Excellence In Teaching: Part II
Strategies for Student Understanding
BY LINDA COWAN PSIA – NW TECHNICAL TEAM TD
LYON SKI SCHOOL
Inspiring the next generation – Woodmoor Elementary School

If we think about it, teaching is less about what the teacher does and more about what the teacher gets students to do. Providing opportunities for success is a critical element in allowing new learning to occur. In Part I (Winter ’06 Issue) we identified ten important elements in creating a successful learning environment. In Part II we will focus on a few key strategies that promote student understanding. These strategies help students learn, retain and apply new information to different situations and environments.

Make Connections This strategy challenges us to enable students to draw from their own personal experience when sharing new information. When we guide students to make personal connections to new learning, this helps them bridge the gaps between what they already know and understand to the new information that you are communicating to them. If an instructor decides their class is ready to learn the skills necessary to perform a Wedge Christie, a few traverses back and forth across the run can remind students that they already know the skills necessary. Now they’re just going to blend the two skill groups together. Making these kinds of connections builds confidence and understanding in learning new information.

Model Give a very clear picture of the task in order to clearly communicate with students what the desired outcome looks like when in motion. For example, if the desired outcome is to build confidence in edging movements of the feet and legs, set up for success by showing this movement statically (making connections to prior learning), checking for understanding and then modeling for students from both coming and going what a drill looks like (railroad tracks for example). That way students can then move into guided practice with your image in their mind.

Promote Interaction This strategy asks us to promote teamwork among students as they learn. This helps to build confidence when they can solve problems or work through challenges with a partner or in pairs. Guided discovery lends itself well to working with a partner. For example, an intermediate class stops at the top of a steeper green or easy blue ungroomed run with a few inches of new light snow. The instructor can ask the students to work together in pairs to figure out the most appropriate skills and tactics to use on this run. This opportunity can help promote the understanding and application of both tactics and skill blends. A quick question in the lift line allows students to share what they learned with their partner. Sharing these insights with the whole group allows them to solidify new knowledge, guide further application and provide ongoing feedback which leads us to the next strategy.

Provide rich and ongoing feedback and assessment Students need criteria, feedback and opportunities for reflection in order to learn well. Traditionally, assessment comes at the end of class and focuses on a score or a level of promotion. To learn effectively, students need criteria, feedback and opportunities for reflection from the beginning of any sequence of instruction. This means that occasions of assessment/feedback should occur throughout the learning process from beginning to end. Sometimes this may involve feedback from the instructor, sometimes from peers and sometimes from students’ self evaluation. While there are many reasonable approaches to ongoing assessment, the constant factor is the frequent focus on desired outcome, feedback and reflection throughout the learning process that promotes the understanding of new information.

Teaching for Transfer This strategy asks us to provide opportunities for students to see how newly acquired skill can apply to other situations and to the student’s own experience. For example, a class just finished working on pivot slips on a groomed blue run; the instructor then takes the class to a steeper, narrower pitch to show them where these skills are easily applied. Certainly much more can be said about the art and craft of instructing for understanding, but hopefully looking at these strategies reminds us of both the joys and challenges of teaching. Instructors, who build connections with students, model appropriately, promote interaction, provide rich feedback and teach for the transfer of information mobilize powerful tools which bring success to the learning environment. Most likely, this article simply validates the good choices you already make every time you step in front of a group of students.