Do teaching strategies help students who learn and think differently?

Do teaching strategies help students who learn and think differently?

A teaching strategy is anything the teacher does or facilitates to help students learn.

So while formal teaching strategies like ‘Reciprocal Teaching’ and ‘Station Teaching’ are often thought of when considering these kinds of strategies, something as simple as ‘being clear,’ making eye contact, or even holding class outside could be considered a teaching strategy.

How can an instructional strategy both ‘challenge’ and ‘support’ students? Clarity supports students while allowing you and the student to pinpoint exactly what’s being learned, what the performance standards are, etc. Bloom’s Twists (based on Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy) can ‘make room for’ struggling students while challenging students who have mastered a topic at a lower level.

With that in mind, below I’ve gathered six of the more usable, flexible, and effective teaching strategies that might just make your job a little bit easier–and help your students grow just a little bit more.

You can pre-register for an upcoming course TeachThought University on these strategies that goes into more detail on each (while adding a few to the list).

Socratic Seminar
A formal discussion led by the use of open-ended questions to guide inquiry and reveal knowledge gaps and biases.

Socratic seminars are conducted by leading with a series of questions, so that the students must think critically about what they know and what they don’t. The process is highly effective for uncovering knowledge gaps and biases — students typically find out more than they ever thought was possible, and instructors gain insight into how well their students have retained the course material.

Clarity
A teaching strategy that both Hattie and Marzano identify as especially effective, clarity improves learning.

The ability to communicate is a vital skill for all kinds of leaders because it allows for proper conflict resolution and constructive dialog. When communication skills are poor, ideas flow in only one direction — from the leader down to the subordinates. Effective teachers know that they can learn something from their students as well, so they listen and respond to their colleagues. This means that teachers can’t simply ‘instruct’; they have to communicate clear learning goals through clear teaching, then listen closely to what students say–and sometimes notice what they don’t say, as well.

See also 12 Questions To Ask Your Students On The First Day Of School

Question Formulation Technique
Brainstorm questions, then improve those questions through discussion.

This teaching strategy doesn’t always look the same across classrooms, but generally the sequence is brainstorming questions, improving them through discussion and iteration.

See also 60 Critical Thinking Strategies For Learning

Tiered Learning Targets
Create learning targets that capture a range of student abilities–and that challenge all students.

This is something I use extensively as a teacher. The idea is to–in writing–provide an accessible ‘goal’ for each student based on the same learning standard or objective. The lowest tier may be for students to simply define a concept in their own words. A tier up maybe be to define it clearly and offer examples or alternatives. A tier higher may be to analyse or evaluate ‘it’ in specific contexts, and so on.

Bloom’s Twist
Start lessons off at lower levels of thinking, then gradually increase.

This is similar to tiered learning targets. The goal is to create an activity or lesson that begins at lower levels of thinking (using Bloom’s Taxonomy isn’t absolutely necessary), and ‘spirals’ up–or ‘twists’–by creating more complex goals or objectives. This can challenge students who are ‘ready for more’ while giving footing to students who may be struggling. Unlike tiered learning targets (or ‘objectives’–however you want to think about it), there can be a greater range of complexity between lower and higher levels of performance.

I can give more clarity or explanations of this in an upcoming webinar. You can pre-register here if you’d like.

Transfer Teaching
Design lessons that require transfer of understanding.

You can read more about categories of transfer for learning.

Reciprocal Teaching
Structured dialogue with students to help them make meaning of a text. You can read more about the definition of reciprocal teaching.

6 Teaching Strategies To Promote Deeper Learning

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Whether an instructor teaches a seminar, lecture, or other type of course, they have at their disposal a variety of proven strategies for leading classroom discussions, improving lectures, cultivating collaborative learning, and teaching large classes. They might consider active learning, a research-supported method that can lead to positive learning outcomes. Instructors can reserve the Technology-Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) classroom at Yale to support this type of student-centered teaching and learning. They can also consider team-based learning and digital learning approaches. Through effective lecture, discussion, group work, and more, instructors can invite their students to engage in the learning process.

Active Learning

Growing from developments in adult, cognitive, and educational research, active learning responds to traditional lecture formats with more engaged activities that invite students to participate in learning, including developing conceptual awareness, applying knowledge through experience, and transferring skills across contexts.

Effective Class Discussions

Class discussions can be utilized in seminar and lecture courses, and their variety allows instructors to fit particular strategies to class needs. This flexibility stems largely from grounding in Vygotskyian social learning theory, which emphasizes knowledge and conceptual gain through peer-to-peer dialogue.

Case-Based Learning

Case-based learning (CBL) is an established approach used across disciplines where students apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios, promoting higher levels of cognition. In CBL classrooms, students typically work in groups on case studies, or stories involving one or more characters and/or scenarios. The cases present a disciplinary problem or problems for which students devise solutions under the guidance of the instructor.

Digital Learning

Digital resources can be powerful learning tools, provided they are used to support known student learning processes and clear learning goals. It is the collaborative and social elements of learning, rather than the depth or flexibility of content often associated with digital resources, that positively impact the learning process.

Effective Lecturing

Lecture classes are often characterized by monologue and slide presentations, typically in large halls with auditorium-style fixed seating that privileges content delivery over interaction and complex learning. Instructors can consider different approaches to lecture that introduce more active and participatory components, thereby enhancing higher orders of thinking and learning during class.

Team-Based Learning

Team-based learning (TBL) is a pedagogical strategy that engages student knowledge through individual testing and group collaboration. Following individual answers, students join teams and work through problems, appealing when they are incorrect. This process motivates students by holding them accountable to themselves and one another, while introducing them to a variety of thought processes devoted to a single problem.

Flipped Classroom

In a flipped classroom, material typically explored in lecture is delivered outside of class through media like video lectures or digital modules. Class time then focuses on developing knowledge through active learning strategies like discussion or group activities. Flipping the classroom has been shown to improve students' conceptual grasp of content beyond memorization and basic knowledge, and to improve the diversity and inclusivity of the classroom climate.

Large Classes

Large classes can offer an overwhelming range of student diversity and expectations. While lecturing presents material to the entire class, research suggests that active learning and/or flipped components significantly strengthen student performance. These strategies create smaller groups where peers can grapple with deeper conceptual understanding and pause to think critically about ideas.

Group Work

Collaborative learning can be a powerful strategy in the classroom. Group work can help students uncover and address gaps and misconceptions in knowledge, further develop their conceptual frameworks, improve their public reasoning and team-based skills, and free instructors to help students pursue higher order thinking.

Which teaching strategy helps students to learn more?

9 Teaching Strategies That Help Students Learn Effectively.
Inquiry-Based Model..
Storyboarding..
Peer Tutoring and Assessment..
Brainstorming..
Reflections..
Student-Led Classes..
Visual Aids..
Interdisciplinary Approach..

How can a teacher help students with different learning and thinking styles continue to learn more effectively?

How can a teacher help students with different learning and thinking styles continue to learn more effectively? Use questions of all types to stimulate various levels of thinking and valuing.

What are the benefits of teaching strategies?

Instructional strategies can: • motivate students and help them focus attention • organize information for understanding and remembering • monitor and assess learning. encouragement to self-monitor and self-correct • tools for reflecting on and assessing own learning.

What teaching strategies must be used by the teachers to manage students with different learning styles?

Tips for Accommodating.
Engage the student in conversation about the subject matter..
Question students about the material..
Ask for oral summaries of material..
Have them tape lectures and review them with you..
Have them tape themselves reviewing material and listen to it together..
Read material aloud to them..