Consider a triad composed of learner, content to learn, and the mode of learning within a circle representing the context in which learning takes place.

The content has traditionally been the main concern in a class. This includes the focus through which the discipline's fund of knowledge is to be mastered, as well as that fund of knowledge itself.

The learner is a self-conscious agent who is capable of moving through many cognitive and affective states, and whose potentials, presumably, will be unfolded through the context, the educational environment.

The mode of learning is how s/he learns, and how s/he will approach the problem at hand. The latter has to do with strategies, or knowledge of how to approach a problem or learning assignment.

These are fundamental to taking learning apart – in order to put it back together dynamically. If we can separate the content from how an individual learns, it becomes easier to consider various ways or modes of learning, and to analyze the skills required for and developed by the lesson. We more readily identify the variety of levels of cognitive engagement (i.e., Bloom's Taxonomy) brought forth within the lesson. All this contributes to more precise and specific knowledge of where and with what aspects of the work students may be moving forward or meeting obstacles.

What Does it Mean to Teach Strategically?

To teach content strategically, first one breaks the task down into its component parts. Next, the teacher models how to go about learning by using the strategy, and makes his/her thinking visible by talking aloud while doing the task, verbalizing muddles and how to overcome challenges to understanding.

Next, teachers provide coaching in the form of feedback, while providing supports for students. These supports, or scaffolding, are gradually faded out as students become independent, i.e., become self-reflective and self-regulating in the given learning process.

Strategies can be cognitive, the type used to solve a given problem, or metacognitive, an executive type of strategy that allows the learner to monitor the strategy chosen and decide if it is working or needs altering in some way.

An example is an essay writing assignment. A study of "expert" writers resulted in a choice of prompts that were put on cue cards to guide students through the planning stage of writing. Planning was broken down into 5 areas: new idea, improve, elaborate, goals, and putting it together (Scardamalia et al., 1984). Students listened to teachers make their thinking visible while using the cues.

For example, to try to devise a better idea, the teacher began with the prompt, "A whole new way to think of this topic is..."

To improve writing, the teacher said, "I could make my point clearer by ..."

To elaborate further upon an idea, the teacher verbalized, "This is true, but not sufficient, so..." or "My own feelings about this are ...".

This modeling can be done during lecture, and followed up with active learning exercises.

The alternative to strategic learning is to assign writing on the subject matter, with no instructions about how to go about it. Research has shown, however, that student work improved from hearing the teacher think aloud. When teachers demonstrated experiencing difficulties, it gave students a sense of camaraderie and confidence. (Shoenfeld, 1983)

Evaluating how well students learned the content material using the strategy may be done formally or informally (tests, quizzes, self-reporting in journals or by use of checklists, CATs).

It is important to consider how to promote the transfer of strategic and content knowledge to other contexts.