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Session 2 – Explanations and modelling

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Session overview:

Explanations and modelling are important scaffolds that build pupil learning and therefore it is important you use them effectively.

To support you to do this, in this session you will explore:

Gradually build knowledge
Explanations and modelling – why are they so important?

Using think aloud
Modelling cognition and metacognition

Approximate session length: 65 minutes

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Gradually build knowledge

When you first introduce new material, pupils need a large amount of support and guidance to understand the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the material you are teaching them.

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Start with the lesson objective

When planning your instruction, it is important that you begin by establishing what the lesson objective is. Once you know this, you can identify what the pupils will need to know, or be able to do, in order to achieve the lesson objective.

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Gradually increase pupil independence

The process of gradually increasing pupil independence throughout a lesson can be broken down as follows:

Teacher input
Guided practice
Independent practice

The process of gradually increasing pupil independence throughout a lesson can be broken down as follows:

Teacher input

This occurs when new material is first being introduced. It involves the teacher informing, explaining, modelling and providing examples without pupil input. This is where you might use worked examples to outline the steps of a procedure to pupils.

The reason this is teacher-led without pupil input is because when new material is being introduced, pupils are novices and therefore are unlikely to have the appropriate knowledge to contribute to the process at this stage.

Guided practice

This involves the teacher and pupils doing a task together. This is where you begin to gradually release the responsibility to your pupils. It involves you completing parts of the process and asking pupils to contribute to the incomplete parts. Here you might use partially completed examples to gradually build pupil independence.

Independent practice

This is the stage where pupils practise new material without adult support. When first setting up independent practice, you may still provide tasks that scaffold pupils’ learning but over time these should be removed to allow pupils to work entirely independently. Rosenshine (2012) recognises that this is vital for pupils to become fluent or automatic in information retrieval or completing a procedure. During this stage, the teacher monitors pupil practice to identify and address misconceptions to individual pupils or the whole class. They also encourage pupils to use metacognitive strategies to monitor their own learning and develop their ability to self-regulate.

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Reflection

Key messages about the process:

Build pupil independence as a continuum.

The stages/phases won’t occur in a linear fashion.

Each stage/phase is linked and should build on each other.

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�Explanations and modelling – why are they so important?�

Explanations are used to introduce new material to pupils in small sequential steps, which you will have already explored in module two. During an explanation, the teacher will talk through the new material and ask pupils lots of questions to check their understanding.

Modelling accompanies an explanation to show pupils how to approach or complete a task. Modelling is vital during teacher explanations because it shows pupils how to do something well. Making this explicit through modelling supports pupils’ understanding and builds their mental model of what ‘good’ looks like.

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Activity

Listen to Claire Stoneman talk about explanations and modelling and consider the following questions. Record your response in your notepad.

What is the purpose of explanations?
Why are explanations important?
What makes explanations effective?
Why is modelling important?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ue8YBd-vsA&feature=emb_title

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Using examples

I use concrete examples to model abstract ideas by showing a real-world example that demonstrates the abstract concept. Abstract ideas can be vague and hard to grasp – solidifying an explanation using real-life examples makes it easier for pupils to understand and remember.
For example, when teaching the coastal processes of erosion and deposition, I explained these abstract terms to pupils by teaching their definitions and exploring how they are different to each other.
I then developed pupils’ understanding of these abstract terms and unfamiliar vocabulary within their definitions using concrete examples, which in this case was coastal landforms. In geography, using a photograph of a coastal landform such as a wave cut notch (show image) or a spit (show image) to demonstrate what is involved in the process of erosion and deposition strengthens pupils’ understanding as it gives them a chance to apply their new knowledge of the process to a real-life example. In geography this is often thorough a case study or photograph.
When using concrete examples, I ensure I present pupils with a wide variety to prevent them from developing a narrow understanding of the term in which misconceptions can easily arise. For example, if I only showed pupils one coastal landform where erosion had taken place, they may incorrectly think that erosion was defined only by that one coastal landform when in fact erosion can be generalised to many other landforms.
After I explained the concept using concrete examples, I checked pupils’ understanding by presenting them with another landform and asking them whether it was created by erosion or deposition. I knew pupils understood the abstract concepts ‘erosion’ and ‘deposition’ when they were able to correctly identify it in unfamiliar examples.

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Using non-examples

Non-examples are the opposite of examples. We use examples in our teaching to show a real-world example of an abstract concept we are teaching – this is a fundamental tool in many subjects. Where examples provide an instance of similarity, non-examples provide an instance of contrast.
Non-examples are important in teaching as they are another tool which can be used to allow pupils to develop their understanding. Being able to explain why something is not a correct example is as important as knowing the correct examples.
When I teach how coastal landforms have been created, I teach pupils about coastal landforms that have been formed through the process of erosion, and coastal landforms which have been formed through the process of deposition. When pupils explain how features of coastal landforms have been made, a good answer will refer to the process involved, rather than just a sequence of what happens.

To help pupils identify the difference between the two processes, I use a non-example.

I might do this by saying:

“A spit is a non-example of an erosional coastal feature.”

And then I might explain why to pupils or ask them to explain why to me.

This is a good non-example as some of its features are correct:

- it is a coastal feature and

- initially erosion has contributed to it

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Using non-examples

Non-examples are a great way to show what something isn’t; therefore, they are an effective way of exposing potential pitfalls and explaining how to avoid them. Listen to Elizabeth Arkle talk about when she has used a non-example to develop pupils’ reasoning skills by encouraging them to identify and explain common misconceptions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G7Z-WVqvnE&feature=emb_title

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Modelling

Rosenshine (2012) found that the most effective teachers guided pupils’ practice for longer during teaching instruction, using modelling and scaffolds. This ensured pupils were confident and able to work independently later in their learning.

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Using ‘Think Aloud’

‘Think Aloud’ is a form of live modelling which makes the implicit process of completing a task explicit.

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Trainee retrieval practice

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Modelling cognition using ‘Think Aloud’

Modelling cognition

In simple terms, cognition is the thinking you do when completing a task. Teachers can model their thinking about their knowledge to demonstrate how to draw on cognitive strategies when completing a task.

This is an example of a teacher using ‘Think Aloud’ to model their cognitive process by engaging their prior knowledge when performing a forward roll safely in PE. This has been taken from the Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning Guidance Report (EEF, 2017):

In this example, the teacher has broken down completing a forward roll into constituent components (outlined above) and is narrating the important points pupils need to consider at each stage. Without this narration, the pupils might not know how to break the task down or how to replicate the roll safely and successfully.

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Modelling metacognition using ‘Think Aloud’

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Modelling metacognition using ‘Think Aloud’

In this example, the teacher has broken down planning how to approach answering an essay question into constituent components and is narrating their metacognitive thoughts to make these explicit to pupils.

Later in this process, the teacher might model thought processes which demonstrate them monitoring how effective their strategy is and evaluating their strategy such as:

Monitoring:

Has my plan enabled me to answer the question effectively?

Is my opinion clear enough?

Have I ensured I have included enough detail in each paragraph to clearly explain my point?

Am I rereading what I have written to ensure the information makes sense and links back to the question?

Evaluating:

Did my plan provide me with enough detail to include in my essay?

How could I enhance my planning to ensure I include more detail next time?

Would using my notes from previous lessons help me in the planning stage?

How successful was I at staying focused on answering the question when writing my essay? What could I do next time to support me with this?

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Making ‘Think Aloud’ successful

Starting narration at the point of pupil understanding

When talking through your thinking, it is important that you consider what the pupils’ prior knowledge is.

Focus the narration around key teaching points

What you say is very important and should be carefully planned out.

Starting narration at the point of pupil understanding

When talking through your thinking, it is important that you consider what the pupils’ prior knowledge is. For example, if pupils have never seen a forward roll before, the teacher would need to demonstrate this first so pupils could attach the teacher’s narrated cognition to something concrete. If they don’t know what a forward roll is, the rest of the narration is less meaningful.

Focus the narration around key teaching points

What you say is very important and should be carefully planned out. The narration should be focused around the objectives or key teaching points that you want pupils to focus on. If you narrate everything you are thinking, this could cognitively overload pupils, preventing them from following the key features you want them to learn or consider themselves.

The EEF (2017) highlights that modelling of this type is often not planned into explanations because the thinking processes occur ‘naturally’ to the expert (teacher), which is a risk because such thought processes are vital for breaking down a task so that it can be better understood or completed successfully.

To move from novice to expert, pupils need to know how an expert habitually thinks and acts (EEF, 2017). By modelling these thought processes, you make the implicit or hidden parts of a process explicit and exposed, helping to build the novice’s mental model of what they should be doing in similar situations.

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Activity

Example 1:

“I want to describe what the emperor penguin looks like. How will I start my sentence? Hmm, I’ll start with ‘The’ – as it’s the beginning of a sentence I must use a capital letter” (teacher scribes as they speak) “emperor penguin – now I am going to describe its colour – has black feathers down his back. Hold on, I can make that better by using two adjectives to describe the feathers – has glossy, black feathers down his back – I must remember to separate two adjectives in a list with a comma,” (teacher inserts comma). “Now I might extend the sentence using the conjunction ‘and’ – and snowy, white feathers covering its front. Let’s check, have I used two adjectives together to improve my description?” (Teacher models re-reading sentence to check it makes sense and to check for the use of adjectives).

Example 2:

“I want to describe what the emperor penguin looks like. How will I start my sentence? Hmm, I’ll start with ‘The’” (teacher scribes as they speak) – “The emperor penguin has black feathers down his back. Hold on, I can make that better – has glossy, black feathers down his back – I must remember to use a comma,” (teacher inserts comma). “Now I might extend the sentence – and snowy, white feathers covering its front. Let’s check my work.” (Teacher models re-reading sentence to check it makes sense and to check for the use of adjectives).

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‘Think Aloud’ in action�

Watch the video below and answer the following questions in your notepad:

What did the teacher focus their narration on and why do you think this was?
How might this impact pupils’ learning?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Hv6XzIShU&feature=emb_title

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Activity

Think ahead to the lesson that you will be teaching and spend the next 15 minutes scripting what you will say whilst using ‘Think Aloud’ to model. Remember, to ensure ‘Think Aloud’ is successful you should ensure narration:

is linked to key teaching points
considers pupils prior knowledge
models using key terminology