| How do you ensure students understand what is expected from them? |
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Research taster
Teachers working with ICT are drawn to student centred approaches with more open objectives than teachers working with traditional resources. These approaches can have empowering effects for students, for example in one project teachers found they helped students to develop their confidence in designing a holiday brochure combining text and pictures. 
Your evidence
Cold you consider how effectively you use open objectives in your lessons, and the extent to which students understand what is expected of them. Having taught a lesson with an open learning objective, like ‘design a poster for the school show’, select a small group of children – you could ask them some or all of the following: • What was the lesson mainly about? • What did they think that they were supposed to be learning? • Do they see any connections with other work that they have done in the same subject? • Do they see any connections with work that they have done in other subjects? • Did they enjoy the lesson? (Adapted from Reflective Activity no. 9-2c on the Reflective Teaching website at: http://www.rtweb.info/ch09/ra9-2c.html) Moving forward Now you have collected evidence about how students understand the focus of a lesson you may like review what the students have said and look for any inconsistencies to ensure you and the students get maximum benefit from the open ended approach. Do all students understand what the lesson was about and how it connects with their other work? Perhaps you could work with your colleagues to plan how to support the students who are struggling to understand? Could you break down the learning objective into component parts that may be easier to understand?  Find out more The full project is InterActive Education: teaching and learning in the information age set out to answer a big question lead by Prof. Rosamund Sutherland, Prof. Susan Robertson, and Prof. Peter John. The project website is at: http://www.interactiveeducation.ac.uk/ Find out more by reading a TRIPS digest about ways in which pupils help teachers to improve teaching and learning at: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/themes/pupil_voice/comfortable/ |
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