Teaching practices are a lot like tools: the best one depends on the job you are trying to accomplish. For example, research assignments can be effective in helping students hone their skills in gathering and analyzing evidence. But hands-on experiments are a valuable way to ground newly acquired knowledge in experience. Internships in the community can fire up students’ passion for learning by involving them in crafting contextual experiences that are personally meaningful. But those experiences are even more powerful when students use them to apply an understanding of core content gained in the classroom. To focus on powerful teaching is to draw from a rich set of instructional opportunities that challenges and supports all students to achieve at high levels, and that helps students learn how to learn.

Schools that focus on powerful teaching and learning move away from conventional practices that position the teacher as expert and toward reform-like practices that give students meaningful responsibilities in shaping their education. Schools that make this transition do so by making students’ interests, personal experiences and prior learning the context for in-depth study of core academic concepts, and by requiring products and performances that demonstrate habits of mind (weighing of evidence, considering alternative view points, seeing connections and relationships, speculating on possibilities, and assessing social and personal value).

The structure and culture of small schools provides advantages for focusing on powerful teaching and learning. With the autonomy to create variable schedules, structure teacher collaboration and provide personalized learning in a personalized environment, small schools have greater opportunity to engage all students in an integrated and rigorous course of study.Additionally, these schools provide professional development opportunities for teachers to gain and improve their reform-like instructional strategies.

What are essential elements for focusing on powerful teaching and learning?

• Active Inquiry. Students are engaged as active participants in researching and exploring knowledge and skills. Activities inside and outside of the classroom draw out students’ opinions and perceptions, and ask them to reflect on what they are learning and why it is relevant to their lives today and in the future. Students are not told what to think and understand, but are guided to decide how best to master and apply core content. Effective teachers draw from students’ diverse experiences and work with them to structure learning that is both rigorous and relevant. The result is the elevation of critical thinking and achievement for all students at all levels. Some approaches to active inquiry include project-based learning, internships, and community-based and service learning.
  
  
• In-depth learning. The focus is competence, not coverage. Students struggle with complex problems, explore core concepts to develop deep understanding and apply knowledge in real world contexts. In-depth learning is the foundation for creating an academically rigorous program.
  
  
• Authentic learning.  Authentic pedagogy is instruction focused on active learning in real-world contexts. For example:
  
  • Project-based learning. Project-based learning engages students in learning knowledge and skills through a project that is structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks. The nature and duration of projects vary. Students can do projects alone or in groups, based on a single or interdisciplinary topic. Despite any specific differences, all effective projects recognize the ability of students to do important work, engage in the central concepts of academic disciplines, build a range of personal and professional skills, and use performance-based assessments. 
    
    
  • Community-based or service learning. Community-based or service learning provides opportunities for students to respond to a community-identified need. Activities in the community are coordinated with academics, allowing students to use practical applications of their learning to both enhance their understanding of content as well as serve the public.
    
    
  • Internships. Internships place students in the workplace or in the community to work closely with adult mentors to complete a project or solve a problem. Internships vary in length and can last from a few weeks to years. Expectations for students’ performance are high; interns are held to the same industry or community standards as adults. Students reflect on their internship experience through writing and the public presentation of final products.
    
    
  Authentic learning experiences allow students to explore their interests and goals in the world outside of home and school. Such experiences challenge students to produce work that meets real-world standards of excellence, and reflect on, write about and publicly present their ideas. Authentic pedagogy challenges students to put themselves at the center of their learning and take charge of it.
  
  
• Clearly stated outcomes. Clear expectations define what students should know and be able to do. Students produce quality work products and present to real audiences. Students’ work is evidence of their understanding, not just recall. Assessment tasks allow students to exhibit higher order thinking and teachers and students set learning goals and monitor progress. Rubrics, exhibitions and portfolios are examples of authentic assessments that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. To be most effective, authentic assessments should be collaboratively designed by staff, students, parents and community members, and documented in a way that is understandable by all.
  
  
• Scaffolding. When constructing a building, workers use scaffolds as temporary structures to support them while they complete jobs that would otherwise be impossible. Instructional scaffolding, named for its practical resemblance to physical scaffolds, collaboratively engages students in tasks that would be too difficult for them to complete on their own. The process begins with an assessment of students’ existing skills. The teacher must be knowledgeable of content and sensitive to the students' background knowledge to assist the students in progressing from what they know and can do now to the next level of learning, and assess progress over time. Working collaboratively, students and teachers establish instructional goals and methods for assessing outcomes. The teacher initially provides extensive instructional support (or scaffolding) tailored to each student. This support may include cueing or prompting, questioning, modeling, telling, discussing and feedback on progress.
  
  Gradually, students internalize the content and process, and are able to assume full responsibility for controlling the progress of a given task. The temporary support provided by the teacher is withdrawn as students construct permanent skills and knowledge. What, if any, scaffolds are used depends on the individual student’s prior learning, and his or her ability to learn and apply new concepts. Scaffolds can be re-introduced whenever students need helping bridging the gap between what they know and can do and mastering more complex knowledge and tasks.

Review this element on the Oregon Small Schools Initiative School Change Rubric Self-Assessment Tool.

This text is based on Oregon Small Schools Initiative fieldwork and the synthesis of ideas from the following source(s):

Benjamin, Amy. (2002). Differentiated Instruction: A Guide for Middle and High School Teachers. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education, Inc. Avaialble: Click Here

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Making the Case for Small Schools. Seattle, WA: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Available: Click Here

Donovan, Suzanne, Bransford, J. & and Pellegrino, J., eds. (1999). Key Findings. In How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.  Available: Click Here

Lange, Verna. (2002). Instructional Scaffolding. A paper prepared for New York City Teaching Fellows. Available: Click Here