Essential Teaching Skills Chris Kyriacou Incorporates the new QTS standards for 2007 Third Edition Essential Teaching Skills Third Edition Chris Kyriacou Text © Chris Kyriacou 2007 Illustrations © Nelson Thornes Ltd 1991, 1998, 2007 The right of Chris Kyriacou to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or under licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited, of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in 1991 by Basil Blackwell Ltd Reprinted in 1992 by Simon and Schuster Education Reprinted in 1995 by Stanley Thornes (Publishers) Ltd Second edition 1998 Reprinted in 2001 by Nelson Thornes Ltd Third edition published in 2007 by: Nelson Thornes Ltd Delta Place 27 Bath Road CHELTENHAM GL53 7TH United Kingdom 091011/1098765432 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7487 8161 4 Illustrations by Clinton Banbury Page make-up by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon Printed and bound in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd. Contents Preface v 1 Developing your teaching skills 1 The nature of teaching skills 1 • Studies of teaching skills 2 • Defining essential teaching skills 4 • The development of teaching skills 11 • Further reading 17 2 Planning and preparation 19 The elements of planning and preparation 19 • The purposes and functions of planning 21 • Lesson planning 24 • Lesson preparation 29 • Further reading 33 • Key questions about your planning and preparation 34 3 Lesson presentation 35 The teacher’s manner 35 • Teacher talk activities 36 • Academic tasks 41 • Teaching styles and learning styles 45 • Matching work to pupil ability and needs 47 • Using resources and materials 51 • Further reading 53 • Key questions about your lesson presentation 53 4 Lesson management 54 Beginnings, transitions and endings 54 • Maintaining pupils’ involvement 57 • Handling the logistics of classroom life 62 • Managing pupil movement and noise 64 • Further reading 67 • Key questions about your lesson management 67 5 Classroom climate 68 Establishing a positive classroom climate 68 • Motivating pupils 72 • Your relationships with pupils 74 • Enhancing pupils’ self-esteem 76 • Classroom appearance and composition 79 • Further reading 82 • Key questions about your classroom climate 82 6 Discipline 83 The nature of pupil misbehaviour 83 • Establishing your authority 86 • Pre-empting pupil misbehaviour 90 • Investigating and counselling 92 • Using reprimands 93 • Using punishments 96 • Dealing with confrontations 100 • Other strategies 101 • Further reading 103 • Key questions about your use of discipline 104 7 Assessing pupils’ progress 105 The purposes of assessment 105 • Types of assessment 107 • Assessment activities in the classroom 111 • Carrying out assessment activities 114 • Marking, recording and reporting 116 • Further reading 120 • Key questions about your assessment of pupils’ progress 120 1111 21 31 4 51 61 7 8 9 10 1 1112 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 1 2 3 4 5 46 471111 8 Reflection and evaluation 121 Self-evaluation 122 • Collecting data about your current practice 126 • Teacher appraisal 130 • Managing your time 132 • Dealing with stress 134 • Further reading 138 • Key questions about your reflection and evaluation 138 Bibliography 140 Author index 146 Subject index 149 IV C ONTENTS Preface In this book I outline the teaching skills which are involved in effective teaching. The book is designed to meet the needs of student teachers and experienced teachers wishing to explore and develop their own practice. It will also be of use to those involved in helping others to develop teaching skills or with an interest in this topic generally. I have been very gratified by the immense popularity of this book since it first appeared. This new (third) edition has been revised to take account of important developments in education policy classroom practice, the introduction of new professional standards for beginning and experienced teachers, and the move towards evidence-based teaching. This revised text incorporates developments in personalised learning, assessment for learning, whole-class interactive teaching, ICT, inclusion, initial teacher training, continuing professional development, and the Every Child Matters agenda. 1111 21 31 4 51 61 7 8 9 10 1 1112 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 1 2 3 4 5 46 471111 [...]... TEACHING SKILLS 11 11 21 31 4 51 61 7 8 9 10 1 111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 1 2 3 4 5 46 4 711 11 ● ● ● ● ● ● 9 ability to use a range of teaching methods knowledge about their teaching subject(s) ability to deal with pastoral issues staff supervision/management skills knowledge/understanding of education policy awareness of research findings about effective teaching. ..DEVELOPING YOUR TEACHING SKILLS 11 11 21 31 4 51 61 7 8 9 10 1 111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 1 2 3 4 5 46 4 711 11 ● ● ● ● 7 Designing lessons – structured learning – teaching models – lesson design for lower attainers – lesson design for inclusion – starters and plenaries Teaching repertoire – modelling – questioning – explaining... organise their own work (over-direction by teachers needs to be guarded against) 8 ESSENTIAL TEACHING SKILLS ● ● ● ● ● Lessons should elicit and sustain pupils’ interest and be perceived by pupils as relevant and challenging The work should be well matched to pupils’ abilities and learning needs Pupils’ language should be developed and extended (teachers’ questioning skills play a part here) A variety of... teaching and pupils have a clear idea of how to improve Skills to be developed during initial training and beyond A further source of information relating to teaching skills comes from writings and materials concerned with the teaching skills that student teachers are expected to develop during their initial teacher training (Stephens and Crawley, 19 94; Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA),... levels and topics, and on specific aspects of teaching, such as the quality of teaching displayed by newly qualified teachers and the quality of teaching experienced by particular groups of pupils (e.g Ofsted, 2002, 2006) From these reports one is able to build up a clear picture of the types of skills school inspectors expect to see displayed when good teaching is taking place These can be inferred... The teaching skills looked for by Ofsted are modified from time to time to take account of new DfES policies For example, the introduction by the DfES (2004b) of the Every Child Matters agenda led to a revision of Ofsted’s lesson observation schedule so that it was ‘aligned’ with those teaching skills which related to this agenda (Cheminais, 2006) This agenda views pupil performance and pupil well-being... personal professional development Professional knowledge and understanding – teaching and learning – assessment and monitoring – subjects and curriculum – literacy, numeracy and ICT – achievement and diversity – health and well-being Professional skills – planning – teaching – assessing, monitoring and giving feedback – reviewing teaching and learning – learning environment – team working and collaboration... developing teaching skills over the course of their training A study by Hobson et al (2006) asked student teachers to rate the importance of eight different types of knowledge and skills that beginning teachers needed to develop The student teachers’ ratings of these in order of importance were: ● ● ability to bring about pupil learning ability to maintain discipline in the classroom DEVELOPING YOUR TEACHING. .. earlier Parts of the specific criteria within each area are worded the same for both primary and secondary teachers, whilst some parts are worded differently Overall, however, an attempt has been made to use, as far as possible, the same form of words to describe the standards expected of both primary and secondary school teachers A similar list of standards has also been drawn up to set out the teaching skills. .. economic well-being: helping pupils to gain the skills and knowledge needed for future employment In the revised form, a lesson graded as outstanding included the following characteristics: ● ● ● Excellent relationships are most conducive to pupils’ personal development All pupils are challenged and stretched whatever standard they are working at Assessment of pupils’ work successfully underpins the teaching . values. 11 11 21 31 4 51 61 7 8 9 10 1 111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 1 2 3 4 5 46 4 711 11 D EVELOPING Y OUR T EACHING S KILLS 3 An over-riding feature of teaching skills. Matters agenda. 11 11 21 31 4 51 61 7 8 9 10 1 111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 1 2 3 4 5 46 4 711 11