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These implementation instructions are presented in the same sequence as in the previous section. If the characteristics are followed up again in the following chapters or we view a characteristic as unimportant, we will limit ourselves to just a few important notes.

1 Create a learning-conducive climate

When it comes to creating a learning-conducive climate in the classroom, it should suffice to observe the formulated rules on page 26. This is easier said than done, however, as the instructor’s personality with his/her ways of establishing contact with the students is central to this characteristic. This ability is not mastered as a technique but is rather an expression of attitudes and possibilities that are at the disposal of a teacher for relationship building.

If an instructor would like to work on optimizing a learning-conducive climate, it would mean, for one, that s/he would realize the pedagogical-didactic suggestions put forth in this book, such as applying the principle of positive reciprocal affects at the beginning of a lesson (see chapter 2, p. 63). Furthermore, it is certainly always a matter of finding an age-appropriate balance between nearness and distance to the learners and a considered mixture between a working atmosphere and personal contact.

On the other hand, a critical analysis of one’s own approaches and possibilities in relationship building is advisable. For one, this can occur by studying the applicable literature. The recommendations by the humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers of 50 years ago are still well worth reading. His postulated attitudes – respect, warmth, consideration; empathetic, non-judgmental understanding; genuineness; minimal direction and guidance – are significant in pedagogical contexts as well. This may also occur in discussions and exchanges with teacher colleagues, such as discussions and intervention groups, which offer a greater awareness of one’s approaches and relationships patterns, and promote their further development.

2 Classroom management can be learned – it is not just an expression of a certain talent

Nolting’s previously referenced publication relates to Kounin’s Techniques of classroom management21. Among his suggestions for classroom management, we consider the following most significant:

Omnipresence (with-it-ness)

The students should have the impression that their teacher keeps an open eye and ear on all their activities, so that disruptive incidents are not consciously “overlooked” and difficult problems are not tolerated.

Overlapping

Unavoidable disciplinary problems should be dealt with “in passing” and without much fuss so as not to disrupt the flow of teaching more than necessary. The preparation and implementation of media elements should occur routinely (automatically, so to speak), so that the focus of attention remains on the class. Generally speaking, it is important that work proceeds simultaneously on various problems and that individual student needs are addressed.

Speed, smooth flow, momentum

Needless disruptions of class the flow should be avoided. The precondition for this is adequate lesson planning, particularly the avoidance of rush (overload of material) and boredom (lack of sufficient material, monotonous work). A negative example of lacking flow is sticking to notes and small pieces of paper. Another example is idling verbosity or over-problematizing minor details.

Group activation (group focus)

Even when only one student is at the center of activities, all students must follow the class proceedings, with the teacher maintaining the focus on the whole class or group. For example, the class receives clear instructions before the teacher engages in a dialog with an individual student.

Managing transitions

The transitions between different teaching segments or phases should occur through a short and unambiguous segue (for example: acoustic signals, certain gestures) and without loss of time. Rest breaks or relaxation pauses can be granted, rituals for de-escalation may be instituted.

Avoiding mock participation

Teachers should be aware of feigned attentiveness; students are known to develop clever rituals to create the appearance of rapt attention and lively interest (intense head-nodding, furrowing their brows in apparent concentration, etc.); commonly known as "school survival skills".

In addition to an actualized presentation of these six principles, Nolting’s publication also deals with direct and cooperative interventions in cases of conflicts in the school. The suggested recommended actions are concrete and thereby very helpful.

In the other referenced publication thus far, Rüedi’s Discipline and self-discipline in the school,22 which deals first and foremost with the relational dynamics of classroom instruction, such prescription-like suggestions are hard to find. In reference to Rüedi (see p. 46), we are only presenting a self-test for the purpose of triggering a useful discussion within the discipline in terms of the relationship between teachers and learners.

3 Increase the proportion of real learning in your classroom instruction

Increasing the actual learning time while reducing the unproductive time is easily achievable and requires no further elaboration. The important thing is to periodically focus on this aspect. Meticulous teaching preparation with attention to seamless transitions is helpful for this reason, as discussed in the chapters that follow. See chapter 9 for especially useful suggestions in this regard.

4 Appeal to your students’ completely different motives

It is hardly useful to consider the students’ intrinsic motivations to learn as good, and the extrinsic one as problematic. Extrinsic motivation is unavoidable in a complex civilization: you will never just be doing what you want to do. It is rather problematic, however, to ascribe an effect, based exclusively on content-unrelated motives, such as rewards, obedience, and grades. If you, as the instructor, set high expectations and serve as a role model for the learners yourself, you are within the area of extrinsic motivation. This is also the case if you produce cognitive conflicts – that is, situations in which students’ acquired knowledge clashes with new knowledge, and the learners are unable to explain a phenomenon based on their current knowledge.

The intrinsic motivations which can be addressed are highly varied and different depending on the student. However, the following motivations apply to most of students: enjoying the challenge, curiosity, imagination, as well as a need for control or prestige, etc.

For a useful, deeper analysis of the theoretical foundations of motivation and possibilities of action, see Emotion, Motivation und selbstreguliertes Lernen (Emotion, motivation and self-regulated learning) by Thomas Götz.23 Under the rubric motivation, we have also subsumed the conviction of self-efficacy, Under the category ‘motivation’ we have also subsumed the convictions of self-effectiveness, that is the subjective conviction of being able to cope with new requirements on your own. Strengthening the self-efficiency of students is one of the most important tasks of teachers. Three powerful strategies are available for this.24 Self-effectiveness improves the most when the students overcome difficulties on their own while being aware that they have achieved the feat themselves. The second most important factor is human models, for instance classmates, who are within reach and who master difficulties (e.g. math problems); this point indicates the importance of peers. In third place, there is the encouragement by the teacher – not just in the sense of “You know this!” but in the sense of “Try it, I will help you if you get stuck!” (see chapters 3 and 8).

5 Place challenging performance expectations on your students

Challenging performance expectations must be explicitly stated to the students. For instance, the demands could be formulated as follows in language classes: clearly and correctly articulated pronunciation, use of appropriate words when speaking, giving a short presentation speech based on key words, grammar and spelling when writing, etc. If the students lack confidence, it is not advisable to reduce the demands too quickly, as a reduction of requirements would suggest the unspoken message that one lacks confidence in the learners’ abilities. An under-challenging situation appears more problematic than an overchallenge. In the context of learning expectations, it is also very important to refrain from quick praise or heaping praise on students; not every minor performance should be acknowledged with “very good!”. Only a performance that corresponds to the prerequisites of the learner or learners should be acknowledged with “good” or “very good”. Moreover, there are many nuances such as “the beginning is promising, keep on trying!” etc.

6 Observe clarity in content and structure

Clarity in content and structure derives from professional lesson planning, as described in detail in chapter 9. Furthermore, there are other specific tips in chapter 2 and in the following explanations concerning the “rhythmization” and articulation of lessons.

7 Make learning easier for your students through “rhythmization” and clear articulation

The start and end of a lesson are without doubt very important in the context of the rhythmization of teaching. The lesson beginnings have a diverse function. Knowing this function helps with planning and starting the lesson in the most appropriate way. It is a matter of:

–providing the learners with information about the material and subject at hand

–generating learner interest, producing a certain tension

–posing a question

–producing a sense of responsibility for the ongoing lesson

–establishing attentiveness and concentration

–linking elements from previous lessons with the topic of the current session

–ensuring that the topic enters and broadens the students’ horizons.

The function of the lesson end is to render the learned material visible in a brief review. First and foremost, the end of the lessons must be planned in such a manner that the most important content or the homework assignments will not have to be squeezed in at the ring of the bell.

For the articulation of an entire lesson, Grell and Grell25 suggest nine phases, which are normally applicable for any subject:

•Phase 0: direct preparation: everything that will be used for teaching the lesson (material, technology, etc.) is prepared before the lesson

•Phase 1: relaxed atmosphere: so-called “positive reciprocal affects” should be emitted, that is positive impulses of the teacher which will very likely receive a positive feedback from the learners (see chapter 2, p. 63, 68).

•Phase 2: informational lesson beginning: the learners are informed about the goals and the course of the lesson

•Phase 3: informational input: the necessary content information is provided, often in form of a short presentation

•Phase 4: (assigning) learn tasks: the students’ assigned task is to independently perform an assignment within a definite time frame

•Phase 5: The learners work on the learning tasks independently, alone or in groups.

•Phase 6: transition phase: some time is allowed for finishing the learning assignment and concentrating again wholly on the class

•Phase 7: feedback and continued work on the project: the results of the assigned learning tasks are presented and/or discussed

•Phase 8: evaluation: review of the lesson and the learned material

If learning processes are planned while observing the above referenced phases, it can be assumed that the students actively engage with the educational contents and that the proportion of actual learning time is high.

Hans Aebli has developed the following articulation (known under the German acronym PADUA), which is equally applicable for all areas of teaching. The approximate English equivalent would read PSWPA:

8 Variation and method variety – use them to improve the learning success of your students

The following seven chapters of this book present entirely different teaching and learning arrangements, allowing the instructors to pursue a rich variety of teaching approaches and to avoid a didactic monoculture. These concepts are graphically represented at the beginning of each chapter with the two coordinates of instructional versus explorative and teacher-guided versus student-determined located on a plane.

It should be noted that according to the MARKUS26 study it is not a maximum of method variety but an optimum that achieves the best results. According to this research study, those classes performed better which, besides direct instruction (lecture format), were exposed to three additional teaching and learning arrangements that were noticeably and not just selectively practiced. Pure frontal teaching as well as a teaching approach with excessively many forms of instruction were less successful. A median number of primarily applied methods therefore appears right. That a certain teaching method is generally superior to another in terms of learning success cannot be empirically substantiated. Moreover, besides a fundamental variety of methods, the choice of methods should also be adapted to the skills and aptitudes which are important for the learners in their later life.

9 Student orientation and support – take your students and their concerns seriously

The characteristic of student orientation and student support emerges already in the remarks about learning atmosphere and classroom management. Institutionalized forms may reveal that both principles are indeed practiced: class council, letter box for anonymous student questions, communication booklet, gathering of student feedback, consultation hours, question time, etc.

10 Consider the heterogeneity of the class and plan individual promotion and support

School classes are very heterogenous; even if the learners were born in the same year, there are major differences in terms of the type of learning (speed, perception, commitment, language requirements, etc.). In her publication of practical advice Individualization and internal differentiation – but how?27 Marianne Walt mentions seven aspects of individualization which respond to heterogeneity issues. These seven aspects can be combined with one another depending on the necessity. The following graph can be used as a checklist for approaches to individualization. It should be ensured, however, that individualized teaching does not further student weaknesses; any reduction of requirements must be considered under the aspect that reduced requirements convey the implicit message that the student is not capable enough to do more.

11 No learning progress without consolidation and intelligent practice

It is important to practice often, but not for too long, in accordance with the learning level and with the support of the teacher, particularly concerning the techniques for learning and practicing. Contrary to the image, often created by teachers themselves, practicing can be fun, above all, when it is practiced voluntarily, when there is room for self-determination, when the success of practicing is easily recognized, and when there is interest in the subject matter. Practicing should affect various levels: the automaticity (e.g. mathematical algorithms), the increase in quality, and a deeper understanding (e.g. reading competence) and the level of transfers. Chapter 8 shows how the success of practicing can be checked.

12 Self-guided activity, learning tasks, and homework assignments: no learning without student activity

Self-activity implies that the learners work for a specified time alone, in pairs or in groups, without interruption and intervention by the instructor. Self-guided activities are possible in all subjects. The following chapters provide many different tips for self-guided activities.

The referenced text Rezept Lernaufgabe28 (learning task recipe) shows how self-guided activities can be built into almost any average teaching session: following an introductory assignment by the teacher, preceded by informational input as needed, the students work autonomously for at least 15 minutes. This is followed by a presentation of the results or a review of sorts, for example. The study of the corresponding chapters by Grell and Grell is rewarding for any instructor and offers helpful practical tips.

Homework assignments are a controversial form of self-activity. Since learners receive more or less help with homework assignments depending on their social background, homework assignments tend to accentuate the inequality of opportunity. An alternative, which many schools have adopted, consists of offering supervised homework hours. It is undisputed that through homework assignments the time of (autonomous) learning can be increased significantly. Correctly designed homework activities require that they are rich in variation, that they support the processing and preparing of the subject materials, that they complement the subject and do not cover a new subject. Homework assignments must be clearly defined and limited in terms of time, so that the students and their parents know how much time should be spent on it.29

How to set learning goals and define competences

Learning goals

Establishing goals for your teaching is considered a preparatory activity which must occur in the context of comprehensive, differentiated lesson planning. Goals cannot be set in an isolated fashion, independent of other considerations and planning steps (see chapter 9).

The formulation of objectives has been thoroughly analyzed by Robert F. Mager, an important proponent of curricular didactics (see p. 31), in his publication Lernziele und Unterricht30 (Learning objectives and teaching). According to Mager, appropriately formulated goals must first be able to articulate the aims of the lesson in a simple and comprehensible manner. This is important as the goals are logically communicated to the students – either orally or in writing. Precise terminology should be employed to render your stated objectives as clearly as possible. It is recommended to avoid such formulations as “the students know” or “the students understand” and to use more specific expressions instead, like “the students can … distinguish” or “the students can enumerate from memory”.

Furthermore, a precise description of goals allows you, as the instructor, to better review teaching success. To facilitate this assessment, you should incorporate the expected student activities during the lesson in the formulation of objectives as well as enumerate the criteria and level which you have determined as satisfactory.

Goal formulations ideally create a traceable connection of technical objectives on the one hand, and generic and social goals on the other hand. With instructional differentiation and individualization in mind, it is recommended to always distinguish between fundamental objectives and extended goals.

Competences

As already mentioned, competence orientation is currently an omnipresent catchwork in the field of classroom teaching research and education policy. However, “as […] currently only facets, building blocks, and preliminary considerations”31 exist for the theory of competence-oriented didactics, it is useful to follow a preliminary pragmatic proposal for a competence-oriented instruction as outlined by Andreas Feindt and Hilbert Meyer.

According to these two authors, competence-oriented instruction means placing student learning results at the center, and teaching with a goal that enables the learners not only to acquire knowledge, but to master specific challenging situations. As the instructor, you must orient yourself toward given, staged models of competence and develop or adopt a curriculum which allows students to develop in the direction of the formulated competences. Close monitoring of the students and a constantly recurring examination of their achievement level are necessary to be able to fully deploy such suitable teaching programs.32 Thus, the learning assignments are placed at the very center of competence-oriented instruction, whose development is not only the responsibility of the individual teacher but also of the didactic experts. The initial approaches in this direction are presented in the publication Kompetenzorientierter Unterricht auf der Sekundarstufe I33 (Competence-oriented instruction at the secondary level I).