Duration: 08:39
This video showcases authentic examples of teaching practices outlined in the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)’s Teaching for How Students Learn model of learning and teaching in 4 Australian schools.
Each example aligns with a consistent set of techniques teachers can use to organise knowledge, demonstrated in a range of learning areas and with students of varying ages. These techniques include:
- Encourage use of advance organisers
- Integrate visual and textual or visual and verbal representations
- Demonstrate, narrate and think-aloud
- Include examples and non-examples
- Connect familiar with unfamiliar content
- Build metacognitive knowledge.
You’ll also hear reflections and insights from teachers and students about how these techniques support learning.
We recommend watching this video after reviewing AERO’s Organise Knowledge practice guide. You don’t need to watch the video in one sitting – you can pause to reflect, take notes, discuss the content with colleagues or consider how it applies to your own practice. Viewing this video as part of a staff meeting or professional development session can help spark discussions and collaboration within your team.
Acknowledgements
AERO extends its gratitude to the teachers, students and families from these schools for their support and participation:
- Aveley Secondary College (WA)
- Briar Road Public School (NSW)
- Riverwood Public School (NSW)
- Serpentine Primary School (WA).
We would also like to thank Professor Lorraine Hammond, Dr Nathaniel Swain, members of AERO’s First Nations Expert Reference Group, and the teachers and school leaders who reviewed and provided feedback on these videos.
More information
You can find more information about this and related practices in:
- AERO’s Teaching for How Students Learn model of learning and teaching
- Organise Knowledge practice guide.
Transcript
[On-screen text] Organise knowledge: What it is:
- Applying a sequenced teaching and learning plan, building from concrete to abstract ideas and applications.
- Making meaningful connections between the intended learning objectives and students’ prior knowledge, skills and experiences.
- Providing an overview of the topic or content and explicitly teaching the components of the topic to then relate back to the overview.
- Creating opportunities for questions, sharing and testing knowledge, adjusting ideas and integrating new knowledge.
[On-screen text] This video demonstrates examples of the following techniques to organise knowledge:
- Encourage use of advance organisers
- Integrate visual and textual or visual and verbal representations
- Demonstrate, narrate and think-aloud
- Include examples and non-examples
- Connect familiar with unfamiliar content
- Build metacognitive knowledge
Chloe Howard, Year 11 science teacher, Aveley Secondary College: During instruction, the strategies I use to help my students organise information typically come from graphic organisers.
[On-screen text] Encourage the use of advance organisers
Chloe Howard: When it's declarative knowledge, it's really important that I prompt them to tease out the keyword in the question and get them to think about what is that question actually asking. And then from there, that typically can be associated with a way to structure their answer. It can be very easy to lose sight of why we're learning what we're learning. So, particularly with Year 11 and 12 ATAR [Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank], we always refer to the syllabus. But in terms of real-world learning, it's those little memorable experiences in class, I find, in terms of memory retention, really go a long way. And with human biology assessments, terminology is typically where the marks are – the marks are coming from.
[On-screen text] Connect familiar with unfamiliar content
Chloe Howard: So if I can give them some way to remember those things – like cavity being the space in the teeth, but when cavity is also applying to embryonic development – if that's a little link that I can make for them, and it helps them be more successful in their answers. Those sort of graphic organisers – Venn diagrams, okay, flow charts – are really, really great ways for students to digest particularly large or quite complex concepts. So it's a little bit more digestible and a little bit more manageable at their level.
Okay. That is going to become the embryo, which then becomes the fetus, then becomes the baby. So could you please, on your whiteboards, construct a labelled and annotated diagram of a blastocyst. So, on your whiteboards, you are constructing a diagram.
[On-screen text] Integrate visual and textual representations
Chloe Howard: It must be labelled with names. And annotate it. If you would like to annotate descriptions, you may. So thinking about the structure of those 3 features of your blastocyst.
Tim Shaw, Assistant Principal, Year 5/6 teacher, Riverwood Public School:
[On-screen text] KLAs = key learning areas
Tim Shaw: I think vocabulary is extremely important when you are looking at KLAs and, you know, integrating it between your different subjects as well. Because you're wanting to give them multiple opportunities to be able to connect the learning together, and for them to have a really deep understanding of what those words actually mean and how they can use it in further lessons as well.
[On-screen text] Demonstrate, narrate and think-aloud
Tim Shaw: What are some reasons why timber plantations are one of the largest manufacturing industries? Well, we can link it back to in our text. Okay?
[On-screen text] The teacher is prompting students to connect this writing task with content from another learning area
Tim Shaw: And in our text, it said that it employs 80,000 people. Okay? And it creates things such as paper. All right? We could be making furniture. We could also link it back to one of our 6 key principles. Okay? So, I would like for you to have a think. We need to give a reason as to why it is one of the largest manufacturing industries within Australia. When you have come up with a reason, show me that you have got your reason.
[On-screen text] Include examples and non-examples
Tim Shaw: Why are some practices not sustainable? Okay? Why is these practices on these farms not sustainable? Have a think.
[On-screen text] In another learning area, students are drawing on their knowledge to develop a deeper understanding of sustainability
Tim Shaw: And when you've got your thought, capture it. All right. Pair-share, go.
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Lauren Vickery, Year 3/4 teacher, Riverwood Public School: I help students to organise their knowledge by giving them a really clear, step-by-step definition of how to solve a problem, so they can organise their knowledge sequentially. I also give them examples and non-examples. Especially if we've learned lessons like perpendicular lines versus parallel lines, I might give them 2 different ones and they can compare and contrast to learning that they might have done in other lessons.
[On-screen text] Demonstrate, narrate and think aloud (Procedural steps)
Lauren Vickery: Now, I know when I see the word ‘some’, I'm going to be using addition. So let's have a look at my place value discs over here. Whenever we are adding using place value, I always start in the ones place. Where do I always start? In the …
Lauren Vickery and class: Ones place.
Lauren Vickery: So my first step is to add the ones. What is my first step?
Lauren Vickery and class: Add the ones.
Lauren Vickery: I have 1 one in my first number, 2 ones in my second number. So 1 one + 2 ones = …
Lauren Vickery and class: 3 ones.
Lauren Vickery: I can show that in my algorithm as well: 1 one + 2 ones = …
Lauren Vickery and class: 3 ones.
Lauren Vickery: Okay. Have a think. What was my first step? Turn and face your partner. Partner A to a Partner B, what was my first step?
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Loren Sorgiovanni, Year 11 mathematics teacher, Aveley Secondary College: So I relate what students are learning to a whole topic in way of daily review and activate prior knowledge as well. And so, when they start their daily review, in this case, it was on rates, which is something that links closely to unit pricing. So they adjust loan rates. They review that as part of the lesson.
[On-screen text] Connect familiar with unfamiliar content
Loren Sorgiovanni: And then when we go into our activate prior knowledge, it's usually a skill that they have recently learned or that is just prior knowledge that's useful for their information in that lesson. So they know that it relates closely to rates. Then they can kind of make that connection to rates and unit pricing.
So, A, we've got 30 seconds into 5 minutes. So we need to change these to the same unit. If I changed 5 minutes into seconds, how many seconds would I get, please? We've got someone absent. Can I please get Fernie?
Student: 1 to 10.
Loren Sorgiovanni: 1 to 10, beautiful. Is that your final answer? How many minutes were in 5 – sorry, how many seconds were in 5 minutes, though?
Student: 300.
Loren Sorgiovanni: 300. So we've got 30 to 300 and then we simplify that to 1 to 10. Thank you so much.
Penny Blomfield, Year 3 teacher, Serpentine Primary School: This lesson on animal adaptations fits within the broader context of a knowledge unit on climate zones.
[On-screen text] Connect familiar with unfamiliar content
Penny Blomfield: I really like to take the information that they are gaining and try and attach that to something that they already know, to provide a bit more sticky learning.
[On-screen text] Build metacognitive knowledge
Penny Blomfield: All right, guys, can you grab your red pencils out for me, please? Let's have a look at our answers. Remember, what we're doing is we're turning on the knowledge that we've already learned. This is stuff we already know, so we're just refreshing ourselves before we learn about our new topic today.
Okay, climate zones and characteristics. You should have put a line from one climate zone to one characteristic on your page. Let's see how we go. ‘Polar zone: freezing temperatures day and night.’ Tick it if you've got it correct. Beautiful. ‘Mediterranean zone’, let's have a look: ‘Warm, dry summers; cool, mild winters’. Mrs Blomfield's holiday destination. Okay. ‘Arid zone,’ Sadie, what did you get? ‘Arid zone,’ where did you put it?
Student: I put it at ‘very hot during the day and cold at night’.
Penny Blomfield: Right, show of hands, who else chose that one? Oh, superstars, good job.
When we're learning a new topic, we have lots of reading.
[On-screen text] Connect familiar with unfamiliar content
Penny Blomfield: We read together as a class, and we learn as much as we can. We start with the explicit facts of the topic, and then we move into a more real-life scenario. So, I will refer to something in the children's life that they can then call on, and just to anchor that knowledge a bit further for them.
[On-screen text] Connect familiar with unfamiliar content
Penny Blomfield: So, just – you know that feeling you get? It's the middle of summer. You're out on the oval. You're playing, and you're so – you’re so thirsty. And you get back to your bag, and your water bottle’s not there. Remember that feeling, that really dry feeling? Oh, my goodness, that's the worst feeling. It makes you feel quite sick sometimes. So, that's why we take our water bottles outside, isn't it? Out into our – our school bag. So we don't get that awful, thirsty, dehydrated feeling. Camels don't get to carry a water bottle, do they? Could you imagine a camel holding a water bottle in his side?
Class: [Laughing.]
Keywords: student learning, science of learning, teaching practices