Basic Moves of Teaching: Building on Cooperative Learning

About the Book

“Without technique, vision is blind.” Dewitt Jones, National Geographic Photographer

Professional athletes periodically go back to basic training to learn or enhance skills. Teaching, we propose, is as much a performance as it is a cognitive exercise. If that is so, what are the essential, basic skills for all teachers, novice and expert alike? What do we need to practice on a yearly basis?

We believe there are three basic moves in teaching. They are (a) knowing how to establish a healthy, productive learning environment, (b) having the knowledge and skill to set up an environment to ensure interaction, which includes being able to ask meaningful questions, and (c) knowing how to use assessment to ensure that learning has taken place.

Setting up a healthy, productive learning environment is the foundation of the basic teaching moves. It is the milieu in which the others operate. We discuss, in this book, specific processes designed to get you started. Secondly, if teaching is the act of getting the learner to respond, how do we do that in specific, organized ways? We propose research-verified techniques, structures, and strategies that will enable you to do that effectively and efficiently. Most are rooted in cooperative learning, the teaching strategy that has the strongest research base of all teaching processes. Third, the question then becomes did learning occur? Assessment deals with whether the learner responded appropriately.

This book presents a detailed, hands-on, research-verified approach that virtually assures mastery of basic teaching skills for novice and expert alike.

About the Author

William Green holds a master’s degree in Reading Education from California State University in Los Angeles and a doctoral degree in School Leadership with a specialization in teaching processes from the University of Oregon. He holds teaching and administration certificates on both the elementary and secondary levels. He has taught at elementary, secondary, and higher education levels. He has served as a reading specialist at elementary and secondary levels, and served as an elementary school principal for ten years. In addition to the public school experience, Dr. Green has also served as a professor of teacher education at four different universities. He was Chair of the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Administration at Andrews University for ten years.

Currently Dr. Green is the Dean of the College of Graduate Education and Leadership at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Jamaica. He consults widely on a variety of topics including leadership, instructional processes, staff development, school improvement, and qualitative research both in the US and abroad. Besides his work in the US, his international teaching and consulting experience includes Trinidad, India, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, France, England, and he is now a resident of Jamaica. He and his wife are authors of a series of pedagogical training manuals for teachers as well as professional articles.