Explaining
At the core of a great teacher’s skill-set is the ability to explain the concepts, theories and techniques that make up their subject. On the reputational scale, there is no doubt that teachers who explain things well, making the complex simple, score highly as Great Teachers. I’ve observed countless lessons where the teacher exposition accelerated the learning process for everyone through the clarity of the explanation. It can be a joy to listen and learn as an expert teacher tells the story that lifts the fog and makes it possible to see clearly.
Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough”
For me there are two implications of this
1) Getting students to explain ideas to the teacher and to each other is a great way to determine the depth of understanding. In fact it is a bread-and-butter element of all great lessons that they are rich with explanatory dialogue. I come back to this later on.
2) As teachers, for high quality explanations to be habitual, we need to know our subjects, taking time to develop our own capacity to explain the key concepts simply. I think departmental CPD time would be well spent with colleagues rehearsing the ways they explain the more difficult material. Too often we assume we can do this but, over the years, I’ve found this is a key area for improvement and experimentation, for me personally and for others.
Crucially, Explaining doesn’t have to suggest didactic one-way traffic. Explaining well is an important aspect of highly interactive learning of all kinds. Without doubt enquiry and discovery are vital elements of learning; however, very often the most appropriate thing to do is to push ahead and cut through the confusion by delivering a sharp explanation that brings clarity and takes everyone forward to greater challenges that lie beyond.
The penny-drop moment happens for different learners in different ways at different times and sometimes the barriers to understanding can appear unassailable:
In talking about explaining, we are obviously talking about doing this in conjunction with probing questioning, differentiation and challenge. We’re also talking about gaining attention and engagement in the process; not merely droning on oblivious to our students’ capacity to receive. However, even with the conditions right, we still need to have at our disposal a number of lines of attack that we can use habitually and instinctively as we seek to bring the barriers down.
A quick guide to Explaining
(Most of this may seem really obvious…but I think it is worth spelling out; we can always explain better!)
1) Make connections from abstract ideas to everyday life
There are countless examples in every subject, but you need to have them at your fingertips.
2) Show it in action; the walk-through
No point talking in theoretical abstract terms, when you can just provide an example and talk it through.
3) Use models…
You can’t teach science properly without models but this also applies to other subjects.
4) Use pictures
5) Analogies
Another vital weapon in the arsenal is using an analogy to make sense of an abstract idea.
6) Set a depth gauge
A key skill in putting together a good explanation is knowing how to pitch it. I love questions that can be answered at different levels. For example:
Why does your heart beat faster during exercise?
Was Henry VIII a good King and how do we know?
What makes this a good poem?
Is it ever acceptable for one person to kill another?
Students could be asked these questions in Y5, Year 9, Year 13… The difference is in the depth. Knowing how to pitch the answers is important. I’ve found that asking for answers in a sentence or for a 4 mark or 6 mark answer helps students to gauge the depth of their explanations… but, it is often very helpful to know what you’d expect in advance. What would be a good answer to these questions at the level expected? Again, as part of developing our teacher-knowledge, rehearsing these things can be extremely powerful; clarifying your own understanding in order to provide the appropriate explanation.
Reciprocal Teaching
This is a high-scoring strategy. Why? Because it involves getting students to construct and produce explanations of concepts so that others can understand them. This requires a secure grasp of the concepts and provides teachers with strong feedback as to the depth of understanding… which can then be further deepened by probing questions. In a recent lesson I observed at KEGS, students’ explanations were subjected to superb questioning by the teacher: “So, were we convinced by that?” “I’m confused – is A or B a better explanation – help me out? ” And so on…. the explanations and questioning interwoven.
In conclusion, Explaining is something I feel we take for granted too often. It is very obviously a core teacher skill but to deliver routine Great Lessons, we may need to do it better.. and there are lots of possibilities to explore!
From the website, Headguruteacher.com
