Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 135

Lynch, Smith, Howarth
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to the questions are astronomic and therefore, there is no “answer”. This is the algorithm for doing
nothing, for surrendering initiative to the lethargy of the dominant teaching culture and for
reinforcing the very education inequalities and disadvantages that educators repeatedly identify but
do not resolve.
The important pre-cursor step then is to determine an agreed framework. Marzano (2011) offers
what he calls a “language of instruction”, shown in Table 10.3.
A common language/model of instruction provides a framework for a way to talk about
instruction that is shared by everyone in the state, educational service agency region, and at the district or
school level. Principals and teachers use a common language of instruction to converse about effective
teaching, give and receive feedback, collect and act upon data to monitor growth regarding the reasoned use
of the strategies identified in the framework, and align professional development needs against the
framework.
Figure 10.1: Effect Size Illustrated (Teach it So, 2011)
While the focus on teacher effectiveness must be centred on improving student learning, a complex
evaluation system must focus on improving the expertise of the teacher across an entire system and provide
clear mechanisms for teachers to improve their instruction. A well-articulated knowledge base is a
prerequisite for developing expertise in any systematic way (Marzano, 2009).
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