When Children Are left Alone

Following my last post on Active Learning I thought I’d blog an example from my own experience.

Investigate the effects on the environment from the generation of electricity, that’s the challenge our new CfE S1 Technological Inquiry sets the pupils. They are instructed to do this collaboratively in groups of 2, 3 or 4 and to present their findings in a form that suits their group.

As a class we spend a few minutes chatting about their options (recalling what they did in Primary to present findings and what might be possible in my class) I also introduce them to Prezi as one option. In demonstrating Prezi to the class I simply showed them one I had made and one that was on the website. I then suggested that they sign-up and practice at home (flipping the classroom). Of my three classes about a third (5 groups) has chosen to use Prezi,  about half of those pupils have chosen to learn this new software by build their own at home. In most cases they chose a hobby or personal interest, the results were very encouraging.

One group of girls (Joanna, Alice, Dawn and Lois) overcame a particular problem by creating their own facebook group, this is their story in their own words.

“The investigation was about the effects on the environment from fossil fuels and the pros and cons of renewable energy.  We had to do it in groups of 3 or 4 and we had to present our findings in a media presentation of some sort.”

“We used a number of different websites, one of which where you had to build a town which was eco friendly. The other websites gave you lots of facts about renewable energy and fossil fuels.”

“We had used PowerPoint in primary schools and Mr Surgey introduced us to Prezi as one of the options we could use.  Our group chose Prezi.”

“To make the Prezi together, you can invite the rest of your group into the ‘edit together’ feature by sending them an invite then you can all work together on it.  We also phoned each other and we used Facebook.”

“We chose to use Facebook because you can communicate at the time that something isreally happening, if you are both, or if the people that you want to communicate with, are on.   So, we managed to discuss it over Facebook and it does not cost us anything.”

“Since Prezi didn’t allow you to have a ‘chat box’ to write in, to communicate, we went on Facebook so you could create a ‘group’ for the Prezi to talk to.  All of your members could talk with it, and me and Lois managed to chat on Facebook while doing the Prezi. On Prezi there was a little icon for the other person who was on Prezi so that showed you that they were editing.”

There are a number of challenges to collaborating with the limited ITC in school. This did not deter one group who, having decided to do most of the work from home, found the solution to the problem was to create a Facebook group. I was very impressed with their solution as it showed a degree of creative thinking and problem solving, something that probably would not have happened in the classroom environment.

So, here’s the Prezi in question, unedited by their teacher (there are one or two errors:

I picked this group because they stood out, but the rest have done remarkable well too. I’ve been very impressed with my S1 classes this year, more so than in any other. They seem more engaged, switched on and willing to have a go. They are certainly not passive. There is a maturity, in many cases, beyond their years and I can only thank their Primary School teachers!

So it saddens me when I hear comments about our youth, like - “You know what they’re like? If you take your eye off them for a minute…”. Yes, I know what ‘they’ are like and as ‘their’ teacher I would (do) trust them to behave when my back is turned. I would not punish the well behaved majority for the odd indiscretion of one or two, so I would allow them to use Social Media in class – if only I were permitted! You see, the vast majority of the children I teach are well mannered and well behaved and can be trusted. And who, if not me, is going to teach them how to use this tool responsibly, effectively, confidently and successfully?

When children are left alone they can behave, so trust them … they may just surprise you!

The lighting of a fire

I saw this the other day and can only surmise that the individual concerned was quite happy with ‘5-to-14’. When I was in industry if something was not Fit-For-Purpose it was changed or discarded and ‘5-to-14’ was not Fit-For-Purpose, it was decades old, a 20^th Century concept being clung to by 20^th Century teachers. I remember being given a piece of ‘advice’ by one such individual “…you tell them (pupils) what they need to know, they write it down …that’s it”.

Whether we like it or not CfE is here to stay. It’s really not that new or radical, John Dewey wrote a similar curricular review at the turn of the 20^th Century. But for us it is the foundation on which we are to build a 21^st Century education in Scotland. From what I can see (and read) CfE is an initiative to improve education from a pedagogical and professionalization viewpoint. There are many facets to it, but ultimately it comes down to making education child centred.What strikes me is that it’s not about resources or budget, nor is it about what we teach, but about an educational philosophy – a new paradigm, a new way of thinking about how we educate our young. I say “new”, but judging from some famous educational quotes maybe it should be “rediscovered”:

“I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.” – Socrates.

“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself” –Galileo.

Finally, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” – William Butler Yeats.

So much for the advice given earlier!

So what is the problem? Within the text of parts 1 & 2 of the Journey to Excellence the narrative states for teachers that, “…each should contribute to the highest quality outcomes for all learners… It is up to you to decide which ones you focus on and in what order.” (HMIe, 2006: 21). This last sentence appears to be handing “professional” responsibility to the educationalists and appears to be veering away from the past’s oversubscribed methods emanating from government. Could this be what scares them?

The expressed intention of CfE, as stated in building the curriculum 3 (2008),  is to “…avoid driving young people through the levels as fast as possible…is intended to give teachers and other staff the flexibility and scope to follow issues through…” (CfE, 2008: 5). Here the professionalism of the teacher is being recognised, giving a legitimate mandate to transform the educational experience of the pupils and change our teaching to enable the pupils to construct their own learning. Surely no professional would argue against this? Would they?

The documentation goes on to encourage us to be creative in planning pupils’ learning, providing activities that will take our pupils to the next level or “ZPD”. To facilitate this we will have to engage them in self and peer-assessment to enable them to identify “next steps”. For good teachers there’s nothing very radical here, just a mandate to lighting a fire (metaphorically) that will hopefully burst into an inferno of enthusiasm for education.

So, to answer my question – there is no problem. Maybe its best that the individual anonymously mentioned at the start has retired, now perhaps we can “rediscover” the truths of Socrates’ and Galileo’s observations and follow Butler Yeats and light some fires.

Why Don’t Students Like School (Ch 1 & 2)

Daniel Willingham’s “Why Don’t Students Like School?” was recommended to the twitter and blog community by @kennypieper and it’s proving to be a fascinating read. I’ve only read the first two chapters, but already I’m finding inspiration. This blog is a collection of my thoughts on the first two chapters (more to follow) and how I’m (hopefully) changing my practice as a result.

As a cognitive scientist Willingham views the brain as “…bad at thinking rather than cognitively gifted” (p 2) and from that stand point goes on to explain how the student (pupil) mind works and how to use this knowledge in pursuit of becoming a better teacher.

From the outset he states that the brain is not design to think, suggesting that thinking is a slow, effortful, and uncertain function, contrasting it to the visual system which, he says, “seldom makes mistakes” (p 6). He supports this position by claiming that the reason we function at all and get through the day is down to memory, as we do what we do most of the time – most problems that we face we’ve solved before. In spite of this Willingham claims that we actually like to think, we are by nature curious. This has implications for us as teachers, thankfully he’s not advocating ‘teaching to the test’, but argues instead that the conditions have to be right to pique our pupils’ curiosity and get them learning.

Some of what he states is blindingly obvious – material needs to be at the ‘right level of difficulty’ for each pupil, but insist that it’s not a case of making work easier but making thinking easier. He explains how thinking works with respect to environment, working memory and long-term memory and uses the puzzle Towers of Hanoi to explain. Willingham’s explanation shows that knowing how to bring together and reorganise ideas in the working memory is essential to thinking success. Essentially he says pupils need to create a ‘recipe’ to accomplish a particular type of task. For pupils to accomplish this they need context and background knowledge, as learning cannot happen in a vacuum. But this does not mean having them learn lists of facts, teachers, he insists, must ensure that background knowledge is acquired in parallel with applying critical thinking skills.

How have I applied this to my teaching?

The first class I looked at was Higher Tech. Studies. A majority are finding it difficult to remember the order in which a Nodal Analysis problem is resolved. So, using the advice given I set out to have the class write a ‘recipe’ for the solving of a problem.

Here are the steps in the lesson:

1. Solve for 3 discs the Towers of Hanoi using – http://goo.gl/FVcJC
2. Write down how you did it – a step by step guide for another pupil
3. Have your partner solve using your guide
4. Solve: 18 x 7 & repeat steps 2 & 3
5. For (gave them a Nodal problem they had already completed) write a ‘recipe’ of ‘how to solve’
6. Having completed 5, using your recipe, solve for 1 of the 5 PPQs listed.

Time will tell if this has been successful, but the reaction by the pupils was overwhelmingly positive and across the double period there was an atmosphere of purpose. Within what I did there was challenge, simple at first but some pupils chose to solve for 4, 5 or 6 discs. There was collaboration, they worked with a partner and ‘bounced’ ideas off one another. There was context, in so far as they used this new skill to ‘rediscover’ how to solve a problem that they knew the answer to. And finally, they put it to the test, bringing background knowledge together with critical thinking skills, by solving a previously unseen problem.

Implication for the Classroom

• Be sure that there is meaningful cognitive work for pupils
• Respect the cognitive limits of pupils
• Be sure the pupils understand the problem to be solved
• Look for ways to make pupils curious
• Be aware and act on the variations in pupil preparation
• Know when to change pace and direction to keep pupils curious
• Critical thinking requires that the knowledge base is in place
• Know which knowledge is required
• Acquisition of knowledge can be incidental
• Knowledge pays of best when it is conceptual and linked

It’s easy (well, relatively) to target one class and one lesson, the challenge is going to be to implement change across my classes and sustain it… it’s not going to be easy, but this is a start!

What do we mean by Active Learning?

This question was posed as a way of ‘advertising’ a CPD session. The shortest answer given was simply a department’s name, the inference being that the department in question was ‘active learning’ – can this be true?

Building the Curriculum 2 (2007) provides the following definition: “Active learning is learning which engages and challenges children’s thinking using real-life and imaginary situations. It takes full advantage of the opportunities for learning presented by:

• spontaneous play
• planned, purposeful play
• investigating and exploring” …. p (5) and so it goes on.

Here’s the problem I have with this definition; it’s far to woolly, indeed that accusation might be levelled at CfE as a whole – but that’s for another day! What seems to be the case from conversations had or overheard is that some have taken the bulleted points, put them in a High School context and now believe that active learning is having pupils moving about, making stuff or acting! Educationally, they could not be more wrong.

The phrase ‘active learning’ in this context is essentially to do with meta-cognition: the understanding and awareness of one’s own thought processes. From an educational (pupil) point of view it can be defined as:

• any instructional method that engages a pupil in their learning
• requiring pupils to think about what they are doing
• pupils learn by engaging in a process of sense-making
• pupils actively constructing new meaning (being cognitively involved) and in a social sense actively collaborating with others

I know from bitter experience that some pupils put no thought into what they are doing. But, If we accept this definition then we can say that active learning requires more of a pupil than simply doing stuff. It involves pupils actively involved in planning and evaluating their own learning, initiating learning experiences and planning what they hope to achieve. It involves creating an environment in which pupils can think; use their imaginations; test out their ideas and try to solve problems whilst learning from their mistakes. At its very best it should encourage pupils to undertake a range of activities for their own satisfaction and enjoyment, rather than having pre-set outcomes ‘forced’ on them – challenging in our current set-up I admit.

There are many ways to achieve these aspirations, here are some suggestions (not an exhaustive list) that I’ve used in my own classroom:

• Introduce co-operative learning groups
• Collective problem-solving; groups come up with solutions and insights that may not come about individually.
• Providing collaborative work skills; pupils learn to work together rather than just dividing the workload.
• Peer reviewing; pupils review each others work and suggest corrections or improvements
• Self-mark/evaluate work; pupils assess own work against agreed criteria (or a marking script)
  

  S4 GC pupil self-marking

• Remove all the erasers for the class and have pupils correct their work using colour pencils
  

  Self correction - no eraser

• Pupils review the learning experience and make judgements about how well they have learned and what they need to do next
  

  S3 pupil self-assessment

I’m trying very hard to not just include active learning as an ‘add on’ in my lessons but to make it central to my pedagogy, it has not been easy. Resistance comes from many quarters the most surprising (for me) was from pupils; one pleading “…why can you not just tell me what I need to know” and “…why can’t you just teach the normal way”. Herein lies the problem, if pupils are being taught ‘the normal way’ in most of the rest of the school this way does appear very different to them and puts them out of their comfort zone. That said  I’ve had very positive comments from most pupils on the changes I’m making.

To date the most successful of the suggestions I’ve made and tried have been peer reviewing and self marking. Removing the erasers is starting to work but it’s a pupil ‘goto’ response to a mistake so will take time. And that’s the point here, anything we do different in class will take time to imbed and make a difference, but if you believe in it you need to persevere.

The evidence I’ve looked at suggests that passive pupils sitting listening to the teacher or doing without thinking/reflecting do not retain enough knowledge to instil deep understanding and that for this to happen they need to be actively involved in reviewing and assessing their learning and adapting it to make sense to them. So if you make one change to your pedagogy this year, make it this one.

Readings that helped me:

Grabinger, R. S., and Dunlap, J. C., (1996), Rich environments for active learning: a definitionin Wilson, B. G., (1996) Constructivist Learning Environments. New Jersey, Education Publications Inc.

Prince, M. (2004) Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research, Journal for Engineering Education, 93(3), 223-231

Watkins, C., Carnell, E. & Lodge, C. (2007). Effective Learning in Classrooms.London, Sage.

Social Media as a CPD Tool

Back in September (2011) a conversation was had, what was most memorable was my colleague discussing the tweets of a mutual friend. I was struck by the apparent simplicity of this means of communication and the ‘threads’ that could lead to the discovery of interesting points of view or CPD opportunities. If I’m being honest until that conversation I was sceptical as to the benefits, professionally, of such ‘social media’. I signed up to Twitter – just to see!

So, why the vault fast?

Organised CPD has been almost non-existent in school for the past 2 years (budget cuts being the main, but not only, reason). You could almost count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who turn up to ‘in-house’ organised CPD. There doesn’t appear to be the appetite for open, honest pedagogical discussion. As social animals I believe that we learn best in a social setting. One way to learn and develop is to exchange ideas and support one another in an open and mature environment where issues can be explored through the sharing of views and experiences.

One thing I miss from my ‘industry days’ is this sort of ‘social’ problem solving. Where, over a coffee, views on the problem of the day would be exchanged with colleagues (fellow engineers in this case) who shared the passion and drive that I had (have) to improve with every task (be better than yesterday as Mr Kenny Pieper might put it).

Sadly in education many seem happy to talk about anything other than that which we do and are reticent about sharing. But Kenny is not (definitely not) one of those, nor for that matter is Fearghal Kelly, or Olivia Wexelstein nor is Neil Winton, Eddie, Jane, Ian, Colin … the list goes on. And that’s what drew me in: my need to explore my practice with those prepared to talk about and share their teaching experiences. ‘Discussions’ on Twitter have been wide and varied, always interesting and some have changed my perspective on particular issues.

One Hundred and Forty characters are not enough to express what it is that you want to convey – it’s a start but not enough; so, some link their tweets to their blogs where they can develop their thought process. One site is a case in point: pedagoo.org. In reading the blogs posted you sense that these folks care about their practice, care about the children they teach and care enough to put it out there on the World Wide Web. You don’t have to have met them; the passion is there in the lines of text and the support offered. For me CPD is as much about the quality of support and encouragement we receive in developing our practice as it is about the appropriateness of the course.

That’s what I’m looking for, someone that cares, someone doing CPD – helping others with their CPD because they care, not because they’re paid to. It strikes me as an incredibly brave thing to do – post your thoughts on-line for world wide critique, of course it may never happen. As I write this, realising I’m going to post these very personal thoughts, my stomach churns. But for those who care about their own practice, the children they teach and are just trying to be better than yesterday it makes sense: organise your own thoughts and be brave enough to have them critiqued – get feedback that helps you improve, and what better place to start than the on-line community of tweeters and bloggers. Ironic, isn’t it?  So here goes … deep breath and jump!

So as not to re-invent the wheel, here’s a blog that breaks it down http://westylish.blogspot.com/?spref=tw Nice one Mr West!

Jan 2012 update

Since posting my thoughts on CPD I’ve become a member of a Teacher Learning Community (TLC) at school. Organised by two fantastic, enthusiastic colleagues and supported by the school – things are looking very positive for 2012