7 Suggestions for Teacher Clarity in Remote Learning

Teacher Clarity is a measure of the transparency of communication between teachers and their students and is vital in ensuring students learn. Indeed, with an effect size of 0.75 (Hattie, 2016) there is strong evidence that teachers whose students perceive them as demonstrating a high degree of clarity in their communication are more likely to succeed.

Much more than whether a teacher speaks clearly, teacher clarity means a teacher has complete understanding about what their students are to learn, know, and be able to do in an upcoming unit of work before they plan any instruction and assessments. Teacher Clarity is therefore not a single thing but an umbrella concept that captures four key facets of practice:

Organisation

Relates to whether lessons are constructed in a logical manner that links learning intentions, success criteria, and outcomes. For a teacher to be perceived as demonstrating Clarity of Organisation they must deliver structured lessons (and units/courses). A prerequisite to this is that from the outset stating learning intentions and relating them to success criteria. They must also explicitly link teaching to the stated learning intentions as well as regular review what has been learnt by students.

Explanation

Relates to whether instruction is comprehensible to students. Essentially, this is about a teacher being able to clearly explain new content to students. To do this the teacher must introduce new content in small, engaging, steps whilst at the same time relating it to past learnings. They must repeat and stress directions and draw students’ attentions to common mistakes and areas of difficulty. A further consideration is being able to teach at a pace that is appropriate to the topic and the students.

Examples and Guided Practice

Relates to how effectively a teacher demonstrates relevant skills and processes that students are expected to be able to do (i.e. Work Examples) and, of equal importance, provides students practice tasks clearly focused on they need to know and be able to do (i.e. Deliberate Practice). As a part of this a teacher must provide examples of answers to post-test type questions students are likely to be assessed with which makes the success criteria for learning obvious. Teachers must provide enough time, support and guidance to students to practising and consolidate their learning (i.e. answering questions, providing appropriate feedback).

Assessment of student learning

A teacher cannot communicate to their students well without regularly seeking and responding to feedback from their students. Within the classroom this can involve and seeking and responded to various forms of feedback from their students. This is about teachers having a clear understanding of how students are engaging with new learning by utilising appropriate Formative Assessment strategies to evaluate the impact of their teaching (Formative Evaluation). Teachers cannot communicate well without receiving feedback from the students.

So what does this mean as much of the teaching world begins to move online?

It means that as teachers we must:

1. Ensure that we are very explicitly making our learning intentions and success criteria to obvious to our students.
2. Make sure that we careful map out our lessons and explanations. A key considerations is that planning should ensure to link new learning to past learnings. Planning must incorporate knowledge of were student are at in the their learning gleaned through some form of formative assessment. Our explanations must be carefully broken down in to small, engaging, digestible chunks.
3. As we move on line we must aim for a less is more approach that focuses on quality teaching and learning over simply cramming in content. Evidence suggests that shorter delivery of synchronous lessons is important, particularly for younger students. And, finally, ensure that we clearly document and repeat instructions.
4. Plan for our lessons to include demonstrations of the skills students are expected to be able to perform as a consequence of new learning. I have found providing explicit examples, thinking aloud, as I engage with problems and construction solutions/responses to be an effective way of achieving this.
5. We must provide ample opportunities for students to hone their new skills through deliberate practice coupled with actionable feedback. Feedback online will clearly be more challenging but let's remember feedback can be multi-direction and does not have to be solely be between the teacher and student. Immediate feedback for students can come through checking their answers or comparing their work against a high quality exemplar. It might also come through self-assessment against a descriptively rich rubric. It could also be useful to orchestrate opportunities for peer-assessment and collaboration between students.
6. It is critical to find opportunities to seek and respond to our students learning. Online, this might mean ensure very explicit class discussions at the beginning and end of instruction. It could mean having your students use discussion forums to document their questions. It could also mean using one of the many online formative assessment tools available (for example look here). Or, check out this great article at Edutopia for some great ideas.
7. Seek feedback from your students, to gain some insights into they experiencing your classes. Such feedback has been shown to be highly effective in support teachers to identify areas for improvement in their practice. A great way to do this would be to create an online survey and sharing with your students. I have recently developed one to support teachers gain feedback on their online teaching practice and I am happy to share.
8. Finally, whilst not specifically an aspect of Teacher Clarity, take some time to connect with your students. Be authentic. Be interested. Be empathetic. Be real. No matter how good your clarity, is you will never be truly impactful unless you also cultivate your credibility.

NOTE: When possible, I recommend the above be done verbally, either via live stream or a pre-recorded video. It should also be replicated in a more permanent, text based form deliver via your remote learning environment. For brownie points make them available where parents can find them and for double points include them in the conversation.

As you make or continue to make the transition to remote teaching and learning go easy on yourself. This is a challenging point in human history. Whatever we do won't be perfect. But it is a great opportunity to learn.