What the students actually do ...

The essence of the IB document Approaches to teaching and learning (2015) is that it sets out to define how IB courses should be taught - as opposed to the Subject Guides which define (principally but not exclusively) what should be taught, and how this should be assessed.

All teaching involves the teacher organising the general activity of the class, and this will involve setting the students specific tasks. At the most ... what shall we say ... primitive level this means "Shut up and listen!" It seems evident that the more sophisticated the teaching approach, the more interactive the general activities involved, the wider the range of tasks proposed to the students - and the more precisely the task chosen is related to helping the student grasp, absorb and take command of what is being taught. What students do must have a close relationship with how they think.

This area of the site is intended to review, assess and develop these general activities and specific tasks, as comprehensively as possible, over time.

Structure

This section of the site, accordingly, contains :-

ATLs - core ... about Approaches to teaching and learning as a whole, reviewing the general approach proposed.

ATLs - applications ​... summarises and comments on the pedagogical principles underlying the ATLs; as well as the further guidance in five specific teaching areas.

Following headings address the five fundamental elements of teaching and learning proposed in the document, which may be summarised thus:-

Thinking ...Thinking skills - ways of teaching the ability to think critically, creatively - and reflectively

Research ​ ... or "...advanced information literacy capabilities..." as the document ringingly puts it

Communication ​ ... skills of communication - which is what English B is all about, all the time, surely?

Social skills ​ ... not just the social skills involved in language inherently, but also working together cooperatively

Self management ​ ... in two areas: Organisation skills (e.g. planning), and Affective skills (e.g. self motivation)

(You might notice that I have slightly re-ordered the list, compared with the original: I have put 'Research skills' to follow 'Thinking skills' ... because, frankly, I think they fit together better that way!)

Two overview sections are provided :-

Tasks & activities ... Within the overall framework of an activity, tasks are what students actually do at each stage of the process. Such tasks require students to practise specific skills of thinking - skills which students will probably do naturally, but may not use deliberately or methodically (such as summarising, ranking by priority, or using analogy).

Computer Verbs ... Information technology has changed, and is changing, the way that teaching functions - and provides new options for the way that various activities and tasks can be carried out. Using computers in the language classroom means that students can be encouraged to practise using IT to think more actively. Essentially, this means exploring new ways of researching, editing, and presenting ideas.

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Selected Pages