Best Learning Practices - Essay Example

Best Learning Practices 2nd October Best Learning Practices Education is largely concernedwith the cognitive knowledge domain. Highly qualified instructors use a set of best practices that shape student learning and success. During an Independent Practice, students will have a chance of reinforcing skills and synthesizing their new understanding by completing an assignment on their own, without the teachers guidance. When writing the Independence Practice part of the Lesson Plan, the teacher should include activities that the students will be able to fill out on their own basing on his/her observations during a guided practice. The teacher should also offer independent practice repeatedly so that learning is not forgotten especially for the struggling students (Borich, 2007).
Independent Practice can be in form of a worksheet or homework assignment, but other ways that might help students reinforce and practice the given skills should be thought of. For instance, the students may be asked to complete a Venn diagram worksheet, to categorize the characteristics of animals and plants. The results from the Independent Practice should be assessed in order to see where learning might have failed. The information gathered should be used to inform future teachings (Borich, 2007).
In a Guided Practice session, the instructor should ask the students to display that they have grasped the concepts, skills, and modeling that he/she presented to them during the Direct Instruction section of the lesson. While the teacher circulates the classroom, providing assistance on a particular activity as worksheet, the learners should be able to perform the assignment effectively. A teacher should observe the learners level of mastery of the material so as to inform his/her future teaching. In addition, the teacher should provide focused support for students needing extra assistance to attain the learning goals. Any mistakes observed should be corrected (Harmin, 1994).
Completing a series of activities, among other things, requires that students learn something new, digest it, reflect on it, and perform an assignment using it. Teachers make guided practice successful by following five steps:
Reminding Learners of the Lesson Objectives
Every lesson component need to be firmly aligned to the goals of the session. A clear reminder when the guided practice session starts will make the activity appropriate to the learners and harmonize it to a clearer picture of what educators expect of them (Gagne, Briggs, & Wager, 1988).
Checking for Understanding Immediately and Frequently
Learners are doing something different for the first time, and throughout the practice, they need to confirm from the instructor if they are doing the task appropriately. Instructors also need to know if every student is meeting the cognitive demands of the session. Slow and planned, a good speed should give teachers time to let learners know where they are correct, and where they might be swerving (Harmin, 1994).
Giving a Non-evaluative Feedback
The teacher should check for understanding and give feedback, which is essential at this point. Feedback should be non-evaluative so that students can correct or make improvements without worrying about their efforts being graded during guided practice (Borich, 2007).
Making Tasks Interactive
Teachers should have students lead the practice, while he/she guides them through it as a way of attaining the appropriate level. A teacher should come up with a system that encourages students to ask questions. This develops the students’ nascent understanding in unique ways. Through encouraging questions, students may develop inquisitive habits (Borich, 2007).
Scaffolding Class Activities
Scaffolding means that the suitable supports are in place to allow student learning in the most competent way. Sentence stems, vocabulary lists, graphic organizers, and Venn diagrams are all cases of scaffolding that could be applied in a guided practice session. Guided practice can act as a crucial link from explaining to students what they ought to do to watching them actually perform (Gagne, Briggs, & Wager, 1988).
Before starting intervention and remediation, the first thing to do is to assess student skills, strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan for entering and sharing assessment outcomes. Using a corrective feedback might have a greater impact on learning. Corrective feedback may take two forms; immediate feedback and delayed feedback. Delayed feedback involves allowing students to work on their error until a correct answer is found. This kind of feedback is efficient as it allows even the weak students to grasp the concepts of the topic through a ‘repeat until correct’ practice and a ‘teacher-generated’ clarification (Harmin, 1994). This practice will facilitate real learning for all students.
References
Borich, G. (2007). Effective Teaching Methods. Ohio: Prentice Hall.
Gagne, R., Briggs, L., & Wager, W. (1988). Principles of Instructional Design. New York: Reinhart and Winston.
Harmin, M. (1994). Inspiring active learning: A handbook for teachers. Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum development. Read More