Drawing on the reports and recommendations from the whole range of education research centers, subject matter organizations, and standards-setting agencies, Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde offer a model of powerful learning that is student-centered, cognitive, and interactive. This consensus vision of best practice can be summarized by looking at the following chart, which shows development from conventional toward more student-centered teaching.
As you can see, the interlocking conditions of good instruction cannot happen under the old command-and-control models of top-down school discipline. The new paradigm both requires and creates interdependence among everyone in the classroom. The characteristic structures and activities of state-of-the-art teaching require a pervasive climate of student self-awareness, autonomy, responsibility, collaboration, and reflection.
INDICATORS OF BEST PRACTICE
This chart illustrates movement from a teacher-directed to a student-centered classroom. Growth along this continuum does not mean complete abandonment of established instructional approaches. Instead, teachers add new alternatives to a widening repertoire of choices, allowing them to move among a richer array of activities, creating a more diverse and complex balance.
Classroom Setup: Promotes Student Collaboration
• Setup for teacher-centered instruction (separate desks) ►Student-centered arrangement (tables)
• Rows of desks ► Varied learning spaces for whole-class, small-group, and independent work
• Bare, unadorned space ► Commercial decorations ► Student-made artwork, products, displays of work
• Few materials ► Textbooks and handouts ► Varied resources (books, magazines, artifacts, manipulatives, etc.)
Classroom Climate: Actively Involves Students
• Management by consequences and rewards ► Order maintained by engagement and community
• Teacher creates and enforces rules ► Students help set and enforce norms
• Students are quiet, motionless, passive, controlled ► Students are responsive, active, purposeful, autonomous
• Fixed student grouping based on ability ► Flexible grouping based on tasks and choice
• Consistent, unvarying schedule ► Predictable but flexible time usage based on activities
Voice and Responsibility: Balanced Between Teacher-and Student-Directed
• Teacher relies solely on an established curriculum ► Some themes and inquiries are built from students' own questions ("negotiated curriculum")
• Teacher chooses all activities ► Students often select inquiry topics, books, writing topics, audiences, etc.
• Teacher directs all assignments ► Students assume responsibility, take roles in decision making, help run classroom life
• Whole-class reading and writing assignments ► Independent reading (SSR, reading workshop, or book clubs) and independent writing (journals, writing workshop)
• Teacher assesses, grades, and keeps all records ► Students maintain their own records, set own goals, self-assess
Language and Communication: Deepen Learning
• Silence ► Purposeful noise and conversation
• Short responses ► Elaborated discussion ► Students' own questions and evaluations
• Teacher talk ► Student-teacher talk ► Student-student talk plus teacher conferring with students
• Talk and writing focus on: Facts ► Skills ► Concepts ► Synthesis and reflection
Activities and Assignments: Balance the Traditional and More Interactive
• Teacher presents material ► Students read, write, and talk every day ► Students actively experience concepts
• Whole-class teaching ► Small-group instruction ► Wide variety of activities, balancing individual work, small groups, and whole-class activities
• Uniform curriculum for all ► Jigsawed curriculum (different but related topics, according to kids'needs or choices)
• Light coverage of wide range of subjects ► Intensive, deep study of selected topics
• Short-term lessons, one day at a time ► Extended activities; multiday, multistep projects
• Isolated subject lessons ► Integrated, thematic, cross-disciplinary inquiries
• Focus on memorization and recall of facts ► Focus on applying knowledge and problem solving
• Short responses, fill-in-the-blank exercises ► Complex responses, evaluations, writing, performances, artwork
• Identical assignments for all ► Differentiated curriculum for all styles and abilities
Student Work and Assessment: Inform Teachers, Students, Parents
• Products created for teachers and grading ► Products created for real events and audiences
• Classroom/hallway displays: no student work posted ► “A” papers only ► All students represented
• Identical, imitative products displayed ► Varied and original products displayed
• Teacher feedback via scores and grades ► Teacher feedback and conferences are substantive and formative
• Products are seen and rated only by teachers ► Public exhibitions and performances are common
• Data kept private in teacher gradebook ► Work kept in student-maintained portfolios
• All assessment by teachers ► Student self-assessment an official element ► Parents are involved
• Standards set during grading ► Standards available in advance ► Standards codeveloped with students
Teacher Attitude and Outlook: Take Professional Initiative
Relationship with students is:
• Distant, impersonal, fearful ► Positive, warm, respectful, encouraging
• Judging ► Understanding, empathizing, inquiring, guiding
• Directive ► Consultative
Attitude toward self is:
• Powerless worker ► Risk taker/experimenter ► Creative, active professional
• Solitary adult ► Member of team with other adults in school ►Member of networks beyond school
• Staff development recipient ► Director of own professional growth
View of role is:
• Expert, presenter, gatekeeper ► Coach, mentor, model, guide
Source: Reprinted with permission from Best Practice: Bringing Standards to Life in America's Classrooms, Fourth Edition by Steven Zemelman, Harvey “Smokey"Daniels, and Arthur Hyde. Copyright © 2012 by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde. Published by Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH. All rights reserved.
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