Welcome

Introduction
We launched this blog in March 2012. Since then, weve given a large number of conference
presentations and seminars in different countries aiming to explain our concept of Demand
High teaching. Weve met lots of people with lots of opinions and this has really helped us
become clearer and more focussed. Thank you for all the interest youve shown. This page sums
up where we think we have got to by June 2012!
What is Demand-High?
Demand High asks:
Are our learners capable of more, much more?
Have the tasks and techniques we use in class become rituals and ends in themselves?
How can we stop covering material and start focusing on the potential for deep
learning?
What small tweaks and adjustments can we make to shift the whole focus of our teaching
towards getting that engine of learning going?
What Demand-High is not
Demand High is not a method and it is not anti any method. We are not anti-Communicative
Approach. We are not anti-dogme. We are not anti-Task Based Learning.
We are simply suggesting adjustments to whatever it is you are already doing in class ways of
getting much greater depth of tangible engagement and learning.
Does Demand-High mean making everything more difficult?
Demand-High is not the traditional idea of making things more difficult in ways that did not
help the majority of students (e.g. setting exercises that were too hard). When teachers did that
they were probably trying to help, but were out of touch with our learning needs and therefore
caused us to struggle, and with limited result. This is un-doable demand.
We are proposing a demand that comes precisely at the point where the learner is capable of
making their next steps forward and helping them to meet that demand, rather than avoiding
it. This is doable demand.
What we want to investigate
We want to explore:
How can I push my students to upgrade their language and improve their skills more
than they believed possible?
How can I gain real learning value from classroom activities that have become tired or
familiar?
What teacher interventions make a real difference?
How can I shift my preoccupation from successful task to optimallearning?
How can we transform undoable or low demand into doable demand?
What is the minimum tweak necessary at any point in any lesson to shift the activity
sideways into the challenge zone?
What attitude and action changes would lead to Demand-High teaching in my
classroom?
What is the demand on a teacher to become a Demand High teacher?
What we hope this blog will offer
Over time, we would like to offer a wide range of practical tools for teachers and trainers.
Observation tasks that teachers can take into peer observations
Ready-made Seminars for trainers to address these issues
Descriptions and videos of DH Classroom Managementinterventions
Practical lists of Demand High tweaks (to add onto what you normally do)
Articles to read and discuss. Experiments to try out in class.
Adrian Underhill & Jim Scrivener