Evidence-Based Teaching Practices
Supportive, Challenging, Varied, Organized, Belonging
Module 1: Exploring the Practices of Community-Building, Multimedia Learning, and Formative Feedback
- 1A – 1E: Set the stage for learning with Community-Building (Supportive Practices)
- 2A – 2B: Increase interest and engagement with Multimedia Learning (Varied Practices)
- 2C – 2E: Establish trust with Formative Feedback (Challenging Practices)
Supportive Practices: Community-Building
Intro prewrite
- From time to time during the course, you’ll be introduced to an evidence-based teaching practice from one of the five practice groups: supportive, challenging, varied, organized, and belonging. Altogether, there are 24 specific practices that have been found helpful for creating meaningful experiences in the classroom for both teachers and students.
- The course begins with several low-stakes activities designed to set the stage for an active, collaborative learning environment. These community-building experiences give instructors an opportunity to establish an expectation that students will work together to build knowledge.
- The goal of the Forming Connections activity is for students to actively and collaboratively build their individual understanding of the course concepts. It is important to establish this expectation from the first day of class by explicitly providing the students with the tools and skills to form effective groups.
- body language, guiding questions
Micro-Reflection
Varied Practices: Multimedia Learning
Intro prewrite
- Point out exactly the features in the text that help students to learn and make it easier for teachers to identify needs and successes.
- Teachers can choose from each of the features listed below and use [the following] places in the Forming Connections activity to highlight them.
Micro-Reflection
Challenging Practices: Formative Feedback
Intro prewrite:
- Feedback during Forming Connections — body language, guiding questions.
- Feedback on assignments: automated –> using metrics to identify students who need individualized aid
- Feedback on assignments: manual –> choosing one assignment, such as [this one] to look at closely and provide both positive and negative feedback.
- Establish trust by showing that your concern for individual student success is genuine and that your feedback –> assessment will be authentic and never capricious.
Micro-Reflection
Module 2: Exploring the Practices of Time on Task, Contextualization, Success Skills, and Self-Reflection
- 3A – 3B: Support active-learning with Time on Task (Organized Practices)
- 3C – 3E: Do this-objective with Representation (Belonging Practices)
- 4A – 4C: Do this-objective with Success Skills (Supportive Practices)
- 4D – 4E: Do this-objective with Self-Reflection (Challenging Practices)
Organized Practices: Time on Task
In the Organized teaching practice group, a teacher looks at the course through the eyes of someone new to the discipline and thoughtfully structures activities by breaking down complex ideas to foster layered, iterative development. The materials in each section of this course follow this technique by introducing students to information in the What to Know page that will be needed during the Forming Connections hands-on activity. The Practice assignment, homework sets, and self-check experience further the iterative knowledge acquisition of the concepts and skills in the section.
While the course has been designed to leverage evidence-based teaching practices like those in the Organized group, one of the most important components for success involves you, the teacher. Time on task – providing students the opportunity to practice the concepts and skills under your guidance – whether face-to-face or remote, is a powerful teaching strategy to include in your pedagogy. Giving pairs and small groups of students the time on task in a synchronous environment while you circulate and ask guiding questions prompts students to synthesize information into knowledge.
How to: Time on task
The goal of the Forming Connections activity is for students to actively engage in making connections themselves rather than have the instructor lecture about the connections. But students report that they crave lecture in class. Brief, whole class discussions help to ease the desire for lecture, so it is important to bring the whole class together to introduce the activity and to summarize the connections that arise in the groups.
Examples
- After asking students to think individually and in pairs about the opening question, you can bring them all back together by asking a few students to share their answers, then transition to the activity with a brief overview of the objectives.
- Facilitate the groups by asking questions that prompt discussion, then build on what students say, and model how to express abstract concepts.
- Consider your body language. Students may watch for nonverbal confirmation or correction from you. It is important to keep a “poker face,” and avoid telling the students answers outright if they ask. Instead, you can respond with, “How would you decide if you were correct?” or “How would you know if the answer was right?”
- As explicit connections emerge in the discussions, record them in a common space such as a whiteboard (or in a discussion board thread or similar space for asynchronous delivery). Encourage students to record those ideas in their notebooks.
Asynchronous Delivery Support asynchronous discussion by using the discussion board or student group spaces in the LMS.
- Take a question or two from the Forming Connections activity that asks students to analyze, synthesize, or state an opinion, and post them to a discussion board.
- In Forming Connections 3A, for example, Questions 3, 9, and 10 are challenging because they ask students to pull information together without providing clues for how to form the answer.
- In Forming Connections 3B, Question 5 and 10 ask students to synthesize information and make an analysis.
- Monitor the thread and post guiding questions that help students to form the connections. Students may be hesitant to provide deep or thoughtful answers in a discussion board. For example, If students answer a question that asks for a description with just a qualification such as, “it seems true,” or “moderately so,” you can invite them to go deeper by asking for evidence supporting their answer; “can you tell us a few characteristics you saw that lead you to believe that?”
- As explicit connections emerge, post them to a new thread in the discussion board or in a common space such as an LMS page that contains key concepts per section. Encourage students to record those ideas in their notebooks.
Micro-Reflection
Sections 3A and 3B began a deeper exploration of the types of variables that occur in datasets, their distributions and graphical displays, and comparisons of variables across groups. This part of the course concepts provided the opportunity to discuss the Organized evidence-based teaching practices group, which includes the following practices:
- Structured lessons: breaking down complex ideas for people new to them.
- Connections: pointing out relationships between topics and ideas in the course.
- Time on Task: maximizing the amount of learning time students spend actively engaged in practice while receiving support in any synchronous environment. In asynchronous environments, teachers can encourage time on task using guiding questions in discussion boards.
- Scaffolding: providing extra supports, which are removed slowly as students grow.
Time on Task was introduced in the Teaching Tips page prior to Section 3A with specific examples for performing the practice to facilitate student learning during the Forming Connections activity. Hopefully, you had a chance to practice them in your class. If so, please use the questions below for a brief, honest, and compassionate reflection on your teaching practice.
Reflection Questions
- What ways did you use to engage your students using Time on Task (or one or more other practices in the Organized teaching practices listed above)?
- In what ways did you find evidence of one of these practices having an impact on your teaching? How would you be inclined to use it in the future?
Varied Practices: Contextualization
Intro
Micro-Reflection
Supportive Practices: Success Skills
Intro
Micro-Reflection
Challenging Practices: Self-Reflection
