Bitesize Research: Using Effective Do Nows To Maximise Student Learning

 By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone has had a great week so far. This week, I’ve been thinking about Do Now activities, and will be doing my Wednesday briefing on this theme. I was interested in coming across some work by Petty in his book Evidence-Based Teaching: A practical approach which puts forward an evidence-informed strategy for the beginning of lessons. Objectives:

To provide a practical model for the beginning of lessons that uses evidence-informed ideas. Summary: Building on the work of Hattie (2008), Petty’s model proposes three steps to begin lessons which he claims has a significant effect on student learning:

• Show a visual representation of the learning that will take place during the the lesson
• Set learning intentions that are not outcome-based but focus on what will be learned
• Use questioning to recall prior learning

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• How am I starting my lessons? How effective are they? How do I know?
• What do visual representations of learning that will take place actually look like?
• What do I think about Petty’s model?

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.

How To Make Students "Like" You

By Divisha Patel

The title is deliberately written to be controversial, but certainly has no intention of being so. When you first start teaching, it is very easy to become hung up on the idea of students ‘liking’ you and thinking you are a [insert any positive word] teacher. Noone likes being disliked. It is important for our ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ (Maslow 1943) to feel secure, loved and respected. It is not necessarily the role of students to provide these feelings, but psychologically, it was natural for us to seek them too. Throughout this blog post, I use apostrophes around the word ‘like’ deliberately, to show that often the use of the word to describe relationships, especially teaching, is negatively loaded and can be seen as a microaggression to someone who may be having a more difficult time with certain students and/or entire classes, but what does ‘to like’ really mean? How do we know we’re ‘liked’? How did we become ‘liked’? Having being at WA for 6 years, and learning from many experienced teachers across those 6 years, I’ve realised, or at least I think I’ve realised how to make students ‘like’ me, and what makes a teacher ‘likeable’

Students like consistency When you are consistent with your routines, instructions and expectations, an engaging environment will develop very quickly. Students will learn the nuances of how you communicate, which will mean that you no longer have to repeatedly enforce the rules. Teachers do have bad days, but imagine being an 11-year old wondering whether if they’ve forgotten their book, are they going to get a slightly frustrated ‘do better’ verbal warning, or a 30-minute detention with a permanent log on their record for lack of equipment, entirely dependent on your mood that day. Students like discipline As mentioned earlier, every human being has the same fundamental need of feeling safe. Discipline doesn’t mean that you approach situations as Ms Trunchbull, but that you prevent situations that could make students feel like they are in danger. This might mean using prevention and de-escalation strategies to ensure that students are able to continue to learn and progress, because contrary to popular belief, students are excited to learn our subjects. It is frustrating to them when this gets disrupted. Some students may be the ‘disruptors’ but do think about why this may be. Do they need your help? Has something upset them? Students like routine Routines, over time, become habits and therefore second nature, so it is incredibly important that teachers constantly and consistently model positive routines. As they become habits, students will know what is expected of them when they enter a classroom, or even the school itself. Everything involves some form of routine, whether it is your entry routines, transition routines or how students leave Sky Dining after lunch. Routine leads to efficiency and order, which is a huge benefit for your workload too! Students like trust Westminster Academy has a challenging context, and as discussed in INSET, some of our students have experienced trauma that some of us are privileged to have never or will ever experience. When students arrive at the school gates, as teachers, we become in loco parentis, they trust us with their safety; happiness, and sense of security. The same expectations you have of the students, of being kind, respectful and considerate, are also the expectations they have of you. Students like fairness Understanding fairness is an important part of growing up and practising empathy. There is no room for favourites or resentment in how we manage behaviour. Students are smart people and want to see that any system of rewards and consequences is justified, and are quick to say when it’s not, so don’t give them any opportunity. If lots of students are talking, don’t just punish the student whose name you know. Similarly, students don’t like to feel like they have been singled out, therefore you should avoid using language that does this. For example, when noticing a couple of students messing around on their Chromebook, you might give the instruction ‘Year 7, nobody should be using their Chromebook for this task’ In conclusion, my message is simply that, to be ‘liked’ as a teacher, is to follow the behaviour policy. The behaviour policy allows for consistency, discipline, routine, trust and fairness- all of the attributes that students themselves seek in order to feel secure, loved and respected. Or, in keeping with the classic WA phrase ‘safe, secure and successful’, which are ironically the same attributes that you too seek as a teacher. Further Reading: Tom Bennett- Running the Room: The Teacher's Guide to Behaviour

Bitesize Research: Ongoing Challenges Schools Face Following The Covid-19 Pandemic

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone has had a great week so far. This week, I was interested in the NFER study from September 2021 that looks at some of the ongoing issues from the lockdowns and the pandemic for school settings. This study is based on in-depth interviews with 50 senior leaders from mainstream primary and secondary schools across the UK.

Objectives: To provide ongoing insights into the challenges of recovery, wellbeing and support for schools following the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Summary:  

The key findings were:

• Curriculum modification was a typical response to the pandemic. This took different models including; narrow (prioritising literacy and numeracy over other subjects); focused (prioritising core content within subjects); blended (supporting literacy and numeracy through other subjects); and continuous (covering content over a longer period of time).
• Pupil mental health and wellbeing is an immediate and urgent concern for school leaders. School leaders in this study reported that in particular there was an alarming increase in self-harm. 
• Pupils were less prepared emotionally and academically for transition between YR6 and YR7
• School leaders identified requiring robustly funded support for pupil wellbeing as the most urgent support needed from government and policy. 

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

 

• How have I adapted the curriculum? If I’ve adapted the curriculum, which model of curriculum recovery have I followed?
• How can I support pupil mental health and wellbeing? How might trauma-informed approaches support this further?
• How is the transition going for pupils in my YR7 classes or tutors? What might I need to be mindful of with respect to their ongoing transition from YR6-7? 

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.

Thanks, Jaya

How Can The IB Learner Profile Characteristics Be Developed Across A School?

By Paul Wood

I mentioned during INSET that, as a whole, WA didn't look or feel to me like an IB school during the pandemic-constrained months from January to July. Our excellent IB DP and CP programmes have, in many ways, continued to exemplify what is great about the IB, even during lockdowns and on-site constraints. However, those sixth form programmes occupy a relatively small physical space at WA and involve only ~13% of our students. So I'm wondering about the extent to which the IB influences our students' experiences in Y7-11 and that's something for us all to think about and discuss in the coming months. I appreciate Holly inviting me to expand on that observation via this blog post about my previous experiences with the IB Learner Profile. I also mentioned during that same INSET talk that I do understand that what I saw and felt last year was constrained by COVID and I want to emphasise that again here. Indeed, it’s been fascinating and enjoyable these past two weeks to see the variations that are now emerging in the students’ classroom experiences and I certainly believe I’m seeing much more of the "real" WA. As you hopefully all know, the IB learner profile (LP) comprises ten characteristics that will be familiar to, and demonstrated by, all students who experience IB programmes:

• Inquirers
• Knowledgeable
• Thinkers
• Communicators
• Principled
• Open-minded
• Caring
• Risk-takers
• Balanced
• Reflective
  

As with any other desired learning outcomes of a school, it is not desirable (or possible!) for every teacher to aim to develop all of these characteristics in every lesson! Rather, IB schools should be able to point to purposeful opportunities - in lessons and in extra-curricular activities - via which students can increase their understanding and demonstration of the LP over the course of their school careers, so that by the time the students leave the school at Y11 or Y13, they are able to speak reflectively about each of the characteristics in a sincere manner. Lessons involve reference to, and discussion of, the LP terms as an introduction to related learning activities. There is little value in the LP existing only as a poster on a classroom wall. And there is little value in a teacher discussing with students what it means to be "risk taker" at school, if students are never given opportunities to take intellectual and academic risks, in a supportive environment that recognises "praise-worthy failure". In my experience, schools achieve purposeful development of the LP via skilful and coordinated cross-curricular and extra-curricular planning. I've seen that to be the case no matter what the pre-CP/DP academic programme. In other words, the LP can be woven into the planning of KS3/KS4, of IB Middle Years Programme, and of American standards-based curricula. However, without that coordinated, scaffolded curriculum planning, the LP will develop in ad hoc, coincidental ways at best. Where I've seen this Y7-11 planning work best (including effective alignment with sixth form curricula), the academic curriculum is planned in teams, both horizontal and vertical, working under the guidance of a single schoolwide curriculum coordinator who ensures everyone is "rowing in the same direction". Those teams meet before, during, and after discrete periods of learning ("units" or whatever they might be called). If the planning and teaching are well-coordinated, any student could move seamlessly from one class of a course to another, without noticing a difference in outcomes. This is not to suggest that all students should do the same activities at the same time with the different teachers of the course. Rather, the teachers agree on those outcomes and the related common assessment tasks, and then the teachers help every student demonstrate their learning in the common assessment task, even if they complete different activities along the way. That's the essence of individualised learning and it requires skilful classroom facilitation to complement the coordinated curriculum planning. (And I'll emphasise that it does not need to happen in every lesson every day - it needs to be an appropriate part of a thoughtfully coordinated curriculum). In summary, I've seen the LP characteristics best developed in Y7-11 in schools that have (i) coordinated, schoolwide curriculum planning and review, (ii) purposeful but authentic reference to the LP characteristics sprinkled throughout that curriculum so that they all received attention over the course of the five or seven years, and (iii) classroom teaching that, over time, helps students understand and demonstrate the LP characteristics by connecting them to subject area learning.

Bitesize Research: How Do Expert Teachers Approach Behaviour Management

 By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone has had a great week so far. This week, I was interested in the reporting in Edutopia of a 2021 study that looks to contrast and compare the behaviour management strategies used by expert and novice teachers. It suggests that an awareness of expert teacher strategies can support all teachers to improve their behaviour management. 

Objectives: To understand the differences between expert and novice teachers in their approaches to behaviour management.

Summary:  

The key findings were:

• Expert teachers were much more likely to recommend proactive strategies to prevent student misbehaviours from occurring
• Expert teachers were much more likely to consider the causes and influences behind student behaviours 
• Expert teachers come to see the classroom as an ‘ecosystem’ wherein there is a delicate balance between student autonomy and teacher authority
• Expert teachers had a stronger ‘positional awareness’ to ensure all students would be in view. They also had a greater awareness of their tone, body language, facial expressions and presence impacted student behaviour
• Expert teachers ‘see the whole’ whereas novice teachers ‘see the parts’

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How does this link to trauma-informed practice?
• The Edutopia article suggests six strategies that can support all teachers to improve their behaviour management following the findings of this research; how many of these am I using regularly? Which ones could I look to improve in? Which ones are more challenging?

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations

How To Get Students Talking

 By Ruhina Cockar

How do I get my students to talk?! This may sound like a strange question when so often we’re thinking about how to positively encourage students to stop talking and focus on their work! Talking and discussion offer invaluable learning opportunities for teaching the curriculum as well as for the development of the “global citizens” we aspire for our students to be. Let’s say, for example, you want to have a whole-class discussion on a topic like “Bullying or banter? What is and what isn’t acceptable” or you want students to discuss one-to-one with each other about domestic abuse and its effects on the family unit- can these topics be explored effectively if students don’t talk? In general, students are more likely to discuss and participate freely if they feel comfortable in their environment and trust that their contributions are valued- so how could you achieve this? Fail to prepare, prepare to fail holds true when facilitating a discussion: having an idea of what the journey of the discussion will be from start to finish, and the questions you might ask to ensure the discussion stays on track will maintain the flow and ensures there is an objective to it; free-flowing discussion with no purpose or direction leads to off-task behaviour and erodes trust. Establishing the ground rules before the discussion takes place will help build trust: it might be helpful to refer back to your Partnership Agreement (or to create one if you haven’t got one established in your classroom) and remind students of what everyone has agreed to in terms of how to speak to and how to treat one another. Clearly communicating the purpose of the discussion, whether you will do hands-down questioning or not, whether this is a pose, pause, pounce, bounce type of discussion will also work towards creating a comfortable environment for students to be open: they understand theirs and their peers’ boundaries. If you choose not to use hands down questioning, an alternative approach would be to use a token system: Distribute three tokens to each student at the beginning of the discussion. Each time a student speaks, a token is given to the teacher. The goal is for students to spend all their tokens by the end of the discussion. This system can be really useful in limiting students who dominate the discussion and encouraging quiet students to contribute. A technique for ensuring quality discussions take place is one built on thinking time. Posing the question for discussion and asking students to work in pairs or as a group to write down their initial thoughts, answers or ideas will help ensure the class discussion is meaningful and productive as students have had a chance to think about the issue beforehand. Learning things about your students, asking them about their interests, acknowledging their answers through writing the comments on the board and/or making connections between their comments and the discussion at large will start to help students feel comfortable and valued. Examples of comments that acknowledge a student:

• That’s an excellent point Lara.
• I like that you’ve given the other point of view Ahmed - it shows balance and many of us would not have considered that perspective.
• Aya it was brave of you to share such a personal experience - thank you.
• I think you may have misunderstood the question Borislav but I appreciate your contribution and willingness to speak.
• As Samiya said earlier…

A further question to consider about seating arrangements: could everyone sit in a circle? Around a table? Would you like the person speaking to stand and make their point? Seeing each other facilitates listening, and acknowledging each other.

With a nod to life skills and careers we know communication and working collaboratively is an essential skill, whether this is in a group work setting or in a discussion setting - it’s imperative students feel confident in their ability to articulate their thoughts and ideas so they are heard.

I hope this post goes some way to helping you teach our students this and please share any ideas, suggestions and experiences you may have in the comments below

Bitesize Research: How Do Standards Frameworks Impact Teacher Professional Development

 By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone has had a good first week back! To start off the academic year, particularly in thinking about teachers creating bespoke performance management targets, I was interested in the inherent tensions between teacher autonomy and a heavily standards-driven profession. As such, I was interested to read the work of Mockler, written in 2020: see here for access to the report - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19415257.2020.1720779 Objectives: To understand the impacts of standards frameworks on the teaching profession and on teacher professional development. Summary: The key findings were:

• Neoliberal influences on education around the world - including greater regulation and standardisation - have often constrained more authentic forms of professional learning. One consequence of this is that teacher professionalism is undermined
• It focuses on a case study from New South Wales, Australia, wherein the creation of a set of very rigid professional standards led to a significant undermining of teacher professionalism
• Mockler concludes that to mitigate against this, school cultures need to privilege and value risk-taking and trust in teachers, which in turn heightens senses of teacher autonomy and ownership

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• This argues that the standardisation of teacher practices has mostly negative impacts; what, if any, are the positives impacts of the standardisations of teacher practices?
• What is the balance between the standardisation of teacher practice and teacher autonomy?
• How do my own practices of professional learning fit into this?

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.

Thanks, Jaya

How to thrive when returning "back to school"

 By Holly Youlden

Welcome back to a brand new school year! No matter if this is your first year as a teacher or you’re a seasoned pro, the very start of a new school year always brings with it a huge mix of emotions. Perhaps you feel excited for new classes and challenges to come? Or maybe you’re full of new ideas of how you want to set up your classes and eager to get them in place? You could possibly feel nervous about what this year could have in store, particularly with our pandemic-fuelled turbulence? Disappointed that your Great British staycation didn’t provide you with the summer holiday glow that you so desperately hoped for? Or maybe you’re just happy to see everybody and be back in the regular routine? 

With lots of new information, new classes, new faces, and new routines to get used to, it is completely normal to feel a slight sense of trepidation when September rolls around. So to help ease you back, I thought it would help to seek out advice from the WA community to get their tips on how to make this “back to school” your most positive yet…

Spend some time working out your timetable and get organised

“I know that the start of term means tonnes of new information. One of the most important tasks I do to keep myself sane is making a Google sheet with my timetable and events for each week, where I hyperlink my lessons, once I’ve planned them. This little bit of life admin makes me feel so much more prepared and calm at the start of term and allows me to look ahead quickly and see what my week/month/term is looking like.”

Use simple activities to get to know your students quickly in those first few lessons

“In my first lessons, I like to ask a student what their name is, one thing they want me to know about them and what their goal is in history. They do this on a post-it note and I find reading them helps me to get to know my students quickly right at the start of term. Plus, sometimes they write some adorable things!” 

Have faith in yourself and be present!

“Often when I come back from the summer break, I find myself questioning my own ability or thinking I can’t remember how to do things. Make sure you have faith in yourself! Teaching is a bit like riding a bike so have the confidence that you know what you’re doing and have lots of support around you if you need help. I think those first few lessons are particularly important for you to focus on your presence- how are you standing? How are you introducing yourself? How are you connecting with the students? It will make a big difference later down the line.”

I hope you all have a brilliant first week in the classroom and let us know in the comments if you have any other fantastic tips or advice you’d like to share