For all the science surrounding K-12 education, teaching is very much an art. Mastering the art of teaching requires the continuous study of the human condition, a deep understanding of the content being taught, and the ability to leverage two distinct learning theories to maximize each student's ability to convert working memory to long-term explicit memory storage. The art of teaching is found in the educator's ability to recognize a need to shift between Instructivist and Constructivist learning theories and the ability to do so confidently and seamlessly.
The art of teaching occurs before, during, and after student-classroom interactions. For the purposes of this writing, we will examine the art of teaching in each phase of student-classroom interactions. First, we will begin with the art of planning, then the art of active student-classroom interaction, and finally—the art of adjusting and studying.
Before proceeding, it is important to understand the theoretical foundations we will be drawing from throughout this article. If you have not read Learning Science: A theoretical overview, consider doing so now.
The Art of Planning
Lesson planning begins with understanding what type of planning you will be conducting. For teachers new to the career field, new to a grade level, or even just new to a content area, lesson planning can feel daunting at best and impossible at worst. To help alleviate some of the stress that is lesson-planning we have understand exactly what you are going to be doing as a classroom teacher.
1. You are not developing a curriculum map for your state or district.
2. You are not developing a year-at-a-glance or scope and sequence document for your state or district.
3. You are not developing content standards, objectives, or student learning outcomes for your school or classroom.
The items listed above are typically developed by curriculum specialists at the state or district level. If you do not have them, ask your building-level leaders or department chair for access to them before you start planning your lessons. It is also a good practice to ask for a lesson-planning template - some schools and districts have a template, some don’t. Some schools and districts even have lesson plans and resources ready for teacher use, so ask.
What are you doing as a classroom teacher?
You are planning daily lessons, formative assessments, and maybe summative assessments for your content area. You will be rewriting state or national course standards and learning objectives so students and other stakeholders can make sense of what is happening and what is expected in your classroom. Finally, you will be using district-provided resources to help students develop skills and increase retention of learned materials. It’s important to note that lesson delivery may occur in face-to-face, virtual, or blended settings.
The art of teaching is developing an instructivism period, constructivism period, and a review/clarification period where instructivism and constructivism take place according to your judgement as a teacher. Generally, each block of instructivism, constructivism, and review consists of about 33 percent of the grading period.
During a daily lesson, instructivism consists of about 20 percent of the class period, constructivism consists of about 60 percent of the class period, and review/clarification lasts approximately 20 percent of the class period.
The above percentages should be thought of as a continuum, not a hard rule. For example, if your students lack foundational knowledge to be successful during constructivism-based learning, it may be appropriate to spend 80 percent or more of the class period. This may translate to the instructivism phase taking up to 60 percent of total classroom time over a given grading period.
The figure below is a visual representation of the points discussed above.
Planning requires assessments. Prior to delivering lessons of any kind, you should give students an assessment to use for learning—or establishing a baseline from which to build lesson and types of instruction. Regardless of where students begin, it is recommended that you plan instruction using a lesson plan consisting of predictable routines and procedures.
We will begin to introduce planning techniques in future posts. For now, understand that planning documents generally should generally be as simple as possible. Umbrella planning, compacted curriculum planning, and methods like Understanding by Design are, in my opinion, the realm of district-level curriculum planners, all of whom have the time to commit to developing plans and resources that are delivered to teachers for implementation.
The Art of Teaching is developing the skill to know when to use Instructivism to establish student foundational knowledge so the student can engage with peers to extend their Zone of Proximal Development in Constructivist-based activities. Accomplishing these tasks lead us to planning formative assessments which measure and address the forgetting curve.
-Bill
