book club -...
TRANSCRIPT
Book Club
Learn. Practise. Develop. Transform.
The Hidden Lives of Learners by Graham Nuthall.
How do I use this journal? • The journal is structured through key extracts taken from the book (in chronological order).
You can work through them one by one, or dip in and out at different point. The extracts are
structured under the headings of Chapters 1 to 4.
• Chapters 5 and 6 are included through suggestions for classroom enquiry. If you carry out
the classroom enquiry, you are advised to read the detailed information about Nuthall’s
study in Chapters 5 and 6.
• Chapter 7 is a summary of the key points in the book. It was written by Nuthall’s colleagues
after his death. Nuthall was terminally ill as he wrote this book. When you read it, you will
notice that he makes references to running out of time. The final activity in this journal is a
challenge to turn Chapter 7 into an infographic or sketch-note for sharing with your
colleagues via the staffroom wall, the PACT PLD website or Twitter.
How will I learn from this process? • Reflect via words and sketches what you learn from each extract. Highlight, underline and
muse on each extract. Refer back to the book to gain a deeper understanding.
• Discuss your reflections with others and practise implementing what you learn in the
classroom.
• Share your reflections online via the Book Club section of The PACT PLD website and
develop your understanding further by engaging with others across our partner schools.
• Use the opportunity for deep thinking and discussion to transform how you approach
teaching.
What is in this journal? • Key extracts
• Key questions
• Space for written reflection and sketchnotes
• Further reading
• Suggested classroom enquiries
Who is Graham Nuthall and why is this book so important?
Regularly cited by prominent educational thinkers as being one of the most important books about
learning ever written, The Hidden Lives of Learners gives an insight into the internal realm of the
child in a landmark book based on thirty years of research.
Graham Nuthall wanted his research to be based on a real understanding of the individual nature of
the teaching and learning process. He has been cited as a man who ‘would rather search out
unknowable truths than spend his time gathering evidence to support myths and rituals’.
You can find out more about Graham Nuthall and his research via this video from Jan Tishauser
taken at ResearchED Netherlands 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t14aOSI0mH8
Pre-reading task: Follow the links below.
https://chartered.college/the-hidden-lives-of-learners-teacher-book-review
https://reflectingenglish.wordpress.com/tag/graham-nuthall/
What are your initial impressions of the book based on the book review and the blog above?
Do you feel this book may offer you a deeper insight into the way children learn, and subsequently,
how you teach them?
CHAPTER ONE: What do we know about effective teaching?
How do you monitor the visible signs that you see in the faces of your learners?
How do you gauge the ‘with-it-ness’ (Kounin, 1970) of your learners?
When do you know for certain that a child in your class has really understood something?
Is learning the natural consequence of actively engaged minds?
Is there a risk that learners can come to know what teachers are looking for and ‘play the game’?
Think of your learners, could any of them be ‘playing the game’ with you? How do you know?
“The central business of teaching is about creating
changes in the minds of students – in what
students know and believe and how they think. The
ability to create change means that, in some way,
teachers need to be constantly reading the minds
of students. Are their minds focused? What are
they understanding, or not understanding? What
do they really think?” (Page 23).
“In an early study of teachers’ thinking, Philip
Jackson (1968) found that experienced teachers
develop a high level of sensitivity to students’ level
of interest, their involvement, and their
motivation” (page 24).
What is the criteria by which your teaching has been evaluated? Is it fair?
Are there aspects of good teaching that you think are visible to someone who is looking, or will they
always be influenced by what is ‘fashionable’ in teaching?
What is your own measure of whether or not you are a good teacher?
“For all the insights that direct observation might
provide, we should not base our evaluations of
teaching on some universal model or set of models
of good teaching. We simply cannot tell by
looking…
Whatever is fashionable at the time determines
what researchers look for and what they see”
(pages 25 & 29).
Do you think a good teacher is good because of their personality?
What do you mean by ‘personality’?
What factors (other than personality) impact on how a teacher interacts with a class?
Further reading
http://www.learningspy.co.uk/featured/is-love-the-most-important-thing/
https://lobworth.com/2016/05/07/the-impact-of-personality-in-the-classroom/
“There is no consistent evidence that teacher
personality relates to teacher effectiveness with
students… Intuitively we know that personality is
important. The problem, however, lies in trying to
define what we mean by personality.
Personality relates to how a person interacts with,
or responds to, other people.” (Page 27)
What numerical assessment systems (or equivalent) do you use in your classroom? Do they
accurately reflect learning?
Why is the notion of measurement of learning so persuasive in education?
Is the effectiveness of your teaching measurable in numbers?
“We have accepted the myth that we can
describe learning with numbers… If we
believe that learning consists of filling the
mind of a child with small interchangeable
particles of knowledge that are all of equal
size and significance – like beans in a bag –
then numbers would make some sense.”
(Page 29 & 30)
What is the implication of this for curriculum plans, schemes of work or lesson plans?
What is the argument for ensuring consistent methods are used by teachers in the classroom?
What factors make consistent implementation of methods difficult if not impossible to achieve?
Further Reading
https://www.tes.com/news/why-consistency-overrated
https://mcsbrent.co.uk/cheng-reaction-six-months-in/
“Every subject area has gone through periods where new methods of
teaching were introduced, and old methods disparaged… In the realities
of the classroom, methods do not exist. Every teacher adapts and
modifies so-called methods. Research shows that teachers who believe
they are using different methods may be doing essentially the same
things, and teachers who believe they are using the same method may be
doing quite different things… A great deal of misunderstanding comes
from assuming that activities given the same name are the same
activities. Pharmaceutical drugs do not change their content when given
to different people, but teaching methods do change when carried out by
different teachers with different students” (Pages 32-33)
Does learning require motivation? Can one learn unwillingly?
Can a demotivated and unengaged student learn?
What role does motivation play in your classroom?
Further Reading
https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/motivation-for-
learning-is-there-a-point/
“There is a strong tendency to equate motivation
with learning… if students are interested and involved
in an activity, they will learn from it. Being attentive
and engaged is equated with learning. However,
students can be highly motivated and actively
engaged in interesting classroom activities, yet not
learning anything new. Learning requires motivation,
but motivation does not necessarily lead to learning.”
(Page 35)
How can a teacher find out what students believe, know, can do or feel prior to teaching?
How can a teacher find out what students believe, know, can do or feel after teaching?
Even if you can know that information, how can you plan teaching to meet all those levels of
believing, knowing, doing and feeling?
“Effective teaching means students learn what you
intend them to learn… But whatever you intend, in
order to know if you have been effective, you must
have some way of knowing what your students
believed, knew, could do, or felt before you taught
them and what your students believed, knew, could
do, or felt after you taught them. Learning, of
whatever kind, is about change.” (Page 35)
What does Nuthall mean by, ‘students learn what they do’?
In your classroom, does ‘peer culture win every time’ (page 37)? Nuthall says that working with peer
culture is the only way we have of managing the substantial part of students’ learning. Do you
agree?
Nuthall is advocating covering less of the curriculum in order to design and carry out effective
learning activities. To what extent do you agree with this?
What does Nuthall mean when he says, ‘effective activities are managed by the students
themselves?’
Further Reading
https://www.tes.com/blog/teaching-teacher-how-student-led-learning-can-help-
your-pupils-become-independent-and
“A set of premises or underlying principles that we
need to take into account when thinking about
effective teaching:
First premise: students learn what they do.
Second premise: social relationships determine
learning.
Third premise: effective activities are built around big
questions.
Fourth premise: effective activities are managed by
the students themselves.” (Page 36 – 38)
CHAPTER TWO: Myths and Misunderstandings about Assessment
Can qualifications that students use as a measure of their success (to get into university or to get a
job) also be used as a measure of evaluating schools? Is this a contradiction?
When students gain good marks in your class, do you see that as a measure of their success, your
success, or both?
Would you be happy to be judged on the results / qualifications your students gained? Is that a fair
test of your teaching?
“We cannot make up our minds what qualifications
mean. Sometimes we see them as a result of teaching
(when evaluating schools), and sometimes as a result
of student ability and hard work (in relation to
applying for work). They can’t be both, can they?
Most people just accept both claims about
qualifications without noticing the contradiction.”
(Pahe 40)
How do you measure levels of motivation and commitment in your classroom?
Does motivation affect the outcome of students’ results in tests in your classroom?
What would you learn about your students if test results were always accompanied with an analysis
of motivation? Is there an accurate way of measuring motivation?
Classroom Enquiry
For the next test you are planning in class, design a measurement of student
motivation. Compare the test results with an analysis of the students’ motivation.
What do you learn? Does it offer you any new insights?
“When test results are reported,
they should have attached to them
an analysis of how motivated and
committed the students were to
doing well on the test” (Page 42).
Read the description of the intelligent memory search system on pages 46 – 48. Based on your
experience, what do you think makes something ‘stick’ in a students’ memory?
Read the description of the deduction and inference system on pages 48 – 50. Based on your
experience, how can we ensure students have enough prior understanding/knowledge to be able to
make logical and accurate inferences and deductions? Do we have any way of knowing if they don’t
have enough prior understanding/knowledge?
What makes logical sense to students is trusted. If a misconception makes logical sense, it can be
embedded as true. How do you find out if your students have misconceptions? Do you address
misconceptions directly? How?
“Students’ minds seem to have two systems operating
simultaneously. One system is an intelligent memory search system.
It tries to re-find, from whatever cues are available, the information
needed to answer each question. The second system is a deduction
or inference system. Its function is to work out, again from
whatever cues or background knowledge are available, what the
answer should be logically.” (Page 46-47)
“We discovered that a student
needed to encounter, on at least
three different occasions, the
complete set of the information she
or he needed to understand a
concept” (Page 63)
CHAPTER THREE: Understanding how students learn and remember
what they learn
What is the implication of this finding for curriculum planning?
How many times do students encounter information in your classroom? Do you plan for them to
encounter it a number of times?
How does an insight into working memory impact on your lesson planning?
“New concepts are not created and transferred to long-term memory until enough
information has accumulated in working memory to warrant the creation of a new
concept… Our data, to stress the point, suggest that three complete sets of relevant
information, interpreted and integrated in working memory, are the minimum needed
for the construction of new belief or concept.” (Page 73)
How do you ensure that multiple interactions with information or concepts ensure students stay
engaged with the content?
Are there any circumstances when simple repetition would be your strategy of choice?
Nuthall says that learning depends on the information students are exposed to, the time given to
process the new concepts and the context of the classroom. Which of those do you have most
control over?
Further Reading
https://primarytimery.com/2017/09/16/memory-not-memories-teaching-for-long-
term-learning/
https://thirdspacelearning.com/blog/clare-sealy-introduction-cognitive-load/
“[Students] need to be taught the concept, or to encounter a full
explanation of the concept, at least three times... This does not mean
simple repetition. Simply repeating explanations or activities is likely
to be boring and turn student off engaging with the content in
appropriate ways. What it does seem to mean is that students’ minds
need time to process new information. They need opportunities to
come to the material in different ways. It also means that the single
brilliant explanation is not, in itself, enough” (Page 81).
CHAPTER FOUR: Life in classrooms: the contexts within which learning
takes place.
Consider the semi-private world of on-going peer relationships. This is the world where transgressing
peer customs may have worse consequences than transgressing the teacher’s rules and customs. Is
this something that you recognise from your own experience at school? Is this world as powerful as
Nuthall suggests?
Nuthall suggests that the power of the semi-private world of peer relationships means that teasing
and bullying go unnoticed by teachers. How far do you agree with this? Are there ways in which you
are able to gain insight into the semi-private world of peer relationships?
How much impact does the private world of the child’s own mind impact on their potential to learn?
Consider this in relation to your own classroom. Do you know children whose experiences at home
are weighing on their mind and impacting on their behaviour and willingness to learn? How do you
come to know what is going on in the child’s mind? How can the child be supported?
Teacher-managed activities…
• the concept would not have been learned if it
had not been for the experience the student
gained from a teacher managed activity.
Self-generated learning experiences…
• Choice of teacher-designed activity… when
students chose from a set of alternatives
designed by the teacher
• Self-designed activity… when students were
allowed to design the critical learning activity
for themselves
• Spontaneous peer talk… when the critical
learning activity was a spontaneous
conversation… not required by the teacher.
(Page 84 and 85)
What is the implication of the finding ‘buried in the data’ at the bottom of page 86? How does this
impact on how you might plan for your learners?
How much control can a teacher have over spontaneous peer talk? Can teachers enable or constrain
it? What are the benefits and risks of creating a classroom environment where spontaneous peer
talk can take place? Who is most at risk?
How much free choice do you give students and why?
Classroom Enquiry
Design an enquiry to measure the proportion of teacher-managed activities
compared to self-generated learning experiences in one of your lessons. Compare
the findings with what you planned for that lesson.
How do your students deal with disagreements about knowledge?
How do you ensure all students get access to resources and information during group work? Does
the status of some children mean that other children get limited access?
Is a teacher able to monitor and control the way concepts are shaped through peer talk?
Further Reading
https://www.theconfidentteacher.com/2013/01/top-ten-group-work-strategies/
https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/group-work-in-primary-classrooms-no-longer-a-
waste-of-time
“Much of the knowledge students acquire come from their peers, and
when it does, it comes wrapped inside their social relationships. Often,
those with status know the answers and control access to information and
materials. Those without status are likely to have limited access to
information and materials, have to ask for the answers and may have to
provide something in exchange. These social relationships change
constantly, and students have to spend time in class maintaining and/or
changing them.” (Page 93 – 94)
How much do you aim to learn about your students’ private and home lives? How much does this
knowledge support you to help students to learn?
Given that understanding peer culture is a recommendation in the book, how comfortable do you
feel with this notion? What are the risks?
Do you feel that students have the right to an alternative culture that should remain private? Who
should have access to this culture? Why?
“Getting closer to students and their hidden peer culture raises ethical as
well as teaching concerns…
Students surely have a right to self-protection, which includes the right to
an alternative culture within which they are safe from the teacher. How
far should the teacher intrude on the most intimate aspects of their
lives?” (Page 106)
CHAPTER FIVE: How students learn from the variety of their
experiences.
Classroom Enquiry Organise to make a recording of a student group discussion to analyse. Listen to
the recording. Try and categorise the learning experiences of the students by
considering the seven categories of information (on pages 124 and 125) that built
up in the students’ working memory during the task. Analyse the data and consider
which categories of information the students encountered most and evaluate whether that
supported them to embed the knowledge or understanding in their long-term memory.
CHAPTER SIX: Ethnic differences and learning
Classroom Enquiry
Organise to observe a group of students from diverse backgrounds working
together. Using the model in chapter six, compile a case study of one or two of the
children where you note down their interactions and consider whether their status
in the peer group impacts on their learning. Share your findings with your
colleagues and facilitate a discussion about the potential for racist comments or behaviour which
marginalises to go unnoticed in a peer-led situation.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Teaching for learning: a summary.
Use the headings in this chapter to create a sketch-note, infographic or
poster to share with your colleagues.
Share your work on the staffroom noticeboard, on the PACT PLD website or
on Twitter.
Use your resource to lead a session for colleagues where you explain how
the insights in The Hidden Lives of Learners can support better teaching
and learning.