Bitesize Research: Evidence For Cold-Calling

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! For this final bitesize post of T5, I was interested to see a synthesis of the current research about cold calling in Edutopia. This links to another bitesize post from June 2021 which is about cold calling as an effective tool for AfL. 

Objectives: To understand the existing evidence about cold calling, and what makes it effective or ineffective.

Summary: 

• Existing evidence suggests that cold calling is effective if it’s encouraging and engaging, rather than confrontational and intimidating

• The evidence also suggests that cold calling can make a more equitable environment for female students, as when asked to raise hands, male students typically speak more than female students.

• The article suggests that cold calling requires a ‘soft touch’ - they suggest, for example, using phrases such as ‘I’d like to hear some ideas’. 

• The article suggests eight points that ensures cold calling is used effectively:

• 1) Focusing on the effort, not on the answer

• 2) Offer a ‘lifeline’ e.g. ‘Phone a friend’

• 3) Use students’ names consistently

• 4) Build on what students know - you can rephrase the question, for example, to get some more foundational or general understandings if students are unsure

• 5) Ensuring a warm tone

• 6) Call on groups of students - particularly on the back of doing group work

• 7) Cast the net widely - aim to maximise participation rather than cold calling the same students over and over again

• 8) Extend the wait time - give students additional time to formulate an answer

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I currently using cold calling in my lessons? What impact do I find that it has? How do students respond, and how do I know?

• Which of the 8 points would I like to develop further? How could I do this?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Embedding Sustainability Into The Curriculum

 By Divisha Patel

As mentioned in the previous blog post, teaching sustainability is becoming increasingly important as schools and other educational organisations take steps to develop the Department for Education’s initiative titled: ‘Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy’. In the past few months, WA has made steps in developing how we discuss these issues with the students, including hosting a weekly climate change club; continuing to promote Meat-Free Mondays; electing Sir David Attenborough as a house hero; hosting the Grantham Institute to teach Year 10 about the importance of managing climate change; and working with UCL’s new Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education. The steps the school has taken put us in great stead on ‘Action Area 1’ on the government’s strategy shown here. Action Area 1 promotes the importance of learning in and about the natural environment as well as supporting teachers in both primary and secondary classrooms.  

This post is the second post of three: 

1. Where to start? This was posted in October 2022

2. Current opportunities and curriculum planning

3. Goals for the future

In order to write this, I reached out to three middle leaders about how they were incorporating sustainability within their subjects. 

English - Izzy Hilliard, KS3 Coordinator for English

As part of the English curriculum in Y7, we make our non-fiction writing unit all about climate change. For instance, one of the articles that the Y7 students have to write is pretending they are undertaking an initiative that will promote sustainability at Westminster Academy. Some students talk about making posters; planting a garden; doing a clothes swap etc. This is a great way to engage students with the concept of advocacy whilst also developing their transactional writing skills. We also read speeches by sustainability and climate change pioneers such as Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough that the students attempt to mimic, with the use of key literary devices such as persuasive writing and emotive language.

Geography - Lucy Taylor, Geography Coordinator

In Geography, when planning the new Key Stage 3 curriculum, we ensured we included lessons on sustainability and/or climate change in every single unit we teach. It is a key geographical concept that bridges both human and physical geography and therefore it is essential students have an in-depth understanding. An example of this is within the Y7 unit of Australasia, students study the challenges the indigenous groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders face and one of these is how they are more susceptible to the impacts of climate change compared to other groups within Australia. Within Y8 during the Africa unit students will study how different groups across the continent are tackling climate change through initiatives such as the Great Green Wall, whilst also introducing them to the concept of sustainability being broken down into economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental sustainability. In Y9, students study Central America and within this unit they look at how ecotourism is a sustainable way to contribute to the economy whilst preserving fragile environments. At both GCSE and IB geography studying climate change and sustainability is a core part of the course, so they can apply the knowledge they learnt at Key Stage 3 and gain a deeper geographical understanding of the physical and human causes of climate change and the various approaches that may be used to tackle climate change and promote sustainable living across the globe. 

Science - Jennifer Scott, KS3 Coordinator for Science 

In Science, we have climate change and sustainability built into the curriculum and across units. For example in KS3, students consider the composition of the atmosphere and how this is impacted by pollution/carbon emissions, and the effects of this. They also consider energy efficiency and how to insulate a home to avoid energy being wasted. In KS4, students study in more detail how the atmosphere has changed over time, not only due to recent human impact but over millions of years. We also look at 'life cycle assessments' - a tool for evaluating the environmental impact of a product all the way from the extraction of materials to its use and disposal or recycling. Another consideration is the environmental impact of extracting metals from ores using different methods. In KS5, ESS takes the obvious lead on environmental studies, but through all subjects this is a consideration. For example, in practical IAs, one key aspect is the consideration of the environmental impact of the use and disposal of materials for students' chosen investigations.

How could you use this in your own teaching: 

• How does your current curriculum support the sustainability initiative? 
• How do you approach these ideas when they arise within your curriculum? 

If anyone is interested in developing how they teach about climate change further, UCL is hosting a free webinar in the Summer Term: 

Webinar: Teaching about climate change: Principles and Priorities (4 July 2022)

Bitesize Research: Importance Of Teacher Evaluative Thinking

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! This week I was interested to see an article in Edutopia by renowned educational researcher John Hattie on the theme of teacher thinking. This is a longstanding interest of mine and is something that my ongoing doctoral research is connected to (do come and have a chat with me about this if you’re interested!) It also links to a previous bitesize research from July 2022, which is about teacher reflections.

Objectives: To understand the importance of teacher evaluative thinking

Summary: 

• Hattie contends that whilst there is no metaanalysis yet about this in the research literature, there are particular ways in which effective teachers think and evaluate, that demarcate them from less effective teachers.

• Hattie claims there are 5 core evaluative thinking skills for effective teachers, as follows:

• 1) Critical reasoning in evaluating the available evidence

• 2) Consistently checking the fidelity of implementing a particular strategy or method. In doing so, consistently evaluating unintended consequences and making adaptations to maximise effectiveness

• 3) Ensuring the thinking is specific to the major decisions that teacher as professionals make, namely, maximising the impact learning has on students

• 4) Scrutinising biases that may lead to false conclusions

• 5) Understanding the perspectives of others, enabling judgements to be made about the overall value of a strategy.

• Hattie therefore claims that educators with effective evaluative thinking often are slower to come to problem representations or conclusions - as these core thinking skills are complex and take time to apply to any given situation.

• He concludes that ‘we know quality teachers more by how they think and seek critique about their impact on students than by what they do and know’ and states about the importance of the relationships between students and their teachers.

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How do I demonstrate my evaluative thinking skills? How does my professional learning log come into play with this?

• Which of the core evaluative thinking skills outlined by Hattie do I do well? Which do I want to develop further? How might I go about this?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Supporting Students With Exam Anxiety

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! With exams well underway for IB and coming up for GCSE, and following a bitesize post I wrote last year on exam anxiety and it’s relationship to exam performance, I was interested to see an article in TES about how to support students with exam anxiety.

Objectives: To understand how to support students with exam anxiety

Summary: 

• The article states that it may be that a quarter of students suffer from exam anxiety - defined as an ‘anxiety condition focused on evaluative situations’.

• They suggest some of the following research-informed strategies to support students who may be dealing with this:

• Expressive writing - asking students to write about their thoughts and feelings openly as possible about the task they are about to undertake. 

• Emotional reappraisal - explaining to students that the physical feelings they are experiencing e.g. faster heartbeat also occur in pleasant situations. This can support students to understand that for some, therefore, anxiety is transient and normal. They are also keen to stress, though, that for some students, more severe anxiety requires clinical support.

• Cognitive reappraisal techniques - this requires a longer-term reexamination of the causes, thoughts and feelings that are associated with exam anxiety, then challenging them to seek information that contradicts their negative thoughts.

• They also argue that at a whole school level, improving ‘feedback literacy’ can support to alleviate test anxiety. This involves getting students to really deeply understand what we are assessing, and the purpose of assessing and getting feedback on it.

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I currently noticing students’ exam anxiety manifest?

• How am I currently supporting students with exam anxiety?

• What support do I need to improve my practice with working with students with exam anxiety?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you! 

Bitesize Research: Impact Of Teacher Tone

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! Following an earlier article this year about the role of gesture in the classroom, this week I was interested to see an article in Edutopia summarising the available evidence about the role of the teacher’s tone of voice in learning and in classroom relationship building. 

Objectives: To understand the impact of the tone of teacher voice in the classroom

Summary: 

• The article cites a study published in 2022 which looked at the impact of how students reacted to common instructions said in different tones, ranging from controlling, neutral to supportive.

• The study concluded that controlling tones appeared to undermine students’ sense of competence, whereas supportive tones enhanced their sense of connection to teachers.

• They particularly noted that controlling tones appeared to inhibit students from possibly disclosing important information, including about whether or not they were being bullied

• They also cite a 2021 study which suggests that there elements of emotions being ‘contagious’ when pertaining to tone of voice. For example, when teachers were warm and supportive students tended to stay engaged for longer and behave better. When teachers were sensed as panic, or had a rise in vocal register, were more likely to have students engaged in a more combative atmosphere.

• The article also states that older students see an overly strict tone as a challenge, and will aim to rebel. 

• The author suggests that teachers would benefit from considering what sorts of scenarios might occur in classrooms, and to practise dealing with these. They also suggest adopting a tone that might best be described as ‘warm demander’. 

  
  

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• What is my tone like when speaking to students?

• Whose tone in the Academy is effective? Why does it work well?

• What can I do to practice my tone and develop a ‘warm demander’ tone?

  
  

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!