Every school within Queensland is
required to have a pedagogical framework which underpins the school’s values
and beliefs about teaching and learning. Each school’s pedagogical framework
also outlines the processes for professional learning and instructional
leadership that each school decides will best support consistent whole- school
based pedagogical practices. Our school’s pedagogical framework is
research-validated and designed to support and promote sustained improvement in
student achievement.
The six core systemic principles that need dto be evident in every Queensland state school's pedagogical framework are:
- Student-centred planning
- High Expectations
- Alignment of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment
- Evidence-based decision making
- Targeted and scaffolded instruction
- Safe, supportive, connected and inclusive learning environments
At Bowen High, we firmly believe that our core business is your students' learning. In order to ensure that we are providing the best possible education we have adopted the Visible Teaching Visible Learning framework.
The seven aspects that contribute
to our pedagogical framework are:
- Clear learning
intentions
- Success criteria
- Build commitment and
engagement
- Input, modelling,
checking for understanding
- Guided practice /
feedback
- Review, clarify to bring
learning together through closure
- Independent practice
1. Clear learning intentions
Learning intentions should be:
- visible, known and understood by the students
- linked to activities during the lesson
- made explicit to
students by referring back to learning intentions during each activity
- evaluated at the end of the lesson to see which students met them and who did
not
- linked to the unit
learning intentions.
2. Success criteria
The teacher needs to be able to articulate what the students need to be
able to show to demonstrate that they have met the learning intention of the
lesson. Including what standards are
required.
3. Build commitment and engagement
There is a need to build commitment and engagement in the learning task
a ‘hook’ to grab the student’s attention such that the student shares the
intention and understands what it means to be successful. Strategies need to be
implemented to engage students in the learning process. The ultimate goal is
for students to be self-motivated and to take ownership of their learning.
4. Input, modelling, checking for understanding
Input refers to the way students learn new
information or skills. . An
important goal for all teachers is to move their students towards independent
learning through a gradual move from the teacher directing learning to a point
at which the students take responsibility for their own learning.
A variety of
strategies to input information include:
- Direct
teaching
methods (highly structured) including explicit teaching, intensive
- teaching,
drill and practice. demonstration,
teacher exposition, video
- Interactive teaching methods
(that support students in working collaboratively and productively in
active, hands-on and participatory learning), including: whole-class
discussion, cooperative learning and peer partner learning.
- Indirect teaching methods
(learner-centred that gives students opportunities to make decisions and
choices about their learning), including inquiry-based learning,
problem-based learning and independent learning, structured research.
- Experiential teaching methods
(that enable students to learn and construct meaning through experiences)
including field experience (real-life), role play (life-like) and abstract
processes. Experimenting.
5. Guided practice / feedback
Guided practice involves an opportunity for each student to demonstrate
his or her grasp of new learning by working through an activity or an exercise
– such that the teachers can provide feedback and individual remediation as
required.
Feedback
underpins all teaching, learning and assessment processes. It can be defined as information and advice
provided by a teacher, peer, parent or self about aspects of one’s performance
aimed at improving learning.
Teachers
and students use feedback to close the
gap between where students are and where they aim to be. It is this function combined with effective
instruction that provides the power of feedback. Teachers use self-feedback to guide and
improve their teaching practice.
6. Review, clarify to bring learning together through closure
Closure involves those actions or statements that cue the students that
they have arrived at an important point in the lesson or at the end of a
lesson, to help:
- To organise student learning
- To help to form a coherent picture
- To consolidate
- To eliminate confusion and frustration
- To reinforce the major points to be learned
How do we do this?
- Revisit learning intention
- Look at where we have come from and where we are going to
- Recap why the information learned is important
- Assess if students are ready for the next step
- Differentiate – some students may need more time in the guided practice
section while some are ready to proceed to independent practice
- Clear up any simple misconceptions
7. Independent practice
Independent practice may be in the form of:
formative assessment, summative assessment, and independent classroom activity
or homework tasks.
How do we do this?
- Give
students multiple opportunities ( over a
period of time ) for independent practice of new skills
- Continuously
monitor progress of student learning in the classroom.
- Knowing
where each student is at and what needs to come next for their learning.
- Using the
information to make decisions about, or changes to, planned teaching and
learning.
- Making sure
there is a clear and explicit link between what is intended (learning
Intentions), what will be taught (input- learning experiences and teaching
strategies), what will be assessed and how it will be assessed (success
criteria).
- Assessments
allow all students to demonstrate what they know and can do.
- Developing formative assessment,
summative assessment, and independent classroom activity or homework tasks.