• Break down learning into small, manageable and logical steps. Keep instructions clear and short (plan beforehand).
• Grade activities according to the different levels and abilities of learners. Try to ensure that learners remain challenged enough without undue stress.
• Develop a balance between individual, peer tutoring, co-operative learning and whole class teaching.
• Use learners to help one another in the form of group types, peer-assisted learning, buddy systems and so on. Ensure that learners feel included and supported in the classroom by both the teacher and their peers.
• Set up pairs and groups of learners where members can have different tasks according to strengths and abilities. Promote self-management skills and responsibility through group roles and the types of tasks you set.
• Motivate learners and affirm their efforts and individual progress. Build confidence. Encourage questioning, reasoning, experimentation with ideas and risking opinions.
• Determine the learner’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and use it for effective teaching and learning. Vygotsky described the ZPD as the distance between what the learner already knows and understands and what he/she can understand with adult support. Learning is thus a social interaction as the teacher mediates and supports the learner as he/she understands a new concept.
• Spend time on consolidating new learning. Use different ways to do this until all learners understand the concept. Make time to go back to tasks so that learners can learn from their own and others’ experiences and methods.
• Use and develop effective language skills (expressive and receptive, verbal and non- verbal).
• Experiment with a variety of teaching methods and strategies to keep learners interested and to cater for and develop different learning styles. Use games, co- operative group work, brainstorming, problem-solving, debates, presentations, and so on.
Learners with barriers to learning
A barrier to learning is anything that prevents a learner from participating fully and learning effectively. This includes learners who were formerly disadvantaged and excluded from education because of the historical, political, cultural and health challenges facing South Africans. Some other examples of barriers to learning may be learners who are visually or hearing impaired; learners who are left-handed or learners who are intellectually challenged. Barriers to learning cover a wide range of possibilities and learners may often experience more than one barrier. Some barriers, therefore, require more than one adaptation in the classroom and varying types and levels of support.
These learners may require and should be granted more time for:
• completing tasks • acquiring thinking skills (own strategies) • assessment activities. Teachers need to adapt the number of activities to be completed without interfering with the learners gaining the required skills.
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