Foundation Degree in Inclusive Education – SJIE 4006 Principles of Learning and Teaching Discuss three specific strategies that support the delivery of effective teaching and learning in a classroom. Use academic literature and examples from your own setting to support your response. Student Name: Sadie Elizabeth Lindsay Student No: 1602212 Strategies are used and implemented widely throughout one’s life and this is also seen during a student’s educational years. Establishing an effective strategy is vital to an individual’s development. It enables a person to find solutions or develop a plan of action to achieve and move forward from where they currently are; in order to accomplish a long term or overall aim. Teachers acknowledge and believe that through specific strategies being put in place that the delivery of teaching and learning can be extremely productive; subsequently helping a student progress and furthermore building one’s knowledge. Throughout this essay, the writer will be discussing and identifying three strategies used within the educational setting they are affiliated with to demonstrate that through strategies teaching and learning can indeed be effective. It has become apparent that the role of the teacher has changed over the years and is often now part of a wider role extending beyond the instructional role it once was. Although the role of a teacher may have altered considerably the focus is still to support an individual’s learning for them to achieve one’s full potential. Learning can only take place if an individual is being taught effectively this view is also that of Watkins (2003). Therefore, it is vital that teachers implement strategies to support the delivery of effective teaching. As previously noted a teacher has an instructional role; possessing a clear instructional goal which develops thinking and assessment is imperative to expand the skills of a learner; this view is supported by Welsh Government (2013). Subsequently the main aim of a clear instructional goal is to establish a direction; illustrating to students the connection between what they will be doing in lesson and what they will be learning. Within the writers educational setting the strategy derived and provided to enable a clear instructional goal is by means of a learning objective (LO). The learning objective details the main objective for the lesson, incorporates and identifies success criteria’s, presents the desired outcome of the lesson in addition to the feedback and feedforward assessments. Consequently, there are three main goals of an LO. Firstly, it is to steer the learner so that valuable classroom time is spent on important activities to encourage purposeful learning and undeniably reassure students that there is reason for learning. Secondly allowing the learner the opportunity to develop one’s meta-cognitive skills; to enable and develops one’s ability to be more self-aware and to self-assess. Lastly to monitor pupils understanding of the lesson in the form of feedback and feedforward assessments; subsequently analysing the learner’s progressions and weaknesses. The learning objective is issued and discussed at the beginning of each lesson. All students are encouraged to read and follow the success criteria identified on the learning objective this allows a learner to visually establish when they have completed and achieved the goals set out. When an individual can see that they have achieved a need; it subsequently motivates them to seek further higher needs or aims resulting in progression and development this belief is supported by Maslow (1943). In order to stimulate progression and development it is equally important to consider the variety of teaching methods teachers, TA’s and LSA can transport to a lesson; to benefit the learner and deliver effective teaching. The writer believes that for learning to be successful it needs to be intriguing, enthusiastic and grasp the full attention throughout the subject lesson and give individuals experience to develop knowledge; a view which is also supported by Lambert and McCombs (1998). Active-learning encourages a child to develop one’s knowledge through thinking, decision making, doing and actively engages the learner by such experiences. With this aim and belief in mind the writers school incorporates active learning for the children during each lesson. When a lesson is planned, the teacher will decide in what form they will introduce active learning; it can be through many various ways depending on the subject. For instance, firstly at the start of each lesson a warm up exercise is always instilled to be fun and engaging – on this occasion a numeracy lesson; a song is played to help with learning a times table; it encourages the students to become involved and attains their attention. In another case, it maybe in the form of a group warm up bingo game that is fitting to the learning objective for that lesson, promoting peer collaboration, socialization and learning from others. Secondly it may be included as part of the main lesson; for example, as part of a literacy exercise children are required to create a quopy story text. They are expected to use a paragraph from a book written by an author of their choice and change the context of the story to create a new piece of writing. The children can choose to work in pairs or independently, they are required to plan, create and draft and finally present their work in a format of their choice, with the use of numerous resources such as ICT and the school library. Concurrently expanding a child’s thinking and decision making and building one’s knowledge; and as previously noted by the writer encouraging them to become intrigued and engaged in the learning process; as Baron (1998, p. 217) states ‘students learn best when they are actively engaged’. On the contrary, some pupils despite putting in place assessment for learning strategies and differentiated teaching methods may still experience difficulties with progression and development; often better referred to as an additional learning need. An additional learning need can occur for numerous reasons; it can me due to an internal factor such as a diagnosed medical condition or it can be a consequence of an external factor such as neglect or loss of a loved one. However, the additional learning need has occurred it is essential that the child is supported accordingly and that strategies are put into action to assist them with successful academic advancement. The writers school believes that each learner is individual and that this is priority when deciding and implementing a strategy to assist a learner whom may be experiencing difficulties within their learning. For instance, one of the action plans used within the writers educational setting is that of visual aids; in this situation in the form of a timetable and now and next programme. Both visual aids are used to break down information and instructions into manageable chunks for the student, but also underpins and encourages teachers to consider and adapt teaching methods for various ability levels. Visual timetables as well as the now and next system is dependent on individuality and is structured to that of pupils needs. A visual timetable is presented to the student often in the form of pictures or symbols illustrating lesson subjects and activities of what they will be carry out; often concentrating on a morning session or an afternoon session. Students whom have a need for a visual aid often have difficulty both coping with change and long concentration periods. It is vital therefore that the learner can focus on one activity at a time but equally important is the need for the individual to re-focus, ready for them to adapt and prepare for the next set of instructions or activity. Therefore, as part of the visual timetable a pupil also has a separate visual aid which presents two columns; one titled now and the second column titled next; now column will exhibit the first picture of an academic learning activity whereby the next column displays a picture or symbol of an activity of the learner’s choice. Subsequently displaying a focus on positive recognition of learning and building and developing a consummate relationship between student and learning that can hopefully be maintained. Furthermore, it is the view of the writer that when an individual has a positive experience and can see that targets have been met; it builds self–esteem and confidence which in return will encourage a desire to build new objectives. A perspective which is supported by educational psychologist Dale H Schunk. Schunk (2010, p. 71-86) states ‘when students perceive satisfactory goal progress, they feel capable of improving their skills, goal attainment, coupled with high self-efficacy, leads to students to set new challenging goals’. In conclusion to the three strategies that the writer has discussed it is apparent that through clear, well–structured, supportive classroom strategies that teaching can be enhanced and varied. 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