The following is a summary of an article from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

Homeschool Teaching Strategies

Homeschool parents know that customizing the right strategy for child has a positive impact on their learning and retention, thinking skills, motivation to learn, internalization of selected values, and development of constructive character traits.

Four key themes from education research should be considered before selecting a specific teaching strategy.

1. Active Teaching. The childs childs learning is postively impacted by (a) careful planning, (b) choosing appropriate teaching strategies, (c) actively involving students in the learning process, and (d) regular and effective monitoring and evaluation of student learning (Eggen and Kauchak, 1988; Slavin, 1991).

2. Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). This is when you consider the childs stage of development and learning, the strengths, interests, and needs, and learning is meaningful and relevant to your child. (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1997).

3. Teaching Strategies Theory. Researchers have found that no single teaching approach works in all situations. This means effective teaching strategy (or model) depends on the teacher (e.g., personality traits, teaching strengths, and preferences), the student (e.g., interests, learning strengths and limitations, dominant learning style), and the content to be taught. Parents need to choose a strategy (e.g., mastery learning, direct instruction, inquiry training) depending on the combination of each of these three factors (Eggen and Kauchak, 1988; Joyce and Weil, 1986; Slavin, 1991).

4. Tutoring. Researchers, teachers, and historians generally concur that one-to-one tutoring is, in many ways, the most effective teaching strategy available for most purposes. Tutoring enhances both the tutor’s and the student’s academic performance and attitude toward subject matter (Cohen, Kulik, and Kulik, 1982; Fager, 1996).

Research has shown home-educated students outperform public school students on an average in academics, and they are doing well socially and emotionally in adulthood (McDowell and Ray, 2000). Listed below are several common teaching strategies homeschoolers have reported using successfully (e.g., The Teaching Home, 2000). Parents regularly mix elements of multiple approaches.

1. Classical. Teach the tools of learning (i.e., grammar--mastery of a language, dialectic--logic, and rhetoric--the expressive and creative use of language) so they may be used in the study of any subject."

2. Lifestyle of learning. Teaching and learning are treated as part of living within a family, geographical community, local faith community, and nation--that is, the “real, everyday world.”

3. Schooling at home. Parents teach as they were taught. Its usually very structured. It often involves active teaching with the teacher having a clear-cut and outstanding role. There is no significant integration of subject areas.

4. Structured/mastery learning. Content to be learned is presented in consumable booklets (or via computers) in a sequential, step-by-step manner while immediate feedback to the learner is emphasized.

5. Unit studies. These emphasize the concept that all knowledge is interrelated and learned more easily and remembered longer if it is presented and studied in a related way. Subject areas (e.g., math, history) are centered around a common theme or project.

6. Unschooling. This emphasizes giving children as much freedom to explore and learn about the world as parents can bear; it does not mean allowing them to misbehave (Holt Associates, 2000).

7. Worldview. This emphasizes education is value- and belief-driven. It integrates a particular worldview in curriculum materials, activities, and ways of thinking. An example is “The Principle Approach,” which focuses on researching a religious writing to identify basic principles or truths, reasoning from these truths through an academic subject (e.g., history, politics), relating the principles to the student’s own character and self-government, and recording in writing the application of the principles and ideas to life and living (The Teaching Home, 1998, 2000).

These homeschooling approaches involve many elements of effective teaching strategies promoted by educational researchers and theoreticians. Their use and emphasis on academics (Blumenfeld, 1986) appear to be working well. Keys to students’ success appear to involve the following features (Ray, 2000b): (1) “... learning at home becomes an interactive process rather than a series of tasks to be tackled” allowing for rich student-teacher conversation, individualization, taking advantage of teachable moments, and ensuring mastery before moving forward (Thomas, 1998, p. 127; Tizard and Hughes, 1984); (2) tutoring (e.g., concentrated time on task, individualization), (3) social capital and value communities, (4) increased academic engaged time, (5) positive, multi-age social interactions, and (6) high parental involvement (Haury and Milbourne, 1999).

Most parents gradually grow into a teaching strategy. They are open to modifying their strategy as they, their individual children, and their family change over the years. The following guidelines can help parents identify which strategy is likely to work well for them.

1. Reflecting upon a personal philosophy of education. This can be done by (a) reading about the philosophy of education, homeschooling, and their personal worldview, (b) talking with friends and family about education, (c) considering their own educational experiences, and (d) writing down their key educational beliefs.

2. Joining a local homeschool support group that supports their philosophy of education and includes experienced homeschoolers.

3. Subscribing to a homeschool newsletter and/or magazines that are supportive of their basic philosophy to learn how other families practice home-based education.

4. Examining their own preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and interests with respect to their roles as communicator, parent, teacher, and learner.

5. Thinking about their children individually with respect to their personal preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and interests in their roles as communicators, children, learners, and students of subject matter.

6. Finding outside help (e.g., National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network, www.nathhan.com) if they have children with an unusual need (e.g., learning disability, giftedness, special interest).

Parents should be able to progress with confidence as they teach and guide their children. Homeschooling allows them more time to observe and evaluate their children’s learning, attitudes, and progress (i.e., academic, social, emotional, and spiritual). They can modify their teaching strategies to what seems to best.