NAME SANA SARWAR KHAN

ROLL NO CA652217

B.ED 1.5 YEARS

COURSE CODE 8638

COURSE NAME GENERAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS

ASSIGNMENT No. 2

Q.1 What is the role of psychology in teaching of science? In what ways psychology helps in teaching of

elementary science.

Educational psychologists apply theories of human development to understand individual learning and inform the

instructional process. While interaction with teachers and students in school settings is an important part of their

work, it isn’t the only facet of the job. Learning is a lifelong endeavor. People don’t only learn at school, they

learn at work, in social situations and even doing simple tasks like household chores or running errands.

Psychologists working in education study the social, emotional and cognitive processes involved in learning and

apply their findings to improve the learning process. Some specialize in the educational development of a specific

group of people such as children, adolescents or adults, while others focus on specific learning challenges such

as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or dyslexia.

Psychologists working in this subfield examine how people learn in a variety of settings to identify approaches

and strategies to make learning more effective.

No matter the population they are studying, these professionals are interested in teaching methods, the

instructional process and different learning outcomes.

How much does the time of day when new information is introduced influence whether a person retains that

information? What does culture have to do with how we process new ideas? How does age affect our ability to

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develop new skills, like language? How is in-person learning different from remote learning using technology?

How does the choice of a media platform make a difference in learning?

These are all questions that educational psychologists are asking — and answering — in settings as diverse as

government research centers, schools, community organizations and learning centers.

Teachers are exposed to a constant barrage of methodologies that promise to improve both instructional strategies

and student learning through institute days, team meetings, seminars and the media. While some of this

information is helpful, some of the suggestions have little or no empirical data to support their effectiveness. The

Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education (CPSE), a group of psychologists and psychology teachers

within APA, recently announced the publication of the “Top 20 Principles from Psychology for pre-K to 12

Teaching and Learning.” The Top 20 document was created by psychologists representing a wide range of

divisions, including those focused on education, school, developmental, social, cognitive, psychometrics, media,

counseling and clinical psychology. Each of the contributors has some expertise in the application of

psychological science to early childhood, elementary, secondary, gifted or special education; social/emotional

learning; or school climate.

The principles are organized into five areas of psychological functioning: cognition and learning; motivation;

social and emotional dimensions; context and learning; and assessment. Each of the individual principles listed

in the document includes an explanation of the concept, its relevance for instruction, specific tips for teachers and

a comprehensive list of related references.

Although the Top 20 principles are designed to apply psychological science broadly to pre-K to 12 teaching, they

can also be utilized specifically to enhance the curriculum of introduction to psychology courses and help students

develop skills that will help them learn more effectively in all of their classes. Below is a review of the principles

and potential applications for their use in teaching high school psychology.

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A great deal of research from cognitive and educational psychology has discovered how thinking and learning

can be improved in the classroom. The first eight principles highlight some of the most important findings on

teacher practices that impact student growth.

1. Growth mindset

Students’ beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning.

Research shows that learners who hold the growth mindset that intelligence is malleable, and success is related

to effort level are more likely to remain focused on goals and persist despite setbacks. A great way to start off the

year in a psychology class is with a discussion of growth versus fixed mindsets because it helps students

understand how their beliefs about intelligence can influence their own academic success.

2. Prior knowledge

What students already know affects their learning.

Research shows that prior knowledge influences both conceptual growth and conceptual change in students. With

conceptual growth, students add to their existing knowledge, and with conceptual change, students correct

misconceptions or errors in existing knowledge. Facilitating conceptual growth or change requires first obtaining

a baseline level of student knowledge prior to the start of each unit through formative assessment. One way to

assess prior knowledge involves starting the unit with a short list of five to ten true/false statements and having a

class discussion about the results. The results of this discussion can guide the selection of assignments and

activities that will be appropriate for facilitating either conceptual growth or conceptual change. Prior knowledge

can be used to help students incorporate background knowledge and draw connections between units during the

course.

3. Limits of stage theories

Students’ cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development.

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Research indicates that cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development. It

is important for instructors teaching Piaget’s cognitive stage theory to also reference the limitations of this

approach. Psychology curricula should highlight the significance of Lev Vygotsky’s theory of zone of proximal

development and the critical role that interactions with those who are more capable can have on learning and

growth. Instructors can use this research to facilitate learning by designing instruction that utilizes scaffolding,

differentiation and mixed ability grouping. It is also critical that the most advanced students have the opportunity

to work with others who will challenge them, including other students or the instructor.

4. Facilitating context

Learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous, but rather needs to be

facilitated.

Student growth and deeper learning are developed when instructors help students transfer learning from one

context to another. Students will also be better able to generalize learning to new contexts if instructors invest

time in focusing on deeper learning. One method of developing this skill is to have students use their

understanding of a particular unit to generate potential solutions for real-world problems.

5. Practice

Acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice.

This principle details empirically based strategies that will help students more effectively encode learned materials

into long-term memory. In addition to those in the memory unit, examples from this principle can help inform

instruction throughout the course. By issuing formative assessment frequently through practice problems,

activities and sample tests, instructors can help students increase their knowledge, skills and confidence.

Additionally, instructors conducting practice activities at spaced intervals (distributed practice) will help students

achieve greater increases in long-term retrieval ability. Practice tests should include open-ended questions that

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require both the retrieval of existing knowledge and the challenge of applying that information to new situations

or contexts, thus also incorporating principle four.

6. Feedback

Clear, explanatory and timely feedback to students is important for learning.

This principle highlights the importance of instructor responses and indicates the best manner in which to deliver

feedback to students in order to maintain or increase motivation to learn. Providing students with clear,

explanatory and timely feedback is important for learning.

7. Self-regulation

Students’ self-regulation assists in learning and self-regulatory skills can be taught.

Self-regulation skills, including attention, organization, self-control, planning and memory strategies, improve

learning and engagement and can be taught through direct instruction, modeling and classroom organization.

Teachers can model organizational methods and assist students by highlighting learning targets at the start and

conclusion of lessons, using classroom calendars, highlighting difficult concepts that will require more practice,

breaking large projects into manageable components, using well designed rubrics and allowing sufficient

processing time through questioning, summarizing and practice. Psychology students can apply this research to

their own study habits such as learning to practice self-control by limiting the distractions presented by cell phones

and social media. Students can also be encouraged to design experiments related to the limits of attention and

discuss the practical implications of their results.

8. Creativity

Student creativity can be fostered.

Creativity is considered a critical skill for the technology driven world of the 21st century and because it is not a

stable trait, it can be taught, nurtured and increased. This principle describes specific methods of structuring

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assignments to increase creativity and ideas for how to model creative problem solving. Creativity in the

psychology classroom can include opportunities for student-designed research projects, video projects,

demonstrations and model building.

Q.2 Manage instructional aids for teaching concepts of pressure, electricity and structure of DNA. Write

problems in managing instructional aids for teaching of these concepts.

The Pressure Concepts Concept Builder provides learners an opportunity to investigate three ideas related to gas

pressure. There are a total of 36 questions organized into 14 Question Groups and spread across three different

activities. In the first activity - A versus B - learners investigate the causes of gas pressure from the perspective

of individual particles. The effect of four important variables - number of particles, speed of particles, mass of

particles, and size of container - upon the gas pressure are explored. In the second activity - Pressure Units -

learners compare the relative magnitude of three different pressure values. The values are expressed in different

units so that the learner must express some comfort with the relative size of each unit. In the third activity

- Manometers - learners use manometer information to determine the pressure of a sample of gas. Question-

specific help is provided for each of the 14 Question Groups. The built-in score-keeping makes this Concept

Builder a perfect candidate for a classroom activity.

Electricity is all around us--powering technology like our cell phones, computers, lights, soldering irons, and air

conditioners. It's tough to escape it in our modern world. Even when you try to escape electricity, it's still at work

throughout nature, from the lightning in a thunderstorm to the synapses inside our body. But what

exactly is electricity? This is a very complicated question, and as you dig deeper and ask more questions, there

really is not a definitive answer, only abstract representations of how electricity interacts with our surroundings.

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Electricity is a natural phenomenon that occurs throughout nature and takes many different forms. In this tutorial

we'll focus on current electricity: the stuff that powers our electronic gadgets. Our goal is to understand how

electricity flows from a power source through wires, lighting up LEDs, spinning motors, and powering our

communication devices.

Electricity is briefly defined as the flow of electric charge, but there's so much behind that simple statement.

Where do the charges come from? How do we move them? Where do they move to? How does an electric charge

cause mechanical motion or make things light up? So many questions! To begin to explain what electricity is we

need to zoom way in, beyond the matter and molecules, to the atoms that make up everything we interact with in

life.

This tutorial builds on some basic understanding of physics, force, energy, atoms, and

[fields](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_(physics)) in particular. We'll gloss over the basics of each of those

physics concepts, but it may help to consult other sources as well.

Going Atomic

To understand the fundamentals of electricity, we need to begin by focusing in on atoms, one of the basic building

blocks of life and matter. Atoms exist in over a hundred different forms as chemical elements like hydrogen,

carbon, oxygen, and copper. Atoms of many types can combine to make molecules, which build the matter we

can physically see and touch.

Atoms are tiny, stretching at a max to about 300 picometers long (that's 3x10-10 or 0.0000000003 meters). A

copper penny (if it actually were made of 100% copper) would have 3.2x1022 atoms

(32,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms) of copper inside it.

Even the atom isn't small enough to explain the workings of electricity. We need to dive down one more level

and look in on the building blocks of atoms: protons, neutrons, and electrons.

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Building Blocks of Atoms

An atom is built with a combination of three distinct particles: electrons, protons, and neutrons. Each atom has a

center nucleus, where the protons and neutrons are densely packed together. Surrounding the nucleus are a group

of orbiting electrons.

A very simple atom model. It's not to scale but helpful for understanding how an atom is built. A core nucleus of

protons and neutrons is surrounded by orbiting electrons.

Every atom must have at least one proton in it. The number of protons in an atom is important, because it defines

what chemical element the atom represents. For example, an atom with just one proton is hydrogen, an atom with

29 protons is copper, and an atom with 94 protons is plutonium. This count of protons is called the atom's atomic

number.

The proton's nucleus-partner, neutrons, serve an important purpose; they keep the protons in the nucleus and

determine the isotope of an atom. They're not critical to our understanding of electricity, so let's not worry about

them for this tutorial.

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Electrons are critical to the workings of electricity (notice a common theme in their names?) In its most stable,

balanced state, an atom will have the same number of electrons as protons. As in the Bohr atom model below, a

nucleus with 29 protons (making it a copper atom) is surrounded by an equal number of electrons.

Students are introduced to the latest imaging methods used to visualize molecular structures and the method of

electrophoresis that is used to identify and compare genetic code (DNA). Students should already have basic

knowledge of genetics, DNA (DNA structure, nucleotide bases), proteins and enzymes. The lesson begins with a

discussion to motivate the need for imaging techniques and DNA analysis, which prepares students to participate

in the associated two-part activity: 1) students each choose an imaging method to research (from a provided list

of molecular imaging methods), 2) they research basic information about electrophoresis.This engineering

curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Engineering Connection

Visualization of small structures such as the molecular structures of complex proteins and genetic material (DNA)

is based on engineering discoveries and breakthroughs in physics at small scales. Imaging technologies such as

x-ray and scanning electron microscopy—used by scientists and engineers to image microscopic structures—are

also used by biomedical engineers and biologists to study biomolecules, cells and tissue samples. Microfluidics

concepts and devices used to study colloidal particle flow are also employed by biologist to study and filter

biomolecules. Gel electrophoresis is one example of the many engineering technologies that biologists use to

compare fragments of DNA samples.

Learning Objectives

After this lesson, students should be able to:

• Enumerate some of the imaging technologies used for atomic scale microscopy.

• List the basic, underlying principles of the researched microscopy method.

• Describe how the microscopy method helped scientists to discover the structure of biomolecules.

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 • Explain the difference between molecular imaging and DNA gel electrophoresis.

• Explain that certain nucleotide base sequences in the DNA encode for proteins/enzymes, whereas the

molecular shape of protein/enzyme determines their functions.

Q.3 Define assessment. Visit five science teachers. Inquire how they assess learning of science concepts.

Write a report on how science teachers assess science learning?

Several attempts to define good assessment have been made. There is a general agreement that good assessment

(especially summative) should be:

• Valid: measures what it is supposed to measure, at the appropriate level, in the appropriate domains

(constructive alignment).

• Fair: is non-discriminatory and matches expectations.

• Transparent: processes and documentation, including assessment briefing and marking criteria, are clear.

• Reliable: assessment is accurate, consistent and repeatable.

• Feasible: assessment is practicable in terms of time, resources and student numbers.

• Educational impact: assessment results in learning what is important and is authentic and worthwhile.

The aspect of authenticity is an important one. Authentic assessment can be defined as:

'An assessment requiring students to use the same competencies, or combinations of knowledge, skills, and

attitudes that they need to apply in the criterion situation in professional life.'

The good assessment principles below were created as part of the REAP Reengineering Assessment Practices

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Project which looked into re-evaluating and reforming assessment and feedback practice. This set of principles

in particular is referred to here as it serves as the basis for many assessment strategies across UK HE institutions.

For each of the principles a number of practical strategies are provided which give a more pragmatic indication

of how to put them in practice.

Assessment literacy involves understanding how assessments are made, what type of assessments answer what

questions, and how the data from assessments can be used to help teachers, students, parents, and other

stakeholders make decisions about teaching and learning. Assessment designers strive to create assessments that

show a high degree of fidelity to the following five traits:

1. Content Validity

2. Reliability

3. Fairness

4. Student Engagement and Motivation

5. Consequential Relevance

One of the most important characteristics of any quality assessment is content validity. Simply put, content

validity means that the assessment measures what it is intended to measure for its intended purpose, and nothing

more. For example, if an assessment is designed to measure Algebra I performance, then reading comprehension

issues should not interfere with a student’s ability to demonstrate what he or she knows, understands, and can do

in Algebra I. Content validity is evidenced at three main levels: the assessment design level, the assessment

experience level, and the assessment question, or item, level.

The assessment design is guided by a content blueprint, a document that clearly articulates the content that will

be included in the assessment and the cognitive rigor of that content. The content standards which the test is

designed to assess determine what content makes it into the test’s item pool.

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The next level where content validity matters is the assessment experience itself, meaning when the student sits

down to take the assessment, what items do they see? In a fixed form, grade level test, most or all students at a

given grade level see the same item set, namely those assessing the grade-level standards to which the student is

assigned. In a cross-grade, computer adaptive test, an item selection algorithm presents each student with items

sampled from a broad range of standards and adapts to the in-the-moment performance of the test taker. Each

student sees items at the difficulty level that’s appropriate for them, based on their previous responses. This

adaptivity enables test developers to provide very precise information about a student’s learning and performance

in a domain area.

Content validity is a concept germane to the building block level of MAP as well: the questions, or items,

themselves. Experts in both content and assessment design items to measure the concepts and skills in the

standards at the indicated levels of cognitive complexity. Every item in a high-quality assessment goes through

a rigorous development process with several levels of review, which ensures that item content is clear, accurate

and relevant. The result is a robust and aligned item pool that serves to provide the most accurate information

possible about a student.

Content validity is supported in a number of ways in educational assessments, such as:

+ General assessment design principles that control for readability

+ Content expert review cycles

+ Evidence-centered design methodology

+ Statistical analysis of student performance on test items

One way to check content validity is to ask these guiding questions:

+ How closely does what the assessment measures match the intended (instructed) content?

+ What knowledge or skills does the student most need to perform successfully on this assessment?

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+ If the student performs successfully on this assessment, what does that mean?

Content validity is foundational to making accurate inferences. If one is unclear about what the assessment is

measuring, then the inferences made will be uninformative – in other words, it means that the assessment has

failed in its prime directive: to provide valuable information about what the test taker knows and can do. An

assessment can have all sorts of bells and whistles, incorporate cutting edge technology and functionality, have a

great suite of reports that tell a compelling assessment narrative, but if the test is lacking content validity, it is not

worth much. What’s more, when data from an assessment that lacks content validity are used to inform

instruction, the result could include wasted time and inappropriate growth expectations of students. For these

reasons, content validity is central to a high quality educational assessment.

Q.4 Explain benefits of planning science teaching.

Once the aims and objectives are in place, it is important to make sure that the planned lesson is understandable

by the students. The teacher should prepare different explanation methods for the students to understand the topic

easily. The methods could include giving real-life examples or creating a hypothetical situation related to the

topic. Moreover, showing videos related to the topic may also assist in better understanding. Including activities

related to the lesson is helpful for students to remember the topic being taught.

The key is time management. A teacher has to time all the activities during the class hours in order to finish the

lesson according to the plan. Everything including explanation, examples, and activities have to be timed in a

manner that the lesson is not extended for the next class.

Assessments to check student understanding of the topic

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In order to check the understanding after the planning and learning activities, it is important that the teacher drafts

questions in different ways to check the knowledge and understanding of the topic. It’s the teacher’s decision to

check the understanding orally or in writing. For this question answer session, time is required. The questions

have to be preplanned. The teacher should be aware of what she planned for the students to learn so that questions

can be drafted accordingly. Also, activities can be planned to check the knowledge and understanding of the

matter.

Benefits of planning

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Thus, an organised teacher will always be able to deliver the

lesson within the given time frame (during the limited class timings). With the additional time saved, a teacher

can give additional attention and time to students that require additional help. Also, there will be a sense of control

and direction while teaching. Even if there is confusion amongst the students, the teacher will be able to guide

them effectively as the teacher will be well versed with the subject matter and will be able to cater the questions

without any stress.

A teachers’ most important trait is confidence. Lesson planning can help the teacher to be well prepared and be

aware of what he/she intends on teaching the students. To meet your student's expectations, one must be a certified

tutor. To become one, you need to do the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training course. It can help the

teacher to focus more on the basic knowledge first then take the students towards the next step. The teacher will

never stammer or mumble during the lecture because of the timely preparation of the lesson.

Furthermore, a teacher is one of the first few inspirations of a child. Setting a good example of pre-planning can

always assist a teacher to become a good inspiration and the confidence with which the teacher delivers the lesson

will make the student realise the importance of planning ahead of time and adopt this habit for other disciplines

of life.

The ethnic diversity in schools is increasing with the passage of time as the people from rural areas have realised

the importance of education. Thus, the learning capacity of each student varies from one another. Lesson planning

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can minimise this understanding gap if the teacher plans the lesson effectively. This can be done by taking the

first step that is, start teaching from the core so that nobody is left behind and that every student is on the same

page and then the teacher moves ahead with the topic.

A lesson plan does not necessarily have to be a detailed script that contains the plan of every interaction with

students in the classroom. It should preferably have the general overview of the aims and objectives of the course,

the plan of teaching and learning activities of the course and the activities planned to check the students’

understanding. The driving force behind lesson planning is the motivation for the teacher and hunger to learn

more by students is what keeps a teacher going.

Q.5 Which science subject area is comparatively difficult to teach? Explain the gray areas which cause

difficulty. Give suggestions how to overcome difficulties.

The easiest management problems to solve are ones that do not happen in the first place! Even before the school

year begins, you can minimize behavior problems by arranging classroom furniture and materials in ways that

encourage a focus on learning as much as possible. Later, once school begins, you can establish procedures and

rules that support a focus on learning even more.

Arranging classroom space

Viewed broadly, classrooms may seem to be arranged in similar ways, but there are actually important alternative

arrangements to consider. Variations exist because of grade level, the subjects taught, the teacher’s philosophy of

education, and of course the size of the room and the furniture available. Whatever the arrangement that you

choose, it should help students to focus on learning tasks as much as possible and minimize the chances of

distractions. Beyond these basic principles, however, the “best” arrangement depends on what your students need

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and on the kind of teaching that you prefer and feel able to provide (Boyner, 2003; Nations & Boyett, 2002). The

next sections describe some of the options. In considering them (and before moving too much furniture around

your room!), you might want to try experimenting with spatial arrangements “virtually” by using one of the

computer programs available on the Internet.

Displays and wall space

All classrooms have walls, of course, and how you fill them can affect the mood or feeling of a classroom. Ample

displays make a room interesting and can be used to reinforce curriculum goals and display (and hence publicly

recognize) students’ work. But too many displays can also make a room seem “busy” or distracting as well as

physically smaller. They can also be more work to maintain. If you are starting a new school year, then, a good

strategy is to decorate some of the wall or bulletin board space, but not to fill it all immediately. Leaving some

space open leaves flexibility to respond to ideas and curriculum needs that emerge after the year is underway. The

same advice applies especially for displays that are high maintenance, such as aquariums, pets, and plants. These

can serve wonderfully as learning aids, but do not have to be in place on the first day of school. Not only the

students, but also you yourself, may already have enough to cope with at that time.

Computers in the classroom

If you are like the majority of teachers, you will have only one computer in your room, or at most just a few, and

their placement may be pre-determined by the location of power and cable outlets. If so, you need to think about

computer placement early in the process of setting up a room. Once the location of computers is set, locations for

desks, high-usage shelves, and other moveable items can be chosen more sensibly—in general, as already

mentioned, so as to minimize distractions to students and to avoid unnecessary traffic congestion.

Visibility of and interactions with students

Learning is facilitated if the furniture and space allow you to see all students and to interact with them from a

comfortable distance. Usually this means that the main, central part of the room—where desks and tables are

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usually located—needs to be as open and as spacious as possible. While this idea may seem obvious, enacting it

can be challenging in practice if the room itself is small or shaped unusually. In classrooms with young students

(kindergarten), furthermore, open spaces tend to allow, if not invite, physical movement of children—a feature

that you may consider either constructive or annoying, depending on your educational goals and the actual level

of activity that occurs.

Spatial arrangements unique to grade levels or subjects

The best room arrangement sometimes depends on the grade level or subject area of the class. If you teach in

elementary school, for example, you may need to think especially about where students can keep their daily

belongings, such as coats and lunches. In some schools, these can be kept outside the classroom—but not

necessarily. Some subjects and grade levels, furthermore, lend themselves especially well to small group

interaction, in which case you might prefer not to seat students in rows, but instead around small-group tables or

work areas. The latter arrangement is sometimes preferred by elementary teachers, but is also useful in high

schools wherever students need lots of counter space, as in some shops or art courses, or where they need to

interact, as in English as a Second Language courses (McCafferty, Jacobs, & Iddings, 2006). The key issue in

deciding between tables and rows, however, is not grade level or subject as such, but the amount of small group

interaction you want to encourage, compared to the amount of whole-group instruction. As a rule, tables make

working with peers easier, and rows make listening to the teacher more likely and group work slightly more

awkward physically.

Ironically, some teachers also experience challenges about room arrangement because they do not actually have

a classroom of their own, because they must move each day among other teachers’ rooms. “Floating” is especially

likely for specialized teachers (e.g. music teachers in elementary schools, who move from class to class) and in

schools have an overall shortage of classrooms. Floating can sometimes be annoying to the teacher, though it

actually also has advantages, such as not having to take responsibility for how other teachers’ rooms are arranged.

If you find yourself floating, it helps to consider a few key strategies, such as:

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 • consider using a permanent cart to move crucial supplies from room to room

• make sure that every one of your rooms has an overhead projector (do not count on using chalkboards or

computers in other teachers’ rooms)

• talk to the other teachers about having at least one shelf or corner in each room designated for your exclusive

use

Establishing daily procedures and routines

Procedures or routines are specific ways of doing common, repeated classroom tasks or activities. Examples

include checking daily attendance, dealing with students who arrive late, or granting permission to leave the

classroom for an errand. Academically related procedures include ways of turning in daily homework (e.g. putting

it on a designated shelf at a particular time), of gaining the teacher’s attention during quiet seat work (e.g. raising

your hand and waiting), and of starting a “free choice” activity after completing a classroom assignment.

Procedures serve the largely practical purpose of making activities and tasks flow smoothly—a valuable and

necessary purpose in classrooms, where the actions of many people have to be coordinated within limited time

and space. As such, procedures are more like social conventions than like moral expectations. They are only

indirectly about what is ethically right or ethically desirable to do (Turiel, 2006). Most procedures or routines can

be accomplished in more than one way, with only minor differences in outcomes. There is more than one way,

for example, for the procedure of taking attendance: the teacher could call the role, delegate a student to call the

role, or note students’ presence on a seating chart. Each variation accomplishes essentially the same task, and the

choice may be less important than the fact that the class coordinates its actions somehow, by committing

to some sort of choice.

For teachers, of course, an initial management task is to establish procedures and routines as promptly as possible.

Because of the conventional quality of procedures, some teachers find that it works well simply to announce and

explain key procedures without inviting much discussion from students (“Here is how we will choose partners

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for the group work”). Other teachers prefer to invite input from students when creating procedures (asking the

class, “What do you feel is the best way for students to get my attention during a quiet reading time?”). Both

approaches have advantages as well as disadvantages. Simply announcing key procedures saves time and insures

consistency in case you teach more than one class (as you would in high school). But it puts more responsibility

on the teacher to choose procedures that are truly reasonable and practical. Inviting students’ input, on the other

hand, can help students to become aware of and committed to procedures, but at the cost of requiring more time

to settle on them. It also risks creating confusion if you teach multiple classes, each of which adopts different

procedures. Whatever approach you choose, of course, they have to take into account any procedures or rules

imposed by the school or school district as a whole. A school may have a uniform policy about how to record

daily attendance, for example, and that policy may determine, either partly or completely, how you take

attendance with your particular students.

Establishing classroom rules

Unlike procedures or routines, rules express standards of behavior for which individual students need to take

responsibility. Although they are like procedures in that they sometimes help in insuring the efficiency of

classroom tasks, they are really about encouraging students to be responsible for learning and showing respect

for each other. Example 1 lists a typical set of classroom rules.

Note three things about the examples in Example 1. One is that the rules are not numerous; the table lists only

five. Most educational experts recommend keeping the number of rules to a minimum in order to make them

easier to remember (Thorson, 2003; Brophy, 2004). A second feature is that they are stated in positive terms (“Do

X…”) rather than negative terms (“Do not do Y…”), a strategy that emphasizes and clarifies what students should

do rather than what they should avoid. A third feature is that each rule actually covers a collection of more specific

behaviors. The rule “Bring all materials to class,” for example, covers bringing pencils, paper, textbooks,

homework papers, and permission slips—depending on the situation. As a result of their generality, rules often

have a degree of ambiguity that sometimes requires interpretation. Infractions may occur that are marginal or “in

a grey area,” rather than clear cut. A student may bring a pen, for example, but the pen may not work properly.

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You may therefore wonder whether this incident is really a failure to follow the rule, or just an unfortunate (and

in this case minor) fault of the pen manufacturer.

As with classroom procedures, rules can be planned either by the teacher alone, or by the teacher with advice

from students. The arguments for each approach are similar to the arguments for procedures: rules “laid on” by

the teacher may be more efficient and consistent, and in this sense more fair, but rules influenced by the students

may be supported more fully by the students. Because rules focus strongly on personal responsibility, however,

there is a stronger case for involving students in making them than in making classroom procedures (Brookfield,

2006; Kohn, 2006). In any case the question of who plans classroom rules is not necessarily an either/or choice.

It is possible in principle to impose certain rules on students (for example, “Always be polite to each other”) but

let the students determine the consequences for violations of certain rules (for example, “If a student is

discourteous to a classmate, he/she must apologize to the student in writing”). Some mixture of influences is

probably inevitable, in fact, if only because the class needs to take into account your own moral commitments as

the teacher as well as any imposed by the school (like “No smoking in the school” or “Always walk in the

hallways”).

Pacing and structuring lessons and activities

One of the best ways to prevent management problems is by pacing and structuring lessons or activities as

smoothly and continuously as possible. This goal depends on three major strategies:

• selecting tasks or activities at an appropriate level of difficulty for your students

• providing a moderate level of structure or clarity to students about what they are supposed to do, especially

during transitions between activities

• keeping alert to the flow and interplay of behaviors for the class as a whole and for individuals within it.

Each strategy presents special challenges to teachers, but also opportunities for helping students to learn.

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Choosing tasks at an appropriate level of difficulty

As experienced teachers know and as research has confirmed, students are most likely to engage with learning

when tasks are of moderate difficulty, neither too easy nor too hard and therefore neither boring nor frustrating

(Britt, 2005). Finding the right level of difficulty, however, can be a challenge if you have little experience

teaching a particular grade level or curriculum, or even if students are simply new to you and their abilities

unknown. Whether familiar or not, members of any class are likely to have diverse skills and readiness–a fact that

makes it challenging to determine what level of difficulty is appropriate. A common strategy for dealing with

these challenges is to begin units, lessons, or projects with tasks that are relatively easy and familiar. Then,

introduce more difficult material or tasks gradually until students seem challenged, but not overwhelmed.

Following this strategy gives the teacher a chance to observe and diagnose students’ learning needs before

adjusting content, and it gives students a chance to orient themselves to the teacher’s expectations, teaching style,

and topic of study without becoming frustrated prematurely. Later in a unit, lesson, or project, students seem

better able to deal with more difficult tasks or content (Van Merrionboer, 2003). The principle seems to help as

well with “authentic” learning tasks—ones that resemble real-world activities, such as learning to drive an

automobile or to cook a meal, and that present a variety of complex tasks simultaneously. Even in those cases it

helps to isolate and focus on the simplest subtasks first (such as “put the key in the ignition”) and move to harder

tasks only later (such as parallel parking).

Sequencing instruction is only a partial solution to finding the best “level” of difficulty, however, because it does

not deal with enduring individual differences among students. The fundamental challenge to teachers is to

individualize or differentiate instruction fully: to tailor it not only to the class as a group, but to the lasting

differences among members of the class. One way to approach this sort of diversity, obviously, is to plan different

content or activities for different students or groups of students. While one group works on Task A, another group

works on Task B; one group works on relatively easy math problems, for example, while another works on harder

ones. Differentiating instruction in this way complicates a teacher’s job, but it can be done, and has in fact been

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done by many teachers (it also makes teaching more interesting!). In the next chapter, we describe some classroom

management strategies that help with such multi-tasking.

Providing moderate amounts of structure and detail

Chances are that at some point in your educational career you have wished that a teacher would clarify or explain

an assignment more fully, and perhaps give it a clearer structure or organization. Students’ desire for clarity is

especially common with assignments that are by nature open-ended, such as long essays, large projects, or creative

works. Simply being told to “write an essay critiquing the novel,” for example, leaves more room for uncertainty

(and worry) than being given guidelines about what questions the essay should address, what topics or parts it

should have, and what its length or style should be (Chesebro, 2003). As you might suspect, some students desire

clarity more than others, and improve their performance especially much when provided with plenty of structure

and clarity. Students with certain kinds of learning difficulties, in particular, often learn effectively and stay on

task only if provided with somewhat explicit, detailed instructions about the tasks expected of them (Marks, et

al., 2003).

As a teacher, the challenge is to accommodate students’ need for clarity without making guidance so specific or

detailed that students do little thinking for themselves. As a (ridiculously extreme) example, consider a teacher

gives “clear” instructions for an essay by announcing not only exactly which articles to read and cite in the essay

and which topics or issues to cover, but even requires specific wording of sentences in their essays. This much

specificity may reduce students’ uncertainties and make the teacher’s task of evaluating the essays relatively

straightforward and easy. But it also reduces or even eliminates the educational value of the assignment—

assuming, of course, that its purpose is to get students to think for themselves.

Ideally, then, structure should be moderate rather than extreme. There should be just enough to give students

some sense of direction and to stimulate more accomplishment than if they worked with less structure or guidance.

This ideal is an application of Vygotsky’s idea of the zone of proximal development that we discussed in the

chapter, “The learning process”: a place (figuratively speaking) where students get more done with help than

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without it. The ideal amount of guidance—the “location” of the zone of proximal development—varies with the

assignment and the student, and it (hopefully) decreases over time for all students. One student may need more

guidance to do his or her best in math, but less guidance in order to write her or his best essay. Another student

may need the reverse. But if all goes well, both students may need less at the end of the year than at the beginning.

Managing transitions

Transitions between activities is often full of distractions and “lost” time, and is a time when inappropriate

behaviors are especially likely to occur. Part of the problem is intrinsic to transitions: students may have to wait

before a new activity actually begins, and therefore get bored at the very moment when the teacher is preoccupied

with arranging materials for the new activity. From the point of view of the students, transitions may seem

essentially like unsupervised group time, when seemingly any behavior is tolerated.

Minimizing such problems requires two strategies, one of which is easier to implement than the other. The easier

strategy is for you, as teacher, to organize materials as well as possible ahead of time, so that you minimize the

time needed to begin a new activity. The advice sounds simple, and mostly is, but it sometimes takes a bit of

practice to implement smoothly. When Kelvin (remember from the beginning of this chapter?) first began

teaching university, for example, particular papers or overhead transparencies sometimes got lost in the wrong

folder in spite of Kelvin’s efforts to keep them where they were easy to find. The resulting delays about finding

them slowed the pace of class and caused frustrations.

A second, more complex strategy is to teach students ways to manage their own behavior during transitions

(Marzano & Marzano, 2004). If students talk too loudly at these times, for example, then discuss with them what

constitutes appropriate levels or amounts of talk, and discuss the need for them to monitor their own sound level.

Or if students stop work early in anticipation of ending an activity, then talk about—or even practice—waiting

for a signal from yourself to indicate the true ending point for an activity. If certain students continue working

beyond the end of an activity. On the other hand, try giving them warning of the impending end in advance, and

remind them about to take responsibility for actually finishing work once they hear the advance warning, and so

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on. The point of these tactics is to encourage responsibility for behavior during transitions, and thereby reduce

your own need to monitor students at that crucial time.

None of these ideas, of course, mean that you, as teacher, should give up monitoring students’ behavior entirely.

Chances are that you still will need to notice if and when someone talks too loudly, finishes too early, or continues

too long, and you will still need to give some students appropriate reminders. But the amount of reminding will

be less to the extent that students can remind and monitor themselves—a welcome trend at any time, but especially

during transitions

Maintaining the flow of activities

A lot of classroom management is really about keeping activities flowing smoothly, both during individual lessons

and across the school day. The trouble is that there is never just “one” event happening at a time, even if only one

activity has been formally planned and is supposed to be occurring. Imagine, for example, that everyone is

supposed to be attending a single whole-class discussion on a topic; yet individual students will be having

different experiences at any one moment. Several students may be listening and contributing comments, for

example, but a few others may be planning what they want to say next and ignoring the current speakers, still

others may be ruminating about what a previous speaker said, and still others may be thinking about unrelated

matters—the restroom, food, or sex. Things get even more complicated if the teacher deliberately plans multiple

activities: in that case some students may interact with the teacher, for example, while others do work in an

unsupervised group or work independently in a different part of the room. How is a teacher to keep activities

flowing smoothly in the face of such variety?

A common mistake of beginning teachers in multi-faceted settings like these is to pay too much attention to any

one activity, student, or small group, at the expense of noticing and responding to all the others. If you are helping

a student on one side of the room when someone on the other side disturbs classmates with off-task conversation,

it can be less effective either to finish with the student you are helping before attending to the disruption, or to

interrupt yourself to solve the disruption on the other side of the room. Although one of these responses may be

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necessary, either one involves disruption somewhere. There is a risk that either the student’s chatting may spread

to others, or the interrupted student may become bored with waiting for the teacher’s attention and wander off-

task herself.

A better solution, though one that at first may seem challenging, is to attend to both events at once—a strategy

that was named withitness in a series of now-classic research studies several decades ago (Kounin, 1970).

Withitness does not mean that you focus on all simultaneous activities with equal care, but only that you remain

aware of multiple activities, behaviors, and events to some degree. At a particular moment, for example, you may

be focusing on helping a student, but in some corner of your mind you also notice when chatting begins on the

other side of the room. You have, as the saying goes, “eyes in the back of your head.” Research has found that

experienced teachers are much more likely to show withitness than inexperienced teachers, and that these qualities

are associated with managing classrooms successfully (Emmer & Stough, 2001).

Simultaneous awareness—withitness—makes possible responses to the multiple events that are immediate and

nearly simultaneous—what educators sometimes called overlapping. The teacher’s responses to each event or

behavior need not take equal time, nor even be equally noticeable to all students. If you are helping one student

with seat work at the precise moment when another student begins chatting off-task, for example, a quick glance

to the second student may be enough to bring the second one back to the work at hand, and may scarcely interrupt

your conversation with the first student, or be noticed by others who are not even involved. The result is a

smoother flow to activities overall.

As a new teacher, you may find that withitness and overlapping develop more easily in some situations than in

others. It may be easier to keep an eye (or ear) on multiple activities during familiar routines, such as taking

attendance, but harder to do the same during activities that are unfamiliar or complex, such as introducing a new

topic or unit that you have never taught before. But skill at broadening your attention does increase with time and

practice. It helps to keep trying. Merely demonstrating to students that you are “withit,” in fact, even without

making deliberate overlapping responses, can sometimes deter students from off-task behavior. Someone who is

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tempted to pass notes in class, for example, might not do so because she believes that you will probably notice

her doing it anyway, whether or not you are able to notice in fact.

Communicating the importance of learning and of positive behavior

Altogether, the factors we have discussed—arranging space, procedures, and rules, and developing withitness—

help communicate an important message: that in the classroom learning and positive social behavior are priorities.

In addition, teachers can convey this message by offering timely feedback to students about performance, by

keeping accurate records of the performance, and by deliberately communicating with parents or caregivers about

their children and about class activities.

Communicating effectively is so important for all aspects of teaching. However, here we will focus on only one

of its important aspects: how communication contributes to a smoothly functioning classroom and in this way

helps prevent behavior problems.

Giving timely feedback

The term feedback, when used by educators, refers to responses to students about their behavior or performance.

Feedback is essential if students are to learn and if they are to develop classroom behavior that is socially skilled

and “mature.” But feedback can only be fully effective if offered as soon as possible, when it is still relevant to

the task or activity at hand (Reynolds, 1992). A score on a test is more informative immediately after a test than

after a six-month delay, when students may have forgotten much of the content of the test. A teacher’s comment

to a student about an inappropriate, off-task behavior may not be especially welcome at the moment the behavior

occurs, but it can be more influential and informative then; later, both teacher and student will have trouble

remembering the details of the off-task behavior, and in this sense may literally “not know what they are talking

about.” The same is true for comments about a positive behavior by a student: hearing a compliment right away

makes it easier to the comment with the behavior, and allows the compliment to influence the student more

strongly. There are of course practical limits to how fast feedback can be given, but the general principle is clear:

feedback tends to work better when it is timely.

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The principle of timely feedback is consistent, incidentally, with a central principle of operant conditioning:

reinforcement works best when it follows a to-be-learned operant behavior closely (Skinner, 1957). In this case a

teacher’s feedback serves as a form of reinforcement. The analogy is easiest to understand when the feedback

takes the form of praise; in operant conditioning terms, the reinforcing praise then functions like a “reward.”

When feedback is negative, it functions as an “aversive stimulus” (in operant terms), shutting down the behavior

criticized. At other times, though, criticism can also function as an unintended reinforcement. This happens, for

example, if a student experiences criticism as a reduction in isolation and therefore as in increase in his importance

in the class—a relatively desirable change. So the inappropriate behavior continues, or even increases, contrary

to the teacher’s intentions. Example 2 diagrams this sequence of events.

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