Description of Domain Domain 1 mainly focuses on the aspects of teaching that generally take place outside the classroom. To start, teachers must thoroughly know their content areas in order to communicate the information properly to the students. Additionally, they must be aware of which concepts are central to developing a skill or full understanding. Using this information, they can adjust their lesson plans to focus on the most important information. Understanding how to teach these specific concepts using the most effective pedagogical strategy also plays a part. This factor is affected by how well teachers know their students. Every child faces individual struggles both inside and outside the classroom, and teachers need to engage their students, teaching to the person instead of teaching simply to finish the lesson on time. They can provide multiple approaches to learning a concept or even to doing homework assignments. No matter the approach taken, the students should be able to clearly link the content they are learning to previous knowledge and realize how the new information can be linked to knowledge in other subjects. Teachers must set clear expectations and objectives that focus on outcomes that evidently challenge the students, enhancing their reasoning skills. To provide age-appropriate instruction that makes students think, educators can implement multiple types of materials in the lessons, both provided by the school and obtained through different sources. The manipulatives should directly pertain to the lesson and adapt to the learners' varying abilities. Teachers measure this through the use of proper formative and summative assessments that gauge the students' comprehension throughout the lesson. Although implemented during instruction, assessments should be carefully planned ahead of time. By taking the school's curriculum into consideration and valuing the students as learners with unique needs and accommodations, teachers can plan effective lessons.
How to Demonstrate Domain 1 in the Classroom
Before beginning a lesson, you can provide background context about the concept or time period in which a related event took place to provide a more general understanding to the students of why the lesson is important.
By developing relationships with students and supporting them during their extracurricular activities, you can gain more of an understanding of their schedules and format your lessons to their needs.
To communicate expectations clearly, you can write objectives visibly on a board or poster as a reminder for students.
You can assign a project in which students have to relate their new knowledge to a concept from a different class and present the information, showing how it connects.
By incorporating assessments such as think-pair-share or having students communicate their understanding by writing on mini whiteboards, you can better determine which students need extra help on a concept.