Wes Akers

Many veteran teachers struggle to break free from old habits they thought were successful teaching strategies but have been proven wrong by research.  One of my coworkers, Jane, struggles with this problem.  In her 15+ year career, Jane has relied heavily on lecture and teacher talk as a key component of her teaching model and practice.  In her previous teaching position, Jane taught second grade and she thought her teaching model worked well because her students reading and writing skills improved and they exhibited compliant behavior.  Now as a sixth grade teacher, Jane is struggling with classroom management and engaging the students in partner or independent work.  Students are off-task, disrespectful, and unproductive.  This has been her most difficult year of her teaching career and it is largely a result of her talking too much.

Stephen Brookfield would first ask Jane if she has asked students how they are experiencing her teaching style and classroom.   He would discover she has not and he would ask Jane to consider her students’ classroom experiences.  How do they perceive her teaching style?  He would ask Jane to imagine herself as a student in her classroom.  He would then help Jane create a Critical Incident Questionnaire or something similar that is developmentally appropriate for Jane’s students. Brookfield would rely heavily on the student responses to shape the instructional shifts Jane needs to make in her practice.

Brookfield would insist Jane restructure her approach to lecture using the characteristics and strategies on pages 102 – 113.  Since she talks too much, Brookfield would encourage Jane to use her talk time more productively by modeling the skills or behaviors she wants students to acquire. Brookfield would inform Jane that teacher talk time is valuable because students will not sustain attention when they do not see value in her words.  By focusing her words on modeling skills or behaviors, Jane will be able to maintain students’ attention by being explicit, direct, and concise.  Also, Jane needs to show students how they will use her model in their learning.  She can do this by providing an agenda or outline of the class to demonstrate how her model connects to upcoming discussions or assignments.

By talking too much, one of Jane’s greatest problems is she does not allow for enough wait time when questioning students.  Jane asks a question and when she doesn’t get a quick response, she rephrases the question repeatedly or answers it herself.  Students begin to tune her out and stop thinking about her questions.  Brookfield would require her to introduce more moments of deliberate silence.  He would probably require her to count X number of seconds in her head before talking again or set a timer for longer periods of silence because Jane needs to retrain herself in order to modify her teaching behaviors to allow for more wait time.

Brookfield would also suggest Jane needs to build more structured student talk time into her lectures.  He would probably suggest using buzz groups initially because students can answer Jane’s questions in small groups like pairs or triads.  Brookfield would prefer smaller groups initially because they are easier to manage in a classroom.  Once Jane has built confidence and established consistent discussion routines, Brookfield would require her to start to integrate larger discussion groups into longer periods of student talk time.  He would most likely start with the strategies he describes as circle of voices or circular response.  These would be his suggestions because each strategy has a specific routine for discussion.  This would help Jane manage her students’ behavior while they are working in larger groups.  Brookfield would also require Jane to assign discussion roles for the same reason.  Jane needs her discussion groups to be very structured in order to keep students focused and engaged.  Every student needs a conversational role so they know what to do and how to behave in the group.

Brookfield’s suggestions would help Jane have a more successful school year and career.  As students change and new developmental stages emerge, teachers need to make instructional shifts to meet the needs of their learners.  Jane would find herself building more positive relationships with students.  She would also find herself spending less time redirecting misbehavior and more time engaging in thought provoking discussions with students.  Brookfield’s hope for Jane is that she is able to maintain a reflective and student centered approach to teaching and learning.