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Seven Critical Actions ™
Effective Strategies for Classroom Instruction
A great deal of research in the learning sciences has emerged in the last two decades about how students learn. We now know more than ever about how students develop competence and the kinds of instructional practices that nurture their growth. Today’s educators must understand and apply cognitive science if they are serious about leaving no student behind.
Seven Critical Actions ™ synthesizes the research about classroom practices that have been shown to improve student learning. Through case studies, interactive discussions, and collaborative planning, Modern Red SchoolHouse helps teachers put the latest cognitive science to work in the classroom. The use of classroom transcripts and video examples further enhance learning. Careful attention to student preconceptions and misconceptions, the role of factual knowledge in conceptual frameworks, and the importance of metacognition helps teachers’ design meaningful learning experiences.
How Students Learn
Modern Red SchoolHouse has identified seven critical actions teachers must use to support student learning:
- Develop a culture where questioning, respect, and risk-taking are encouraged.
- Engage students’ interests in making connections to the outside world.
- Integrate new learning with students’ prior understandings.
- Uncover students’ misconceptions and replace them with accurate understandings.
- Show the larger landscape of knowledge in which a given concept fits.
- Establish opportunities for students to organize, experience, and apply new concepts.
- Cultivate students’ use of metacognitive strategies and commitment to excellence.
Seven Critical Actions ™ for effective instruction works well for grade-level teams, subject-specific groups, or whole faculties. These research-based, interactive sessions provide one to five days of rigorous professional development that improves teachers’ content knowledge and instructional approach.
During these sessions, participants will have opportunities to:
- Develop an understanding of each of the Seven Critical Actions ™ by engaging in experiences to explore the research base and direct connections to classroom activities,
- Review the research in interactive ways that support each critical action,
- View video cases of real classroom teachers implementing the critical actions,
- Receive tools and activities they can use in their classrooms,
- Participate in an online learning community that extends the face-to-face content sessions by helping participants focus on the concepts between meeting times, and
- Establish discussion groups involving all educators in the school.
Resources
Bransford, J.D., A.L. Brown, and R.R. Cocking (eds). 1999. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Bransford, J.D., and S. Donovan (eds). 2005. How Students Learn. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Bruner, J. 1960. The Process of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Erickson, H. Lynn. 2007. Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Jensen, E. 2000. “Brain Based Learning: A Reality Check.” Educational Leadership 57 7, pp. 76-80.
Kilgore, S.B. 2003. “Guiding Principles of the Modern Red SchoolHouse Design.” Nashville, TN: Modern Red SchoolHouse Institute.
History
Lee, P.J., R. Ashby, and A.R. Dickinson. 1996. “Progression in Children’s Ideas about History,” in Progression in Learning, M. Hughes (ed). Bristol, PA: Multilingual Matters.
Wineburg, S.S. 2001. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Mathematics
Kilpatrick, J., J. Swafford, and B. Findell (eds). 2001. Adding it up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Lampert, M. 2001. Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching. New Haven: Yale University Press.
McCormack , S. 2006. “Math’s Misconceptions.” Teachers Magazine42. Available at http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachers/.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 2000. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA: NCTM.
Web site for Math Misconceptions: http://www.mathsyear2000.co.uk/resources/misconceptions/index.shtml.
(Mathsyear 2000 posted by the National Grid for Learning.)
Reading
Snow, C.E., S. Burns, and P. Griffin (eds). 1998. Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington DC: National Academies Press.
Wren, C. 2002. “Ten Myths of Reading Instruction.” Southwest Educational Development Laboratory Letter XIV 3, pp. 3-8.
Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science. 2001. Atlas of Science Literacy: Project 2061. Washington, DC: AAAS and National Science Teachers Association.
Bybee, R. 1997. Achieving Scientific Literacy: From Purposes to Practices. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 1994. A Private Universe, Teacher’s Guide. Burlington, VT: Annenberg/CPB.
Henriques, L. 2000. “Children’s Misconceptions about Weather: A Review of the Literature.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching, New Orleans, LA, April 29, 2000.
National Research Council. 1996. National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
National Research Council. 2000. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Research Council
Novak, J.D. and D.B. Gowin. 1984. Learning How to Learn. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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