Training Manual for Effective
Teaching and Learning in
Emergencies and Recovery
Participant manual
Table of contents
1.
1
2
3
4
2.
INTRODUCTION
3
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ..................................................................................................................... 3
TARGET GROUP ........................................................................................................................................... 4
GOAL AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................... 4
MODEL AND STRUCTURE OF THE MANUAL ................................................................................................ 4
TRAINING SESSIONS
6
DAY 1 – ACTIVITIES AND HANDOUTS .............................................................................................................................. 7
DAY 2 - ACTIVITIES AND HANDOUT............................................................................................................................... 21
DAY 3 - ACTIVITIES AND HANDOUTS ............................................................................................................................. 32
10. REFERENCES AND RESOURCES
46
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1. Introduction
1
Background and context
The current situation of frequent armed conflicts, as well as natural and man-made disasters in different parts of the world has
led to a growing number of internally displaced people and refugees. In the Middle East for example, millions of people have left
their homes in search of safe places where they are offered temporary shelter, with growing needs for aid. In his appeal for aid
for refugees from Syria,Alexander Aleinikoff1, Deputy High Commissioner at UNHCR said, on the side-lines of the World Economic
Forum at the Dead Sea, that the refugee community is projected to double from the current 1.5 million to 3 million by the end of
2013. Aleinikoff added that if the violence continues, the needs will only continue to grow.
In such a situation, aid providers are faced with all types of challenges in responding not only to their traditional basic needs
such as shelter, food, water, and medical care, but also to educational needs of children and youth whose regular schooling has
been interrupted. Education is increasingly gaining the attention of several humanitarian organizations and host countries as a
fundamental human right that is part of the aid package.The main challenge remains how to provide quality education while
ensuring equal access to all primary school age children.
Teachers play a central role in the education sector, as the main actors who are capable of bringing the change expected by
communities with the graduates of the school system. The current situation where schools are required to increase access to
all children while providing them with quality training of teachers is therefore one of the major components in any education
intervention, including in emergencies.
The Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) considers training crucial to achievement of the minimum
standards in Teaching and Learning.
This training manual has been developed as a result of the current emergent situation in Syria where Palestinian refugees fled
into Lebanon, as part of UNRWA’s response to the crisis. The Lebanon Field Office (LFO) has integrated the refugees into the
UNRWA Education System, catering for those who registered with UNRWA by organizing a double shift system, with afternoon
classes in the existing schools. In addition,recently qualified teachers have been recruited under a special programme for
Palestine Refugees Students from Syria (PRS), in order to respond to the educational needs of the increasing number of
children in these schools.
A Rapid Needs Assessment undertaken by NRC2 Lebanon Office in five selected schools revealed there was a need for most of
the newly appointed teachers for PRS to be trained and supported in an accelerated training program.The program would focus
on classroom management, lesson planning and interactive teaching approaches for education during crisis and emergencies,
psychosocial support and communication skills.
The “Training Manual for Effective Teaching and Learning in Emergencies and Recovery” has been developed under the HQ
Framework for Education in Emergency and in collaboration with UNRWA Lebanon Fields Office (LFO). It is part of the efforts of
UNRWA’s education department, through its TDSE Unit, to train newly recruited teachers of UNRWA schools how to respond to
the educational needs of Palestinian Refugees Students from Syria. The manual can be used in addition to tools produced by
other units of the education department or stakeholders dealing with cross-cutting issues such as inclusive education and
human rights.
1
UNRWA Media Review, Public Information Office Jordan Field, 27 May 2013. Amman, Jordan
2
NRC, Rapid Education Needs Assessment for Palestine Refugee Students from Syria in five UNRWA Schools in Lebanon, February 2013
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2
Target group
3
Goal and objectives
Although the programme is primarily designed for teachers who are responsible for students of elementary, preparatory and
secondary schools in the special conditions of UNRWA Schools in Lebanon, it can also be revised and adapted to similar
situations that require teacher training in emergency scenarios.
The commitment and skills of UNRWA teachers have been the foundation of a successful education system that has operated
across UNRWA’s five Fields over the last sixty years. In emergency situations, this commitment and teachers' overall role is
central towards the provision of quality education. This training manual will serve as a guiding and supporting tool for
facilitators and all other teachers in the context of emergencies to better understand UNRWA’s education programme; what it
consists of, what resources are available to draw upon towards achieving its overall vision of establishing “an education system
which develops the full potential of Palestine refugees to enable them to be confident, innovative, questioning, thoughtful,
tolerant and open minded, upholding human values and religious tolerance, proud of their Palestine identity and contributing
positively to the development of their society and the global community”.
The training aims to equip teachers with necessary professional knowledge, attitudes and skills to enable them to effectively and
confidently perform their duties.
More specifically, it is expected that at the end of the training, teachers will be able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of UNRWA Education programme.
2. Understand how children learn and its “implications for teachers”.
3. Manage the teaching and learning process and space under the specific conditions of emergencies.
4. Use child-centred methodologies of teaching and learning.
5. Demonstrate self-confidence and motivation in performing their duties.
6. Assess students learning needs and use continuous assessment to inform their lesson planning.
7. Adapt and enrich the teaching content in core learning areas (Arabic, English, Maths and Science) to respond to
students’ needs.
4
Model and structure of the manual
The manual can be used for a face-to-face three day training of five hours each, with additional materials for self-study by
teachers. It is divided into topics and subjects that have been prepared for ease of use by facilitators. These provide teachers
with guiding principles, strategies and tips for effective teaching and learning in orderto strengthen their abilities and
pedagogical skills to perform better in their duties. The manual is made up of two documents: one addressing facilitators and
the other addressing teachers. The facilitator will require access to both documents in order to lead the training. The definitions
of the training techniques are listed at the end of the facilitators' guide as annexes and will support any facilitator in leading the
sessions regardless of their training experience. It is worth noting that the training methodology has been adapted to suit
situations of emergency,i.e., the power point presentations are presented as additional resources in the annexes, yet their use
is optional depending on the availability of resources.
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A sample outline of the three-day training would look as follows:
Day
Day1
Training
hours
Topics/Subjects




Introductions, expectations and objectives
UNRWA Education Programme
Child-centered methodologies of teaching and learning
Managing the teaching and learning process and space
under the specific conditions of emergencies
Understanding assessment in teaching and learning
The role of assessment in supporting learning
Types of assessment : Formative vs Summative
Importance of feedback
5
Day2




Day3
 Identifying key numeracy and literacy concepts and skills
 Techniques for developing numeracy and literacy skills
 Cross curricular approach of teaching numeracy and
literacy
5
5
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2.
Training sessions
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Day 1 – Activities and handouts
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H1: Topic 'How Children Learn'
(Sessions 1&2 /Slides 19-29 from the Day 1 PPT)
1.
To the teachers
Write three practises that you have used in the classroom?
2. Can you add two practises after discussions with your colleagues?
-
Total estimated time of the activity (75 minutes)
(30 minutes Group work, 15 minutes reporting, 30 minutes reflection into classroom
practice)
Group work: 30 minutes
Facilitator follows the jig sawing technique in conducting this task (Facilitators may refer to the
Facilitators' notes on description of the technique and for more information on group
work) Participants are divided into groups. The number of the groups depends on the number of
participants. Each group should not exceed five members. The task each group is required to accomplish is
reading and discussion of one of the principles below.
How children learn:
In the discussion of how children learn, the focus should be on three principles widely recognized as the basis
on which teachers should design learning environments in today’s schools:
1. learning environments that encourage students to be active learners
2. to collaborate with other students and
3. to use meaningful tasks and authentic materials.
This is integrated with cognitive factors that are primarily internal, but also interact with environmental factors
in important ways.
In the following paragraphs, a summary of research findings on these principles are introduced with
application and tips on their classroom use.
Principle No. 1:
Learning requires an active, constructive involvement of the learner.
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Researchfindings
Learning at school requires students to pay attention, observe, memorize, understand, set goals and assume
responsibility for their own learning. These cognitive activities are not possible without active involvement
and engagement of the learner. Teachers must help students to become active, motivated and goal oriented by
building on their natural desire to explore, to understand new things and to master them.
In the classroom
It is a challenge for teachers to create interesting and challenging learning environments that encourage active
involvement of students. The following are some suggestions as to how this can be done:
• Avoid situations where students are passive listeners for long periods of time.
• Provide students with hands-on activities, such as experiments, observations, projects, etc.
• Encourage participation in classroom discussions and other collaborative activities.
• Organize school visits to museums and technological parks.
• Allow students to take some control over their own learning.Taking control over one’s learning
means allowing students to make some decisions about what to learn and how.
• Assist students in creating learning goals that are consistent with their interests and future
aspirations.
Principle No.2:
Learning is primarily a social activity and participation in the social life of the school is central for
learning to occur
Research findings
For many researchers, social participation is the main activity through which learning occurs. Social activity
and participation begin early on. Parents interact with their children and through these interactions children
acquire the behaviours that enable them to become effective members of society. According to the
psychologist Lev Vygotsky, the way children learn is by internalizing the activities, habits, vocabulary and
ideas of the members of the community in which they grow up. The establishment of a fruitful collaborative
and co-operative atmosphere is an essential part of school learning. Research has shown that social
collaboration can boost student achievement, provided that the kinds of interactions that are encouraged
contribute to learning. Finally, social activities are interesting in their own right and help to keep students
involved in their academic work. Students work harder to improve the quality of their products (essays,
projects, artwork, etc.) when they know that they will be shared with other students.
In the classroom
Teachers can do many things to encourage social participation in ways that facilitate learning:
• They can assign students to work in groups and assume the role of a coach/co-ordinator who
provides guidance and support to the groups.
• They can create a classroom environment that includes group workspaces where resources are
shared.
• Through modelling and coaching, they can teach students how to co-operate with each other.
• They can create circumstances for students to interact with each other, to express their opinions and
to evaluate other students’ arguments.
• An important aspect of social learning is to link the school to the community at large. In this way,
students’ opportunities for social participation are enlarged.
Principle No.3:
People learn best when they participate inactivities that are perceived to be useful inreal life and are
culturally relevant
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Research findings
Many school activities are not meaningful since students understand neither why they are doing them nor what
their purpose and usefulness is. Sometimes school activities are not meaningful because they are not culturally
appropriate. Many schools are communities where children from diverse cultures learn together. There are
systematic cultural differences in practices, in habits, in social roles, etc., that influence learning. Sometimes
meaningful activities for students coming from one cultural group are not meaningful to students who are
coming from another cultural group.
In the classroom
Teachers can make classroom activities more meaningful by situating them in an authentic context. An
example of an authentic context is one in which the activity is typically used in real life. For example, students
can improve their oral language and communication skills by participating in debates. They can improve their
writing skills by being involved in the preparation of a classroom newspaper. Students can learn science by
participating in a community or school environmental project. The school can be in contact with local
scientists and invite them to lecture, or allow the students to visit their laboratories. It is also important for
teachers to be aware of the cultural differences of the children in their classroom and to respect these
differences. They must see them as strengths to build on, rather than as defects. Children will feel differently in
the classroom if their culture is reflected in the common activities. School routines that are unfamiliar to some
children can be introduced gradually so that the transition can be less traumatic for ethnically diverse groups.
Principle No.4:
New knowledge is constructed on the basis of what is already understood and believed
Research findings
The idea that people’s ability to learn something new follows from what they already know is not new, but
more recent research findings have shown that the ability to relate new information to prior knowledge is
critical for learning. It is not possible for someone to understand, remember or learn something that is
completely unfamiliar. Some prior knowledge is necessary to understand the task at hand. But having the
prerequisite prior knowledge is still not sufficient to ensure adequate results. People must activate their prior
knowledge in order to be able to use it for understanding and for learning. Research shows that students do not
consistently see the relationships between new material that they read and what they already know. Research
also shows that learning is enhanced when teachers pay close attention to the prior knowledge of the learner
and use this knowledge as the starting point for instruction.
In the classroom
Teachers can help students activate prior knowledge and use it for the task at hand. This can be done in a
number of ways.
• Teachers can discuss the content of a lesson before starting in order to ensure that the students have
the necessary prior knowledge and in order to activate this knowledge.
• Often students’ prior knowledge is incomplete or there are false beliefs and critical misconceptions.
Teachers do not simply need to know that students know something about the topic to be introduced.
They need to investigate students’ prior knowledge in detail so that false beliefs and misconceptions
can be identified.
• Teachers may need to go back to cover important prerequisite material or ask the students to do
some preparatory work on their own.
• Teachers can ask the kind of question that helps students see relationships between what they are
reading and what they already know.
• Effective teachers can help students to grasp relationships and make connections. They can do so by
providing a model or a scaffold that students can use as support in their efforts to improve their
performance.
Principle No.5:
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Learners must know how to plan andmonitor their learning, how to set their ownlearning goals and
how to correct errors
Research findings
The term ‘self-regulation’ is used here to indicate students’ ability to monitor their own learning, to understand
when they are making errors, and to know how to correct them. Self-regulation is not the same as being
strategic. People can use strategies for learning mechanically without being fully aware of what they are doing.
Self-regulation involves the development of specific strategies that help learners evaluate their learning, check
their understanding and correct errors when appropriate. Self-regulation requires reflection in the sense of
being aware of one’s own beliefs and strategies. Reflection can develop through discussion, debates and
essays, where children are encouraged to express their opinions and defend them. Another important aspect of
reflection is being able to distinguish appearance from reality, common beliefs from scientific knowledge, etc.
In the classroom
Teachers can help students become self-regulated and reflective by providing opportunities:
• To plan how to solve problems, design experiments and read books;
• To evaluate the statements, arguments, solutions to problems of others, as well as of one’s self;
• To check their thinking and ask themselves questions about their understanding— (Why am I doing
what I am doing? How well am I doing? What remains to be done?);
• To develop realistic knowledge of themselves as learners— (I am good in reading, but need to work
on my mathematics);
• To set their own learning goals;
• To know what are the most effective strategies to use and when to use them.
Principle No.6:
People learn by employing effective and flexible strategies that help them tounderstand, reason,
memorize and solve problems
Research findings
Children develop strategies to help themselves solve problems from an early age. For example, when preschool children are told to go to the supermarket to buy a list of food items, they often repeat the items on their
way to remember them better. These children have discovered rehearsal as a strategy to improve their memory
without anybody telling them to do so. When they go to school, children need help from teachers to develop
appropriate strategies for solving mathematics problems, when understanding texts, doing science, learning
from other students, etc. Research shows that when teachers make systematic attempts to teach learning
strategies to students substantial gains can result. Strategies are important because they help students
understand and solve problems in ways that are appropriate for the situation at hand. Strategies can improve
learning and make it faster. Strategies may differ in their accuracy, in their difficulty of execution, in their
processing demands and in the range of problems to which they apply. The broader the range of strategies that
children can use appropriately, the more successful they can be in problem solving, in reading, in text
comprehension and in memorizing.
In the classroom
Teachers must recognize the importance of students knowing and using a variety of strategies. The teaching of
strategies can be done directly or indirectly. In the latter case, the teacher can give students a task and provide
a model of the inquiry process or ask key questions. For example, in reading, teachers can explicitly show
students how to outline the important points in a text and how to summarize them. Alternatively, they can ask
a group of students to discuss a text and summarize it. They can help in this process by participating in the
discussion and by asking critical questions. In science, teachers can show students how to conduct
experiments: how to form hypotheses, how to keep a systematic record of their findings, and how to evaluate
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them. It is important to ensure that students learn to use these strategies on their own and do not always rely on
teachers to provide the necessary support. Teachers need to gradually fade their assistance and allow students
to take greater responsibility for their learning.
Principle No.7:
Sometimes prior knowledge can stand in the way of learning something new.Students must learn
how to solve internal inconsistencies and restructure existingconceptions when necessary
Research findings
Sometimes existing knowledge can stand in the way of understanding new information. While this is often the
case in the learning of science and mathematics, it can apply to all subject matter areas. It happens because our
current understanding of the physical and social world, of history, of theorizing about numbers, etc., is the
product of thousands of years of cultural activity that has radically changed intuitive ways of explaining
phenomena. For example, in the area of mathematics, many children make mistakes when they use fractions
because they use rules that apply to natural numbers only. Similarly, in the physical sciences, students form
various misconceptions. The idea that the Earth is round like a pancake or like a sphere flattened on the top
happens because it reconciles the scientific information that the Earth is round, with the intuitive belief that it
is flat and that people live upon its top. Such misconceptions do not apply only in young children. They are
common in high school and college students as well.
In the classroom
What can teachers do to facilitate the understanding of counterintuitive information?
• Teachers need to be aware that students have prior beliefs and incomplete understandings that can
conflict with what is being taught at school.
• It is important to create the circumstances where alternative beliefs and explanations can be
externalized and expressed.
• Teachers need to build on the existing ideas of students and slowly lead them to more mature
understandings. Ignoring prior beliefs can lead to the formation of misconceptions.
• Students must be provided with observations and experiments that have the potential of showing to
them that some of their beliefs can be wrong. Examples from the history of science can be used for
this purpose.
• Scientific explanations must be presented with clarity and, when possible, exemplified with models.
• Students must be given enough time to restructure their prior conceptions. In order to do this, it is
better to design curricula that deal with fewer topics in greater depth than attempting to cover a great
deal of topics in a superficial manner.
Principle No.8:
Learning is better when material is organized around general principles and explanations, rather
than when it is based on the memorization of isolated facts and procedures
Research findings
All teachers want their students to understand what they are learning and not to memorize facts in a superficial
way. Research shows that when information is superficially memorized it is easily forgotten. On the contrary,
when something is understood, it is not forgotten easily and it can be transferred to other situations (see also
the next principle on transfer). In order to understand what they are being taught, students must be given the
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opportunity to think about what they are doing, to talk about it with other students and with teachers, to clarify
it and to understand how it applies in many situations
In the classroom
How does one teach for understanding? The following are some tasks teachers can carry out in order to
promote understanding of the material that has been taught:
• Ask students to explain a phenomenon or a concept in their own words.
• Show students how to provide examples that illustrate how a principle applies or how a law works.
• Students must be able to solve characteristic problems in the subject-matter area. Problems can
increase in difficulty as students acquire greater expertise.
• When students understand the material, they can see similarities and differences, they can compare
and contrast, and they can understand and generate analogies.
• Teach students how to abstract general principles from specific cases and generalize from specific
examples.
Principle No.9:
Learning becomes more meaningful when the lessons are applied to real-life situations.
Research findings
Students often cannot apply what they have learned at school to solve real-world problems. For example, they
may learn about Newton’s laws at school but fail to see how they apply in real life situations. Transfer is very
important. Why should someone want to go to school if what is learned there does not transfer to other
situations and cannot be used outside the school?
In the classroom
Teachers can improve students’ ability to transfer what they have learned at school by:
• Insisting on mastery of subject matter. Without an adequate degree of understanding, transfer cannot
take place (see previous principle).
• Helping students see the transfer implications of the information they have learned.
• Applying what has been learned in one subject-matter area to other areas to which it may be related.
• Showing students how to abstract general principles from concrete examples.
• Helping students learn how to monitor their learning and how to seek and use feedback about their
progress.
• Teach for understanding rather than for memorization (see previous principle).
Principle No.10:
Learning is a complex cognitive activity thatcannot be rushed. It requires considerabletime and
periods of practice to start buildingexpertise in an area.
Research findings
Research shows that people must carry out a great deal of practice to acquire expertise in an area. Even small
differences in the amount of time during which people are exposed to information can result in large
differences in the information they have acquired. Cognitive psychologists Chase & Simon (1973) studied
chess experts and found that they had often spent as many as 50,000 hours practising chess. A 35-year-old
chess master who has spent 50,000 hours playing chess must have spent four to five hours on the chessboard
from the age of 5 every day for thirty years! Less accomplished players have spent considerably less time
playing chess.
Research shows that the reading and writing skills of high school students relate to the hours they have spent
on reading and writing. Effective reading and writing requires a lot of practice. Students from disadvantaged
environments who have fewer opportunities to learn and who miss school because of work or illness will not
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be expected to do as well at school compared to children who had more time to practice and acquire
information.
In the classroom
Many educational programmes are designed to increase one’s exposure to learning situations preferably at an
early age. Here are some recommendations for teachers that can help students spend more time on learning
tasks.
• Increase the amount of time students spend on learning in the classroom.
• Give students learning tasks that are consistent with what they already know.
• Do not try to cover too many topics at once. Give students time to understand the new information.
• Help students engage in ‘deliberate practice’ that includes active thinking and monitoring of their
own learning.
• Give students access to books so that they can practice reading at home.
• Be in contact with parents so that they can learn to provide richer educational experiences for their
children.
Principle No.11:
Children learn best when their individual differences are taken into consideration.
Research findings
Research shows that there are major developmental differences in learning. As children develop, they form
new ways of representing the world and they also change the processes and strategies they use to manipulate
these representations. In addition, there are important individual differences in learning. Developmental
psychologist Howard Gardner has argued that there are many dimensions of human intelligence other than the
logical and linguistic skills that are usually valued in most school environments. Some children are gifted in
music, others have exceptional spatial skills (required, for example, by architects and artists), or bodily/
kinaesthetic abilities (required by athletes), or abilities to relate to other people, etc. Schools must create the
best environment for the development of children taking into consideration such individual differences.
In the classroom
The following are recommendations for creating the best environment for the development of children, while
recognizing their individual differences:
• Learn how to assess children’s knowledge, strategies and modes of learning adequately.
• Introduce children to a wide range of materials, activities and learning tasks that include language,
mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, art, music, movement, social understanding, etc.
• Identify students’ areas of strength, paying particular attention to the interest, persistence and
confidence they demonstrate in different kinds of activities.
• Support students’ areas of strength and utilize these areas to improve overall academic performance.
• Guide and challenge students’ thinking and learning.
• Ask children thought-provoking questions and give them problems to solve. Urge children to test
hypotheses in a variety of ways.
• Create connections to the real world by introducing problems and materials drawn from everyday
situations.
• Show children how they can use their unique profiles of intelligence to solve real-world problems.
• Create circumstances for students to interact with people in the community, and particularly with
adults who are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the kinds of things that are of interest to the
students.
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Principle No.12:
Learning is critically influenced by learner motivation. Teachers can help studentsbecome more
motivated learners by their behaviour and the statements they make.
Research findings
Motivated learners are easy to recognize because they have a passion for achieving their goals and are ready to
expend a great deal of effort. They also show considerable determination and persistence. This influences the
amount and quality of what is learned. All teachers want to have motivated learners in their classrooms. How
can they achieve this? Psychologists distinguish between two kinds of motivation: extrinsic motivation and
intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation results when positive rewards are used to increase the frequency of
target behaviour. Praise, high grades, awards, money and food can be used for that effect. Intrinsic motivation
is when learners actively participate in activities without having to be rewarded for it. The child who likes to
put together puzzles for the fun of it is intrinsically motivated. An important characteristic of intrinsically
motivated learners is their belief that effort is important for success. Teachers can influence students’
determination to achieve by their behaviour and the statements they make.
In the classroom
Teachers must use encouraging statements that reflect an honest evaluation of learner performance:
• Recognize student accomplishments.
• Attribute student achievement to internal and not external factors (e.g. ‘you have good ideas’).
• Help students believe in themselves (e.g. ‘you are putting a lot of effort on math and your grades
have muchimproved’).
• Provide feedback to children about the strategies they use and instruction as to how to improve
them.
• Help learners set realistic goals.
It is also important to:
• Refrain from grouping students according to their ability. Ability grouping gives the message that
ability is valued more than effort.
• Promote co-operation rather than competition. Research suggests that competitive arrangements that
encourage students to work alone to achieve high grades and rewards tend to give the message that
what is valued is ability and diminish intrinsic motivation.
• Provide novel and interesting tasks that challenge learners’ curiosity and higher-order thinking skills
at the appropriate level of difficulty.
(15 minutes)
Expert groups discuss the principles among each other.
30minutes
pair & share activity:
Participants (think pair & share) to select a certain activity from the textbooks they have taught and
plan to teach it based on the principles discussed above.
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H2: Topic 'Demonstrate understanding of child-centered
methodologies of teaching and learning'
(Session 3 / Slides 30-43 from the Day 1 PPT)
Total estimated Time: (45 minutes)
Case Study / Group work:
 Participants are divided into groups. Each group is handed one case study from the three case
studiesbelow. (Facilitators may refer to the Facilitators' notes on description of the
technique and for more information on Case Study)
10 minutes
Individual activity
Each participant should have to go through the case study individually, write down ideas and
notes
15 minutes
Discussion / Group work:
 Facilitator
asks participants to discuss their ideas and notes regarding the case study. Then
using a flip chart they write the main points for reporting to the other groups. (The facilitator
reminds the groups of the importance of dividing ther roles among group members).
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
Case study 1
Sami teaches the third grade in Karmel School.
He planned that the children, as part of the science curriculum, would learn about concepts of domestic
and wild animals. The day before the lesson, he asked them to bring some pictures of animals that live in
their area for the science class. He also found some pictures, as he knew that not all the children would be
able to bring in a picture.
In the lesson, he asked some of the class to tell him what they knew about these animals and then he asked
others what they wanted to know about the animals. Many of them wanted to know about their life cycle,
their habits, how to look after them and what they eat.
Sami divided the class into groups of four students each and asked them to classify each of the animals into
one of two groups:
Animals we keep and use in different ways e.g. for meat, milk and travel.
Animals we don't keep or use.
He worked two examples with the students, putting the answers on the blackboard. After that, he gave each
group a large piece of paper, on which he had drawn the outline of a table (see below). Sami asked them to
classify the animals into two groups by placing each picture on one side of the table and writing the
animal’s name next to it.
He gave them 15 minutes to do the activity and asked them to choose one person to act as the group
spokesperson to explain to the rest of the class what they had done. They recorded their answers in the
following way:
Animals we keep and use
Animals we don’t keep or use
Picture
Picture
Name
Goat
Name
Oryx
As the children worked, Sami moved around the groups listening to their discussions, supporting and
encouraging them, answering questions, observing their progress, and giving feedback.
After 15 minutes, Sami asked each group spokesperson to stick the group’s answers on the wall and then
explain their ideas to the whole class. As they did this, Sami helped to facilitate any questions from other
children. He highlighted any differences in ideas between groups and helped them agree on their answers
where necessary.
He then asked students to suggest a name for each group of animals and listed their answers on the board.
Some of the children had used the word ‘wild’ for those that are not kept or used. But no one had used the
word ‘domesticated’ and so Sami gave them this word to use for those animals that are kept and used.
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 Case study 2
Kifah teaches Arabic to sixth grade students at UNRWA Akka Elementary School.
She decided that the class would do a project on water. She knew that her class was studying water in their
science class and she agreed with Reem, the science teacher, that she would use that theme for teaching
Arabic.
Kifah decided to begin the topic with a brainstorming session. She wrote the word ‘WATER’ in the middle of
the board and then asked the children to put up their hands with ideas and words that they think about when
they hear the word water. She wrote down all their answers without making any comment until there were no
more answers. Before she asked the children to talk about the ideas, Kifah checked that all the children knew
what the words meant and encouraged them to share their ideas about meanings of words to help each other.
She then asked the children to look closely at all these answers and discuss with their neighbour whether they
could link all the different ideas together and, if so, how. She gave them ten minutes to talk and then asked
some of the pairs to give her one example of the links they could make or themes they could identify. She
showed the links on the board using a different coloured chalk to link the words. All the children actively
engaged with this. As the lesson proceeded, Kifah began to identify themes that were emerging to the children.
These included:





Uses of water.
Dangers from water.
Cultural beliefs about water.
What water is like.
Sources of water.
Next, Kifah asked the children to work in pairs to choose one of the themes and to write a short story based
around that theme. Again, she checked the children’s understanding of terms and together they shared words
and phrases that could be used to describe the different features and characteristics of water.
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 Case study 3
Kawther teaches a Grade 3 class at Al Breish elementary school in Gaza.
She arranged with her head teacher to ask a local storyteller to come and tell some stories to her class. She
particularly asked the storyteller to include the Al-Shater Hassan story.
The children found the story very interesting and had a lot of questions for the storyteller. After thanking her,
Kawther asked her class to tell her the main parts of the story, which she listed, on the board. Next, she
divided her class into groups and asked them to think how they could act the whole story or any favourite part
of the story. She gave them 20 minutes to sort out their ideas andpractise. Shesentsome of her class out into the
playground so there was more room in the class for all to try out their ideas.
She called the class together and then asked each group in turn to show what they had done so far. The
children watched each group with great interest and applauded at the end. Kawther was delighted with how
well they had listened and was amazed with their performance and the interesting ways the groups acted out
the same incident. The children asked if they could do this again as they liked both the storytelling and acting
and seemed to remember much more.
In the next lesson, Kawther asked her class to draw pictures of some of the events of the story and then to write
what happened. She collected these together and made them into a book, which she stapled together and put in
the classroom for the children to look at and read. She gave it the title Al-Shater Hassan Story as retold by
Grade 3.
The class were very proud and excited to see their book!
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H3: Topic 'Manage the teaching and learning process and space under
conditions of emergency'
(Session 4 / Slides 44-48 from the Day 1 PPT)
Total Time (40 minutes: 20 minutes group work and 20 minutes feedback discussion)
20 minutes
Group work:
Facilitator asks participants to produce a resources grid;s/he emphasizes the need to reflect the
context of emergencies in their work. Interest groups are formed for this task (Facilitators may
refer to the Facilitators' notes on description of the technique and for more information on
group work)
Participants think about the curriculum they are teaching. Select one area of the curriculum in which you can
use the local environment and community to make teaching more active and interesting. Draw a grid like the
one below, except keep it blank. Brainstorm among the group various ideas how you could use the
environment in different ways. You may want to do six different ideas for one area of the curriculum, rather
than doing one idea for six different areas of the curriculum.
Curriculum area
Local resource to be used
Nature of use
1. Mathematics
area of the playground
measuring skills
2. Art
using plants as dyes
making own dyes
3. Language
environmental print
ways adverts capture interest
4. Science
5. Geography
6. History
Now pin on the wall all the charts that you and other teachers have prepared. Are there other ideas that you
could use? Would you want to change some of your ideas to the ideas of a colleague?
20 minutes
Individual activity
Participants are asked to select a certain activity from the textbooks they have taught then plan for
teaching it using the resources grid produced by the groups.
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Day 2 - Activities and handout
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Day 2: Assessment in teaching and learning
Answer to the follow questions
3. What are the keys messages of Day 1 sessions?
-
2. What are your expectations for today’s sessions on assessment in teaching and learning?
-
Suggested expectations:

Understanding of the concept, role, and different types of assessment

Knowledge, understanding of and ability to efficiently use a variety of different types of
questions to aid learning;

Ability to provide feedback in teaching and learning.
3. What are the various activities that normally take place in the classroom?
Indicate among the activities above, those related to assessment, and explain what differentiates
them from the others.
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Definition of assessment
Assessment is generally referred to as an investigation carried out before planning educational
activities and intervening in an emergency to determine needs and gaps in the response as well as
available resources.
In the context of teaching and learning, teachers and other education personnel often measure
learning outcomes by way of testing learners’ progress and achievement. An ‘assessment of
learning outcomes’ is determined by and based on the curriculum of an education programme.
4. Different types of assessment
Case study: SBTD hand out 20 Module 3, Unit 9
3. Case Study 20
Nabeel teaches a Grade 5 class in Syria.
At the end of one week when he had been teaching about volcanoes, Nabeel wanted to find out
what the children had learnt. He gave them a description of the way volcanoes develop and erupt
but he left blank 20 key words that had to be filled in. Every child wrote his/her name on the paper
and then proceeded to fill the gaps in. On completion they exchanged their papers with another
child. Nabeelthen had a question and answer session to agree the answers and for the children to
mark each other’s work. They returned the marked sheets with a count of correct answers listed at
the bottom. Nabeel asked for a show of hands as to who had got more than 5 correct. Nearly all the
children put their hands up. Nabeel asked them to keep their hands up if they got more than 10. He
then asked them to keep their hands up if they got more than 15. As he saw the hands come down,
he got an idea of who had succeeded well and who was having difficulty. He collected in the sheets
so that he could see, later in the day, whether there were common errors among all the children.
For homework, children had to think how they would explain the reasons why a volcano erupts to a
Grade 2 child. He asked them to write notes about this and bring them to the next lesson because
the following week they were going to try out their explanations.
Nabeel took the volcano sheets home and, as he prepared his lessons for the following week, he
looked at which children had done well and who needed more support.
For his next lesson he organised the children into groups, putting stronger and weaker children
together. He asked each group to work on a presentation about volcanoes for a group of Grade 2
children. Nabeel went round the groups supporting the children he had identified as needing extra
support sensitively, asking questions of individuals and the group to ensure everybody understood.
The children practised their presentations and Nabeel gave feedback to each group, both on the
content and ways of presenting, to help them make their presentations more effective.
The children in Grade 2 came to hear the presentations by the groups and Nabeel went around and
listened to each one. As a consequence, Nabeel was able to judge that only two children had still
not fully understood the topic.During a class reading activity the next day, he took the two children
aside for ten minutes and helped them understand by asking them together to describe the process
to him.
Activity: Based on Nabeel’s case,
Think about your own teaching.
Discuss with a colleague how often you use these sorts of approaches and how do you gather
information about the children in your class?
Note: To be really effective, a teacher needs to challenge and enlighten his/her pupils’ thinking
and understanding each and every day. In order to do this, the teacher needs to be aware of
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what children already know and use this information to build and extend their knowledge and
skills.
Types of assessment
A part from the initial assessment that can be used to determine placement or educational level of
a learner, there are two main types of assessments which are often used as integral part of
strengthening the teaching and learning process:

Formative assessment: Continuous evaluation of learners and learning.
The information collected is used to improve teaching and learning process. Teachers and
other education personnel use information to modify approaches and materials to improve
outcomes. Examples may include homework, oral reports, or essays.

Summative Assessment: Evaluation of previous learning to determine achievement.
Examinations and other methods are used to determine learner achievement and
preparedness to proceed to the next levels of education.
5. Tools and methods of assessment
List different tools used in assessment
Teachers need to regularly use a variety of assessment tools and methods that reflect the agreed
learning outcomes and their indicators. However, these assessment tools should always be adapted
to reflect information needed in a specific context and environment.
Following is a non-exhaustive list of tools used in the assessment of various learning outcomes,
which are classified according to various criteria and indicators:




Knowledge: closed questions (e.g., true-false or multiple choice questionnaires), openended questions (e.g., essays, sentence completion), analysis of a case study or fictional
scenario, time lines, picture sorting, role-plays and simulations;
Attitudes: closed-ended questions, open-ended questions, analysis of a case study or
fictional scenario, role-plays and simulations, and scales (e.g., Likert scales, semantic
differential scales and social distance scales);
Skills: closed-ended questions, analysis of a case study or fictional scenario, role-plays and
simulations, checklists and diaries and journals;
Behavioural intent: closed-ended questions, analysis of a case study or fictional scenario,
role-plays and simulations, checklists, diaries and journals and ‘intent to behave’
statements
Suggestions to improve classroom assessment
The following are a number of suggestions designed to improve teachers’ classroom procedures.
They may also be used to inform teacher education courses.
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










Assessment should be an integral and frequent aspect of teaching, in which
questions that focus on meaningful aspects of learning are used.
Teachers should develop reasonable, but challenging, expectations for all
pupils, using a variety of methods in a variety of situations (e.g., essays,
homework, and projects).
The focus in assessment should be on diagnostic and formative aspects,
rather than normative aspects (i.e., assessments that rank students on the
basis of results).
Teachers should ask questions that allow students display higher-order
thinking skills (not just recall) and that require inferential and deductive
reasoning.
Pupils’ understanding of the general principles of a curriculum domain
should be assessed, as well as their ability to use appropriate methods and
strategies in solving problems.
Readily understood and prompt feedback should be provided to students.
Students’ processes (how they approach/analyse issues), not just products,
should be assessed.
Assessment should help students reflect on their own learning.
Questions should require students to explore/expand on issues, not just
repeat information.
The results of assessments, when appropriate, should be communicated to
parents and other interested parties (e.g., other teachers).
The use of criterion-referenced tests can enrich teachers’ classroom
assessment practice. Periodic administration (every few weeks) of the tests
will provide information on what students have learned, when there is a
need for further teaching, and identify students in need of additional help.
5. QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES TO PROMOTE A VARIED APPROACH TO CLASSROOM-BASED
ASSESSMENT PRACTICE
4. INTRODUCTION
Questioning is one of the most important skills that teachers learn and develop. It is a valuable
tool in helping children learn and make sense of their world and it encourages deeper thinking
and creativity.
5
Importance of questioning in teaching and learning
5. Activity 23
Look at the list below, which describes ten reasons for asking questions. Which do you think are
most directly related to monitoring progress?
1. To arouse interest and curiosity about a topic.
2. To focus attention on a particular issue or concept.
3. To develop an active approach to learning.
4. To stimulate children to ask questions of themselves and others.
5. To structure a task in such a way that learning will be maximised.
6. To diagnose specific difficulties that prevent children from learning.
7. To communicate to the class that they are expected to be involved in the lesson.
8. To provide an opportunity for children to assimilate and reflect upon information.
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9. To help the development of thinking skills.
10. To express a genuine interest in the ideas and feelings of children.
It is clear that 2, 5, 6 and 8 are clearly related to learning progress and the others all are related
to helping children learn and to understand better how they learn. But all the ways of
questioning in this list have a place in the teacher’s repertoire of questioning skills. The
important thing is to be aware of which types of question need to be frequently used in order to
assess learning and progress, and which types of question help learning.
6
Different types of questions
Classify the following questions into two different categories according to the types of
responses that they require:
‘How many days are they in one week?’
‘Look at this photograph of oil tankers. Why do you think some are smaller than others in the
picture?’
Is Dubai the capital city of Emirates?
Explain the best way of drawing a square.
Questions (1), and (3) can be answered with a simple statement or fact or with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
They are close–ended questions. Closed questions are used to direct the conversation. They get
specific information or confirm facts, and generally have only one answer
Questions (2) and (4) encourage a variety of responses.
They are open-ended questions. Open-ended questions prompts children to think more deeply
about the concept or issue raised in the question and to suggest answers. Well-chosen openended questions are similar to higher-order questions, as they encourage creativity and
thinking.
7
Improving questioning techniques
Children learn better if the questions they are asked are demanding but within their capabilities.
Questioning is therefore a technique that teachers can master through practice and experience
and we need often to think if the responses that we receive from children in class are those
expected from the questions that we ask in order to help them learn better.
Steps to consider for improving our questioning techniques:
1. Questions need to be structured, rather like signposts that point to the correct destination.
The important point is that a well-defined initial focus is an essential tactic of effective
questioning.
2. Questions need to be at an appropriate level of understanding for the child or class. You will
need to choose language and terminology that the children understand.
3. Questions need to be directed at extending learning and distributed around the class.
4. Questions need to be paused and paced. By allowing time for children to reflect before
answering to the questions, and even after the child’s initial response the quality and length of
children’s answers can improve significantly.
5. Questions need to prompt and probe. Prompts and probes are follow-up questions when the
first answers a child provides are inadequate or inappropriate. They are perhaps the most
important questions to develop and ‘scaffold’ children’s understanding. They are very important
in formatively assessing how a child is progressing. These are questions that:

rephrase the question, maybe in simpler terms; or
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
pick up some key points in the topic and lead back to the original question; or

review the information given so far and then return to the original question.
6. Here are some examples of probing and prompting questions that you could use:

Does that always apply?

Can you give me an example of that?

How does that fit in?

Why do you think that is true?

Is there another view?

What is the idea behind that?

Can you tell me the difference between the two?
Some common errors in questioning:

Asking too many questions at once.

Asking a question and answering it yourself.

Asking questions of only certain children (such as the ones who will know the answer).

Asking a difficult question too early in a topic.

Asking irrelevant questions.

Always asking the same types of questions (such as ‘closed’ ones).

Asking questions in a threatening way (such as shouting).

Not giving children time to think.

Not correcting wrong answers.

Ignoring children’s answers.

Failing to build on answers.

Asking questions that children cannot answer.
Group work: In a group of 3 to 5, discuss and list some characteristics of effective and inadequate
questioning techniques.
Effective questioning techniques
Inadequate questioning techniques
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8
5. Feedback in teaching and learning
What is meant by feedback?
In the teaching and learning context, feedback is giving information about a child’s success in
learning during an activity, a lesson or a term, and providing support and advice on how to
improve. The child needs to see the information given during feedback as useful; otherwise
he/she will not act upon it.
6. Activity 21
Choose a lesson you are teaching this week. Then, as you go through the lesson, make a note of:

times when you gave feedback to a child or the class about their learning progress;

names of the children who received that feedback.
Keep a record of your answers in your course notebook.
Find a colleague on the programme in the school who has done the same exercise, and who you
do not mind sharing this information with, to discuss the following questions:

What percentage of children received feedback in the lesson?

Could you have changed the way you gave feedback to include more children? If so, how?

Could you have changed the way you gave feedback to include fewer children having more
detailed feedback? If so, how?

How would you ensure in future lessons that those children not receiving feedback in this
lesson did not miss out?

What strategies could you use to allow you to give feedback to groups rather than
individuals?
After your discussion, make notes in your course notebook of the different ideas you thought
about together and suggest when and how you might use them.
Role play:
In small groups of 5-6, play the role of teacher and students, so as to practice questioning and
feedback, using different areas of specialization, and note different aspects of effective way of
providing feedback, and to be shared with the rest of participants in plenary.
9
How to give feedback to children
Remember always that your comments should provide a prompt to help the child to move
forward. A question, therefore, can be more effective at helping understanding than just giving
the child the information. You might need two or three questions to elicit the understanding,
but this develops a very powerful approach to teaching and learning. For example, you could say
to a child, ‘This is good so far, but have you thought about which factors affect your breathing
rate? You could write in your ideas about this at the end.’
Some teachers have developed sets of cards that they use when giving feedback. The cards
might have some half-completed statements on, such as:
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
Have you thought about …

Discuss this with your partner …

Look in your book on page …
The teacher moves quickly around the class giving out cards to some and filling in the spaces
appropriately. For example, ‘Have you thought about comparing the right- and left-hand side of
the table?’ Or ‘Look in your book on page 63. Look especially at the diagram.’ The children often
like the idea of getting a card. And it’s a quick way for the teacher to establish a dialogue with a
larger number of children.
In giving feedback, it is wise to use a variety of techniques and strategies to keep children
interested and to help you engage with as many children as you can. Keeping track of the
feedback you give is useful – this will ensure that no child is left out and it helps you to track all
the children’s progress. Try the next activity, which asks you to record your feedback activity in a
lesson or two.
7. Activity 22
Draw up a chart with the names of the children in your class or a class you teach down one side
and lessons you will be teaching them in the coming one or two weeks along the other side. See
the example below:
Name
Lina
Eman
Lana
Mariam
Lesson1
√
√
Lesson 2
√
√
Lesson3
√
√*
Lesson4
√*
√
Total
3
4
1
0
Every time you have an individual ‘feedback’ discussion with a child put a tick against their name
in the appropriate box. If the feedback was extended, that is, you had to spend more time than
normal, or go back to the same child a number of times, put an asterisk against the tick.
At the end of the period of time you have selected, reflect on the following questions:

What percentage of the class were you able to speak to?

Did the percentage you achieved ensure that you would be able to give feedback to every
child within a two- or three-week period?

Did you manage to speak to those who might be finding the topic difficult?

Did you manage to give feedback to those finding the topic fairly easy? Were you able to
give them a supplementary, more demanding, task?

What types of feedback did you give?

Was it helpful to the children? How do you know this? For example, did they finish the
work without further help? Did they write a clear explanation that showed they
understood the ideas?
Plenary discussion: Reflect and discuss with a colleague on the following important findings that
provide guidance on ways to enhance your skills in providing feedback.

Written and oral feedback can be equally effective provided each is done in some depth.
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
Giving praise is valuable, but praise that is specific to the task and mentions attributes of
the task that have been well done is more effective than general praise.

Feedback is more effective if it is focused on the task rather than the general personality of
the child.

Feedback on behaviour and presentation may be necessary, but it should not detract from
consistent feedback on tasks.

Feedback should always indicate a future action; what the child should do next, given the
discussion you have had with them.

Mistakes should be seen as important learning opportunities.

Whole-class feedback can be helpful. For example, ‘You have all done very well this lesson.
I think everyone now understands why this battle was lost.’

The child needs to see the feedback as useful, and so how you give the feedback must be
sensitive to the child as a learner and person.
This does not suggest that all forms of feedback can be used in every lesson or even every week.
But it does say that for children to learn effectively they do need regular feedback.
8. Activity 20: Audit of your own assessment practice
In the following chart there are 15 statements. Please read them and then rate yourself on each
one using the following four-point scale:

Mostly true (1)

Often true (2)

Rarely true (3)

Never true (4)
Now complete the chart.
10 Teacher audit of assessment practice: Checklist
Please put () under the suitable heading alongside each statement.
Assessment practices
Mostly
true
1
Often
true
2
Rarely
true
3
Never
true
4
1. Assessment provides me with useful
evidence of my pupils’ understandings,
which I use to plan subsequent lessons.
2. The feedback that my pupils receive
helps them improve.
3. My assessment practices help children
learn independently.
4. Children are told how well they have
done in relation to their own previous
performance.
5. Assessment of children’s work includes
comments and helpful guidance.
6. I provide guidance to help my pupils
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assess their own work.
7. I identify the children’s strengths and
advise them how to develop them further.
8. Children are encouraged to view mistakes
as valuable learning opportunities.
9. I use questions mainly to elicit reasons
and explanations from the children.
10. I keep records of individuals’ learning
progress.
11. Assessment criteria are discussed with
children in ways that they understand.
12. Children are given opportunities to
assess one another’s work.
13. I regularly discuss with children ways
they could improve how they learn.
14. Children’s learning objectives are
discussed with them in way they
understand.
15. Children are helped to find ways of
addressing problems in their learning.
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Day 3 - Activities and handouts
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Day 3- Prompting Numeracy and Literacy skills
Discuss your expectations of day3 session with your colleagues and write them down
on a flip chart.
Suggested expectation are as follows:
o
o
o
Identify key numeracy and literacy concepts and skills
Be able to use techniques for developing numeracy and literacy skills
Understanding of cross curricular approach of teaching numeracy and literacy
In cooperation with your colleagues in your group answer the following questions:
 What’s your definition of “learning literacy skills”?
 Do you think it’s important if yes why?
Learning literacy skills
Ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed
materials associated with varying contexts. It involves a continuum of learning in enabling
individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate
fully in their community and wider society.
Importance of learning literacy skills:
Developing good literacy and numeracy skills among all young people is fundamental to the life
chances of each individual and essential to the quality and equity of the societies.
Think Pair & share:
What are the techniques you know that may help develop literacy?
Suggested techniques for developing literacy skills:
•

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Innovative activities, techniques, and experiences using both oral and written language to
stimulate children’s positive relationships with literacy.
Quick, ongoing, informal literacy assessments.
Songs, rhymes, chants, and poems.
Journaling ideas.
Meaningfully involve families.
Classroom-proven, teacher-friendly ways to enhance the literacy development of all your
students.
Incorporate meaningful literacy experiences into children’s daily play
Develop listening skills through the use of games, activities and classroom techniques that
really work
Use a variety of effective interactive writing techniques to involve students in large group
writing experiences
Creating a classroom where all students are involved in listening, speaking, reading, and
writing
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H1
35 minutes
Group work:
Facilitator follows the buzz-group technique; participants are divided into 4 groups.Theyare
handed out one case study from the following 2 case studies. Facilitator asks participants to read,
reflect and discuss their ideas and notes regarding the case study as a group, write down their
comments on a flip chart, then to choose a presenter to introduce their comments in front of other
groups (The facilitator reminds the groups of the importance of dividing the roles among group members).
Case study 1 (case study 26/U13/M4/SBTD)
Fatmeh joined Baq’aa School as an elementary teacher two years ago. She teaches science and is a
teacher to a Grade 5 class. Many of her pupils have difficulties in reading from the science textbook
so Fatmeh plans ways of teaching them about science that makes it easier for them to access the
information in the textbook.
Fatmeh planned to teach the class about the classification of animals. She started the lesson by
showing the children the names of the five ‘classes’ or groups of animals with backbones
(vertebrates):
mammals
birds
fish
reptiles
amphibians
She had written these on flashcards (strips of card with the name of one animal class on each card)
and displayed them on her desk. She then gave each child a picture of an animal and then asked a
child in turn to come up to the front and put the picture next to the flashcard with the name of the
animal class to which they thought it belonged. Then she asked children questions about what they
knew about the animal classes, the characteristics of each class and the differences between the
classes.
Fatmeh then divided the students into five groups and gave each group one of the animal classes.
She asked them to create something, for example make up a song or design a poster to show what
they knew about that animal class. Or they could draw different animals from that class and write
about them, which they could then make into a book.
In the next lesson, Fatmeh asked each group of students to present their work to the rest of the
class. The children were really excited about the activities and some asked if they could do more
work on their animal projects at home.
After the topic, Fatmeh thought about the lessons and how much the children had joined in and
enjoyed them. She was very surprised how much they seemed to gain from them – even those who
did not normally join in much with activities.
Case study 2 (case study 27/U13/M4/SBTD)
Housni, an Arabic teacher in Sayda Elementary School in EinHilweh camp, has a Grade 3 class.
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Housni wanted his pupils to develop their literacy skills beyond the classroom. He wanted them to
understand how important literacy was to all aspects of life beyond the school. To do this he
developed a literacy project that would encourage his pupils to explore literacy at home and in the
community.
At the end of school one day, Housni asked his class to observe on their way home all the different
places where they could read some text – street signs, names of shops, adverts and posters. He
asked them to note down the different words they had seen. When the children came to school the
next day, they shared what they had seen and Housni listed the words on the board. He then asked
the children to make up sentences using the words they had collected. In the next lesson, he asked
them to draw a ‘map’ of their way home with the different shops and signs they saw marked on the
map.
On another occasion, Housni asked his pupils to collect empty food packets (for example chips,
biscuits, juice, milk), wash them out and bring them to school. At school the children had a look at
the different packets and what was written on them. They learned many new words this way, such
as the names of the ingredients.
Another activity Housni used was based around daily newspapers, which he asked children to bring
into class and which he also collected and brought in himself. He asked the children to look at a
newspaper, select an article that interested them and make notes about it. He then arranged them
in groups of four to six, putting children who had chosen the same article together so they could
hear each other’s interpretation of the story and discuss the different ways of describing the same
story. If they were different, why was this? The discussion was very lively as the children were
really interested in what they had found out. He also asked all the class to comment on how clear
the original newspaper articles were to read. Housni noted how well the children picked out the
key points and how well they discussed the stories. He was also aware of how much their
vocabulary had extended through this exercise.
All these activities that Housni did in and around the normal school day captured his class’s
interest. Housni was most impressed with how well the children had worked together and with
their learning of so many new words. The children were also comparing what they learned with
their friends and talked about the activities daily. Housni started getting more and more ideas
about how to teach literacy through everyday situations.
Individual activity
Write five points regarding developing learning literacy skills you acquired from the previous
discussions.
Techniques to develop learning literacy skills:
There are many ways in which you, as a teacher, can develop children’s literacy and life skills.
You just need to think creatively about what you can do and be clear about what the learning
intentions are for the children and then pitch your lessons at their level using appropriate
resources, texts and language for them.
Take your pupils to a shop, library, museum or other place in the community to expose them to
reading and understanding the language around them in a different setting.
If possible, show them computers, mobile phones and ways of utilising them for information
sharing and communication.
Encourage the children to practise writing in different ways, by writing adverts, announcements,
letters, stories, factual texts and so on.
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You may use environmental print, that is, the print found around your school’s location, to help
their literacy learning.
Individual activity
Answer the following questions:
1-What types of text students should interpret and understand?
2- List all the techniques that could be used with your students to help them understand and
respond to information texts.
Reading visual images
If you think about all the kinds of information texts that you read, whether these are in the
pages of textbooks, in advertising leaflets or on computer screens, they frequently include
diagrams, charts, graphs, drawings, photographs or maps. To be successful as readers, we all
need to understand how words, figures and images work together to present information. Many
writers on education now stress the importance of visual literacy. Learning how to read and
respond to photographs and drawings is one part of becoming visually literate. Reading and
responding to charts, graphs and diagrams is another.
Teaching reading comprehension:
Reading for comprehension is central to learning to read. With younger children, it is important
to help them develop skills and strategies to access the content of the simple texts they are
reading. This includes expanding their vocabulary by developing their recognition and meaning
of an increasing range of words. Older children need to be able to read a variety of different
types of texts, such as stories, poetry, plays, information texts, charts and tables. They also need
to develop skills to extract information more quickly from the text, such as being able to use
headings, subheadings, bullet points and pictures or diagrams. Without such skills, children will
not be able to read, for example, a social science or science text.
As children become more competent readers, the skills of skimming, questioning and reviewing
texts become much more important. Depending on the age of the children you teach, you will
need to plan and adapt activities to match their levels and skills in reading. Young children may,
for example, only pick out key words in a short text to help them skim for meaning, whereas
older children would be able to pick out key phrases and significant indicators from headings,
subheadings, pictures and charts to gain an overview of the text’s main ideas.
Summarisingis a key skill for reading and thinking. It can be one way to assess children’s reading
comprehension, but being able to summarise can also help the reader to come to a new
understanding of a text. Children who can summarise effectively can learn more efficiently. But
what is summarising? And how can we teach it?
At its most basic, summarising is the process of condensing a text or an experience into
statements of the most important ideas. Children can be taught these skills from an early stage,
but activities to teach these skills need to be appropriate to their age. Summarising requires a
reader to select the important ideas, ignore irrelevant information and paraphrase the author’s
words. For young children, this could be asking a child to tell retell a story orally to the rest of
the class. It is best to start by asking children to summarise texts they are familiar with and
move into more unknown texts as they become more skilled. This same kind of activity could be
done collaboratively with a group or with the whole class, where children work together with
the teacher ‘scaffolding’ the process in the early stages until the children fully understand it. To
summarise a text, a reader needs to thoroughly understand what the author is saying.
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It is easy to see why summarising is so often used as a measure of reading comprehension. But
it is also a way of synthesising the key points of a text. Asking a child to write a summary of a
short text can provide some interesting insight into how that child is reading and processing
text. For example, some children will become side-tracked by details that are so interesting that
they pull the reader away from the main ideas. These readers will need help with selecting the
most important information from the text.
Skimming and scanning we adjust our reading speed and technique depending on our purpose.
If we are searching for specific information, looking for clues, or reviewing information we skim
read the text or scan it for key words. These are skills that children need to develop, as without
them it is difficult to move forward as children progress from primary to secondary school.
H2
30 minutes
Group work & role play:
Participants are handed out one case study from the following 2 case studies. Facilitator asks
participants to reflect and discuss their ideas and notes regarding the case study as a group, then to
choose two members to role play as two teachers discussing the case study & the comments
regarding the case study in front of others.
Case study 1 (case study 28/U14/M4/SBTD)
At a teacher’s workshop in Irbid, Jordan, teachers
of Arabic as a mother language were asked to
read a ‘nonsense’ text and answer questions on it.
The first sentence in this text was:
‘‫ ’أقمتبأرضمصرفالورائيتخببيالمطيوالأمامي‬and the first
‘comprehension’ question was ‘Who was the
speaker in this line of the poem?’ Every teacher
knew that the answer was ‘I’. In their discussion,
the teachers realised they could give the ‘correct’
answer because they know that in Arabic ‘I’ was
the subject of this sentence. They didn’t need to
know who or what ‘I’ was, in order to give the
answer. The teachers also realised that the
question did not help their understanding of the
text!
After the discussion, they worked in small groups
to design questions and tasks to help them know
whether or not children had really understood the
texts on which their questions and tasks were
based. They learned that questions should not
require children to just copy information from one sentence in the text for their answer. The
teachers instead designed tasks in which children had to complete a table, design a poster or make
notes to use in a debate, and listed the kinds of questions they would ask in order to assess their
pupils’ understanding.
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Case study 2 (case study 29/U14/M4/SBTD)
Hadiya likes to make each pupil in her Grade 6 class of 30 children feel special. In her classroom she
has a large sheet of paper with the month and day of each pupil’s birthday. On each birthday, the
children sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to their classmates. One day, a pupil commented that in some
months they sing the birthday song much more often than in other months. Hadiya decided to use
this comment to do some numeracy and visual literacy work on pie charts. First, she asked the
children to work in pairs to look at the big sheet and work out how many children had their
birthday in each month. She then wrote the names of the months on the board and as a class they
agreed on the final numbers. She wrote the number of children that had their birthday in each
month next to the name of the month (e.g. January – 1, February – 3, and so on).
Next she drew a large circle on the board and told children to imagine that this was a pie and that
as there were 30 in the class there would be 30 sections in the pie, one for each pupil. The sections
would join to make slices. There would be 12 slices, because there are 12 months in a year. Each
slice would represent the number of children who had their birthday in a particular month, so each
slice would likely be a different size. She began with the month with most birthdays – September.
Children quickly got the idea of making 12 slices of different sizes within the circle to represent the
number of birthdays in each month as a percentage of the class. Each child drew a circle and then
divided the circle into 30 sections – one for each child (each section was 12 degrees on a
protractor). They were then asked to make each slice a different colour to clearly show what
proportion of children had birthdays in a certain month. The class talked about other information
they could use and put into a pie chart. They decided to explore how many children played
different sports, how many supported each team in the national soccer league and how many
children spoke a different language. Different groups of children worked on the different pie charts
and their final charts were displayed for all to see. The children were very interested in the range of
information they could easily gather from the charts and they liked the fact that the information
was based on their own lives.
Group work:
Discuss the concept of numeracy and its importance among your group, and write down the
agreed upon definition.
What is numeracy and why it is important?
What does it mean when someone is said to be numerate and what does it mean to be
numerate in this increasingly digital age? One definition states that ‘we are numerate if we have
developed the confidence and competence in using number which will allow us to solve
problems, analyse information and make informed decisions based on calculations’ (Scottish
Government, Curriculum for Excellence: Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for learning, Skills for
life, Skills for work, 2009). Being numerate enables a person to function in everyday life and
contribute effectively to society. It also increases their opportunities within the world of work
and establishes secure mathematical foundations, which can be built upon through lifelong
learning.
Being numerate is an important fundamental life skill that permeates all aspects of our life –
from doing the weekly shopping, to arranging a mortgage or bank loan, to finding a job. Being
numerate is another form of literacy – it helps us to become more financially literate. Financial
literacy involves being able to understand money and manage it wisely so that children may
grow into financially responsible adults, free from the anxieties of debt and secure in their
future. Being able to interpret numerical information appropriately, for example to check if
there is enough money for the rent or to travel to school, and use such information to draw
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conclusions, assess risk and make informed decisions about money matters is crucial to survival
in a fiscal world.
Numeracy can be defined as a proficiency, which involves confidence and competence with
numbers and measures. It requires an understanding of the number system, a repertoire of
computational skills and an inclination and ability to solve number problems in a variety of
contexts. Numeracy also demands practical understanding of the ways in which information is
gathered by counting and measuring, and is presented or represented in graphs, diagrams,
charts and tables.
Numeracy includes:

understanding the number concept and number system (ones, tens, hundreds, thousands);

understanding and using mathematical symbols;

being able to compare numbers;

mastering basic number operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division);

measurement (time, distance, area, weight, volume etc.);

money;

geometry;

reading and explaining data, graphs, diagrams, charts;

logical reasoning;

mental arithmetic;

estimation and rounding;

fractions, decimal fractions and percentages.
These areas and skills relate to the whole curriculum and can be practised across all subjects
and used in a range of contexts and situations. For example, being able to find the area of a
shape mathematically enables a person to calculate how much paint is needed to decorate a
wall or how many vegetables can be sown in a field. In the same way that being able to read is
essential, being numerate is crucial to life in this digital age.
The importance of using games in teaching numeracy:
Using games to develop mathematical knowledge and skills can be both challenging and
enjoyable. To make classes enjoyable, many mathematics teachers already employ games –
some of which are numerically based and allow practice of the four rules of addition
subtraction, multiplication and division, and others that are more conceptually based, such as
exploring the properties of the movement of air. For example, with this last idea, a simple board
game could be made where each player throws a dice and then moves their counter along a
pathway on the board towards a winning point. When the student stops on a particular square
on the board, they have to answer a question about the properties of air. If they answer
correctly, then they can move on. If they do not answer correctly, they have to miss a turn
before they can throw the dice and move along the board again. One student reads the
questions out and has the answers.
As well as helping children learn new things, games can also play a part in just making many
lessons fun and learning stimulating. Whatever topic you are teaching, such as the reasons for
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the decline of the Roman Empire in history or the table of elements in science, games can
become a part of your classroom strategies for children to learn new ideas, practise skills or
consolidate their thinking.
Evidence suggests that games enable learners to work at higher levels. Asplin (2003) noted in
her study that simply playing a game as a time-filler or casually was not sufficient to improve
mental computation skills. The author argued that if a game is deemed worthy of playing, then
it should be elevated from the status of a time-filler or activity for early finishers to an integral
part of the teaching sequence. Asplin went on to note that in a class where the teacher
encouraged students to describe orally their moves in any game they were playing, and where
the children were grouped according to ability, gains in mental computation ability were much
higher.
Most children have a natural desire to win and this encourages them to look at the problem or
game in different ways and so extend their thinking. The discussion that occurs within the group
playing the game is often more task focused than in an ordinary mathematics lesson. The
players are also encouraged to use mental arithmetic more. For example, when playing a game
about the properties of different kinds of triangle, pupils may need to work out the size of the
angles in an equilateral triangle. Listening to the talk as they try to work out the angles will give
insight into what they understand. Do they know that the internal angles of an equilateral
triangle add up to 180°and therefore each angle would be 180° divided by 3 i.e. 60° for each
angle?
As games do not often have written outcomes, there have to be other ways to measure
children’s achievement. The next section explores this further. First, read the Case Study, which
shows how Aasif shares his experience with his colleagues during a school professional
development session.
H3
45 minutes
Group work:
 Participants are handed out one case study from the following 2 case studies. - Facilitator asks
participants who choose case study 1 to reflect and discuss their ideas and notes regarding the
case study as a group, write down their comments on a flip chart, then to choose a presenter to
introduce their comments in front of other group
-Facilitator asks the other groups who choose case study 2 to write a dialogue based on text1 in
favour of or against promoting numeracy skills through educational games, then to present what
they prepared in front of others (The facilitator reminds the groups of the importance of dividing the roles
among group members).
Case study 1 (case study 32/U16/M4/SBTD)
Sawsan teaches Grade 2 at Asma Elem Co Ed B School in Gaza.
Sawsan was planning work to develop her pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the
multiplication tables for 3, 4 and 5. She had spent some time using number charts with her pupils
to work out the multiples in each table and now she wanted her class to become quicker at being
able to use these tables. She talked with the school mathematics coordinator who suggested she
used a game to help the children. At first, Sawsan was not too sure about this as she thought the
children would not learn as easily or concentrate very well. However, she listened to the
instructions as to how to play a kind of bingo that the maths coordinator gave her. She took a set of
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the bingo cards and the counters that he had made to use with his class to her own home to try it
out for herself with her own children. In this way, she was prepared for what she was going to do
and say in class and how she was going to organise the classroom and seat the children.
The next day, Sawsan arrived early at school and made sure the desks were organised for group
work. She wanted the children to sit in groups of eight to play and she put a set of cards out for
each group.
After registration, Sawsan told the class they were going to play a game and, of course, they were
very excited. She explained the rules and told them that one person was to be the ‘caller’ and the
rest needed a bingo card to play.
She gave each caller a card containing multiplication tables from 1-5, then the other students in the
group need to know the result.
1x2
1x3
1x4
1x5
2x2
2x3
2x4
2x5
3x2
3x3
3x4
3x5
4x2
4x3
4x4
4x5
5x2
5x3
5x4
5x5
6x2
6x3
6x4
6x5
7x2
7x3
7x4
7x5
8x2
8x3
8x4
8x5
9x2
9x3
9x4
9x5
10x2
10x3
10x4
10x5
All the players had a card like the following, in which each number was an answer to one of the
caller’s results.
12
9
45
20
18
16
27
32
As each result was called out, the children had to look at their bingo cards to see if they had the
answer. If they had the answer they would cover it with a counter. The first person to cover their
entire card with counters called out ‘Bingo!’ Their bingo card was checked and if the child had
covered all numbers that reflected the answers of the results called out then that child was the
winner. The group then changed the caller and played again. They played until everyone had had a
go as caller, and then Sawsan stopped the class and asked if they had enjoyed the experience. The
answer was a unanimous ‘Yes!’
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She then asked them to think what mathematics they had been learning and if playing the game
had helped them. Sawsan was very impressed with their thoughtful answers and reflections on
how much they had learnt without realising it. They asked if they could play again and Sawsan said
they would do it every morning for the next week after registration, which they did. At the end of
the week, she returned the set to the maths coordinator but planned to make a new set to keep in
the maths corner of the classroom so the children could play it with their friends at playtime if they
wished.
Case study 2 (case study 33/U16/M4/SBTD)
Aasif had been using games in his class for some time, especially in mathematics, as he saw the
benefit to the pupils when they played such games. The head teacher had been to see his class
playing maths games and asked Aasif to share his ideas with the staff at a meeting to look at
interactive ways of working in the classroom.
Aasif realised that many of his colleagues would be worried about how they would know what the
children were learning if they used games and would be concerned that they would lose control of
their classes. He decided to start by playing a simple number bond game with the staff for just a
few minutes and then asked them to think about what they might learn from playing the game.
There was much discussion about this and all the teachers agreed that the game provided time to
practise skills in a supportive environment. They also talked of how they had enjoyed playing
together and could see the benefit for the pupils. However, they did ask how this would allow them
to assess children’s achievement.
Aasif explained that when the children were playing games, he moved around the class and
watched and listened to what the children were doing and saying. He told his colleagues that he
found this a very useful way to identify problems and would sometimes spend time talking these
through with the group or with the whole class if it was a common mistake or problem. But also he
told the staff how he noticed children who were not very sure or confident, and was able to help
them as they played. Sometimes he said he organised the whole class to play a game but with pairs
acting as a single player. This method, he noted, was particularly helpful if the game was new and
introducing quite difficult ideas and concepts, because each person could support the other as they
decided on the answers or on what move to make.
He also showed his colleagues his record book, in which he recorded observations on each student
about their achievements in each game. Here he also included children’s own comments on their
ability and understanding with regard to the games. He said how he had found out from this how
much the children were able to assess their own competence and understanding.
Finally, he offered the staff the use of the small set of different games he had made to try in their
own classes and suggested they could all talk about their experiences at the next staff meeting in a
month’s time.
Individual Activity:
Write down 5 points to show the advantages of using games in teaching numeracy skills?
Answer the following question:
What is meant by cross curricula approach?
Cross curricular studies cut through traditional subject matter lines and explore relationships of
subjects to one another.
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For example, "writing across the curriculum" entails teaching writing in every subject-matter.
Teachers of all arts and science develop and implement a writing program in their subjects that
coordinates with the other writing programs throughout the school.
In traditional writing programs, those that are not cross curricular, writing is taught only in English
classes, and teachers in other subjects depend on English language to teach the skills that
students need to write in all other subjects.
Cross curricula approach in teaching numeracy: is not perceived as easy to teach by most
teachers and many may feel that they need more support to teach numeracy than literacy,
perhaps because they themselves did not like maths at school. However, developing numeracy
across the curriculum provides opportunities for children to improve their accuracy and learn
how to interpret information. Learning how to present information in a quantitative way and
develop children’s problem solving and thinking skills goes beyond just the mathematics
lessons. Making learning numeracy across the curriculum a success needs the support of all
teachers if it is to be effective and have an impact on children’ learning.
As a teacher, it is important for you to know the key areas of numeracy in order to explore
within your subject the opportunities for extending and complementing numeracy teaching and
learning in mathematics lessons. All teachers have a responsibility for promoting numeracy.
For example, in social studies, the teacher could present a map of a country to children and ask
them to estimate the distance between two cities or to determine which is farther from, for
example, Amman – Irbid or Zarqa? Or a science teacher could ask pupils to measure the
difference in size between different species of snails that can be found in the local area. The
following are examples of how numeracy concepts and skills can be applied in other subjects:

History: includes concept of time, concept of number and dates, sequencing events and
dates, understanding and comparing large numbers, using a timeline, logical reasoning. For
example, being able to sequence numbers and dates will help a child be able to see why
some events such as the start of a war happened.

Science: includes making measurements, collecting data, comparing, and interpreting data,
graphs and diagrams, estimation, logical reasoning. For example, asking children to
measure the extension of a spring with different weights will involve them in various
measuring tasks and devising ways of recording their results.

Social studies: includes such ideas as concept of time, collecting data, comparing, and
interpreting data, graphs and diagrams, estimation, logical reasoning, practical application
of mathematics in everyday life (such as percentage calculations and dealing with money).

Arabic: includes reading and writing numbers, learning to read the clock, learning about
money.

English: includes reading and writing numbers, time and measurement concepts in English.

Vocational education and training: includes making measurements (distance, area, volume,
timing), geometry (shapes), and estimation. For example, asking children to estimate how
much of each material they will need to tile a floor and then working out the actual cost
helps them to see how to judge the possibility of being able to afford to do the job.

Physical education: includes number concept, measurements, and practical activities of
measuring distance. Children can measure heartbeat and pulse rates and recovery rates to
judge their fitness.

Arts: includes geometry (shapes), perspective. Understanding how shapes tessellate will
help children design their own patterns in traditional styles.
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
Religion: time concept, practical situations in which you need numeracy such as events like
funerals.
H4
20 minutes
Group work:
Participants are handed out the following case study. Facilitator asks participants to reflect and
discuss their ideas and notes regarding the case study as a group and to write down their comments
on a post-it note.They are then asked to stick it on a flip chart on the board. Participants should
move to the board and read all the pinned post-it notes and write down new ideas they haven’t
recorded themselves.
Case study 1 (case study 31/U16/M4/SBTD)
Following a staff meeting that focused on how teachers could help children become more
confident and competent in numeracy, Rhagda, a science teacher, was working on her planning for
the next term. She was trying to identify key points on the topic on Forces where she could support
the new school initiative of emphasising numeracy across the curriculum. She was aware that
often, for example, she had to help some of her Grade 6 children with the calculations needed to
do the science tasks. In the past, she just waited until the problem arose, but this time she planned
lesson time to show the children how to do the necessary calculations once they had made their
measurements.
Before the lesson, she checked with the head of mathematics the agreed method for the
calculations she planned to do. She then set up two examples for the start of the lesson that would
show the children how to do the measuring and discussed with them how to make a table to
record their results in such a way that it would make it easier for the children to interpret their
findings.
The pupils were introduced to a problem and the maths needed through a story that Raghda had
written about how the spring of a toy broke. The children’s task was to discover what spring would
be best for a new toy. Raghda helped them devise their tests and decide what measurements they
needed to test the stretch and strength of the springs. She provided them with different springs
and range of objects to test the springs.
The outcome was that the children were very focused as they worked in groups and shared the
tasks. Rahgda was amazed and very pleased at the quality of work from the children. During their
plenary discussion of the task, she listened carefully to how they decided which the strongest
spring was. The children discussed with Raghda how they measured the extension of their springs,
and some of the problems they had in measuring such a moveable object as accurately as possible.
Raghda questioned each group about their methods and the mathematics they had done and was
impressed at the level of understanding they showed. She was particularly pleased how many
children whom she normally thought did not like number and mathematics were able to talk
coherently about their findings. They had also learnt how to change just one variable as they did
their tests to make sure it was a ‘fair’ test and that their measuring skills were accurate.
30 minutes
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Group Activity
Participants are asked to implement the following activity, facilitator should make sure that each
trainee has implemented the activity, and then choose one of the trainees to present and discuss his
example with the trainees as a whole.
Activity 1 (activity 35/U15/M4/SBTD)
Plan an activity for one lesson with a special focus on finding out about children’s mathematical
competency. Look at what you intend to teach the following week and identify a lesson that will
involve children using their numeracy skills. You will need to ensure that the activity you plan
will allow the children to achieve your intended learning outcomes, for example being able to
calculate percentages of exports of particular crops from Jordan to compare with the exports of
other countries.
Using group or pair work will enable children to talk through their ideas and help them think
more deeply about the task.
When planning a lesson to find out students’ mathematical competence in a particular area,
consider the following steps:
What numeracy skills will the children need to understand? (For example, working out
percentages.)
Find out if your children have already practised the skill in mathematics.
Use this information to plan your lesson. (For example, plan to do some percentage sums and
use data about crops as context.)
Think of how to apply the numeracy concept in a real situation to show children the importance
and relevance of mathematics. (For example, set a problem or question for children to find out
what the biggest export crops from Jordan are.)
Plan what resources you need to use. (For example, data about crop production in Jordan and
exports of each crop.)
Make sure you give the children time to explore and practise. (For example, show children how
to work out the percentage of each crop that is exported in order to compare Jordan’s exports
with those of another country.)
What kind of evidence will you gather to show what the children have learnt? You could listen
to them as they are talking, make notes of their discussion, look at their plans, and/or look at
their final outcome – whether this is a written account, a poster, an artefact they have made, or
a presentation of what they did. What criteria will you use to judge their achievements in your
subject and in numeracy? Make notes of your answers to these questions in your Course
Notebook and think how you might develop your support within your subject area to help
children be numerically confident and competent.
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Emergencies and Recovery
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9.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
References and resources
School Based Teacher Development programme materials, UNRWA, 2011
INEE materials
UNESCO materials: 'How children learn'.
SPRED material: 'Collective Learning'.
' http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/studentlife/revisionandskills/skills/debating_skills.shtml
http://teachertools.londongt.org/?page=classroomQuestioningSkills
http://712educators.about.com/od/teachingstrategies/a/Effective-Teacher-Questioning-Techniques.htm
EiE Teacher Training
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