Teaching Practices

The Three Columns of Instruction

The Acquisition of Organized Knowledge

Didactic Instruction is the delivery of factual information. Lecture, demonstration, videos, and reading are common forms of Didactic Instruction. The goal of Didactic Instruction is for students to acquire the basic “must know information” about a subject. Because Didactic Instruction typically puts students in a passive role, the National Paideia Center advocates limiting Didactic Instruction to 10-15% of instructional time.Assessment and evaluation of Didactic Instruction and factual learning is effectively conducted through traditional short answer and multiple choice tests.

Development of Intellectual Skills

Intellectual Coaching is guidance through modeling and questioning. Intellectual Coaching may begin with a teacher modeling writing a sentence, reading a paragraph, solving a problem, or hypothesizing about a reaction. Intellectual Coaching often happens by questioning as well as both positive or corrective feedback. The goal of Intellectual Coaching is for students to acquire expertise in skills of learning, such as reading, writing, calculating, and observing. Developing skills in a relevant context occurs in a Paideia Classroom through teacher’s development and use of units called Coached Projects. Intellectual Coaching ideally occurs 70% of instructional time.Assessment and evaluation of Intellectual Coaching is conducted through performance tasks, project work often with the use of checklists and rubrics.

Increased Understanding of Ideas and Values

Paideia Seminar is a collaborative, intellectual dialogue facilitated by open-ended questions about a text. The goal of Paideia Seminar is for students to expand their understanding of ideas, concepts, and values about the curriculum. The Paideia Seminar nurtures both intellectual and social skills. Paideia Seminars occur approximately 15-20% of instructional time.Assessment and evaluation of Paideia Seminars occurs through pre and post seminar tools and processes including self identified goals, discussion, and writing.

Articles

Dowload these articles authored by Terry Roberts (Director of the National Paideia Center) and Laura Billings (Associate Director of the National Paideia Center):

• Thinking is Literacy, Literacy Thinking (Roberts and Billings, Educational Leadership ASCD, February, 2008). In literacy cycles built around Paideia Seminars, students practice thinking as a function of reading, speaking, listening, and writing. (Thinking is Literacy, Literacy Thinking)

• Speak Up and Listen (Roberts and Billings, 2009). Learning to communicate is learning to think. (Speak Up and Listen)

• The Discipline of Wonder (Roberts, Education Week, September, 2004)  “Education: the central aim of which has always been recognized, from Socrates’ day down to our own, as the freeing of the mind through the discipline of wonder.” Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book. (The Discipline of Wonder)