We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2024
The way that the teacher's planning decisions are realized in-flight will require the capacity to adapt the plan in line with the actual classroom circumstances, as these evolve in time and space: no lesson plan, however carefully elaborated, can fully anticipate how the learners will respond to it. The teacher, therefore, needs the skills whereby the lesson can be managed so as to maximize learning opportunities, even in the face of the unpredictable.
48 Adaptive expertise
49 The physical space
50 The online space
51 Classroom management and instructions
52 Classroom interaction: the teacher
53 Classroom interaction: pair and group work
54 Challenge/push/pace/flow
55 Openings, closings and transitions
56 Using presentation software
57 Providing feedback
58 Dealing with emergent language
Adaptive expertise
How does the planned lesson evolve into the performed lesson? How are the pre-flight decisions realized in-flight? That's where adaptive expertise comes in: the capacity to redesign the lesson in real operating conditions.
We have seen already that even the most meticulously planned lessons don't always go to plan (see 11). Here is an example, taken from an actual classroom in Mexico (from Cadorath and Harris, 1998, p. 188):
[After taking the register the teacher starts chatting to students]
T: well then, Jorge … did you have a good weekend?
S: yes
T: what did you do?
S: I got married.
T: [smiling] you got married. (0.7) you certainly had a good weekend then. (5.0) [laughter and buzz of conversation]
T: now turn to page 56 in your books. (1.6) you remember last time we were talking about biographies … [T checks book and lesson plan while other students talk to Jorge in Spanish about his nuptials.]
Here, despite the unexpected contribution of one student, and the interest it aroused on the part of the other students, the teacher made the decision to stick to her plan. She may have had very good reasons to do this. Nevertheless, you can't help feeling that there was an opportunity lost here, and that the teacher's decision to go with the plan was in fact a lack of decision. She could, for example, have decided to get the other students to ask Jorge, in English, about his wedding, with a view to their writing it up as a news story.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
