Effective Teaching Practices (Science)

Subdomains

Click on the subdomain titles to examine the range of skills and concepts a student can expect to demonstrate for assessment of this Domain:



Instructional Planning and Design

  • The graduate understands the importance of aligning curriculum, teaching resources, materials and strategies to accepted academic, district and state standards, goals, and priorities as part of a curriculum evaluation and selection process to achieve instructional purposes.
  • The graduate prepares appropriate lesson plans.
  • The graduate generates clear, relevant, measurable learning objectives to meet student needs and achieve program goals.
  • The graduate creates appropriate instructional materials.
  • The graduate adapts instruction for individual and group student needs.

Instructional Presentation and Follow-Up

  • The graduate conducts a brief review of previously taught information before beginning instruction on new content.
  • The graduate maximizes instructional time in the school day and within lessons.
  • The graduate adjusts lesson procedures and content during instruction in response to student performance.
  • The graduate understands and uses reteaching purposes and methods.
  • The graduate is able to lead discussions that engage all students in exploring important questions and connections among content and ideas.
  • The graduate connects: concepts within and across subjects; to student characteristics; and student experiences.
  • The graduate explains the features and functions of guided practice and uses guided practice procedures within lessons.
  • The graduate provides opportunities for students to practice skills independently after determining that they have mastered the new skills during guided practice.
  • The graduate provides periodic reviews of lesson knowledge, skills and concepts.
  • The graduate maintains records of student performance on academic and behavioral measures.
  • The graduate analyzes student work to determine mastery.
  • The graduate introduces a lesson and goals to students.
  • The graduate administers a variety of assessments to measure student achievement and to evaluate instructional effectiveness.
  • The graduate interprets the information from assessments to understand student performance and disseminates the results to students’ parents and school staff.
  • The graduate uses strategies for oral language development and the teaching of reading, comprehension, writing, and numeracy within all content areas.
  • The graduate activates students’ prior knowledge before presenting new, related lesson content.
  • The graduate provides explicit explanations and demonstrations of the knowledge, skills, concepts, attributes, and/or thinking processes of the lesson.
  • The graduate structures lesson content appropriately using organizers to help students organize lesson skills and information.
  • The graduate provides illustrations and concrete examples.
  • The graduate knows how to use instructional curriculum, materials, and resources to meet instructional objectives and improve learning.
  • The graduate explains effective questioning and feedback and provides students with information about their behavior and learning progress.
  • The graduate explains the importance of actively monitoring student performance and uses a variety of monitoring procedures to identify student performance on tasks presented during teacher-directed and independent work.

Instructional Strategies and Approaches

  • The graduate understands, selects, and implements appropriate grouping strategies for instruction.
  • The graduate explains the features of research-based instructional approaches, identifies characteristics of effective instructional strategies, and demonstrates how to use them.
  • The graduate teaches students strategies to manage their own learning and behavior including goal setting, monitoring performance, and making appropriate decisions based on data.
  • The graduate understands the strategies students use to organize, retain, and recall information; and teaches study skills to students.

Subject-Specific Teaching Methods (Secondary Science)

  • The graduate understands and provides safe, effective, research-based instruction in science.