Programme overview
Introduction:
Effective teaching strategies are often left to chance: new lecturers teach the way they were taught, lessons drift from their intended outcomes, noisy classes lose time and tests reward recall rather than understanding. This Core Concept course gives school teachers and university faculty a working method for planning units backwards from outcomes, running active and cooperative lessons, managing behaviour and engagement, differentiating for mixed classes and building fair assessment with blueprints, sound items and rubrics. Participants work on real class cases and leave with a Unit Teaching and Assessment Plan for a unit they teach.
Course Objectives:
- Plan a unit and its lessons backwards from measurable learning outcomes, acceptable evidence and a sequenced learning plan
- Run cooperative, inquiry-based and problem-based learning activities that keep every student accountable for learning
- Use questioning, wait time and structured discussion to raise the level of student thinking in class
- Establish routines, expectations and proportionate interventions that protect teaching time and sustain student engagement
- Differentiate content, process and product for students with varied readiness, interests and learner profiles
- Build formative and summative assessments from a test blueprint, well-written items and rubrics, and use the results to adjust teaching
Target Audience:
- School teachers who plan lessons, manage classes and grade student work at primary, intermediate or secondary level
- New university faculty and teaching assistants taking on their first lecture, seminar or laboratory groups
- College and institute lecturers responsible for course delivery and examinations
- Subject coordinators who support colleagues with lesson planning and classroom practice
- Academic staff moving from a professional or research role into regular classroom teaching
Course Outline:
Day 1: Principles of Effective Teaching and the Learning Environment
- Teacher Clarity, Pacing and High Expectations as Drivers of Student Learning
- Teacher-Centred Versus Student-Centred Instruction: When Each Fits
- Bloom's Taxonomy Levels for Framing Lesson Thinking Demands
- Classroom Climate Audit: Relationships, Routines and Physical Layout
- Self-Assessment of Current Teaching Practice Against an Observation Checklist
Day 2: Backward Design, Unit Planning and Active Learning Models
- Backward Design Stage 1: Desired Results and Essential Questions
- Backward Design Stages 2 and 3: Acceptable Evidence and the Learning Plan
- Johnson and Johnson Five Elements of Cooperative Learning
- Inquiry-Based and Problem-Based Learning Cycles and Driving Problems
- Lesson Plan Template: Outcome, Hook, Activities, Checks for Understanding and Closure
Day 3: Questioning, Discussion and Classroom Management in Practice
- Jigsaw, Think-Pair-Share and Reciprocal Teaching Structures
- Higher-Order Question Stems, Wait Time and No-Opt-Out Discussion Moves
- Class Rules, Routines and Transitions Set in the First Weeks of Term
- Assertive Discipline and Discipline Without Stress: Positivity, Choice and Reflection
- Low-Impact to High-Impact Intervention Ladder for Off-Task Behaviour
Day 4: Differentiation, Engagement and Assessment Design
- Tomlinson Differentiation by Content, Process, Product and Learning Environment
- Flexible Grouping, Tiered Tasks and Support for Students with Additional Needs
- Formative Assessment Techniques: Exit Tickets, One-Minute Papers, Peer and Self-Assessment
- Test Blueprint Table of Specifications Linking Outcomes, Content and Cognitive Level
- Multiple-Choice and Constructed-Response Item Writing and Common Item Flaws
Day 5: Case Work: Grading, Feedback and the Unit Teaching and Assessment Plan
- Holistic and Analytic Rubric Construction with Performance Level Descriptors
- Actionable Written Feedback Versus Grades: Feedback Case Review
- Item Analysis of a Class Test: Difficulty, Discrimination and Reteaching Decisions
- Classroom Technology Overview: Response Systems, Shared Documents and Learning Platforms
- Unit Teaching and Assessment Plan Drafting and Peer Critique
Skills You Will Gain:
- Backward Unit Design
- Active Learning Facilitation
- Classroom Questioning
- Behaviour and Routine Management
- Differentiated Instruction
- Test Blueprinting
- Assessment Item Writing
- Rubric Design
Why Attend This Course:
- Return with a Unit Teaching and Assessment Plan ready to use with a class you teach next term
- Spend less lesson time on disruption and more on learning through routines students understand
- Grade more consistently and defend marks to students and parents with blueprints and rubrics
- Compare classroom practice with teachers and faculty from schools, colleges and universities in other systems
Conclusion:
Good teaching is a set of learnable decisions about outcomes, activities, behaviour and evidence. The week moves from the principles of effective teaching and the learning environment, through backward design and active learning models, to questioning, discussion and classroom management, then to differentiation and assessment design. The final day turns rubrics, feedback and item analysis into case work, so each participant leaves with a Unit Teaching and Assessment Plan tested against peer critique and ready for the classroom.