tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661799942031218322024-03-18T09:47:26.874+00:00ManYana LtdManYana Ltd,
Achieving Tomorrow, Today.
Education, training and consultancy.
http://www.manyanaeducation.co.ukRealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.comBlogger184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-189715082474740362016-03-29T13:59:00.001+01:002016-05-10T01:06:40.750+01:00Thinking about: - Posters<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thinking about:</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-d31fc25b-c272-e286-0462-a1c2733cf141" style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img height="431" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/5jGVPpXhH3Dt8pLCzH_5oDbOHVmHp_PnWiE-Tt9hOfZU5MzfsXrxBQtdq0Meib7aiSUCljYT-hG6xNGHYHOfnR3N_eff5YZZfmCUXwNuAZ6sNjGHDP5p-shmRhdL20OVnYfsvaw9" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="287" /></b><br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you set an activity, or tell a story, or show a video to help a child learn one of the inevitable consequences is that they will devote some of their thinking to extraneous matters. Some of these are difficult to avoid. Feeling hungry. The argument you had with your mate. The fact that the room is too cold or too hot.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other ‘unwanted’ diversions can come from the task itself. Recently Twitter was ablaze with postergate. Whether posters were sometimes a distraction or a device to essentially keep children busy rather than to help them learn. Of course any technique can be used for good or bad in terms of supporting of distracting from learning. I have my own view, supported by observing poster-lessons in a number of schools. It is very easy to set the task of creating a poster and have children spend a great deal of time and thought on aspects that are not related to the content of the poster. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A poster is essentially a display device whose job is to attract so that the ‘reader’ can be informed. The problem is that the attractiveness can take over so very easily. Children know that attractive posters matter. They are right. It is an important feature of a poster. But while they are thinking about how to make a poster that does attract attention they are not also spending that time thinking about the information on the poster. Presumably, the information is that which is to be learned and so needs to have the maximum thinking allocated to it.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That for me is the point missed by those who tweeted their ire about the fact that creating a posters *could* be a valuable learning device. True but how easy is it to get children to focus on the intended learning when they are also trying to create an attractive poster?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The form of the work that children are asked to put their work into; A poem, a poster, a display or whatever has its own challenges. If a child is utterly familiar with making a poster then they can spend more time thinking about the learning. If they struggle to create a poem is that struggle to do with what is to be learned or to do with the construction of the poem?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Struggle with learning is fine if it causes deeper thinking about the learning NOT if it is a struggle with the format.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the above poster how much learning is gained by the production of the poster compared to, say, deciding on what information to include without then creating the poster?</span><br />
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<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a>RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-75862233617807711532015-04-27T21:50:00.000+01:002015-04-27T21:50:44.046+01:00Why do I need a teacher?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walking the dogs through the glorious Welsh landscape is brilliant thinking time. Today they were particularly well behaved. I could walk the lanes with my hands in my pockets and with no pulling on the leads. The weather was hot enough to be very pleasant and with a gentle breeze blowing it was just great. I had chosen a route that had no sheep in the fields on either side of the lane. Most have now produced their lambs and the shepherds are tending to keep them all close to the farm buildings. They will all be out and about soon enough.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was thinking about what it was that a teacher did. A bit like the ‘If we have Google, why do we need a teacher?’ Google alone would work if education was simply about collecting bits of knowledge. You will know my views on the need for and the value of knowledge. We need as much as we can get and it needs to be readily accessible. I hope you do not read into this piece that I am espousing any view that lowers the status of knowledge. I am most certainly not!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the very rural area in which I live there are lots of trees. I like trees. But I am not very good at what used to be called ‘nature’. My wife can look at a flower in the hedgerow and almost certainly identify it. All I know is that she is consistent. I don’t actually know if what she identifies a flower as is truly that particular flower’s name. I trust her, though so I am pretty sure she is right.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back to trees. I was wondering how one identifies a particular tree. I can identify an oak tree by the shape of the leaves and I think I know that a sycamore has those helicopter like seed pods. I can do a fir tree. But that is about it. Oh no, I think I can do beech as it has a distinctive bark, silvery and peeling. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what actually matters in tree identification? Is it leaf shape, or seed pods, or bark? What else. Will any one of these do or do different identification features work at different times of the year? So many questions. Each of which I could Google, and there is probably an iPhone app that allows me to take a picture and identifies the tree for me!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I started thinking about how a teacher would help me in my quest to be a tree identifier. I know they could tell me what tree was what. But what they would have, if they were a great teacher, is a system for tree identification. They would tell me, I am making this bit up as I do not know how to do it for trees, to look at the leaf shape first and then the bark and also the angle that the branches form at. I know from art that different trees sprout branches at their own particular angle. It is this system that the teacher has and knows that I need. Not just a list of tree and matching leaf shapes.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me also add why discovery methods are likely to fail. Am I likely to discover this tree identification system for myself? Does one actually exist? As a naive tree identifier I don’t even know if there is a system. As an old hand at learning I do know that there are systems for most things. Naive learners do not even know that! </span></div>
RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-86126842666500347452014-12-28T14:16:00.001+00:002014-12-28T14:16:48.345+00:00We don’t know what we don’t know… 21st century skills<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We don’t know what we don’t know…</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-59abab43-9140-5f13-6009-c21c516b62f5" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So we have to teach children not the knowledge base that is current, actually we only would ever teach a tiny, tiny fraction of the sum of knowledge, but we must prepare them for a world that does not yet exist.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am trying to encapsulate those who proclaim against teaching children knowledge and would have us teach children skills, to learn usually.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is an example of association by juxtaposition. One says one, or more, correct thing(s) and then places next to that a statement. The second statement then becomes true by association. You may want to get the logic of the correctness, or not, of the second statement.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_transistor" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> transistor</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was invented in 1948 in the Bell Labs in America. This functioned in a similar way to the valves that were used in radios and other electronic apparatus. It is unlikely that the explosion that occurred over the next few years would have been predicted by many around that time. The transistor led onto the integrated circuit,</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> invented about ten years later</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This led to the development of the electronic computer in, well it really depends what we mean. Valve computers, </span><a href="http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Colossus </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">were doing sums in the 1940s. It was then not much of a jump to the large computers that were run using integrated circuits that we would recognise as the modern version of computers. In the 1970s the Altair, probably the first personal computer came into existence. In the 1980s IPM invented the PC, a portable personal computer. Apple 1 on 1976. And so on.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not a history of computers. It simply says that future developments come from current developments. If you understand how a triode valve operates it is not too much of a jump to understanding how a transistor and then an integrated circuit works.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mobile </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_app" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">apps for phones</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> appeared in 2008. No one predicted that in 2000! But apps are simply developments from the types of programming that were going on ever since the computer had been invented. The job of ‘appwriter did not exist before 2007. Did our education system beat itself up because we had not prepared children to enter this brand new job market? No it did not. The knowledge we need to write apps is simply a development from existing skills. Were those entering this job market able to cope? Of course they were.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are fine to just develop the curriculum as time progresses. Stuff we know now will merge into stuff we need to know in the future. Just like it always has.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sure the future will be different but just because the calendar changed from 1999 to 2000 it does not mean we have to change the way we teach children. We certainly should not think that one day they will wake up and their brains have suddenly become inadequate for the world they are now in. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stop this silly 21st century skills nonsense now. </span></div>
RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com105tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-88268017375608078972014-12-21T12:05:00.002+00:002014-12-21T12:05:59.232+00:00Who is responsible for engagement, teachers or children?<b id="docs-internal-guid-9ceadf0b-6cba-e582-131f-c67d9de5b138" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whenever I bring this topic up I get an anti response which is based around the idea that some children, because of some feature of the child, can’t be held responsible for engaging. I don’t believe, even if this were true, that the few should determine what we do for the majority. My work with EBD schools has further convinced me that nearly all children can behave properly in class and can learn effectively. The numbers that seem unable are a very tiny fraction and it might be that we need to work even harder on that tiny number.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I am going to propose is based on the view that we lose something by thinking the teacher is responsible for generating lessons that are engaging. Let me deal with the opposite end of that spectrum. I am not saying that teachers should try to plan lesson that are devoid of engaging stuff. I don’t want lessons to be planned to be boring. Give me a little more credit than that.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s think about what lessons might be like of children can be expected to engage rather than the current, widely held view that teachers provide the engagement. How would the planning teachers did change? How would misbehaviour now appear to the teacher, other children and school leaders if a child was responsible for engaging in the learning?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My thoughts are that we lose the opportunity to teach children how to engage if we hold teachers responsible for providing engagement.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what would we need to teach children?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listening skills: Children know how to listen but do they know how to listen carefully and how to begin to place what they hear into their thought processes so that learning can take place. I guess the title would be ‘Listening for Thinking’ to try to define what I mean. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trust: Children should trust the teacher to provide appropriate learning opportunities. They should be willing to listen for as long as is needed. I can hear the sharp intakes of breath from some. This does not mean that the teacher should simply talk for England (or Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland). I would be very critical of a teacher who was continuing to talk when children were clearly not in learning need of the talk. I also would be very supportive of a teacher who was talking a lot if that was what was needed. Perhaps I hold teachers in too high regard? Perhaps I trust them to do what is best for their children in terms of learning? I think not.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whenever I said to my mother that I was bored she told me to go and read something. She made it very clear that my feeling bored was a consequence of my own action/inaction. I was very rarely bored as a child and that was when the telly began sometime in the afternoon and never seemed to even begin on a Sunday. It was also black and white. Bored is a feeling the child needs to act on not something that the teacher needs to feel responsible for.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learning is hard: It is. It needs hard work. We need to think and we are not primarily built for thinking. We have to put aside our genetic dispositions for scanning the environment for possible threats and focus for a long time so that we can learn. Children need to be told it is ok to feel lost, as though they are not understanding but with continued focus and application learning will happen. Teacher also need to ensure that they understand learning and how it is most likely to happen.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think there are other things we would need but, for the moment, that is enough.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps more, later.</span></div>
<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-27450979520065060742014-11-14T17:13:00.001+00:002014-11-16T11:19:13.175+00:00Engagement - too many meanings! <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In thinking about engagement and what I want when I talk about engagement by children in lessons I am sometimes frustrated by the meaning some others attach to this word. In this post I want to try to define what I mean by engagement and what I do not mean. This is a prelude to exploring how we might teach, encourage, help children engage in lessons in a way that supports their learning.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is part two. <a href="http://manyana-education.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/engagement-teach-children-how-to-engage.html">Part one is here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I do not mean by engagement.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement - engaged to be married.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement - I have an engagement. I need to go now. A meeting, event of some sort.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement - I have been engaged to deliver an INSET Day at Bog Standard Comprehensive School</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement - I am engaged (taking part) in doing this activity.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement - I am enjoying this activity. (I am quite happy with learning being enjoyable.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement - I am designing this activity so that the children will be engaged. So that children will be interested.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last one is the one which I think is missing the point. I do not think we should have to try to get children to do the activities we have planned for their learning. I am assuming we will have planned these well but our primary thoughts will be what they need to learn; essentially, what they need to know.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What worries me is that teachers may distort the content, avoid the difficult stuff, by their perceived need to get children engaged, to get them to see the activity as interesting, fun, motivating etc. What this attitude leads to is desperate attempts to make learning fun, and so not boring. God forbid that children might just get on with the learning and trust the teacher has set work that will allow them to learn.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am assuming we all know about internal motivation and how important it is to support that rather than using extrinsic rewards to drive a child to take part in the lesson.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A child who does not take part, who does not participate in the learning activities is either being set work which is too easy or too hard or is misbehaving. Too hard or too easy, if it is not just the child’s inaccurate perception, is a result of the teacher’s poor planning. If the child is misbehaving, refusing to do the work set, or not trying to do the work properly, then there are appropriate ways to deal with this. An appropriate way is not to make the work more attractive. We should not be bribing children to learn. We should have high expectations and so should they. If you are having to think too much about how to make the work attractive to the children in your class then you need to take a long hard look at the learning culture that exists in the class and perhaps in the school. Let me again make it clear that I have no issue with children enjoying the activities but I do not think we do our children a proper service by sugar coating the learning to make it palatable. learning is hard work and it needs to be recognised as worth doing.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The description of the engagement I want is encapsulated by the phrase:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the learning, not engaging </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the activity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Engagement </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the activity is superficial. The hope, I guess, is that the child learns, almost, by accident by completing the tasks set by the teacher. What I often see is children doing an activity and then the teacher identifies the learning outcomes that were expected. Not as reinforcement but to ensure the learning has happened. My question is, if the learning can be brought about by the teacher identifying the learning why do the activity? Perhaps the engagement engendered by the activity was not well focused? Perhaps the children were not engaging </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the learning? Perhaps more thought needed to go into the activity and the ability of the children to actually engage in the learning rather than look for the fun!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With that as the definition of engagement my next, probably, post will be about how we might enable children to engage</span></div>
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<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-45486195495344732902014-11-08T17:30:00.000+00:002014-11-08T17:30:04.100+00:00Engagement. Teach children how to engage.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-fce12708-9073-db24-6775-de3b27ae332c" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have a view about engagement. My view is that engagement is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> something teachers should be amending the learning plan to include. I am sure that adding engagement is not the best way to work with children. I think we may well be missing an opportunity and doing children a disservice for their future learning if we provide the engagement.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children do need to engage in learning. It is axiomatic that to learn they must engage with the learning. I am saying that the engagement in learning is an internal process for a child. By trying to make a task engaging we are using external, extrinsic, motivation and the evidence is that intrinsic motivation is what we want. That is what will generate life long learners.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to distinguish between engaging with the task and engaging with the learning. When teachers add the engagement to make the activities enjoyable that is wrong, for me. When teachers create activities that challenge children and children meet those challenges effective learning can happen. When children know how to engage and how that leads them to learn great things can happen. I wish there was another word for making the activities engaging. I wish that teachers could distinguish between the two versions of engagement. One version is ‘willingly takes part’ and the other is ‘learns’.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me digress for a while. Please bear with me. We, my wife and I, have two dogs. Lovely Belgian Shepherds, Carlos and Merlin. As a breed one could say Belgians are enthusiastic, which makes them great dogs to train and very enjoyable to be with. But they are also quite excitable. When it is time to go out their preferred method was to wait for the inner door to be opened and then barge out past, and into, any object or human that was in the way in a rush to get to the door leading to the garden. They would knock over anything. The corridor to the external door was a wreck. If you have dogs you may well know the effect!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My wife was very angry that the dogs knocked everything down. My suggestion for a solution, which did not go down too well, was to say that the corridor should be cleared so that there was nothing to knock down. Seemed sensible to me. But my wife, who is not to be trifled with - let me assure you, said that this was certainly not the solution. She said I must train the dogs to go out sensibly. So, train them I did and we now have a much calmer time instead of the mad rush to exit. Stuff rarely gets knocked down and humans are reasonably safe. She was right. Doing the right thing, training the dogs is a much better solution. Removing stuff is a solution but it is a poor one. Took some time to teach the dogs to walk, calmly behind me to the exit door. Not as quick as just moving the stuff out of the way!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creating engaging activities will mean that children enjoy their work but, for me, it is the wrong solution. They may not learn as effectively. We need a way of getting children to learn because they have the skills to learn, not because the teacher has managed to create a fireworks lesson which, I believe, might well distract from the learning rather than add to it. The impression is that children are learning when what is really happening is that are just waiting for the next enjoyable bit. Teacher as an entertainer. Or more cuttingly, teacher as a clown.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we could teach children to engage in learning rather than have to be engaged by the teacher then we might have done them a real, life long favour. Or should we go for just clearing the corridor to the exit so that nothing gets knocked down?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my next blog I am going to explore how we might teach children to engage. It will rely on the attitude my wife has. Do it properly and have rightly high expectations of behaviours. Perhaps she should write the blog. I love her lots.</span></div>
RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-25967611845788262112014-11-05T11:01:00.002+00:002014-11-05T11:01:25.471+00:00Can I improve my students' memory?<br />
Treading of dangerous waters, here. But the following is a distillation of what I have read and hopefully understood about memory.<br />
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At some point your children will take exams and the more they can remember, facts and processes - know what and know hoy - the better they are likely to do in the exam, other things being equal.<br />
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It is important to be clear about two stages relating to memory.<br />
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The first is one that many teachers will already do well. Getting the stuff in. This starts with the teacher being very clear about what the student is to learn. Do they really need to hear, and potentially learn, that interesting story you always tell when teaching the topic? Really? I know you enjoy it and your children may well laugh but is it time well spent? Would it have been better to repeat the work in a different way rather than add a piece of narrative that is loosely connected to the thing you want them to learn?<br />
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That does not mean there should be no stories. Stories have a very special place in relation to learning. Stories seem to be privileged as routes into the brain. Stories place facts in a sequence and relate items together. Stories can change facts into understanding - or at least begin that process for our learners.<br />
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So the first feature of improving the memory of students is to be sure they receive the information they need. As rich as it needs to be and no more. If we think of this as a process model we want to refine the input so that what is presented is as accurate and complete as can be.<br />
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I do not mean spoon feeding nor rote learning. Both have their place in very specific setting but in general they will not lead to quality learning per se. There are reasons to make the learning a little more difficult that one might at first choose. Make the learners work a little harder to comprehend and their learning will be enhanced. Perhaps this works by priming their brain to activate the areas they already know which will relate to the new learning. There is some evidence that asking students to try to solve problems that they do not quite have all the required knowledge for enhances the learning hen that new knowledge is presented. Which knowledge we should present in this way and how often we should do this is a matter of professional judgement. I can see it would work for those students who were well motivated and somewhat tantalised by the puzzle aspects of such learning. But it could also be the case that some did not really try, knowing that they did not yet have enough information to resolve the puzzle. It might annoy some students who feel that the teacher should be providing the knowledge first.<br />
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Given the teacher is providing the knowledge to students the ability to explain clearly is paramount. Great teachers give great explanations. They pace the explanation that provides pace, possibly just a little faster than the students can easily manage but not so fast that they are lost. Make them work for it. Great explanations may well be a knife edge and that is difficult to define. Presenting work that is at the time just outside the student yet expecting them to keep up could be seen as an exemplification of high expectations. 'I know you can do this' is an attitude great teachers display to their students. Not dumbing down as this could be come just spoon feeding where the students do little thinking about the new knowledge as it is presented. <a href="http://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/research.html">Robert Bjork describes these as 'desirable difficulties'</a>. It is very well worth reading the details and watching the videos.<br />
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So we have carefully selected what is to be learned and we have constructed the explanation phase using the ideas of Robert Bjork. Our children surely know what they need to know. Sadly no. In most schools the above is often well done. In some classrooms too much emphasis is placed on discovery type learning. What these teacher probably believe is that children who 'discover' the knowledge will understand if better that 'being told'. The evidence is that this is not true. At best children understand as well and in many cases they will not know as well. The major disadvantage for all children is that the discovery process takes so much longer. The second issue is that disadvantaged children do considerably less well than more advantaged children.<a href="http://www.learningspy.co.uk/learning/the-matthew-effect-why-literacy-is-so-important/"> The Matthew Effect</a> prevails.<br />
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The second matter is to do with what, in my view, is less well done by many teachers. Once learned, ie in one's brain, there is a need to practise recall. if we cannot recall then we cannot truly say something, in the academic sense, has been learned. The recall needs to be, as dog trainers know, proofed. I am in no way suggesting children are dogs other than to say that dogs trainers and good owners know that their dog needs to be taught to, say, sit in as many different environments and with as many different distractors as possible.<br />
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In multiple choice question parlance the wrong answers are called distractors. They are there to distract. The learning must be as secure as possible. So present children with answers that are similar, more similar as they become more secure. Make sure they are answering from their knowledge rather than using other clues. (Other clues are fine once we know they are secure in their learning.)<br />
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Testing, children testing the extent to which they know something, is an underused technique to aid memory. Not an important test like the one to decide which set you are in for GCSE physics but low stakes, the outcome is for you to know what you now need to relearn type of tests. We need lots of these. Short tests where the feedback allows a child to realise what he/she knows and does not know. If possible to know why they don't know whatever has been tested. Proper diagnostic testing. Teachers can write these tests. They do not have to be something external but it does require some thought if the test outcome is to be more than a simple list of what the child has answered correctly and what incorrectly. Write the test so that the outcome is for the child and not for the teacher to be able to record a mark.<br />
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So clarity of input and checking of what has been properly learned will support memory and recall.<br />
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<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-47278794705797506192014-10-28T19:29:00.000+00:002014-10-28T21:59:04.932+00:00What really bugs teachers?The answer is simple. Having their time taken doing tasks that are essentially pointless or very much on the sidelines of them doing their job as quality educators.<br />
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This blog is prompted by a meeting of a few teachers-who-blog in Birmingham.<br />
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I always enjoy talking to teachers - one of whom put my conversation with him as a gentle interrogation. Those who know me in real life may well recognise this description. I think it is me trying to be really clear and get to understand precisely what is being said. But I may have to think a little about the abruptness of the questioning process.<br />
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This is in no way a scientific survey. It is crap as evidence so it would be really simple to dismiss it as a piece of nonsense. I'd just want to add that in my work over 5 years with over 500 outstanding teachers in London, Bristol, York, South Wales, Mansfield and Sheffield, the story is remarkably similar.<br />
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Is it really the most important thing in a school trying to move from good to outstanding to check children's books, disrupting lessons in the process, for the percentage of dates underlined? Not as part of a sampling of work generally but as a specific activity? Will sorting that move the school to the level it aspires to? Does the school know how this makes their teachers feel? Perhaps they should sample staff views. They might not be too keen on the responses, though.<br />
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Teachers know that monitoring must happen. I do not get any feeling they they object per se. What these bright, dedicated and hard working graduates want is to be valued and to have the things of value monitored. They do not want some distant proxy such as whether the dates are underlined or not to form a significant part of the monitoring. They recognise that it takes SLT time which could be used so much more effectively. This type of highly specific monitoring strikes me as an attempt at control which is both crude and negative.<br />
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How about an insistence that children write <b>things that went well</b> in the lesson and <b>how it could have been a better lesson</b>, frequently, and have the teacher write a comment on each of these. Sounds like it might be some use but is a lot of work. But how about if these many pages are filed away and never again seen? Not quite as useful. We have probably done away with make work tasks for children but this growing pile of paper feels like make work for teachers. I wonder if anyone in such schools has ever costed this. Teachers are paid well and have long holidays; we know that! Lets say a teacher costs £50000 per year (including on costs) and their contract time is 1250 hours. That means each hour of work we get the teacher to do costs £40. It would be useful to think about whether the activity the teacher does is educational value for money.<br />
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What somewhat pointless activities are you engaging your teachers in?RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-75095821890743761112014-10-22T11:43:00.000+01:002014-10-22T12:37:10.625+01:00Knowledge and Information<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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" 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I am sure that the differences between knowledge and understanding are explored in some deep academic way and I probably should get to grips with that but I want to suggest that the differences between knowledge and understanding are quite simple a difference in amount rather than nature.I was waiting for an appointment and looking at a large map of North Wales, which is where I live. A better map than the one shown here.</div>
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I was looking at the map and thinking how difficult it was for me to remember some of the names of places in Wales. I do not speak Welsh. Although one learns some things by living in a country that uses a language as different from English as can be it is much more complex for me to know where places are and the relationship they have to each other, geographically, than for places in England.<br />
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Why is this? The map above is not too clear, which adds to the difficulty somewhat but see if you can locate Wrexham. In Welsh this is written Wrecsam as there is no X in Welsh.<br />
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Wrecsam is to the top right on the map. If you have no idea where Wrexham is then this task is more difficult than in you have more of an idea about its location.<br />
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Ok now find Llangollen, which is close to where I live. Don't worry, I am not planning to get you to visit me!<br />
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Llangollen is below and a little to the left of Wrexham. Found it?<br />
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First you have some knowledge. You know the word Wrexham. That it is a place in Wales. That it is top right on the map. You also know the same things about Llangollen.<br />
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You also now know where Llangollen is in relation to Wrexham. If I told you they were about ten miles apart you get knowledge of the scale of the map.<br />
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Would you agree that you were beginning to understand the locations of Wrexham and Llangollen?<br />
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My hypothesis is that understanding comes from adding knowledge to that which you already have. Nothing more than that.<br />
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How you assess knowledge and understanding is a different matter.<br />
<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-92161357157418055462014-10-10T10:23:00.000+01:002014-10-10T10:23:35.729+01:00Micromanaging Teachers<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can you be a different and more effective SLT?</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-36a2d37f-f95d-765f-26c7-9d59f258887a" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only read this if you want to change, for the better. Only read this if you think you can be better and in being better you and your staff can be more productive and create the quality learning school that you desire. Only read this if you are feeling that the high level of control you are currently exerting is not delivering the outcomes you actually want for all the humans in your school.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My motivations for writing this are twofold. Like Monty Python that may expand to three or fourfold, or more!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first motivation is my belief that teachers deserve to work in an environment that trusts them to do their very best and that very best will be good enough to deliver a high quality, humane learning environment that anyone will agree is a place they would want to work in, would be challenging in a good way for all and they would want to send their own children to.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first belief one needs to have is a belief on teachers. They are, almost without exception, a really great bunch of people who dedicate themselves to the betterment of the children they work for. If you are thinking that your staff are not like this then one question I want you to ask yourself is, ‘What are you doing to make them that way?’ They will behave in the ways that work in your school. If they see a head teacher who focuses on admin then that is what they will do, and being teachers they will do that very well. What really do you want your teachers to focus on? If you don’t answer that question with the word ‘learning’ then you need to rethink what education is all about. Call me a name and stop reading. Write me a comment at the end to tell me so. I’ll read it and if it says something I’ll think about it. Convince me I am wrong, if you can.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are still with me then I’ll suggest that what is driving you in the wrong direction is the external pressure of Ofsted. Odd really. What Ofsted want is quality learning. Not a pretend version showing some of the features of an outstanding lesson.You need to understand when great learning is likely to be happening and not try to fake it by having some surface impression of learning. Do you think great lessons always need shared learning objectives? Why? Because you think Ofsted wants to see evidence of shared learning objectives? Have you checked the Ofsted documentation to see if that requirement, shared learning objectives, is there? You might be surprised if you do. You will have to come on one of my courses to see why shared learning objectives are potentially dangerous to learning. Let me tell you what two things</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> needed. One, a teacher who is utterly and completely clear what the learning needs to be and how best to get there. And then, two, school systems that support the kind of classroom environment that allows great learning. (Classroom is shorthand for any learning space.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second motivation comes from reading Twitter. I am saddened by the number and nature of the reasons teachers give for feeling highly, far too highly, pressured by their leadership teams. The micromanaging of teachers is a really dominant feature and it is such a stupid and destructive thing to do. Teachers are some of the brightest and most highly motivated workers in this country. Why on Earth do you think they need to be managed like 15 year old trainee chefs? Nothing against chefs by the way.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To use a military metaphor, ask yourself if a general micromanages his/her troops? What would happen if that were the case? That is not what Sandhurst teaches its leaders! Train teachers well. Use your inset time properly and then check the outcomes. You have to trust that your training is effective and not try to catch every raindrop yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trust appears frequently in my thoughts about teachers. Not a blind, fluffy trust but a hard headed I-have-trained-them-well and they are bright, motivated individuals trust. Hold them responsible for their outcomes and trust that the methods they use, while fitting in the broadest outlines you can construct, are properly thought out. You will be fully aware of the latest and best evidence on learning. No brain gym here! No learning style based teaching in this school. You know the myths and have provided the evidence for their ineffectiveness.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You also know that great teaching does not have to look like the rather blinkered view of what makes a great lesson that you hold yourself. Lessons you like. A great lesson is where the likelihood of great learning exists, time and time again. Exists over lessons throughout the term and is not measured by a single short observation supported by a clipboard and a check list! A great lesson does not have features. It has great learning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what was my system for getting the best out of teachers?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First is to go and look at and listen to the learning around the school. Visit lessons but with no agenda other than to see what is really happening. Visit lessons where there is a supply teacher. Visit anywhere there are children supposed to be learning. Of course teachers need to know that you will be touring the school, or your SLT will but they should be certain that you are never looking at individuals. You are trying to pick up the patterns in what happens in your school. I never used a checklist, other than the one in my head that allowed me to be aware of the features of lessons that were likely to lead to better learning. Sometimes I would stay in a lesson for only a few moments. Sometimes I could stay for a good fraction of the lesson. It just depended on what I saw. I was asking the questions; what is going on here and how is it contributing to learning?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would see traditional lessons, my preferred style, and progressive lessons. Neither got credit or discredit because of the way the lesson was delivered. Did I think there was evidence that this lesson would lead to learning was my criterion. I knew from previous exam data that different teachers got good or less good results with different groups of children. I was not about to impose a way of working that was good for that teacher and that class. I had boundaries, but that is not the issue here.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The data I collected were what was repeatedly seen on my, and other SLT and HoDs and Heads of Year, visits. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We then collated what we had seen and where there were patterns we used those to build our inset programme. We might have been looking to see of the previous insets had been successful. Think carefully about that because the fact that we rarely saw evidence of what the previous inset had focused on could well have meant it was not a useful thing to have been taught about, or perhaps we taught it wrongly or … lots of other possibilities.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We may well have seen student behaviours which we liked or did not like. Put these findings into the inset plan if there was evidence of a pattern.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quite a simple model, really. I could come to your school and teach you how to do it. I toured the whole school at least 3 times a week. Took me just over an hour for a typical tour.</span>RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-27485309468870273912014-08-15T08:34:00.003+01:002014-08-15T10:29:33.094+01:00Going SOLO - An English teacher's experience of using SOLO.<span id="docs-internal-guid-65959c5a-d8ff-5c98-3eab-54ec59b2e59e"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.0666666666666667; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Going Solo…</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Having been persuaded of the limitations of Bloom’s Taxonomy and introduced to the benefits of SOLO through an OTP course, I decided the only way to really find out was to experiment with it myself. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My school is currently involved in a series of PLCs where, as teachers, we work in groups of three to focus on a particular area of improvement in our classrooms. My group chose Progress and so this seemed like to perfect opportunity to bite the bullet and try out SOLO.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a little research, I was particularly attracted to the SOLO hexagons and so I decided to base my lesson around these. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I chose my top set Year 10s to `experiment on’ as they are always open to ideas and I knew I could be honest with them – I told them I was unsure if this lesson would work but I had decided to give it a go anyway!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lesson one involved introducing the class to SOLO. I relied upon YouTube and its explanation of SOLO through Lego as that is how I was first introduced to it. It seemed to simplify, what appeared to me to be, a very complicated system. They picked it up very quickly and remembered all the symbols and what they represented. My first dip in the ocean of SOLO appeared to have gone well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, lesson two had the added pressure of two colleagues observing me. I find this very unnerving at the best of times so with the added pressure of teaching the unfamiliar territory of SOLO I started to regret my decision to ‘Go SOLO’. I needn’t have worried. My pupils didn’t let me down and, even after several sleeps between lessons, they were STILL able to explain the SOLO symbols and their meanings as a starter. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next step involved pupils rating their knowledge of Curley’s Wife from Steinbeck’s `Of Mice and Men’, placing themselves in the corresponding SOLO stage: Prestructural, Unistructural, Multistuctural, Relational or Extended Abstract. On the whole, most pupils placed themselves in Multistructural. This was as I expected as we had already spent some time looking at the character of Curley’s Wife. A particularly confident group, already thought they were Extended Abstract. I made all this very visible for the pupils, me and my colleagues by having the pupils place their names on a post it sheet next to their chosen SOLO stage on the whiteboard at the front of the class. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pupils were then asked to work in groups to annotate the passages in which Curley’s Wife appeared - something they were already used to doing. They then had generate points about her character from the text and place them on the pre-prepared hexagons. Was she a tart? Was she just an innocent girl? Was she misunderstood? These are all points which appeared on the cards. Having spent a fair amount of time discussing her with the class I had never witnessed the quality of the level of thinking in which the pupils were now involved. Even the quieter ones, who barely spoke let alone defended an idea, were arguing and debating points. The hexagons really seemed to have given them a focus as they were discussing: which one was the best; were there better ones; did they need all of them?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once this task was completed, they then had to construct an essay plan. This involved linking and tessellating the hexagons in order to link their ideas about Curley’s Wife throughout the novel. Having taught this essay several times previously, this concept was new to me as well. I had always tackled her character chronologically rather than trying to focus on linking the presentation of the character.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of the lesson, pupils then had to return to the post it sheets on the board and adjust their level of thinking. All but one pupil moved up a level. This was a particularly quiet boy, somewhat lacking in self-confidence. The group who put themselves in the Extended Abstract also admitted they probably weren’t in that bracket initially but now felt they actually were. On the surface, my first attempt at SOLO appeared to have been a success in both the pupils’ eyes and my colleagues’. However, I had to reserve judgment until I actually read the final essays. Having marked them, they were definitely different from any other essays I had read about Curley’s wife and perceptive and insightful links were evident throughout all the essays. Would they have produced the same level of work without the SOLO lesson? I didn’t know and that was the flaw within my lesson. I didn’t ACTUALLY know their level of knowledge - only what they thought they knew. I had no real evidence to support this.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Undeterred, I decided to give SOLO another chance. This time I used my Year 9 top set and I must be a glutton for punishment because I had my Head of Department and my Deputy Head observing me for my Performance Management. Keeping to the basic structure from last lesson I knew I had to add another layer to the lesson. I had to make sure that as well as the pupils’ own opinion I had to have evidence in the form of what we call a `Burger Paragraph’ which consisted of a Point, a Quote and an Explanation. So, after the post it starter, I asked pupils to write their own paragraph about Curley this time. They then levelled this using the NC ladders. A controversial task I know but I wanted to really demonstrate progress. Once they had done this they carried out all the same tasks as the previous class. At the end of the lesson they then wrote another, paragraph which, once again, they levelled. About 95% of the class received higher levels for their work. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Finally, they were then asked to return to their post it sheets. Once again all but one pupil felt they had increased at least one level of understanding. Having read as many of the paragraphs as I could during the lesson, I felt I could legitimately judge that the SOLO aspect of the lesson had indeed been a success. This was reinforced further when I marked their work after the lesson. As an added bonus my Head of Department and Deputy Head also agreed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So, although I still need to do some tweaking, I definitely see the value of SOLO and will be Going SOLO much more often in future.</span></span></div>
</span>RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-20882592143877947592014-07-27T15:14:00.000+01:002014-08-06T13:15:11.235+01:00An additional level in SOLO taxonomy<br />
Solo has, via a great deal of research into students' thinking identified itself as having the following level.<br />
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Prestructural<br />
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Unistructural<br />
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Multistructural<br />
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Relational<br />
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Extended Abstract<br />
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I like solo for a number of reasons including its versatility in helping thinking for learning as well as a planning aid. But, always a but, I find the jump between relational to EA rather large and not as intuitive as the steps between the other stages. I have been thinking about what might be needed between those two stages. What does one do to move from relational, connecting knowledge items in a useful way, to then move to EA, applying that knew understanding to another context?<br />
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It seems to me that to do that one has to have some deep understanding of the underlying structure of the now related knowledge. What are the features that the related knowledge is connected by?<br />
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The common example of deep knowledge is given by the two sentences:<br />
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The cat sat on the mat<br />
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and<br />
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The dog sat in the box.<br />
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These two sentences are identifying different situations. Not least one is about a cat and one is about a dog.<br />
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But the underlying feature is of an item above another. The cat above the mat and the dog above the base of the box. When we recognise this underlying structure it is then possible to create 'new' scenarios. One could have:<br />
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The surfboard was on the water. This has the same deep structure, even though it is a very simple idea.<br />
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So I am proposing having an additional stage in solo so the model looks like:<br />
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Prestructural<br />
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Unistructural<br />
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Multistructural<br />
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Relational<br />
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Deep - meaning the identification of the underlying structure(s) of the knowledge being explored<br />
(I think I have a symbol for this level. It will be a D with dots on the line that makes the D shape.)<br />
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Extended Abstract<br />
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I would welcome any views on this and especially anyone who tries this out in the classroom. Does it support children moving to EA. (I don't want to advocate a rush to EA. The earlier stages must be completed securely and thoughtfully. They have their own intrinsic value.)<br />
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Thanks<br />
<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-52267352653363726062014-04-28T09:37:00.004+01:002014-04-28T10:05:21.105+01:00Observing the possibility of learningI am somewhat troubled, by many things, but this particular trouble is to do with learning.<br />
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Can we see learning? Can we detect learning has happened? Can we identify any link with the teaching activities that happen in classrooms that lead to learning?<br />
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It is so obvious that, over time, say a term of school, learning must have happened. Children who attended my physics lessons did have more physics knowledge than they had at the start of the term. They could answer questions on test papers that they previously had no knowledge of. By any definition, learning had happened.<br />
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What has caused this learning to happen?<br />
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It must be due to something that the learner has done. They must have interacted with the physics I was trying to teach them in some way. It is an active process on their behalf. By active I mean they must have been thinking about the physics, I do not mean they will have been physically active. Only thinking type activity will cause learning. It is the thinking part that has allowed them to connect the physics to stuff already in their brain. That connecting is one part of the process called learning but only when that stuff is retrievable. It will be retrievable during the lesson but learning that is useful for school stuff becomes so when it is retrievable some time after the time when it was first encountered. When it is used to support further learning next term, or in the exam etc.<br />
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The next part is for those connections to be made more secure. That is done by practice, lots of questions and problems to be solved. Put the numbers in the equations. That could have been a mechanical task with minimal thinking but for true learning which would lead to understanding the 'just stuffing numbers into the equation' type practice would not lead to any significant depth in understanding. Can-do learning rather than the more valuable does-understand learning.<br />
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So, because learning which is evidenced by the degree of understanding the child shows takes time some folk say we cannot evidence learning in a short time period such as a typical lesson. I think I must agree with that. But that does not mean we cannot identify that the early parts of the processes have happened. That the teacher has done his/her job in providing the appropriate conditions for the learning process over time to then have a good chance of happening.<br />
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What system would we need to be able to observe that? Seems possible to me. We would be saying something like, 'On what I have observed secured learning is likely to be able to happen in the future.'<br />
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Diagrams are good, pictures work. So here is one to try to describe the learning process I have identified above:<br />
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Initial event (teacher explains some physics) --- Child can repeat or use in some simple way this physics content --- child practices and thinks more about the physics --- future lessons same material gets used to support additional learning --- child continues thinking and gains deeper understanding --- more secure knowledge results<br />
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Well, it is a sort of a diagram!<br />
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In the course of a lesson we can only hope to observe the first three parts of this process and then only of the teacher chooses to do any practising of the newly presented material.<br />
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A bit like trying to observe my journey from North Wales to watch Saracens play in the Heineken Cup Final in Cardiff but only watching me prepare and then leave. Not certain that I will get there in time but some factors would show I was possibly going to succeed.<br />
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Is that good enough?RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-54557357362485759052014-04-07T15:33:00.000+01:002014-04-07T15:48:49.332+01:00Correcting Errors in Learning<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
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But why would errors in learning matter *so* much? Surely we just tell them the correct answer and they learn that?<br />
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We all know it is important that children do not learn incorrect information. I think is is axiomatic that no teacher intends for this to happen but I would ask some teachers, perhaps you, to think about how we 'protect' children from learning the wrong thing.</div>
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAFSu_AlqSxfHeHCFPhIW82cNu9YholOJdjeQBeaT6iWI2l-ci" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAFSu_AlqSxfHeHCFPhIW82cNu9YholOJdjeQBeaT6iWI2l-ci" width="320" /></a>Some teaching approaches seem to leave the possibility of inaccurate learning to be more rather than less likely. Graham Nuttall tells us that teachers do not know about 70% of what happens in their classroom. Does not make sense but it becomes very obviously true if you are an observer, quietly sitting, almost invisibly in a corner of the room you see children doing all sorts of things that the teach may well not approve of.<br />
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Also children learn a lot of stuff from their peers, but much of this, according to Nuttall, is simply wrong.<br />
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I wonder if it is really possible for a teacher to spot these errors? I know you do some assessment, some questioning, some checking but it might be better to adopt teaching techniques that are more likely to minimise the unwanted, incorrect learning.<br />
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What prompted me to write this was the <a href="http://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/research.html">Robert Bjork blog stuff from the learning lab</a>.<br />
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This piece in particular:<br />
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<span class="subheader" style="display: block !important;"><i><b style="background-color: #ffe599;">Retrieval-induced forgetting</b></i></span><span class="subheader" style="display: block !important;"><i><b style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></b></i></span><i><b style="background-color: #ffe599;">Memory cues, whether categories, positions in space, scents, or the name of a place, are often linked to many items in memory. For example, the category FRUIT is linked to dozens of exemplars, such as ORANGE, BANANA, MANGO, KIWI, and so on. </b></i><br />
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<i><b style="background-color: #ffe599;">When forced to select from memory a single item associated to a cue (e.g., FRUIT: OR____), what happens to other items associated to that general, organizing cue? </b></i><br />
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<i><b style="background-color: #ffe599;">Using the retrieval-practice paradigm, we and other researchers have demonstrated that access to those associates is reduced. Retrieval-induced forgetting, or the impaired access to non-retrieved items that share a cue with retrieved items, occurs only when those associates compete during the retrieval attempt (e.g., access to BANANA is reduced because it interferes with retrieval of ORANGE, but MANGO is unaffected because it is too weak of an exemplar to interfere; Anderson, R.A. Bjork, & E. L. Bjork, 1994, Experiment 3). </b></i><br />
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<i><b style="background-color: #ffe599;">We argue for retrieval-induced forgetting as an example of goal-directed forgetting because it is thought to be the result of inhibitory processes that help facilitate the retrieval of the target by reducing access to competitors. In this way, retrieval induced forgetting is an adaptive aspect of a functional memory system.<br /><br /></b></i><br />
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" 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" style="background-color: transparent;" width="200" /></a><img alt="Media preview" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkoEe-hIMAA3Fcd.jpg:large" /><img alt="Media preview" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkoEe-hIMAA3Fcd.jpg:large" style="background-color: transparent;" /><img alt="Embedded image permalink" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkoEe-hIMAA3Fcd.jpg" style="background-color: transparent;" />Now, it seems to me that this retrieval induced forgetting might be a rather lengthy process which we would rather avoid. But if you insist on allowing children to explore too much and learn wrong stuff you might need to think about adding lots of time in your future planning to try to encourage retrieval induced forgetting. That is plan how to tell them the right stuff enough times so that they get what they could have got in the first place!</span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-2316915103039973982014-04-06T13:08:00.001+01:002014-04-06T13:08:08.594+01:00Modelling learning<br />
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Left is the slightly more complex model of working memory I now want to consider. It does not include one important element of the process. That is the sensory data ALL goes into the brain and causes neuron changes. But it is good enough, I think.<br />
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Below, a simpler version of working memory, (although it has lots of arrows!)<br />
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Any model has limitation and will eventually fall down if pushed to explain some part of the system it is modelling. All models are attempts at simplifying reality. Think of a model train set that runs in my large loft. It models the timetable from Kings Cross to Hatfield almost perfectly. Great model for the timetable function of the real thing. But when a train, on my model, falls off the track I just lift it up and put it back. NO massive response from the emergency services as there would be for a derailed train in the real world. My model train layout does not even try to model this aspect of the railway.<br />
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The clever thing is to use the model with just the right amount of complexity/simplicity to be able to model the features then one needs to have to explore the system.<br />
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There are several models of working memory and the constraints and opportunities offered by these models critically affects the way we can think about learning. Cognitive load is a critical feature and one which some teachers who have certain beliefs about learning, I will not label them but if you are not using the ideas of working memory explicitly or implicitly to help you decide on how learning can happen efficiently and effectively then you are, I think, ignoring a critical feature of how we learn. I think you will get your own model of learning wrong.<br />
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I am indebted to Sue Gerrard for firstly putting up with me on twitter and then spending a little time with me, live, at ResearchEd in Birmingham to explain why the model that Willingham, and I, had been using was more limited and might then have some distortion in our understanding of learning. I now think I understand the model she prefers. A version of the more sophisticated appears above.<br />
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You might like to compare this with the simpler model that Willingham and other use. It is the role of attention, for me in my present very novice state of thinking, that is making me rethink working memory and it's role in learning.<br />
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The features that are different from the possibly too simplistic Willingham and others model are:<br />
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<li>Information from the environment into the brain is NOT limited by working memory. All the information that we collect, sense, through our senses enters our brain and changes the brain neuron structure. In one sense our brain 'learns' continuously.<br /></li>
<li>We also sense internal changes in our body continuously and these changes, feelings, reactions also change the brain structure. This all goes on the background.<br /></li>
<li>Although all our sensory inputs enters our brain is is not, by any means, accessible or retrievable. As teachers we are critically interested in learning that is retrievable.<br /></li>
<li>Attention is the device that can select particular items from the massive stream of input from our senses.<br /></li>
<li>It is NOT true that all the sensory input goes through working memory. This is, I think, a critical issue which is not shown by the Willingham model.<br /></li>
<li>There are different types of memory. I have not got to grips well enough to write about this, yet. But I will.<br /><br />It is the function of this attention that is making me rethink whether the Willingham model is complex enough to allow us to think about learning (tests type) as teachers. And the different types of memory will also have an impact, though that is just a gut feeling at the moment.</li>
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Willingham has a lovely phrase, 'Memory is the residue of thought' which is a great phrase and evidently obvious. But it might be that the phrase needs to have some reference to attention being the trigger that then allows us to think about the sensory input. The things that can trigger that attention can be emotional, other knowledge from long term memory, novelty, threat and probably many more. Willingham's statement is true but is, possibly, a little too reduced. We also need to be clear about how to get a learner's attention to attend to that which we need them to learn. </div>
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<li>How to ensure we do not distract them? </li>
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<li>How do we ensure that their attention does not focus on something which is not important for the learning we want to happen?</li>
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I get slightly uneasy at this as I don't want folk to think I am saying that we should design novel, attention grabbing activities for children as these will support their learning. My worry is that some might think I am asking for what Katie Ashford calls 'fireworks' lessons. Where the novelty and excitement is evident but the effect is to distract the learner.</div>
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My thoughts are that we need to think a little more about the role of attention in learning, my version of learning, than we have done. I think it has some differences to the thrust of the Willingham quote about thinking causing memories. I don't know what they are but I am minded to be more cautious about using a simpler model as it might hide some needed complexity. Might not, though!</div>
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As a note: The word 'learning' seems to be used differently from the way I and some teachers would use it. For me learning is the thing that gets tested when children do an exam, or use to solve problems etc. In the brain world learning seems to be any change to the brain that is as a result of sensory input. I'll try and be clear which version of the word I am using.<br />
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There is a choice. My attention is being pulled in two directions. Rugby or more blogging.<br />
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Rugby won! More later.<br />
<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-34121086021084740282014-03-29T12:10:00.000+00:002014-03-29T12:10:35.483+00:00In terms of learning how different are children?I read a blog on differentiation that listed, some, differences between children to justify the need for differentiation. I know we are all unique. After all, I would not want to be like you and I quite like being me.<br />
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But how different are children? I think the answer you give to this will probably strongly influence the style of teacher you are.<br />
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There are some clear differences. Big ones, small ones etc - That is the beginning to a rude song I partly know. But are these differences significant in terms of learning and hence do they dictate the learning environment(s) we should provide? How individualised, or not, should we try to be.<br />
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Are children as different as:<br />
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Or are they as different as:<br />
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These two? </div>
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Or are they different like these:</div>
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Are different children as different as a bicycle and a car? <br />
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RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-15232143844426127182014-03-28T09:00:00.002+00:002014-03-28T09:00:48.232+00:00Obey - A Dalek Instruction?While I agree with lots of what the folk who would identify themselves, on Twitter, as traditionalists I am less comfortable with the term obedience as applied to children in school. As always it will depend on what we mean by obedience. Do you, for example, see obedience as blind obedience? Do you react with some concern about the thought of a child obeying unquestioningly?<br />
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I wonder of there is a single word that could be used to express the idea that, I hope, the traditionalists mean by the idea expressed as obedience?<br />
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Are there two states? Obedience or disobedience? Is it a choice between one or the other? I can't imagine any other than some de-schoolers, perhaps, who want children to be in an education system that values disobedience.<br />
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Disobedience is not the same as questioning, thoughtful reactions to an authority. Some in authority would see any questioning as a challenge to their authority.<br />
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Perhaps it is the time of the questioning that might matter. I would support obedience in the classroom. I do not want to have a discussion, child initiated, about why we should be learning this, or whether the teacher should be able to instruct a child. I take this view as I believe the teacher does know best. It is not a power thing but is a professional view. I have an expertise in how children learn and I do want them to work in the way I have planned. This is not a stubborn, unbending process but it says that there is a time and a place for such discussions. The time is not while we are learning in my lesson. I am totally happy to discuss with children why I believe learning should happen in a particular way. I am not unbending and I would try a different way on supporting children's learning as a result of such discussions.<br />
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I wonder how those teachers who do not agree with obedience in the way I have tried to explain it would react if a child in their lesson asked to be taught in a traditional fashion rather than in a more progressive way.<br />
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'Sir, I learn best when you tell me the answer rather than allowing me to discover it!' Would you change the way you taught that child or would you spend the lesson time discussing the merits of your preferred method? Would you do that 30 times each hour and repeat the process 5 times per day? Would you, perhaps, fall back on the need for children to obey you and work as you had decided? I wonder.RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-82753808906581103232014-03-17T19:45:00.002+00:002014-03-17T20:42:31.533+00:00Dangerous funToday, I have read two blogs that are explaining that lessons should be fun for children. They both say that fun in lessons is fine and also desirable. They miss the point. Let me make it clear that I would not want any teacher to plan, deliberately, a dull lesson. To squeeze any possible enjoyment that a child might have in taking part in the learning of the lesson.<br />
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Too often, in education, we seem to set up this polarisation. 'Ah, you're the one who says lessons should not be fun. So that means you want children to have a boring experience in your classroom!'<br />
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Poppycock. Nonsense. That is not at all what is being said by those that add a degree of caution tot he 'fun' lesson. There are several reasons for this. In no particular order they are:<br />
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Working memory is easily disrupted and if we are to learn something, other than skills like riding a bike, it has to go through working memory to get into long term memory. Working memory is a little more complex than this but the best model is by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddeley's_model_of_working_memory">Baddeley and Hitch</a>. This model is quite old and was proposed in 1974. When designing a lesson we have to put the learning up front and be very careful about the way in which we present that learning to children. Daisy Christodolou in her YouTube video explains what children remembered in a lesson she gave on the apostrophe. The lesson was full of fun and based around children planning a day in the life of a village. Far from remembering anything about the apostrophe what they remembered most vividly was that a chin saw was used to cut down the tree. One problem with planning fun. The fun was motivating but also the distraction.<br />
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If you think children need to be having fun you might well avoid or minimise particular learning as that particular piece is difficult to make fun. practice is not always the most fun thing one can do and practising to mastery and beyond can be quite a slog. If we believe children should be willing to put up with the boring stuff then we will organise our lesson and our expectations that they will do what is required for learning. We will explain to them, in assemblies perhaps, that to learn requires you to put in the effort even when it is not sugar coated. We might even have a reward system that credited children who showed the grit needed. If we believe they need to learn we will create systems that value those behaviours.<br />
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Fun No Fun. It is not either or. It is a choice we make that ensures the learning content is front stage and that we don't distort that learning for the sake of fun.<br />
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Ask yourself how much are you worried by the fact that your children might misbehave if they do not find the learning fun? Is your learning plan predicated on stopping children misbehaving? Going off task? Not being focused? Is that really what happens if you plan quality learning and don't mix in enough fun?<br />
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Have you ever significantly altered or even removed a part of a lesson because you could not make it fun enough?<br />
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Stop it. Plan good lessons and expect good learning behaviours.<br />
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'<span style="background-color: #222426; color: #dddddd; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.715139389038086px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I think planning for fun is fine....if we want pupils to remember only the fun.</span>' <complete id="goog_1295843329">@Benneypenyrheol</complete><br />
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<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-81981596603694095452014-03-09T13:18:00.000+00:002014-03-15T21:43:10.814+00:00How might we start to 'see' learning in a classroom?<br />
My brain hurts and I have a dreadful cold with the nose blockage from hell. But I have been trying to make the idea of 'seeing' learning make sense in my head and can't. So I am going to try and write thoughts down. Sometimes the view becomes clearer when I do this and sometimes not. Have to see what happens as I type. Actually, I am not sure I know what all my thoughts are!<br />
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Firstly, it has worried me that we can't see learning. @learningspy blogs about only being able to see <a href="http://www.learningspy.co.uk/learning/performance-ememy-growth-mindset/">performance in a classroom</a> and that teachers who try to make that performance visible to themselves and to an observer might be damaging the learning that eventually results from the lesson. That, I think you will agree, would be quite a worry.<br />
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I am not sure if that view is at odds with Hattie's requirement to make learning visible to the teacher. Will our trying to make learning apparent so we can do something about those children who are not learning as well as they might actually make the possibility of learning less likely?<br />
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Also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-UyGwYHhGY">Robert Coe's views</a> that we kid ourselves, and Ofsted kids itself, that by observing a lesson they can say something sensible and valid about the learning in that lesson. He identifies that we don't really see learning in classrooms but we use a number of proxies, some better than others, but all somewhat distant from the intention of observation which is to see and evaluate learning. He suggests that observing lessons is fraught with inaccuracy. Different observers see and value different things and that there is no evidence of a link between lesson observation and improvement in the quality of the teacher. Presumably we would all agree that one of the main purposes of lesson observations would be to, in some way, lead to teacher improvement. Bit worrying of the process is so flawed that there is little chance of that happening.<br />
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Party this depends on the definition of learning we use. My working definition is that a child has learned if:<br />
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<li>there is a change in their behaviour</li>
<li>they know or understand something new, or more deeply</li>
<li>they have remembered the learning for long enough for it to be valuable</li>
<li>the learning has some validity</li>
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I think that one of the reasons we are not able to see learning happening in a lesson is simply that fact that learning happens over time. They may be able to answer a question during the lesson but will they be able to answer that question some time after the lesson?<br />
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I at trying to accept that we can't see learning in a lesson but that we might be able to identify the proxies we can observe that will allow to be able to say that it is likely that learning will happen. What are these proxies? That is what I have been puzzling over with my semi-solid filled nose! Sorry!<br />
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<b>Change in behaviour.</b><br />
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I think this is most obviously seen in whether or not children can answer appropriate questions posed by the teacher. the questions will have been planned so that the teacher is trying to make the learning visible, as Hattie says.<br />
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There will be other opportunities such as children being able to do the work set; the practices that teachers give for children to see if they can apply their new understandings to similar but different problems. How well are they able to use the intended learning?<br />
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What do they write and take note of? Are these the critical things that relate to the learning? Are they able to identify what matters?<br />
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<b>They know or understand something new, or more deeply.</b><br />
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I guess this is tested by the behaviour changes. Can they answer the questions and how difficult are the questions they can now answer? Are they using their previous knowledge to help them find answers to the more difficult problems? What does the teacher do to get them to use their previous, relevant knowledge?<br />
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<b>They have remembered the learning for long enough for it to be valuable</b><br />
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This is an area I have been thinking about for a while. It is the need to support children to remember what they have learned. What does the teacher do that evidences the need for children to remember?<br />
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There will be things like the clarity of the initial introduction of the material. How is the confusing mass of information pared down initially so that the learner can focus on that which really matters in the early stages of learning? How are the potentially distracting features minimised so that working memory is not overloaded? If we make the hook so engaging the hook is remembered rather than the learning intended.<br />
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What strategies has the teacher used to make the content memorable? Not making the event surrounding the learning memorable but the actual material that is meant to be learned? For me the difference between these two is critical. Don't try to make the learning fun as the fun itself can easily distract the learner. They might just remember the fun! I don't want you to try to make it boring, just make it not distracting when they are first learning. If you allow for too much interpretation by the learner you risk allowing too much misinterpretation by that learner.<br />
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So what do we see the teacher doing that will support remembering? Could be a homework that requires the learner to commit to memory the work covered.<br />
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<b>The learning has some validity.</b><br />
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This has a couple of elements. Firstly is the work that which should be covered. Is it part of the scheme of work for this class?<br />
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The second is about the match of the difficulty of the work with the current abilities of the class.<br />
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I am dismissing this element in quite a cursory manner not because I think it is unimportant but because it is, I believe, easier to evidence than the other three.<br />
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<b>So, a lesson observation proforma for the process might look some thing like:</b><br />
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What is going on in the lesson?<br />
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Is material from previous lessons being used?<br />
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Is the material being presented clearly with minimal distraction?<br />
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Are key learning points emphasised?<br />
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Is there then graded practice?<br />
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Is the teacher choosing when to intervene?<br />
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Are students focussed and working hard?<br />
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What is done to secure the key learning? What memorisation techniques are used?<br />
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Is feedback making children think? Is the feedback on the task? (Given we can't see learning)<br />
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D I RT Is time given to improve work following feedback?<br />
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Robert Coe says that “Learning happens when people have to think hard.” Perhaps this is the key. When observing can we evidence children thinking hard?<br />
That could well be it. I guess there would also be some quality measures.<br />
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I wonder what else and what other strong proxies for the possibility of learning to happen?<br />
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<br />RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-983031701004146792014-03-01T12:16:00.001+00:002014-03-01T12:17:39.014+00:00Alternative Bloom's, bespoke for different subjects<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alternative Bloom’s</span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-38e37ae1-7d92-811a-85ea-c1a0bbe2f66d" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creating</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Concluding</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Refining</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evaluating</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Analysing</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evaluating</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Analysing</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Applying</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Applying</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Analysing</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Using</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recognising</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Understanding</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remembering</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remembering</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seeing</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remembering</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parodying</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Copying</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 7px 7px 7px 7px; vertical-align: top;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A blog post by @xris32 considered Bloom’s and what it might have a form that was less useful for the way he sees English teaching and learning. While I like Bloom’s I have always had problems with it as a taxonomy. It is not an ordered list where the base is used to build the layers upwards. I will not go into why this is but it is quite easy to show it does not work in the way a taxonomy works. As an aside, for me, SOLO is a much more effective taxonomy.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He has a much more </span><a href="http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">detailed exploration</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of his English Bloom’s.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought I would have a god at seeing what happened if I tried to create, top level Bloom’s stuff, a science Bloom’s and a maths one just to see if I could.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I left a column empty to see if you thought there were different lists that would logically apply on different circumstances. Be interested in any thoughts you have.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-56580148667564035352014-02-24T12:07:00.001+00:002014-02-24T12:07:21.553+00:00Yesterday I got a pair of shoes..<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR96ztACGITgWSMYl1WQB8cgLT_C4arLo2pWlqYF-g_EhP6TwtS" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR96ztACGITgWSMYl1WQB8cgLT_C4arLo2pWlqYF-g_EhP6TwtS" /></a></div>
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Yesterday I got a pair of shoes, new shoes. They came in a box, a shoe box sized box. Not very exciting but the box served its purpose and delivered the shoes as it was meant to.<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQvJN2v-e5XbXwo9zxou-fKNDgKAa1ltulincWo5FghpNqXgNvGoQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQvJN2v-e5XbXwo9zxou-fKNDgKAa1ltulincWo5FghpNqXgNvGoQ" /></a><br />
Today I got a box that looked very exciting. It was a big box wrapped up with pretty coloured paper and <br />
ribbon. It had smiley stickers and interesting pictures stuck onto the coloured paper. I was very eagerly tearing of the paper and ribbons to get inside the box.<br />
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Inside the box was another box. What fun.<br />
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Inside this box was a pair of shoes. Was this pair of shoes better than the shoes I got yesterday? Was this pair of shoes more shoe like than the first pair of shoes? Nope. Both days, just a pair of shoes.<br />
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Teaching. Planning exciting boxes to show a pair of shoes? Is that what we do?RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-60992927577815367882014-02-15T12:56:00.000+00:002014-02-15T12:56:37.356+00:00Shallow, Deep, ProfoundSome of the teacher training I am involved in uses the model:<br />
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Shallow</h3>
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<br />Deep</h3>
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<br />Profound</h3>
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We use it while we are discussing coaching and its relationship to teaching. It covers a great deal and promotes a lot of discussion over a range of topics.<br />
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Teachers tend to think that we are trying to get children to operate deeply and sometimes profoundly. That is true but that itself, the rush to deep as I call it, can cause serious problems with the quality of the subsequent learning if we have not 'paddled around in the shallows enough'. I am an advocate of spending enough time in, and also in revisiting, the shallows of learning.<br />
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<a href="http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/exhibition/dublin/waters/ChildrenpaddlinginShallowWater_clar29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/exhibition/dublin/waters/ChildrenpaddlinginShallowWater_clar29.jpg" height="249" width="320" /></a></div>
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Shallow is not a bad place to be. It is not limiting learning. To be 'in at the deep end' can be very damaging to a child's view about their ability to learn.<br />
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Clearly the word 'shallow' can be pejorative.<br />
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What a shallow person she is. Not a nice thing to say or to have said about one.<br />
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He only has a shallow understanding implies a gap; something missing that could be present.<br />
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The language associated with Bloom's Taxonomy of lower order skills and higher order skills creates a similar urge to move to those, clearly, more attractive higher order things!<br />
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If you are told that teachers questioning is 80% recall and understanding, the two lowest levels of Bloom's, then you will feel there is a need to move to the higher end. I might take a somewhat different view. I might be quite pleased that you were spending appropriate time at the 'lower' end.<br />
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Why do teachers need to ask lower order questions?<br />
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If you know why this is then you might not be so sniffy about these kinds of questions. There are learning reasons, remembering reasons, recalling reasons, assessment reasons, and other reasons. Do you know these reasons and why 'paddling in the shallows' is so critical for quality learning?<br />
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There are also some bad reasons for asking lower order questions. You need to know these and modify your practice appropriately.<br />
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Paddle lots, please, for the sake of the children.RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-73028403493502083462014-02-15T12:25:00.000+00:002014-02-15T12:25:13.746+00:00Inspired by Linsey. A very thoughtful teacher.<br />
We gain information by listening and hearing.<br />
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We gain information by looking and seeing.<br />
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We gain information by hearing and seeing.<br />
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We gain meaning by thinking about what we see and hear.<br />
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We gain meaning by thinking appropriately about what we can think about.<br />
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We gain meaning by linking what we see and hear to what we have already seen and heard and thought about.<br />
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We begin to secure what we understand by active thinking.<br />
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We can remember because we know and can recognise similarities.<br />
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We can remember because we know what it is not.<br />
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We can recall because we have remembered and we have practised remembering enough.<br />
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We have learned if we can do all of these.<br />
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Thank you, Linsey.RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-62216656077831237952014-02-02T16:30:00.000+00:002014-02-02T16:30:41.967+00:00Engagement - is it a matter of definition?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-734e9920-f36e-4638-9036-cc541fe0099b" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It might be but I suspect it is also a word which is heavily coloured by your view of what the purpose of education is as well.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me try and say what I believe engagement is and what it is not. I will also try and explain why I think these things. My focus is really on learning and I am influenced by the work of cognitive scientists such as Dan Willingham and my favourite, Dylan Wiliam.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also hold strongly to the view of working memory as being a feature of all learners; a very limited route into the brain and an easily disturbed input. Distraction to the material (I can’t think of a better word) held in working memory will be highly damaging to learning. That distraction can be internal or external and teachers can add, inadvertently to the level of distraction. Teachers can also present material in chunks that are too large or too many which will prevent working memory from operating effectively.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also think that there are some different purposes relating to learning which may be phase specific. In early years there can properly be an emphasis on providing children with experiences. If one has never been taken to a zoo, for example, by one’s parents then it would be important for some of that experience to be replicated by the teacher. Taking children on a visit or taking part in a classroom activity that mirrors the zoo experience in some way is valid. It is also inefficient as a learning process for several reasons. But I don’t see a way around this inefficiency.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, what is it that I am using as my definition of engagement?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First of all engagement is a process that a child carries out in their brain when they are thinking. It is the processes that a learner uses to pay attention to the learning stimulus and to then make sense of that stimulus. In a simple example if we were teaching a child that 2 + 2 = 4, then one thing that they must do is to pay attention to what we say. The information that we transmit must get into working memory. It must get in undistorted and ready to be processes, again within working memory. Paying attention, knowing which parts of the environment to attend to and which bits to avoid are key to what I mean by engagement.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So the first part of engagement is to pay attention to what matters and to disregard that which does not matter. The teacher’s role in this is critical and a good teacher will know what to emphasis and what to disregard, or at least waive, as inclusion might do more to distract than support learning. One reason why I think humans will remain as teachers for a long time yet and not be replaced by machines!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After attending to the 2 + 2 = 4 lesson content the learner has to process this so that it makes sense; is memorable; can be used - initially in a very limited way, and later in more complex ways; attached to what is already known. To do this a learner must try to link the new knowledge about 2 + 2 = 4 to existing knowledge. The more links and the more secure these links the better the understanding.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We can teach children how they can engage more effectively.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do not recognise as valid terms such as an engaging lesson nor an engaging teacher when I am thinking about the brain processes of engagement. I use engagement in a very specific way.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think we also need to make sure that children can be attentive, not meant as trivially as looking at, but looking at and thinking about.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the issues with engagement as a teacher created process is that the teacher is offering some learning opportunity to a child and if the child does not know what to pay attention to, if the stimulus has a feature of attractiveness for the learner then we are at a loss to know what the child will attend to and engage in, in a sense of what they will think about and puzzle over. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That might be enough. Let’s see.</span>RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-566179994203121832.post-38759047138642347242014-01-05T09:59:00.001+00:002014-01-05T11:59:13.715+00:00Should we share learning objectives?<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sharing learning objectives is a common feature of all lessons in the UK. It is one of the ubiquitous elements that most teachers think Ofsted expect and the expectation of sharing appears on most lesson observation tick sheets. As with many processes there is some truth in the idea but the implementation has, I believe, led to a dumbing down and a lowering of expectation in our classrooms.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-5ec8cbf7-61cf-e7d5-c47d-63aaaf2033d3" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dylan Wiliam says something like, ‘Plan lessons from the end point’. Plan lessons for what you want the learning to be. So the construction of learning objectives, construction of the description of the learning, is a powerful thing. For me, it is not the creation of learning objectives that is the cause of the issue. I think the teacher </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>must </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">create high quality learning objectives. They </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>must </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">be very clear about the learning that are planning for.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think about what the learning actually is and how you might describe it to a colleague. It would be quite complex. I am not thinking that you code the learning for your colleague. Not, ‘Learning about electric current today’, but that we describe the complete learning that we want to plan for. It might take a paragraph. It could not be done in a few words or even a couple of sentences and do justice to the detail and complexity involved. It would be couched in the complex language of learning and contain the description of the content. Quite a technical paragraph. Not one that your learners would be able to understand.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But that is what we expect teachers to do. To share this complexity and depth with learners. To rewrite the complex learning for the lesson in a short statement and share that with the learners. Not only that we also expect the learners to be able to understand the learning from the shared learning objectives. Not only that we also expect them to understand the learning BEFORE they have done the learning.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a sense, what the above would do is make the sharing of learning objectives a pointless task for the teacher. It would just waste the teacher’s time. But that is not what creates, in my opinion, the dumbing down part.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think about what actually happens. Teachers create the shared learning objectives before they plan the lesson content. They create the simplified, in language and detail, learning objective and the plan to meet these. They do this partly because that is how they think the lesson will be judged. Did you share the LOs? Did the lesson deliver the LOs?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think you see what I mean.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What i do want is for teachers to properly plan the learning, as Dylan says. But not to have to share the LOs. I have a view about what they might share but it is not the LOs!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are some constructions that don’t automatically dumb down.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are learning about electricity SO THAT we can …</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so what </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that defines the learning and possibly the quality of the learning expected. I think I got this from Zoe Elder, @fullonlearning. if not then she is well worth checking out. Great structuring and simplification of some complex ideas.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A question that we can answer better as the lesson progresses. “How does a spring stretch as it is loaded?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One can imagine asking the class, at various stages in the lesson, questions such as, “What do we now know about the answer to the question?” Hinge questions galore. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I really like is to not have any learning objectives but to have a ‘road map’ of the lesson. These could be, get this, a list of the tasks the children will do in the lesson and then, critically, success criteria that define the quality measures for the work. The child will then be able to know what a good outcome looks like compared to a great outcome. This takes more work and my view is that one has to plan these well before the lesson planning. Plan these with the scheme of work when there is time to think about what is required. It is too much to do to plan, in a secondary setting, for five of these for the five lessons you will deliver the next day. I am not too keen on the process of detailed lesson planning the night before. But more of that in a future blog. Perhaps!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>RealBridge Logonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14473642564044271631noreply@blogger.com1