PGCE Pedagogy and Teaching Methods 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does 'scaffolding' mean in teaching practice?
- Building display boards and classroom environments to support learning
- Providing temporary support structures that help pupils access and complete tasks beyond their current independent ability (Correct answer)
- Giving pupils a permanent writing frame to use in all assessments
- Scaffolding refers only to early years teaching and phonics
Correct answer: Providing temporary support structures that help pupils access and complete tasks beyond their current independent ability
Scaffolding provides temporary, tailored support (prompts, frames, worked examples) that enables pupils to achieve more than they could independently, and is gradually removed as competence grows.
Instructional scaffolding (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976) describes any support that enables a learner to accomplish a task within their ZPD. Examples include: sentence starters, vocabulary mats, partially completed examples, structured note frames, and targeted questioning. Crucially, scaffolding should be withdrawn ('faded') as pupils develop independence - leaving it in place permanently creates dependency and limits progress.
Question 2: What is 'metacognition' and why is it important for pupil learning?
- A pupil's ability to memorise large amounts of factual information
- Thinking about one's own thinking - planning, monitoring and evaluating one's own learning strategies (Correct answer)
- The process of a teacher assessing pupil work against a mark scheme
- A framework for teaching pupils how to use revision timetables
Correct answer: Thinking about one's own thinking - planning, monitoring and evaluating one's own learning strategies
Metacognition - the ability to reflect on and regulate one's own learning - is one of the highest-impact strategies identified by the EEF, with an average effect of +7 months progress.
Metacognition involves three elements: metacognitive knowledge (knowing about learning strategies), metacognitive regulation (planning, monitoring, evaluating), and metacognitive experience (noticing when comprehension has broken down). The EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit rates metacognition and self-regulation as among the highest-impact, lowest-cost strategies.
Question 3: In Bloom's Taxonomy, which level requires the highest order of thinking?
- Understanding
- Applying
- Analysing
- Creating (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Creating
In the revised Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001), 'Creating' (synthesis) sits at the top, requiring pupils to generate new ideas, products or ways of viewing things.
The revised Bloom's Taxonomy (2001) orders cognitive processes from lower to higher: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create. 'Create' requires the highest cognitive demand - combining elements in a novel way (e.g. writing an original argument, designing an experiment, composing a piece of music).
Question 4: What is 'cold calling' as a classroom questioning strategy?
- Calling parents without prior warning to discuss their child's progress
- Selecting pupils to answer questions without them volunteering, to ensure wider participation (Correct answer)
- Using phone-based technology to gather pupil responses
- A behaviour management technique for dealing with disruptive pupils
Correct answer: Selecting pupils to answer questions without them volunteering, to ensure wider participation
Cold calling involves the teacher selecting pupils to respond to questions regardless of whether they have raised their hands, improving participation and formative assessment coverage.
Cold calling, popularised in UK teaching by Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion, involves the teacher posing a question, giving thinking time ('wait time'), and then selecting a named pupil. This ensures all pupils prepare an answer, widens the teacher's assessment sample, and maintains engagement. It must be used carefully to avoid anxiety.
Question 5: What does 'wait time' mean in classroom questioning, and why does it matter?
- The time a teacher waits before starting the lesson once all pupils are seated
- The pause after asking a question before accepting an answer, which improves quality of responses (Correct answer)
- The time pupils wait at the door before being allowed into the classroom
- The duration of a detention given for off-task behaviour
Correct answer: The pause after asking a question before accepting an answer, which improves quality of responses
Research by Mary Budd Rowe shows that increasing wait time from 1 to 3 or more seconds substantially improves the quality and length of pupil answers and increases participation.
Rowe (1972) found that most teachers wait less than 1 second after asking a question before calling on a pupil or answering themselves. Increasing wait time to 3 to 5 seconds results in: longer, more complex responses; more pupils contributing; fewer failures to respond; and more pupil-to-pupil interaction. Wait time is especially important for EAL learners and those with SEND who need more processing time.
Question 6: How does 'retrieval practice' differ from 're-reading notes' as a revision strategy?
- Retrieval practice uses technology while re-reading does not
- Retrieval practice involves actively recalling information from memory, which is more effective for long-term retention than passive re-reading (Correct answer)
- Re-reading notes is recommended by the EEF; retrieval practice is not evidence-based
- There is no meaningful difference between the two strategies
Correct answer: Retrieval practice involves actively recalling information from memory, which is more effective for long-term retention than passive re-reading
Retrieval practice (the testing effect) requires active recall, which strengthens memory traces far more than passively re-reading already-seen material.
The testing effect (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006) demonstrates that attempting to retrieve information produces stronger and more durable memories than equivalent time spent re-reading. Retrieval practice includes: flashcards, brain dumps, practice questions, and low-stakes quizzes. Re-reading creates an 'illusion of knowing' (familiarity) without building the robust memory traces needed for independent recall in assessments.
PGCE Pedagogy and Teaching Methods 2
What does 'scaffolding' mean in teaching practice?