essay about teaching process

education, community-building and change

What is teaching? A definition and discussion

In this piece Mark K Smith explores the nature of teaching – those moments or sessions where we make specific interventions to help people learn particular things. He sets this within a discussion of pedagogy and didactics and demonstrates that we need to unhook consideration of the process of teaching from the role of ‘teacher’ in schools.

Contents : introduction • what is teaching • a definition of teaching • teaching, pedagogy and didactics • approaching teaching as a process • structuring interventions and making use of different methods • what does good teaching look like • conclusion • further reading and references • acknowledgements • how to cite this piece, linked piece: the key activities of teaching, a definition for starters : teaching is the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and intervening so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given., introduction.

In teacher education programmes – and in continuing professional development – a lot of time is devoted to the ‘what’ of teaching – what areas we should we cover, what resources do we need and so on. The ‘how’ of teaching also gets a great deal of space – how to structure a lesson, manage classes, assess for learning for learning and so on. Sometimes, as Parker J. Palmer (1998: 4) comments, we may even ask the “why” question – ‘for what purposes and to what ends do we teach? ‘But seldom, if ever’, he continues: ‘do we ask the “who” question – who is the self that teaches?’

The thing about this is that the who, what, why and how of teaching cannot be answered seriously without exploring the nature of teaching itself.

What is teaching?

In much modern usage, the words ‘teaching’ and ‘teacher’ are wrapped up with schooling and schools. One way of approaching the question ‘What is teaching?’ is to look at what those called ‘teachers’ do – and then to draw out key qualities or activities that set them apart from others. The problem is that all sorts of things are bundled together in job descriptions or roles that may have little to do with what we can sensibly call teaching.

Another way is to head for dictionaries and search for both the historical meanings of the term, and how it is used in everyday language. This brings us to definitions like:

Impart knowledge to or instruct (someone) as to how to do something; or Cause (someone) to learn or understand something by example or experience.

As can be seen from these definitions we can say that we are all teachers in some way at some time.

Further insight is offered by looking at the ancestries of the words. For example, the origin of the word ‘teach’ lies in the Old English tæcan meaning ‘show, present, point out’, which is of Germanic origin; and related to ‘token’, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek deiknunai ‘show’, deigma ‘sample ( http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/teach ).

Fostering learning

To make sense of all this it is worth turning to what philosophers of education say. Interestingly, the question, ‘What is teaching?’ hasn’t been a hotbed of activity in recent years in the UK and USA. However, as Paul Hirst (1975) concluded, ‘being clear about what teaching is matters vitally because how teachers understand teaching very much affects what they actually do in the classroom’.

Hirst (1975) makes two very important points. For him teaching should involve:

Setting out with the intention of someone learning something.
Considering people’s feelings, experiences and needs. Teaching is only teaching if people can take on what is taught.

To this we can add Jerome Bruner’s insights around the nature of education, and the process of learning and problem solving.

To instruct someone… is not a matter of getting him to commit results to mind. Rather, it is to teach him to participate in the process that makes possible the establishment of knowledge. We teach a subject not to produce little living libraries on that subject, but rather to get a student to think mathematically for himself, to consider matters as an historian does, to take part in the process of knowledge-getting. Knowing is a process not a product. (1966: 72)

We can begin to weave these into a definition – and highlight some forms it takes.

A definition : Teaching is the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and intervening so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given.

Interventions commonly take the form of questioning, listening, giving information, explaining some phenomenon, demonstrating a skill or process, testing understanding and capacity, and facilitating learning activities (such as note taking, discussion, assignment writing, simulations and practice).

Let us look at the key elements.

Attending to people’s feelings, experiences and needs

Considering what those we are supposed to be teaching need, and what might be going on for them, is one of the main things that makes ‘education’ different to indoctrination. Indoctrination involves knowingly encouraging people to believe something regardless of the evidence (see Snook 1972; Peterson 2007). It also entails a lack of respect for their human rights. Education can be described as the ‘wise, hopeful and respectful cultivation of learning undertaken in the belief that all should have the chance to share in life’ (Smith 2015). The process of education flows from a basic orientation of respect – respect for truth, others and themselves, and the world ( op. cit. ). For teachers to be educators they must, therefore:

Consider people’s needs and wishes now and in the future.
Reflect on what might be good for all (and the world in which we live).
Plan their interventions accordingly.

There are a couple of issues that immediately arise from this.

First, how do we balance individual needs and wishes against what might be good for others? For most of us this is probably something that we should answer on a case-by-case basis – and it is also something that is likely to be a focus for conversation and reflection in our work with people.

Second, what do we do when people do not see the point of learning things – for example, around grammar or safety requirements? The obvious response to this question is that we must ask and listen – they may have point. However, we also must weigh this against what we know about the significance of these things in life, and any curriculum or health and safety or other requirements we have a duty to meet. In this case we have a responsibility to try to introduce them to people when the time is right, to explore their relevance and to encourage participation.

Failing to attend to people’s feelings and experiences is problematic – and not just because it reveals a basic lack of respect for them. It is also pointless and counter-productive to try to explore things when people are not ready to look at them. We need to consider their feelings and look to their experiences – both of our classroom or learning environment, and around the issues or areas we want to explore. Recent developments in brain science has underlined the significance of learning from experience from the time in the womb on (see, for example Lieberman 2013). Bringing people’s experiences around the subjects or areas we are looking to teach about into the classroom or learning situation is, thus, fundamental to the learning process.

Learning particular things

Teaching involves creating an environment and engaging with others, so that they learn particular things. This can be anything from tying a shoe lace to appreciating the structure of a three act play. I want highlight three key elements here – focus, knowledge and the ability to engage people in learning.

This may be a bit obvious – but it is probably worth saying – teaching has to have a focus. We should be clear about we are trying to do. One of the findings that shines through research on teaching is that clear learning intentions help learners to see the point of a session or intervention, keep the process on track, and, when challenging, make a difference in what people learn (Hattie 2009: location 4478).

As teachers and pedagogues there are a lot of times when we are seeking to foster learning but there may not be great clarity about the specific goals of that learning (see Jeffs and Smith 2018 Chapter 1). This is especially the case for informal educators and pedagogues. We journey with people, trying to build environments for learning and change, and, from time-to-time, creating teaching moments. It is in the teaching moments that we usually need an explicit focus.

Subject knowledge

Equally obvious, we need expertise, we need to have content. As coaches we should know about our sport; as religious educators about belief, practice and teachings; and, as pedagogues, ethics, human growth and development and social life. Good teachers ‘have deep knowledge of the subjects they teach, and when teachers’ knowledge falls below a certain level it is a significant impediment to students’ learning’ (Coe et. al. 2014: 2).

That said, there are times when we develop our understandings and capacities as we go. In the process of preparing for a session or lesson or group, we may read, listen to and watch YouTube items, look at other resources and learn. We build content and expertise as we teach. Luckily, we can draw on a range of things to support us in our efforts – video clips, web resources, textbooks, activities. Yes, it might be nice to be experts in all the areas we have to teach – but we can’t be. It is inevitable that we will be called to teach in areas where we have limited knowledge. One of the fascinating and comforting things research shows is that what appears to count most for learning is our ability as educators and pedagogues. A good understanding of, and passion for, a subject area; good resources to draw upon; and the capacity to engage people in learning yields good results. It is difficult to find evidence that great expertise in the subject matter makes a significant difference within a lot of schooling (Hattie 2009: location 2963).

Sometimes subject expertise can get in the way – it can serve to emphasize the gap between people’s knowledge and capacities and that of the teacher. On the other hand, it can be used to generate enthusiasm and interest; to make links; and inform decisions about what to teach and when. Having a concern for learning – and, in particular, seeking to create environments where people develop as and, can be, self-directed learners – is one of the key features here.

Engaging people in learning

At the centre of teaching lies enthusiasm and a commitment to, and expertise in, the process of engaging people in learning. This is how John Hattie (2009: location 2939) put it:

… it is teachers using particular teaching methods, teachers with high expectations for all students, and teachers who have created positive student-teacher relationships that are more likely to have the above average effects on student achievement.

Going beyond the given

The idea of “going beyond the information given” was central to Jerome Bruner’s explorations of cognition and education. He was part of the shift in psychology in the 1950s and early 1960s towards the study of people as active processors of knowledge, as discoverers of new understandings and possibilities. Bruner wanted people to develop their ability to ‘go beyond the data to new and possibly fruitful predictions’ (Bruner 1973: 234); to experience and know possibility. He hoped people would become as ‘autonomous and self-propelled’ thinkers as possible’ (Bruner 1961: 23). To do this, teachers and pedagogues had to, as Hirst (1975) put it, appreciate learner’s feelings, experiences and needs; to engage with their processes and view of the world.

Two key ideas became central to this process for Jerome Bruner – the ‘spiral’ and scaffolding.

The spiral . People, as they develop, must take on and build representations of their experiences and the world around them. (Representations being the way in which information and knowledge are held and encoded in our memories). An idea, or concept is generally encountered several times. At first it is likely to be in a concrete and simple way. As understanding develops, it is likely to encountered and in greater depth and complexity. To succeed, teaching, educating, and working with others must look to where in the spiral people are, and how ‘ready’ they are to explore something. Crudely, it means simplifying complex information where necessary, and then revisiting it to build understanding (David Kolb talked in a similar way about experiential learning).

Scaffolding . The idea of scaffolding (which we will come back to later) is close to what Vygotsky talked about as the zone of proximal development. Basically, it entails creating a framework, and offering structured support, that encourages and allows learners to develop particular understandings, skills and attitudes.

Intervening

The final element – making specific interventions – concerns the process of taking defined and targeted action in a situation. In other words, as well as having a clear focus, we try to work in ways that facilitate that focus.

Thinking about teaching as a process of making specific interventions is helpful, I think, because it:

Focuses on the different actions we take . As we saw in the definition, interventions commonly take the form of questioning, listening, giving information, explaining some phenomenon, demonstrating a skill or process, testing understanding and capacity, and facilitating learning activities (such as note taking, discussion, assignment writing, simulations and practice).

Makes us look at how we move from one way of working or communicating to another . Interventions often involve shifting a conversation or discussion onto a different track or changing the process or activity. It may well be accompanied by a change in mood and pace (e.g. moving from something that is quite relaxed into a period of more intense activity). The process of moving from one way of working – or way of communicating – to another is far from straightforward. It calls upon us to develop and deepen our practice.

Highlights the more formal character of teaching . Interventions are planned, focused and tied to objectives or intentions. Teaching also often entails using quizzes and tests to see whether planned outcomes have been met. The feel and character of teaching moments are different to many other processes that informal educators, pedagogues and specialist educators use. Those processes, like conversation, playing a game and walking with people are usually more free-flowing and unpredictable.

Teaching, however, is not a simple step-by-step process e.g. of attending, getting information and intervening. We may well start with an intervention which then provides us with data. In addition, things rarely go as planned – at least not if we attend to people’s feelings, experiences and needs. In addition, learners might not always get the points straightaway or see what we are trying to help them learn. They may be able to take on what is being taught – but it might take time. As a result, how well we have done is often unlikely to show up in the results of any tests or in assessments made in the session or lesson.

Teaching, pedagogy and didactics

Earlier, we saw that relatively little attention had been given to defining the essential nature of teaching in recent years in the UK and North America. This has contributed to confusion around the term and a major undervaluing of other forms of facilitating learning. The same cannot be said in a number of continental European countries where there is a much stronger appreciation of the different forms education takes. Reflecting on these traditions helps us to better understand teaching as a particular process – and to recognize that it is fundamentally concerned with didactics rather than pedagogy.

Perhaps the most helpful starting point for this discussion is the strong distinction made in ancient Greek society between the activities of pedagogues (paidagögus) and subject teachers (didáskalos or diadacts). The first pedagogues were slaves – often foreigners and the ‘spoils of war’ (Young 1987). They were trusted and sometimes learned members of rich households who accompanied the sons of their ‘masters’ in the street, oversaw their meals etc., and sat beside them when being schooled. These pedagogues were generally seen as representatives of their wards’ fathers and literally ‘tenders’ of children (pais plus agögos, a ‘child-tender’). Children were often put in their charge at around 7 years and remained with them until late adolescence. As such pedagogues played a major part in their lives – helping them to recognize what was wrong and right, learn how to behave in different situations, and to appreciate how they and those around them might flourish.

Moral supervision by the pedagogue (paidagogos) was also significant in terms of status.

He was more important than the schoolmaster, because the latter only taught a boy his letters, but the paidagogos taught him how to behave, a much more important matter in the eyes of his parents. He was, moreover, even if a slave, a member of the household, in touch with its ways and with the father’s authority and views. The schoolmaster had no such close contact with his pupils. (Castle 1961: 63-4)

The distinction between teachers and pedagogues, instruction and guidance, and education for school or life was a feature of discussions around education for many centuries. It was still around when Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) explored education. In On Pedagogy (Über Pädagogik) first published in 1803, he talked as follows:

Education includes the nurture of the child and, as it grows, its culture. The latter is firstly negative, consisting of discipline; that is, merely the correcting of faults. Secondly, culture is positive, consisting of instruction and guidance (and thus forming part of education). Guidance means directing the pupil in putting into practice what he has been taught. Hence the difference between a private teacher who merely instructs, and a tutor or governor who guides and directs his pupil. The one trains for school only, the other for life. (Kant 1900: 23-4)

It was later – and particularly associated with the work of Herbart (see, for example, Allgemeine pädagogik – General Pedagogics, 1806 and Umriss Pädagogischer Vorlesungen , 1835 – Plan of Lectures on Pedagogy and included in Herbart 1908) – that teaching came to be seen, wrongly, as the central activity of education (see Hamilton 1999).

Didactics – certainly within German traditions – can be approached as Allgemeine Didaktik (general didactics) or as Fachdidaktik (subject didactics). Probably, the most helpful ways of translating didaktik is as the study of the teaching-learning process. It involves researching and theorizing the process and developing practice (see Kansanen 1999). The overwhelming focus within the didaktik tradition is upon the teaching-learning process in schools, colleges and university.

To approach education and learning in other settings it is necessary to turn to the pädagogik tradition . Within this tradition fields like informal education, youth work, community development, art therapy, playwork and child care are approached as forms of pedagogy. Indeed, in countries like Germany and Denmark, a relatively large number of people are employed as pedagogues or social pedagogues. While these pedagogues teach, much of their activity is conversationally, rather than curriculum, -based. Within this what comes to the fore is a focus on flourishing and of the significance of the person of the pedagogue (Smith and Smith 2008). In addition, three elements stand out about the processes of the current generation of specialist pedagogues. First, they are heirs to the ancient Greek process of accompanying and fostering learning. Second, their pedagogy involves a significant amount of helping and caring for. Indeed, for many of those concerned with social pedagogy it is a place where care and education meet – one is not somehow less than the other (Cameron and Moss 2011). Third, they are engaged in what we can call ‘bringing situations to life’ or ‘sparking’ change (animation). In other words, they animate, care and educate (ACE). Woven into those processes are theories and beliefs that we also need to attend to (see Alexander 2000: 541).

ACE - animate, care, educate. Taken from Mark K Smith (2016) Working with young people in difficult times. Chapter 1.

We can see from this discussion that when English language commentators talk of pedagogy as the art and science of teaching they are mistaken. As Hamilton (1999) has pointed out teaching in schools is properly approached in the main as didactics – the study of teaching-learning processes. Pedagogy is something very different. It may include didactic elements but for the most part it is concerned with animation, caring and education (see what is education? ). It’s focus is upon flourishing and well-being. Within schools there may be specialist educators and practitioners that do this but they are usually not qualified school teachers. Instead they hold other professional qualifications, for example in pedagogy, social work, youth work and community education. To really understand teaching as a process we need to unhook it from school teaching and recognize that it is an activity that is both part of daily life and is an element of other practitioner’s repertoires. Pedagogues teach, for example, but from within a worldview or haltung that is often radically different to school teachers.

Approaching teaching as a process

Some of the teaching we do can be planned in advance because the people involved know that they will be attending a session, event or lesson where learning particular skills, topics or feelings is the focus. Some teaching arises as a response to a question, issue or situation. However, both are dependent on us:

Recognizing and cultivating teachable moments. Cultivating relationships for learning. Scaffolding learning – providing people with temporary support so that they deepen and develop their understanding and skills and grow as independent learners. Differentiating learning – adjusting the way we teach and approach subjects so that we can meet the needs of diverse learners. Accessing resources for learning. Adopting a growth mindset.

We are going to look briefly at each of these in turn.

Recognizing and cultivating teachable moments

Teachers – certainly those in most formal settings like schools – have to follow a curriculum. They have to teach specified areas in a particular sequence. As a result, there are always going to be individuals who are not ready for that learning. As teachers in these situations we need to look out for moments when students may be open to learning about different things; where we can, in the language of Quakers, ‘speak to their condition’. Having a sense of their needs and capacities we can respond with the right things at the right time.

Informal educators, animators and pedagogues work differently for a lot of the time. The direction they take is often not set by a syllabus or curriculum. Instead, they listen for, and observe what might be going on for the people they are working with. They have an idea of what might make for well-being and development and can apply it to the experiences and situations that are being revealed. They look out for moments when they can intervene to highlight an issue, give information, and encourage reflection and learning.

In other words, all teaching involves recognizing and cultivating ‘learning moments’ or ‘teaching moments’.

It was Robert J Havinghurst who coined the term ‘teachable moment’. One of his interests as an educationalist was the way in which certain things have to be learned in order for people to develop.

When the timing is right, the ability to learn a particular task will be possible. This is referred to as a ‘teachable moment’. It is important to keep in mind that unless the time is right, learning will not occur. Hence, it is important to repeat important points whenever possible so that when a student’s teachable moment occurs, s/he can benefit from the knowledge. (Havinghurst 1953)

There are times of special sensitivity when learning is possible. We have to look out for them, to help create environments that can create or stimulate such moments, be ready to respond, and draw on the right resources.

Cultivating collaborative relationships for learning

The main thing here is that teaching, like other parts of our work, is about relationship. We have to think about our relationships with those we are supposed to be teaching and about the relationships they have with each other. Creating an environment where people can work with each other, cooperate and learning is essential. One of the things that has been confirmed by recent research in neuroscience is that ‘our brains are wired to connect’, we are wired to be social (Lieberman 2013). It is not surprising then, that on the whole cooperative learning is more effective that either competitive learning (where students compete to meet a goal) or individualistic learning (Hattie 2011: 4733).

As teachers, we need to be appreciated as someone who can draw out learning; cares about what people are feeling, experiencing and need; and breathe life to situations. This entails what Carl Rogers (in Kirschenbaum and Henderson 1990: 304-311) talked about as the core conditions or personal qualities that allow us to facilitate learning in others:

Realness or genuineness . Rogers argued that when we are experienced as real people -entering into relationships with learners ‘without presenting a front or a façade’, we more likely to be effective. Prizing, acceptance, trust . This involves caring for learners, but in a non-possessive way and recognizing they have worth in their own right. It entails trusting in capacity of others to learn, make judgements and change. Empathic understanding . ‘When the teacher has the ability to understand the student’s reactions from the inside, has a sensitive awareness of the way the process of education and learning seems to the student, then again the likelihood of significant learning is increased’.

In practical terms this means we talk to people, not at them. We listen. We seek to connect and understand. We trust in their capacity to learn and change. We know that how we say things is often more important than what we say.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding entails providing people with temporary support so that they deepen and develop their understanding and skills – and develop as independent learners.

Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and the teacher gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student. (Great Schools Partnership 2015)

To do this well, educators and workers need to be doing what we have explored above – cultivating collaborative relationships for learning, and building on what people know and do and then working just beyond it. The term used for latter of these is taken from the work of Lev Vygotsky – is working in the learner’s zone of proximal development .

A third key aspect of scaffolding is that the support around the particular subject or skill is gradually removed as people develop their expertise and commitment to learning.

Scaffolding can take different forms. It might simply involve ‘showing learners what to do while talking them through the activity and linking new learning to old through questions, resources, activities and language’ (Zwozdiak-Myers and Capel, S. 2013 location 4568). (For a quick overview of some different scaffolding strategies see Alber 2014 ).

The educational use of the term ‘scaffolding’ is linked to the work of Jerome Bruner –who believed that children (and adults) were active learners. They constructed their own knowledge. Scaffolding was originally used to describe how pedagogues interacted with pre-school children in a nursery (Woods et. al . 1976). Bruner defined scaffolding as ‘the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring’ (Bruner 1978: 19).

Differentiation

Differentiation involves adjusting the way we teach and approach subjects so that we can meet the needs of diverse learners. It entails changing content, processes and products so that people can better understand what is being taught and develop appropriate skills and the capacity to act.

The basic idea is that the primary educational objectives—making sure all students master essential knowledge, concepts, and skills—remain the same for every student, but teachers may use different instructional methods to help students meet those expectations. (Great Schools Partnership 2013)

It is often used when working with groups that have within them people with different needs and starting knowledge and skills. (For a quick guide to differentiation see BBC Active ).

Accessing resources for learning

One of the key elements we require is the ability to access and make available resources for learning. The two obvious and central resources we have are our own knowledge, feelings and skills; and those of the people we are working with. Harnessing the experience, knowledge and feelings of learners is usually a good starting point. It focuses attention on the issue or subject; shares material; and can encourage joint working. When it is an area that we need to respond to immediately, it can also give us a little space gather our thoughts and access the material we need.

The third key resource is the internet – which we can either make a whole group activity by using search via a whiteboard or screen, or an individual or small group activity via phones and other devices. One of the good things about this is that it also gives us an opportunity not just to reflect on the subject of the search but also on the process. We can examine, for example, the validity of the source or the terms we are using to search for something.

The fourth great resource is activities. Teachers need to build up a repertoire of different activities that can be used to explore issues and areas (see the section below).

Last, and certainly not least, there are the standard classroom resources – textbooks, handouts and study materials.

As teachers we need to have a range of resources at our fingertips. This can be as simple as carrying around a file of activities, leaflets and handouts or having materials, relevant sites and ebooks on our phones and devices.

Adopting a growth mindset

Last, we need to encourage people to adopt what Carol Dweck (2012) calls a growth mindset. Through researching the characteristics of children who succeed in education (and more generally flourish in life), Dweck found that some people have a fixed mindset and some a growth mindset.

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone— the fixed mindset —creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character—well, then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics…. There’s another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you’re dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you’re secretly worried it’s a pair of tens. In this mindset, the hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience. (Dweck 2012: 6-7)

The fixed mindset is concerned with outcomes and performance; the growth mindset with getting better at the task.

In her research she found, for example, that students with a fixed mindset when making the transition from elementary school to junior high in the United States, declined – their grades immediately dropped and over the next two years continued to decline. Students with a growth mindset showed an increase in their grades ( op. cit. : 57). The significance of this for teaching is profound. Praising and valuing achievement tends to strengthen the fixed mindset; praising and valuing effort helps to strengthen a growth mindset.

While it is possible to question elements of Dweck’s research and the either/or way in which prescriptions are presented (see Didau 2015), there is particular merit when teaching of adopting a growth mindset (and encouraging it in others). It looks to change and development rather than proving outselves.

Structuring interventions and making use of different methods

One of the key things that research into the processes of teaching and educating tells us is that learners tend to like structure; they want to know the shape of a session or intervention and what it is about. They also seem to like variety, and changes in the pace of the work (e.g. moving from something quite intense to something free flowing).

It is also worth going back to the dictionary definitions – and the origins of the word ‘teach’. What we find here are some hints of what Geoff Petty (2009) has talked about as ‘teacher-centred’ methods (as against active methods and student-centred methods).

If we ask learners about their experiences and judgements, one of things that comes strongly through the research in this area is that students overwhelming prefer group discussion, games and simulations and activities like drama, artwork and experiments. At the bottom of this list come analysis, theories, essays and lectures (see Petty 2009: 139-141). However, there is not necessarily a connection between what people enjoy doing and what produces learning.

Schoolteachers may use all of these methods – but so might sports workers and instructors, youth ministers, community development workers and social pedagogues. Unlike schoolteachers, informal educators like these are not having to follow a curriculum for much of their time, nor teach content to pass exams. As such they are able to think more holistically and to think of themselves as facilitators of learning. This means:

Focusing on the active methods in the central column; Caring about people’s needs, experiences and feeling; Looking for teachable moments when then can make inputs often along the lines of the first column (teacher-centred methods); and Encouraging people to learn for themselves i.e. take on projects, to read and study, and to learn independently and be self-directed (student-centred methods).

In an appendix to this piece we look at some key activities of teaching and provide practical guidance. [See key teaching activities ]

What does good teaching look like?

What one person sees as good teaching can easily be seen as bad by another. Here we are going to look at what the Ofsted (2015) framework for inspection says. However, before we go there it is worth going back to what Paul Hirst argued back in 1975 and how we are defining teaching here. Our definition was:

Teaching is the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and making specific interventions to help them learn particular things.

We are looking at teaching as a specific process – part of what we do as educators, animators and pedagogues. Ofsted is looking at something rather different. They are grouping together teaching, learning and assessment – and adding in some other things around the sort of outcomes they want to see. That said, it is well worth looking at this list as the thinking behind it does impact on a lot of the work we do.

Inspectors will make a judgement on the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessment by evaluating the extent to which: teachers, practitioners and other staff have consistently high expectations of what each child or learner can achieve, including the most able and the most disadvantaged teachers, practitioners and other staff have a secure understanding of the age group they are working with and have relevant subject knowledge that is detailed and communicated well to children and learners assessment information is gathered from looking at what children and learners already know, understand and can do and is informed by their parents/previous providers as appropriate assessment information is used to plan appropriate teaching and learning strategies, including to identify children and learners who are falling behind in their learning or who need additional support, enabling children and learners to make good progress and achieve well except in the case of the very young, children and learners understand how to improve as a result of useful feedback from staff and, where relevant, parents, carers and employers understand how learners should improve and how they can contribute to this engagement with parents, carers and employers helps them to understand how children and learners are doing in relation to the standards expected and what they need to do to improve equality of opportunity and recognition of diversity are promoted through teaching and learning where relevant, English, mathematics and other skills necessary to function as an economically active member of British society and globally are promoted through teaching and learning.

We see some things that many will not disagree with like having high expectations of learners, knowing what the needs of the group may be, having expertise in the area being taught; recogniting diversity and having a concern for equality of opportunity; and so on. We may also see the role that assessment plays in reinforcing learning and helping to shape future learning. However, there are things we may disagree with. Perhaps more importantly there are all sorts of things missing here. For example, why is there an emphasis on economic activity as against social, religious and political participation? Another issue, for many of you reading this, is possibly the way in which little account is made of the extent to which learners take responsibility for their own learning. They are encouraged to contribute to learning but not own it.

Good teaching is rather more than technique according to Parker J. Palmer . Good teaching, he says, ‘comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher’ (Palmer 1998: 11). It is the way we are experienced, our enthusiasm, our care, our knowledge, our interest in, and concern for, people that is the key to whether we are felt to be good teachers. As Jackie Beere (2012) and others have argued we need to be present as people in the classroom or learning environment.

This is not to say that technique isn’t important. It is. We need to be skilled at scaffolding learning; creating relationships and environments for learning; and catching teaching moments. It is just that these skills need to be employed by someone who can be respected, is experienced as real and is wise.

In this piece we have made a plea to explore teaching as a process rather than something that is usually approached as the thinking and activity associated with a particular role – the school teacher. As has been argued elsewhere a significant amount of what those called school teachers do is difficult to classify as education (see What is education? ). Even the most informal of educators will find themselves teaching. They may well work hard at building and facilitating environments where people can explore, relate and learn. However, extending or deepening that exploration often leads to short, or not so short bursts of teaching or instructing. For example, as sports coaches or outdoor educators we may be both trying to develop teamwork and build particular skills or capacities. As a specialist or religious educators we might be seeking to give information, or introduce ideas that need some explanation. These involve moments of teaching or instructing. Once we accept this then we can hopefully begin to recognize that school teachers have a lot to learn from other teachers – and vice versa.

We also need to unhook ‘pedagogy’ from school teaching within English language discussions – and to connect it with the tradition of didactics. One of the problems with the false link of school teaching to pedagogy is that it is impairing a proper discussion of pedagogy. However, that may change a little in the UK at least with the development of professional standards for social pedagogy and the emergence of graduate and post-graduate study in the area.

Acknowledgements

The section ‘teaching, pedagogy and didactics’ draws heavily on another piece written by Mark K Smith for infed.org ( see Smith 2012 ).

The ACE diagram is taken from Smith, M. K. (forthcoming). Working with young people in difficult times (Chapter 1). https://infed.org/mobi/working-with-young-people-in-difficult-times/

Picture: Group project by Brande Jackson . Flickr | ccbyncnd2 licence

How to cite this piece : Smith, M. K. (2018). ‘What is teaching?’ in The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education . [ https://infed.org/mobi/what-is-teaching/ . Retrieved: insert date].

Last Updated on August 24, 2020 by infed.org

Center for Teaching

Teaching statements.

Print Version

What is a teaching statement?
What purposes does the teaching statement serve?
What does a teaching statement include?

General Guidelines

Reflection questions to help get you started
Exercises to help get you started
Evaluating your teaching statement
Further resources

What is a Teaching Statement?

A Teaching Statement is a purposeful and reflective essay about the author’s teaching beliefs and practices. It is an individual narrative that includes not only one’s beliefs about the teaching and learning process, but also concrete examples of the ways in which he or she enacts these beliefs in the classroom. At its best, a Teaching Statement gives a clear and unique portrait of the author as a teacher, avoiding generic or empty philosophical statements about teaching.

What Purposes does the Teaching Statement Serve?

The Teaching Statement can be used for personal, professional, or pedagogical purposes. While Teaching Statements are becoming an increasingly important part of the hiring and tenure processes, they are also effective exercises in helping one clearly and coherently conceptualize his or her approaches to and experiences of teaching and learning. As Nancy Van Note Chism, Professor Emerita of Education at IUPUI observes, “The act of taking time to consider one’s goals, actions, and vision provides an opportunity for development that can be personally and professionally enriching. Reviewing and revising former statements of teaching philosophy can help teachers to reflect on their growth and renew their dedication to the goals and values that they hold.”

What does a Teaching Statement Include?

A Teaching Statement can address any or all of the following:

Your conception of how learning occurs
A description of how your teaching facilitates student learning
A reflection of why you teach the way you do
The goals you have for yourself and for your students
How your teaching enacts your beliefs and goals
What, for you , constitutes evidence of student learning
The ways in which you create an inclusive learning environment
Your interests in new techniques, activities, and types of learning

“If at all possible, your statement should enable the reader to imagine you in the classroom, teaching. You want to include sufficient information for picturing not only you in the process of teaching, but also your class in the process of learning.” – Helen G. Grundman, Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement

Make your Teaching Statement brief and well written . While Teaching Statements are probably longer at the tenure level (i.e. 3-5 pages or more), for hiring purposes they are typically 1-2 pages in length.
Use narrative , first-person approach. This allows the Teaching Statement to be both personal and reflective.
Be sincere and unique. Avoid clichés, especially ones about how much passion you have for teaching.
Make it specific rather than abstract. Ground your ideas in 1-2 concrete examples , whether experienced or anticipated. This will help the reader to better visualize you in the classroom.
Be discipline specific . Do not ignore your research. Explain how you advance your field through teaching.
Avoid jargon and technical terms, as they can be off-putting to some readers. Try not to simply repeat what is in your CV. Teaching Statements are not exhaustive documents and should be used to complement other materials for the hiring or tenure processes.
Be humble . Mention students in an enthusiastic, not condescending way, and illustrate your willingness to learn from your students and colleagues.
Revise . Teaching is an evolving, reflective process, and Teaching Statements can be adapted and changed as necessary.

Reflection Questions To Help You Get You Started:*

Why do you teach the way you do?
What should students expect of you as a teacher?
What is a method of teaching you rely on frequently? Why don’t you use a different method?
What do you want students to learn? How do you know your goals for students are being met?
What should your students be able to know or do as a result of taking your class?
How can your teaching facilitate student learning?
How do you as a teacher create an engaging or enriching learning environment?
What specific activities or exercises do you use to engage your students? What do you want your students to learn from these activities?
How has your thinking about teaching changed over time? Why?

* These questions and exercises are meant to be tools to help you begin reflecting on your beliefs and ideas as a teacher. No single Teaching Statement can contain the answers to all or most of these inquiries and activities.

Exercises to Help You Get You Started:*

The Teaching Portfolio , including a section on teaching statements, Duquesne University Center for Teaching Excellence. This website includes five effective exercises to help you begin the writing process
Teaching Goals Inventory , by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross and their book Classroom Assessment Techniques . This “quiz” helps you to identify or create your teaching and learning goals.

Evaluating Your Teaching Statement

Writing A Statement Of Teaching Philosophy For The Academic Job Search (opens as a PDF), The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.

This report includes a useful rubric for evaluating teaching philosophy statements. The design of the rubric was informed by experience with hundreds of teaching philosophies, as well as surveys of search committees on what they considered successful and unsuccessful components of job applicants’ teaching philosophies.

Further Resources:

General information on and guidelines for writing teaching statements.

Writing a Philosophy of Teaching Statement , Faculty and TA Development at The Ohio State University. This site provides an in-depth guide to teaching statements, including the definition of and purposes for a teaching statement, general formatting suggestions, and a self-reflective guide to writing a teaching statement.
Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement , Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Iowa State University. This document looks at four major components of a teaching statement, which have been divided into questions—specifically, to what end? By what means? To what degree? And why? Each question is sufficiently elaborated, offering a sort of scaffolding for preparing one’s own teaching statement.
Writing a Meaningful Statement of Teaching Philosophy , McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University. This website offers strategies for preparing and formatting your teaching statement.

Articles about Teaching Statements

Grundman, Helen (2006). Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement (opens as a PDF), Notices of the AMS , Vol. 53, No. 11, p. 1329.
Montell, Gabriela (2003). How to Write a Statement of Teaching Philosophy , from the Chronicle Manage Your Career section of the Chronicle of Higher Education .
Montell, Gabriela (2003). What’s Your Philosophy on Teaching, and Does it Matter? , from the Chronicle Manage Your Career section of the Chronicle of Higher Education .

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Teaching as a Process

Implementation

Teaching is fundamentally a process, including planning, implementation, evaluation and revision. Planning and teaching a class are familiar ideas to most instructors. More overlooked are the steps of evaluation and revision. Without classroom assessments or some other means of receiving feedback on a regular basis, it is surprisingly easy to misunderstand whether a particular teaching method or strategy has been effective. A teacher can create an environment of mutual trust and respect by relying on students for feedback -- students can be a valuable resource for verifying whether the class pedagogy is (or isn't) working. Self-examination with feedback from your students and the instructor are key to improving your teaching.

There are many different levels of setting goals for teaching, from the scale of an entire semester (syllabus) to a single class (lesson plan). You have the overall task of helping your students learn how to think critically and to understand the basic concepts and tools of your discipline. You should also have more specific day-to-day goals, such as examining the social context of Victorian women writers or demonstrating how to integrate partial differential equations. As a graduate TA you probably will not be responsible for designing an entire course, but you should think about how your day-to-day teaching fits into the larger goals of the course.

Revising your pedagogy will help your students learn... and keep you interested. If you keep your focus on student learning, you will find a richer meaning to the typical lecture/discussion/test/grade process. Instead of an adversarial relationship, the teaching process encourages a relationship of cooperation and mutual discovery. Ernest Boyer helped redefine the notion of scholarship, in fact, by including the scholarship of teaching as a culminating activity of the research process of discovery, integration, and application of knowledge (Boyer 1990).

Regular assessment of your students and yourself is critical to your success as a teacher. To really understand whether you are teaching effectively and your students are learning effectively, it is crucial that you actively and regularly assess what your students have learned. If you are able to solicit meaningful feedback from your students and the professor on a regular basis (not just at the end of the semester), you can modify and improve your teaching strategies. Assessments do not need to be overly complex or involved. In fact, the more focused you are in the assessment, the more impact your changes will have.

IMPLEMENTATION

The best plans are meaningless if you don't try them. Although most of the work in teaching comes in planning and preparation, many great ideas are never implemented because it was easier to just keep doing the same thing. Don't be afraid if you have and idea you want to try. If something hasn't been working right, why not change what you are doing and try something new? Unless you are willing to change and experiment, you will find it difficult to improve your teaching skills.

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The Teaching and Learning Process: Essay

ESSAY SAMPLES , Essays on Education

Sample Essay

The teaching and learning process is a simultaneous activity and the process comprises of the following steps:

Context: All those factors outside of the classroom that might control teaching and learning
Input: Those qualities or characteristics of teachers and students that they bring with them to the classroom knowledge
Classroom Processes: Teacher and student behaviors in the classroom as well as some other variables such as classroom climate and teacher/student relationships
Output: Measures of student learning taken apart from the standard instructional process.

Academic achievement could advance by adapting teaching to student’s individual differences. This has resulted in the education system’s effort to deal with the issues of students with particular needs. However, other aspects of adaptation to students’ individual differences get far less concentration.

Effective Teaching

Rapid changes and increased complexity of today’s world portray new challenges and put new demands on our education system. There has been normally a growing awareness of the requirement to change and improve the preparation of students for productive functioning in the persistently changing and highly demanding environment. In confronting this challenge it is required to consider the complexity of the education system itself and the multitude of problems that must be addressed. Clearly, no straightforward, uniform approach can be applied with the expectation that significant improvements of the system will happen.

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Teaching Writing as a Process

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At RWIT, we embrace an approach to teaching writing that focuses on students' processes - in part because such a focus is rich with possibilities for dialogue. Teaching writing as a process challenges traditional, authoritative models of teaching, in which professors (who know everything) talk at students (who know very little). Instead, teaching writing as a process empowers students by getting them to talk with a tutor about every step of the writing process. It is this particular kind of talk that you will be engaged in as tutors and writing assistants.

Entering a Writer's Process

Entering a writer's process can be a terrifying, trying, exhilarating ordeal. Despite the frustrations that you are bound to encounter along the way, you'll come to love the experience of sitting down with a writer, bending your heads over a paper, and wrestling an idea into language.

Still, there are some things to think about as you step with a writer into her process.

First, where is the writer in her writing process? Is she writing her way towards her real subject? Has she found a subject and is now searching for a structure? Or is she looking for ways to make her paragraphs work?
Second, where can you enter the writer's process? Do you want to discuss the writer's choice of topic? Her thesis sentence? Her essay's structure? Its style? These decisions must be made quickly (if you are a tutor) and wisely (no matter which position you've been assigned). Where you enter the writer's process determines what you can do in the hour or so that you will devote to the paper.
Third, how do you enter the writer's process? Entering a writer's process is a delicate matter. You must understand how vulnerable the writer is to your criticisms. Try to think of ways to praise the writer before you begin your critique of her thinking or her prose. If you are a tutor, think about your body language. If you are a writing assistant, be careful about your tone. (Be patient: we have more elaborate advice, specific to tutors and writing assistants , elsewhere in this site.)

Moving from Writer-Based to Reader-Based Prose

Some early thinkers in the field of composition drew a distinction between process-oriented and product-oriented writing. James McCrimmon saw it as the difference between writing as a way of knowing (process) and writing as a way of telling (product). Donald Murray saw it as the difference between internal and external revision (revising in order to clarify meaning for oneself vs. revising in order to clarify meaning for the reader ). Linda Flower saw it as the difference between writer-based and reader-based prose. Though these theorists differ in their definitions of the distinction between process- and product-oriented writing, there is one important point upon which they all agree: good product depends on good process.

Now of course this distinction between process and product can be a slippery one. After all, the demands of a particular product will inform and shape one's process, and vice versa. Nevertheless, when working with novice writers it is useful to consider this distinction between the writing students do to work out an idea for themselves (writer-based), and writing they do to work out an idea for their readers (reader-based). Often it's precisely at the point where they navigating between writer-based and reader-based prose that a writer will come to you for help. She may have a draft completed, her argument may seem logical and even persuasive, but she wants a second opinion. You read the essays and may have some trouble following the writer's lines of reasoning. You may point to a paragraph that is particularly confusing, asking what the writer is trying to say. She responds, "But it's all right there!" and goes on to summarize a point that she clearly hasn't made. What's happened? The writer's point is so firmly entrenched in her mind that she really believes that it's "in" the essay. You show her that it's not. You've just given her a lesson in the difference between writer-based and reader-based prose. Put another way, you are giving the writer a sense of what it means to write for an audience.

In moving student writers from writer-based to reader-based prose, we must show them how readers experience their work. Is a sentence vague? A paragraph jumbled? A word choice not quite on the mark? In talking with writers, we can share our reading responses with them, and so point them to what is and is not effective in their work.

How to Write a Process Essay?

18 June, 2020

14 minutes read

Author: Tomas White

What is a “process essay”? What makes it different from dozens of other papers you create on a daily basis? What are its main components and what the main goal of this type of writing you need to bear in mind? If you're looking for answers to these questions, you're in luck! You can get them all from our academic guide on how to write a process essay.

Composing a process essay can be rather complicated especially if you are not familiar with this type of writing and do not know what pitfalls and specifications to pay attention to.

That is why our custom essay writing service has created this guide to help you tackle this task. We will answer all these questions in our article below and even provide you with great process essay examples and topics you can write on to stand out. So, if that sounds like something you need right now, read on: we are here to help and equip you with knowledge!

But first things first. Since it is impossible to create an excellent process essay without crystal clear understanding of the term, we will start with the definition. So, let’s dive in!

What is a process essay?

A process essay is commonly written either to explain how something works or to guide a reader through the process of completing a particular task, states the process essay definition.

Process essays also go under the “How-to articles” title and aim to teach the target audience how to achieve certain goals or complete specific assignments.

So, look at it like this. In case of “How to quit smoking” process essay, your primary goal is to provide several helpful ways of quitting this habit. These might be evidence-based recommendations if you have experience in this area, or simply common sense ideas you found while conducting your research.

Now that you realize what you will be working with, let’s look into different types of process essays and practical ways to compose them. Our essay writing guide will walk you through the process essay writing step by step.

Types of process essays

There are two main types of such papers: the ones that explain how something works , and those that show you how to complete a particular task .

1. How to do something.

Though it sounds quite self-explanatory, we’d like to emphasize the importance of clear instructions in case you are writing a process essay.

Your readers must be able to follow your guidance and complete each step successfully. So, split the process into small steps, keep it short and to the point at each stage of crafting a process essay.

For instance, in a “How to quit smoking” process essay , you can split the whole process into seven steps:

Choose a date for a quit day;
Imagine life without cigarettes and expect it;
Have one last cigarette as a “Goodbye!”;
Be among people to support you;
Keep your goal in perspective not to give up;
Don’t fall for substitutes;
Be accountable.

2. How something works.

By contrast, this is an informative type of writing that aims to achieve one goal – explain the principle of work behind some process. Unlike the mentioned above type, this process essay type does not encourage a reader to take an action and do something step by step.

However, you must make sure that by the end of your essay, the audience will know for sure how something functions.

As an example of this type of a process essay, let’s see how an earthquake happens .

First, the energy within the earth core builds up due to various moves in the earth crust;
The energy level grows up and causes tension in the tectonic plates;
After some time, the pressure radiates outwards by moving the plates from each other;
The seismic waves shake the earth as they get from the core of the earth to the surface;
That is when the earthquake takes place.

Before we go any further, let’s look at another example. In case of “How to prepare for a vacation” process essay, your task is to compose a few steps that your readers can take when getting ready for their vacation. In other words, you are describing how to do something.

Meanwhile, “What happens to your brain when you sleep” process essay is merely an explanation of the principle. In it, you are not encouraging readers to take any actions whatsoever. So, here is the fundamental difference.

How to write a process essay?

Getting started with process essay writing

When developing a process essay outline, take some time to answer the following questions:

Who is your target audience? How deep is their knowledge of the subject? The complexity of your essay depends on their skills level. Thus, for instance, when explaining to your peers how to stretch a dollar to see the world, you can use basic terminology and examples they can relate to. However, your vocabulary should be way more sophisticated if you are writing a process essay on how to improve the overall quality of higher education in your state to the City Council.
How can you divide the process into small steps? You do not want to bore your audience to death with unnecessary details in a process essay. Yet, you cannot afford to skip valuable steps if they are crucial to the overall understanding of the subject of your process essay. So, try to find the golden cut and figure out the most suitable amount of steps.
What sources will you use for the task? It goes without saying that you can only use reliable sources to support your argument in a process essay. These sources should be all mentioned in the end of your essay. And remember about proper in-text citation styles. Read the materials carefully and take only the information that will add value to your essay and helps make it shine.

How to write a process essay outline

Finally, let’s look into the process essay structure. Needless to say that you must start with something that will grab readers’ attention, or in other words, “a hook.”

It is true for any essay, and process essay writing is not an exception.

The structure of your essay regardless of the process essay topics should consist of:

A powerful introduction.
Main body paragraphs.
An interesting conclusion.

Related Post: Essay outline | Research Paper outline

Sounds simple, yet there are several things you should not forget about process essay writing.

How to write an introduction to a process essay

Once you compose a hook, mention why you believe that readers should use your approach to solve a problem even though there are dozens of other ones. We know two effective ways to achieve this in your process essay:

Show how much time this task will take . People don’t have all the time in the world to tackle just this one task. So, you’ll really help them by stating how much time completing something using your approach will take and underline that with your approach described in a process essay it will take less time than if they opt for a different one. “Writing can be tough, especially if you always felt that it is not exactly your suit. However, Michael D. Pollock, a credible expert in this area, has recently presented 10 effective tips that will help you learn writing fast and make you able to craft a 1000-word article in 30 minutes. So, keep reading to find out how you can write this fast too.”
Introduce your audience to the historical background of the approach (if any) you’re using in a process essay. Let them see the roots of your solution. Here is what a good introduction of a process essay should look like: “Giving a speech with lots of eyes concentrated on you is not an easy task. No wonder so many students dread this task. However, speech can be a powerful tool, and we can teach you how to give them right. Steve Jobs is known as one of the best public speakers of our time. People were sitting on the edge of their seats when he spoke. And we’ll teach you how to grab attention like he did using just five simple tricks he applied.”

At last, compose an engaging thesis of a process essay. Many students consider it a scary part. But it all goes down to this.

Your thesis statement should reason why your way is the best and why readers looking for answers should search no more and give your solution a chance.

It’s easier than you think. Here is a good thesis statement example:

“With more than 580 million tons of household waste produced all over the world, Every tiny effort you make to become eco-friendly counts. And if you don’t want to spend extra money on sustainable products but want to save the environment, use our guide on ten simple eco-friendly steps you can do daily without even noticing it!”

This is what a thesis statement for a process essay on how to be eco-friendly would look like. Yours can be different, but you get the idea!

How to plan main body paragraphs

Dedicate one body paragraph to one point you want to bring to light.
Provide enough details on each step including the ultimate goal of this step and reasons why this method was chosen for its achievement.
Keep it short and to the point.

How to write a conclusion

Now is that time you reminded the readers about the purpose of a process essay, reasons why you chose this particular approach, and briefly mentioned steps needed to accomplish the task.

Besides, you can call your audience to action but only in case you are writing an essay that shows how to do something. Otherwise, it will be inapplicable.

Finally, help them set their expectations right: what results can they count on in the end? How long will it take them to achieve those results after reading your process essay and applying its tips?

How to use transition words in a process essay

Transition words can help you create a seamless reading experience. You can take readers smoothly from one step to another. And what is more you can help them immerse into the process!

Therefore, begin each new paragraph with a transition word, add one in between examples you provide, and summarize your instructions with them, too.

List of transition words for a process essay

Think of transition words as of bridges that connect paragraphs and sentences. They make smooth communication between the two possible. And with them in your process essay, no reader feels irritated or frustrated with your writing style, as they have to stumble upon every other sentence in your piece.

Good process essay topics

It is not enough to just know the theory to create a good process essay. One should also come up with a topic that will be both interesting and useful to his readers. Here’s a list of our suggestions on process essay ideas:

How to choose a perfect future career.
How to survive college and stay sane.
How to eat healthy on campus.
How to balance your social and academic life.
How to pay out a student loan while still at college.
How to improve your public speaking skills.
How to see the world with only $100 in your pocket.
How to learn a foreign language.
How to renovate your apartment and not go bankrupt.
How to start your own business.
How to prepare for your first interview.
How to get volunteers to help you clean the neighborhood.
How to write a life list.
How to set boundaries in the relationship.
How to study overseas for free.

Related Posts: Argumentative essay topics | Compare&Contrast essay topics

Process essay writing tips

Wrapping up, we would like to introduce you to a couple of vital recommendations on process essay writing:

Your process essay subject cannot be too broad or too narrow. Look out for the golden cut!
Introduce your readers to possible complications of the process. After all, forewarned is forearmed.
Create a short vocabulary your audience can use in case they are not familiar with the terminology essential to the general understanding of the process essay in question.
Develop a list of resources your readers will need as they deal with certain tasks. This way you will have them prepared to put your recommendations to action right away.
Always write a process essay using Active Voice!

Need help with your process essay writing? Handmadewriting is here for you to help. Drop us a line to get our professional essay writers to develop an excellent piece for you!

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How to Write a Process Essay

Last Updated: December 6, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 166,516 times.

A process essay, otherwise known as a how-to essay, tells a reader how to perform a particular task. The best process essays follow a clear step-by-step organization. Start by providing your reader with a time estimate and general summary of the task. Then, move on to a more detailed explanation of each and every necessary step. When you are finished with your essay, read it over carefully to ensure that you haven’t left anything out.

Getting Ready to Write

Step 1 Assess your audience’s skill level.

For example, a process essay intended for professional chefs could probably skip a description of how to chop carrots and just say, “Finely chop the carrots,” instead.

Step 2 Make a list of the materials needed.

You could also include a comprehensive “Things You’ll Need” section at the beginning of the paper. Or list the materials needed after the introduction.
If an item on the list is a bit unusual, such as a particular type of hand tool, then make sure to clearly introduce it within the text. For example, “The pin hammer has a finer tip than a standard hammer, making it suitable for more detailed work.” You can also include a picture of the item, particularly if the essay will be published online.

If you are writing an essay about how to cook lasagna, your initial outline might just state, “Mix in basil.” Before you start writing, you could expand your outline to say, “Briefly mention taste differences between dried and fresh basil.”
Note that the more specific your article or essay topic, the more specific your details needs to be.

Crafting an Introduction

Step 1 Grab your reader’s attention within the first 1-2 sentences.

For instance, you might write, “The process of preparing lasagna has a rich heritage all of its own.”

If your process essay focuses on a cooking task, this is where you might advise your readers to consult the ingredients or materials list and put every item on the counter.
For example, you might write, “This recipe requires 30 minutes of active preparation time, along with 45 minutes of baking time.”

Step 3 Present the thesis statement as a problem.

For example, your thesis might be, “This essay will explore how to create a complicated lasagna dish in a short period of time by preparing the noodles and sauce in advance.”

Writing Your Body Paragraphs

Be especially careful with items that contain multiple steps. Make the transitions clear and acknowledge prior steps regarding a particular item, if applicable.

Step 2 Structure the body of the essay in paragraphs.

For instance, when making pasta, consider writing a paragraph on how to boil pasta and another paragraph on how to make the sauce. This separates the ideas for easy clarification.

Step 3 Add transitions in between steps.

For instance, you could write, “Next, place the pot on the stove,” to move from one paragraph to the next.

Step 4 Avoid using first person pronouns.

For example, you could write, “This essay shows…” instead of “I’ll show.”

For example, you might caution a reader to, “Cook the meat until it is no longer red in the center.” This advice will help them to avoid a foodborne illness.

Wrapping It Up

Step 1 Mention the end product and what to do with it.

In the case of the recipe, you could write something like, “You now have a bowl of boiled pasta and finished Bolognese sauce. Serve up plates of pasta and sauce to your family, topping them with parmesan, if desired. You can serve garlic bread or a side salad with this dish, too.”

Step 2 Restate the importance of the task.

A simple example for our newly-made dinner might be, "And there you have it! A delicious yet quick meal fit for the entire family that you can make over and over again without complaint. Next time, experiment with different herbs and spices to find your own spin on this classic dish."

Step 3 Check your essay for ease of reading.

Look to see if there are places where you can eliminate steps or condense your instructions. A reader is more likely to finish directions that they can easily skim through.
Ask someone to read through the essay to see if they can understand the process. If possible, pick someone from your intended audience demographic.

Don’t rely on spell-check alone, as it cannot account for context and doesn’t catch every error.

Expert Q&A

If there are alternative ways to do a particular step in the process, make sure to mention these as you go along. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Give your readers pacing instructions as well. If they need to go slowly while performing a certain task, tell them early on. The same rule applies if a task requires speed for success. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.
↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/essay-outline/
↑ https://www.georgebrown.ca/sites/default/files/uploadedfiles/tlc/_documents/hooks_and_attention_grabbers.pdf
↑ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-clinton-englishcomp/chapter/2-the-process-essay/
↑ http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/style_purpose_strategy/procress_paper.html
↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/readability-scores/

About This Article

To write a process essay, begin by writing an introduction that grabs the reader’s attention so they’ll want to keep reading. Then, end the first paragraph with a thesis statement presenting a problem for which you are offering a solution. Next, explain the process, making each step its own paragraph, and using transitions like "next" or "then" to move from one task to another. As the final step, let the reader know what to expect from the finished product and what to do with it. Finally, close your essay by reiterating why the process is helpful to the reader. For tips from our Education reviewer on how to proofread for common errors in a process essay, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Teaching Guidelines

Process vs. Product

For the purpose of this particular discussion, it's perhaps useful to make a distinction between writing-as-process and writing-as-product. While these distinctions may not hold up under deep scrutiny, they were useful in the early years of Composition Studies as a way of talking not only about what students write, but also about how they write. James McCrimmon, for instance, understood this distinction as the difference between writing as a way of knowing (process) and writing as a way of telling (product). Donald Murray defined it as the difference between internal and external revision (revising in order to clarify meaning for oneself vs. revising in order to clarify meaning for the reader). Linda Flower framed it as the difference between writer-based and reader-based prose. Though these theorists differ in their definitions of the distinction between process- and product-oriented writing, they do agree on one point: good product depends on good process.

The Elements of the Writing Process

While we can parse the writing process in various ways, each with its own limitations, we believe that it's useful to see writing as a three-step recursive process of invention, composition, and revision. Some students arrive in college with strategies for managing all these steps of the writing process; others have habits that have served them in high school but that limit them in college; still others have no strategy for writing at all. Teachers of first-year writing will benefit from knowing what an individual student's writing process is. They will also benefit from having an array of methods to help their students move successfully through the writing process.

Invention includes everything that a student does before beginning to compose a paper. Of course, students don't stop inventing when they've begun to compose. And they are composing even as they invent. But for the sake of this conversation, we'll let the categories stand. We've classified invention into five activities: reading as a writer, generating ideas, organizing ideas, contextualizing ideas, and coming up with a working thesis. You may want to add to this list with activities of your own. In any case, we encourage you to design your course so that the various methods of invention are taught, discussed, and reflected on.

Reading as a writer. With many academic papers, invention begins with reading a text (here we use "text" broadly to include everything from books, to works of art, to results of scientific experiments, to cultural, social, and economic systems). Students sometimes read these texts passively, satisfying themselves with absorbing the information in front of them. Instead they need to read actively, raising questions or challenging the writer as they read. Instructors can help their students to read like writers by encouraging them to scribble up the margins of their books with questions and quibbles. Students should be encouraged to look for patterns. They might also note allusions that they don't understand (with the idea that they'll do a little research to enhance their understanding).

Generating Ideas. Seasoned writing instructors offer students several strategies for generating ideas. Some of these ideas—like using Aristotle's topoi—are time-tested. Others—like asking students to freewrite, or brainstorm, or write a discovery draft (a bit like freewriting, but with more focus)—are more informal and can be used not only to come up with a topic but also to nudge a student out of a writing funk. Perhaps the best way of helping students to generate ideas is through good old-fashioned dialogue. Asking questions—both in conference and in writing workshops—models for students a way of interrogating their ideas that will yield better papers. With practice, students will internalize these methods of inquiry and will apply them to all of their academic tasks.

Organizing Ideas. Students have several strategies to choose from when organizing their ideas. Some students draft formal outlines and follow them faithfully as they write. Others make informal outlines that they revise as they draft. Some students find that sketching a paper works best for them: they start by writing down a possible thesis and then filling the page with related ideas, drawing arrows to establish possible connections, and using circles or stars or checkmarks to determine which ideas should be prioritized. Some students look for umbrella ideas and try to cluster related ideas beneath them. Still others write short paragraphs to try to summarize their thinking. While students should be permitted to use the organizing strategies that work for them, sometimes young writers rely overmuch on one organizational strategy. If this strategy isn't working, they get stuck. At this point, you can enter the student's process and demonstrate how a different organizational strategy might be effective.

Contextualizing Ideas. Sometimes students don't have a good sense of where their argument fits in the ongoing academic conversation, and so they can't determine the point (or the structure) of their paper. Doing some research can help. Show your students how to contextualize their ideas. In a writing workshop or in a conference, select one of their ideas, and then ask: What is the history of this idea? What else has been said on this topic that is relevant to our discussion? How does it relate to other ideas that we've been discussing? What do the dissenting voices have to say? How might we answer them? Asking these kinds of questions not only moves students into the ongoing academic conversation, it also gives them a sense of how to craft an introduction, when it comes time to write one.

Coming Up With A Working Thesis. The last step in the invention process (and the first formal step of the composing process) is coming up with a working thesis (or thesis question). Advise students to post the thesis where they can see it as they write: this sentence, if well crafted, will help the writer to stay focused on the argument she is trying to make. Do let the student know that, at this stage, they have only a working thesis—most writers revise their theses as they go, in order to accommodate shifts in perspectives and new ideas.

To compose a text is a difficult task. A writer sits at the keyboard, facing a blank screen, and must make the decisive first step that will begin the writing process. Some young writers get blocked: either they are perfectionists who keep writing the same first sentence again and again, trying to get it right, or they are terrified of making a decision and so continue to stare at the page as the clock ticks on. Other young writers have no trouble with writer's block, but they have trouble shaping their thoughts into a coherent essay. These writers see writing simply as the process of getting what's in their head onto the page - once they've done a "brain dump" they think that the paper is finished. They don't yet recognize the need to revisit their paper, to re-envision it, and to revise it.

Students need better strategies. Experienced writers understand composing as a recursive process. As experienced writers draft, they discover new ideas and unexpected problems. At these junctures, they return to earlier processes: they brainstorm, re-sketch their ideas, re-write their outlines. They inevitably revise or refine their theses. Some young writers will find this process discouraging. By modeling it as typical—or even as necessary—you can support your students as they struggle through the writing process.

Finally, you may wish to talk to your students about their writing habits. Where do they write? When do they write? How much time are they giving the process? Have a frank conversation about what it means to write, and then hold your students to high standards. Show them that papers done at the last minute rob both reader and writer of an enjoyable experience.

As we noted above, revising a paper is, for some students, even more difficult than writing it. Substantive revision requires that students re-envision their papers, trying to understand how readers are understanding (or misunderstanding) them.

For first-year writers, successful revision requires a solid understanding of the academic audience. The problem is, they have only recently joined this community and don't quite understand how knowledge is created and communicated here. Talk with your students about the expectations of the academic audience and the practices of scholarship—including the particular expectations and conventions of your discipline.

Most first-year students could also benefit from a discussion of general reader expectations. Consider: Why do paragraphs require topic sentences? Because readers expect them. Where do they expect to find them? Generally at or near the beginning of a paragraph, though this depends on the purpose and structure of the paragraph. When would you put the topic sentence somewhere other than the beginning of the paragraph? When you're using a paragraph not to support a claim but to lead a reader to it; in this case, the topic sentence might come at the end of the paragraph. But regardless of where you put it, a topic sentence is generally required in order to state, implicitly or explicitly, the paragraph's main idea. Why? Again, because readers expect it. Can this expectation be violated? Sure. But you need to craft the paragraph exceptionally well if you're going to violate your reader's expectations.

Understanding readers' expectations can also help students to revise their style. For instance, readers expect to find the main idea of a sentence in the main clause. If you've placed it elsewhere, the reader will have to work to figure out what you're trying to say. Indeed, many of the problems in a paper can be worked out if students spend more time considering readers' expectations regarding style. For a full discussion of this matter, see Teaching Style .

Facilitating the Writing Process

As we've seen, your primary task with student writers is to enter their writing process at various points, assess strengths and weakness, make suggestions for improvement, and monitor progress. There are several moments when you can enter your students' writing processes. You can, for instance, ask students to generate good academic questions about a text, then conduct a writing workshop, discussing how they might be improved. Or you might ask students to submit their thesis sentences—or their introductions and outlines—and then workshop these in class. You can ask students to exchange drafts of their papers—either in class or on Canvas—and teach them how to respond productively to one another's writing. You can meet with students in individual or group conferences to raise questions about their papers and offer suggestions for improvement. And of course you can respond with written comments that facilitate substantive revisions.

A full discussion of these facilitative practices can be found in Conducting the Writing Workshop , Collaborative Learning , and Diagnosing and Responding to Student Writing .

Our Mission

4 Strategies for Teaching Students How to Revise

During revision, students should work closely together, discuss models, add details, delete the unnecessary, and rearrange for clarity and effect.

A red-headed, teenage boy is lying on the sidewalk, beside pink hydrangea plants, drawing in a sketch book. Behind him is a brick building.

I’m a fan of the writing workshop. That means I also write with my students, and I allow plenty of time for students to conference with me and with each other. I also provide models of what good writing looks like—and lots of them.

Here’s what the classroom writing process looks like:

Brainstorming (Think About It)
Drafting (Getting It Down)
Revising (Making It Better)
Editing (Making It Right)
Publishing (Sharing It)

At the beginning of the writing process, I have had students write silently. For it to be successful, in my experience, students need plenty of topics handy (self-generated, or a list of topics, questions, and prompts provided). Silent writing is a wonderful, focused activity for the brainstorming and drafting stage of the writing process. I also think it's important that the teacher write during this time, as well (model, model, model) .

However, when it comes to revising, and later editing, I think peer interaction is necessary. Students need to, for example, “rehearse” words, phrases, introductions, and thesis statements with each other during the revision stage.

Strategy 1: Providing Models

This is the number one strategy for a reason. Whatever we want kids to do in their writing, we have to provide models for them. Want them to create zippy titles for that essay? Show them zippy titles, and talk about ways they can forage for title ideas from within their paragraphs. For example, it could be a few words that hint or foreshadow at what’s to come in a narrative, or for that literary analysis paper, it could be one word that describes the mood of a character or of the story.

During revision time, I like to use anonymous student papers from other class periods (or past years) on the document camera with the whole class—one that has similar clunkiness or vague generalities I see in current papers of students (e.g., repetition, lack of descriptive or supportive sentences, or lack of complex sentence structures).

We revise the example together. Students will share out things to add, delete, and rearrange. As they share, the teacher can make those changes. This is powerful stuff, and always confirms for me that the writing process needs to be a social act.

So how do students know what to add, delete, or rearrange? Again, using models (those that are exemplary and those that need some repair) helps young writers see and learn what good writing looks like.

Strategy 2: Adding Details

Encourage your students to add details to their narrative writing. For example, students can insert imagery, emotions, dialogue, and voice. In a narrative essay, present them with a sentence like “She was so tired,” and have them re-create it using imagery: “Her eyelids drooped as she dragged her tired feet behind her.” Show some models of dialogue, and ask students to find in their own narrations where they explain. Might adding dialogue brighten the story? Tell them to try it.

For nonfiction, expository writing, students can insert facts, statistics, examples, and quotes from experts. Use a student essay example where there is a claim made without any evidence to follow: “Most people don’t think Trump would make a good president.” Talk about the different kinds of evidence they can use to support the claim and then have them search for evidence: “According to a poll given to U.S. voters in January 2016, only one out of 15 Americans would vote for Trump.”

Students should do this together with the same example or model and find a variety of types of evidence to back the claim (a statistic, a quote from a politician, etc.). This collectively demonstrates to them how to do this, allows them to practice together, and provides an opportunity for them to teach each other.

Strategy 3: Deleting the Unnecessary

Provide students with a narrative or expository essay where there is some redundancy of a topic or repetition of words. As a group, decide to combine ideas that are redundant or remove one altogether. For repetitive words, ask students to look through the thesaurus and choose synonyms to consider. Nice is a word students may use repetitively. They delete the three extra uses of it and replace those with pleasant , kind , caring .

Show students another essay, or two or three, where the writer goes off topic. Ask them to find similar places in their own writing and make note to remove or rewrite those sections.

Strategy 4: Rearranging for Clarity and Effect

In that argumentative essay or short story, maybe the ending is a better beginning? Show students text examples where the writer begins with the end or the middle of the story (for narrative), or, for argumentative, where a writer begins with the devastating results of a policy or environmental disaster, then moves to persuade readers in the rest of the essay.

Would the narrative story be better if written chronologically? Or should the claims and evidence follow in an order related to the most important point, or should you save the best point and evidence until the end?

Show your students models of different ways to organize narrative, informational, and argumentative essays. You may even wish to provide scissors and ask them to cut up a draft and mix around the order to see how it reads.

Honoring the Revision Stage

We teachers sometimes combine revising and editing—and this confuses our students. Revision is making it better, and editing is making it correct. Sure, some editing (cleaning up grammar and conventions) might occur during the revision stage, and that’s great. But as my colleague Jane Hancock says, the revision stage is about tightening, brightening, and sharpening the writing.

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Warm-Up for Process Essays

A process essay leads readers through a series of steps for getting something done. This lesson will help you think about different processes and which ones you might explain in an essay.

What Is a Process?

Listen to "What Is a Process?"

A process is a series of steps for getting something done. For a bird, building a nest is a process. For a bee or a squirrel, gathering food is a process. And for a student, writing a process essay is, itself, a process.

What processes do you know how to do? What processes could you explain to others?

When you write a process essay, you explain how to do something or how something works. Each paragraph in your essay focuses on a step in the process. The sentences follow time order, leading the reader from start to finish.

Process writing helps you get the job done!

Watch the video "What Is a Process?"

Thinking About a Process

Most things don’t happen all at once. They take steps to finish. Even something as simple as shooting a free-throw:

Stand at the free-throw line.
Get the ball from the ref.
Focus on the basket.
Line up the shot.
Shoot the ball.
If you make the first shot, repeat the process.

You can organize the steps of a process by making a numbered list like the one above.

You can also make a time line to put steps in time order. Start each line with a time-order word, and give the step.

Choose a process you can do.

Write down something you know how to do.

Take care of a hamster

Organize the steps.

Create a numbered list or a time line. Make a copy of this Google doc or download a Word template .

Numbered List

Go to buy a hamster.

Pick out and set up a cage.

Feed and water your hamster.

Hold your hamster to gain trust.

Make mazes for your hamster.

Show off your hamster to your friends.

Teaching Tip

Help students understand that a list and a time line are two different ways to organize the same material. They do not have to generate both. Also, help them realize they don’t have to have six steps in their processes.

k12.thoughtfullearning.com

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Teaching: About Writing Process Analysis

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Dispute over poverty funds shakes schools' trust in Arizona's Education Department

Arizona Department of Education leaders for weeks denied the department had taken, without notice, tens of thousands of dollars in federal poverty funds from a southern Arizona school district and several charter schools this year. Now, they are reversing course and acknowledging they did move money from school budgets.

With no clear explanation from the department, some schools were left to determine whether they needed to find new funding sources to cover planned expenses.

"Our budget is our plan," said David Dumon, superintendent of Altar Valley School District, a rural district west of Tucson. "ADE approves it, and with three months remaining in the year, they cut our budget ... which significantly impacts our services to our kids."

Department officials initially denied schools' allegations. Those charter schools and districts lacked the expertise to properly account for their money, they said, and changes were not nearly as pronounced as schools claimed.

The money wasn't taken back, they said. The schools screwed up, they said. It's complicated, they said.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said the fact that schools were disputing the Education Department's figures served as a strong argument for consolidating small districts.

“All these complaints came from small districts,” Horne said. “They don’t have competent administration.”

But on Thursday, department officials told The Arizona Republic that they had shifted tens of thousands of dollars out of some schools’ budgets after all, into a shared pool of money dedicated to school improvement across the state.

That may not be the cause of all schools' federal funding changes this year, according to the department. Minor adjustments happen every year, said department officials, who maintain drastic changes to schools' federal fund balances were not a systemic issue.

School leaders said the confusing back-and-forth that spanned more than a month has shaken their trust in the department.

"Why can't they just be honest from the get-go instead of making me feel like I'm not right?" said Dumon. “ It's just disappointing that this is how it worked out."

School leaders surprised by large, late funding changes

Dumon was returning from a long holiday weekend on Feb. 20 when he received an urgent call from his federal programs director. The status of their Title I funding, federal dollars that support schools with high percentages of low-income families, had unexpectedly changed in the department's system to “revision started.”

Title I allocations are generated using U.S. Census Bureau data about the poverty rate within school district attendance boundaries. The department factors in alternative poverty reporting to adjust allocations to account for charter schools.

These federal funds are initially allocated in the spring semester so school leaders have an expectation for what they'll be able to spend the following school year. The allocations usually get revised in the fall once states get their shares from the federal government and account for any errors in data submitted by schools. Any subsequent revisions usually result in more money, not less.

The Altar Valley federal programs director asked Dumon if he knew anything about the February revisions. He didn’t, he said.

A district review soon found its Title I allocation had decreased by nearly $60,000, Dumon said. The change happened without warning, he said.

Altar Valley made several calls to the Education Department and learned their Title allocations were being revised because the department had made an error, Dumon said. One email sent to the district by a department specialist on Feb. 29 said the department was "working diligently to resolve errors."

Altar Valley was instructed to work on its federal funding requests for the next school year until the error was resolved, Dumon said.

“It’s just frustrating that you're telling us to plan for next year, and we don't know what we're doing for this year,” Dumon said. “This seems crazy. I thought it was just us at first.”

For weeks, Education Department officials said Altar Valley's numbers were wrong. The department's data indicated Altar Valley did not lose any funding this year, officials said. But then, on Thursday, Chris Brown, the department's business officer of educational programs, acknowledged the department's data did indicate the district experienced a loss.

It wasn’t just Altar Valley. At least a dozen charter schools and districts saw significant late-in-the-academic - year changes to their Title funding, according to school leaders and grant writers.

The Arizona Charter School Association, a nonprofit member organization that advocates for the state’s charter schools, is working with the department on a resolution, said association spokesperson Matthew Benson.

“We know it impacted multiple public charter schools, but we don’t yet have a sense of how many,” Benson said. Minor adjustments aren't unprecedented, but what some schools have experienced this year is different, he said. “In some cases, you may have schools that have already spent the money. That’s not typical.”

Schools seek clarity from Education Department on funding revisions

The Education Department's final revisions to federal Title funding for this school year included both increases and decreases, according to school leaders. In a dozen cases brought to the attention of The Republic, school leaders said the changes were implemented without notice.

Some schools came out ahead, like Bullhead City School District, which received an additional amount of about $17,000, according to data from Director of Educational Services Jennifer Lott.

The Espiritu Charter Schools network in Phoenix gained a net positive of more than $11,000 across its three campuses: One school received a roughly $14,000 bump, one gained about $250 and one lost roughly $2,800, according to data provided by Chief Financial Officer Armando Ruiz Jr.

“You trust that everything is going to be OK,” Ruiz said. “I’m not even quite sure what the issue was here.”

Premier Prep Online Academy never received any money at all.

Education Department officials told the new Gilbert-based charter school, which launched last fall and serves approximately 130 students, to expect Title allocations in January, said Co-Founder and Director of Operations Erik Gray. The academy anticipated $45,000 in Title I funds.

But when the new year rolled around, the school received no Title I funding, Gray said. The department told him its formula underwent changes this year that disqualified the school from some funding, he said. Brown, the Education Department’s business officer, told The Republic the formula remained consistent with last year.

Phoenix-based charter school Paideia Academies lost $20,000 in Title funding, said the school's founder and Executive Director Brian Winsor. That's money they'd already used to hire an interventionist, someone who addresses targeted student needs outside of classroom instruction.

"We're in April. I can't just say to the interventionist, 'Hey, so sorry, I know that I paid you all year. I don't have money now to pay you for the rest of the year,'" Winsor said. "We've already spent money on supplies, and software and all that kind of stuff. The only place I can cut back is with a human being. There's no way I'm going to do that."

And Dumon said Altar Valley lost almost $60,000 in Title I funding. Until The Republic provided the Education Department's explanation Thursday, he wasn't told what happened to cause such a large change so late in the year, he said.

“Everybody needs to do a better job of communicating,” Dumon said. “I don’t think things were transparent, and that's how I try to operate.”

Emails show representatives with several impacted schools, including Paideia Academies and Altar Valley, reached out to the department in February with concerns over the reductions. Education Department responses provided no clear explanation for the funding changes, school leaders said.

Budget documents provided to The Republic by school leaders detailed the cuts at Altar Valley and Paideia Academies. The department initially dismissed those documents. Schools claiming they lost thousands were confused in their interpretations and failed to account for other variables, said Brown and Sarka White, the Education Department's Title I director.

That dismissal was confounding to the schools' leaders.

“I don’t know what there is to be confused about. We were told to cut our current-year budgets," said Altar Valley's Dumon.

"The bottom line is, I know what my budget is, and I know what I received," said Paideia's Winsor. "It's easy. It's math."

But on Thursday, department officials acknowledged the schools' figures were right.

Brown said data indicated Altar Valley and Paideia Academies had, in fact, lost thousands of dollars because the department took funds and contributed them to a pot of money set aside for school improvement efforts across the state. Schools and districts contribute to this school improvement fund every year through their Title allocations, he said.

The school improvement fund provides support and programming for schools identified as needing federal assistance for underperforming populations. The state must contribute up to 7% of its Title I allocations to the fund, Brown said.

Education Department: Schools submitted bad data, delayed process

White attributed the swings in federal funding to schools' bad data, communication problems and staff turnover, saying there was no issue at the Education Department. Still, she said, big changes were few and far between this year.

The Education Department requests data like enrollment count, number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, and number of English language learners before determining Title I and other federal funding for each school or district, White said. If schools submit incorrect data, the department must request corrections, which takes time, she said.

Some submitted no data at all, meaning the Education Department's allocation formula had to be revised to factor in entire schools, thereby siphoning money away from others, she said.

In a typical year, schools receive preliminary funding allocations in March so they can begin hiring personnel and making other plans for the next year. They start spending that money at the start of the new fiscal year in July.

Final allocations are often solidified by October or November, school leaders said. That’s when the state Education Department revises its payments as necessary.

But because the department spent more time requesting data corrections than in previous years, White said, final allocations didn’t arrive until much later.

That delay caused problems for schools, said Paul Tighe, executive director of Arizona School Administrators, a nonprofit that supports school leaders.

“That’s not normal. ... People are in a holding pattern at the district level,” Tighe said. “Usually, the variation from year to year is not as dramatic, and there’s better communication.”

Jon Lansa, Tucson Unified School District's senior director for grants and federal programs, described this year's funding process as a "roller coaster." The Education Department initially told Tucson Unified to expect final allocations by December, then by February, he said.

They finally arrived on March 11, but the damage was already done. For three months, the district put its spending on hold because of the delay, Lansa said.

"We lost programming. We lost support," Lansa said. "We had to be conservative in what we were doing, and it's unfortunate that some of that money probably went unspent because we couldn't spend it not knowing if it would be there or not."

White also said school staff turnover is potentially to blame for the increase in faulty data submissions. School employees with institutional knowledge who usually handle Title funding may not have been around to provide data, she said.

Education Department officials said their own staffing turnover has not contributed to delays or other funding problems. They declined to provide details on recent staff turnover within the department.

But Tyler Kowch, a former Education Department employee who now works for Save Our Schools Arizona, a public education advocacy group, said that since Horne took office in January 2023, the department has experienced turnover in at least seven leadership roles related to school finance and federal funding.

Some schools did not receive Education Department updates on this year's Title process because they were not signed up for its email list, White said. The department has provided training sessions, presentations, site visits and other communication throughout the year in an attempt to prevent mistakes, department officials said.

“We’re always out there training,” said Deputy Superintendent Margaret Garcia Dugan. “We are a service organization, and that’s what we’re doing, is going out and trying to help people understand why they’re doing what they’re doing.”

To prevent delays in the future, White said, schools should make sure they are included in the department’s email list and are submitting accurate data.

Horne: Department justified in withholding 20% of poverty funds

As some schools grapple with lingering confusion over the current school year’s Title funding, they’re already bracing for anticipated shortfalls next year.

In March, the department decided to withhold 20% of next year’s Title funds on a preliminary basis until official funding amounts roll in from the federal government. For some schools, that decision, which many school leaders questioned, has left staff positions in limbo and caused program cancellations.

Horne said doing so was a precautionary effort to avoid clawing back money later. That decision has been vindicated, he said, after the federal government provided clarity last week on the money coming to Arizona.

U.S. Census Bureau data shows Arizona's share of the nation's people living in poverty is down by about 6.9% this year. A state's relative poverty is a primary indicator of how federal funds are distributed across the country, though the federal government also considers other factors in its formula for funding these programs.

“This is the first year the Census Bureau has had these types of significant swings. To me, in my experience, this is unheard of,” Brown said.

In a typical year, the state education department withholds 10% until the federal budget is finalized. The department this year withheld the usual 10% as a baseline, then subtracted another 7% to adjust for the decrease in relative poverty. The department withheld an additional 3% to provide extra cushion, according to department officials.

The numbers are in, and schools are slated for “record-breaking” cuts after all, Horne said.

“The 20% we used was very prudent,” Dugan said. “They were saying we were alarmist, we did something we weren’t supposed to.”

Schools will receive updated preliminary allocations soon, Horne said.

Brown offered Chandler Unified School District as a peek at what’s to come. The district stands to lose between 12% and 15% of funding compared to last year, he said. That means instead of having to repay money had the department only withheld 10%, they’ll instead receive more money. Tucson will lose 10%, he said.

Education Department officials said they know Arizona’s need for poverty funding is no smaller than it was a year ago, but a failure by members of the public to respond to Census Bureau surveys suggested a decrease in poverty.

“Our census numbers are down because people are not filling it out, and the ones that are filling it out don’t qualify for poverty,” White said. “These surveys are vitally important when they send them to people. … People don’t understand that this has bigger implications in our community.”

Lawsuit filed: Tom Horne's wife sues Phoenix school district over dual language program

Reach the reporter at [email protected] .

Longtime member of Lake Local school board resigns, moving to new district

Lake local schools board of education.

Monday meeting

KEY ACTION: Accepted the resignation of board member Derrick Bailey.

DISCUSSION : Bailey said he and his family are moving out of the district to Louisville. He and his wife have eight children with seven graduating from Lake Local Schools. His eighth child, a junior at Lake High, will transition to Louisville.

“I’ve had some really good times during my 15 years on the board,” Bailey said. “I’ve also had some really bad times. My family and are trading Lake Local Schools for Louisville City Schools.”

Board President Adam Doane thanked Bailey for his service to the board and the district. “You have provided some challenges to the members and in the end, made us look at some things differently, the board has appreciated your contributions to the district.”

Superintendent Kevin Tobin also thanked Bailey and said, “You were always looking out for our young people.”

Tobin also said that the board will immediately start the process of appointing a new board member to fill Bailey's remaining term through 2025.

Letters of intent from interested candidates should be sent to Board President Adam Doane [email protected] no later than Wednesday, April 24.

OTHER ACTION :

Approved a list of 227 high school graduates for the class of 2024. Graduation is scheduled for 3 p.m. May 25 at Blue Streak Stadium with a rain date of 3 p.m. May 26. Students must complete all academic requirements with verification from the high school principal.
Authorized issuing one-year continuing contracts or two-year contracts for over 50 certified teachers, effective July 1 to June 30, 2025, or through June 30, 2026, for the two-year contracts.
Approved one-year contracts effective July 1 to June 30,2025 for office administration, secretary and bus drivers and mechanics, custodians and cafeteria personnel.

UP NEXT : Meets 5 p.m. on May 13 at Lake Elementary cafetorium.

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What is teaching? A definition and discussion

What is teaching?

Fostering learning

Attending to people’s feelings, experiences and needs

Learning particular things

Subject knowledge

Engaging people in learning

Going beyond the given

Intervening

Teaching, pedagogy and didactics

Approaching teaching as a process

Recognizing and cultivating teachable moments

Cultivating collaborative relationships for learning

Scaffolding

Differentiation

Accessing resources for learning

Adopting a growth mindset

Structuring interventions and making use of different methods

What does good teaching look like?

Further reading and references

Acknowledgements

Center for Teaching

General Guidelines

What is a Teaching Statement?

What Purposes does the Teaching Statement Serve?

What does a Teaching Statement Include?

Reflection Questions To Help You Get You Started:*

Exercises to Help You Get You Started:*

Evaluating Your Teaching Statement

Further Resources:

Articles about Teaching Statements

Teaching Guides

Quick Links

Teaching as a Process

The Teaching and Learning Process: Essay

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