Walter Geerts & René van Kralingen - The Teachers' Handbook

1.1  A powerful learning environment motivates

Involve all students in the lesson, even in large groups Teachers often assume that smaller classes give more options for a strong learn ing environment than larger classes. Research such as by Fredericks et al. (2004), however, shows that quality of teaching is a stronger deciding factor than group size. Quality of teaching involves the ability to actively engage all students in the lessons. Teachers should make sure that students in larger groups do not feel anonymous and unnoticed. The challenge is to find a balance between paying attention to individual students and at the same time keeping an eye on group cohesion as a whole. This can be achieved by encouraging students to have confi

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dence in each other and by making agreements on collaboration during lesson times (seeChap ter 6). Some teachers excel in getting maximum commitment out of their charges, irrespective of class size. Activating didactics is a key ele ment in achieving this feat (see Chapter 3).

Activating education is based on the premise that students will learn better when positively engaged through acti vating strategies in the classroom.

Taking some communication advice to heart In order to actively engage students in your lessons, you could apply some basic rules of communication: ■■ Follow the class and its students . This will form the basis of each contact and of each individual lesson. You need to see what each student does, whether he has understood your instructions or whether in fact he is bored. This means not only explaining what he needs to know, but also observing his response. This is crucially important for the student. It will make him feel validated. ■■ Make active eye contact . This is an integral part of not only noticing individ ual students, but also managing the whole class. ■■ Actively send out signs of confirmation to both individual students and the group as a whole . This could be a wink, a nod or simply a pat on the back. Even responding to a poorly formulated question is a sign of confirmation. By doing this, you let the student know that you have acknowledged him, giving him the reassurance that he is worth being noticed. ■■ Give positive affirmation of students’ actions . This is to show the student that you enjoy interacting with him. Any question can be met with positive feed back like ‘That’s an excellent question, I’m sure some of your classmates want to hear the answer again too.’ A non-approving way of responding in such a situation could be, ‘That’s dumb, why didn’t you get that the first time?’ The student might feel noticed in that case, but not in a pleasant way. Next time, this student will think twice before asking a question and will withdraw into anonymity – exactly the reverse of what you want to achieve. ■■ Make sure that clear instructions for equal turns are given . You are responsi ble for making the lesson progress well. It’s a good idea, when asking a ques tion, to pose it to the class as a whole, pause for a minute to give the class some thinking time, and only then point at a student to answer it.

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