Monthly Archives: May 2010

“RESEARCH WEEK” for Confident Communicators

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Since the launch of the Confident Communicators’ project (see previous post on February 24th), I have been reflecting on the PLTS that the students are developing throughout this long-term project and it is abundantly clear that of ALL the PLTS, the skill of being an EFFECTIVE PARTICIPANT is the singular learning skill in the spotlight. What will be interesting to reflect upon, however, will be the learning DISPOSITIONS necessary for learners to develop. Key questions we need to ask when we are observing the learning of the students need to be focused on the learning behaviours that students are displaying that allow the project move forward.

All of the teams are having their learning journeys documented by the AST team, using enhanced This involves the teams taking photographs of key moments of their project work and the ASTs undertaking interviews with the students to unpack how the process is helping them learn. The early edits of these are already flagging up the ‘make-or-break’ elements of the challenge for the teams being hinged upon the EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION of the team members. They mention their need to communicate effectively with each other and those who can help them with their research. They also talk about listening to each other, organising their thoughts and ideas and really working together as a research group to make sure they make the necessary progress.

All the teams are off to The Pervasive Media Studio (www.pmstudio.co.uk) in Bristol next week. This is a structured research visit that we have set up for them to support their research and give them an experience of field research and hands-on learning. We’ll have lots to report about this particular experience by the end of the week.

Going underground with PLTS

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Inspired by a number of visual diagrams using the iconic London Underground Tube map, I’ve been working on a way to demonstrate the way in which Personal Learning Thinking Skills can have a significant impact on the quality and rigour of learning for all students.

I’ve taken a more traditionally designed linear model of a collaborative project that I used to teach at Key Stage 3 and re-designed it using the PLTS as a start point.

Instead of asking, ‘What do I want the students to know about and understand?’, I asked ‘What sort of learners need to develop as a result of learning about this topic…what do they need to be able to do and what do they need to be like?’. I then asked, ‘What explicit learning opportunities can I design to enable this to happen?’. I then ended up planning how students can ACCESS relevant knowledge so that they can create their own understandings, together.

I also considered what skills and dispositions they needed to have and what specific opportunities I needed to build into the learning journey to ensure that this could happen. 

My learning objectives changed radically as a result…

I immediately moved away from learning objectives that were all about to knowledge acquisition towards those skills that were far more closely linked to the underlying reason why I designed this as a piece of collaborative learning in the first place. The project design also included a specific ‘challenge loop’ when I thought about what students needed to be able to do to research effectively (INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY). One of the biggest gains, however, was that by planning THROUGH the PLTS, I was able to deliberately build in opportunities for REFLECTIVE LEARNING. As I planned, it became apparent that if students were going to develop as CREATIVE THINKERS, they needed the chance to REFLECT on what they were being creative about. AND, if they were going to learn together as a team, they needed to be able to REFLECT on how well they were doing and ensure they were clear on their individual and team targets to make sure they met the project deadline. I constructed far more frequent opportunities for REFLECTIVE LEARNING as a direct result.

Finally, the end-of-project presentation changed in its emphasis entirely. Whereas in the original linear model, the presentation IS the assessment, in this new ‘designed-by-PLTS’ model, the assessment is a big chunk of REFLECTION after the presentations have taken place. This allows the students space and time to assess through REFLECTION on their own and each others’ learning process so that they can learn from this project and use it in the next project.

With all this pre-planning, the teacher is freed-up to observe learning, provide quality feedback and provide the space for ALL students to take ownership of what, how and when they learn.

Let me know what you think – maybe try using this to plan your next project and see what happens? (Click in the centre of the thumbnail for a fullscreen view).