24 | Key Stage 3 National Strategy|Pedagogy and practice
Unit 17: Developing effective learners
© Crown copyright 2004
DfES 0440-2004Next steps
This unit has explored an aspect of teaching and learning. You may wish to develop
your ideas further, to consolidate, apply ideas in different contexts or explore an
aspect in more depth and innovate.
Reflect
What have been the key learning points for you?
What has been the impact on pupils?
Here are some suggestions as to how you may develop practice further:
- Work collaboratively with other teachers, preferably teaching the same group in
different subjects. For example, you could identify common teaching strategies
for developing independent learners. This will ensure that pupils see a similar
approach across lessons, enabling you and your colleagues to support each
other and evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies. - Consider a class whose learning skills you wish to develop and, working with a
colleague who also teaches that class, reconsider case study 1and the results
of tasks 2 and 3. In the case study agree three or four areas where you feel
most pupils fall short and jointly plan how to develop these skills over time.
How might you assess the impact of your efforts? - Select one of the key learning points you have listed above and decide how,
through a suitable line of enquiry, you can pursue this further and what method
of working would suit you best.
For further reading, the following publications are recommended:
- Fisher, R. (1998) Teaching thinking. Cassell. ISBN: 0304700665.
- Hughes, M. (1999) Closing the learning gap.Network Educational Press. ISBN:
1855390515. - Lucas, B., Greany, T., Rodd, J. and Wicks, R. (2002)Teaching pupils how to
learn. Network Educational Press. ISBN: 1855390981. - Muijs, D. and Reynolds, D. (2001) Effective teaching: evidence and practice.
Sage (Paul Chapman). ISBN: 0761968814.