This blog is Part 3 of 3.
At the end of Part 2, I suggested that we will nearly always find ourselves aiming for a mixture of facilitation and instruction.
Let’s have a look at some practical examples of how this can play out.
Mixing Facilitation and Instruction
Model One: Instruction – Facilitation – Reflection
This model sees the teacher instructing learners on a topic before giving them the opportunity to lead their own learning, based on what has initially been said.
Finally, there is a reflection in which the results of the instruction and the facilitation are tied together.
So, for example, the teacher may begin by explaining to learners the three most common designs for bridges, including an analysis of the thinking involved and the reasons for their continued use.
They may then set up an activity in which learners have to create their own bridges using a selection of disparate materials.
Finally, the teacher leads a reflection in which they help learners to think about how easy it was to apply the information they received at the start of the lesson to their own building projects and what they learned because of this.
Model Two: Facilitation – Instruction – Reflection
Here the previous model is reversed.
The aim is to immerse learners in the topic straight away, engaging them and encouraging active learning.
After this, the teacher instructs learners to codify what they have discovered, address any misconceptions, and introduce new knowledge.
Using the example from above, we would begin by presenting learners with the materials and inviting them to construct one or more different types of bridge.
After this, we would instruct them on the most common types, connecting this to what they produced themselves.
The reflection would then focus on how learners set about developing their ideas and how this relates to the received understanding about bridge-building subsequently explained by the teacher.
Model Three: Discussion – Lecture – Active Practice – Teacher Talk – Repeated Practice
Learners enter the room and find a discussion question connecting a new topic to their prior experience. The teacher invites them to discuss this in pairs.
After the discussion, the teacher provides a short lecture, introducing the new topic and situating it in the context of learners’ prior knowledge.
They then present an activity in which learners must practice using the new ideas that have been introduced.
While this activity takes place, the teacher circulates through the room, observing and listening.
They then draw the class back together and explain what they have seen and heard.
As part of this, they make suggestions and provide ideas of how learners can improve what they are doing.
The activity then resumes except this time learners are expected to challenge themselves by adapting their efforts based on the teacher’s whole-class feedback.
Model Four: Activity – Activity – Activity – Teacher-led Plenary:
This model falls more heavily on the side of facilitation.
The teacher plans a series of three activities, each more challenging than the last, through which learners will be leading their own learning.
For example, we might have a first activity in which learners have to read and then discuss a series of sources connected to the topic.
Next, learners are asked to produce a report focussing on the accuracy and reliability of the sources.
Finally, learners must offer an interpretation of the topic based on the information they have been able to glean from the sources.
After this, the emphasis moves back to instruction.
The teacher leads a plenary in which they talk learners through an analysis and evaluation of the sources.
As they do this, learners are expected to reflect on and think about how they conducted their investigations and to what extent they met the standards demonstrated by the teacher.
Model Five: Teacher Talk – Activity – Teacher Talk – Activity:
A classic model seen in many classrooms the world over.
The lesson begins with the teacher talking learners through information and/or ideas relevant to the topic.
An activity is then introduced giving learners the opportunity to apply what the teacher has explained.
During the activity, the teacher circulates, asking questions, providing further modelling and addressing misconceptions.
When the time is up, the teacher presents new information or ideas.
This material is more challenging than what came first.
A second activity follows.
Learners engage with this while the teacher again circulates, with the intention of pushing thinking and supporting those who might be struggling with the more demanding content.
You can adapt these five models to any subject and any age-group.
Each has its benefits, implicit in the explanations I have provided.
Play around with them as part of your lesson planning and see how they feel to teach.
Critically reflect on your experiences and you will be well on your way to developing sound judgement about when to deploy facilitation, when to use instruction, and how to mix the two.
Building a Repertoire
Our concluding thoughts bring us to the idea of building a repertoire.
To excel as a trainee teacher, you must plan and teach lessons that effectively meet the needs of the learners in front of you.
A pragmatic attitude is key.
One that welcomes both facilitation and instruction as methods possessed of benefits, but also acknowledges the limitations inherent in each and, by extension, the danger of privileging one and ignoring the other.
Many mixtures of facilitation and instruction are possible.
There is no optimum solution, appropriate in all situations.
The key is to look at what you want your learners to achieve and to make your decisions based on that.
Through the course of your training, pay attention to the effects wrought by your use of facilitation and instruction.
Be critical.
Even if you lean toward one method, it is important you retain objectivity when analysing whether its use led to what you hoped for or not.
Thinking in this way helps you to become more discriminatory.
You will be better placed to decide what type of approach – what mixture – will yield the best results.
In addition, your repertoire will develop at pace.
This is because you will be paying attention to the activities you use.
Analysing them.
Evaluating their impact.
You can further speed your own progress by observing others and reflecting on the approaches they take – including the results that follow.
In most schools you will find colleagues who favour instruction and those who prefer facilitation.
Observing these teachers will open up a range of ideas that you can take away and make your own, helping you to extend your repertoire.
Finally, it is worth seeing your training year as a formative experience when it comes to facilitation and instruction; an experience that will be all the better if you try different things and, in so doing, seek to learn from your mistakes.
Most people who enter the profession do so with an often-unrealised bias towards either facilitation or instruction.
Challenging this bias by trying out different approaches during your training makes you a more rounded teacher.
It also helps you to critically reflect on what you believe to be the best way to make learning happen.
Whether this results in a change of mind or not is a moot point.
The important thing is that you end up with more experience on which to base your decisions and, therefore, a wider repertoire of skills on which to call.
All that remains is for me to present some questions and activities to help you in this process of reflection.
Questions
- To what extent do you feel comfortable standing in front of the class and imparting knowledge to your learners? Do your comfort levels vary depending on the topic you are teaching?
- To what extent do you feel comfortable letting learners lead their own learning? Do you think you could keep everyone’s focus on learning if you were not stood at the front of the class, holding everyone’s attention?
- Do you agree with my characterisation of the differences between facilitation and instruction, including their relative strengths and weaknesses? Why?
- Should teachers take account of learners’ preferences when deciding how to mix facilitation and instruction in a lesson?
- Which teaching method did you favour when you were at school? Did this method cause you to learn the most? Why?
Activities
- Choose a topic and plan two imaginary lessons. In the first, your focus should be completely on facilitation. In the second, you should look only at instruction. Compare the lessons you create and walk through them from the perspective of a learner. What would they be like? What learning would happen? What would be missed?
- If you are in a position where you can teach the same lesson twice (to two different classes) do so but vary the mix of facilitation and instruction on each occasion. While teaching, analyse how learners respond. Afterwards, compare the results of the two lessons. Think about the learning that took place, the atmosphere, your role and the experience your learners had.
- Create a continuum on a sheet of A3 paper. Label one end as facilitation and one end as instruction. As you plan and teach more lessons, fill in the continuum by making brief entries detailing different activities you use. This will help you to get a sense of which approach you favour and whether you need to work on developing a degree of balance. It is also a useful aide memoire for future planning.
