Some Educational Frameworks That Fit Well Together
Exploring ways of teaching students well
All teachers have their own teaching style. Most teachers are open to exploring ways in which they can teach well.
I’ve been a teacher for over 30 years, and 24 of those years were spent in large classrooms in secondary schools in England.
I’ve had lots of time to experiment with different ways of teaching.
I like to think of myself as a multi-modal teacher. I’ve tried lots of teaching styles, teaching frameworks and ways to help students learn better.
Here are two sets of complementary educational frameworks that I ‘ve found work well for me and my students.
1. Montessori + Project-Based Learning
The Montessori method focuses on the learner working on activities that they choose with minimal help from a teacher. These activities challenge them to solve a problem. The teacher encourages independence and curiosity.
Project based learning encourages students to pick projects that they want to work on. Once they’ve chosen a project learners need to try and see it as something that can be tackled using different sets of skills and concepts drawn from a range of subjects.
Both frameworks emphasize hands-on learning based on real-world topics. Students are encouraged to be independent and curious learners and to value what they learn through their project work.
I’ve used this approach in my maths classroom with a group of A-level students. One particular project stands out.
A student, let’s call him Joe, was interested in seeing if there was a link between the number of people getting covid 19 during the pandemic and population density. So he looked at whether people in more highly populated areas were more likely to get covid 19.
He needed to do research and then write up his work as a project. Finally, he pulled together his main findings and presented them to his group.
Along the way he learnt about how to find and analyse data. He needed to figure out the best way to present his findings and then how to communicate well with his peers when presenting his work to them.
Afterwards we spoke about what he had learned from doing his project. He felt that his skills in data collection, data presentation and data analysis had improved and that presenting his work had made him think more carefully about the conclusions he had reached so that he could explain them well to his classmates.
2. Blended Learning + Flipped Classroom
Blended learning is a way of teaching that has a teacher directing students towards online digital media that can help them with their learning.
Students listen to instructions from their teachers and then do the online activities that they’ve been told to do. Their learning is blended into a set of work that they produce. The great thing about learning this way is that all students get to choose what works for them.
Flipped learning is where students are told by their teacher to watch a video on a topic for homework in advance, before the topic is taught. Sometimes they may be asked to read or work through a chapter of a book instead.
After the homework due date has passed, the teacher gives students an exercise to do on the topic and does not teach it. Instead, it is assumed that the students have done the homework and can then do the questions.
It’s a good way of getting students interested in a topic.
These frameworks use technology and self-paced learning, freeing up classroom time for collaboration and deeper discussions.
Here’s how I worked with this approach in a year 9 computer science class with students aged 13 and 14.
· First I chose a video on the hardware inside a computer. I watched the video first to make sure that it was set at the right level for these students and contained information that was important for them to know.
· Then in my lesson we talked about how the homework should be done. I shared the link to the video and told students that they needed to watch the video and make their own notes on it before the next lesson.
· The lesson after the homework was due, I gave students some questions on the hardware inside a computer to discuss. Most who had done the homework were able to discuss these well with in a group of 4 students.
Students who hadn’t done the homework had an opportunity to pick up on what they needed to know through the discussion.
Those students who had watched the video and made good notes had the opportunity to go further with their learning using technology resources highlighted by me and sometimes their peers in the lesson.
They were then given the opportunity to present this extra work to the class in the last 15 minutes of the lesson.
Practical teaching
Teaching can be lonely.
Being in a classroom with around 30 students, with maybe a teacher assistant if you are lucky, can feel isolating. So it’s great to have a foundation to build your teaching on.
Lesson planning is always hard work. Knowing the way you want the lesson to progress and how to move learners on takes time to learn.
Solid educational frameworks like flipped learning, blended learning, project based learning and the Montessori method, provide teachers with varying experience with ideas to work with and can help learners make better progress.
Practical teaching is when you teach in a way that suits your students best.
You can usually only get to that point if you explore teaching frameworks and see which ones suit your classes best.
My experience tells me that there is never just one or two educational frameworks that work well and that its good to explore a variety of educational frameworks. It’s important to start look at each framework individually before trying to mix and match it with another one, as trying to do too much at one time is never a good idea.
It can get confusing for teachers and their students.
Trying out different educational frameworks when teaching
I’ve always been an advocate of teachers as lifelong learners.
It’s tempting to find a way of teaching that suits you well as a teacher and stick with that. I don’t think that’s a great idea, though.
Over the years I’ve been teaching, I’ve found that students change, society changes, and the ethos of schools changes. So I’ve worked hard to adapt to all these changes. Change is the only constant thing in education.
I love exploring new ways of teaching and keeping a record of what works for particular groups of students and teaching individual students online. It’s this exploration that keeps my love of teaching strong and fuels my passion to see my students achieve and get the results that they want.