This book is a very readable how to teach book with hardly any jargon. It starts from scratch and is appropriate for anyone teaching students in Primary or Secondary schools, Colleges, in work environments and elsewhere. It has been one of the best selling books on teaching for 20 years. Very few books tell you how to teach. Most books on teaching give background knowledge, and if you are lucky will tell you what to do but not how to do it – for example ‘when using questioning, ensure all your students are engaged‘.
But how do you ensure all students are engaged? Especially that one in the back row? Questioning is done badly in most classrooms because most teachers don’t know the best methods. Teaching Today has more than 20 pages on this topic alone. Questioning methods are amongst the most powerful teaching methods we have, and students love class discussion, but questioning is done badly in most classrooms. Other methods are not used well either.
Resolutely practical this book has 24 chapters on practical advice on different teaching methods, giving the detail of how to set active tasks, explain, demonstrate, check and correct learning, and much more. The book is informed by reviews of research on teaching methods. Geoff is also the author of ‘Evidence Based Teaching’ which is a follow on book to Teaching Today for those with some teaching experience already.
What’s new in the 5th Edition?
There are new chapters on:
- Differentiation: coping with differences
- Equality, diversity and attainment: your role
- Working with others (colleagues, teams, and parents included)
- Inclusion in context
The book is now in a larger format, with plenty of white space for notes, and to be easy on the eye. Many chapters have been updated and improved in some way; and Geoff explains his Quality Learning Cycle in chapter 4.
