The Most Effective Teaching Strategies for Student Learning

Schools in Crisis

Schools are in crisis. Here in Australia, according to recent data by the education research group Learning First, Australian children are lagging behind their international counterparts in reading, mathematics, and science. One of the reasons we’re lagging behind in reading is a lack of explicit instruction. I addressed this in episode 22 of the podcast.

Best Strategies for Teachers: Evidence-Based Practices

A logical question to ask is: what are the best strategies and practices for teachers to use to get the best out of children? As professionals, we’re looking towards evidence-based strategies, which lead us to High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS).

What are High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS)?

HITS are instructional practices that reliably increase student learning. These strategies emerge from studies and findings across Australian and international schools and the work of John Hattie and Robert Marzano, who ranked them by their effectiveness in student learning, known as their Effect Size. Researchers like Hattie, Marzano and others have used different methods to calculate effect size, but they agree on the most powerful strategies.

In Australia the AITSL Standards also refer to Hattie’s work in High Impact Teaching Strategies.

The Education Department of Victoria her in Australia has a  PDF that sets out the 10 highest impact teaching strategies.

The List of 10 High Impact Teaching Strategies

1. Setting Goals
2. Structuring Lessons
3. Explicit Teaching
4. Worked Examples
5. Collaborative Learning
6. Multiple Exposures
7. Questioning 
8. Feedback 
9. Metacognitive Strategies
10. Differentiated Teaching

Inquiry-Based Learning: Misconceptions and Reality

What Inquiry-Based Learning Entails

Notice something? Inquiry-based learning isn’t listed among the High Impact Teaching Strategies. This got me thinking: what does inquiry-based teaching entail?

Goal setting.

Students and teachers decide on what they want to determine and through the inquiry process, determine a path to get there.

Structures Lessons

Contrary to popular opinion, inquiry lessons are structured. It’s nonsense to think that teachers simply say to children, “Well, off you go, go and inquire.” I urge you to read Kath Murdoch’s book Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning and Trevor Mackenzie’s book Inquiry Mindset Elementary Edition, and you’ll see just how structured lessons are, especially in the beginning when students (and teachers) are just getting started. Inquiry is not a free for all activity, but an intentional, structured teaching strategy.

Explicit Instruction

Inquiry is also explicit. In a good inquiry classroom, we explicitly teach the process in a step-by-step fashion. Explicit instruction dovetails with inquiry. It’s not a either/or situation, but rather an and/more situation and Jessica Vance pointed this out in her interview on the podcast.

Worked Examples

Worked examples are essential for great learning outcomes. Showing students what a good one looks like, showing them the standard you want them to achieve, and giving them a clear example of what you expect is crucial if you want students  not only to understand exactly what is expected of them, but also for them to perform at their very best.

Collaborative Learning and Questioning

Every other strategy on that HITS list is part of an inquiry classroom and inquiry-based learning: collaborative learning, multiple exposures and questioning.

Questioning forms the basis of inquiry. Inquiry and questioning go hand in hand.

The types of questions we ask students are really important in an inquiry classroom. We strive to get students thinking with open ended questions. To get an idea of the types of questions to ask, download you free list from the resource library.

Feedback and Metacognitive Strategies

Feedback and metacognitive strategies (teaching kids to think about their thinking) are also strategies used in an inquiry classroom. Giving children immediate and timely feedback helps children perform better since they gain a greater understanding of areas that need more attention and effort. Similarly, children are empowered when they gain an understanding of how they learn best and the manner in which they learn and draw conclusions around their learning.

Differentiated Teaching

Differentiated teaching is where inquiry comes into its own. Inquiry is probably the best strategy I know of for differentiation. In a typical classroom, there are a range of abilities, and inquiry allows for high-end students to progress independently while providing more support to those who need it. But no matter where students sit on the bell curve, we need to have high expectations of all of them.