachers must monitor the simulation process to ensure that students both understand the process
and benefit from it. Ask yourself:

 Does this simulation offer an appropriate measure of realism for my group of students?
 Are the desired instructional outcomes well defined?
 Is the level of ambiguity manageable for this group?
 Does the student demonstrate an understanding of his/her role?
 Are problem-solving techniques in evidence?
 Does the research being generated match the nature of the problem?
 Is cooperation between participants in evidence?
 Has the student been able to resolve the issue satisfactorily?
 Does the student provide meaningful answers to probing questions?
 Will follow-up activities be necessary?

3) Consider what to assess

You might find it best to use simulations as part of the process of learning rather than as a
summative measure of it. Use follow-up activities to establish a measure of comprehension and as a
de-briefing mechanism when students return to reality (e.g. use reflection on the process as the
assessable component of the activity, rather than participation in the simulation itself).

Simulation is a controlled representation of reality. Simulation means role- playing or rehearsal

in which the process of teaching is carried out artificially. Simulated teaching is a teacher
training technique. It is used to bring about modification in the behavior of the teacher. It
introduces pupil teacher to teach in non-stressful conditions.

Simulated teaching is used prior to the classroom teaching practice with the objective of
developing a specific skill of communication. It can be used for pre-service teachers to make
them effective.

In simulated teaching, one pupil-teacher acts as a teacher and other teacher trainers act as students.
The teacher in this situation teaches considering the student as school students.
Basic Assumption

(1) Teacher behavior is modifiable by the use of feedback device.

(2) The underlying skill of teaching can be modified and practiced.

(3) Teacher behavior can be identified.

Characteristic

(1) This technique requires very systematic planning in advance that ensures attainment of desired
goals.

(2) This method is effective for the practice of teaching skills by pupil teacher.

(3) The training is provided in artificial situations. Through mock trails learns are fully trained to
face real situations.

(4) Through feedback drawbacks are noted in teaching, they are pointed out along with appropriate
suggestions to rectify them.

Procedure of simulated training

Following are the six steps that are usually followed in simulated teaching.

(1) Assignment of role:-

The student teachers are assigned the roles of teachers and observe resp. It is done rotation basis.

(2) Deciding skill to be practiced

At this stage, the skill to be practiced is decided and planning and preparation for it are done. Each
trainee selects the topic according to his interest and intelligence.

(3) Preparation of work schedule

At this stage, it is decided who will teach first and who will observe and how everyone would be
teaching /observing one by one.

(4) Determining technique of observation

In this stage, the decision is taken about the type of observation technique to be adopted. It also
includes which type of data is to be collected and how these data are to be intercepted.

(5) Organization of first practice session

The first practice session is started and its observations are recorded for judging the teaching
behavior.
This followed by feedback and suggestions for further improvement.

(6) Alteration of procedure

The whole procedure is changed at this stage. There is a change of teacher, change of observers,
change of teaching skill and change in topic to be taught. Every student is given the opportunity to
play the role of teacher, a student, and a teacher.

PURPOSES OF SIMULATION- It helps students practice decision making and problem

solving skills. By means of active involvement in a simulation exercise, a game , or a role –
playing situation , the student achieves cognitive , affective and psychomotor outcomes.
-Students have a chance to apply principles and theories they have learned and to see how and
when these principles work.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SIMULATION

CHARACTERISTICS OF SIMULATION

Provide a safe environment in which learning has priority over patient care or system demands.

USES OF SIMULATION

Simulation technique can be used to achieve many learning objectives.  Simulations can help
nursing student gain skill in applying the nursing process. Learn to solve problems efficiently with
minimal wasting of time and resources.

STEPS IN SIMULATION

Ned Flanders has recommended the following procedural steps in simulated teaching. First of all
the teacher must assign letter (A, B, C) designation to all the members of the group and develop a
system of rotating the role assignment by letters so that each individual has the opportunity to
participate and as a chance to be actor and observer.

 It includes planning, preparation and deciding the topic of the skill to be practiced through
simulated technique .The teacher should carefully and intelligently select and appropriate
topic according to his knowledge and interest in the subject.  The teacher should decide in
advance as regards the name of the member of the group who will start conversation. A
detailed schedule for actors who will start
 The teacher should decide the procedure of evaluation and decide on what kind of data the
observes are record. Conduct the first practice session on topic or skills you decide . Provide
the actor with feed back on his performance and be prepared , if necessary , to alter the
procedure for the second in order to improve the training procedure . As soon as the
practice sessions are working smoothly and each person has opportunity to be actor ,
increase the difficulty of the task.
 This is the last step in simulation. Now the teacher should be prepared to alert the
procedure, change topic and move on the next skill so as to prevent a significant challenge
to each actor and to keep interest as high as possible. The task should be neither high nor
too easy for the participants.
TYPES OF SIMULATION

WRITTEN SIMULATION. AUDIO SIMULATION. LIVE STIMULATED SIMULATION

WRITTEN SIMULATION- Individual uses either paper and pencil latent image format.
The purpose includes problem solving, decision makings to evaluate the student’s ability to
apply the skill.

AUDIO VISUAL SIMULATION- An entire simulation can be placed on video tape .

Management vignettes can be dramatized and filmed . Questions can be posed for the
screen , and the alternative outcomes , dependents on which approaches to be a solution
are chosen , can be all taped.

LIVE STIMULATED SIMULATION- Lincoln , Layton , Holdmen (1978) describes their

experiences with simulated patients. The patients were healthy people , usually students, who were
trained in the role they were to play . Simulated patient used their history as much as possible and
added the elements of the history that had been created for simulation. The nursing students found
the experience to be beneficial. They would be much more relax and confident when meeting their
first real patient.

TEACHING PRINCIPLES
-A rule for guiding the ship of education so that it

will reach the port designated by the philosophy of education; it is a

compass by which the path of education is directed.

Principles of Teaching

1. Share intellectual control with students.

Building a sense of shared ownership is an effective way of achieving high levels of student
interest and engagement. It can be achieved in many ways; many of these involve some
form of formal or informal negotiation about parts or all of the content, tasks or assessment.
Another complementary approach is to ensure that students' questions, comments and
suggestions regularly influence, initiate (or terminate) what is done.

2. Look for occasions when students can work out part (or all) of the content or
instructions.

Learning is almost always better if students work something out for themselves, rather than
reading it or hearing it. This is not always feasible of course, but often it is. It can involve
short, closed tasks: e.g. 'if the units of density are grams per cm work out the formula by
which we calculate the density of a substance from the volume and mass of an object made
of that substance'. It can also involve much longer open-ended tasks
 Provide opportunities for choice and independent decision-making.

Students respond very positively to the freedom to make some decisions about what or how
they will work. To be effective, the choices need to be genuine, not situations where there is
really only one possibility. These may include choices about which area of content to
explore, the level of demand (do more routine tasks or fewer more demanding ones), the
form of presentation (poster, powerpoint presentation, role play, model etc.),and how to
manage their time during a day or lesson.

3. Provide diverse range of ways of experiencing success.

Raising intellectual self-esteem is perhaps the most important aspect of working with low
and moderately achieving students. Success via interactive discussion, question-asking,
role-plays and tasks allowing high levelsof creativity often results in greater confidence and
hence persistence in tackling other written tasks. Publicly recognising and praising good
learning behaviours is useful here.

4. Promote talk which is exploratory, tentative and hypothetical.

This sort of talk fosters link-making and, as our research shows, commonly reflects high
levels of intellectual engagement. Teaching approaches such as delayed judgement,
increased wait-time, promotion of 'What If' questions and use of P.O.Es are all helpful. The
classroom becomes more fluid and interactive.

5. Encourage students to learn from other students' questions and comments.

The (student) conception that they can learn from other students ideas, comments and
questions develops more slowly than the conception that discussion is real and useful work.
The classroom dynamics can reach new, very high levels when ideas and debate bounce
around from student to student, rather than student to teacher.

6. Build a classroom environment that supports risk-taking.

We underestimated the very high levels of perceived risk that accompanies many aspects of
quality learning for most students, even in classes where such learning is widespread. It is
much safer, for example, to wait for the teacher's answer to appear than to suggest one
yourself. Building trusts in the teacher and other students and training students to disagree
without personal put-downs are essential to widespread display of good learning
behaviours.

7. Use a wide variety of intellectually challenging teaching procedures.

There are at least two reasons for this, one is that teaching procedures that counter passive
learning and promote quality learning require student energy and effort. Hence they need
to be varied frequently to retain their freshness. The other is that variety is another source
of student interest.
 8. Use teaching procedures that are designed to promote specific aspects of quality learning.

One of the origins of PEEL was the belief that students could be taught how to learn, in part
by devising a range of teaching procedures to variously tackle each of a list of poor learning
tendencies, for example failing to link school work to relevant out-of-school experiences.
The variety in (8) is not random and one basis for selecting a particular teaching procedure
is to promote a particular aspect of quality learning.

9. Develop students' awareness of the big picture: how the various activities fit together and link to the
big ideas.

Many, if not most students, do not perceive schooling to be related to learning key ideas and
skills. Rather, they see their role as completing tasks and so they focus on what to do not
why they are doing it. Much teacher talk, particularly in skills based areas such as
Mathematics, Grammar and Technology reinforces this perception. For these reasons,
students (including primary students) commonly do not link activities and do not make
links to unifying, 'big ideas'.

10. Regularly raise students' awareness of the nature of different aspects of quality learning.

This is a key aspect of learning how to learn. Students typically have no vocabulary to
discuss learning. it is very helpful to build a shared vocabulary and shared understandings
by regular, short debriefing about some aspect of the learning that has just occurred. Having
a rotating student monitor of a short list of good learning behaviours can be very helpful.

11. Promote assessment as part of the learning process.

Students (and sometimes teachers) typically see assessments as purely summative:

something that teachers do to students at the end of a topic.Building the perception that
(most) assessment tasks are part of the learning process includes encouraging students
learning from what they did and did not do well as well as having students taking some
ownership of and responsibility for aspects of assessment. It also includes teachers
ensuring that they are assessing for a range of aspects of quality learning (eg if you want
students linking different lessons then reward that in your assessment) and for a wider
range of skills than is often the case.

Principle 1: Encourage contact between students and faculty.

Building rapport with students is very important. The contact between students and teachers are
vital to the students' success. One of the main reasons students leave school is the feeling of
isolation that they experience. The concern shown will help students get through difficult times
and keep working. Faculty have many avenues to follow to open up the lines of communication.

For the regular classroom:

 Invite students to visit outside of class.

  Know your students by name.
 Help students with problems in their extracurricular activities.
 Personalize feedback on student assignments.
 Attend student events.
 Advise students regarding academic courses and career opportunities.
 Seek out students you feel are having a problem with the course or are frequently absent.
 Encourage students to present their views and participate in class discussions.
 Have regular office hours.
 Help students to work with other faculty. Let them know of options, research, etc. of
other faculty.
 Share personal experiences and values.
 Use the one-minute paper at the end of class to get feedback on what the student is
learning and how well they are learning it.
 Talk to students on a personal level and learn about their educational and career goals.

Principle 2: Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students.

When students are encouraged to work as a team, more learning takes place. Characteristics of
good learning are collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working together
improves thinking and understanding.

For the regular classroom:

 Use cooperative learning groups

 Have students participate in activities that encourage them to get to know one another.
 Encourage students to join at least one organization on campus.
 Assign group projects and presentations
 Utilize peer tutoring.
 Encourage students to participate in groups when preparing for exams and working on
assignments.
 Distribute performance criteria to students is that each person's grade is independent of
those achieved by others.
 Encourage students from different races and cultures to share their viewpoints on topics
shared in class.

Principle 3: Encourage active learning.

Learning is an active process. Students are not able to learn much by only sitting in classes
listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and churning out answers. They
must be able to talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and
apply it to their daily lives. Students need to make learning a part of themselves.

For the regular classroom:

 Ask students to relate what they are learning to something in real life.
 Use journaling.
  Give students concrete, real-life situations to analyze.
 Encourage students to suggest new reading, projects, or course activities.
 Ask students to present their work to the class.
 Use of simulation software to run "what-if" scenarios allows students to manipulate variables
and circumstances.
 Practice role modeling and use web-based case studies to practice new thinking skills.
 Encourage students to challenge your ideas, the ideas of other students, or those ideas
presented in readings or other course materials in a respectful matter.
 Set up problem solving activities in small groups and have each group discuss their solutions
with the class.

Principle 4: Give prompt feedback.

By knowing what you know and do not know gives a focus to learning. In order for students to
benefit from courses, they need appropriate feedback on their performance. When starting out,
students need help in evaluating their current knowledge and capabilities. Within the classroom,
students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement.
Throughout their time in college and especially at the end of their college career, students need
chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess
themselves.

For the regular classroom:

 Follow-up presentations with a five minute period for students to write down what they
have learned in class.
 Provide informative comments that show the students' errors and give suggestions on
how they can improve.
 Discuss the results of class assignments and exams with the class and individual students.
 Vary assessment techniques (tests, papers, journaling, quizzes).
 Offer on-line testing, software simulations, and web-based programs that provide
instantaneous feedback.
 Have question and answer sessions.
 Use audio and/or video recordings to assess performances.
 Return grades for assignments, projects, and tests within one week.

Principle 5: Emphasize time on task.

Learning needs time and energy. Efficient time-management skills are critical for students. By
allowing realistic amounts of time, effective learning for students and effective teaching for
faculty are able to occur. The way the institution defines time expectations for students, faculty,
administrators, and other staff, can create the basis for high performance from everyone.

For the regular classroom:

  Expect students to complete their assignments promptly.
 Clearly communicate to your students the minimum amount of time they should spend
preparing for class and working on assignments.
 Help students set challenging goals for their own learning.
 Have realistic expectations (don't expect 10 papers in 10 weeks).
 Encourage students to prepare in advance for oral presentations.
 Explain to your students the consequences of non-attendance.
 Meet with students who fall behind to discuss their study habits, schedules, and other
commitments.
 Be careful that time on task is real learning, not busy work.
 Do not use technology for technology's sake. It must be relevant and useful to the topic.
 Have progressive deadlines for projects and assignments.
 Teach time management.
 Discussion topics from class posted in a discussion group on the web .

Principle 6: Communicate high expectations.

Expect more and you will get it. The poorly prepared, those unwilling to exert themselves, and
the bright and motivated all need high expectations. Expecting students to perform well becomes
a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high standards and make extra
efforts.

For the regular classroom:

 Give a detailed syllabus with assignments, due dates, and a grading rubric.
 Encourage students to excel at the work they do.
 Give students positive reinforcement for doing outstanding work.
 Encourage students to work hard in class.
 Tell students that everyone works at different levels and they should strive to put forth their
best effort, regardless of what level it is.
 Help students set challenging goals for their own learning.
 Publicly acknowledge excellent student performance.
 Revise courses when needed so students remain challenged.
 Work individually with students who are struggling to encourage them to stay motivated.
 Encourage students to do their best instead of focusing on grades.

Principle 7: Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.

There are many different ways to learn and no two people learn the same way. Students bring
different talents and learning styles to the classroom. Students that excel in the seminar room
may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio and vice versa. Students need the opportunity to show
their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then, they can be guided into new ways of
learning that are not as easy for them.
For the regular classroom:

 Use Web technologies to allow students to pick and choose learning experiences that fits the
way they learn.
 Encourage students to speak up when they do not understand.
 Use diverse teaching activities and techniques to address a broad range of students.
 Select readings and design activities related to the background of students.
 Provide extra material or activities for students who lack essential background knowledge or
skills.
 Integrate new knowledge about women, minorities, and other under-represented populations
into your courses.
 Use learning contracts and other activities to provide students with learning alternatives for
your courses.
 Encourage students from different races and cultures to share their viewpoints on topic
discussed in class.
 Use collaborative teaching and learning techniques and pair students so they compliment each
others abilities.
 Give students a problem to solve that has multiple solutions. Guide them with clues and
examples.
 Consider field trips.
 Be familiar with Howard Gardner's research on multiple intelligences.