Colin Harris reviews his most useful pedagogy book - Outstanding teaching: Engaging Learners

Outstanding teaching: Engaging Learners is a book I have used throughout my teaching from being a History NQT through to Subject Leader. This book was gifted to myself and my fellow NQTs within our first weeks as teachers with the slightly tongue in cheek challenge to live up to its title.

Richard Bentley explains the rationale behind this extremely useful way of improving students' confidence in their exam technique and the way they have implemented this in the PE department.

Following our Friday Teaching & Learning Session on exploring how we use questioning in our classrooms, two things became clear:

1. Questioning is a teacher's bread and butter and we all use a wide range of questioning types and strategies to develop understanding and enhance learning.

2. A perennial problem is how to engage ALL students in the question and response process.

More so now than ever, with the rigour of the new 9-1 GCSE specifications, I feel it is particularly important for students to reflect on their summative assessments holistically rather than just receiving a grade and moving on.

 

A summative assessment can provide much more useful information than just a score or a grade.

Inspired by a similar document a fellow professional had shared on Twitter, the exam analysis feedback document allows students time to reflect strategically on what they have achieved and provides them with the next steps to improvement.

Whether you are studying for a further qualification or made that New Year's resolution to get up to speed on recent pedagogical thinking, the MRC CPD library for staff will have something relevant for you.

 

 

 

 

Welcome all to the new College Teaching & Learning blog.

We are hoping, through a regular series of blogs on a range of topics, to share and promote interesting and effective strategies to continue to embed great practice across the college.