Teaching Strategies With High Impact

One part of our teacher only day today was looking at the high impact teaching strategies and how these can be embedded within our classrooms. There are 10 HITS which are the dark blue puzzle pieces below. HITS are instructional practices that have been proven to increase student learning when they are applied. The numbers I have written are the effect size of the strategy - it was not surprising that multiple exposures and feedback had the highest effect sizes! Our jigsaw activity was to individually learn about and reflect on one strategy and then share back with our group. 

I was given Setting Goals, as below. We were required to think about what the strategy was, how it is already included within teaching and learning and then specifically link with the school's pedagogical framework. I enjoyed this task because it really encouraged me to think in detail about whether that strategy is a) already within learning programmes, b) how effectively the strategy is included in programmes and c) where there could be greater inclusion. To help determine these three things we also had to consider where the faculty is currently sitting along the progress continuum for the use of the strategy (emerging, evolving, embedding or excelling). Having the group discussion about each of the strategies indicated that although all the strategies are currently employed within the HPE department (some subconsciously), some are more common than others (which also changed across teachers). Moving forward therefore, there needs to be more conscious inclusion of the HITS across the board - i.e. actively planning to use the practices. I really liked having the continuum to refer to, because this made it quite clear what level we were. I like when things are this clear, to help determine what the next steps are to continue the progression.

If you would like to learn more about the HITS, this website breaks them down for a quick read. The Victorian Department for Education has explained the 10 HITS in greater detail with examples to demonstrate how they can be included in teaching and learning (this was also what we were referring to for our jigsaw activity and discussion).