Component Three: Instructional Tactics

Tactics are more complex than skills and less complex than strategies. You will not see teachers unconsciously employ as many tactics in their classroom as you will the instructional skills. One reason is that they are more complex than skills and involve more thinking and organization on the part of the teacher and the student -- as a result the teacher is more aware of applying the tactic. This area has emerged more recently and has an extensive list of options that can be applied across most grade levels and subject

Instructional tactics often do not relate directly to one particular learning theory -- although they often connect to enhance or extend a particular strategy that has emerged from a particular theory of learning. Like the strategies, they may involve steps; however, they are less complex than instructional strategies.

We assume they are not designed to make as big difference in student learning and usually have little research support related to their effect on student learning. Our perception is that they are more powerful than instructional skills, but less powerful than strategies. Kagan's (1994) book Cooperative Learning provides extensive examples of instructional tactics, which he calls cooperative structures, such as Think/Pair/Share and Inside/Outside Circles (approximately 100 cooperative learning tactics are described in the book). Jeane Gibbs (1995), in her book Tribes, provides an additional 175 cooperative group tactics. Focusing on learners' thinking processes, Edward de Bono (1987) identifies 60 tactics in his CoRT program (CoRT standing for Cognitive Research and Trust). Bellanca (1990,1992) provides 24 graphic organizers in his books The Cooperative Think Tank and Cooperative Think Tank II. Collectively, the aformentioned programs identify over 350 instructional tactics, and that number certainly does not represent the upper limit of instructional tactics described in the literature.

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