The Five Pillars of Teaching Success (With Five Sets of Questions Every Teacher Should Ask Themselves)
How do we build strong, successful educational programs that meet student needs in this constantly changing age of knowledge and data explosion, search engines, social media, AI, and jobs and careers? How do we develop programs that are relevant, motivating and customized to each student’s needs?
Below are 5 foundational teaching dimensions – what I call the five pillars of good teaching - that are critical for successful teaching in today’s world. Each pillar is described below at a broad level, and becomes more specific as teachers consider them in the context of grade level taught, student backgrounds and personalities, class size and location, available resources, curriculum needs, and more. What I will also do below for each pillar is to suggest some key questions that need to be asked by each educator, and the answers will help teachers and other educators translate each pillar into concrete examples and practices at their level.
Pillar #1: A positive, growth-oriented school/classroom environment
Many teachers and schools have created new and different classroom environments that support 21st century learning. These environments are designed to engage students in learning and develop a “growth mindset”[i]. Teachers in these growth-oriented environments encourage students to dive into learning, develop positive classroom rules and routines, promote student interest and curiosity, encourage student problem-solving, praise effort as well as achievement, provide many opportunities for students to improve their work, build resilience, encourage learning from failures and errors, reinforce small victories, and encourage students to ask for help when needed.
For example, teachers who have created growth-oriented environments often use essential questions and other similar types of initial activities to build student interest and curiosity in what is to be learned. Teachers frequently check for student understanding, provide feedback on drafts of writing assignments, and help students to develop, improve and complete independent projects. They also ask for feedback from students to help them improve and revise teaching plans. Some teachers have revised grading practices so as to follow a “grading for growth” model that provides frequent non-graded formative assessments designed to improve student learning in addition to graded summative assessments.
Questions to consider: Does my learning environment support the development of “growth mindsets”? Do my classroom/school rules and routines create a positive climate for learning? Do a foster a sense of a community of learners who work together and support each other? Do I encourage students to “make an effort” and “keep at it”? Are students frequently given feedback that helps them improve learning and supports student progress? Are formative assessments used to check for understanding and to determine how well students are successfully learning and growing? Do students develop portfolio collections of student work that demonstrate progress over time? Does my grading policy support student growth and improvement over time?
Pillar #2: A curriculum that promotes understanding and fosters vital skill development.
Empirical evidence points to a coherent core curriculum as a key factor in high levels of student achievement[ii]. A core curriculum is critical – one that expands student understanding of the natural and social world, promotes the arts, and helps students develop key and vital skills. Teachers and schools need to make careful, intentional decisions as to what students will be expected to understand and know in their classrooms and schools,, as well as which key skills will be emphasized, taught and learned, such as:
· Basic reading skills that promote phonemic awareness, fluency, and a love of reading;
· Study, time management, and other similar skills that help students learn how to learn;
· Research and investigation skills that enable students to search for, evaluate, and process information and data;
· Thoughtfulness activities that enable students to think logically, deeply and creatively;
· Effective Communication through writing, oral discussions and presentations, debate, multi-media avenues, and the like.
Schools and classrooms with strong curriculum programs clearly define what they expect students to understand and know, and make sure that students develop and grow identified skills over time, both within and across subjects.
Questions to consider: What are my major, core curriculum goals? Have I developed a core set of content understandings with corresponding knowledge that drives content learning (e.g. I want my students to understand that…)? Do my students practice, learn, and develop appropriate, key vital skills, such as reading, study and time management, thinking, research, communication, and collaboration? Are there other curriculum goals that I believe are important for my students to learn and grow?
PILLAR #3: Independent/collaborative learning opportunities that support application and transfer, authentic and deeper learning.
If students are to successfully learn content and key skills, they need opportunities to work both independently and collaboratively with others in order to apply their learning in new, novel, and authentic real-life situations. Often this entails enabling students to choose and work on projects that deepen learning and solve challenging problems using their newly learned understandings and skills.
Questions to consider: Do my students have opportunities to work independently and collaboratively as they apply content and skill learning to new, novel, and authentic, real-life situations; to identify, develop and complete projects that deepen learning? To use newly learned skills and content to be creative and solve challenging problems?
PILLAR #4. Student self-reflection, self-discovery, and self-development
The variety and complexity of career, educational, and leisure options and choices make it increasingly important for students to have opportunities to discover and develop their interests, to reflect on their experiences, to develop their individual talents and skills, and to begin to consider future plans and career options. To help students self-develop, grow, reflect and discover, the preK-12 educational program should give students opportunities to reflect on what they have learned, choose areas of interest as follow-up activity,, and practice and grow their diverse talents. Teachers and schools should support student self-development through such activities as self-reflection, self-chosen projects and readings, elective courses, advanced seminars, multiple enrichment options, career exploration, and internships.
In addition, many students today live in a world of personal challenge and uncertainty. They often need help, support, counseling, mentoring, tutoring and other services to help them deal with the social, emotional and academic problems and challenges that they face. Because many students need to work, take care of siblings, and have other responsibilities, school programs should also enable students to have flexibility in how they meet requirements and when they graduate.
Questions to consider: Does my school program enable students to reflect on their learning and life? To find and develop their individual strengths, talents, and interests? Are my students provided with many extra-curricular learning choices and options during class and after school? Do many activities and programs exist in both individual classrooms and throughout the school that help students discover, develop, and apply their talents and interests? Are there opportunities for students to take elective courses and seminars, do internships, visit colleges, and in other ways expand their experiences and understand future plan options?
Is student help and support available when needed? Do classrooms and schools have both professional and voluntary support personnel to handle the demands of student social, emotional and cognitive support needs?Do students have flexibility in how they are able to meet course requirements, options for part-time schooling, graduation options?
PILLAR #5. Effective instructional practices.
Good instruction is at the heart of successful teaching that develops and builds on the first four pillars described in this blog. Often, in today’s schools and classrooms, rather than engaging students in a growth-oriented learning environment, teaching from a curriculum that promotes understanding and develops vital skills, promoting independent learning, self-development and reflection, and more, too much instruction is focused around discrete skill development, passive learning, recitation and lecture, coverage of factual content; and textbook driven learning[iii].
In my recent work, I have developed an instructional model for both planning and teaching that supports the inclusion of the four pillars described above and is organized around the following four phases:
· Setting the stage for learning;
· Building understanding and vital skills;
· Fostering independent and interdependent learning that applies learning to new and novel situations and helps students “dig deeper” into learning; and
· Closure, during which students share their work and summative assessment takes place[iv].
You can read in greater detail more about this four phase model in another blog located in this section of the website and in my book, Teaching for Lifelong Learning: How to Prepare Students for a Changing World (Solution Tree Press)
Questions to consider: Is my instruction interactive, engaging, and motivating? Does it support the development of growth mindsets in students? Does my instruction facilitate the learning of key understandings, knowledge and vital skills for living in a 21st century world? Does my learning enable students to work independently and collaboratively, apply learning, “dig deeper” into their learning? Does my instruction provide students with the opportunity to apply their learning to real world situations? Self-reflect and self-develop? Do my students have a chance to share their individual work and demonstrate successes?
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These five pillars, along with their related questions, are designed to help educators better understand the key factors that lead to successful teaching and to assess current learning situations based on these pillars. The five-pillar framework and the answers to their related questions should encourage reflection on the issues that promote student success and achievement for both today and tomorrow. These questions may also be explored collaboratively by teachers, school or district staff.
An analysis of the answers to these questions should help educators make decisions on what needs to be done to improve classroom, school or district programs, achieve greater student success, and better prepare students for lifelong learning. Where might you begin both as an individual and/or as an organization to make key changes that will make a difference and better support students? What might make the greatest difference? What will be easiest to implement? What will work best? Small changes can often make a big difference - think about the cumulative effect of small changes over a long period of time.
Helpful resources abound! Solution Tree Press resources can be helpful with all five of the pillars. You might also find the resources links and additional blogs on this website, along with my book Teaching for Lifelong Learning: How to Prepare Students for a Changing World (Solution Tree Press, 2021) helpful as you consider changes based on your answers to these questions.
And remember what Albert Einstein said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Citations:
[i] Dweck, C. (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York, Random House, and Dweck, C. (2015) Carol Dweck Revisits the “Growth Mindset”, Accessed at www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html on August 23, 2020.
[ii] See Robert Marzano (2003) What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), pp. 22-34.
3. For example, see Mehta, J. and Fine, S. (2019) In Search of Deeper Learning: the Quest to Remake the American High School. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4. For more information on four phase instruction, see Seif, E. Using a Four Phase Instructional Model for More Successful Planning and Teaching, accessed at https://www.lifelonglearninged.com/blogs/using-a-four-phase-instructional-model-to-plan-and-teach-for-lifelong-learning, and Using AI to Plan High-Quality Units of Instruction, accessed at https://www.lifelonglearninged.com/blogs/using-ai-to-plan-high-quality-units-of-instruction-1
