Issues around theme-based teaching

The essential notion of theme-based teaching is that many different activities are linked together by their content; the theme or topic runs through everything that happens in the classroom and acts as a connecting thread for pupils and teacher. Good theme-based teaching has produced some of the most inspiring teaching that I have ever seen; done less well, it leads quickly to chaotic and ineffective classrooms. Because it can lead to such extremes of learning experiences for children, it is worth taking a long, hard look at what makes for good theme-based teaching.

Effective theme-based teaching is extremely demanding on teachers in both planning and in implementation; knowledge of a wide repertoire of activity types and resources is needed to plan for children of all abilities to be stretched and learning all the time, and to avoid children spending too long on cognitively less demanding activities, such as drawing pictures. Skilled management of class, group and pair work is needed to keep all children actively learning, even when good activities have been planned. An equality issue also can arise if teachers choose themes that they hope will keep the interest of the most demanding pupils, but then neglect the interests of quieter pupils. Knowledge of patterns of cognitive, language and motor skills development is needed to plan, ensure and evaluate progression in all areas of the curriculum through theme-based teaching over the school year. Organisational and technical skills are needed to find or create a wide range of resources.