Katie Brody – Director of Studies K-6

What ARE Teachers Talking About When They Use Words Like, ‘Pedagogy’ and ‘Differentiation’?

Each vocation has its related collection of technical language and the field of education is no different. As with all professionals adept at discussing their practices, teachers sometimes use terms as though they are words that are commonly used and understood. On Monday night this week we enjoyed the Meet the Teacher evening. This was a wonderful opportunity to put faces to names, to mingle with those who will nurture and help to educate our children, and to hear more about the programs and opportunities for 2020. Thank you to all the teachers for their time and commitment to this important evening. 

Our teachers are so experienced and knowledgeable in their field and I listened with awe at the way in which so many teachers presented their goals and clarified the approaches to be used throughout the year. I did wonder though, do our parents know what we mean when we use ‘edu-speak’? Looking back at the notes from my own presentation, I recognised that I too used terms that may be foreign to our parents. As such, I hope to clarify two of the main words used by educators, ‘pedagogy’ and ‘differentiation’.

What is Pedagogy?

Pedagogy is often described as ‘the act of teaching’. The instructive strategies that the educator chooses in order to build knowledge, have students immersed in experiences that encourage thinking and to have them work towards meeting learning goals set by the student and/or the teacher. 

For example: Chat Stations

Purpose: This strategy gets students out of their chairs, allows voices to be heard without having to wait in a whole class discussion and without risking being ‘wrong’ in front of their peers. It is a novel way to discuss ideas. The teacher can interact closely with the students as they move around and can address misconceptions right away.

Description: Questions are displayed on the walls at different places in the room (stations). Students will be grouped in pairs, threes or fours and they rotate around the room, discussing ideas and recording answers. At the end of the rotation each group can summarise what was discussed at each station.

What is Differentiation?

In ‘edu-speak’, differentiation means ‘tailoring instruction to meet individual needs’. Whether teachers differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, the use of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction.

For example: Flexible Grouping

Purpose: This strategy allows up to three groups of students to work at the level of complexity that suits their readiness. Some students will need to simply reinforce new learning, others will benefit from applying or analysing their knowledge. Those who have shown significant understanding and require a further level of complexity will be asked to spend most of their time on tasks that extend their thinking by evaluating and/or creating a new product. 

Description: The teacher introduces concepts to the whole class in a phase of the lesson often titled, the ‘I do’ phase. Teachers may show short video clips, read to students, show and discuss images or present information to the students from an interactive presentation. Next the teacher provides different tasks to small groups of identified students. This is the ‘we do’ phase, as students may work in pairs or small groups and the room can be quite noisy for good reasons. Tasks in the ‘We do’ phase tasks have been altered to build progressively more complex thinking based on their level of complexity. The final stage of the cycle is the ‘You do’ phase. This is where students complete a task individually so teachers can assess the depth of their knowledge and ability to apply skills.

I hope this has been helpful in shedding light on some of the words teachers commonly use.