Monthly Archives: January 2011

Questioning: What makes a problem worth solving?

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Here’s Dan Meyer talking about the way in which we can really involve learners in their maths. I see absolutely no reason not to apply the same principles in all areas of the curriculum. Broken down, Meyer advocates an approach that might look a little bit like this:

So..ask the shortest question you can so that the sub-questions are drawn out by the learners in their discussions. Then let the students build the problem.

DRAW ON PRIOR LEARNING: What do we already know that will help us with this problem?

DIVERGENT THINKING & IDEAS GENERATION: What don’t we know that we need to know?

CONVERGENT THINKING & PRIORITISATION: From all the information we have, what do is going to really help us in solving the problem?

IDENTIFICATION: What IS the problem we need to solve?

Oh, and then get them to do it. Which they will be eager to because it’s now THEIR problem to solve.

 

 

 

Groupwork: Learning together & the power of collaboration

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Talks like this one from Charles Leadbeater are really useful. They can re-focus our thinking on how we can deliberately foster the skills required in effective group work. In this talk, the importance of developing collaborative-working skills in readiness for the future is very well argued. I would add here that for learners to succeed right NOW, they need to be effective group worker right NOW. Ultimately, if we are to fully utilise the social dimension of humanity, it is far too important to be left to chance. It, just like our other capacities, needs to be mindfully practised and explicitly developed. Our classrooms and school communities could be the hot-houses for just such collaboration. 

I’ve been doing some work on what we mean by ‘group work’ and seeing what we can learn from collaborative learning dynamics.

When introducing group work, I always involve the learners in the assessment process:

The first question I ask students to consider is…

“What makes a quality team member?” In doing this, I ask them to identify what they would like to see, hear and feel when they are being or working with a quality team member. In this way, they can start to formulate their own quality standards for the challenges they are about to face. This becomes their success criteria for the whole learning process. It also generates a student-led plenary discussion both during and after the challenge. This in turn, encourages the students to reflect on the product of their learning IN LIGHT OF THE PROCESS.

The way in which we design learning needs to be as carefully planned as every other aspect of the lesson. So whenever I’m deciding what groups they will work in, I have these as a quick check list:

What is the purpose of the activity – will this group structure and combination of learners enable them to achieve the learning aims?

What are the pre-existing skills, knowledge and understanding in the group; are these well matched/ balanced within the group?

What roles might the group members adopt to ensure that skills and tasks are well matched? (facilitator; team rep; resources manager; time keeper; scribe etc)

What is the social age of the learners; how can we help learners both speak AND listen to each other?

What is the cognitive age of the learners; are they all at the same level of competency – do they need to be for this task?

What is the emotional age of the learners; how will the group members cope when they struggle or face disappointment?

How will I interact with learners; my language needs to praise effort alongside achievement – post-it notes work really well for this, rather than direct interventions that disrupt the group dynamic.

In what ways will I make the skills and competencies I want the students to develop explicit to them throughout the lesson?

If you have any thoughts on this or reflections on how you organise group work, please leave a comment.

 

Grouptalk: Creating learning through ‘liquid networks and nurturing ‘slow hunches’

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Steven Johnson provides us with a fascinating journey through the history of ideas.

In this talk, he makes some very pertinent observations about the architecture of spaces. For me, this raises the question of how we consider working with our existing (and new) learning spaces; nothing new there, granted. But the heart of this talk is to observe the way in which humans as a social species use their social spaces as an opportunity to collaborate and spark off each other in order to innovate.

How, then, do we organise learning so as to incorporate the physical aspects of learning with the emotional aspects (including the emotional responses we have to the spaces themselves) to ensure that the spaces themselves work for us to encourage the establishment of networks and the collision of ideas and nurturing of ‘slow hunches’. I have a few ideas about this, but in the meantime, make a cuppa and put your feet up for 20 minutes and enjoy learning from another great talk. 

There’s also an RSA Animate version of this talk (by the marvellous people at Cognitive Media) which is well worth a watch by you and your students. It’s a great way to emphasise the importance of talk and listening skills PLUS an example of ‘Draw Your Learning’ which is one of my fave plenaries when you set it up at the start of the lesson.

(Adapted from an original post on www.fullonlearning.com)

Creative Learning: Does science need to catch up with art?

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Here’s a fantastic TEDx talk from Charles Limb for you. This one is all about creative learning and thinking and made me make some links to some research and development into the inter-relationship between curriculum subjects. If you ever want to demonstrate the absolute need for cross-curricular projects and for collaboration between subject experts, external visitors from professional fields. (Thanks to @limeandginger for tweeting it to me).

The questions he ends with (as all good scientists should end with questions rather than answers, shouldn’t they?!) are as follows:

What is creative genius?

Why does the brain seek creativity?

How do we acquire creativity?

What factors disrupt creativity?

Can creative behaviour be learned? 

Now there’s some excellent enquiry questions to get stuck into…

(Originally posted on www.fullonlearning.com)

Intellectual Risk Taking: Making creativity safe

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Elizabeth Gilbert presents a powerful argument for the need to acknowledge the inherent pressure associated with success and achievement. In her case, she draws on her experience of the pressure of writing a novel which can follow the huge success of her first novel. For me, this highlights the pressure that learners experience when they start to get identified as gifted and talented, or simply just by being, ‘…the one who’s good at (x)’. It’s at this point, often hidden from public view, that some learners will start to sabotage their own success. They’ll stop contributing in class discussions, reject any accolades or public celebrations of achievement or simply take the other route and start disengaging from the learning altogether.

Elizabeth Gilbert presents a useful strategy that links with Professor Carol Dweck’s work on Mindsets. Gilbert suggests that we need to separate our ability from ourselves. We need to step away from describing what “I have achieved” and move instead to “This is what my ability has produced”. Now, using such clunky language is not such a great idea, but you get the picture. We need to recognise the endeavour and effort invested in learning and achievement, and celebrate THAT, rather than label the individual as ‘brilliant’ or ‘genius’. Gilbert offers a get-out clause for those who wish to be quietly successful in her presentation.

Alternatively, or possibly, in addition, it is worth taking a look at ow we celebrate achievement in our schools, and, for that matter, society as a whole.

For many who aspire to be the very best at what they do and who seek only to express their passion for what they do, where in school will they find a warm and supportive environment that will guarantee a full-bodied, non-judgemental welcome to their most precious and personal creative offerings?

Importance of creativity: My learning catalyst

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Sir Ken Robinson is for me, the catalyst for my on-going love affair with TED Talks. His first TED Talk, “Why Schools Kill Creativity” has been the same catalyst for many of my friends, colleagues and friends of friends and colleagues of colleagues..well, you know what I mean. I vividly remember the day I was shown the talk, as happens with all memorable learning moments. I had never come across the TED site and here it was, in its full intellectual glory, and the opening act for me was this talk. Since then, I’ve seen Sir Ken Robinson speak on a number of occasions, so there will inevitably be a few of his talks included in this collection. 

For me, this talk was a “YES!” moment. This was what I had been trying to argue for, rationalise and put into practice throughout my teaching career. I have since shared this talk as part of meetings, training or simply by recommending people make themselves a cup of tea, put their feet up for 18 minutes and enjoy. Many of my colleagues have reported that it has marked a “YES!” moment for them too. I hope it will for you if you haven’t seen it. If you have, I recommend using at as a reflection exercise:

How am I developing learners’ creative capacities in my practice?

What do I need to do to ensure learners feel safe to express themselves?

How does our curriculum create space for learner-involvement (as opposed to ‘participation’ or ‘engagement’) in their own learning?

Who’s curriculum is it?

What conditions for learning do I need to design that will nurture the capacities of all learners (adults and children alike)?

What have I done to develop my practice since I last watched this talk?

If nothing else, just enjoy.

Oh, and It’s very funny too.

Creatively, science needs to catch up with art

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I’ve been doing a load of work on creative learning and thinking and, parallel to this, some research and development into the inter-relationship between curriculum subjects. If you ever want to demonstrate the absolute need for cross-curricular projects and for collaboration between subject experts, external visitors from professional fields, here’s a fantastic TEDx video from Charles Limb for you. (thanks to @limeandginger for tweeting it to me)

The questions he ends with (as all good scientists should end with questions rather than answers, shouldn’t they?!) are as follows:

What is creative genius?

Why does the brain seek creativity?

How do we acquire creativity?

What factors disrupt creativity?

Can creative behaviour be learned? 

Now there’s some excellent enquiry questions to get stuck into…

 

The power of the HOW in learning & other stuff

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I spent the day in the company of a fantastic group of educators who are committed to developing teaching and learning through the Personal Learning Thinking Skills. There were many memorable conversations at all stages of the day, even over lunch. With one department, one conversation led us to the conclusion that teachers needed to have the time to reflect on their own personal learning and thinking skills before they could really start to develop them with students. I’m hoping that’s what we’ll be able to work on over the next few months. I can see real potential in producing a ‘Teacher PLTS Project’. 

In another department, we had a discussion which led us working on a “HOW” strategy. THe aim of this is to tweak learning outcomes/ objectives so as to increase the level of thinking required by students.

Where the original learning outcome/ objective might state:

“Explain the factors that caused x to impact on y”

One simple ‘HOW’ tweak and it becomes a much more challenging thinking task:

“Explain how the factors caused x to impact on y”

In the original version the level of thinking is predominantly concerned with sorting knowledge and then applying that information to demonstrate understanding. In the tweaked version, the thinking required is concerned with analysis in order to articulate a rationale and in doing so, demonstrate in-depth understanding. This also gives the assessment of the task far more clarity as you know as a teacher or a peer assessor, exactly what needs to be explained, not simply described.

These are just two tiny glimpses of a fabulous day from start to finish. A great start to the new year. Thank you to everybody I met today…you know who you are 😉