Marzano Instructional Strategies

Research-Based Instruction Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock reviewed hundreds of studies on instructional practices that have proven to effect student achievement. Beginning with the method statistically proven to be most effective, each method will be described.

Identifying Similarities and Differences Presenting students with explicit guidance in identifying similarities and differences enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge. Asking students to independently identify similarities and differences enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge.

Identifying Similarities and Differences Representing similarities and differences in graphic or symbolic form enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge. Identification of similarities and differences can be accomplished in a variety of ways. The identification of similarities and differences is a highly engaging activity.

Suggested Teaching Strategies COMPARING—the process of identifying similarities and differences between or among things or ideas CLASSIFYING—the process of grouping things that are alike into categories on the basis of their characteristics

Suggested Teaching Strategies CREATING METAPHORS— identifying a general or basic pattern in a specific topic and then finding another topic that appears to be different but has the same pattern CREATING ANALOGIES— identifying relationships between pairs of concepts, identifying relationships between relationships

Summarizing and Note Taking To effectively summarize, students must delete some information, substitute some information, and keep some information. To effectively delete, substitute, and keep information, students must analyze the information thoroughly.

Summarizing and Note Taking Being aware of the explicit structure of information is an aid to summarizing information. Provide opportunities for students to summarize key content.

Summarizing and Note Taking Teach students how to process information for their own note taking. Use summary frames and other organizers to assist students who learn visually.

Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition Not all students realize the importance of believing in effort. Students can learn to change their beliefs to an emphasis on effort. Rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation.

Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition Reward is most effective when it is contingent on the attainment of some standard of performance. Abstract symbolic recognition is more effective than tangible rewards.

Homework and Practice The amount of homework assigned to students should be different from elementary to middle school to high school. About 10 minutes per grade level Parent involvement in homework should be kept to a minimum.

Homework and Practice The purpose of homework should be identified and articulated. If homework is assigned, it should be commented on. Establish and communicate a homework policy.

Homework and Practice Design homework assignments that clearly articulate the purpose and outcome. Vary the approaches to providing feedback on homework assignments.

Nonlinguistic Representations A variety of activities to produce nonlinguistic representations should be used. Creating graphic representations Making physical models Generating mental pictures Drawing pictures and pictographs Engaging in kinesthetic activities

Nonlinguistic Representations Nonlinguistic representations should elaborate on the pre- existing knowledge or the newly introduced knowledge.

Cooperative Learning Organizing groups based on ability should be done sparingly. Students of low ability perform worse when they are placed in homogeneous groups. Students of high ability perform only marginally better when homogeneously grouped. Middle ability students benefit most.

Cooperative Learning Cooperative groups should be kept small in size—3 or 4 members. Cooperative learning should be applied consistently and systematically, but not overused.

Cooperative Learning Tasks given to cooperative groups should be well structured. If students do not have sufficient time to practice skills independently, cooperative learning is being overused.

Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Instructional goals narrow what students focus on. Instructional goals should not be too specific. Goals stated in behavioral objective format are not as effective as goals stated in more general formats.

Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Students should be encouraged to personalize the teacher’s goals, adapting them to their personal needs and desires.

Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Feedback should be corrective in nature. The best feedback shows students what is accurate and what is not. Asking students to keep working on a task until they succeed appears to enhance student achievement.

Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Feedback should be timely. The larger the delay in giving feedback, the less improvement one will see. Feedback should be specific to a criterion, telling students where they stand relative to a specific target of knowledge or skill.

Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback. In fact, non-authoritative feedback produces the most gain.

Generating and Testing Hypotheses Hypotheses generation and testing can be approached in a more inductive or deductive manner. Inductive—use general rules to make prediction about specific event. Deductive—specific pieces of information lead to general conclusion.

Generating and Testing Hypotheses Teachers should ask students to clearly explain their hypotheses and their conclusions.

Generating and Testing Hypotheses Appropriate teaching strategies include: Systems analysis Problem solving opportunities Historical investigations Invention Experimental inquiry Use of decision making

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers Cues, questions, and advanced organizers should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual. “Higher level” questions or advanced organizers produce deeper learning than “lower level” questions or advanced organizers.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers “Waiting” briefly before accepting responses from students has the effect of increasing the depth of students’ answers. Questions are effective learning tools even when asked before a learning experience.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers Advance organizers are most useful with information that is not well organized.

References “Marzano Instructional Strategies”