OER4Schools/Taster Workshop NISTCOL/pv
Introduction: The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
The following sections form a "taster workshop", based on the professional development resource of the OER4Schools project at the Centre for Commonwealth Education. For more information about this project, visit the OER4Schools main page.
- Unit 1: Introduction to interactive teaching and the use of ICT
- Unit 2: Whole class dialogue & effective questioning
- Unit 3: Group work
- Unit 4: Assessment for learning and lesson pacing
- Unit 5: Enquiry-based learning and project work
- Unit 6: Into the future
See the detailed outline for more information.
Brainstorm on interactive teaching
Consider the following questions:
- What is interactive teaching?
- What interactive techniques do you know?
- How often have you used such techniques?
Dialogue and effective questioning
Activity one: Creating a supportive environment for dialogue
Magic microphone (11 min). Use a prop, for example a stick or a long pencil as a magic microphone or a ball. Whoever gets the prop answers an open-ended question. Decide as a group what that question should be.
Magic microphone (11 min). Repeat the above activity, but this time role-playing how you would carry out the activity in the classroom with pupils. Think of your own questions to use in the classroom.
Activity two: Discussion of another teacher's practice
VIDEO
Fish or mammal?
Class explores the question 'Is a whale a fish or a mammal?'
Video/19 Eness 3 vertebrates 11.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/19_Eness_3_vertebrates_11.mp4,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Eness Vertebrates folder. Duration: 4:31 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Eness Vertebrates, episode 11)
Whole group discussion (11 min).
- Was there a supportive environment for pupil participation and dialogue in this lesson? If so, how did the teacher achieve this?
- How did she help students to work out whether the boy and the whale were mammals? Did this discussion move their thinking forward?
- What did you think about teacher control and pupil learning in these video clips?
- How would you manage something similar in your classroom? How would you encourage pupil talk without losing too much control?
Traditional teaching places the teacher at the centre of the classroom, and gives them all the responsibility – they are expected to be the “source of all knowledge”.
Our approach aims to changes this view of teaching and learning, and places more emphasis on pupil peers as resources for learning together and from each other. This also means that the teacher does not do all the talking, and they are not expected to know the answers.
We realise that this is a difficult shift to make. However, it is actually possible in the Zambian context, as the videos in our materials show. Not only is it possible, but it can be more motivating for both teachers and learners.
Activity Three: Reflecting on your current questioning practice
Work in pairs (11 min). Choose a topic from the board. Write down two questions that you normally ask/would ask the pupils in class?
Closed versus Open questions:
- Closed questions are factual and focus on a correct response. Some examples are: Name the different parts of a plant? What are the five nutrients that must be present in a balanced diet? How many sides does a triangle have? What is the formula for calculating perimeter of a square? How many planets are there in the solar system? Name two sources of renewable energy.
- Open questions have many answers. Some examples are: What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?
Surface versus Deep questions:
- Surface questions elicit one idea or some ideas. For example, What is the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers? What is the use if carbohydrates in a balanced diet? Which part of the sugar cane plant is used for eating? Which features of a cactus plant are useful for its survival in desert regions?
- Deep questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas. For example, What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?
‘What if’ and ‘Why’... questions can help you delve deeper into pupils’ thinking.
Categorise their questions as closed and open questions. For each question, they move to the side of the room marked OPEN if their question is open or to the side marked CLOSED if their question is closed.
Summarise: Is your current practice of generating questions more open or more closed?
Activity Four: Engaging your pupils
VIDEO
Whole class discussion on the meaning of area
Abel questions students on their knowledge and understanding of the concept of area.
Video/Abel Clip 2.m4v, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Abel_Clip_2.m4v,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Abel rectangles folder. Duration: 3:08 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Abel rectangles, episode 02)
Watch the video in which a Zambian teacher is introducing the notion of area. The lesson explores the relationship between area and perimeter.
Reflection (11 min). Suggested questions for reflection:
- What did you notice about the teacher’s questions in this clip?
- How did he handle the pupils' confusion?
- How would you handle responses like this in teaching about area?
After this, the pupils worked in groups using Geogebra software on netbook computers to explore the relationship between area and perimeter. Watch the following clip of one of the final group presentations to the class, where two girls explain what they learned.
VIDEO
Students presenting work on area and perimeter
Students present outcome of findings of GeoGebra investigation on rectangles with the same area but different perimeters.
Video/Abel Clip 5.m4v, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Abel_Clip_5.m4v,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Abel rectangles folder. Duration: 1:21 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Abel rectangles, episode 09)
Practical activity: Developing my practice
Small group work (11 min). To help you structure your planning, we provide an activity template. Working in pairs or small groups, and using the activity template, plan a brainstorm activity that could be part of a lesson you might teach in your subject area. For the brainstorm consider:
- What do I need to know about students’ knowledge or understanding of the topic? What will I ask them to brainstorm?
- What will I do with the results? How will we build on that in the rest of the lesson?
The activity template includes the following sections:
- what the activity is (a technique such as a brainstorm, group work, mini blackboard use plus an activity in which it is used, eg “a brainstorm on what animals are found in your environment”),
- the grade,
- the subject & lesson topic,
- what the (learning) objective of the activity is (e.g. to find out what students already know about topic X),
- resources to be used (such as blackboard, mini blackboards, paper, objects, etc), and
- how is the activity carried out.
On the template, list some open and deep questions to ask in the class in order to challenge pupils and get them thinking! Try out some of the ideas you have learned about today. Record specific questions on the template.
Downloadable version: Activity template.pdf (info)
| What is the activity?
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| Grade
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| Subject
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| Lesson topic
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| What is the (learning) objective of the activity?
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| Resources used
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| How is the activity carried out? Write out all the steps in detail.
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Here is a photograph of a completed activity template for a lesson on conduction. Note that one template can be used for multiple activities:
You can print this content on a separate sheet here: OER4Schools/activity template.
