Doorstep-sized reports on education are a speciality of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
While crammed with potentially useful data and insight, the sheer volume of information can be daunting - and labour intensive for those daring to venture in.
Its latest tome has a compelling hook, however: while coming in at 244 pages - actually fairly short by OECD standards - promises a punchy list of “20 practices that support five key dimensions of high-quality teaching”, which is not a bad sell to time-poor teachers and school leaders.
What’s more, it claims these 20 practices are drawn from “extensive research to delineate what we know - and what remains to be understood - about each [practice]” as well as “qualitative insights” provided by over 150 schools in 40 countries, including members of the Council of British International Schools.
Of course, research and reality are two different things - and the OECD does acknowledge that by stating: “While research has shed light into what can effectively improve learning outcomes, applying it in the complex everyday reality of classrooms can be a whole different challenge.”
Nonetheless, it’s never a bad thing to reflect on your practice, so here are 20 practices the OECD says can unlock high-quality teaching, grouped under the five areas:
Ensuring cognitive engagement
1. Setting clear learning objectives
2. Using questioning techniques to stimulate thinking
3. Encouraging student self-regulation
4. Providing opportunities for active learning
“Cognitive engagement can seem enigmatic, as it is difficult to observe,” advises the report. But crack cognitive engagement - that is, equip students to “persist in understanding a complex idea or solving challenging, unstructured problems” - and the gains can be huge.
To do this, some key aims for teachers should be to “embed meaningful context and real-world connections” and “nurture students’ metacognition”.
They must also “carefully consider where students are in their learning alongside the cognitive load of learning opportunities”, with an emphasis on ”scaffolding and stretching student thinking”.
Students should, in turn, “feel challenged and curious”, while differences in their prior knowledge or interests should be catered for.
The “broader school environment” will also affect levels of cognitive engagement, including classroom size and composition, curricular flexibility and the availability of resources and tools.
Crafting quality subject content
5. Aligning content with curriculum standards
6. Integrating cross-disciplinary themes
7. Using real-world examples to enhance relevance
8. Differentiating instruction to meet diverse needs
A deep understanding of subjects is based not only on a foundation of core ideas and skills, but also on students’ ability to apply a “critical eye” to these.
Teachers must “look backwards to students’ prior learning to build sound, robust understanding that lasts”, but also know “how to look outwards to ensure that connections and patterns in the subject matter are steadily built and enriched”.
The OECD stresses that monitoring the quality of subject content for students requires “high-level professional expertise from teachers”.
Another important factor will be whether teachers have time for planning and professional collaboration, both within their department and more widely.
Providing social-emotional support
9. Building positive teacher-student relationships
10. Fostering a supportive classroom environment
11. Promoting student wellbeing
12. Addressing individual student needs
This is more complex than simply teachers providing “a supportive classroom climate and building positive relationships that are conducive to learning”.
The OECD report, which was published last Thursday, advises that it is also about “teachers explicitly teaching social-emotional skills and providing opportunities for students to actively practise these skills”.
Tests of the effectiveness of social-emotional support include “students’ willingness to take risks without fear of mistakes” or their ability to independently “manage relationships and resolve disagreements”.
The wider school ethos and the “norms for healthy interactions” are also an important factor, with students’ social-emotional skill development potentially “shaped by how a shared language and understanding of skills is nurtured across the whole school”.
Fostering classroom interaction
13. Encouraging collaborative learning
14. Facilitating peer feedback
15. Promoting respectful communication
16. Managing classroom dynamics effectively
Teachers should ensure high-quality classroom interactions by means of: questions and responses; opportunities for students to collaborate; and whole-class discussions.
To assess the effectiveness of these three practices, teachers need to gauge students’ ability to constructively disagree with a peer or to plan responses carefully to align with a question.
However, the OECD acknowledges the “complexity” that faces teachers in this area, given the need for “establishing clear routines, balancing teacher and student agency [and] ensuring an equitable environment of interaction”.
The routines and norms for student behaviour across the wider school may also have a big impact on classroom interaction.
Using formative assessment and feedback
17. Implementing ongoing assessment strategies
18. Providing timely and constructive feedback
19. Using assessment data to inform instruction
20. Encouraging student self-assessment
Formative assessment and feedback are defined by the OECD as “the ongoing process of teachers carefully evaluating and guiding students’ progress through setting learning goals, diagnosing student learning, providing feedback and adapting to student thinking”.
Key aspects of formative assessment that teachers should bear in mind include: the setting of learning goals; diagnosing student learning; providing feedback; and adapting to students’ thinking.
These, notes the OECD, “demand sensitivity and reflectiveness from [the] teacher”.
Teachers must pay heed to “the complex demands of choosing the best timing for different practices and attending to individual needs in large and diverse classrooms” - at the same time as “ensuring that students have agency to also steer their learning”.
Success with formative assessment may also hinge on a school’s wider use of data to “help teachers in how they target their formative assessment and feedback”. The availability of digital tools or resources in the school may also have an impact on “how teachers handle the logistical challenges of catering to multiple student needs”.
Full and summary can be viewed for free online.
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