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Chapter 12: Transformative Classroom Instruction and the Pedagogy–Management Connection

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In this Chapter:

Exploring the Socio-Political Foundations of Instructional Inequity

· Five Key Areas Where Pedagogical Choices Affect Management Outcomes

Effectiveness of Lesson Preparation, Organization and Mechanics
Level of Engagement
Clarity of the Learning Targets
Degree to which there is Incentive for Students to Invest in the Process
Degree to which the Curriculum is Relevant and Meaningful

Teaching and Managing Students with Different Abilities and Learning Styles
Examining the Relationship between Assessment and Management
Matching Instructional and Managerial Styles

Our greatest asset in our effort to promote high quality classroom management outcomes will be how and what we teach. Classroom management and instruction are inherently inter-related. As depicted in Figure 12.1, what and how we teach, what and how we assess, and how we manage our class, will all necessarily affect one another. When we perform effectively in one area the other two will benefit, and when we engage in practices that are ineffective in one area, the other two will suffer as well.

Figure 12.1. The Inter-related Factors in the Teaching Process

In our research into classroom effectiveness we find that in almost every case, classrooms with management, behavioral and motivational problems tend to be characterized by the use of instructional strategies that failed to promote engagement and/or were insufficiently “needs satisfying” (Shindler, Jones, Taylor & Cadenas, 2003). In fact, we observed that the problems that resulted from the use of certain instructional choices were highly predictable. We notice the same problems being produced by the same kinds of teaching choices. In contrast, when certain instructional techniques were employed by the teacher, we find that disciplinary concerns are dramatically reduced. As we examine the relationship between pedagogical choices and the types and quantity of management issues that teachers face, it is evident that each pedagogical choice was either contributing to or undermining the ability to be successful in accomplishing one’s teaching goals.

Making Wise Pedagogical Choices Can Either Promote or Hinder the Ability to Meet Each of the Following Goals:

Reducing Management Problems. Pedagogy that fails to meet the students’ basic needs will lead to management problems. Engaging, satisfying, well-directed, meaningful instructional activities can render misbehavior unnecessary.

Promoting a Psychology of Success. As discussed in Chapter 8, each pedagogical action is either promoting or detracting from a student’s psychology of success (e.g., internal locus of control, sense of acceptance and belonging, and mastery-orientation). Those that promote it will lead to a healthier classroom and those that detract from it will lead to higher levels of dysfunction, behavioral problems, and student drop-out (Hess, 1987; Woods 1995).

Acting as a Transformative Agent. Each of us is being changed continuously by what and how we learn. In some cases, the change is subtle, while in others it is significant. For some the changes lead to limiting beliefs and/or dysfunctional behavior. For some the changes lead to empowerment and personal growth. What are your students learning as a result of their learning?

· That knowledge is static and simply academic, or is co-constructed and a source of power?

· How to stick to thinking that is safe so as to protect their egos and narrow construct of what is familiar, or how to take risks and develop an intrinsic love of learning?

· To be resigned to a lot in life to which they feel they are limited, or transcend their life circumstances and class barriers and become agents of change?

Exploring the Socio-Political Foundations of Instructional Inequity

It is no surprise that teaching practices vary greatly from school to school; however, it is remarkable just how much this variation is related to the socio-economic status of the students in the school. Anyon et al. (1981) discovered that in a significant proportion of cases, the kind of teaching found in a school and the class of the students was correlated. She found that in working class schools the work was characterized by an emphasis on following rules and directions, and getting the task done. Conformity was encouraged and there was little explanation for purpose of work. Work was most often worksheet-driven and did not promote critical thinking. In these working class schools the emphasis was most commonly on rote and routine.

In middle class schools Anyon observed that there was a greater emphasis on critical thinking; however, the purpose of learning was mostly defined by getting good grades and right answers. Students’ interests were taken into account in the curriculum and management, but creativity was only somewhat encouraged.

In affluent professional and executive elite Schools, there was found to be a much greater emphasis on student empowerment. Students were significantly involved in the decision-making process, and there was a deliberate attempt to make the learning meaningful and related to real life. Students’ sense of self-responsibility and self-directedness was promoted. Management was more defined by reasoning than rules.

Chapter Reflection 12-a: Reflect on the schools that you have observed. Would you say that you have seen a relationship between the socio-economic status of the area that schools are located in and the curriculum and instruction at the school? How would you explain your findings?

Keep your notes to use for the Chapter Activity at the end of the chapter.

When presented with the findings of this research, few students in my classes are surprised, yet, their reactions vary. Many react with resentment and indignation. Occasionally students deny the validity of the research. Quite often students who have experienced what Anyon characterizes as a working class education feel as though they were penalized educationally as a result of growing up in less affluent areas – in other words, they feel they were cheated. Consequently, this leads to the tendency to want to assign blame. And one could say that there is a lot of blame to go around (e.g., society, the economic system, parents, policy makers, etc). Yet while the political implications of this research are profound and incendiary, few of us in this profession are in a position to make wholesale changes to the systemic realities that contribute to the inequity in our schools. Nonetheless, we are in a position to change the lives of those in our classes. We can change the equation for the students that we come in contact with on a daily basis by what and how we teach. In fact, we are the most powerful factor in the equation. Therefore, in a very real and concrete manner, we are determining the future of our students by our pedagogical choices.

The Pedagogy-Management Connection

Each quarter, the first thing I do with my students during the class meeting dealing with the relationship between pedagogy and management is ask them to take a few minutes and (from their experience) fill in the blank in the following sentence:

Teachers who do _________ (pedagogically) have fewer management problems.

The ideas generated are consistently valid and insightful. This is no surprise, given that most of us can recall teachers who, because of how and what they taught, experienced few management problems. Conversely, we can usually remember more than a few teachers who because of their instructional style and choices found themselves dealing with management issues on a perpetual basis. As you read further in this chapter, you may recognize practices used by both these enviable and unenviable role models.

Chapter Reflection 12-b: From your observations, what instructional choices lead to fewer management problems? It may be helpful to recall teachers you have observed who have been so successful at getting students to learn that their classes have fewer than average discipline issues, as well as teachers who as a result of how they teach seem to have more discipline issues than most. Save your answers for Chapter Activity #2 at the end of the chapter.

As we examine the effects of various teaching choices and practices, it is interesting to find that those that produce effective learning outcomes also produce a desirable effect on classroom management and discipline. These practices can be separated into the following five key areas:

Effectiveness of Lesson Preparation, Organization and Mechanics
Level of Student Engagement
Clarity of Learning Targets
Degree to which there is Value and Incentive for Students to Invest in the Process
Degree to which the Curriculum is Relevant and Meaningful to Students

1. Effectiveness of Lesson Preparation, Organization and Mechanics

Much of our success as teachers will be related to our ability to be effective with the many practical aspects of managing a lesson. Difficulties with these small things can add up add up to substantial problems. Kounin (1970) in his examination of effective teachers noticed that those who used certain instructional strategies had fewer incidents of misbehavior. He found that most misbehavior was the result of poor teacher planning and execution. He concluded from his research that it was better to be proactive than reactive when it came to classroom management.

Kounin observed that there were explicable areas in the technical act of teaching that contributed to more or fewer behavioral problems. One of the fundamental qualities that Kounin observed in good teachers was what he termed “with-it-ness,’ in other words, being aware of what is going on in the class, or having eyes in the back of one’s head. If you are one of those who feels lacking in with-it-ness (i.e., you feel that you miss social cues and are often unaware of the moods and mischief in the room), you may find teaching more frustrating than you originally conceived it to be. However, you can be successful if you learn to develop the skills related to technical management (see Chapter 12) and effective lesson management described here.

Chapter Reflection 12-c: Reflect on your level of “with-it-ness.” Would you say that you have a great deal – you have eyes in the back of your head? Or would you say that you often miss the cues and moods on the class? It is useful to note that some degree of one’s level of with-it-ness will be related to intentional factors, while some portion will be innate (i.e., related to one’s level of field-dependence or independence). Field-independent teachers can be highly successful. However, whereas the field-dependent teacher with more natural with-it-ness may find management a relatively natural skill, the more field-independent teacher may need to accept that it will take a bit more intention and skill development.

Kounin found that those teachers who were most successful were effective in their management of the technical aspects of the lesson. These aspects included maintaining the students’ attention, cues to alert the group to necessary information, and ways to foster accountability throughout the class. He also found that teachers who were able to manage the lesson mechanics had fewer problems. He broke this area into four separate skills – overlapping, managing movement, momentum, and smoothness. Overlapping is the skill of being able to attend to two or more things at once. Managing movement is the skill of creating effective transitions and procedures. Momentum relates to one’s ability to keep the lesson flowing without stops and starts, disruptions, or discontinuity. Smoothness is the ability to create ease and clarity in the lesson and avoiding jerkiness and confusion. Kounin found that when the lesson was orchestrated effectively it led to more on-task behavior and less misbehavior resulting from student frustration and confusion. In addition, it should be noted that an effectively managed lesson also makes the statement that the teacher cares and takes their role as the classroom leader seriously. So while on the practical level a well-managed lesson promotes efficiency, on an affective level it promotes the bond between the teacher and the students as well.

When reflecting on those teachers whose pedagogy contributed to fewer management problems, you probably found that they exhibited some common skills and intentions. Those teachers who you judged to be highly effective lesson managers were most likely: a) prepared on a consistent basis, b) tuned into the class, and c) had effective strategies for dealing with lesson momentum and timing.

a. Being Prepared. Very simply, preparation, while not insuring success, will certainly make it more probable. Conversely, when we are ill-prepared or are asked to teach with a limited opportunity to prepare, most often we experienced a disproportionate number of management problems. It would be nice if this were not the case. Time is difficult to find in the teaching profession and finding the motivation to prepare is often challenging. Yet common sense as well as the misery that we have experienced as a result of those days in which we tried to “wing it” unsuccessfully tell us that taking the time to prepare is worth it. Reflect on how you act when you are less prepared. Commonly, when one is not prepared, one tends to act more tentatively, uses more words, pauses to think more often, experiences and projects indecisiveness, changes one’s mind more often, and is more likely to project weakness and fear. The result is what Kounin refers to as a lack of smoothness and momentum.

Chapter Reflection 12.d: Recall situations in which you have been asked to teach or present when you were not prepared. How did you feel? What was the pervasive emotion? How did that affect manifest itself? Where was your awareness?

b. Being Tuned in and Aware. Bring to mind the image of a master teacher that you have observed. Where would you judge their attention to be: the lesson? Themselves? Or the students? In most cases, a master teacher will be tuned in and aware of the students. It is very natural and common for new teachers to put their focus on the lesson plan and “teach the lesson.” But it is important to be aware that it is possible to be successful teaching the lesson and fail to teach the students. Sticking to the plan may be effective in many cases, but to be successful we need to teach students. We need to shift our awareness to what the students are doing, thinking and feeling. As we will discuss in the next section, focusing more on learning outcomes and looking for evidence that those outcomes are being accomplished, rather than thinking about where we are in our plan, will be a helpful mindset. Especially when we are student teachers or novice teachers, it will be useful to develop the intention to move our awareness outward while staying grounded inside. Worrying about what the students think about us, or being too slavish to the lesson plan will cause us to miss the essential reality in the class. In other words, we will be more successful when we are in the moment, and present to our students.

Chapter Reflection 12-e: Reflect on where your awareness is located when you are confident and comfortable, and alternately where it is when you are feeling threatened and insecure. We will explore the idea of more functional thinking in more depth in Chapter 18, but it may be useful to examine the notion of awareness here briefly. What you likely recognized from your self-exploration above it that your awareness was located in very different places in each case. When we are confident and comfortable, we feel a sense of peace internally that allows us to be present and attentive to what is around us. When we are threatened, our awareness stays outside of ourselves on the perceived threat and draws us into a distressed and egocentric internal dialogue. As a result, when we feel threatened we are likely to create a distorted and limited perception of what is around us. It may be useful to be intentional in our efforts to promote a core of peace that will better lead to our ability to be open and attentive to that around us.

c. Promoting Lesson Momentum. When we are aware, we are better able to read the students and promote lesson momentum. We need to ask ourselves frequently whether students have reached what Kounin (1970) refers to as “satiation.” Has our snappy lesson become stale? Have we asked students to take in too many details? Are we moving too fast and causing frustration? We need to ask questions and read the students’ body language, recognizing when they are getting bored, frustrated, or are just ready to move on. If these signals are present, we ignore them at our peril. If we absolutely must continue with a task that is causing boredom or frustration, we need to let the students know that we recognize their emotional state, and 1) there is a legitimate need to continue and 2) when they can expect the task will be complete. But requesting that students deny their basic needs should be done sparingly, as it requires us to make a withdrawal from the emotional bank account we hold with them.

Certain types of instructional methodologies will lend themselves to greater likelihood of momentum problems. As we will discuss in the next section, engaging activities have a built-in momentum. Also recall our discussion in Chapters 7 and 8 related to psychological movement. Those lessons that contribute to the students’ success psychology (e.g., internal locus of control, sense of belonging and acceptance and mastery orientation) will possess an inherent sense of movement and momentum, as they tap into internal sources of motivation.

Chapter Reflection 12.f: Imagine that a teacher has come to you for advice. The situation is that they like to teach their course in an exclusively lecture and test format. They feel that is the best way to accomplish their content outcomes. Yet, they admit that they struggle with classroom management and that their students are frequently bored and restless much of the time, not to mention achieving poorly. They do not want to change what they do, but they want their students to be motivated and well-behaved. What advice do you give them?

d. Make Time Your Friend. For many of us, especially new teachers, managing time is a challenging part of the job. The fact is that it is not easy, but predicting how long an activity will last does become easier with experience. In general, it is better not to fight the clock, but let your learning goals guide your decision-making related to time. In addition, it is essential to be proactive and prepared for the potential situations that may arise. Being ready for anything will make time your friend. Therefore, it will be necessary to have answers to the following questions in mind before you begin teaching a lesson.

· What is the essential material or learning outcome in the lesson? It is useful to have a sense of the learning goals that “must happen,” “should happen,” and “would be nice if they happened (but are less critical).” You will be faced with countless situations in which you recognize that time is limited and you will have to cut something. It is best to know priorities beforehand.

· What should students do if they are done while other students are still working? It is unfair to ask students to be still and unoccupied simply because they have completed their work quickly. Many behavioral problems result from pointless idleness. Therefore, even if that “thing” is simply talking quietly or reading, have something for students to do when they are done. When you are considering the kinds of activities to fill that time, keep in mind the principles: 1) when the student demonstrates success, the teacher recognizes them with something positive; and 2) activity as a positive consequence, and inactivity as a negative consequence. Therefore it is best not to give students either busy work or just let them stand around. Encourage them to check their work. Have them help another student. Let them complete other homework. Let them work on the computer, or play an educational game, or drill. Give them an activity that says “great job working hard to complete the task; as a result, you have the opportunity to get better or help others get better in the following way.”

· What will you do if the lesson takes less time than you initially planned? Instead of stretching out the lesson and hindering the momentum, or just letting the class hang out for the remaining time, use the time to accomplish something meaningful. That may mean doing a mini-lesson on something coming up tomorrow or after recess. It may mean playing a quick all-class game to send the message that when the class works hard, they are rewarded with something fun. It may mean getting out journals, getting into groups for a discussion, or taking care of some unfinished business that has been waiting for a block of time. It will be useful to put this contingency activity on your lesson plan.

2. Promoting the Level of Student Engagement

Reflect on your experience as a student. When you and the other members of the class felt engaged in an activity, how much misbehavior did you commonly notice? Conversely, when you felt a minimal level of engagement did you and your classmates experience a temptation to find other, less acceptable ways to entertain yourselves? Considering these questions within the lens of students’ basic needs, we recognize that engaging lessons are in most cases those that are more satisfying. Preparing an engaging lesson also makes the statement that we care about student learning. The term “engagement” is used rather broadly, and while we probably know it when we see it, it may be useful to examine the idea of engagement more closely. When we do, we find that it is related to the degree to which the students a) care about the topic/activity, b) connect with the topic/activity, and c) feel cognitively on the hook when involved in the activity.

Chapter Reflection 12-g: Recall a time when you felt engaged in a learning activity. Did you care about it? Did you connect with it? What did the teacher do to encourage these qualities?

Helping Students Connect with the Material

If we were to observe a typical lesson being taught, it would be common to see the following sequence of events: 1) The students begin a lesson with hope and by being relatively engaged; 2) most students make an effort to understand and invest in the activity; 3) over time if the lesson is too conceptual, becomes tedious, lacks interest to the student, or is not challenging enough, some students begin to get restless; 4) the teacher begins to get negative as a result; and ultimately 5) the lesson descends into dysfunction, and/or the teacher begins to engage in an increasing number of disciplinary responses. While this is typical, it is entirely unnecessary and is avoidable. The problem is not the students. The problem is merely the lesson and/or lesson management.

To remedy this situation, we need to begin by asking ourselves how we are going to help the students connect with the material or activity. Does it relate to their lives? How can we connect it to their prior knowledge? If it is conceptual, how can we make it concrete and practical? If it is practical, how can we give it broader meaning? In an effort to help students connect with the material, it will be helpful to consider incorporating some or all of the following strategies.

1. Anticipatory Activities. We often lose sight of the fact that while we may understand the material that we about to teach and have had the opportunity to process it and connect it to our larger knowledge or skill schema, our students will likely need some help putting their new learning into existing schema. So instead of jumping right in and presenting new ideas, or demonstrating a new skill, it will be effective to incorporate an anticipatory device to help set the context for the new material. Two effective examples of these are anticipatory sets and advanced organizers. Anticipatory sets are activities that set the stage for the new material. They can be as simple as a question, a prop, or a movie clip. They help the student connect with the idea in a more personal or concrete manner, and so prepare them for the concepts to come. An advanced organizer is a graphic depiction of a concept such as a diagram, a timeline, an idea map, a table, or a chart. These help students create a pre-organization for the material to come. They are especially useful when the content is highly conceptual or lacks a context. Anticipatory activities help all students process the coming material better and prevent a lot of “I don’t get it.”

2. Match Instructional Strategies to Content. If one uses the same instructional methodology (e.g., direct instruction) for all content, it will lead to problems with student engagement, and therefore more misbehavior. Just as it works best to run on land, swim in water, and fly in the air, students will feel most comfortable learning in a mode that best fits the material that they are learning. In most cases that means learning skills through direct instruction, concepts inductively, and facts within an applied context. When we teach material in a manner that works counter to the way that the human brain operates naturally, it produces frustration. We don’t expect our student to swim everywhere, so why would we expect them to process all material with the same instructional format?

3. Providing Directions in a Manner that Meets all Students’ Cognitive Needs. A good portion of our students will have a different set of cognitive style preferences than we will. It is common to find that after we have given directions the students who are similar to us in style have understood, whereas those who are on the other side of the cognitive style fence have not. Therefore, when giving directions it will be helpful to make sure that we meet all style needs. No matter our style, we need to be very intentional about making sure that all the students understand the conceptual context, i.e., how the lesson fits into the broader sequence of unit, why it is meaningful, and where it is going in a general sense, as well as the practical aspects of the lesson, i.e., what are the students supposed to do, what are the steps involved, and what it will actually look like in the end.

4. Inductive, Problem-Based or Inquiry-Based Lessons. Many teachers fear teaching in a manner in which they do not control the knowledge and/or content of the discussion. Therefore they avoid using such strategies as “hands-on,” discovery or inquiry-based learning. Much like the monkey who cannot get their hand out of the jar because they refuse to let go of the apple, this effort at control is likely to produce an undesirable outcome. The thought is that, “if I let the students do hands-on/inductive learning, I will lose control, and bad things will happen to my classroom management.” While quite like allowing students to learn cooperatively (see Chapter 13), these strategies may require some investment in helping the students discover how to approach learning in a more investigative manner if it is unfamiliar to them. Over time the level of engagement and the higher level of achievement will pay off in both learning and behavioral results. Inductive learning has a built-in movement to it, is inherently more engaging, and unlike direct instruction, there are no gaps in instruction (where problem often arise), and off-task behavior is most often overt and observable so there is little if any “checking out” on the part of students.

Chapter Reflection 12-h: Research suggests that the most significant predictor of a student dropping out is academic performance (Hess 1987). Many dropouts leave school simply because the work held no interest for them. In your assessment, how much of the drop-out rate is related to ineffective instruction?

5. High Participation Formats. Kounin (1970) found that high participation formats encouraged student engagement. In his research, he noticed that when teachers used instructional formats that allowed for the highest portion of students to be involved, fewer students were off-task or bored. These formats were contrasted to more passive forms of instruction such as lecturing and procedures that include a lot of waiting in line or waiting for one’s turn. In addition, high participation formats meet the learning style needs of both the introverts and extroverts in the class. The extroverts are energized by the collaborative element, and the introverts are provided an opportunity to speak in a smaller more comfortable context.

6. Formal Concept-Building Exercises. The use of formal concept-building activities such as concept attainment can promote the concept acquisition skills of all learners and are especially critical for students for whom conceptual thinking is less natural. Formal concept attainment is the process of helping students move inductively or deductively from the specifics of a concept to generalizations. In an inductive approach a class is led through an exploration of specific examples of a concept, followed by the generation of a definition, and finally by the opportunity to use that definition to classify further examples and non-examples. A variety of effective strategies for promoting concept understanding exist. Survey the more concrete learners in the class and they will likely tell you that when the material gets too conceptual and/or abstract they get frustrated or feel like checking out. Formal concept-building activities meet all students’ learning style needs. They are satisfying to the abstract learners and provided a concrete step-by-step process for the more practical learners.

7. Project-Based Learning and Providing Opportunities for Student to Put it All Together

Projects provide a number of features that promote higher levels of engagement, motivation, and satisfaction. In contrast to the teacher-led direct instruction lesson, projects provide a natural momentum and context for synthesis. Students are creating something that does not exist until they produce it. The goal of the activity is concrete and built-in. Projects provide an opportunity for students to “put it all together” in a way that surpasses most other modes of learning. They afford countless places where students can relate previous knowledge to their efforts.

In a project-based context, students have the added motivation that comes from knowing that they are going to show their completed effort to others. They own it. They are the experts. They have concrete evidence of their effort that they can admire and feel proud of in the end.

Chapter Reflection 12-i: Reflect on the many people whom you have known who considered themselves poor students, yet thrived in a project-based environment such as industrial arts, fine arts, drama, home economics, athletics or auto mechanics. How would you describe the change in their personality from the typical classroom context to their preferred subject? Was there a change in their level of engagement, locus of control, sense of competence? What implications do these stories have for us as teachers?

Like inquiry based-learning and cooperative learning, project-based learning may be new to some of your students. Therefore, you will need to be patient and be very intentional about teaching the skills necessary for them to succeed. It may be necessary to keep the students mindful of the relationship in the class between acting responsible and being given greater freedom and opportunity. Over time, the inherently more engaging and satisfying nature of these learning strategies will provide the incentive necessary for students to treat them with the respect they require.

The Ever Essential Importance of Cultivating a Culture of Listening

The level of engagement in the class will be higher when we have established a “culture of listening” (see Chapter 6), in which students have become accustomed to being attentive and respectful and for expecting the same from their peers. An integral part of the transformational classroom is a progressively higher level of awareness on the part of its members. Listening, engagement, and coming out of one’s ego centeredness are each intrinsically motivating, however, this satisfaction is usually masked by or competing with the students’ insecurities and mental conditioning (especially to flee the present moment). We need to be intentional in our efforts to help students feel secure and see the value in bringing their awareness outside their own “mental noise.” One strategy that supports this goal is that of keeping students cognitively on the hook.

Interaction Patterns that Keep Students Cognitively on the Hook

When I am in the field working directly with teachers, one of the pieces of feedback that I give most regularly relates to the benefits of keeping students “on the hook” cognitively. (Recall this idea was introduced in Chapter 4, as it is best understood within the context of social/indirect learning dynamics.) The way we manage our questioning and class discussions can encourage either boredom or cognitive engagement. The difference between the two is subtle and requires only minor adjustments in our teaching technique. To achieve engagement, we first need to understand the dynamics and second, we need to incorporate a few strategies to keep students cognitively on the hook. For example, consider the following two scenarios:

Scenario A: The teacher asks one student a closed-ended question related to the topic. For example, “Josh, how many degrees are there in each angle of an equilateral triangle?”

T,S

Scenario B: The teacher asks one student a closed-ended question, and then follows up with an open-ended question to other students. For example, “Josh just said he thought that there were 60 degrees in an equilateral triangle, do you agree with him? And how do you think he came up with that answer?”

Chapter Reflection 12-j: Reflect on these two situations. It is likely that you have experienced something such as situation A many times as a student. When it was not your turn, where was your mind? Did you feel accountable? Would you have felt more accountable in the B scenario?

If we compare the two scenarios above within the dynamics of social/indirect learning their differences become more apparent. In Scenario A, The teacher (T) is interacting with the particular student (S) somewhat exclusively. The rest of the members of the class (O) are essentially spectators or largely “cognitively off the hook.” Over time, this interaction pattern trains students to “check out” when it is not their turn. And very often when they are relatively tuned in, they are not likely to be attending to the cognitive processes that we desire. For example, it is more likely that they are thinking something along the lines of “I wonder if Josh will get the answer correctly?” or “Josh is one of the smarter students in the class, he should get this right.” Attention to these questions does little to promote the goals of our lesson.

T,S,O

There are many ways to bring all the students in the class into cognitive processing. In Situation B, this was accomplished by simply asking a follow-up open-ended process question. The result was that the students were made to feel accountable and included in the interaction. With this type of interaction students quickly learn that there is an expectation that they will always need to be “cognitively on the hook.” Everything that is said is part of a string of reasoning and reflection/meta-cognition, and one may be asked at any part to step in and join the enterprise.

There are several strategies to promote cognitive engagement. Some of these include:

Partner or Group Share. Instead of asking a single student a question, ask students to share their answers with a partner or a group. Then call on one group or individual to share their answer. This format is more active and allows more students to process out loud.

Think Pair Share. Upon determining a question would be valuable if it were processed, first ask the students to spend ___ amount of time thinking about their answer (15-40 seconds is usually adequate), then instruct them to find another classmate with whom to share their thinking. To encourage more diverse pairing, you might ask them to find someone with a certain characteristic (e.g., someone with the same color shoes, or someone who was born within one month of them, etc.). It will be useful to vary the pairing characteristic often to promote a greater degree of different pairings. This strategy combines both reflection time and collaborative processing, and gets students up and out of their seats.