Evidence-based teaching

What are the numbers on that?
If you are looking for concrete suggestions to implement in your classroom straight away which are based on solid evidence then Geoff Petty's 'Evidence-based Teaching - A Practical Approach' does exactly what it says on the packet. What's more you can supplement what you find in the book with lots of additional examples, case studies and tools available from Petty's website. Petty's main argument is that education needs to get more like medicine where treatments are based on proven efficacy. Throughout the book Petty supplies examples and tool kits for applying the most effective methods and even gives you a statistical rating for how effective each method is.

His top ten most effective methods are in descending order of efficacy:

Identifying similarities and differences
Graphic organisers
Note making and summarising
Cooperative Learning
Informative Feedback
Advance organisers
Challenging task given in advance
Relevant recall questions
Decisions decisions
Hypothesis testing

Grounded in neuroscience, psychology and sociology
I forgive the unquestioning acceptance of learning styles theory in exchange for the wealth of tried and tested suggestions, here called tools, contained in this book by Paul Ginnis. He covers behaviour management as well as directly applicable classroom activities. I liked for example Murder Hunt which I used as a first class activity to get the class thinking about how they should work together as a group. Very enticing therefore is the section called 'The Recipe' in which Ginnis lists the 7 most important planning principles for teaching. This means that you should plan for:

thinking
emotional intelligence
independence
interdependence
multi-sensation
fun
articulation

Teach like a Champion!
The third book I've chosen is 'Teach like a Champion' which is is the result of data driven analysis and identifies 49 key points or micro-events during a class which can be fine-tuned to make it flow and be more effective. One micro event would be getting the attention of the class for example. The book is supported by over 700 video clips illustrating good practice. You can see one below illustrating how to be precise in your praise. The approach is the basis of the Uncommon Schools. One of the advantages of the Taxonomy is that it gives a precise name by which to identify all the techniques. So Cold Call, number 22, refers to the way in which all members of the class need to be prepared to answer the question because the teacher asks the question before naming the person who will answer it. This is also a technique referred to in Geoff Petty's book but now it has a popular name. Naming the different parts of the teaching event also means that it is easier to hold discussions before and afterwards to plan and evaluate so that the teachers are continualy attending to the 49 techniques and can plan which to practice, which to invoke and when.