Ten Principles for Framing Core Processes of Effective Teaching and Learning… Adapted from work by Frank Coffield, Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London ** The 10 principles need to be…worked out in detail so that they fit the radically different sites of T & L up and down the country. They provide only a framework and the main job remains to be done, namely of finding techniques to turn these principles into practices which suit you and your students. They also need to be adapted to the different subject areas…because the pedagogy needed to teach engineering is obviously different from that needed to teach child care. If not, we shall end up with rather mechanically-minded nurses and child-centred engineers. Taken together, do these principles constitute a „culture of learning‟ or is something more meant by that phrase? 1. Equips learners for life in its broadest sense. Development of all learners as active citizens means, for instance, expanding our conception of worthwhile learning outcomes beyond the attainment of academic qualifications. In doing so, we would be catching up with our learners who already value other outcomes such as the new friends met at college, the rise in self-confidence and the informal learning done in and outside the college. 2. Engages with valued forms of knowledge. Expecting that tutors will develop a good understanding both of the subjects they teach and of the best ways to teach those subjects so that learners are engaged „with the big ideas, key processes, modes of discourse, and narratives‟ of those subjects. But we need to ask: whose valued forms of knowledge? The government‟s? The tutor‟s? The student‟s? Experts in the field? 3. Recognises the importance of prior experience and learning. Awareness that tutors need to take of what learners (and especially adult learners) know already, [and] to respond to the personal and cultural experiences of the different groups in their classrooms. 4. Requires the tutor to ‘scaffold’ or ‘sequence’ learning. Tutors „should provide activities and structures of intellectual, social and emotional to help learners to move forward in their learning so that, when these s are removed, the learning is secure.‟ A useful analogy is providing a child with stabilisers [training wheels] while she is learning to ride a bike. In other words, all learners need to be given the means of going beyond the understanding and skills of their tutors. 5. Uses assessment as a means of advancing learning. That is, assessment should advance learning as well as determine that it has taken place. 6. Promotes the active engagement of the learner.

Such that learners acquire a broad repertoire of learning strategies to become agents in their own learning. Sue Crowley (in personal communication with Coffield) pushes this argument further: „If we accept the importance of prior learning and experience, then the trajectory of learning must be shaped by both the teacher and the learner….Such interactions amount to more than just “active engagement.‟ 7. Fosters both individual and social processes and outcomes. And turns teachers‟ attention to consulting learners about their learning, which considers, in turn, ways in which giving them a „voice‟ is a right. 8. Recognises the significance of informal learning. Open to the argument that informal learning in the home, during leisure pursuits, or in the workplace or with community/affinity groups is perhaps more significant than formal learning in educational institutions. 9. Depends on and encourages tutors continuing to learn. Tutors learn continuously „in order to develop their knowledge and skill, and adapt and develop their roles, especially through classroom enquiry‟ is a central component of teaching. 10. Demands consistent policy frameworks with for teaching and learning as their primary focus. The body of research argues that „institutional and system-level policies need to recognise the fundamental importance of teaching and learning and be designed to create effective learning environments for all learners.‟ _______ ** Frank Coffield. “Just Suppose Teaching and Learning Became the First Priority...” Published by the Learning and Skills Network. London, 2008. 11-13. The full monograph is readily available at multiple sites that turn up in a browser search. The ideas and words comprising this short handout are drawn entirely from Coffield‟s monograph, and created for use as a teaching tool meant to introduce “Teaching in Higher Education” students and higher education colleagues attending workshops to Coffield‟s monograph. Within the monograph, Coffield credits James and Pollard (2006) for informing the Ten Principles, noting that the work conveys  evidence-informed principles adapted from the Teaching and Learning Research Programme analysis of findings from 20 projects in primary and secondary schools, applicable to the post-compulsory / higher education sectors, and then the largest initiative in educational research in the UK  James, M. and Pollard A. “Improving Teaching and Learning in Schools; A Commentary by the Teaching and Learning Research Programme. London University: Institute of Education, TLRP, 2006.

(Adapted by Ilene D. Alexander)