Good Teacher''s Magazine - Jan, 2011

These days, it’s so easy for students to say “I’m not academic so I don’t try in school’ or ‘I can’t do math so I just talk in class’ because most of the time, our teachers will let us d

New Zealand’s teachers magazine

Term One 2011

“ The best teachers don’t give you the answers

They just point the way

and let you make your own choices.”

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0690-Good Teacher 1 14/12/10 3:09 PM

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4 Good Teacher Magazine Term 1 2011

If you want to haveYOUR SAY please email your offering to: soapbox@goodteacher.co.nz

Your Soapbox!

“

”

If I am always the one to think of where to go next

If where we go is always the decision of the curriculum or

my curiosity and not theirs

If motivation is mine

If I always decide on the topic to be studied, the title of the

story, the problem to be worked on

If I am always the one who has reviewed their work and

decided what they need

How will they ever know how to begin?

If I am the one who is always monitoring progress

If I set the pace of all working discussions

If I always look ahead, foresee problems and endeavor to

eliminate them

If I swoop in and save them from cognitive conflict

If I never allow them to feel and use the energy from

confusion and frustration

If things are always broken into short working periods

If myself and others are allowed to break into their

concen-tration

If bells and I are always in control of the pace and flow of

work

How will they learn to continue their own work?

If all the marking and editing is done by me

If the selection of which work is to be published or evaluated

is made by me

If what is valued and valuable is always decided by external

sources or by me

If there is no forum to discuss what delights them in their

task, what is working, what is not working, what they plan to

do about it

If they have not learned a language to discuss their work in

ways that are intrinsically growth enhancing

If they do not have a language of self-assessment

If ways of communicating their work are always controlled by

me

If our assessments are mainly summative rather than

formative

If they do not plan their way forward to further action

How will they find ownership, direction and delight in what they do?

If I speak of individuals but present learning as if they are all the same

If I am never seen to reflect and reflection time is never provided

If we never speak together about reflection and thinking and never develop a vocabulary for such discussion

If we do not take opportunities to think about our thinking

If I constantly give them exercises that do not intellectually challenge them

If I set up learning environments that interfere with them learning from their own actions

If I give them recipes to follow

If I only expect the one right conclusion

If I signify that there are always right and wrong answers

If I never openly respect their thoughts

If I never let them persevere with something really difficult which they cannot master

If I make all work serious work and discourage playfulness

If there is no time to explore

If I lock them into adult time constraints too early

How will they get to know themselves as a thinker?

If they never get to help anyone else

If we force them to always work and play with children of the same age

If I do not teach them the skills of working co-operatively

If collaboration can be seen as cheating

If all classroom activities are based in competitiveness

If everything is seen to be for grades

How will they learn to work with others?

For if they have never experienced being challenged in a safe environment

- have had all of their creative thoughts explained away

- are unaware what catches their interest and how then to have confidence in that interest

- have never followed something they are passionate about to a satisfying conclusion

- have not clarified the way they sabotage their own learning

- are afraid to seek help and do not know who or how to ask

- have not experienced overcoming their own inertia

- are paralyzed by the need to know everything before writing or acting

- have never got bogged down

- have never failed

- have always played it safe

How will they ever know who they are?

The Things We Steal From Children Dr John Edwards

One evening, on returning from lecturing to my students, my wife asked me: “And what did you steal from your students today?” The question rocked me, and as I examined my practice under her skilful questioning, I realized how much of the processes I kept for myself.

So we sat down and together we wrote the following:

http://motivationalmagic.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/

Creative emergence

or planning studies

Bruce Hammonds

Independent Education Adviser

The very young and adult artists and scientists have the attributes of ‘life long learners’ - to be ‘seekers, users and crea-tors of the own knowledge’ as the NZC states As Professor Brian Cox , the UK Governments Science Adviser, says , ‘ the point of science is to be comfortable with the unknown’ Explorers of all ages,

to ‘ fly’ like an eagle, need to be both open

to new ideas and skeptical of authority

The other day I was asked by a pal a of a small school if I had ‘any links

princi-to research or examples of institutions delivering a school curriculum over a set number of years? By that I mean a policy of integrated studies areas be-ing comprehensively covered over maybe 2-3 years rather than attempt-ing to cover everything in one school year.I would love to see any examples

of such a programme or even have links

to any research you may know of’

I guess I was the wrong person to ask because I believe such planning does more harm than good because it discounts the questions and concerns that emerge from any group of curious children As a result students see school as something that is done to them rather than some-thing they learn to do for themselves

The teaching profession has always been full of ‘experts’, in the various subject areas, who determine what content young people should learn Recently we have had imposed on schools the idea of na-tional standards that all students have to achieve As yet they have not ‘morphed’

into national tests but one doesn’t have

to have crystal ball to see what will evolve National Standards withstanding current education is already infected by pre-planned intentional thinking Even the most child centred classroom is really students having fun doing what teach-ers think they need to do Literacy and numeracy the two worst offenders No student, it seems, would ever learn to read or do maths if teachers didn’t set about testing and teaching them Socrates, two thousand years ago, worked our what teaching was all about about;

listening to his students, their question, and asking questions of them He believed his peasant boy Memo already had all the geometry in his head - his role was to help him clarify his ideas Even his ‘mate’ Plato

Can life be planned or, in

an ever evolving world, do

we need to be equipped

with the confidence and the

dispositions to learn from

whatever experiences we

encounter?

Traditional school people

seem to believe that, without

teacher planning, their

students would learn little In

contrast creative educators

believe that it is all about

creating the conditions

necessary for students to

develop their innate talents

The teachers who hold the

second view, of course, do

need to have considerable

knowledge (or know where to

point their students) to ensure

their students potential is

realized.

Bruce Hammonds has revised and

added to his previous resources to

develop a new 240 page book

’Quality Teaching and Learning’

In this new book Bruce shares the

practical ideas gained from

crea-tive teachers he has worked over

the years

Also included are ideas and quotes

from educationalists that

contrib-ute to what Bruce calls ‘A More

In-formed Vision for the 21stC’

Simply this is a book that values

the ‘artistry’ of classroom teachers

and the need for students to ‘do

fewer things well’

The ideas in the book align well

with the intent of the New Zealand

Curriculum

To order book

Quality Teaching and Learning

wrote that ‘the task of the teacher is not to place knowledge

in where it does not exist, but rather to lead the minds eye

that it might be see for itself’

And for two thousand years we have ignored their advice

Experts, who know better than creative teacher, have no

faith in students innate ability to make sense of their own

experiences They have pushed their lists of content , or

learning objectives, or standards, on teachers And too

many teachers, believing in planning, have gone along with

them

So back to the query from the teacher

All I could do was share a few (diconfirming) ideas with him

I wrote: ‘I have never believed it is important to define an

integrated inquiry program over a number of years.Just too

complicated and inflexible The important thing is to develop

in students the dispositions, attitudes and competences they will need to continue their life long learning quest These key competencies are outlined in the NZC and are similar to the

‘habits of mind’ of Art Costa , or the ‘powerful learning ‘ of Guy Claxton

With this in mind it is vitally important to develop the

‘seeking, using and creating knowledge’ asked for in the NZC in the literacy block and, where possible, in the numeracy block All too often these are developed as stand alone areas of learning And worse still take up much of the whole day!

So the challenge is to ensure all students ‘learn’ through a series of experiences how to ‘seek’ knowledge ( using their own questions) to ‘use’ it ( not just cutting and pasting but showing students ‘voice’ and opinions) and to ‘create’ ( products of originality in writing, art and project work)

To achieve such self motivated resourceful learners requires them being involved in rich, real, relevant and rigorous challenges Some of these challenges might be part of self contained language or maths topics but the best are integrated and generative inquiry studies that spin out into all sorts of curriculum areas’

My advice to him was to, ‘each year to cover ( two a term usually) a range of content area studies These can be developed by looking the various strands in the learning areas ( excluding maths and language) and developing eight or so themes to cover each year The next step is to ask the students themselves what they would like to learn more about and the issues and concerns that worry them? From such a process a teacher could co-develop a curricu-lum involving their students Any topics or questions that

‘emerge’ (‘teachable moments’) should be also be taken advantage if - it is the dispositions that teachers need to always keep in mind and the talents their students are developing’

‘As for the themes that need to be covered the ones that come to mind are:

Environmental studies ( mainly natural science); heritage study - European history; Maoritanga; Science technology

- physical science; a creative arts theme ( visual art, drams

or music in-depth study) etc Make up your own list by combining strands from various areas Another thought is a Communication ICT theme A great idea is in term four, for year 3 and above, for students to select and do their own individual research study This is a great way to assess if students can use all the various skills you have hopefully taught them during the year’

‘Three points to keep in mind’

‘At the beginning of the year plan out the eight or so studies Leave room for studies that just emerge At the end of the year make a record of what studies were actually under-taken -as plans might have changed during the year Use these to see what areas have been missed to plan for the next year and to ensure that students do not get involved in repetition

It is important to cover a range of themes to give every learner a chance to find out what they like - their own particular set of interests or talents ( multiple intelligences)For each study plan three or for major outcomes to encour-age depth of thinking and to encourage students to do fewer things well Each outcome will indicate skills that will need to

in place or to be taught to achieve quality results in literacy time

Outcomes could be: a research presentation

where students answer three or four open

questions (this might be a PowerPoint but

usually involves research language work); a

piece creative or expressive writing based on

the theme; and a piece of creative art work’

Finally

‘The studies selected must become the

driving motivation for the whole day as much

as is possible - and the reason to teach

reading and comprehension and presentation

skills in the literacy time (and as much as

pos-sible numeracy time as well)’

The teacher thanked me for my advice and

said he would think about it I think it was

probably both the wrong question and the

wrong answer

Most teachers these days are avid planners

and data collectors - to concerned with

proving achievement to really trust

them-selves or their students Technicians teaching

by numbers - imposing their intentions on

their students

Teachers in such a formulaic and

dysfunc-tional system are no longer creative

NZ Glass Environmental Fund

Attention Teachers

Expressions of interest to make application for a grant from the

NZ Glass Environmental Fund are invited Up to $25,000 will be available

in total for suitable environmental projects For application forms and guidelines

see our website www.recycleglass.co.nz or contact:

NZ Glass Environmental Fund

PO Box 12-345 Penrose, Auckland 1642 Phone: 09-976 7127 Fax: 09-976 7119 Deadline for expression of interest is 31 March 2011.

Sponsored by O-I New Zealand.

0690-Good Teacher 1 14/12/10 3:09 PM

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Hello, my name is Anna-Rose Davies and I have attended Taupo Nui a Tia College since year 9

I am a year 12 student, and I enjoy subjects like History, English, Economics and Photography

I have also just gained my Grade 8 Classical Piano with 84% I play cricket and football I would consider myself a fairly academic person who enjoys a wide range of activities and I try to be well rounded and not single focused

Learning of any kind is to me, the greatest thing anyone can ever accomplish

I love the fact that I can go to the library or go on the internet and learn about something that I’ve always wanted to

Whatever knowledge we desire is right at our fingertips in the Modern World and we should take advantage of this

The abundance and range of information in the world today is astounding, and I want to be one

of those people who can talk and discuss anything with anyone

I want to learn about ancient Greece and the dark ages but also computer programming and atomic physics

I want to be fluent in 4 languages and be able

to tell you what kind of weather is desirable for hot air ballooning, and I’m not the only one that does! The world out there is so fascinating and

I want to come into contact with as much of it

as possible

These days, there’s so much on offer in the way of sport, education, travel and more for students and most of us want to experience it to the full Most people have a natural affinity with some subjects, like math, or the sciences, or like me with the social sciences, and I find that the subjects that I enjoy most are the ones where I get along best with the teachers The teachers that are the most successful with my learning are the more humorous ones, the ones that are easy to get along with, whom with classroom banter is not uncommon, the teachers who can laugh and see the lighter side, and who are truly passionate about their subjects

The vibrant, full of life teachers are those who teach most effectively, and who students enjoy the classes the most

Students of today need teachers who are lively, animated, and passionate about their subjects, who can tell you about supply and demand curves with zeal and obvious enthusiasm We don’t want teachers to come in, yell and scream at those who

Late last year a large group of

education advisers met One of the

presentations was speeches from

secondary school students who

were asked to talk about what they

want from teachers and how they

‘see’ learning

One of the amazing, confident,

erudite and perceptive speeches

was by Anna-Rose Davies

and Good Teacher Magazine

appreciates her permission to

repeat her speech here

Remember that Anna-Rose was just

starting school at the turn of the

century.

How often do teachers or those

who advise them actually remember

to listen to student voice?

How often is that then translated

into meaningful changes to what

and how we expect our 21st

century learners to learn?

A Student’s Voice for the 21st Century

“

Learning needs to be engaging, it needs to shake

my emotions, make me think It can’t be something

I can sit through and not pay attention to

What would happen if you asked students what

they wanted to learn? What a wide range of answers you would get From classical literature to rock n roll to physics to woodwork

What would happen if every student pursued their

own learning and learnt what they wanted to? What if we had a class where we could study what

we wanted to at that very moment in time, like great white sharks or photons or soil?

What would be the result if students were

encouraged to learn what they wanted, how they wanted, when they wanted?

What would happen if school was more flexible

and less structured?

What would happen if school were even more

structured?

These questions can and will be answered within

years, and that’s a good thing because we need to find out what works best for the students of today, the students right now, not the students

of 100 years ago

A Student’s Voice for the 21st Century

are misbehaving, and then proceed to write up a plethora of notes on the board that students are, let’s be honest, not terribly interested in, and then yell some more The point of school is not to be yelled at; it’s to be helped

These days, it’s so easy for students to say “I’m not academic so I don’t try in school’ or ‘I can’t do math so I just talk in class’ because most of the time, our teachers will let us do so It’s so easy to just switch off and text under the desk if we’re not interested in a class and the material just goes

in one ear and out the other

Sometimes I feel like teachers don’t engage students enough or involve them in the class enough, so they just switch off

At the end of the year, some people can honestly say they have not listened in one class, and walk in and out of their exams with no study and no preparation simply because their teachers have not engaged or involved them enough in class and not included them in this wondrous thing that we do at school, called learning These students fail their exams and move on, having wasted their time at school, thinking that they’re dumb or stupid, simply because they have not been interested in what their teachers have to say

These people need teachers who are eager to teach and eager to share their knowledge, and share their passion for the subject The subjects best taught are those taught with charisma and involvement of students in the lesson, we need to

be a part of the teaching

Estrada once said ‘if children can’t learn the way

we teach, then maybe we should teach the way children learn.’ Each student is different, and needs to be catered to accordingly It’s not simple, but everyone always emphasizes how everyone is different, yet as students we get treated exactly the same in our schools We’re told to be

individuals but we’re treated as a mass, and maybe that’s something that needs to be changed

There are so many things to distract students these days, like the internet, cell phones, and doodling Or maybe we should look at that differently Maybe those things that are supposedly distracting us are really capturing our interest better than our teachers are There’s no reason that my English class can be any less exciting than what happened last night on Friends, it’s just that last night’s episode of Friends surprisingly interests me more than the complexities of torque that my Physics teacher has been waffling about for the last 45 minutes

any problem-every problem, and learning that there can be infinite answers, and it’s okay to come

up with something different

It’s important to do well now and succeed in exams and what have you, but the point of school is not only to succeed in the academic side of things but come out of it being a better and well rounded person One of the main points of school is to prepare us for a life fraught with difficulty and heartbreak, to make sure that the we are prepared for the real world, which is ultimately the bigger picture The picture never stops getting bigger, as

we grow up We may be learning economics and math now but who knows, we may be on a completely different track in 5 years and we need

to learn how to handle that too! That is what I call effective learning; learning that sets you up for life.

Another way I see effective learning is learning that creates passion For example, if a student walks into a class at the start of the year knowing absolutely nothing about that subject, and walks out knowing that they will pursue that subject in a career, then I would see that as effective learning because that is learning that encourages more learning That is learning how to love knowledge And that is what I think should be a priority in schools, not perfect results, but instead creating

an atmosphere where it is encouraged to love to learn

Imagine if the majority of our schools were so interested and passionate about education that most of the students went to higher levels of education, pursuing those subjects that they love and achieving, not because they are forced to but because they want to? And of course it’s not all what is generally accepted as ‘academic’; we have trade teachers at school for a reason Everyone likes different subjects for different reasons and that includes metalwork and woodwork too Our students should be inspired by their teachers and desire to learn as much, if not more than they did, because the world they live in is dynamic and filled with change, and knowledge helps us deal with that

At the moment there is knowledge being discovered at a faster rate than any other time period in the history of mankind, and our students need to be prepared to face an ever changing world when they leave school; a world where growth is explosive

The world is changing everyday and we need to too

We are fast approaching an age where blackboards, white board, pens and paper are desolate in education That’s the reality we face and the reality we need to embrace.

Yeats once said, ‘education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire’ and I think that eloquently sums

up what effective learning should be Students are not at school to be stuffed full of knowledge, and then when they’re at the limit are useless

We, as people, have changed, we’re different now,

we live differently than we did when this particular

education system was created, and that change

that is so obvious in every aspect of our lives

except in our schools This obvious change needs to

be acknowledged in the form of a revamp of the

way we learn.

Our teachers make all the difference I truly

believe that whoever teaches you has a huge

impact on what you do later in life At the start of

school, I had a huge passion for science, but in

year 10 I had a bad experience with a teacher who

would not allow me to ask questions My interest in

science was all but quashed, and I don’t blame her

because I could have persevered and stuck with it,

but now my love for science is all but diminished

It’s the teachers who I can see love their subjects

with all their heart, love their students and love

teaching in general are the teachers who I learn

most from I look forward to the classes that I

can attend and have fun with my teacher The most

memorable teaching is fun and full of energy, and

lasts a lifetime I may not remember what I learnt

two months ago in Economics but I do remember

that my teacher is someone whom I admire, and

like, and look up to

Students don’t want to be part of a pointless class

with a teacher who we can’t relate to and don’t get

along with We want a dynamic, interesting,

structured, and flexible curriculum where learning

is desired by the students and that desire is

fulfilled We want a teacher who is full of new

ideas and isn’t afraid of change, who is not afraid

to share their enjoyment of their subject with us

That is someone who we could truly learn from.

Another way that some people see learning is

memorizing facts and figures, dates and formulas

I, for one, am certainly guilty of panicking and

cramming on the night before an exam and

frantically learning how to calculate electric field

strength using final and initial velocities But what

we have to remember is that there is a bigger

picture! There is more to life than this one exam

Maybe exams shouldn’t be the most important

thing in schools, because the material we’re

learning now is most likely going to be irrelevant in

ten years

Fifty years ago, they were learning about

electricity for the first time, now we have whole

subjects devoted to the matter Our younger

siblings have grown up with iPods and computers

and do not find them daunting in any way My

mother struggles to operate a Sky remote,

because she grew up with record players and

walkmans, so imagine what we’re going to deal with

when we’re your age!

Instead of rote learning, we need to learn

processes and thought patterns It’s not about

knowing the answer to a very specific problem, it’s

about knowing how to find answers full stop, to

Students should be at school to discover what

they’re good at, and be encouraged to pursue what

they dream of We all agree that education is

simply not what we learn at school, but what we

learn in life as well

Other things aside from the curriculum are

important too To be uneducated is to be crippled

in the world we live in now, and the students of

today need knowledge to be successful But it’s

important to consider what kind of knowledge we

are gaining from our schools, and is it going to be

valuable in our future Our futures as young people

are undecided, they are vague and unforeseeable

It’s scary to grow up and not know what’s going to

happen, and we need to be prepared for that

uncertainty Our schools needs to teach flexibility

and how to deal with situations out of out comfort

zone, how to go with the flow and do what’s best

for ourselves

I for one want to be prepared for a future that is

successful and not be on a back foot because my

school years were a waste of time I don’t want to

watch Youtube videos about snakes and rhinos

fighting, no kidding I have watched my fair share

in my classes this year I want a flexible school

life, one that changes just as much as I do, and I want to get real value out of the institution I’m spending about 30 hours a week at, not including homework and study time Thirty hours a week, that is almost a full time job And you’re asking us why we don’t pay attention? Do you pay attention all day everyday at your work? As students, our feelings should be considered too, because we’re spending so much time at school and we need to get something out of it, otherwise we can and will leave school

Sometimes I get so fed up with teachers who complain about how naughty or noisy or unsatisfactory their classes are, maybe it’s not our fault, maybe we’re just interested in learning a different way than you are teaching us, because there really is a bigger picture and it’s our future Teachers are literally shaping our future, are they doing it well? Are they doing it so we can succeed

in today’s world? Because it’s today, it’s right now that matters School is about educating and the

things we learn there are life long, and what we’re learning as well as how we’re learning it is a very

important aspect of effectiveness in the classroom.

Work-Based Learning is being launched as Capable

Workplaces through Capable NZ at Otago Polytechnic

The approach centres on using tasks and activities in

people’s working lives as material for their qualifications

Explains Capable Workplaces project leader Kris Bennett,

this makes it ideal for organisations wishing to improve

their systems and grow, and for people moving into roles

where they feel they need some “new learning” to address

the challenges they face

“Say, for example, you need to lead an organisational

restructure,” suggests Bennett “Through Capable

Workplaces you would start with an ‘assessment of prior

learning’ where your existing level of knowledge is

assessed against formal academic standards Capable

NZ would then provide you with the educational support

you need to perform this task, and a process for critically

reflecting on it.”

Programmes can also be developed to support particular

organisational goals, such as strategic management or

developing new technology

“Capable Workplaces recognises that workplaces are

incredibly rich learning environments,” she continues “All

the content you need for a higher qualification is right

there in front of you.”

The approach means people do not have to leave the

workforce to pursue a degree, further supporting

employment and productivity Qualifications can be

developed for most roles and industries, and courses of

study are designed in partnership among employers,

employees and Capable NZ

An impact study into Work-Based Learning in the UK found the approach led to improvements in morale, decision-making, innovations, service delivery and the quality of end products Benefits flowed through the organisations and beyond, with employees’ confidence improving both in an out of work, and a culture of learning and critical reflection developing among organisational divisions

Now, to ensure the new programme meets New Zealand’s economic and educational needs, a stakeholder forum – Creating Capable Workplaces – will take place in Wellington next month The aim, says Bennett, “is to have employers, human resources specialists and policy advisors in the same room together, to explore how we can make this work in New Zealand.”

Capable NZ at Otago Polytechnic has established a reputation for developing innovations in delivering education For several years it has been a leader in Assessment of Prior Learning, and has developed sector-wide education in areas including technology teaching and youth work

Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker, who has led the organisation’s commitment to exploring new approaches to meeting learners’ and organisational needs comments that Capable NZ has “enabled a rethink of how

we approach education”

“By shaping degrees around the needs of the learners and the needs of employers, we can be truly creative and responsive as educators It’s very liberating for everyone

UK approach to degrees supports productivity

A successful UK-developed approach to delivering degrees and postgraduate qualifications is to be introduced

in New Zealand, amid beliefs it may improve productivity and foster “a culture of learning” in workplaces.

”

Taking Strategic Steps Towards a Focus on Learning

Two UK Headteachers look back one year to their

schools’ approaches to learning at that time: “In

our school we had many teachers who performed

well as teachers but were not very good at

focusing on learning,” says Deborah Cossins,

Headteacher at Emscote Infants School in

Warwick, England “In our school our curriculum

provision received ‘Outstanding’ from Ofsted,

but there was a niggle in the report; that our children were a bit passive in their learning,” says Gill Pursey, Headteacher at St Hilda’s Church

of England Primary School in Oldham, England

Since then, both Headteachers have started working with a toolkit created by Fieldwork Education to help them focus on learning throughout their school

St Hilda’s Oldham staff training

Taking Strategic Steps Towards a Focus on Learning

The Toolkit for Leaders

The Looking for Learning Toolkit was developed by Fieldwork Education as a leadership toolkit for school improvement focused entirely on improving learning and relevant for schools throughout the world As a fully comprehensive, action-oriented guide to improvement, the Toolkit provides Headteachers with practical help and advice to lead their teachers, step-by-step towards delivering learning-focused lessons In addition, it gives Headteachers recommendations on how to incorporate a learning-focus throughout every aspect of school life; from classroom displays, assemblies and reports to staff meetings and parents’ evenings

For Sheila Dentith, Senior Inspector for the Primary Team and Primary Strategy Manager for Warwickshire County Council in England, the Looking for Learning Toolkit has become a key component in moving her schools forward

“We introduced the Looking for Learning Toolkit as a tool for our Headteachers to work in a collaborative way to look at learning in the classroom and to develop a greater understanding of what learning is,” says Sheila “We chose the Looking for Learning Toolkit because I haven’t found anything else that actually talks about learning in the way that this does.”

What a difference a year makes

After a year following the Looking for Learning strategies, Sheila says she can see a significant difference: “The biggest thing that we’re seeing with all our schools working

with the Looking for Learning Toolkit is that everyone, everyone is now beginning to focus on the learning; starting with the learning and then and only then, going on to think about the teaching It sounds like such a tiny thing but it’s so effective.”

The Toolkit is a boxed set of manuals and DVDs split into two sections The first two manuals focus on learning in the classroom and include a properly structured action-research process for teachers to help each other identify the learning that is taking place in their classrooms This empowers teachers with information they have never had; immediate feedback on how their teaching is influencing their children’s

St Hilda’s Oldham pupils learning with staff

Learning focused newsletter to parents

learning as it happens These powerful, non-threatening

results lead to self-reflection, self-improvement and whole

school development The second two manuals within the

Toolkit focus on identifying factors within a school that affect

learning and guide school leaders, through simple action

plans to make each of these factors more learning-focused

This, as a result, enables them to turn their school

improvement plan into a learning-focused school

improvement plan, to turn their staff meetings into

learning-focused staff meetings, to help their teachers transform

displays into learning-focused displays and so on

A change for the better

Deborah Cossins is convinced the Looking for Learning

Toolkit is helping her make a difference at Emscote Infants

“The Looking for Learning Toolkit has transformed the way

our teachers think,” she says “They now start with the

learning bit when they begin their planning It influences the

whole thing they do.”

At St Hilda’s Primary School in Oldham, Gill Pursey

believes that The Looking for Learning Toolkit has changed

the entire school’s focus on learning “Looking for Learning

has drawn together all the strands that I wanted the school

to take forward including collaborative learning, and

planning and learning,” she says “The Looking for Learning

Toolkit is the vehicle for me for school improvement and I

can see that this will continue It’s also helping us to

develop our communication about learning with our parents

and that, for us is really important Since introducing

Looking for Learning we’ve revised our learning intentions

to the children and we’ve revised our skills focus to put

more emphasis on skills Already our children are

understanding that it’s not just about what they know but

crucially about the skills they need to find the knowledge

and apply that knowledge to help them learn.”

Gill offers some advice to other Headteachers considering

the Looking for Learning Toolkit: “Be prepared to do some

preparation work; the Looking for Learning Toolkit is not an

off-the-shelf CPD package, it’s not a quick fix; it requires

self-evaluation, whole school involvement, a complete

change in mind-set and to achieve that there needs to be

St Hilda’s Oldham collaborative learning

some pre-planning but it is definitely worth the effort It gets your teachers back thinking about the children and their learning rather than just on their teaching Looking for Learning has helped us move the focus It doesn’t sound much but actually it’s making a huge difference

Also, spend some time working with your staff on how the brain learns That was really helpful to everyone and it’s helped us to think about our children and the way each individual child learns.”

Ideas from the Looking for Learning Toolkit

There is now a great deal of philosophy available to schools

on becoming more focused on learning, but very little in the way of easy, ‘how-to’ advice The Looking for Learning Toolkit aims to address this; packing its manuals and DVDs full of practical ideas Here are just three examples taken from the Toolkit:

Have a ‘learning report’ in your weekly staff meeting - At the beginning of each meeting, nominate one person to talk for

no more than five minutes about some learning that has take place in their classroom over the past week

Plan learning-focused targets - Learning improvement plans should have targets that are explicitly about learning If this happens, a successful outcome will also be about learning

So when writing your learning-focused targets, use evidence, focus first and explicitly on student learning, think about instructional and expressive targets, and use the

‘what’s the issue?’ question

Write learning-focused newsletters - Talk about learning, not just activities For example, when reporting on an upcoming trip, make sure your newsletter starts with a description of the learning that will take place during the visit The details

of the trip need to be known of course, but not at the expense of learning This will help parents to see that everything the school does has a focus on learning

To find out more about the Looking for Learning Toolkit or to talk to a school working with the Looking for Learning Toolkit call Isabel du Toit at Fieldwork Education at 020-7531-9696

or email Isabel@greatlearning.com or visit www

lookimgforlearning.co.uk

Observing learning progress

Looking for learning

Collaborative Learning

Children can no longer afford to be

ignorant of how complex financial

products work.

The world of finance and money is

becoming rapidly more complex and

requires an integration of education

and safe financial products to ensure

children grow up knowing how to

manage money and debt.

From this year, financial literacy will

be included in the national school

curriculum and will be rolled out across

a range of subjects during the next

three years.

Maya Moses is about to start year 10 at her high school in northern NSW and says she hasn’t learnt much about managing money at school

“I have a bank account that I save my money from work in,” says the 14-year-old, who has been working in her parents’ cafe in the school holidays and saves money through babysitting jobs

“I guess around here if the parents don’t teach you, there’s not a lot of info at school they give out You see all those ads on TV about banks helping at schools but we don’t really get any of that and that would be useful.”

Moses has a mobile phone and shares the purchase of phone credit with her mother She says some of her friends struggle with their mobile bills

“A lot of them get into trouble,” the teenager says “They go through $30 of credit in two days or they’ll exceed their limit

by twice as much on their plans I know a girl who can go through $200 of credit a month and she gets in heaps of trouble from her mum all the time and gets her phone confiscated.”

ASCD Worldwide Edition SmartBrief:

School’s in for finances

Anneli Knight

Money matters Maya Moses wants to

learn more about finance at school

Photo: Olivia Texier

Moses says it would also be useful to be taught about

shopping deals offered through television or online, as a few

of her friends have felt scammed after making purchases

Poor Understanding

Youth financial literacy was a headline forum at the Citi-FT

Financial Education Summit held in Sydney in December

last year, with discussion ranging from Australia to abroad

The chairman of Australia’s Financial Literacy Board, Paul

Clitheroe, says the board has successfully lobbied for

finance education to be embedded within the national

school curriculum and that people often ask him: “Are you

doing this stuff [financial literacy education] in Australia

because human beings, and Australians in particular, are

dumber about money?”

We’re not dumber about money, he says, it’s just that

money has become more complex “Thirty years ago, you

only had one debt, you had a mortgage, and you’d pay it off

over 30 years Credit cards didn’t exist Mobile phones

didn’t exit Thirty years ago, only 3 per cent of the Australian

population owned a share and you needed a referral to see

a stockbroker.”

Parents aren’t able to teach their kids about smart ways to

manage their money because many parents are struggling

themselves, Clitheroe says

“The system is significantly more complicated - money is

nearly invisible In particular, you can pre-spend your

savings, you can spend money you don’t have for three

years on [store card] credit That’s really what the system

allows you to do and I think a lot of the kids are probably

learning mixed messages at home.”

Basic Terminology

Clitheroe says many Australians don’t take part effectively in

the financial system because they don’t understand the

words used and the Financial Literacy Board is working to

have financial literacy incorporated not only into maths but

also English and social-science subjects in the curriculum

“What we are asking for is that at an age-appropriate time,

as well as having ‘koala’ on the spelling list they also have

‘compound interest’ and ‘salary sacrifice’,” he says

While a key component of financial literacy is to emphasise

the benefit of saving over spending, Clitheroe says the

messages must be delivered carefully

“When I’m banging about not getting ripped off - or that if

[an investment] is very high risk, it’s very likely you’ll lose all

your money and you shouldn’t do it - we need to be careful,”

he says

“These aren’t retirees, they are young Australians and we

want them to be excited We want young Australians to be

risk-takers.”

Entrepreneurial skills and using debt to fund investments

are important components of financial literacy education

and Australian youths have much to learn from international

micro-finance initiatives, Clitheroe says

Pocket Money

Global social entrepreneur Jeroo Billimoria, whose

enterprise ChildFinance is pushing for financial education

and access to safe financial products for children, also

addressed the forum

Billimoria is working to establish Australia as one of 10

model nations for ChildFinance, which is creating global January 26, 2011 Sydney Morning Herald

financial education frameworks with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development The group aims to educate 100 million children in the next decade and is pushing for nations to legislate for financial products that protect children’s interests

While much of ChildFinance’s work is aimed at helping children in developing countries to break out of the poverty cycle, she says there is one resounding global issue “With children and young people the world over, the issue is mobile phone debt,” she says “The main reason is that children don’t recognise they are getting into debt.”

This issue highlights the urgent need for education and legislative protection for children, she says

The research undertaken by ChildFinance recommends children are able to open low-fee accounts in their own name, with minimum deposit amounts and limited opportunities for withdrawals Safety recommendations include having a 100 per cent guarantee on the funds through deposit insurance or other government guarantees and ensuring parents can’t access accounts

Clitheroe has his own wish-list for all Australian children

“We would love [a government initiative] of $1000 to go into

an account for every Australian born and it basically becomes that child’s lifetime savings account Parents, grandparents and pocket money could add to that and they can’t access it until they’re an adult Then they can go through the school system learning about money.”

Educating your children about cash

It’s important to not only teach your children how to calculate dollar values and handle money but also the time cost of money and how to save it, says a financial planner from WLM Financial Services, Laura Menschik

“When parents spoil their children and just give them an allowance willy-nilly from no input, they may not be doing their children a favour,” Menschik says

“It’s very good for children to be taught lessons such as: ‘If you wash the car, I’ll give you $5.’ So they understand it takes two times car washes to earn $10 They can understand the effort they put into it — it takes them two hours to earn $10, which they can blow in 10 minutes at McDonalds,” Menschik says

Another opportunity to teach kids about money is to encourage them to save up for an item that they strongly desire

“If you can teach children to save for the rainy day or for a special purpose, that is wonderful Everybody nowadays wants that thing now: ‘I want that CD now; I want that new iPhone now.’ If you think back to your own time, when you’ve had to save or wait for something, you usually treasure it that little bit more,” she says One approach is to offer to go halves with children for these items or match their savings dollar for dollar

Menschik recommends the DollarSmart program that has been developed by the Financial Planning Association to give school students from year 10 to year 12 advice on managing money

The free DollarSmart CD can be ordered through the Financial Planning Association website: fpa.asn.au

The tools in the Tools 4 Talent Development manuals

are designed to give teachers a range of strategies that will support able students in the regular classroom but have a broad general appeal The greater the capability of the student however, the more essential it is for appropriate challenge with everyday activities

Teachers are encouraged to adapt the ideas flexibly

to create learning opportunities within a wide range

of curriculum areas matched to their students’ ages and experiences They can be used systematically or individually by picking and choosing as the need arises.

In addition to the two NEW book titles (above),Elaine has

published a number of book resources designed to assist teachers to promote high order thinking in the classroom.

These are available through www.thinkshop.org Provocative Questions: Expanding horizons for thinking Questions and activities on twenty different

topics to provoke students to expand their thinking.

Big Contexts for Inquiry Learning (Eight authentic

problems to encourage student understanding)

H.O.T units! Higher Order Thinking Units ready to

plug in to your classroom.Three books of unit ideas based on Bloom’s taxonomy.

Read & Think about Series of differentiated thematic

reading units covering Humour, Animal welfare, Our environment, Conflict, Heritage, Courage, Adversity and Cause and effect.

Using Sophisticated Picture Books Individual reading

challenges based on sophisticated picture books for upper primary able readers

Talent Spotting & Creativity

This is the fifth article in a series examining ways for

teachers to spot talent through becoming aware of student

strengths in a variety of situations focuses on students who

demonstrate imaginational fluency

Creative students are individualistic They produce ideas

based on basic themes and known approaches and create

new products of their own choice One idea leads to

another and is often the response to ‘what if ’ thinking

involving playing with ideas

Creatively gifted/talented children have the ability to make

connections and develop new relationships between

hitherto unrelated ideas They are discovery learners who

often have difficulty with the compartmentalising of school

timetables

Some see things as they are and say, “Why?”

I dream of things that never were and say, “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw.

Robert Sternberg (2004) outlines a number of

characteristics of creative people that teachers can use to

assist with talent spotting According Sternberg (2004)

creative people

• Redefine problems for themselves This means

that they can see the problem from a different

point of view and react accordingly

• Analyse their own ideas in terms of risk,

challenge and worth

• Challenge the accepted view

• Are knowledgeable and have established a

broad information base from personal interest

• Are persistent in overcoming barriers to their

learning

• Show willingness to take calculated risks

• Are flexible, playful and open to novel, complex

and interesting ideas

• Demonstrate the ability to tolerate ambiguity

• Believe in themselves and are independent and

autonomous

• Are passionate about their creative talent

Look for the student who has an unusual capacity for

seeing new ways of thinking about ideas, processes and

materials Creativity brings its own special excitement and

feeling

Teachers can do a lot to provide opportunities that support

and foster creative behaviour through allowing students to

test their ideas and discover through an inquiry approach,

allowing student choice wherever possible, asking open

ended questions, valuing innovative student ideas and

solutions and accepting error as part of the creative

process

Teachers can also stifle creativity through insisting on one way being the ‘right’ way, discouraging curiosity, and devaluing their imaginative attempts in favour of conformity Which teacher type are you ?

For heaps of ideas and further strategies to support able students in the regular classroom see Elaine’s new books published through: www.thinkshop.org

Elaine Le Sueur is an experienced classroom practitioner

with expertise in the education of high ability children.Over many years she has worked within schools and in the community, building opportunities for educational and emotional advancement for our able students, sharing successful classroom strategies that she has used for students and teacher professional development courses Elaine operates her own consultancy offering structured assistance and programme advice to schools and families www.giftededucationservices.co.nz and is an Executive Principal of www.universityonwheels.org

Elaine Le Sueur

Big bang or slow burn: Nada, let it be too hot to touch

Are we ever going to see the

promised land?

– the one National Standards

would have us believe it can

deliver

– of improved

across-the-board learning outcomes,

and an uplifted bottom fifth?

Or is National Standards the

sort of initiative that, despite

its bumpy start, will end up

being the real deal?

Or is it like what the Beatles

and others say, it will never

be, it’s all too hot to touch,

let it be, it’s all too far out in

M-Theory land?

Or is there a much better

option awaiting discovery?

One that’ll ensure the

education sector does

actually deliver stunningly on

equity?

If so, a good place to start looking would be at something that’s old news – ten years old in fact, though it’ll be new to most everyone – telling us that all but a handful of children are born with a “remarkably similar” capacity to learn This and other findings by the late Graham Nuthall – the result of a

40 year classroom learning research career at Canterbury University – provide the sort of breakthrough evidence that would have egalitarians agog with anticipation Were they aware of it, that is, it’s had less publicity than most state secrets

Nevertheless, it provides the education sector with the chance to ditch

its incredibly inefficient, myth-based learning process, offering the opportunity of a replacement that would be based on the most solid evidential foundation

ever Unfortunately, the sector’s been slack in keeping itself informed on such issues and appears more than happy with the old inefficient process As matters stand, then, this offer – holding as it does extraordinary promise – is unlikely to be taken up

Complicating things further, acceptance of the Nuthall findings themselves is coming hard, especially

in this country, overseas it’s a different story Fortunately, other similarly impressive, parallel research has just come to light Concerning the physical basis of memory, progress is being made at a surprising pace

An Otago Medical School research team, led by Professor of Psychology, Cliff Abraham is involved Abraham has told me that Nuthall’s discoveries are very much in line with the research findings being made by his team

Abraham’s team is targeting the plasticity of brain functioning on into

later life, so conditions like Alzheimer’s, not education, are the focus

Notwithstanding, to do what they’re doing, they’re having to build an understanding of learning in terms of the biochemical and electrical activity that goes on at synapse level

This research couldn’t be more independent Abraham had never heard of Nuthall With supporting evidence of this calibre, you’d think Nuthall’s acceptance problem might soon be history But don’t bet on it, the education sector is nowhere near enough aware of what’s involved here

to be convinced it needs a better understanding of the learning process

In fact, that amazing British theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, has far more chance of understanding what’s involved in developing an eleven-dimensioned theory of the cosmos – a unifying theory of everything – than the education sector has of achieving an evidence-based understanding of the learning process Hawking recognises

he has a task of understanding on his hands; the education sector’s saying:

what’s to understand? As said, it’s more than happy with it’s present, patently erroneous understanding of the learning process It doesn’t care

to be told that its understanding has serious shortcomings It doesn’t see there’s anything wrong with the basic way learning is currently being practised

Unlike Hawking, who has still to nail down this theory of everything, the education sector has already been gifted a proven theory about how learning works in classrooms, courtesy

of Nuthall, a decade ago With it being ignored by the Ministry of Education, there no understanding in the sector of

Big bang or slow burn: Nada, let it be too hot to touch

Laurie Loper Psychologist

what benefit it could bring That’s tragic, for there’ll be no support to demonstrate what a viable means of significantly lifting across-the-board learning outcomes it could

be There’ll be little chance of showing that doing this would be a far better option, policy wise, than continuing with interventions that are based on variously concocted versions of that patently flawed understanding of learning it currently values Given the failure of past policy to significantly and sustainably raise across-the-board achievement, future interventions need

to be developed off evidentially based theory, not off myth, as currently is the case

Now it’s known that virtually all students share a very similar capacity

to learn, any learning process adopted surely has to be capable of delivering near-even and high-ended

achievement levels for virtually all of them Nothing else is going to ensure the delivery of those significantly improved across-the-board learning outcomes everyone’s crying out for Nothing else is going to make our near world-worst achievement gap disappear What’s pressing the urgent button here is that the only learning process known to teachers is the current fundamentally flawed one, the one Nuthall rather understatedly describes as being “inherently inefficient”

Do you see the picture building here? Certainly Hawking is working in

a context where there’s long and intense scientific interest in understanding the mysteries involved The education sector has no history of being interested in

understanding learning as a process, it’s never seen any mystery to it, the act of learning itself has always been

taken for granted In spite of the very uneven and patently discriminatory outcomes that flawed process produces, it sees no problem Its mantra remains unchanged, it has this illusionary thing it calls “good teaching”

that it implies will take care of all those uneven results The bad news is that this hasn’t happened in living memory So while discovering the nature of the cosmos occasions Hawking and colleagues intense inquiry, as implied, nobody’s expecting there’ll be any inquiry into that

universally used, inefficient learning process any time soon

Nobody’s aware, either, that the major thing choking off all such inquiry is a culture that’s protected the errant status of those learning beliefs and practices for all of human

history Known as “teaching culture”

– the name Nuthall coined – it’s now becoming recognised as being one of the most change-resistant cultures known to mankind In the monitoring

of progress towards the gaining of those significantly better across-the-board outcomes, the litmus test will always be how well that influence is being countered

It’s into this belief-strewn arena that National Standards – along with its own myths, assumptions and political agenda – has been thrust Itself born

of “teaching culture”, it has no understanding of its own history Neither does it see it has that errant culture written all over

it You see, how learning happens, is promoted and measured are questions that have suffered over the years from

a level of familiarity that’s long ago seen the beliefs and assumptions involved get syphoned off into the collective unconscious There beyond awareness they lay, immune from

scrutiny, but playing a remarkably active sleeper role, influencing everyday practice, decision making, and of course, policy Hence, giving rise to things like National

Standards Hence also spawning pseudo theories of learning – these operating as validity-free zones – between which teachers chop and change as they see fit

Giving rise, also, to smuck research and to reputations that flourish because the sector’s as yet lacking a sufficient quantum of evidence-based understanding of the learning process from which might be raised

informed critique One can only imagine what all this contributes to learning, and to the measurement thereof But let’s not forget, it’s against the sort of background described herein that all assessment takes place

In such a scenario, science is leg roped It has little option but to work in

a context that’s laden with all the assumptions that makes learning ineffective Tasked to study what’s happening, it’s having to make do – as Nuthall found – with data that’s insufficiently indicative of what’s actually going down No surprises, then, that it has yet to discover that

“best practice” – for all that that is claimed to be evidence based – is itself born of “teaching culture” It therefore carries the same destructive virus of inefficacy as does all other mythical and common sense based practice No surprises either that this science contributes nothing to building

a clear picture of how the learning process works in classrooms Rather than helping to serve up viable solutions, in effect, it reaffirms everything that’s holding progress back Meanwhile, back in the classroom, that achievement gap

understood, supporting it would become untenable After all, why would anyone want what’s patently the main barrier to students achieving equitably as the cornerstone of an improvement initiative? If such a campaign proved too difficult to get off the ground, maybe what would supply the necessary seismic grunt for change would be something much more easily arranged, a class action brought by a knowledgeable group of disgruntled parents.

When setting performance standards for an activity like learning, you cannot disregard the efficiency of the learning process being employed If you act

as if the process involved is efficient, when in fact it isn’t, all you end up measuring is the response of leg-roped learners Since the efficiency of the learning process all schools use is known to be low – Nuthall’s

discoveries make that clear beyond doubt – failing to take the learning process into account makes a nonsense of the whole assessment procedure Not only that, should any students have unsatisfactory aspects

to their performance, routinely addressing these as if they’re a student issue and not a teaching/

learning process issue, hardly seems ethical, anymore than does using the data collected as a basis for decision making

Furthermore, as Nuthall has shown, the teaching model being used acts to prevent teachers from knowing a considerable amount of both what students know and about what’s going

on as students learn Like, for instance, what goes on in students’

heads as they process information? Like what impact prior knowledge plays? Like where do students source their

information? Like how much do different students already know of the topic under study? Like what impact does students making sure their social lives are not compromised during class time, have on their

learning? Like who/what determines the motivation of any given

student? Like who is it that determines what’s “true” about

information being taken on board? Like how unique is each student’s understanding of any given learning experience? Like how many experiences of any new concept/idea/topic it takes to produce a fully operational understanding of them? And so on

Given there’s so much teachers just don’t know of what individual students know, assessment is not – neither has

it ever been – the straight forward thing most people seem to think it

is Contrary to what almost all would expect, teachers simply don’t know enough about what students know so are poorly situated to either assess learning, or to provide needed help Not being au fait with what Nuthall’s discovered about learning, teachers are seriously disadvantaging all students, and of course,

themselves

To me, assessment practice also seems to be responding to the increasing pressure there is to include more and more subjects in the curriculum This is pushing

things ever nearer to a regurgitate view of learning such as, for instance, Singapore seems to have embraced Over stuffing the

gulp-and-curriculum creates pressure to get everything “covered”, how well is an entirely different matter It inevitably heads teaching practice in the direction of prescriptiveness both as regards content and assessment practice Operating in this fashion, it violates the three times at two day intervals rule needed to make certain all new ideas/concepts/topics

“stick” It’s in fact a recipe for student failure

Another major drawback I see with assessment is that there’s relatively little attention directed at the act of learning Nuthall’s findings suggest the act of learning is an improvement gold mine Currently, the focus appears largely to be on what’s been ingested by way of information or

“knowledge” To get the focus more

on the act of learning itself would require that teachers have a much better understanding of the nature of

hasn’t closed any in the last 20 years

Occasionally an intervention comes

along that shows itself to be more

promising than its

predecessors Understandably, the lift

in hearts this produces sees

continuing support forthcoming, not

always, it would have to be said, in

proportion to gains made, the costs

incurred, or to the potential of the

initiative to be scaled up With regard

to any gains made, evaluative

attention is almost always referenced

to how much better the obtained

results are than previous

ones Nobody judges them against

the criteria of how much better they

would need to be if they were to

match the fact that practically all

students, as Nuthall has found, share

a “remarkably similar” capacity to

learn Needless to say, nobody

makes decisions on their future use

on that basis either

Given this is the situation being faced,

nothing short of a big bang event is

going to shake loose the

understanding around learning from

the shackled perception that

continues to imprison it The

education sector and the public are

even more stuck in their errant beliefs

than were the followers of Ptolemy

when Copernicus discovered the

Earth moved round the Sun In the

field of learning, the late Graham

Nuthall has already made discoveries

of comparable significance to those of

Copernicus’ – but so far that hasn’t

caused things to move either

National Standards might well yet

prove to be what sparks off that big

bang of understanding of the learning

process At least it has provided an

opportunity to put the learning process

under scrutiny, an opportunity that

ought not be passed up Given the

motherhood-and-apple-pie appeal

National Standards has for some

people, what might detract from that

enough to see a greater call for it

being discontinued, would be a public

education campaign showing that the

backbone to it just happens to be a

very ineffective learning

process Once that’s more widely

learning and of the learning process

than any teacher education

programme currently supplies It’s

hugely ironical that in a profession

whose core business is learning, no

teacher currently has an evidentially

based understanding of it and of how it

works But the whole of the education

sector needs to understand it too, as

do parents and indeed the general

public as well

Bringing the spotlight on to

learning would also require that

teachers and parents have a better

understanding about what learning

skills consist of and of the ways

they’re best promoted This isn’t to

imply that teachers, or for that matter

parents, give no attention to learning

skills It’s just that the ones, for

instance, teachers know about and

promote – many being merely aides to

the orderly management of the

classroom setting – are by no means

all that are required

It should be remembered that there

are far too many New Entrant students

starting off with way too few learning

skills and who never really catch up

Nuthall discovered that the difference

between students who learned and

those who didn’t, turned precisely on

who knew how to orchestrate the skill

demands of classroom tasks and who

didn’t, the capacity to learn or even if

you like, what people call intelligence,

didn’t even enter into it Nobody is

aware enough of this to even think

about whose responsibility it is to do

something about it, let alone consider

how that might be done The New

Entrant level student is the most

critically needy in this regard, though

that said, I’d say the need is pretty

much across the board There are

ways of helping students grow these

skills but they’re not ways the sector

knows anything about as yet

Assessment practice that pays only lip

service to including the learner as a

member of the assessment team is

loosing the input of the one person

who best knows what they know, and

who most needs to know how to

improve Assessment practice that

relies on the “standard routines and

rituals” of testing, as Nuthall has found, tells us more about individual motivation and the testee-tester relationship than it does about what students know Or indeed about which student knows what, or about which students can learn and which at this point cannot, and why In the light of Nuthall’s evidence, the belief that test scores accurately reflect, or indeed are

a reasonable facsimile of what students know, is becoming increasingly more difficult to sustain

With such things in mind, let’s turn briefly to the teaching of reading The amount of reading practice I’ve seen in classrooms involving beginning readers varies so much that this variation alone most likely accounts for

a sizeable chunk of performance differences Not only that, the amount

of practice that has far too little feedback related to the skills involved,

is also a concern It’s possible to remedy both concerns by teaching Pause Praise Prompt (PPP) – aka the

3 P’s technique – as a whole class approach

Trained to use PPP, children aged 6 -

7 in a decile one school of mainly Maori students I worked in – them working in pairs, teina-taina style – successfully provided each other much practice in, and appropriate feedback for, their daily reading Doing their reading this way became their favourite activity Six Maori children from this class, were used to demonstrate the PPP technique, at a district professional development course, their expertise being a revelation to the 20 teachers involved Post course, this sparked widespread use of the approach As

an aside, having students teach their parents this technique would be the ideal extension

Though there’s already been criticism about teacher variability in relation to the making of judgements about performance requirements that’ll meet

a given National Standard, curiously the main concept involved, the Overall Teacher Judgement (OTJ), has drawn little criticism Judging by the

information on the Ministry of

Education’s website, no matter how you dress it up, the amount of subjectivity involved in how the OTJ is supposed to operate makes it unnecessary to even raise the question as to whether it’s a valid procedure Besides, as Nuthall has shown, teachers as it is don’t know with much certainty or exactness what students have learnt, so using something like that OTJ is tantamount

to adding yet another invalid layer on

to what’s already a questionable procedure

An even more glaring omission from the list of criticisms so far levelled at National Standards is the fact that nothing proposed has any chance of influencing the “inherent inefficiency”

of the everyday learning process used

in all classrooms, something well documented by Nuthall Since those pushing National Standards don’t really understand what’s causing underachievement – being wedded to common sense understandings of learning – you can readily see why any criticism based on grounds that the learning process in use is

fundamentally flawed will go unheeded

Ignoring Nuthall’s discoveries is never going to render them invalid The fear factor in change is understandable, but the power shifts and role changes that would be involved in implementing his discoveries – occasioned mainly by the amount of control that would have

to pass to the student doing the learning – are things that can be worked through Anyway, isn’t there already a trend in this direction? The same can be said about any

consequential infrastructure changes The message the sector has

to hear with crystal clarity is that unless and until it gets to grips with the issues involved, every student will just

go on being disadvantaged – you can’t keep on using a learning regime that’s

as flawed as is the current one, and expect anything different At the very least that means finding a new teaching/learning model – as said, it’ll have to be one much more student centred than any existing – and the

whole question of assessment needs

a rethink

To put things bluntly, the evidence is

that the practice of teaching has

evolved over a long time such that,

through no one understanding the

nature of what’s involved, it’s become

more about managing a bunch of

students in a classroom than it has

ever been about ensuring maximum

learning is happening, or has taken

place, for every student In fairness to

teachers, Nuthall reported there’s no

research saying that, under current

learning protocols, one teacher is

capable of guaranteeing the learning

of 25 - 30 students At present, then,

what they’re attempting is mission

impossible The uniqueness of each

student’s response to any learning

experience added to the inability of

teachers to be able to ascertain with

any certainty or exactness what

learning, if any, has occurred, makes

the whole process little better than a

lottery If anyone wants an explanation

of why student’s don’t learn, just look

to “the standard routines and rituals” of

teaching practice as they have evolved

throughout the course of human

history

Obviously something much better is

needed But finding a solution is going

to be – as a respected friend earthily opined – “harder than finding the clean end of a turd” Given that we’re in this extraordinary pickle – the nature of which few are but even dimly aware – what’s to be done about it? I quote some other things that same friend said in his effort, it seems, to stop me beating my head against the proverbial brick wall over this issue: “But, I offer

up the solution It is the solution that Hemingway offered going back 60-100 years ago: ‘nada’ Don’t think about it

Bob Dylan said, ‘some things in life are too hot to touch, the human mind can only stand so much.’ McCarthney called it ‘Let it be.’ There’s your article

- Nada, let it be, too hot to touch.”

Whilst I’ve enormous respect for his opinion, based as it is on wide experience and rich, lifelong learning, I hold desperately to the possibility that he’s wrong Besides, building on what Nuthall has bequeathed, I’ve already developed and trialed a bevy

of the sort of approaches it’ll take to achieve equity improvements on the scale needed Given their task is eliminating the current waste of one half of the capacity to learn of the nation’s young – the unwanted millstone that’s been for too long around education’s neck – they’ll need

to keep on living up to the early promise they’ve shown So I can’t give up now Besides, there’s no way I could repay the many friends who have sustained me to this point by quitting I’ve no intention of doing so, convinced to the point where I’ve already put a tidy sum where my mouth is

There’s much to be learned from the mistake that the National Standards scheme surely is Since it raises important issues round the nature of learning – classroom learning in particular – it’s crucial these be dealt with while they’re topical Treat this as

an unlikely to be repeated opportunity, one that won’t hang around long,

“teaching culture” will see to that For the truth is we can ill afford not to take advantage For what’s at stake here isn’t just the loss of the bottom fifth the Minister of Education keeps on about, the loss is across the board We’re talking around 50 per cent of the learning capacity of our nation’s young and all of the flow on benefits

recouping that amount of lost potential would bring

(Note: Quotes are from the 2001 version of Nuthall’s seminal paper:

“The cultural myths and the realities of teaching and learning”.)

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