Instructional Process
This domain tests planning, delivery, grouping, questioning, and management-whether your instructional decisions follow from the objective and the learners.
Plan backward from the objective
Write objectives with an observable verb and a standard of performance, then check the Bloom level. "Students will evaluate two arguments using evidence" requires modeling and structured practice, not a definitions worksheet. Backward design (Wiggins & McTighe) sets the assessment before the activities. Universal Design for Learning supplies three levers: engagement, representation, and action/expression. Culturally responsive teaching (Ladson-Billings) combines academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness.
Choose the delivery model
- Explicit instruction-review, model, guided practice, independent practice, closure-fits well-structured content.
- Inquiry, discovery, and problem-based learning fit ill-structured questions that reward generating and testing ideas.
- Cooperative learning needs positive interdependence, individual accountability, and structured roles (Johnson & Johnson); jigsaw and STAD are standard structures.
- Wait time of three to five seconds after questions raises response length and participation; higher-order questions need scaffolds, not just cold calls.
Manage proactively
Kounin's variables-withitness, overlapping, smoothness, momentum, group alerting-prevent misbehavior. Teach rules and procedures separately, rehearse transitions, and use tiered positive behavior supports rather than punishment-first responses.
Worked example
An eighth-grade civics objective asks students to evaluate two arguments about a local policy. Plan: a short hook, a teacher think-aloud evaluating one argument, guided whole-class evaluation of a second, jigsaw groups with assigned roles, then an exit ticket. Reasoning: the verb is evaluate, so modeling and accountable group talk align; a lecture alone would not.
Traps that cost marks
Activities that do not match the objective's verb; group work with no individual accountability; one-second wait time; treating differentiation as extra worksheets; confusing rules with procedures.