Overview:
Domain 3 of the Danielson framework deals with instruction. Most people believe that instruction is a cut-and-dried science, when it is actually something that a teacher must constantly adapt to suit a particular class’s needs. If a lesson is not adapted to the students’ needs, then the students will not understand the content, and thus, not learn. A good teacher will be able to design instruction that is comprehensive for all of their students to learn.
3a: Communicating with Students
This aspect of Domain 3 is essential to help the teacher understand where the students are in their learning. Communication helps the teacher begin to build a positive relationship with the students. Once a positive student-teacher relationship has been established, then the teacher can begin to meet the specific needs of each student by including accommodations in the lesson plan. If a teacher does not communicate with the students, then the educator cannot design instruction that will benefit the students.
3b: Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques
Through the use of questioning and discussion techniques, the teacher can both build schema and assess how well the students are comprehending the content of the lesson. Questioning and discussion will help the students to build schema because they can connect the information that they just learned to their lives and their previous knowledge. Questioning and discussion also promotes deep thinking that will allow the content to be connected in more elaborate ways in the schema. The connecting of information will strengthen the schema causing the student to retain the content.
The teacher can use questioning and discussion techniques as a type of formative assessment in class. If a teacher asks questions that challenge the students, then the teacher can gauge the responses to see how the students are understanding the content.
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
It is essential that students are engaged in learning. If the students are engaged, then they are more likely to retain the content that is being taught to them. The schema will be stronger and more organized when the students are engaged in the learning process and can connect the new knowledge to their previous knowledge. To know how to engage the students, the teacher must know the students as individuals. The educator must be aware of the students’ strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, etc.
3d: Using Assessment in Instruction
Using assessment in instruction is an extremely important tool. Whether the assessment is formative or summative, it is important that the teacher be able to connect the assessment to the content to further learning. A teacher must make the assessments comprehensive for each student so that the students all have an equal chance to learn. It is also vital that the educator make the assessment relevant to the content. A project might be fun, but if it is not relevant to the content, then the project does not build schema or further learning, it is simply a pleasant interlude.
3e: Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness
A teacher must be able to be flexible and responsive to their students’ needs. Responsiveness means that a teacher recognizes when a student or class is struggling. Flexibility means adapting to alleviate or direct the struggle in a positive direction. If a student is not comprehending content, then the teacher must be able to adapt the lesson plan to help that student. If one of the students has a behavioral problem, then the teacher must be able to recognize triggers and be able to respond to the outcome of a trigger.
D. (n.d.). The Framework. Retrieved October 28, 2018, from http://www.danielsongroup.org/