action in a variety of configurations, assume responsibility, work with pride, hold themselves accountable, and support one another. In the fourth edition of their book Best Practice: Bringing Standards to Life in America's Schools (Zemelman, 2012), Harvey and co-authors Steve Zemelman and Art Hyde synthesize recent findings about the most effective pedagogies.
Drawing on the reports and recommendations from the whole range of education research centers, subject matter organizations, and standards-setting agencies, Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde offer a model of powerful learning that is student-centered, cognitive, and interactive. This consensus vision of best practice can be summarized by looking at the following chart, which shows development from conventional toward more student-centered teaching.
As you can see, the interlocking conditions of good instruction cannot happen under the old command-and-control models of top-down school discipline. The new paradigm both requires and creates interdependence among everyone in the classroom. The characteristic structures and activities of state-of-the-art teaching require a pervasive climate of student self-awareness, autonomy, responsibility, collaboration, and reflection.
INDICATORS OF BEST PRACTICE
This chart illustrates movement from a teacher-directed to a student-centered classroom. Growth along this continuum does not mean complete abandonment of established instructional approaches. Instead, teachers add new alternatives to a widening repertoire of choices, allowing them to move among a richer array of activities, creating a more diverse and complex balance.
Classroom Setup: Promotes Student Collaboration
• Setup for teacher-centered instruction (separate desks) ►Student-centered arrangement (tables)
• Rows of desks ► Varied learning spaces for whole-class, small-group, and independent work
• Bare, unadorned space ► Commercial decorations ► Student-made artwork, products, displays of work
• Few materials ► Textbooks and handouts ► Varied resources (books, magazines, artifacts, manipulatives, etc.)
Classroom Climate: Actively Involves Students
• Management by consequences and rewards ► Order maintained by engagement and community
• Teacher creates and enforces rules ► Students help set and enforce norms
• Students are quiet, motionless, passive, controlled ► Students are responsive, active, purposeful, autonomous
• Fixed student grouping based on ability ► Flexible grouping based on tasks and choice
• Consistent, unvarying schedule ► Predictable but flexible time usage based on activities
Voice and Responsibility: Balanced Between Teacher-and Student-Directed
• Teacher relies solely on an established curriculum ► Some themes and inquiries are built from students' own questions ("negotiated curriculum")
• Teacher chooses all activities ► Students often select inquiry topics, books, writing topics, audiences, etc.
• Teacher directs all assignments ► Students assume responsibility, take roles in decision making, help run classroom life
• Whole-class reading and writing assignments ► Independent reading (SSR, reading workshop, or book clubs) and independent writing (journals, writing workshop)
• Teacher assesses, grades, and keeps all records ► Students maintain their own records, set own goals, self-assess
Language and Communication: Deepen Learning
• Silence ► Purposeful noise and conversation
• Short responses ► Elaborated discussion ► Students' own questions and evaluations
• Teacher talk ► Student-teacher talk ► Student-student talk plus teacher conferring with students
• Talk and writing focus on: Facts ► Skills ► Concepts ► Synthesis and reflection
Activities and Assignments: Balance the Traditional and More Interactive
• Teacher presents material ► Students read, write, and talk every day ► Students actively experience concepts
• Whole-class teaching ► Small-group instruction ► Wide variety of activities, balancing individual work, small groups, and whole-class activities
• Uniform curriculum for all ► Jigsawed curriculum (different but related topics, according to kids'needs or choices)
• Light coverage of wide range of subjects ► Intensive, deep study of selected topics
• Short-term lessons, one day at a time ► Extended activities; multiday, multistep projects
• Isolated subject lessons ► Integrated, thematic, cross-disciplinary inquiries
• Focus on memorization and recall of facts ► Focus on applying knowledge and problem solving
• Short responses, fill-in-the-blank exercises ► Complex responses, evaluations, writing, performances, artwork
• Identical assignments for all ► Differentiated curriculum for all styles and abilities
Student Work and Assessment: Inform Teachers, Students, Parents
• Products created for teachers and grading ► Products created for real events and audiences
• Classroom/hallway displays: no student work posted ► “A” papers only ► All students represented
• Identical, imitative products displayed ► Varied and original products displayed
• Teacher feedback via scores and grades ► Teacher feedback and conferences are substantive and formative
• Products are seen and rated only by teachers ► Public exhibitions and performances are common
• Data kept private in teacher gradebook ► Work kept in student-maintained portfolios
• All assessment by teachers ► Student self-assessment an official element ► Parents are involved
• Standards set during grading ► Standards available in advance ► Standards codeveloped with students
Teacher Attitude and Outlook: Take Professional Initiative
Relationship with students is:
• Distant, impersonal, fearful ► Positive, warm, respectful, encouraging
• Judging ► Understanding, empathizing, inquiring, guiding
• Directive ► Consultative
Attitude toward self is:
• Powerless worker ► Risk taker/experimenter ► Creative, active professional
• Solitary adult ► Member of team with other adults in school ►Member of networks beyond school
• Staff development recipient ► Director of own professional growth
View of role is:
• Expert, presenter, gatekeeper ► Coach, mentor, model, guide
Source: Reprinted with permission from Best Practice: Bringing Standards to Life in America's Classrooms, Fourth Edition by Steven Zemelman, Harvey “Smokey"Daniels, and Arthur Hyde. Copyright © 2012 by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde. Published by Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH. All rights reserved.
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