Thinking about...Northern Rocks 2017

‘Surround yourself with people that reflect who you want to be and how you want to feel, energies are contagious’

Last year I attended Northern Rocks for the first time. I left feeling invigorated and determined to better serve the pupils I teach and the staff I lead. I knew that, to develop professionally, I had to be a more active member of this community and therefore I made an attempt to ‘put myself out there’ and surround myself with individuals who would push me forwards.

I had to return for this year’s conference and I was delighted I could provide some of our staff the opportunity to attend. I had to expose them to the spirit, ideas and professional challenge that Northern Rocks generates. Neither I or they were disappointed.

The Northern Welcome

The Northern welcome came in the style of a Wonder Woman Panel – a collection of some of the greatest minds currently influencing education. Two consistent themes were introduced which, for me, seemed to underpin the whole conference:

1.       No-one has all the answers

2.       The importance of partnership and collaboration  

One of the panel stressed that ‘we are a profession and we need to stop being afraid’. The ‘accountability regime’ is simply not in the best interests of the teachers and or the children we serve. The Wonder Women themselves will admit that they do not possess ‘the answers’ and that ‘what is best for the sake of the children is really complicated to work out’. Schools and teachers shouldn’t be prescribed to. We need to be trusted. Trusted to use our professional judgement and to discuss not just what we are doing but why we are doing it.

‘Imagine a school in which you taught better simply by virtue of teaching in that school – what would such a school be like?’ (Judith Warren Little)

Such a school would regularly facilitate professional dialogue, expose its teachers to new ideas that challenge their thinking and provide greater clarity of how best to serve its pupils. It would be just like Northern Rocks!

Here is what I was exposed to and what I will take away.

Lazy Leadership (Stephen Tierney)

I must admit that I had to hold back the tears as Stephen opened his workshop by sharing the slides below - I need to ensure that I am present [at home] in mind as well as body.

Stephen’s session was not about being a lazy leader but about being a more effective leader by doing less better. He shared how he had refined his processes for leading T&L by stopping doing so many things. If it’s not a 9 or 10/10 he simply stops doing it or crosses it off his list. Stephen emphasised that teachers are working too hard and that they are teaching too many things. ‘Unless you stop you won’t improve!’.

Stephen, like the panel, shared the complexities of teaching by quoting Rob Coe; ‘What makes great teaching? … we don’t know as much about it as we’d like to..’.

Stephen shared how he challenges his teachers’ thinking to ensure that their practice is informed and focused. I left the workshop questioning:

·       How can I can better create the conditions for teachers to perform?

·       Do I develop a culture where my staff are willing to be vulnerable when discussing their teaching?

·       How do I contribute to the wellbeing of my staff so that they can be present at home, with their loved ones, without the burden of work hanging over them.

Professional Learning Without Limits (Dame Alison Peacock)

Alison explained how she is using her ‘learning without limits’ approach to inform her work as CEO of the Charted College of Teaching in order to positively impact the profession. She explained how the College will ‘work with teachers to share excellence across the profession’ and that it is like ‘Northern Rocks bottled’. That was enough to sell it to me!

All school’s should aspire to serve its teachers in the same way that Alison plans to serve the profession. How can my staff ‘learn without limits’?’

·       How can I support my teachers to make decisions about what works?

·       How best I can give teachers a greater awareness of the science of pedagogy?

Curriculum Imagineering (Hywel Roberts)

I told my staff that they had to attend this workshop. If you haven’t seen Hywel speak it is a must!

Hywel has been described as ‘a world leader in enthusiasm’ and he certainly lived up to that title. He gripped me right from the start and before I knew it, the session was over, not a single scribble in my notebook. I wasn’t sure quite what had happened but I knew I loved it!

When I see Hywel I often think of Ben Zander’s definition of success: ‘For me, it’s simple. It’s not about wealth, fame and power, but how many shining eyes I have around me’. I can assure you that whenever Hywel is in front of a group of people every single pair of eyes are shining. I left Hywel’s session reflecting on the messages I convey to my pupils on a daily basis and asking:

·       Who am I being if my children’s eyes are not shining?

High Challenge, Low Threat (Mary Myatt)

After reading her book, and loving it, I was thrilled to see Mary Myatt was presenting at Northern Rocks. She explained how we are a challenge seeking species and that ‘under the right conditions we are prepared to put ourselves under-pressure’. Mary refereed to cognitive conflict and how we need to recognise that ‘getting stuck is good’. As she progressed through her workshop she made reference to the work of Dweck, Willingham, Lemov and Berger as some of the essential ideas around creating the conditions to learn. We need to expose our staff to these ideas to help them make informed decisions about the best way to teach. To ensure that we providing a culture of ‘high challenge, low threat’ I need to make sure we:

·       Distinguish the work from the person.

·       Refer to prior attainment only and not ability.

·       Understand that sometimes progress goes backwards.

·       Pay greater attention to the quality of the spoken word.

 The Curriculum Debate

The conference ended with an insightful debate about the various education systems that exist across the UK. The debates reaffirmed the importance of collaboration and partnership and highlighted the danger of competition. When discussing one of the UK education systems David Cameron stated that; ‘we need to stop asking who are we better than, and start asking. who are we good enough for?’. Our policy makers are too busy with ‘PISA hysteria’ to consider if the policies actually serve our young people. Teachers are overworked and underfunded and our pupils feel neglected. As a 15 year-old form Manchester stated: ‘Education is supposed to set us up for life but does not teach us about life’.   

This is the reason I love Northern Rocks; no matter how bleak things seem to get, you can always count on the 500 teachers who are prepared to give up their Saturday and pay to attend a conference in Leeds.

There is no ego. It is simply a coming together of hearts and minds. The individuals who attend are passionate about their profession and they are just doing their best to improve the lives of the children they teach.   

Thanks Northern Rocks, see you again next year!

Thinking about...modelling and mastery

We can’t learn from simply watching experts, if we could we’d all be elite sports performers. We need this performance broken down into chunks that can be carefully examined. Modelling is a strategy that is frequently employed, by teachers, to allow pupils to know ‘what a good one looks like’. Modelling is an effective cognitive support but it is much more than just showing pupils a good piece of work.

I have experienced lessons where teachers have provided an explanation of a concept and modelled what they expected from the pupils before swiftly setting a number of tasks for them to complete independently. It quickly became apparent that the pupils lacked the understanding to complete the work and, as a result, the teacher spent the majority of the lesson racing around the room trying to explain, with little effect, what to do. Similarly, Barak Roshenshine recognises this in his paper on Principles of Effective Instruction. He identifies that the least successful teachers provide very short explanations before passing out worksheets and asking pupils to complete a range of problems. Under these conditions the pupils made too many errors and had to be retaught the lesson. Whereas, in contrast, the most effective teachers guide pupils’ practice by providing more detailed explanations and instructions, giving a wider range of examples and more regularly posing questions and checking understanding

Pupils obviously need time to engage in independent practice if they are to become fluent in a skill or in order to embed essential knowledge. During this time a teacher should only need to interact with a pupil for up to 30 seconds. If teachers need to take any longer, like in the scenario explained above, then they are too dependent on the teacher, indicating that they are not secure enough in their understanding to engage in independent practice.

The diagram below, from Make Every Lesson Count, indicates the process that teachers need to take their pupils through to achieve greater independence. The least successful teachers tend to provide less feedback, pose fewer questions and they often neglect the 'joint practice and construction' phase altogether. Although they may appear to be progressing at a quicker rate their pupils' knowledge is less secure. A successful teacher’s lesson will have pace, but it will be pace in depth rather than breadth. They will provide sufficient instruction, pose questions to probe and clarify, they will connect new information to previously learnt content and provide a range of examples during explanations. Whilst modelling, successful, teachers will deconstruct and simplify work and they will discuss the comparisons between exemplar and non-exemplar work. Their pupils’ will be guided through practice by breaking a task down into simple steps, through interactive modelling and they will probe for understanding with process questions. Throughout the whole process an effective teacher will be continually monitoring their pupils and only when they are confident that they have achieved a high success rate will they progress on to independent practice.

I believe that the processes employed by successful teachers reflect mastery teaching; a pedagogical approach that involves breaking content down into a series of sequential steps. Teaching, in this way, enables teachers to deal with the limitations of working memory more effectively and also ensure that pupils spend more time thinking about content, which in turn makes it more likely that learning will occur.

The two principles discussed within Rosenshine’s paper that resonates most with mastery teaching are ‘spending more time guiding practice of new material’ and ‘obtaining a high success rate’.

Pupils need to spend lots of time rephrasing, elaborating and summarising new material in order to store it within their long-term memory. If this rehearsal time is too short, pupils are less able to store, remember or use the new material. Another finding is that the more time spent guiding students, the better prepared for independent work they are and the fewer mistakes they make. Whereas, if the rate of progression to independence is too quick pupils may end up encoding misconceptions.

Pupils must demonstrate a high level of success on tests, typically at about 80% level, before progressing. This ratio of success to mistake shows that pupils are learning material, yet also challenged by it. If a child is not secure in a topic and they are moved on too quickly, then they will carry gaps in knowledge and misconceptions to the next topic. Previously teachers have moved on too quickly because they feel a need to show progression despite the fact that knowledge is insecure and it is likely that it will need to be retaught again.

We cannot provide limited explanations, model a good piece of work and expect our pupils to make progress in their learning. If our pupils are to acquire important knowledge and skills and have them readily available to apply to a range of problems, we not only need to be aware of the science of learning but we need to be able to carefully craft a process that moves pupils from dependence to independence.  

Thinking about...retrieval practice

Retrieval Practice - Pupils Need More Tests!

Generally, tests are considered for assessment purposes only. Teachers, in the main, have a negative perception of testing due to the significant increases in the number of tests that pupils now have to take during their school careers. However, they turn out to actually be one of the most effective tools for learning; quizzing and low stakes testing are crucial to optimise learning.

Testing has to be thought of as in a pedagogical sense. Testing, when used this way, engages learners in practicing recalling memories (information learnt). ‘The act of retrieving a memory changes the memory, making it easier to retrieve again later’. Repeated recall appears to help memory consolidate into cohesive representation in the brain to strengthen and multiply the neural routes by which the knowledge can later be retrieved. Research proves that practicing retrieval makes learning stick far better than re-exposure.

Retrieval practice is one of the most successful strategies for learning and the more effortful the retrieval the stronger the benefit. The greater the effort to retrieve learning, provided that there are high rates of success, the more learning is strengthened by retrieval. 

The following examples outlines some suggestions of how you might provide your pupils with opportunities to engage in retrieval practice.

Retrieval Practice Strategies for the Classroom

Regular low stakes quizzes - Possibly the easiest way to provide opportunities for regular retrieval practice is through low stakes quizzes/tests to your lesson that test knowledge that has previously been taught. Low stakes means that little emphasis is placed on the scores. Pupils’ results don’t have to be shared or recorded, it is the process of retrieving previously learnt information that is important.

Whole Class Quizzing - Create multiple choice quizzes that will engage pupils in retrieving information. You can use simple methods such as RAG pages or mini-white boards to ensure that pupils are individually accountable for answering question. This not only engages pupils in recalling learnt information but allows you to quickly assess their knowledge.

Interleaving Quiz - Regularly start a lesson with a low stakes quiz that allows pupils to revisit previously learnt information, using the following format:

1.   Question from previous lesson.

2.   Question from previous week.

3.   Question from previous topic.

4.   Question from previous term.

5.   Question requiring pupils to make a link between what they are currently learning and what they have previously learnt.

Quick Fire Questioning - This strategy simply involves asking a number of questions that require pupils to retrieve information. Consider how you make all pupils individually accountable for retrieving the memory. This could be achieve by providing pupils with some think time and insist on no hands up.

Writing to Learn - This task requires pupils to recall as much information as they can about a topic/lesson/term etc. Pupils are provided with a short period of time and asked to write as much as they can about a topic/lesson/term etc.

Homework - Forgetting is key to remembering and therefore spaced retrieval is an effective strategy.  The setting of homework is a great opportunity to encourage retrieval practice and to ensure it is spaced retrieval. Rather than set a homework relevant to the learning that has taken place during the lesson or that week why not provide pupils with a task that will require them to revisit previously taught content?

Self-explanation - Pupils are challenged to consider how new information can be linked to what they already know. In order to make links the pupils must engage in retrieval practice to recall all the previously learnt information.

Knowledge Organisers – There are a number of ways in which pupils use their Knowledge Organiser (KO) as a resource to help engage in retrieval practice.

·     Peer Quizzing - Using their KO, as a resource, pupils can quiz each other in pairs. One pupil can pose questions from the KO and check the pupils answers whilst the other is challenged to answer the questions. To help with this process encourage pupils to use Tip-Tip-Teach. If a pupil incorrectly answers a question their peer should give them a tip to help them recall the correct answer, followed by a second tip and then teach the correct answer if necessary.   

·     Cover – Write – Check - Correct - They cover the KO and aim to write down as much of its content that they can recall. Once pupils have recorded as much information as possible they check and correct their work. 

·     KO Starter Activity - Displaying one section of the KO with some information left off. Pupils are required to fill in the blanks, identify the key terms, complete a process or recall the precise definitions etc.

Cooperative Learning Strategies – There are a number of Cooperative Learning Structures that can be used to engage your pupils in retrieval practice. The main benefits of these are that all pupils are individually accountable for engaging in the activity and that half of the class are simultaneously answering a questions/recalling information at any one time.

·     Rally Robin & Pair Share – Basic structures. Pupils can recall information such as key words or speak about a topic.

·     Quiz – Quiz – Trade & Inside Outside Circle - Involves pupils pairing up and, in turns, answering and asking a question that requires pupils to recall information. Pupils can create their own questions or you could use exam questions and mark schemes.

·     Rally Coach - This cooperative learning structure involves partners taking turns; one solving a problem and the other coaching. This usually works best when the teacher has previously modelled a process for working out a problem e.g. Maths problem or answering a question with multiple steps.

Technology – There are number of ways in which you could use technology to help engage pupils in retrieval practice.

·     Classroom Apps - There are a number of apps and software that can be used to engage pupils in retrieval practice. Regularly used examples include Kahoot, Socrative and Google Forms. They allow you to create multiple choice quizzes to engage pupils in retrieval practice.

·     Flashcards Software - Here is a list of flashcard software that you can use to create your own flashcards for pupils to use (shared by @AceThatTest). These allow pupils to track their own progress, prevents them having to create their own and there are often a number of sets that have already be created that might be of use.

·     Subject Specific Software - There are a range of subject specific software which actively engages pupils in retrieval practice. These can be used as a high impact/low effort homework strategy that requires little workload. Some examples of subject specific software include; Linguascope/Memrise (MFL), Mangahigh (Maths), My PE Exam (PE) and Pearson ActiveLearn (various subjects).

Conditions for Effective Retrieval Practice

Success Rate - In order for the above strategies to be effective pupils must have a medium to high retrieval success.  If the tasks are too difficult pupils will not be able to recall any information.

Feedback - immediate feedback must be provided. Although the process is more important than the results it is still essential that pupils are provided with feedback to the non-recalled or incorrectly recalled information. Providing immediate feedback increases the likelihood that information will be stored to memory.

Space Out Retrieval Practice - It is important to leave a considerable amount of time between sessions of retrieval to take advantage of forgetting.

The misconception is that massed practice can lead to embedding something into long-term memory. Although this might lead to increased performance it is not conducive to learning. This is because when retrieval strength is high additional study has no effect on storage strength. When ideas have been forgotten the effort to recall them reconstructs the learning from long-term memory and makes the idea more memorable and connects it to other knowledge more recently learnt.

Educate Pupils on the Process - One of the most effective strategies for improving pupils’ ability to retain information is explicitly educating students about the research on effective learning strategies.  Teachers are encouraged to be transparent about the frustrations but the importance of the ‘testing effect’. Educating pupils on the benefits of regularly testing and self-quizzing is likely to improve their motivation for such tasks and will also help them develop their own effective learning habits.

Thinking about...what we can learn from John Wooden

 John Wooden led his basketball teams to ten national championships in twelve years and is regarded as one of the greatest sport coaches in History. However, it is not his success and achievements that make Wooden so popular, it is the way he lived his life. His integrity, class and humility have inspired people from all walks of life and I believe the that teachers, schools and the education system can learn a lot from him.  

The road is better than the end

After Wooden had retired he was asked if he missed it [coaching basketball]. He explained that he missed the practices and working with the young people under his supervision but that he did not miss the games and the tournaments. Wooden expressed that the importance is in the preparation and not the outcome. He felt that ensuring his players were prepared to perform at their potential would have a greater influence on the result than constantly stressing over the outcome. Does your school focus on the road or on the end?  In education, like basketball, an outcome is inevitable; we can’t avoid the examinations that our pupils will sit at the end of their five years of schooling. We can, however, focus more on how they might grown as an individual throughout their five-year journey. We can make sure that our young people are defined by their character and not by their exam results.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation

Wooden disregarded reputation because it was something that he had no control over. He felt that his teams couldn’t necessarily control if they win or lose but they could control how they played the game.  Wooden believed that success is what you consistently do and that you cannot be defined by a single moment, game or tournament. He would watch how his team played to determine if they were successful or not. Wooden would often say that ‘there were games when we scored more than the opposition but we had lost and vice versa’. In education, do we care how well young people play the game or are we only concerned with their results? Some schools become so focused on their reputation, on their results and on their Ofsted grading that they lose focus of what matters. The children!  

John Wooden was asked, after one outstanding season, if this was his best job and he replied that he wouldn’t know for twenty years. He explained that it is what your youngsters do after they have left your supervision that really determines whether or not you have done a good job. What good are a school’s results, or its reputation, if its pupils fail to make a positive contribution to and succeed within society?

Never mention winning

Ironically, those schools that become overly focused on winning (results and Ofsted grades) are more likely to fail (by their own standards). Wooden himself has experienced this. When discussing the 16 years prior to his first championship title he explained, ashamedly, that there were times when he wanted to win so much that he hurt his team’s chances by overworking his players or trying to give them too much. In education we are currently facing a workload crisis; a number of teachers are reportedly leaving the profession due to being over worked and over stressed. Perhaps, as Wooden suggested, we are hurting our chances of being successful as we are focused too much on winning. We are focused too much on what Ofsted want. If we want to succeed; take a step back, let teachers do their job and stop putting the emphasis on winning.

Real happiness and success comes from the things that cannot be taken away from you

Perhaps we need to revisit our moral purpose, the reason we got involved in the profession and what it actually means to be an educator. When reflecting on his life, Wooden stated, that true success can only be measured by the lasting things in life, those things that cannot be taken away.  He explained that he always tried to live his life by the motto: ‘you can’t have a perfect day without doing something for another without any thought of return’. How many perfect days have you had recently? In education are we fulfilling our moral purpose and allowing our pupils to fulfil their potential? Or are we teaching in return for good results or an Ofsted grade? John Wooden will not be remembered as being a winner but for being successful. It is not the ten national championships that gravitate people towards him but rather the influence and inspiration he had on his players and those who he worked with. Perhaps our education system can learn the difference between winning and success from John Wooden and focus a little more on character and less on reputation.