By Carol Rolheiser, Ph.D. and Michael Fullan, Ph.D.
The words “research” and “best practices” are familiar words in education. But how often do school faculties take time together to see what the research says about what practices are “best practices”? The following activity is designed for faculties to do just that. The minimum time needed for this activity is 30 minutes.
Directions: Form groups of four. Then, in your groups of four, pair off. Pair One reads Research Says (I.) and Research-based Best Practices (II.). Pair Two reads Research-based Best Practices (II.) and Strategies that Impact Student Achievement (III).
Each pair looks for common components in the two assigned readings.
Then, as a group of four, Pair One and Pair Two merge their findings on a Venn diagram such as the one below so that components common to all three become evident. Reproduce your group’s Venn diagram flip chart for reporting out your findings to the larger group.
Source: Breaking Through Change Barriers (June 2002) by Michael Fullan and Carol Rolheiser. Reprinted with permission.
I. Research Says
CLASSROOM CLIMATE TO
SUPPORT THINKING CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
Teachers who establish classrooms characterized by an open, democratic climate promote learning because such a classroom climate correlates significantly with the development of critical and creative thinking abilities.
Teachers who teach creative problem-solving strategies improve learning by providing students with general purpose problem-solving tools appropriate for a variety of situations.
COOPERATIVE LEARNING DIRECT TEACHING OF THINKING
Teachers who employ cooperative learning methods promote learning because these collaborative experiences engage students in an interactive approach to processing information, resulting in greater retention of subject matter, improved attitudes toward learning and enhanced interpersonal relations among group members.
Teachers who teach thinking skills and processes directly promote learning because such explicit instruction helps students to better understand and more effectively apply the types of thinking required by the curriculum.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
Teachers who teach concepts inductively through the use of examples and non-examples promote learning because this strategy actively involves students in structing a personal understanding of a new concept.
Teachers who utilize graphic organizers with their students promote learning because knowledge that is organized into holistic conceptual frameworks is more easily remembered and understood than unstructured bits of information.
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE METACOGNITION
By attending to students’ srengths and helping develop other areas, teachers accommodate more learners and give students a greater repertoire of problem solving tools.
Teachers who help students develop and internalize metacognitive strategies through direct instruction, modeling, and use of practice, promote learning because the effective use of such strategies is one of the primary differences between more and less able learners.
Source: Jay McTighe, Maryland State Department of Education, as printed in Breaking Through Change Barriers (June 2002) by Michael Fullan and Carol Rolheiser. Reprinted with permission.
II. RESEARCH-BASED BEST PRACTICES
For Improving Student Achievement Encourage parents to stimulate their children’s intellectual development Require and grade homework Focus students on educational goals Incorporate direct teaching that exhibits key features and systematic steps Utilize advance organizers that show students relationships between past learning and present learning Teach students multiple learning strategies that promote metacognition by providing modeling, guided practice and application Utilize mastery learning techniques for teaching subject matter Incorporate cooperative learning
Source: Walberg, (1995). In Cawelti, G. (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Improving Student Achievement. Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service, as printed in Breaking Through Change Barriers (June 2002) by Michael Fullan and Carol Rolheiser. Reprinted with permission.
II. RESEARCH-BASED BEST PRACTICES (continued)
For Improving Student Achievement LANGUAGE ARTS
(Squire, 1995) MATHEMATICS
(Grouws, 1995) SCIENCE
(Gabel, 1995) SOCIAL STUDIES
Incorporate extensive reading of varied kinds of material.
Foster interactive learning.
Extend students’ background knowledge.
Utilize meaning-making skills and strategies such as summarizing, questioning, and interpreting.
Organize instruction into broad, thematically-based clusters of work.
Teach critical reading/writing skills.
Emphasize discussion and analysis.
Stress the composing processes.
Provide balanced attention to different forms of reading, writing, and speaking.
Provide early intervention.
Expose students to varied kinds of literature.
Provide assessment that reflects the content and process of instruction.
Focus instruction on the development of important mathematical ideas.
Incorporate the use of calculators.
Work with small groups of children.
Increase amount of time spent on mathematics.
Focus on number sense.
Utilize concrete materials for mathematics instruction on a long-term basis.
Encourage students’ intuitive solution methods for problem solving and allow for interaction and discussion in this process.
Utilize the learning cycle approach (exploration, invention, and application).
Utilize cooperative learning for classroom and laboratory instruction.
Use analogies for the development of conceptual understandings.
Provide wait time after asking questions.
Use student-generated and teacher-generated concept maps.
Incorporate computer simulations.
Use computers to collect and display data.
Employ systematic approaches in problem solving.
Encourage qualitative understanding of concepts to solve quantitative problems.
Use a Science-Technology-Society approach.
Incorporate real-life situations.
Use discrepant events to produce cognitive conflict.
Encourage thoughtful classroom climates that promote higher-order thinking.
Utilize the jurisprudential approach.
Teach critical thinking skills and strategies in the context of content knowledge, with attention to their appropriate applications.
Support concept development by using definitions, examples and non-examples, exploration of relations to other concepts, and students’ prior knowledge.
Incorporate effective phrasing, pacing, and distribution of questions and responses to students’ answers.
Encourage cognitive prejudice reduction by developing reasoning skills to draw valid inferences about group differences.
Utilize computer data-bases and simulations in social studies.
Encourage community service.
Incorporate constructivist teaching strategies.
Cawelti, G. (Ed.) (1995) Handbook of Research on Improving Student Achievement, Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service, as printed in Breaking Through Change Barriers (June 2002) by Michael Fullan and Carol Rolheiser. Reprinted with permission.
III. STRATEGIES THAT IMPACT STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Rank Strategy ES Percentile Gain N SD 1. Identifying similarities and differences (comparing, contrasting, classifying, analogies and metaphors) 1.61 45 31 .31 2. Summarizing and note taking 1.00 34 179 .50 3. Reinforcing effort and give praise .80 29 121 .35 4. Homework and practice .77 28 134 .36 5. Nonlinguistic representations .75 27 246 .40 6. Cooperative learning .73 27 122 .40 7. Setting objectives and providing feedback .61 23 408 .28 8. Generating and testing hypotheses .61 23 63 .79 9. Questions, cues, and advance organizers .59 22 1251 .26
Reflecting on this list…
- How many of these strategies are you using in the classroom/school?
- Which would you like more information about?
- Who on your faculty could be a resource for you?
Notes: ES=effect size. N=number of effect sized compared. SD=standard deviation
Source: Marzano, R., Pickering, D., and Polack, J. (2001). Classroom Instruction That Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, as printed in Breaking Through Change Barriers (June 2002) by Michael Fullan and Carol Rolheiser. Reprinted with permission.