Key Resources (All)

Key resources

Key resources for teachers and teacher educators

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TESSA ENGLISH, Key Resources

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TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa) aims to improve the classroom practices of primary teachers and secondary science teachers in Africa through the provision of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to support teachers in developing student-centred, participatory approaches.The TESSA OERs provide teachers with a companion to the school textbook. They offer activities for teachers to try out in their classrooms with their students, together with case studies showing how other teachers have taught the topic, and linked resources to support teachers in developing their lesson plans and subject knowledge.

TESSA OERs have been collaboratively written by African and international authors to address the curriculum and contexts. They are available for online and print use (). The Primary OERs are available in several versions and languages (English, French, Arabic and Swahili). Initially, the OER were produced in English and made relevant across Africa. These OER have been versioned by TESSA partners for Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, and translated by partners in Sudan (Arabic), Togo (French) and Tanzania (Swahili) Secondary Science OER are available in English and have been versioned for Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We welcome feedback from those who read and make use of these resources. The Creative Commons License enables users to adapt and localise the OERs further to meet local needs and contexts.

TESSA is led by The Open University, UK, and currently funded by charitable grants from The Allan and Nesta Ferguson Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Open University Alumni. A complete list of funders is available on the TESSA website ().

As well as the main body of pedagogic resources to support teaching in particular subject areas, there are a selection of additional resources including audio, key resources which describe specific practices, handbooks and toolkits.

TESSA Programme
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
United Kingdom

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 licence: Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. We will be pleased to include any necessary acknowledgement at the first opportunity.

TESSA_EnPA_KR_all May 2016

This work is licensed underaCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License

Introducing the TESSA Key Resources
Key Resource: Assessing learning
Key Resource: Using mind maps and brainstorming to explore ideas
Key Resource: Being a resourceful teacher in challenging circumstances
Key Resource: Using explaining and demonstrating to assist learning
Key Resource: Using group work in your classroom
Key Resource: Using investigations in the classroom
Key Resource: Tools for planningand carrying out investigations in Science
Step 1 - Brainstorming or getting ideas
Step 2 - Choosing the variables
Step 3 - Asking a question
Step 4 - Planning the experiment
Step 5 - Carrying out the experiment
Step 6 - Recording and Presenting (1)
Step 7 – Interpreting and Evaluating (1)
Step 8 - Reporting back
Key Resource: Working with large classes
Key Resource: Using the local community/environment as a resource
Key Resource: Planning and preparing your lessons
Key Resource: Using questioning to promote thinking
Key Resource: Researching in the classroom
Key Resource: Using role play/dialogue/drama in the classroom
Key Resource: Using storytelling in the classroom
Key Resource: Using new technologies
Key Resource: Working with multigrade classes

Introducing the TESSA Key Resources

Each Key Resource provides practical advice about a particular classroom approach (e.g. group work) or skill (e.g. questioning). They are suitable for primary and secondary teachers, and for teacher educators designing learning experiences for pre-service or in-service teachers.

The approaches and skills described in the Key Resources are exemplified in activities and case studies, throughout the TESSA Subject Resources. As teachers and teacher educators try out these activities, they will develop expertise in a range of skills and classroom approaches. It is important to remember that there are no rules or ‘recipes’ for these approaches, rather a few guiding principles. How an individual teacher or teacher educator manages each approach will depend on the topic they are teaching, the context, the learners and their own ‘teaching personality’. Expertise will come through practice, and reflection on that practice. The TESSA Key Resources set out the guiding principles.

As with all the TESSA OER, the Key Resources can be copied, adapted and distributed as single resources, or as a complete set.

Key Resource: Assessing learning

Assessment

Assessment falls into two categories. One category looks back and makes a judgement on what has been learned already. This is called summative assessment. The second category is when we use assessment as part of the learning process (for example when we use questioning to check whether pupils have understood something). We call this formative assessment.

Summative assessment can be seen in the form of tests and marks which tell the pupils how well they have done in a particular subject or piece of work. Formative assessment is quite different.

Formative assessment – or assessment for learning – is based on the idea that pupils will improve most if:

they understand what it is they are meant to learn;
they know where they are now;
they can see how they can close the gap between these two.

As a teacher, you will get the best out of your pupils if you aim to use the three points above, which makes assessment as much a responsibility for the pupil as it is for the teacher. How does this work?

Pupils understanding what it is they are meant to learn

When you decide the learning outcomes for a topic or a piece of work you should share it with the pupils. You need to be clear by distinguishing not just what it is they have to DO, but what it is you are expecting them to LEARN. So to check they have understood, rather than saying ‘Have you all understood?’ ask a question that gives you the chance to assess whether they have really understood. For example:

‘Who can explain in their own words what we have to do and what we aim to learn?’
‘How can you make me sure that you have understood what I have just said?’
‘So what is it we are going to do today?’

Their answers will enable you to know if they understand what it is they have to learn before they start. Give them time to explore the true meaning of your learning outcomes.

Knowing where they are now in their learning process

In order to help pupils improve, you and they need to know the current state of their knowledge. It is your role to be sensitive, constructive and enthusiastic in finding out the current state of knowledge of your pupils. Insensitive comments and behaviour can have a damaging effect on pupil confidence, motivation and enthusiasm. Think back to those teachers who damaged your own confidence and enthusiasm, and do not follow their behaviour. Instead, when you talk to pupils about their current learning, make sure that they find your feedback both useful and constructive. Do this by:

pinpointing pupils’ strengths and suggesting how they might further improve them;
being clear about weaknesses and positive about how they might be tackled, checking that pupils understand and are positive about your advice;
checking with pupils for examples of your feedback that they found useful. Assessment for learning is a two-way process.

Closing the learning gap

You will need to provide opportunities for pupils to improve their work. This means that by talking to them about their work you may discover misconceptions that mean you have to modify the content and style of what you have been teaching if you want to close the gap between where they are now and where you wish them to be.

Very often, by slowing down with a group of pupils you can actually speed up, because you have given them time and confidence to think and understand what they need to do to improve. By letting pupils talk about their work amongst themselves and reflecting on where the gaps are and how they might close them, you are providing them with ways to assess themselves.

Key to all this is you, the teacher, demonstrating a belief in your pupils, giving constructive guidance on how to improve and providing opportunities for them to take charge of their own learning.

Key Resource: Using mind maps and brainstorming to explore ideas

What is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is a group activity that generates as many ideas as possible on a specific issue or problem then decides which idea(s) offers the best solution. It involves creative thinking by the group to think of new ideas to address the issue or problem they are faced with. Brainstorming helps pupils to:

understand a new topic;
generate different ways to solve a problem;
be excited by a new concept or idea;
feel involved in a group activity that reaches agreement.

How to set up a brainstorming session

Before starting a session, you need to identify a clear issue or problem. This can range from a simple word like ‘energy’ and what it means to the group, or something like ‘How can we develop our school environment?’ To set up a good brainstorm, it is essential to have a word, question or problem that the group is likely to respond to. In very large classes, questions can be different for different groups. Groups themselves should be as varied as possible in terms of gender and ability.

There needs to be a large sheet of paper that all can see in a group of between six and eight pupils. The ideas of the group need to be recorded as the session progresses so that everyone knows what has been said and can build on or add to earlier ideas. Every idea must be written down, however unusual. Before the session begins, the following rules are made clear:

Everyone in the group must be involved.
No one criticises anyone else’s ideas or suggestions.
Unusual and innovative ideas are welcomed.
Lots of different ideas are needed.
Everyone needs to work quickly. Brainstorming is a fast and furious activity.

Running the session

The teacher’s role initially is to encourage discussion, involvement and the recording of ideas. When pupils begin to struggle for ideas, or time is up, get the group (or groups) to select their best three ideas and say why they have chosen these.

Finally:

summarise for the class what they have done well;
ask them what they found useful about their activity. What did they discover in the brainstorming that they didn’t realise before?

What is mind mapping?

Mind mapping is a way of representing key aspects of a central topic. Mind maps are visual tools to help pupils structure and organise their own thinking about a concept or topic. A mind map reduces large amounts of information into an easy-to-understand diagram that shows the relationships and patterns between different aspects of the topic.

When to use a mind map

A mind map is useful when you want to encourage creativity as its structure encourages free thinking.

When trying to solve a problem, a mind map helps to highlight the aspects of the problem and how they relate to one another.

A mind map can help to revise previous work with a class – quickly and in an organised way.

Use mind maps when you want to encourage discussion, variety, experimentation and thinking in class groups

How to make a mind map

Begin by drawing a box in the centre of a piece of paper. Write in it the main theme, topic or idea you are going to represent.
Make branches from the main box that have sub-themes associated with the main theme.
Be creative with your basic map, adding in ideas around your sub-themes.
Try a mind map out on your own before trying it with your class. You could use it as a demonstration.

Below there is a mind map of all the information teachers thought of at a workshop on the topic ‘all we know about water’:

Key Resource: Being a resourceful teacher in challenging circumstances

Many teachers work in difficult contexts. They may have large classes. They may have few resources. The pupils in these contexts are not likely to have resources at home to compensate for limited school resources.

A group of teachers working in such circumstances recently brainstormed suggestions about how to be resourceful despite such difficult conditions. They came up with many ideas and decided that the following seven were most useful:

Make maximum use of the local environment as a teaching aid. All schools have an environment that can be exploited for discussion, investigations and sources of classroom data.
Make maximum use of the local community as a teaching aid. Parents and others are an important source for stories, for remembering what things were like in the past, and for having opinions on everyday issues.
Exploit the communication systems currently in place. Nearly all communities now have access to radio, often with many channels available. Use the systems available to stimulate debate and discussion.
Make teaching aids from materials around the school. Old boxes, magazines, newspapers and even plastic bottles can be turned into teaching aids (one of the teachers in the discussion group described how she had built a model of a volcano using such materials, the model could be opened out to show the ‘inner workings’ of the volcano).
Cooperate with other schools, directly or by exchange of letters. This can be highly motivating for pupils and it opens up all sorts of possible exchanges of information (for example, exchanges of information between urban and rural schools can lead to interesting comparisons).
Let the school become a resource for the local community: one teacher described how mothers joined in the reading classes and thus improved their own literacy.
Set up a school garden: plants can be grown in even a small area. Pupils of all ages can benefit from participating in the planning, planting, growing and use stages in the development of a garden.

The TESSA programme would like to receive letters or emails about ideas for teaching in challenging conditions.

Key Resource: Using explaining and demonstrating to assist learning

Introduction

Explaining is the giving of understanding to another. Demonstrations are ways of assisting the explanation process by using artefacts or other methods to show pupils something so that they understand it better.

Explaining

An explanation used in a lesson can help pupils to understand:

concepts or ideas – including those that are new or unfamiliar to pupils, for example ‘density’ or ‘volume’;
cause and effect – rain is caused by air cooling, a flat battery means the car won’t start;
processes – how things work, how people and animals behave;
relationships – between people, things and events: the role of grandparents in a family, why flies are insects and spiders are not, the common features of important yearly festivals.

To explain well, you, the teacher, have to understand the subject matter well (what is to be taught). For example, if you do not understand that a spider is not an insect, neither will your pupils.

Key knowledge features about explaining

When explaining new concepts or ideas, four key features will help you structure and sequence your explanation:

Labels and names. The actual words used to name the concept (insect, electricity, colour, ambition)
Attributes. There are two kinds, namely:
‘Must have’ features, which are essential parts of the concept like ‘wings’ (bird) ‘thorax’ (insect);
‘May have’ features that may occur, but not always. A sparrow is brown, but not all birds are. Some insects have hard shells, but not all do.
Examples. In your explanations you will need to give examples that illustrate what you mean. For example, ants and flies are insects, but a snail, though it has antennae, is not an insect. It is a mollusc.
Finally, you will have a set of ‘must have’ rules at the end that apply to what you are explaining. So your rules for insects would be: six legs, a head, thorax, abdomen, two antennae, and two or four wings.

Assisting learning by demonstrating

How explaining is done is just as important as having good subject knowledge. Just giving out information is not enough. Demonstrating an idea or a concept in a practical way often assists pupil learning. This can be done by:

using pictures, diagrams, models, specimens and artefacts to show what you mean;
getting pupils themselves to examine the subject of your explanation. For instance, as you explain about a plant, they can see what you are talking about better if they have a specimen in front of them;
enabling all pupils to see clearly what you are explaining. A demonstration provides the link between ‘knowing about’ and ‘being able to do.’ Let them experiment in small groups by handling, drawing, discussing, watching and experimenting. Demonstrations are most effective when they are accurate, when pupils are able to see clearly and understand what is going on, and when brief explanations and discussion occur during the demonstration.
asking for feedback from the pupils about their understanding of what they have seen.