ABSTRACT
Teaching in a classroom, where learners and teachers are all together in the same physical space, is different from teaching online in all sorts of wonderful and sometimes challenging ways. This chapter provides ideas for making the physical time together worthwhile for everyone involved. Based on the well-researched premise that teaching is ultimately about ‘making learning possible’, this chapter first reviews the characteristics of effective teachers. Effective classroom teachers are – among many other qualities – prepared, engaging, empowering and reflective. Their teaching is organised so that students have the opportunity to be active learners who connect with each other and their subject in transformational ways. These qualities coalesce into an approach to classroom teaching that can be usefully structured around four Cs: connect, communicate, collaborate and consolidate. Examples of the four Cs are provided in the chapter, as well as case studies and prompts for thinking about how the four Cs might apply in your own teaching contexts.
