Type of resource

Tutorial activity

This has been done in tutes

Tutorial resource

Does not describe an activity per se, but is something, such as a handout, that could be used in tutes

Case Discussion

There is a case that provides a focus for a case discussion, these are not tagged tutorial activity unless there is an activity involving more than one case

Interactive lecture

Describes, with any needed resources a lecture activity where students had to do something more active than listen, these are typically fairly short

Lecture resource

Something that could be used in a lecture, but not framed as to exactly how, some of these are slides that contain something that may not be easy to get and that, I fell, others could work into their own lectures without trying to be me

Small group discussion

This is a tutorial activity, not a case discussion unless there is a significant extra layer, where students will be working together creating something or making decisions

Group presentation

Students have to build a shared understanding and construct a presentation to their colleagues in the tute

Micro teach

Students have to teach something in ways that are more interactive than just making a presentation

Experience a PEEL procedure

In the tute or lecture, the students experience a "PEEL" procedure. There is usually some debrief on the actual procedure as well as whatever the content was

Using the PEEL database

The students have to use the database as a resource

Reading

Not written as an activity, (so it can be used in more than one way), something that  generally needs to be read in the students time ahead of class

Getting Started/IntroducingNewInformation

These articles discuss ways in which teachers have introduced a major new topic that does not have links to the previous lesson.

Video

A video resource not written as a specific activity

Blended learning task

These are all collaborative, designed for teams of about 5. They involve a synthesis of out of class, and partly online work leading to a tutorial presentation

Assessment task

This is a task we used for assessment of our students, the tasks were one where we hoped students would see some value in the task greater than just a hurdle to pass

Linking theory to practice

In some way this connects or sites theory in the real world of classroom practice

Aspects of learning

Learning

The boundaries between this and learning and teaching are inevitably blurred and many resources are coded to both, however files coded to learning variously relate to getting (our) students thinking about learning, providing examples of either quality learning or poor learning, or helping our students build meaning for various (theoretical frames that can be used to analyse learning

Linking school work to outside life

These files contain examples of school students engaged in this aspect of quality learning (this cognitive strategy if you like)

Linking different lessons

Like the above tag, these files contain examples of school students engaged in this aspect of quality learning, but it also selects activities where Monash students had to do this.

Constructivism

Selects files that are intended to help students build meaning for this concept

Learning & teaching

Selects  files where there is a reasonably strong connection between the (school classroom) teaching (including assessment) and the way the students were, as a consequence, learning. Most, but not all examples relate to promoting quality learning.

Influences on learning

I have tried to minimise the overlap between this tag and teaching and learning, but there is still some. The influences may be characteristics of the student (such as a predisposition to deep or surface processing), or the task (such as cognitive overload).

Student change

Skilled teachers have a strategic (long term) agenda for developing their students as quality learners, which is more than the laudable skill of planning lessons to generate quality learning. This is an evolutionary process. The tag selects files that either provide examples of such change, or of teachers engaged in actively promoting it, or both.

Metacognition

This is a multi-faceted construct. The tag selects files that help students build meaning for what different aspects of metacognition can be, often by providing examples of what it can look like or advice on how to promote aspects of it.

Student reflection

Reflection is a critical component of metacognitive learning, but promoting it is not simple. Moreover,  there is a range of things that it can be useful to get students reflecting on. The tag selcts files that provide examples of different aspects of student reflection as well as ideas as how how to promote it and to get students seeing value in investing the effort to do so.

Good leaning behaviours (GLBs)

Quality learning can be said to be invisible in that we cannot see thinking, but the list of good learning behaviours was developed and refined as a list of things PEEL teachers were seeing that they regarded as signs of good learning. They also provide a concrete way of talking to students about learning (see Using shared intellectual control and debriefing to build a positive relationship with a difficult class for one example) and provide teachers with concrete things to look for as signs of success. This tag selects files that build meaning for GLBs and provide examples or advice of actively promoting them in the classroom.

Deep v surface processing

Surface v deep processing describes two ends of a continuum that students move up or down on depending on a number of factors, sometimes a relatively surface processing approach may be appropriate -to get an unimportant task done, but in general teachers would like a significant degree of deep processing. This tag selects files that build meaning for the construct and often provide ideas for promoting deeper processing.

Abilities/mixed abilities

Two things are combined here to keep the number of tags manageable. Ability can be thought of in several ways and some files tagged to this relate to one of these (e.g.Piaget, Gardner), This tag also selects articles with ideas for dealing with "mixed ability" groups.

Aspects of teaching

Changes in education

This does not entirely fit under aspects of teaching. It selects files that look at how some aspect of education has changed over time: assessment, views of learning, the nature of how educational research is conducted are three.

Teaching skills

Clearly there is a wide range of skills exhibited by good teachers, some of these files look explicitly at one or more of these (e.g. designing assessment being responsive to student contributions) others provide examples of skilled teaching without explicit commentary as to which skills are being shown. Often the unpicking of these can be a 9relatively short) extra 'layer" to the debrief.

Lesson Planning

This is a teaching skill; the microteaching file does contain one template ( not the template) for planning a lesson, but most files contain a resource that can help scaffold thinking when lesson planning, (e.g. Aspects of quality learning).

Teacher uses a PEEL procedure

These files are classroom examples of teachers using a procedure that can be found on the PEEL database; this means you can download or otherwise draw attention to the generic features of the procedure if you wish -the article or video might describe or show a particular procedure in action; the generic description allows you and your students to more easily see how this procedure could be used in other contexts.

Communication & learning

There are strong links between classroom communication and learning and improving how students are learning almost always includes enriching teacher-student and student-student communication. There are at least four different types of resources here: some involve our students experiencing issues of communication and learning (e.g. Exploring the limits of verbal only communication), some involve our students in analysing examples of communication (e.g. Analysing a lecture for scaffolding statements), some provide advice in this area (e.g. Ch1 teaching for effective learning), while some explore the effect of different views or beliefs about learning for classroom communication (e.g. Implications of different theoretical perspectives for classrooms).

Promoting effective group work

This is another teaching skill and the files provide a range of examples of and advice about how this can be done.

Motivation and interest

This selects many examples of teachers using a range of ways of generating motivation and/or interest as well as some advice on aspects of this (e.g. Characteristics of tasks that cater for a wide range of students).

Assessment issues

This selects resources that explore issues such as the roles of assessment, limitations of assessment and changes in assessment over time.

Designing assessment

This is a sophisticated teaching skill, the files look at designing assessment that promotes and supports quality learning, there are numbers of examples as well as some explicit advice (e.g. Writing effective assessment items).

Classroom management

This is a teaching skill that teacher education is often criticised for not doing well. I always stressed that important aspects of this had to be learnt in situ -as and after you are teaching a class. While there is one resource of direct advice (Advice on classroom management) most files have addressing or anticipating issues of management as part of a wider teaching agenda (e.g. Not another assignment).

Using ICTs

This small group involve uses of ICTs that may extend our students thinking in this area.

Teacher risk taking

Almost all of these are printed or video cases where it is clear that the teacher, although experienced, was trying something that they were not at all certain would succedd, generally this involves trusting students. These can help make the point that developing your practice often involves taking risks, but the rewards can be high.

Skills of explanation

While we spend significant time breaking down simple notions that teaching is telling and learning is listening, constructing explanations is a critical teaching skill. These files are nearly all activities that got our students thinking more deeply about how to do this.

Teacher reflection

All these files contain examples of teachers explicitly reflecting on their practice either before, during or after a lesson with a view to improving their teaching. In some cases the reflection reported is confined to a single lesson, in others it can reasonably be seen to be part of an ongoing action research agenda, in which case it is also tagged action research.

Action research

As just stated there are many examples of teacher reflection that are part of a longer term action research agenda, but there are also some files that provide examples of action research projects without actually including the voice of teacher reflection.

Building learning communities

The value of setting out to build a community of learners with each class was a recurring and unifying theme in my teaching. The files reflect the range of things involved: sharing intellectual control (say by using students' questions or ideas) (e.g. Getting started coastlines) and the consequences of this for classroom communication (e.g implications of theorists for classrooms), building a shared language for learning (e.g. blended learning task 1 video analysis), changing students beliefs about learning, teaching and teachers' and students' roles (e.g. students thinking about their roles)and building metacognitive knowledge, awareness and control of learning (e.g. metacognition in primary classrooms).

Shared intellectual control

This is one of 12 principles of teaching for quality learning that emerged as recurring themes in what PEEL teachers were reporting as working in generating and supporting quality learning. It can be done in multiple ways (see Chapter 1 teaching for effective learning) and the files reflect this.

Students work out content for themselves

This is based on the second of the 12 principles just listed. It resonates with ideas of discovery learning, but is a broader construct than this. The files contain multiple examples, often reporting the high levels of interest and engagement that followed (e.g. Pythagoras patterns), but there are also example where our students experienced this (e.g. the Viking sequence).

Opportunities for student decision making

This is based on the third of the 12 principles listed above. Like all these principles, there are many types of decisions that students can make; the video resources (metacognition in primary classrooms and Blended learning task 1) are particularly rich with examples.

Support student risk taking

This is based on the 7th PEEL principle; it is a crucial component of building a learning community and reflects the fact that behaviours such as offering and defending ideas before the teacher has provided "answers", challenging or querying something the teacher said, of taking high levels of responsibility for ones learning are quite reasonably perceived as risky by many students. As it happens the number of examples of this in this set of resources is not as many as for the above three tags, there are more in Chapter 7 of Teaching for effective learning; The voice of the teacher.