This is done by ‘bridging’ where she says: You have just ‘evaluated’: How did you do it?


Why did you do it that way? Where else could you use this process? Would


you use it to critically appraise? Would you use it to analyse? etc. I call these ‘killer questions’ because they are so


powerful at teaching students skills, and when to use them. At the end of that first evaluation lesson students


write a note on how to evaluate, and are asked to store it where they can easily find it. They are then asked to set themselves targets to improve their evaluation skills, which gives rise to targets such as: “You have to say what’s good about it, not just what’s wrong” or “I need to write more – one sentence isn’t enough apparently, even if it’s a really good one”. One bash at evaluating is not enough to develop the skill. So Jo’s search through the scheme of work identifies five topics where evaluation could be practised. At the start of each session students look back at their evaluation notes and targets before beginning to evaluate. At the end of these sessions they go over with Jo how they evaluated and why, and what they could do to improve next time. At the end of the course, after five double


decker lessons (other groups might need more than five) on evaluation, they ought to be evaluating pretty well (see ‘Developing skills’ diagram right). Research reviews on teaching skills make clear that it is best to integrate skills


teaching into your content teaching, as in this case study, rather than to teach skills separately.


SUCCINCT AND ACCURATE ANSWERS In order to teach the skill of succinctly and accurately stating relevant knowledge and understanding, Jo shows students questions with model answers. Then she shows them questions with poorer answers, perhaps too long and full of irrelevant detail. Students are then asked to evaluate, and then improve these poor answers. To help them with this, Jo provides them with definitions of important concepts to


learn, and gives


Double decker lessons SKILL Evaluating


CONTENT Care Plans


Developing skills


Assessment and the nature of the subject require certain skills to be developed during the course


Evaluation lesson 1


Evaluation lesson 2


So each skill is used on vital content, a number of times, in ‘double decker’ lessons


REVIEW THE SKILL


and THE CONTENT


Evaluation lesson 3


Evaluation lesson 4


Evaluation lesson 5


tests in these. The next day students have another go at the test questions they did less well at (a mastery test). Jo finds a number of other skills students need, and deals with these in similar ways. Research on skills teaching finds that the time taken is well rewarded with improved grades and, interestingly, students’ understanding of content is improved as well as the skill. Cognitive scientist Dan


Willingham reminds us that “memory is the residue of thought” – the harder you think about a topic, the better you will understand it. We need to teach what is important, not just what is on the syllabus.


FURTHER READING AND RESOURCES


• Willingham, D. (2009) Why don’t students like school? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (A very readable summary of cognitive science.).


• Petty, G. (2009) Evidence Based Teaching, Oxford University Press: Oxford.   ebste as sel onloas on t, ncln a sar o te nns o a research review on the teaching of skills which you can access via the following link goo.gl/Z9DmFS


• There are also two blogs on skills teaching on my website here: goo.gl/CNz8eY INTUITION ISSUE 31 • SPRING 2018 31


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