Appropriately Challenging Goals are a foundational precondition for meaningful learning that occurs through cultivating student engagement and the development of intrinsic motivation. Students thrive most when teachers clearly describe the ultimate goals of instruction and when the goals are achievable, yet challenging.

Belonging is the extent to which students feel respected, included, accepted and encouraged by others in the social environment of school.

Classroom Discussion is when students are invited to speak about the topic at hand with clear procedures for engaging in different roles during discussion. This strategy expands upon a teacher or student posing the class a question, then another, etc., to promote student engagement through students discussing set topics with each other, often prompted from an open and not closed set of questions.

When students link clear learning intentions to “implementation intentions”—or plans to overcome expected obstacles—they are more likely to achieve their goals.

Collective Teacher Efficacy refers to the shared belief that through their collective action, teachers can influence student outcomes and increase achievement for all students (Donohoo 2017). Hattie (2018) explains collective teacher efficacy goes beyond “growth mindset” and is a belief that a group of teachers “can make the difference.” In addition, this belief must be fueled by evidence that student learning is indeed increasing. Collective teacher efficacy is not a classroom strategy, rather it is a systems-level approach to supporting teachers and ultimately, students.

Constructivist Teaching involves providing students with learner-centered, active instruction, where students explore ideas, propositions, explanations, solutions and take subsequent actions. The main idea of this approach is that students “construct” their own meaning through experiential learning. In a constructivist environment students are provided authentic, engaging experiences to build understanding rather than being told through a traditional lecture approach.

Cooperative Learning occurs when two or more learners collaborate to achieve a common goal. Typically, cooperative learning programs seek to foster positive interdependence through face-to-face interactions, to hold individual group members accountable for the collective project and to develop interpersonal skills among learners.

Curiosity is the urge to explain the unexpected, to resolve uncertainty, or the urge to know more (Meta X Learning). Cognitive scientist Elizabeth Bonawitz suggests it “acts as a kind of filter you put over the world to help the mind decide what information to attend to. It’s a physiological response that helps drive action and decision-making to support learning.”

Deliberate Practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance.

Differentiation refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that educators use to instruct a diverse group of students. It can involve different activities to different groups of students, recognition of multiple pathways and flexibility of time to complete the tasks. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a proactive approach to designing learning experiences to be accessible for all students, while differentiation is a reactive evaluation of the needs of individual students where adjustments are retrofitted into the learning environment. Some people use the terms synonymously, but they are different.

Effort Management is the process of planning and allocating one’s time and energy using tactics—such as mood management, goal-oriented self-talk, persistence, self-reinforcement or attribution of success to effort—to achieve a desired goal. It involves a combination of time management, goal-setting and task prioritization, as well as the ability to focus on the most important tasks and avoid distractions.

Teachers who encourage and nurture student development of emotional intelligence can expect to see students who are more capable of effectively leveraging the skills of self-motivation, self-control, recognizing one’s own feelings and the feelings of others, managing one’s emotions, and building social relationships. Emotional Intelligence is related to the outcomes of understanding and managing emotions and establishing and maintaining positive relationships from Social Emotional Learning: A Utah State Board of Education Technical Assistance Document.

Student engagement is the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.

Enrichment Programs such as exploratory activities, in-depth materials on a topic, and self-selected independent projects provide gifted and talented students with opportunities to add to or go beyond the existing curriculum, since gifted and talented students generally gain a basic understanding of content standards quickly. Activities may also be extended to those who may not necessarily be officially classified as gifted, but excel in certain areas.

Explicit Instruction is an evidence-based approach to effective instruction that provides a series of engaging instructional supports or scaffolds. Explicit Instruction includes the design of effective lessons as well as highly responsive and interactive teaching. It teaches complex skills through the clear presentation of material, high levels of student engagement, frequent opportunities to respond with feedback, and systematic use of scaffolds. Initial practice is carried out with high levels of teacher involvement. As students gain proficiency, the educator reduces support, and provides sufficient practice so that students are able to independently apply their new skills in a wide variety of situations.

Feedback can be defined as “information allowing a learner to reduce the gap between what is evident currently and what could or should be the case” regarding aspects of one’s performance or understanding that reduces the discrepancy between what is understood and what is aimed to be understood. Leveraging technology can enhance the feedback process in numerous ways.

Flipped Classrooms are a structure in which traditional classroom activities (such as lecture) are reviewed at home or before the class, often via pre-recorded video or audio presentations, which prepares the students for more interactive, discovery, questioning, and engagement in active learning activities in the classroom itself. In a flipped classroom, the background knowledge is expected to be gained through what has historically been “homework” and the kinds of activities done historically outside of classroom hours, such as cooperative learning, application-and practice, are done at school with the support of the teacher and peers.

Formative Assessment is a planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners.

The Formative Assessment Process Toolkit was created by the Utah State Board of Education to support the Personalized Competency-Based Learning framework. The purpose of this toolkit is to increase capacity for educators to leverage the formative assessment process to inform personalized instruction and more effectively work with students to build competency.  *Updated April 2024.

Learn how to personalize learning using technology! Utah teachers have a large amount of technology to explore and use in their classrooms. In this episode of the PCBL + Technology webinar series, learn how to utilize Canvas to support personalized, competency-based learning in your classroom.