Four Validated Instructional Strategies

Abstract

This is a summary of specific teaching strategies found useful. Each strategy has been field tested and validated to demonstrate effectiveness. The strategies can be used across a range of subject matters.Response cards: Cards, signs or items that are used by students to indicate their response to a question or problem presented by the teacher. Response cards allow a teacher to provide practice for all students simultaneously instead of just calling on one or two students. Evaluation indicated that with response cards well over ten times as many student responses were obtained, with higher test scores, than without response cards.Guided Notes: Teacher prepared handouts that guide a student through a lecture with standard cues and specific spaces in which to write key facts, concepts, and relationships. Data support higher test scores when guided notes are used, and that student notes are more accurate after using guided notes.Error Correction: The use of multiple opportunities for students to practice (respond) to materials during the acquisition phase of learning, while providing immediate feedback and error correction that ensures that students don’t practice errors. Error correction has been shown to improve student learning in a range of studies.Time Trials: Following the acquisition phase of learning, used to help students build fluency, i.e., the ability to respond quickly and accurately within a given time limit and to retain learning over time. Studies have shown that time trials improve student accuracy and that students like time trials.