1. Flipped Instruction Description

69. Strategic Pauses
Definition
Strategic pauses are one of the most important tools in a teacher’s toolbox of teaching strategies. A strategic pause is a gap between statements to let a point sink in or linger, or to give students a moment to think about an answer before the teacher moves on.
Benefits

• 
   An excellent classroom management strategy
  
• 
  Encourages students to think and not rely on teacher prompting
  
• 
  Emphasizes important points
  

Challenges

• 
   Can leave students confused
  
• 
  Requires follow-up and knowledge testing
  

Theoretical Link
Cognitive load theory: Too much information at one time can cause a student to lose track. Time is required for the mind to interpret, sort, stack, save and withdraw information in their mind (‘create cognitive schemata’).
Examples

1. 
   Pause after a question for 10 seconds before discussing the answer.
   
2. 
   If the class has started getting unsettled, often a pause in the teacher’s speaking is enough to settle them again and remind them to re-engage with the learning materials.
   
3. 
   Slow speech with sufficient pauses between ‘chunks’ of information (seeL ‘chunking’ strategy) can help students arrange information in their minds appropriately.
   

70. Chunking
Definition
Chunking involves presenting information in manageable ‘chunks’ to allow students to sufficiently process information before moving on to the next section of a lesson or task.
Teachers should present only a manageable amount of information to students before giving them a chance to consolidate the information and practice their new knowledge.
Without giving sufficient time to consolidate information before giving new information to a student, the student will struggle to keep up with the information and old information may fall away before it is secured into their memory.
Benefits

• 
  Less students will be left behind, confused and disillusioned in the classroom if they are given consolidation time.
  

Challenges

• 
  There is often not enough time in a crowded school curriculum to chunk information well enough.
  
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  It is hard to tell how much is ‘too much’ information, and how long is long enough before knowledge is consolidated into memory.