Contents

Search

Keyword(s)

Login

What's New

New PEEL Book

Principles of teaching for effective learning: the voice of the teacher.

This completely new PEEL book is a comprehensive amalgam of PEEL practice and theory developed over the 24 years of PEEL by practising teachers and academics. It contains many examples of teachers writng about their experiences in applying the 12 PEEL principles in the classroom to improve the learning of their students. The stories and anecdotes from practicing classroom teachers, together with accompanying analysis provide an invaluable guide to teachers wanting to improve their practice.  This book explores teacher and student journeys in learning how to learn and what makes a successful learning community. It is a companion text to our book of teaching procedures (Teaching for Effective Learning).

Idea of the Month

Each month a new idea or procedure will be published here. Most of these ideas are published along with many others in PEEL Seeds. Our Idea of the Month archive currently contains a number of  excellent ideas developed by teachers for use in their classrooms.

Using the website

 For first time users you can find a great deal of useful information about PEEL on our About PEEL page. Just follow the links to obtain extra information. If you wish to find out more don't hesitate to contact us. (Note: currently this site is best viewed through Mozilla Firefox - download at http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/ )

Some features of the website include

  • Detailed information about PEEL  including PEEL Groups in schools and Primary PEEL
  • A tutorial showing the features of and a how to use guide of PEEL in Practice which contains a huge repository of teacher knowledge acquired over the 24 years of the Project
  • Easy ordering of all PEEL publications together with summaries of the contents of each item
  • For registered users of PEEL in Practice online an easy log in. Simply log in with your user name and password on the side of this page and you will see the active link at the top of the page "Start PEEL in Practice application". This will enable you to access all the articles published up until the end of 2008.
  • A Search facility which will enable you to find articles on a huge range of topics from the PEEL in Practice database. To access the articles you will need to subscribe to become a registered user or buy the CD but a free two week trial is available.

PEEL Research Groups

Interactive Whiteboards

IWBs (Interactive whiteboards) are now being used in many schools and have the potential to improve the learning of students. At a PEEL steering group meeting in 2007 we decided to fund some days where teachers share expertise and ideas around a specific theme and document these in a theme edition of PEEL SEEDS. (SEEDS #58 on ICTs and #72 on PEEL and Year 12 are examples).  On Friday July 20th 2007 we ran a day on using interactive whiteboards to promote the sort of learning that fits in with PEEL. 

A number of teachers from both the primary and secondary sectors explained how they used interactive whiteboards to enhance student learning. A common theme of the discussions was the need to use a different pedagogical approach. If the boards were used in traditional ways as a means of showing a Powerpoint display or a video they didnt have any real advantage over other forms of media and did little to improve learning of the students. What led to more powerful learning was giving the power to the students to use the board themselves in what were often small group activities. The ability to bring together and link a wider range of resources was also seen as a very effective way of using the boards. In whole class activities turning the control of the board over to the students led to more interaction and better learning. Another  benefit was the visual nature of the display and the ability to engage kinaesthetic learners through the physical manipulation of text and images on the board. The December 2007 issue of PEEL SEEDS focused on the use of interactive whiteboards in ways which improve student learning.

A research group was formed in 2008 to investigate IWBs. Following an initial  planning meeting early in the year, a wiki was set up to enable particpants in the project to post their ideas.  Several subsequent meetings established some broad principles for the most effective use of IWBs in the classroom.
 If you are using interactive whiteboards and would like to find out more, please contact David Lumb


Sharing pedagogical purposes project:

This was set up early in 2008. Some of the themes being investigated by participants include:

  • Doing things WITH students, not for or to them.
  • Teacher models being a learner/thinker
  • Remembering/recounting vs reflecting
  • Noticing good learning (and getting excited)
  • Students select procedures.
  • The physical environment
  • The emotional environment
  • Language for learning
  • Learning as a journey.

Some of the stories of the teachers engaged in this innovative project were presented at the August PEEL conference. These were published in PEEL SEEDS #101.

Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more about this project

SHORT COURSES and PD

PEEL Resources 

PEEL in Practice

The 2009 edition features new and revised procedures  to reflect ideas from 2008. There are many new articles on the database with search fields that enable to find articles relevant to their students and classrooms.  You can see a complete description of all the search categories  here.  The 2009 edition of PEEL in Practice is available from the PEEL office or can be ordered online.     

Teaching for Effective Learning, the complete book of PEEL teaching procedures, 4th Edition

The fourth edition contains descriptions of the 223 generic teaching procedures developed or adapted by PEEL teachers since 1985.  These procedures are generic in that they allow readers to apply each procedure to a wide range subjects and year levels, and nearly all are applicable at both primary and secondary levels.

Teachers will find that the procedures encourage more purposeful learning, and higher levels of student engagement and interest.

 This fourth edition contains new teaching procedures and enrichments to existing procedures which reflect what PEEL teachers reported in 2007 and 2008.

Science continuum


In  2007, 2008 and 2009 a team of writers and researchers from Monash University developed the Science continuum for the Victorian Education Department. This now provides a very valuable resource for all teachers of Science and contains many ideas which use a PEEL focus. The resource which covers Levels Prep to 10 is arranged around a number of key Scientific ideas.

 Each topic has four sections:
  • Student everyday experiences - this section based on extensive research, describes many of the preconceived ideas students bring to the concept based on their everyday experiences
  • Scientific view - here the currently accepted, age-appropriate scientific view is provided; encouraging contrast of this with often very different student conceptions
  • Critical teaching ideas are then identified; these are specific ideas that are interconnected and important for student conceptual development.
  • Teaching activities - the critical teaching ideas are supported by purposeful teaching activities that scaffold student conceptual development. These are built around the key idea that effective science teachers recognise the importance of working from students' existing ideas to build rich understandings of currently accepted science. The teaching activities have been designed to support conceptual understanding

To view this website go to:

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/science/scicontinuum/default.htm