Better Student Leaning? Take Small Steps

Teachers are encouraged to experiment and try new things to achieve better student learning. As a result, the task of implementing new strategies sometimes becomes daunting. Yet, we know that implementing a particular classroom management or instructional strategy is researched based. And, these have a record of proven success. Therefore, to implement new strategies effectively, we need to break them into smaller tasks that are more easily managed. By consistently taking these small steps, we may actually be able to accomplish big change. One of the best ways to implement change is to work within the framework of what we already have. For example, many schools and teachers are working to incorporate inquiry-based student learning. In this process, students do research or experiments and discover for themselves how something relates to a learning objective. Consequently, it may seem that implementing this type of learning requires abandoning everything that was used in the past. However, in reality that is not necessary. Let’s see why.

Make Lecture Notes Into Research Questions for Student Learning

As an example, the big ideas in “lecture” notes can be turned into the big questions. Then, students research these questions. This is most often done in small groups. The teacher facilitates discussion by filling in gaps that were normally covered in lecture notes. These are facts that were missed in student research. Often, teachers report that students find all of the information that they would have presented in a lecture. In addition, they actually learn more details than they would have from lecture notes. Research shows that students who find this information for themselves and express it in their own words have a much better retention, as well as understanding, of the knowledge and skills involved. Making this adjustment is a fairly easy process for the teacher without having to abandon materials that have been used before.

For Better Student Learning, Use Slide Titles to Solicit Information from Students

What about PowerPoint or other slide presentations that a teacher may have used? To illustrate, the teacher might simply display the title of a slide. Then, ask students to fill in details of what they know or can find through research. In addition, students may be asked to prepare their own slides from this information. Finally, the information on these slides can then be compared to the original teacher slides. Again, this has proven to have a much better level of student knowledge retention than simply presenting the slides themselves.

Take Apart Worksheets for More Effective Student Learning

As a final example, math teachers have often had success using old “worksheets.” However, they take problems from these worksheets and use the problems in more effective ways. For instance, some of the problems are used for teacher examples. Others are divided among student groups for practice. Some problems are used for individual formative assessment. Finally, others are used for additional practice for intervention or even enrichment. Using these problems in different ways allows the teacher to adjust instruction. However, this is done without having to completely abandon the old content or re-create problems from scratch.

Because these smaller steps are taken to adjust instruction, future refinements are easier. These adjustments to the curriculum, content, and instruction are therefore applied to the work that has already been done. In conclusion, taken in smaller steps, big steps can be accomplished over a period of time. Consequently, this results in big improvements to curriculum and student instruction, and ultimately in better student learning.