C Domain

Teaching for Student Learning

The focus in the C Domain is on the act of teaching and its overall goal of helping students connect with the content.This domain is about what you see happening in the classroom.

What is content?

Content is the subject matter of the discipline. It includes the knowledge, skills, perceptions, and values in any learning domain – cognitive, artistic, social, physical –that are related to the subject matter.

So the teacher’s job in the C Domain is to devise a way to fit the content to the knowledge, interests, abilities, and cultural-personal backgrounds of the students.

In this domain your job is to watch how teachers draw the students into the content.

C1- Making learning goals and instructional procedures clear to students

Explicit goal statements

An explicit statement of a goal is to directly state it.

The teacher might say: Today we are going to work on

Or the teacher might direct the students to look at the goals written on the board or on top of the assignment.

What would be the benefit of not stating the goal of a lesson that is about discovery and exploration?

Implicit goals are unstated because the lesson or activity seems to need little explanation. Sometimes the teacher will wait until the end of the lesson before asking the students to tell the goal of the lesson.

Implicit goals

What are instructional procedures?

The ways in which students are to accomplish the goals of the lesson as well as routines of classroom management.

Examples:

C2 - Making content comprehensible to students

Making content comprehensible

C2 deals with how well the teacher is able to go from thinking (A Domain) about what to involve the students with and actually getting them involved with that content.

It includes how to present content – the hook, the goal statement, the lesson or demonstration, and the activity the teacher chooses to help students learn the lesson.

So … here are some ways the teacher can make content comprehensible:

Review previously discussed ideas, ask introductory questions to begin discussions, do activities that involve student participation in the learning. Teachers may also organize instruction through presentations, devise small group or individual work, or allow students to initiate projects.

C 3 - Encouraging students to extend their thinking

Extending thinking

This domain is about encouraging students to trust their own ability to think independently, creatively, and critically.

Here the teacher must plan lessons and/or elements of lessons that involve the students in higher order thinking skills.

They can accomplish this is multiple ways:

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4.4 Monitoring student understanding and providing feedback to assist learning

Teachers do this in a variety of ways such as:

Checking work

Asking questions

Paying attention to and responding to non-verbal clues

Overseeing student work while walking about the classroom

Teachers can also give feedback by:

Speaking to students and groups of students about work in progress.

Directing students to books or self-checking materials

Adjusting the learning activities so the goals are met.

4. 5 – Using instructional time effectively

Instructional time is time during which teaching and learning ought to take place

Down time is wasted time. Instructional time should be spent on instruction/student learning.

Teachers should plan in a way that utilizes all the time of the class. Non-instructional procedures such as taking attendance, passing out materials or assignments, giving permission to use the restroom should all be taken care of in a way that does not take away from learning time.

Time spent must be appropriate

To contentThe learnersThe situation

What is the result if 1) the pace is too slow, 2) the pace is too fast?

What should the teacher do if the lesson or the learning activity is completed more quickly than s/he anticipated?

Questions: What do you think?