Clarity in the Classroom

Supporting students to be confident, enthusiastic and effective learners is a central purpose of education. We want students who have high expectations of themselves as learners – students who set goals for their learning and who work with their teachers to construct enjoyable, challenging learning pathways. We also want teachers who have the skills to help their students achieve those goals. Clarity in the Classroom is designed to help teachers create the relationships and processes that lead to effective teaching and learning. Using clear explanations of the key attributes of research-based, effective classroom practice, the book seeks to answer some of the questions that teachers continually grapple with -‘How can I best meet the learning needs of my students?’ and ‘Where do I find the time to do all that is expected of me in order to do this?‘
Full of practical suggestions and examples, Clarity in the Classroom will help busy teachers to: build mutually beneficial, sound relationships with their students; assess and build on what students already know; develop well-structured lesson plans with clear learning intentions; develop strategies to encourage further learning in order to achieve set goals; understand and maximise students? motivation to learn; and encourage students to think reflectively about their learning to enable them to build on that learning and to identify and resolve problem areas.

Author Biography

Michael Absolum is a principal consultant at Evaluation Associates in New Zealand, where he has directed their successful professional development programme for schools and teachers since 1995. Prior to that he worked as a teacher, as an educational psychologist in both England and NZ, and with the Education Review Office (the NZ equivalent of OFSTED), becoming interested in the problems associated with raising student achievement levels, particularly of underperforming students.