Many of the conditions needed for learning overlap. Memory improves when the information is meaningful; emotions affect attention. The important thing is that teachers practice strategies that improve learning and discard those that inhibit it. All strategies should be judged by how they affect learning.
The remainder of this chapter focuses on specific learning strategies that Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) have found to have positive effects on student learning. For each of the strategies listed below, I share some thoughts based on my observations of their use in classrooms.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is a popular teaching strategy used in school today. According to Johnson and Johnson (1984), there are five major elements of cooperative learning:
These elements distinguish cooperative learning from what is merely group work. It’s important to make this distinction because the benefits of cooperative learning are not achieved merely by putting students in groups. If five students get together and each takes 5 of 25 questions to work on and then copy from each other, they aren’t engaging in cooperative learning. Designing effective cooperative learning is hard work that can’t be accomplished successfully in a few class periods. Some teachers don’t use this technique because they had an unsuccessful experience that may have resulted in a loss of class control. It’s not uncommon to hear, “I tried that cooperative learning thing a few times, but it didn’t work.”
Prior planning can greatly increase the likelihood of success when using cooperative learning. Certain decisions need to be made; for example, how should students be assigned to groups? Great care should be taken when forming groups on the basis of ability. The research is clear that continually putting struggling students in the same group is detrimental, whereas placing advanced students together has little to no effect (Manzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001).
The key is variety. Some days, the grouping can be random. For some activities, the grouping may be based on interests; for example, students who like sports could research a certain time period in history class and another group could be made up of students who share a love of music. In some situations, students could be assigned according to their special talents. Some students like to lead, some like to record, and some are good facilitators, so finding the best fit often determines the success of the group.
The size of the group should routinely be small. If all students are expected to participate, groups of five or more students will have a hard time meeting the five criteria for cooperative learning described earlier. Groups usually work best when they consist of three or four students (Kagan, 1994). For short periods of time, groups of two can be highly effective. Students should be grouped often enough that they remember how to function in a group.
The following basic guidelines can help teachers make cooperative learning more effective If it doesn’t fit, don’t wear it. Setting up the desks in quads with four students facing each other is a good way to get students ready for sharing. However, if the source of information is the teacher at the front of the classroom or a map on the side wall, this configuration may make it difficult to get and keep the student’s attention – if you don’t have the students’ eyes, you don’t have their ears. Change the seating arrangement to best facilitate the accomplishment of the objective. Sometimes, pushing all of the seats to the wall and leaving a big common area in the middle might work best. Having the students sit in quads all year is no more of a novelty than having them sit in rows.
Set up the process before worrying about content. Students should be aware of the process expected during cooperative learning. Setting up specific guidelines early allows the teacher to help with content as the routine become established. Students should be able to ask questions of the teacher only if no one in their group knows the answer. Students should all contribute using “group voices” that are quieter than individual response voices. In addition, students should decide upon roles. Who will keep the group on track? Who will record? Who will get supplies? Who will make sure that all members contribute?
Don’t “Bumblebee.” It’s common to see a teacher jump from group to group the minute the task is assigned. Sometimes, she repeats directions – which only encourages students not to listen the first time. Sometimes, her need to teach overpowers her need to have the students learn; she doesn’t trust that they can actually get it on their own, so she’s hesitant to relinquish her power to them. During the first few days (sometimes weeks) of using cooperative learning, the teacher should sit back and observe the process. Who works well together? Who is observing the guidelines? What strengths are evident among the groups? Once the process becomes routine to move about without being pulled in various directions by the students. She can clarify information to help students who are lost.
Identifying Similarities and Differences
The use of various techniques to identify similarities and differences is not new. Example include the use of Venn diagrams in mathematics, classification systems in science, and analogies and metaphors in English. What is different is that these techniques are now being used successfully in other subjects. For example, teacher Debi Stover had her students use tow large plastic rings in her civics class to compare and contrast the powers of the federal and state government. Sitting on the floor in the hallway, the students worked with partners to place in piles small cards with powers listed on them: one for powers belonging to the federal government, and one for powers shared by both. She was impressed with how much this helped the students retain the information compared with traditional methods of delivery. This technique can be applied to a variety of subjects.
Summarizing, Note Taking, and Interactive Notebooks
As more and more information is readily available for students, summarizing and note taking become essential skills. Students must be able to ignore irrelevant information and select or retain only the material that’s important for understanding the main idea.
Another important asset is the ability to piece together the meaningful information so that the big picture becomes evident, rather than having only a collection of unrelated facts, which will not be retained. Assessing for learning requires the teacher to provide thought-provoking questions to get the students to synthesize, evaluate, and/or apply the information they have gathered.
One of the greatest wastes of student time and effort is copying notes. Some teachers read from their own notes so that students can record what they hear on paper. Other put the notes on the board or an overhead, or ask students to copy from the textbook. In some cases, cloze notes are provided that offer the bulk of the notes but require students to fill in information as it’s presented. A popular trend is for teachers to put the notes in a PowerPoint presentation that the students then copy. This process often becomes no more than an electronic lecture. All of these techniques operate according to the premise that there’s a fixed amount of information that students must put on paper and memorize. One excuse that I have heard in support of this techniques is that it prepare the students for college. In may opinion, the best way to prepare students for college or life after high school is to have them think.
I have seen much improvement in note taking when teachers use a technique called interactive notebooks (INB). This often involves the teacher giving copies of the essential notes, the students use pictures, charts, or symbols to help them understand and remember the material that was pasted. In so doing, the students construct meaning for themselves rather than merely repeat how someone else interpreted the information.
Debi Stover has students fill in frames while taking notes (see Figure 3.1). By doing this, students relay the information in their own words but in an organized manner. This process helps them collect the most important information that’s presented.
Homework and Practice
The practice of assigning homework is common in most schools, but varies widely. Some teachers assign homework every night, whereas others hardly ever do. Some homework is graded, some is merely checked for effort, and some is ignored. Despite these differences, some common characteristics should be present if the assignment of homework is to be worthwhile.
The remainder of this chapter focuses on specific learning strategies that Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) have found to have positive effects on student learning. For each of the strategies listed below, I share some thoughts based on my observations of their use in classrooms.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is a popular teaching strategy used in school today. According to Johnson and Johnson (1984), there are five major elements of cooperative learning:
- Positive interdependence (students rely on each other for accomplishment of the goal)
- Face-to-face promotive interaction (peers provide feedback and acknowledge success)
- Individual and group accountability (each member of the group, as well as the whole group, receives feedback)
- Interpersonal and small group skills (communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution)
- Group processing (evaluating how well the group is doing and what needs to be done to improve)
These elements distinguish cooperative learning from what is merely group work. It’s important to make this distinction because the benefits of cooperative learning are not achieved merely by putting students in groups. If five students get together and each takes 5 of 25 questions to work on and then copy from each other, they aren’t engaging in cooperative learning. Designing effective cooperative learning is hard work that can’t be accomplished successfully in a few class periods. Some teachers don’t use this technique because they had an unsuccessful experience that may have resulted in a loss of class control. It’s not uncommon to hear, “I tried that cooperative learning thing a few times, but it didn’t work.”
Prior planning can greatly increase the likelihood of success when using cooperative learning. Certain decisions need to be made; for example, how should students be assigned to groups? Great care should be taken when forming groups on the basis of ability. The research is clear that continually putting struggling students in the same group is detrimental, whereas placing advanced students together has little to no effect (Manzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001).
The key is variety. Some days, the grouping can be random. For some activities, the grouping may be based on interests; for example, students who like sports could research a certain time period in history class and another group could be made up of students who share a love of music. In some situations, students could be assigned according to their special talents. Some students like to lead, some like to record, and some are good facilitators, so finding the best fit often determines the success of the group.
The size of the group should routinely be small. If all students are expected to participate, groups of five or more students will have a hard time meeting the five criteria for cooperative learning described earlier. Groups usually work best when they consist of three or four students (Kagan, 1994). For short periods of time, groups of two can be highly effective. Students should be grouped often enough that they remember how to function in a group.
The following basic guidelines can help teachers make cooperative learning more effective If it doesn’t fit, don’t wear it. Setting up the desks in quads with four students facing each other is a good way to get students ready for sharing. However, if the source of information is the teacher at the front of the classroom or a map on the side wall, this configuration may make it difficult to get and keep the student’s attention – if you don’t have the students’ eyes, you don’t have their ears. Change the seating arrangement to best facilitate the accomplishment of the objective. Sometimes, pushing all of the seats to the wall and leaving a big common area in the middle might work best. Having the students sit in quads all year is no more of a novelty than having them sit in rows.
Set up the process before worrying about content. Students should be aware of the process expected during cooperative learning. Setting up specific guidelines early allows the teacher to help with content as the routine become established. Students should be able to ask questions of the teacher only if no one in their group knows the answer. Students should all contribute using “group voices” that are quieter than individual response voices. In addition, students should decide upon roles. Who will keep the group on track? Who will record? Who will get supplies? Who will make sure that all members contribute?
Don’t “Bumblebee.” It’s common to see a teacher jump from group to group the minute the task is assigned. Sometimes, she repeats directions – which only encourages students not to listen the first time. Sometimes, her need to teach overpowers her need to have the students learn; she doesn’t trust that they can actually get it on their own, so she’s hesitant to relinquish her power to them. During the first few days (sometimes weeks) of using cooperative learning, the teacher should sit back and observe the process. Who works well together? Who is observing the guidelines? What strengths are evident among the groups? Once the process becomes routine to move about without being pulled in various directions by the students. She can clarify information to help students who are lost.
Identifying Similarities and Differences
The use of various techniques to identify similarities and differences is not new. Example include the use of Venn diagrams in mathematics, classification systems in science, and analogies and metaphors in English. What is different is that these techniques are now being used successfully in other subjects. For example, teacher Debi Stover had her students use tow large plastic rings in her civics class to compare and contrast the powers of the federal and state government. Sitting on the floor in the hallway, the students worked with partners to place in piles small cards with powers listed on them: one for powers belonging to the federal government, and one for powers shared by both. She was impressed with how much this helped the students retain the information compared with traditional methods of delivery. This technique can be applied to a variety of subjects.
Summarizing, Note Taking, and Interactive Notebooks
As more and more information is readily available for students, summarizing and note taking become essential skills. Students must be able to ignore irrelevant information and select or retain only the material that’s important for understanding the main idea.
Another important asset is the ability to piece together the meaningful information so that the big picture becomes evident, rather than having only a collection of unrelated facts, which will not be retained. Assessing for learning requires the teacher to provide thought-provoking questions to get the students to synthesize, evaluate, and/or apply the information they have gathered.
One of the greatest wastes of student time and effort is copying notes. Some teachers read from their own notes so that students can record what they hear on paper. Other put the notes on the board or an overhead, or ask students to copy from the textbook. In some cases, cloze notes are provided that offer the bulk of the notes but require students to fill in information as it’s presented. A popular trend is for teachers to put the notes in a PowerPoint presentation that the students then copy. This process often becomes no more than an electronic lecture. All of these techniques operate according to the premise that there’s a fixed amount of information that students must put on paper and memorize. One excuse that I have heard in support of this techniques is that it prepare the students for college. In may opinion, the best way to prepare students for college or life after high school is to have them think.
I have seen much improvement in note taking when teachers use a technique called interactive notebooks (INB). This often involves the teacher giving copies of the essential notes, the students use pictures, charts, or symbols to help them understand and remember the material that was pasted. In so doing, the students construct meaning for themselves rather than merely repeat how someone else interpreted the information.
Debi Stover has students fill in frames while taking notes (see Figure 3.1). By doing this, students relay the information in their own words but in an organized manner. This process helps them collect the most important information that’s presented.
Homework and Practice
The practice of assigning homework is common in most schools, but varies widely. Some teachers assign homework every night, whereas others hardly ever do. Some homework is graded, some is merely checked for effort, and some is ignored. Despite these differences, some common characteristics should be present if the assignment of homework is to be worthwhile.
- Homework should be an extension of what happens in the classroom and not a “drill and kill” exercise in which students merely repeat the same skills over and over that they performed in class.
- There must be some form of urgency attached to the completion of homework. If the reward for students who complete homework is the same as for those who don’t, teachers can’t expect students to expend much effort in the future. This doesn’t mean that homework has to be graded. Students can be responsible for sharing with their teams or reporting to the class. Peer pressure can be very motivating without the teacher’s getting caught in a paper blizzard.
- The assignment of homework should take advantage of resources that aren’t available in the school setting. For example, “Ask your grandparents…,” or “As you watch commercials tonight…,” or “While you are at work after school…,”
- Homework is what is done outside of school. Teachers should resist the temptation to let students start homework if time allows during class time. There’s nothing wrong with students working sample problems followed by feedback, but that shouldn’t take the place of homework.
- Homework should be graded with care. The playing field at home is not level for all students: Whereas some have access to vast resources at home, including educated and dedicated parents, computers, and materials, others might have to work until late in the night or go home to abusive or neglectful parents. Many students are responsible for babysitting their siblings. Helping students after school is one way to level the playing field.
Figure 3.1
Frame for SOL 3c
Key Topic: Duties Things Citizens Are Required to Do by Law | |||
Main Idea | Main Idea | Main Idea | Main Idea |
Obey laws | Pay taxes | Serve military | Serve court |
Essential Details | Essential Details | Essential Details | Essential Details |
Keep order | Sales tax | If called | If called |
Keep from hurting others | Income tax | 18-yr-old males register | Jury duty |
Protect citizen rights | Pay for education, roads, and defense | Protect national peace | Witness |
Protect nation’s security | |||
So what? What is important to understand about this? | |||
For the government to be effective, citizens must do their duties or face legal consequences. | |||
Nonlinguistic Representations
Students are engaged in nonlinguistic representations when they gather information in ways other than hearing about it or reading about it: They make models of it, draw it, use manipulatives to touch it, organize it graphically so that spatial relationships can be noted, or act it out. Some examples of graphic organizers can be found at www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbanktorganiz.htm.
Kinesthetic learners react positively to movement. Tactile learners relate to things they can touch. Of the eight intelligences that Gardner (1983) describes, only one relates directly to linguistics. Unfortunately, teachers typically dispense information through linguistic representation. Why? Because the focus is on teaching, not on learning, and that’s how teachers were taught. However, using INBs, as described earlier in this chapter, is an excellent way to engage multiple senses so that the students take ownership of the information rather than just “rent” it until after the test.
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
It’s unfortunate that many of our practices in schools discourage, rather than encourage, students’ efforts. The students who raises his hand to answer a question and get “no” as the response from the teacher quickly decides not to bother. The effective teacher dignifies the student’s response by finding something to support his effort.
“Your are on the right track, but I need a little more information. Can someone help?”
Teachers also discourage effort when they post a zero on an assignment because the final answer was wrong or the format was not what was desired. That same teacher later will complain about how some of the students are “unmotivated.” Recognition for students who make A and A/B honor rolls is common, but how often do we recognize students who bring their grades up from an F to a C?
Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock (2001) point out that goal setting is important not only for the teacher but also for the students. Once the teacher has communicated the class’s learning goals, the students should develop their own personal goals. I have found that students often have very vague goals, if any at all. If they do have goals, they typically don’t have a plan to accomplish those goals from day to day. A student might say he wants a B in a given class and yet continue not to do his homework. Contracts that the teacher and the student develop collaboratively can help with this process. However, a critical component of any plan is that the student should receive frequent feedback regarding his progress toward his goal.
In some cases, the problem is not what we recognize but how we recognize. Students often get papers back with a letter grade and not much else. It’s not helpful to say. “This is not your best work” or “You need to study more for tests.” The feedback needs to be specific and have the goal of providing information that will help the student improve. Students can’t monitor their learning in the absence of specific feedback, which must have the purpose of improving performance by identifying strengths and weaknesses in the work. It is the product, not the person who produced it, that should be evaluated.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
One of the best ways to have students pull information together and understand the big picture is through generating and testing hypotheses. A powerful strategy is to have students stop after reading a few chapters in a novel and predict what will happen next. After finding out the answer, they can analyze the process they used to arrive at their conclusions, regardless of whether or not they were accurate. When we examine learning, the process used is often as important as the result.
Problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry, and decision making are all techniques that use the generating and testing of hypotheses (Marzano et. al., 2001). These techniques can be used in isolation or in various combinations. The key to their success is to get students to think and use a process that works for them. This approach is consistent with the constructivist view to learning. Students also can benefit from hearing about a variety of methods used by other students to reach their conclusions. Having a procedure for gathering and interpreting facts in order to reach hypotheses will promote transfer to other situations.
Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
The purpose of using cues, question, and advance organizer is to activate prior knowledge and check for understanding. Asking a question prior to instruction serves to prepare students for the lesson of the day and to determine if they posses the necessary skills to move forward. The level of the questioning (Bloom’s taxonomy) should vary depending on the objective. After the question is asked, wait time should be provided to allow for deep thought and to give all students an equal chance to respond. Providing a cue following an incorrect response can turn a negative experience into a positive one for the student and increase the likelihood of future participation.
Advance organizers – that is, graphic organizers used in advance of a lesson – can help students pull together the information they already have in a meaningful manner prior to new learning. Marzano and colleagues (2001) list four types of advance organizers: expository, narrative, skimming, and illustrated. Using advance organizers can greatly increase student’s success in future experiences. Success can give them confidence by letting them see how much they already know before the start of instruction.
Differentiated Instruction
Teaching for learning and differentiated instruction go hand in hand. When a teacher decides to use differentiated instruction, she makes a commitment to have all students learn. The focus is on student learning, not on teaching. The starting point is to assess the learning style, readiness, and interest of each student. Using this information, the teacher adjusts the process, content, or product to meet the needs of each student. She looks at each student’s strengths, not at his weaknesses. She doesn’t ask how she can motivate her students; she asks how she can take advantage of what motivates them to increase their learning. The student doesn’t have to fit into the agenda; rather, the agenda is adjusted to fit the students.
________________________________________
Beers, B. (2006). Learning-Driven Schools. VA:ASCD. Pp. 541-59
Students are engaged in nonlinguistic representations when they gather information in ways other than hearing about it or reading about it: They make models of it, draw it, use manipulatives to touch it, organize it graphically so that spatial relationships can be noted, or act it out. Some examples of graphic organizers can be found at www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbanktorganiz.htm.
Kinesthetic learners react positively to movement. Tactile learners relate to things they can touch. Of the eight intelligences that Gardner (1983) describes, only one relates directly to linguistics. Unfortunately, teachers typically dispense information through linguistic representation. Why? Because the focus is on teaching, not on learning, and that’s how teachers were taught. However, using INBs, as described earlier in this chapter, is an excellent way to engage multiple senses so that the students take ownership of the information rather than just “rent” it until after the test.
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
It’s unfortunate that many of our practices in schools discourage, rather than encourage, students’ efforts. The students who raises his hand to answer a question and get “no” as the response from the teacher quickly decides not to bother. The effective teacher dignifies the student’s response by finding something to support his effort.
“Your are on the right track, but I need a little more information. Can someone help?”
Teachers also discourage effort when they post a zero on an assignment because the final answer was wrong or the format was not what was desired. That same teacher later will complain about how some of the students are “unmotivated.” Recognition for students who make A and A/B honor rolls is common, but how often do we recognize students who bring their grades up from an F to a C?
Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock (2001) point out that goal setting is important not only for the teacher but also for the students. Once the teacher has communicated the class’s learning goals, the students should develop their own personal goals. I have found that students often have very vague goals, if any at all. If they do have goals, they typically don’t have a plan to accomplish those goals from day to day. A student might say he wants a B in a given class and yet continue not to do his homework. Contracts that the teacher and the student develop collaboratively can help with this process. However, a critical component of any plan is that the student should receive frequent feedback regarding his progress toward his goal.
In some cases, the problem is not what we recognize but how we recognize. Students often get papers back with a letter grade and not much else. It’s not helpful to say. “This is not your best work” or “You need to study more for tests.” The feedback needs to be specific and have the goal of providing information that will help the student improve. Students can’t monitor their learning in the absence of specific feedback, which must have the purpose of improving performance by identifying strengths and weaknesses in the work. It is the product, not the person who produced it, that should be evaluated.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
One of the best ways to have students pull information together and understand the big picture is through generating and testing hypotheses. A powerful strategy is to have students stop after reading a few chapters in a novel and predict what will happen next. After finding out the answer, they can analyze the process they used to arrive at their conclusions, regardless of whether or not they were accurate. When we examine learning, the process used is often as important as the result.
Problem solving, historical investigation, invention, experimental inquiry, and decision making are all techniques that use the generating and testing of hypotheses (Marzano et. al., 2001). These techniques can be used in isolation or in various combinations. The key to their success is to get students to think and use a process that works for them. This approach is consistent with the constructivist view to learning. Students also can benefit from hearing about a variety of methods used by other students to reach their conclusions. Having a procedure for gathering and interpreting facts in order to reach hypotheses will promote transfer to other situations.
Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
The purpose of using cues, question, and advance organizer is to activate prior knowledge and check for understanding. Asking a question prior to instruction serves to prepare students for the lesson of the day and to determine if they posses the necessary skills to move forward. The level of the questioning (Bloom’s taxonomy) should vary depending on the objective. After the question is asked, wait time should be provided to allow for deep thought and to give all students an equal chance to respond. Providing a cue following an incorrect response can turn a negative experience into a positive one for the student and increase the likelihood of future participation.
Advance organizers – that is, graphic organizers used in advance of a lesson – can help students pull together the information they already have in a meaningful manner prior to new learning. Marzano and colleagues (2001) list four types of advance organizers: expository, narrative, skimming, and illustrated. Using advance organizers can greatly increase student’s success in future experiences. Success can give them confidence by letting them see how much they already know before the start of instruction.
Differentiated Instruction
Teaching for learning and differentiated instruction go hand in hand. When a teacher decides to use differentiated instruction, she makes a commitment to have all students learn. The focus is on student learning, not on teaching. The starting point is to assess the learning style, readiness, and interest of each student. Using this information, the teacher adjusts the process, content, or product to meet the needs of each student. She looks at each student’s strengths, not at his weaknesses. She doesn’t ask how she can motivate her students; she asks how she can take advantage of what motivates them to increase their learning. The student doesn’t have to fit into the agenda; rather, the agenda is adjusted to fit the students.
________________________________________
Beers, B. (2006). Learning-Driven Schools. VA:ASCD. Pp. 541-59
