Best Practices of the
Essential Elements of Instruction
Critical Elements – Evidence of all elements must be present during instruction in order to be considered standards based instruction.
- Teach to the Objective
- Correct Level of Difficulty
- Monitor and Adjust
- Motivation
- Active Participation
- Retention
- Transfer
- Anticipatory Set
- Closure
Teach to an Objective – The ability of the teacher to formulate an objective before instruction and to develop relevant teacher actions to use during instruction.
Formulate an Objective
- The ability of the teacher to identify the goals of the lesson.
Relevant/Congruent Teacher Actions
- Actions selected by the teacher which are congruent to the learning objective and assist the learner in acquiring the new learning.
- Teacher behaviors that promote the accomplishment of the intended goal.
- Teacher actions that promote student behavior to reach a goal.
Correct Level of Difficulty – The ability of the teacher to identify the incremental steps of the learning, diagnose where the student is in relationship to the learning, and begin teaching at the next step.
Task Analysis
- The process the teacher uses to identify increments of learning that accomplish the objective.
- Identify sequential, logical steps that lead the learner toward the objective.
- The breakdown of the learning into its essential parts.
- A process that identifies subsets or increments of learning that lead to the accomplishment of an objective.
Diagnostic Activities
- Pre-instructional tasks used to determine what students already know, need to know, and possibly how they might best learn the objective.
- Pre-instructional activities which assess incremental step of learners.
- Pre-instructional diagnosis to determine current level of understanding and/or knowledge.
- Methods for examining student understanding to determine the appropriate instructional level.
Monitor and Adjust – The ability of the teacher to elicit feedback from the learner and make decisions to act upon that feedback.
Monitor– Elicit and Check
- Ongoing observation of student understanding of the lesson.
- Process of eliciting feedback during instruction which enables the teacher to check student understanding.
- Process where the teacher elicits an observable student response and checks for understanding to ensure incremental learning.
- Teacher observations of student performance which indicate progress toward the objective.
Adjust – Interpret and Act
- Teacher ability to alter instruction based on student response.
- A process of interpreting student response and acting on the interpretation.
Motivation – The ability of the learner to maintain focus on the task with intent to learn.
Feeling Tone
- Learner perceives classroom atmosphere and interaction.
- Climate of the classroom as perceived by each student over a period of time.
- Student’s emotional response to the learning environment.
- Attitude of the learner toward the learning environment.
Level of Concern
- Tension or anxiety just beyond the comfort level of learner.
- Level of tension just above where the learner is comfortable.
- Appropriate amount of tension felt by learner.
Interest
- Learner’s awareness of the importance of the learning to themselves.
- Attraction, within student, to the learning.
- Learner involvement in or curiosity about the lesson.
- Learner perceives the material to be learned is appealing.
Success
- Learner senses accomplishment in reaching intended objective.
- Based on efforts, learner feels accomplishment.
- Learner perceives that the learning was accomplished at an appropriate level.
Knowledge of Results
- Learner has an immediate awareness of the quality and degree of the performance of the learning.
- Feedback – information whereby the student can gauge what has been learned.
- Learner has an awareness of the accuracy and quality of responses based on feedback.
Active Participation – The ability of the learner to be consistently engaged in what is to be learned.
Overt
- Visible or observable behavior of the learner.
- Learners demonstrate engagement of their minds on the learning in an observable way.
- Observable student behaviors that are relevant to learning.
Covert
- Invisible or unobservable behavior of the learner.
- Unobservable behaviors that are relevant to the learning.
Retention – The ability of the learner to remember the learning or to recall events relevant to the objective.
Meaning
- Student ability to integrate learning into base of knowledge.
- Relationship of the learning to the student’s own knowledge and past experience.
- Relevancy of the learning as viewed by the learner.
- Learning is important to the learner at a personal level.
Modeling
- Learner receives concrete representation of the learning.
- Sensory representations of the critical attributes of the learning as perceived by the learner.
Practice
- Opportunity for the learner to have repeated experiences with the new learning.
- Repeated experiences of the learning over time.
- Scheduled repetitions of the learning.
Degree of Original Learning
- Mastery of the initial learning.
- How well the student learned the first time.
Feeling Tone
- See motivation.
Transfer – The ability of the learner to use past learning in a modified or generalized form.
Similarity
- Student perceives the degree of commonality in new learning.
- Learner identifies two learning or concepts with the properties that are the same.
- Student perceives that the present is like the past or one learning is like another.
- Learning that looks the same.
Association
- Student links two learnings or concepts with properties that are related.
- Student perceives learning that go together or are linked.
- Learner perceives the connection of two or more learnings.
- Learnings that go together.
Essential & Unvarying Elements
- Learner recognizes important parts of the learning.
- Learner is able to identify critical attributes of learning.
Degree of Original Learning
- See retention.
Anticipatory Set – The ability of the learner to bring experiences from the past and relate them to upcoming learning.
- Learner involves the mind.
- Learner sees relationship to the past.
- Learner perceives relevancy to the new learning.
Closure – The ability of the learner to summarize the learning.
- Learner involves the mind.
- Learner identifies critical attributes of the learning.
- Learner summarizes learning at a level higher than recall.
Reinforcement – An increase in learning behavior as a result of the interaction of the learner and the environment.
Positive Response
- A response that the learner needs or desires.
- Something interpreted by the learner that increases desired behavior.
- What the learner needs, wants, or desires.
Negative Response
- A response that is unpleasant or not desired by the learner.
- Something interpreted by the learner that decreases undesired behavior.
- What the learner does NOT need, want, or desire.
Extinction
- Occurs when the learner is provided with no response.
- Diminishing of student behavior due to lack of a response.
Resource:http://www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us/pennsbury/Departments/Curriculum/Best%20Practices/Essential%20Elements%20of%20Instruction.pdf