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.  

Thinking about... the rules for learning

This post presents my previous four posts on the 'rules for learning' into one, easy to digest, table. 

The table includes a definition for learning. It sounds obvious but all teachers should really share a common definition of what learning actually is. 

The table outlines a summary of of how learning occurs. I, myself, did not know enough about how my pupils actually learn and I believe that this it true of the majority of my colleagues and the profession as a whole. 

The remainder of the table presents the rules of learning. Each of the eight rules clearly links back to the summary of how learning occurs, includes a brief explanation and outlines some strategies of what this might look like in the classroom.   

The Rules for Learning

For more detailed information on the above rules please read the four blogs below:

• Part One - An introduction to the rules of learning and a summary of how learning occurs. 
• Part Two - Rules one, two and three. 
• Part Three - Rules four, five and six. 
• Part Four - Rules seven and eight. 

Please consider that I do not claim to be an expert on cognitive research. I am simply documenting the discoveries of my journey (so far) in the hope that colleagues will join me in the attempt to becoming more aware of what really makes a difference to learning. Please get in touch and let me know your thoughts and/or direct me to what I am still yet to discover. 

Thinking about... my relationship status

‘No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship’ (James Comer)

Image from Huffingtonpost.com

Last year, during a conversation on planning lessons, a colleague suggested that teachers should consider how they would work on their ‘relationship status’. The phrase has become increasingly associated with Facebook and therefore it is not usually a consideration within education (for teachers anyway!). However, investing time on your ‘relationship status’ with a class can be extremely valuable.

Making real effort to get to know the pupils in your classes is by no means innovative, but in an increasingly demanding profession it is something that is often neglected. Improving relationships with the pupils we teach can have a positive and long-lasting impact on both their academic and social development.

Image from Huffingtonpost.com

Rita Pierson, in her TED talk; Every Kid Needs a Champion, emphasises that ‘kids don’t learn from people they don’t like’ and encourages all teachers to connect with their pupils on a real, human and personal level. It is an inspiring talk and it is something that I feel all teachers should watch at least once a year.

I like to think that I am reasonably up to date on popular educational literate, but until my previous Head passed me a copy, I hadn’t heard of ‘The Magic-Weaving Business’ written by Sir John Jones. Like Rita Pierson, Sir John Jones recognises how powerful an impact teachers have on young people, both good and bad. 

The good news is schooling and teachers make the difference…the bad news is schooling and teachers make the difference’ (The Magic-Weaving Business)

Jones discusses his frustration at teachers who slowly lose their passion and purpose but the book goes beyond the moral justification. He provides practical ways forward; he shares the golden nuggets that he has collected from the teachers who light up classrooms. The book examines the qualities of the teachers that make a positive difference to young peoples’ lives. Jones describes these teachers as the ‘magic-weavers’. As a teacher it is my career ambition to be a magic-weaver in the eyes of my staff and pupils; and as a school leader, I need to create the conditions so that my staff can become magic-weavers. After all, the core of quality schooling does not come from a policy but from the crucial relationship between teacher and pupil.

Pupils wont remember what you said or the resources you used but they will remember how you made them feel. I shared an article, with my staff, from the Guardian on a pupils’ perception of what makes a perfect teacher and it was concluded that they’re the ones who never give up on pupils and have taught them to never give up on themselves.

Magic weavers do not possess one key feature but a powerful synchronicity in what they believe, say and do. Our beliefs dictate what we do and what we say and therefore this is a powerful combination that can be used to explain how we behave when no one else is watching.

Jones identifies ten generic principles for what magic-weavers believe, say and do. I won’t cover all 30 in this blog, but I will outline one from each area to give you a flavour of what characterises magic-weavers.

Magic-weavers believe that those who need our support the most will probably deserve it the least. As teachers, we have all taught pupils who display challenging behaviour and it is very easy to take that personally. We need our teachers to avoid the temptation of condemning these pupils to failure. This reminds me of the quote directed at teachers; ‘even on your worst day, you are still some child’s best hope’. The most effective teachers realise this and despite how challenging it might feel, they believe and operate as if there is no child that they cannot reach and teach.

Magic-weavers turn up. They go above and beyond. They provide opportunities outside of the classroom. Nothing shows that you care about your pupils more than going to see them perform. I have often given up my weekends to watch pupils in activities outside of school, and although it might take up part of your weekend after a long week in school, the pupil will never forget the effort that you made for them.  

Magic-weavers say things like ‘what I like about you is….’ and ‘that is not like you’; these type of phrases are small, and may appear to be inconsequential tweaks but the power they have in forming a positive script, cannot be denied. If they become part of our daily routines we will be communicating that we believe in our pupils, have high expectations of them and it will help to shape a positive self-worth.

It is essential that we emphasise to our teachers the importance of developing relationships with pupils; the quality and effectiveness of our schools rely on it. The magic-weaving principles will be made visible to our staff; we will devote time to them at the start of the academic year and we will display them in our staff room and in our teachers’ planners. By providing explicit reminders to our staff, we hope the magic-weaving principles will become part of their daily routines, become habitual and create a culture where all pupils succeed simply because our teachers really care. 

I’m sure the above quote resonates with teachers but in the interests of challenging us to aspire to be magic-weavers, consider it as; ‘you have never really been a teacher until you have done something for a pupil who can never repay you’. After all: ‘One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of house we lived in, what kind of car we drove, or what our bank account balance was. But the world may be different because we made a difference in the life of a child.’ (The Magic-Weaving Business)

Considering the breadth of fantastic books that exist on education today, I am going to make a bold statement: if I could give one book, and one book only, to the staff in my school The Magic-Weaving Business would be it.