Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 134

Designing the Classroom Curriculum
This scheme is firmly based on the outcomes that students achieve as the yardstick for determining the
efficacy of teaching at a system, school and individual teacher level. It is precisely this focus that raises the
hackles of the teaching profession at all levels as the dominant mindset kicks in to defend the profession.
The challenge now is encapsulated in Hattie’s remark that “The locus of accountability is the student learning,
the focus of accountability is the teacher’s teaching” (Hattie, 2005, emphasis added). “It’s about the
teacher’s/leader’s mindset, not the kids!” says Hattie (2009) and Marzano (2011, emphasis added) proclaims
that “Overall effectiveness in teaching must be defined in terms of the one indisputable criterion for success –
student learning.”
Table 10.3: Robert Marzano’s Language of Instruction 58
Phase I: Develop a Language of Instruction or Model of Instruction
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Provide training to teachers in classroom instruction, classroom management, and classroom curriculum design strategies.
Ask volunteer vanguard teachers to engage in action research and/or survey the teachers regarding the target strategies.
Use the findings from the action research and/or survey to identify those strategies that are to be the “language of” or “model of” instruction in the
school or district.
Develop a formal document that articulates the model at the d istrict level and allow for schools within the district to add to the district model to
reflect their unique interests.
Phase II: Develop a Systematic Way for Teachers to Interact about Instruction Using the Model.
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Have teachers meet periodically to discuss their observations and reflections regarding their use of the strategies embedded in model.
Encourage informal dialogue about effective teaching using the model.
Phase III: Establish a Systematic Way for Teachers to Observe Master Teachers and Each Other Using
the Model of Instruction.
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Identify teachers who are considered to be “expert exemplars” regarding specific aspects of the instructional model.
On a voluntary basis have teachers observe expert teachers regarding specific aspects of the model.
Encourage teachers to invite expert teachers into their classrooms.
Phase IV: Monitor the Effectiveness of Individual Teacher’s Instructional Styles as a Form of Teacher
Feedback.
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Systematically (i.e. once each semester) collect data on each teacher’s use of specific aspects of the instructional model along with pre/post
achievement data during specific units of instruction. Also collect self-report data from students regarding their levels of engagement and learning.
Provide feedback to teachers regarding their students’ learning and the instructional strategies they are using that are producing the greatest effects
on student learning. (Note: Effective teaching should be defined in terms of student learning as opposed to use of specific strategies in the model.)
Establish an incentive system for teachers to increase their expertise in specific aspects of the instructional model.
Establish an incentive system for teachers to increase the learning of their students.
Let us take “teaching” in order to achieve higher academic achievement than what is taken for granted as
the core equity objective of schooling, as noted earlier and the primary motivation for teacher research. The
beauty of this decision lies in the twofold determination to collect data about what teachers are teaching and
students are learning rather than focusing on student abilities, and that “evidence” starts in the classroom.
Hattie’s (2009) dispositions towards teaching shown in Table 102 offer a research process. There are striking
similarities between this approach and that in Table 10.1.
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58
Nevertheless, there is a missing step. The questions assume an over-arching framework, what we
referred to earlier as a “mindset”. The over-arching set of meanings in turn determines the kinds of
answers to each of the questions. Given that the chapter has argued that the dominant teaching
mindset gives priority to the individual creative teacher inventing her pedagogy, the potential answers
http://www.marzanocenter.com/files/Common%20Language%20of%20Instruction%5B1%5D.pdf
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