dgs learning team report 2011-12

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 History of the DGS Learning Team

Over the past few years, the impact of the learning team at Dunbar has gone from strength to

strength. It was set up 7 years ago to promote the use of Assessment for Learning techniques

within classrooms. Each year since then, the team has worked with different themes of action and

undertaken small classroom projects under this heading. The Learning Team, made up of 12

teaching staff each year, is a flexible group made up of a mixture of experiences, ranging from

NQTs following the robust East Lothian probationer scheme to DHTs. The success of the group has

been in its flexibility to give all involved a platform to work with peers, and feel supported in

trying something new and relevant in their classroom.

Successes of the DGS Learning Team

The DGS Learning Team has been celebrated within East Lothian at the 2011 STAR Awards, where

the group were highly commended for their work in celebrating success of learners. As a group,

we have also been invited to speak at the Scottish Learning Festival and East Lothian Learning

Festivals, as well as running CPD sessions and meeting with Quality Improvement Officers and

Inspectors.

The biggest success of the Learning Team has of course got to be the impact that the group has

had on the teaching and learning at Dunbar Grammar School.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 How does the Learning Team Work?

The 12 members of the learning team meet 3 times a year as whole group and have discussions on

educational matters. This year, for example, we have discussed the range of questioning

strategies used in classrooms, and when each is appropriate. We have also challenged the

priorities of learning, through the eyes of the teacher, parents, learners and inspectors. Other

areas discuss have included how we ensure a discovery of Learners’ Skills and a focus on process

skills rather than facts and how to improve resilience of learners, which links to the whole school

inclusion of Learning to Learn with our S1 and S2 curriculum.

Each member of the group is also encouraged to read some theory related to the work they are

interested in.

The full Learning Team is divided into subgroups made up of 3 members. These groups meet more

regularly, and spend time observing each other, talking through project ideas and areas of

strength and growth seen within the classroom. The strength of peer observations is invaluable,

and is successful because of the interdisciplinary nature of subjects as well as a range of teaching

experiences.

Each member involved in the Learning Team agrees to undertake a small classroom project,

relating where possible to the overarching theme of the year. The project should be relevant to

the year groups and individuals being taught, as well as giving the teacher involved ownership on

an area they want to develop.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 Projects & Theme

In the 2011 – 2012 session, the theme for the learning team was “Thinking Champions” under

which we all tried to consider how we might challenge the top 20% of learners, making more use

of higher order thinking skills and open ended questions.

Below is a brief description of each of the Learning Team projects undertaken this year. Following

this, is a copy of each of the reports written at the end of the session showing the feedback from

learners, and the impact the project has had on learning at Dunbar Grammar School.

Rachel Archer – Varied questioning techniques involving ‘No opt out’, ‘Right is Right’ and ‘Stretch it’

from “Teach like a Champion” by Doug Lemov

Alice Clubb – Avoiding compartmentalised learning through themed blocks of work

Anne Marie Gibson – Improving scientific literacy through writing a science report

Suzanne Hamilton – Focussing on literacy skills in day–to–day jotter work

Julian King – Using GoogleDocs to give pupils greater confidence to engage in the process of learning

Liz Layhe – Ensuring that practical, investigative and deeper thinking skills are present in the S1

science curriculum.

Jen Matthew – Using BBC Bitesize Message board forums to support learners

Laura McKnight – Using imagery as a learning intention

Sharlene Muir – Promoting independent thinking with a Higher group

Brigitta Murray – Linking the theory and practice of Active Learning

Derek Simpson – What does good quality teaching & learning look like?

Jamie Stewart – Problem solving within PE by discovery learning

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012

Challenging Strategies

Rachel Archer Physics Department

Purpose

The purpose of this investigation was to try and challenge the students with their thinking and

problem solving skills by employing four different strategies. Three of these strategies were taken

from the book ‘Teach Like a Champion’ (Doug Lemov). These strategies mainly focus on getting

students to think about their answers to questions and promote a more challenging environment in

the classroom. The last strategy was developed from observation of the students, looking at their

attitudes towards challenging themselves with their own class work.

Methodology

Firstly, in order to carry out the investigation, the strategies to be employed and the classes to apply

these strategies in were established. A third-year physics class was chosen, as a number of the

students where often not fully applying themselves to the work and were therefore unlikely to be

working to their full potential. Once the class was chosen they were taught the same way as before,

but their attitude to class work and responses to class questions were closely monitored in order to

determine the best ‘Teach Like a Champion’ strategies that should be used.

During this time it was noted that many students were reluctant to volunteer answers, those that

did answer questions rarely gave a complete answer and some of those who were directly asked a

question would often provide no answer at all. In addition, many students would complete the task

they were given and then wait until they were noticed before tackling other potentially more

challenging work.

Taking these factors into account, it was decided to use the following strategies over the next two

terms:

1. ‘No Opt Out’

When one student is unable to answer a question, they nominate another pupil to attempt

to answer it and once a student has managed it, those that have been unable to answer

correctly repeat the correct answer back to the teacher. The idea behind this strategy is to

teach students to understand that everyone who is asked a question is expected to provide

an answer, rather than relying on other students in the class.

2. ‘Right is Right’

Those students who do provide an answer to a question can often provide only a half answer

or an answer that is only partially right. In order to tackle this the teacher helps the student

with their answer until it is of a high standard.

3. ‘Stretch it’

When a student provides an answer of a high standard they are also asked either a follow up

question or asked to elaborate on something they have said, in order to fully check their

understanding.


4. Encouraging students to seek out further work once they have finished the first task.

As many students wait until they are noticed before tackling more challenging work, using

this strategy they are informed of all extension options before the initial task is conducted

and strongly encouraged to take responsibility for attempting these tasks.

In order to gain an understanding of the students’ attitudes and impressions of their work in physics,

an anonymous questionnaire was conducted before and after the investigation to see if there were

any significant changes. The questionnaire that was used is shown below:

Questionnaire

Please complete the following questionnaire.

You do not need to write your name or class number on this sheet as all information gathered will be treated

anonymously.

Please circle one number, 1 to 5, to indicate how strongly you agree with the following statements. 1 = strongly disagree,

5 = strongly agree.

Statement

1. I always feel challenged in physics. 1 2 3 4 5

2. I don‟t need to put much effort into my work. 1 2 3 4 5

3. The pace of work is quite slow. 1 2 3 4 5

4. I am often given the opportunity to carry out

more challenging work if I finish early. 1 2 3 4 5

The questions focussed on how challenged the students felt and it was also based on the previously

mentioned observations.

In addition to the questionnaire, the students were also observed by the teacher to detect any

marked change in their performance in class or in their work.

Results and Discussion

Questionnaire Results

Below are the results from the questionnaire that the students took part in both before (left) and

after (right) the investigation. The results from the students who picked ‘strongly agree’ or ‘strongly

disagree’ have been given double weighting in order clarify the results.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 Question 1:

Question 2:

Question 3:

Question 4:

I always feel challenged in physics -Before

I always feel challenged in physics - After

I don't need to put much effort into my work - Before

I don't need to put much effort into my work - After

The pace of work is quite slow - Before

The pace of work is quite slow - After

I am often given the opportunity to carry out more

challenging work if I finish early - Before

I am often given the opportunity to carry out more challenging

work if I finish early - After

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 The results from questions 1, 2 and 4 show an improvement in the students’ attitude towards their

work and how challenged they feel in class. However, the results from question 3 (the pace of work

is quite slow) shows that more students feel that the pace has slowed down. This could be because

many of the questioning strategies deployed in this investigation take a larger amount of time in

comparison to normal questioning. Although the questioning strategies were valuable to the

students involved, the increased time taken could have resulted in many feeling that they were

waiting for the lesson to continue.

Observation Results

During this investigation it was noticed that many more students became more willing to volunteer

answers to whole class questions. This was probably because they were reassured that they would

be assisted by their peers if they were unable to answer. Similarly more students who were selected

to answer a question would attempt to answer it before passing it on as they knew that eventually

they would be required to answer the question.

The atmosphere in the classroom has also become a more positive one with students volunteering

themselves to their peers to be the one they ask for the correct answer. It should also be noted that

this atmosphere took some time to develop, as initially a few students were reluctant to repeat

answers that had already been said or continue working at an answer until it had been deemed to be

of a high enough standard.

More students are now taking on challenging work without being asked, but there are still a minority

of students who need to be reminded to do so and require more encouragement to attempt the

more challenging work. Hopefully, with time this situation will improve and more students will take

the responsibility to challenge themselves in their own class work.

Next Steps

The next steps for this investigation are to conduct further trials of these strategies with other year

groups and observe their responses. As some of the students felt that the pace of the work had

slowed down, it may be more suitable to only employ the ‘stretch it’ strategy with a few students, in

order to increase the pace of the lesson. As the strategies have become part of the normal

classroom procedure for the third year class studied in this investigation, it may be appropriate to try

out a few more strategies with this class next year in order to further promote a challenging

classroom atmosphere.


Can we really eradicate compartmentalised learning with CfE?

Alice Clubb, Mathematics

Project Intention:

What? To address the issue of compartmentalised learning within my maths classroom

How? By giving learners a broad theme to learn about and approach the topics within

this by relating to the overriding theme

Why? To enable some personalisation within the classroom and to help learners in the

maths department make links between all areas of the course

Who? With my top set of 33 S1 learners

Project

Having spent a lot of time looking over our updated S1 – S2 courses (and now with the

new S3 course following a similar style) I decided to create a link to all the topics

within a block of work. I taught the same content to the learners as I have previously,

used many of the same resources (although with perhaps more project work and

certainly less textbook work), but kept referring to an overall theme in the hope that

the class would recognise much more WHY they were learning the content and HOW it

all fitted together.

EXAMPLAR THEME

I considered our second term‟s work and how we could link all the topics of work

together and came up with the theme of house design and “Setting up Home”. With a

little effort, all topics that are taught in this block can be addressed under the theme.

For example, the outcome „I can round a number using an appropriate degree of accuracy,

having taken into account the content of the problem‟ [MNU 3-01a] can easily be

appropriately be taught by examples of measure of length, costs involved in carpeting,

calculating areas etc. so fitted under the general theme.


I was able to think of ways of adapting our content for other topics in this planned

block of work in this way too.

Themes so far include

S1 Term 1: You and your surroundings, S1 Term 2: Setting up Home

S1 Term 3: Patterns and Shapes, S2 Term 3: Construction and Design

My intention over the summer will be to create themes for the rest of S2, and in

future years to continue this approach into S3 too.

Evidence

The learners have been assessed at the end of each block of work with the same class

assessments as were used with a similar class last session. Although it is difficult to

compare different cohorts of learners, this class did seem to perform as well as our

classes have on covering these topics in previous years, suggesting that the trial has

still kept an appropriate pace of learning.

The students have all also answered questionnaires on their experiences this year. This

has shown that the learners felt more stretched with the themed style of learning

than they had during the first block of work at DGS.


What do you think of the style of questioning in Class time?

Too Challenging Challenging Fine Easy Too Easy

Block 1 59% 26% 11%

Block 2 14% 64% 18% 4%

Block 3 0% 22% 63% 15% 0%

What do you think of the style of questioning in homework sheets?


Block 1 37% 41% 15% 7%

Block 2 0 36% 39% 21% 4%

Block 3 0 9% 63% 25% 3%

What do you think of the style of questioning in the textbooks?


Block 1

Block 2 0 11% 59% 26% 4%

Block 3 3% 3% 66% 28% 0

What do you think of the style of questioning in the block tests?


Block 1 0% 11% 33% 52% 4%

Block 2 0 38% 31% 27% 4%

Block 3 3% 31% 38% 25% 3%

What do you think of the style of questioning in the extension test?


Block 1 0 59% 33% 8% 0

Block 2 0 38% 31% 31% 0

Block 3 30% 55% 15% 0 0

In comparison with other subjects, how do you feel?

Worried Not Great Fine Good Confident

Block 1 0 4% 24% 44% 28%

Block 2 0 7% 22% 19% 52%

Block 3 3% 9% 19% 47% 22%


Throughout the year there have been several observations with this class, including by

SMT, and the students when questioned were able to show what they were learning and

how the whole topic fitted together. The work from this class has also been internally

moderated, and we have discussed as a department further ways in which students can

be stretched using open ended questions.

I have enjoyed being able to make these links at the start of each term. Although I

have ordered the learning topics in much the same way as I have done previously, I feel

that the class felt that they had more ownership of the course and that they felt

really involved in the direction of learning. I hope that this personalisation has helped

the class continue to be a highly motivated group.

I had aimed to increase the deeper and higher order thinking questions within the

classes, in particular to asking more open ended questions and this seems to be

challenging the learners appropriately, in class time, in homework tasks and in tests. It

is also worth noting that the maths department does have a flexible approach to

transition and after each block of work, the department discuss whether or not it is

appropriate for learners to move classes.

What Next?

I am keen on sharing this themed approach with the rest of the department having now

tried it with my class throughout this year in S1. I will also continue with adapting the

other blocks of work to suit my new teaching style, in line with Curriculum for

Excellence, as this class progress into S2 and as I teach more groups of students at

different levels.

I feel that it would also be possible to share the themes with other departments to see

if they can fit their experiences into similar themes across the school at similar times.

This would clearly encourage more cross-curricular workings and help the learners

really get much more of a depth to their learning across the school.


Improving Scientific Literacy – Writing a Science Report

Anne Marie Gibson

Aim

This project aimed to improve the ability of pupils to write a well-structured science report through a

stepwise approach and using various AfL techniques and active spelling strategies.

Background

Report writing is a key skill in Science. As a rule experimental reports are written at the end of an

experiment and often therefore at the end of a lesson. This does not always give the pupils sufficient

time to focus on the whole of the report and in many cases presentation of results and writing a

conclusion is the only aspect of the report that is completed. As pupils progress through school their

ability to write the standard of report required for Higher and Advanced Higher can often be lacking.

In this project a number of Experiences and Outcomes from Literacy across the Curriculum are

targeted.

I can use a range of strategies and resources and spell most of the words I need to use, including specialist

vocabulary, and ensure that my spelling is accurate. LIT 3-21a

Throughout the writing process, I can review and edit my writing independently to ensure that it meets its

purpose and communicates meaning clearly at first reading. LIT 4-23a

By considering the type of text I am creating, I can independently select ideas and relevant information for

different purposes, and organise essential information or ideas and any supporting detail in a logical order. I can

use suitable vocabulary to communicate effectively with my audience. LIT 3-26a / LIT 4-26a

I can persuade, argue, evaluate, explore issues or express and justify opinions within a convincing line of thought,

using relevant supporting detail and/or evidence. LIT 4-29a

These Experiences and Outcomes had been converted, by others, into a Pupil checklist specifically for Science which was presented at the Scottish Learning Festival in 2011.[2] This project utilised that checklist as a tool for assessing progress. A copy of the checklist is included below.


Method

The Group and Control

An S1 class was chosen for this project which was carried out over a 4 month period. The class is a

mixed ability class containing two low ability pupils. A second S1 class was chosen to act as a control

for the project. This was a way of checking how the project group were progressing against a group

of their peers. Both groups were asked to carry out the same assessments at similar times.

The project was carried out in three distinct parts. Throughout all parts the emphasis was on step-

wise introduction followed by continual repetition. All lessons in this period contained some aspect

of developing report writing to a greater or lesser extent depending on what was appropriate to the

lesson. Each pupil was given a copy of the Learning Outcomes checklist which was kept in the back

of their jotter.

Part 1 – Active Spelling

‘I can spell most of the words needed correctly using a variety of techniques’

Active spelling is used in both Primary and Secondary schools to help pupils learn and retain spelling

words. In this project the techniques were based on work reported on the Education Scotland

website. [1]

There are a number of key words that pupils are required to know in Science. Some of these words

are not in common language use and therefore provide a significant challenge to correct spelling.

One of these words is Hypothesis and this was the word I decided to concentrate on in this particular

part of the project.

At the start of the project I asked the pupils to spell the word ‘Hypothesis’ so that I could use the

class’s existing knowledge as a reference point.

Then over the next few weeks I used a number of active spelling techniques to reinforce the correct

spelling of the word. These were;

Spelling Tennis

The class is split into two teams. The first pupil from Team 1 says the first letter of

the word. „Play‟ then passes to Team 2 and the first pupil in Team 2 says the 2nd

letter. Play continues in this way until a team member gets a letter wrong. They then

leave their team and sit out.

Flash Letters

A number of pupils are given one letter from the word. They then have to rearrange

themselves into the correct spelling of the word with help from the rest of the class.

Letter jumble

A simple card sort activity carried out in pairs. At the end of the project I again asked them to spell the word ‘Hypothesis’ individually.

At this time I also asked the control group to spell the same word and compared the results from

both classes.


Part 2 - Understanding

‘I can demonstrate through my writing that I understand the term ‘Hypothesis’

Linked closely to the work on spelling was the development of understanding of the word

‘Hypothesis’. Before each experiment the class was encouraged to provide a Hypothesis for the

outcome of the experiment. Simple examples were used to reinforce pupils understanding of the

term.

As before, at the end of the project, the project and control groups were asked to explain the

meaning of the word ‘Hypothesis’.

Part 3 – Report Writing

‘I can select ideas and include relevant information for my report’

‘I can organise this information in a report format making use of the appropriate headings (Aim,

Hypothesis, Method, Equipment List , Results/Table/Graph, Conclusion, Evaluation)

During appropriate lessons I concentrated on individual sections of the Science report, one lesson

might focus on the aim, another on the conclusion. Pupil attempts for each section were then peer

assessed.

Reports written at the end of the project were compared against those written before.

Results

Results from Part 1 –Spelling

The results show a clear improvement in the ability of the pupils to spell the word Hypothesis when

compared to their peers. Note that this result was taken some time after we had completed the

spelling exercises employed. This indicates that the pupils had retained their new knowledge.

% o

f p

up

ils s

pe

llin

g H

ypo

the

sis

corr

ect

ly

Effect of the Project on Pupil Spelling

Class carrying out the project Class NOT carrying out project


Results from Part 2 –Understanding

Again these results show an improvement in the ability of the pupils to use correctly the word

Hypothesis. The understanding and application of the term was fully grasped by the project group

and this in particular was a rewarding outcome.

Results from Part 3 – Report Writing - Examples

The following are examples of work taken from 2 pupils. The pre-project and post-project reports

are included.

Pupil 1 - Pre-project report

% o

f p

up

ils h

avin

g a

goo

d g

rasp

of

the

te

rm 'H

ypo

the

sis'

Effect of the project on pupil understanding of the term

'Hypothesis'

Class carrying out the project Class NOT carrying out the project

Pupil 1 - Post-project

report


Pupil 2 - Pre-project report

Pupil 2 - Post-project report

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 In these two reports there is a clear improvement to the structure of the report and the selection of

material to be included in the sections. This was reflected across the class in general. In particular

pupils were less dependent on the teacher for support in beginning and structuring the report. They

were much more confident in what was required and therefore able to work more independently.

Results from Part 3 – Report Writing – Pupil Responses

A typical example of a completed checklist is shown below.

The results from all pupil checklists were taken and grouped into 4 areas. These were;

1. Pupils are confident they know what needs to be included in a Science Report

2. Pupils are confident they can make a reasoned conclusion

3. Pupils are confident they can spell and use the term Hypothesis

4. Pupils are confident they can use correct punctuation and paragraphs.

The results are shown below.

It is clear that a high proportion of pupils have confidence in the aspects of report writing covered by

the project. One area where more work could have been done was in building their confidence in

making a reasoned conclusion. Pupils were much less confident with their punctuation and correct

use of paragraphs and this is a definite area for further work, ideally in conjunction with the English

department.


88

22

Pupils are confident they know what needs to be included in a Science

Report

Confident

Some confidence

Not confident65

22

13

Pupils are confident they can make a reasoned conclusion

Confident

Some confidence

Not confident

94

6

Pupils are confident they can spell and use the term Hypothesis

Confident

Some confidence

Not confident

29

6 65

Pupils are confident they can use correct punctuation and paragraphs.

Confident

Some confidence

Not confident

Conclusion

The project showed that using a method of stepwise introduction to the structure and techniques

needed for a successful science report, pupils were able to show definite improvements in key areas;

- Improved confidence in report writing

- Improved ability to work independently

- Improved ability to spell ,use and apply correctly the word „Hypothesis‟

- The results were very encouraging and the pupils from the project class will now go forward to S2 and

beyond with more confidence and ability when asked to write a report in Science

Evaluation

This project was extremely easy to carry out. The procedure of breaking the report into short

sections worked well and was straightforward to manage within the constraints of teaching the S1

Science curriculum.

It is proposed that this approach now be rolled out to a greater number of staff to ensure more

pupils can benefit. In addition further work in conjunction with the English department could be

carried out looking at the overall use of structure and punctuation in Science reports.

References

[1] http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/sharingpractice/a/activespelling/intro.asp

- Primary school active spelling strategies

[2] Scottish Learning Festival – information provided by Liz Layhe

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/sharingpractice/a/activespelling/intro.asp


Literacy Focus

Focusing on Literacy Skills in Day-to-Day Jotter Work

Suzanne Hamilton, English Department

Project Aim

The aim of my project was to make my pupils more aware of literacy and to encourage them to

demonstrate their literacy skills in every day jotter work.

Background

My project arose out of frustration at many of my S2 pupils who failed to spell high frequency words

and use common marks of punctuation correctly on a daily basis despite showing me they could do

it in formally assessed pieces of writing. I found that I was wasting a lot of time highlighting and

correcting errors when marking jotters which could have been avoided. Furthermore, I felt that my

formative assessment of class work was inaccurate because pupils were not showing me what they

were truly capable of when completing written tasks. Under the new curriculum it seems that jotter

work and formative assessment are more important than ever and as such I wanted to encourage

my pupils to think more critically about their literacy skills and demonstrate their learning whenever

they complete written tasks. In this class in particular many of my able pupils are the ones who don’t

think it’s necessary to demonstrate their literacy skills in day to day work. I hoped that by making

them more aware of literacy and encouraging them to focus on certain aspects of literacy in their

daily written work that it would improve the standard of their jotter work.

Methodology

I began the project by holding a discussion about literacy, asking the pupils what the word ‘literacy’

meant to them. This proved quite successful although they were hesitant and unsure to begin with.

We then decided on some of the fundamental literacy skills they should demonstrate in their written

work. We mind-mapped these as a class and I created a slide containing these literacy skills which

we would focus on in our lessons.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 At the beginning of each lesson, I would display this on the board and pupils were asked to pick their

focus for that lesson. They then had to write it in the margin of their jotter and then spend the

lesson thinking carefully about that focus as they completed normal classwork. For example, if pupils

picked spelling, they would complete their normal class work but paying particular attention to

spelling, consulting a dictionary when needed. At the end of most lessons, I would then ask them to

reflect on their literacy focus and consider the extent of their success.

Results

Pupil A Before: Work is not neat, capital letters have not been used, answers and incomplete. This is

an accurate reflection of the work typically handed in by this pupil

Pupil A After: Work is a lot neater and capital letters and full stops have been used with greater

accuracy.


Pupil B Before: Capital letters have not been used and punctuation is used incorrectly and

inconsistently.

Pupil B After: Capital letters are used with more accuracy than before. Answers are more detailed.

Work is a lot neater.


Example of proof reading and identifying own spelling errors with the spelling focus (Pupil C).

In this case, the pupil found it difficult to check spelling as she was going because it made her lose

focus and she would forget where she was going with the answer. I suggested she underline words

at the end which she knew to be spelled incorrectly and then to consult a dictionary to find the

correct spelling. Even though it wasn’t her focus, she has also indicated in this piece of work where a

new paragraph should be inserted and has checked for missing words. Before the literacy focus, she

would rarely (if ever) do this.

Pupil Questionnaire

I issued the following questionnaire to pupils at the end of the project:

1. Explain what our class have been doing in relation to the ‘literacy focus’. 2. List some specific ‘literacy’ skills you have focused on recently in your writing. 3. Did you find the literacy focus useful? Explain why/why not.

Question 1 and 2: 100% of pupils were able to explain the literacy focus and were able to offer at

least 2 literacy related skills they had focused on recently in class.

Question 3: More than 80% of the class found the literacy focus useful. For this question they were

also asked to offer their comment on why they did or did not find it useful. Below is a selection of

their comments:

Positive Feedback

‘It has helped me improve because it makes me focus more…’

‘...it has made me concentrate more.’

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 ‘It makes me more aware of how and what I am writing.’

‘Yes because I look in the dictionary a lot more’

‘It helps me to focus on things I don't really pay attention to…’

‘It helps me think about my writing.’

‘It made me look more at my work.’

‘It helped me because it focuses you on something throughout the time you're writing.’

‘It reminded me to focus on my spelling.’

Negative Feedback

‘No because if I concentrate on one thing I forget about the other things.’

‘It doesn't make a difference to me because I try to do the same things all the time.’

‘I found myself forgetting it was there.’

Evaluation

Overall, the project was successful. It improved the overall quality of work produced by the pupils

and it seemed to encourage some pupils in particular to proof read work before submitting it. When

I displayed the focuses on the board, I noticed that more pupils consulted dictionaries during the

course of the lesson and would often ask their peers to check their work.

Other notable successes of the project are:

o Pupils are more aware of literacy and what ‘literacy’ means and refers to; o Pupils have a greater understanding of why their jotter work has to be as technically

accurate as possible; o Pupils seemed to enjoy having a focus and then measuring their success at the end of the

lesson; o Most pupils picked a focus that addressed one of their particular areas of weakness; o For most of the class the project improved the overall quality of the jotter work produced; o Most pupils felt that it improved the quality of their work; o The project made me more aware of the specific literacy strengths and weaknesses of the

class. Despite the successes, there were also some notable weaknesses in the project:

o At times the literacy focus was time consuming (roughly 10 minutes per lesson); o I wasn’t as consistent with the literacy focus as I should have been near the end of the

project; o Some pupils did not pick a focus that they really needed to address (e.g. some poor spellers

didn’t pick spelling because they knew it would be difficult and time consuming for them). o Due to a large class size (30 pupils) it was difficult to keep track of all pupils during the 10

minutes in each lesson.

Next Steps

I will continue to use the literacy focus next year, perhaps giving the class more ownership of it and

displaying the various focuses on my wall so they are constantly there as opposed to displaying the

slide at the start of each lesson.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 I will incorporate more peer assessment next year. As well as valuing the feedback of their

classmates, it seemed that pupils were much more likely to expend more effort on their literacy

focus if they thought their peers would be involved in assessing how successful they were.


Introduction Experiential learning is a teaching method that allows pupils to associate any new learning with their existing

knowledge from a prior experience. The process was developed by Dr Jennifer Moon of Bournemouth

University. Using this technique gives pupils greater confidence to engage in the process of learning new things

as they are able to recall existing knowledge easily that supports new learning.

Methodology Provide a project based experiential course for S1/S2 that is accessed via the school website.

Give pupils the autonomy to choose the experiences they have in every project.

Get pupils to upload evidence of every experience they cover onto their own websites.

Use Google forms to provide feedback on pupil progress towards next steps.

Develop an assessment procedure that measures pupil progress towards secure status.

Findings The CDT staff chose the twenty four experiences that would make up every project. The CDT staff uploaded

the pupil experiences to the school website. For every project only ten experiences are taught and compulsory

to every pupil, all other experiences are optional and executed by pupils in their own time. Having the option

to choose additional experiences meant that pupils could work to their specific skills, or develop new skills as

part of a varied educational diet. In order to ensure every curriculum experience was delivered, within the two

year course, compulsory experiences would be rotated with each project.

Staff from the Technologies faculty delivered the necessary skills so pupils would be able to upload evidence

of their experiences to their Edubuzz websites. At first this was simply done by uploading images of their work,

recorded on webcams and taking screen shots of their computer work onto the computers clipboard.

Gradually pupils learnt to create their work in Googledocs so they could embed this into their websites. When

the pupils created Googledoc documents they were able to share them with one another and collaborate.

Pupils started to submit their home learning experiences via e-mail to their teacher for checking, some pupils

uploaded their experiences and informed their teacher they had done so.

At the end of every project the pupils fill out a feedback form, via the school website. These responses are

available to all members of staff in their Googledocs and provide evidence of pupil progression. Forms can be

made up using a variety of question types; multiple choice, sliding scale, text responses. They are the closest

thing we have to summative assessment but because they are filled in online pupils complete them when they

feel ready to do so. Pupils don’t see these forms as a test and because of this have no apprehension when

filling them in.

Pupil Record Sheets In order to provide individual targeting towards pupil’s needs, it is necessary to bring together all the

evidence we have gathered so far for assessment. It is an important aspect of experiential learning that we

don’t grade pupils work against a fixed standard. Curriculum for excellence suggests a pass / fail at national 4

level so grading at an earlier level would be pointless. Ensuring pupils continue to improve is our goal. What

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 we needed was a method of recording the experiences each pupil has had. The way we have done this is with

a progress record sheet. The pupils receive a star on this sheet every time they complete an experience. The

greater number of stars per project gives the teacher an indication of the breadth of curriculum being covered.

Every time the pupil receives a star for the same experience suggests they are becoming secure at that

experience, especially if the pupil has used their knowledge from the experience out of context. Here is an

example of a record sheet:

Pupil Survey Results


Conclusion I set out to provide a teaching resource that met the needs of every child and provide every teacher with the

evidence they needed to target the next steps for every pupil. I wanted to reduce the workload of staff and at

the same time increase the learning experience of pupils. What I have found is by using the latest technology

teachers can concentrate on what they do best; provide pupils with support to help them succeed. The initial

learning curve for staff was intense; the uploading of every experience to the school website was more work

than I had estimated. Pupils responded to the challenge with increased enthusiasm and as soon as they saw

the pattern of experiences that lead to secure status they realised that they had control. Being able to

relinquish control to the pupil is the philosophy of the curriculum for excellence, having the trust in every pupil

to do the right thing is a leap of faith, but one we all need to take. The best finding from this project has been

the methodology of assessing pupils on their experience, not on the quality of their outcomes. We always tend

to judge the quality of pupils work compared to that of other pupils work. Instead we should strive to

encourage pupils to improve and to measure that improvement on their previous standard.


Evalutation of the First Six Weeks of the First Year Science Course.

Liz Layhe

Introduction:

This project was designed to explore the first six weeks of the First Year Science course and consider

if it met the requirements of the Curriculum for Excellence specification. In other words was it

robust, reliable and valid. The second part was to see if the students had understood what the first

six weeks of Science was about. If time, this research was to be extended to the other topics and

also linked to literacy, numeracy, IT and health and wellbeing.

The time scale was a school year.

Background:

The first six week unit of the First year course was designed by three colleagues two years ago in

light of the Curriculum for Excellence requirements. Its purpose was to update the existing unit and

embed practical skills required for promoting investigative skills and deeper thinking through

problem solving and questioning.

Method:

A series of questionnaires, using Google Docs., was set up based on ‘What the main purposes of

learning in the sciences are for encouraging our young people to become successful learners,

confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors’.

The questionnaires involved asking the staff who taught the first years and every fifth young person

in each of the nine practical groups. They were asked to think about the questions and then answer

them using the above site.

Jotters were examined for evidence and the young people were involved in an oral group discussion

using techniques used by the SSA survey. These were then analysed. The staff were questioned

orally on certain aspects of the course which were not highlighted by the questions in the

questionnaire.

The teacher’s guide and power points along with the dialogue between me and my colleagues were

used to provide evidence that the course showed the main purposes of learning in the sciences and

that there were a variety of approaches to learning.

Using the students’ responses it was hoped that the inquiry and investigative skills as well scientific

analytical thinking skills would be highlighted as being part of the course and were built into the

experiences and outcomes which the young people carried out.

The questions for the questionnaires were based on the bullet points in the section titled ‘Sciences

principles and practice’ in the Curriculum for Excellence document.


Results:

1. What learning and teaching approaches are useful in the Sciences?

The learning approaches in CfE suggest active, planned and purposeful play where development of

problem solving, practical investigations, relevant texts, use of technology, collaborative and

independent thinking and an emphasis on explaining their understanding through informed

discussion and communication are used.

The evidence taken from the teacher’s guide and the power points show that these approaches have

been built in. This is also confirmed when I discussed this with the youngsters and comments such as

“We did an experiment about bouncy balls, we had to see what different balls would bounce the

highest.” Classroom observations carried out by me and others showed that students were

beginning to think about the equipment used and staff observed informed discussion took place

during investigations. The majority of the young people were active in purposeful tasks which they

were clearly enjoying.

2. Inquiry and Investigative skills.

Analysing the questionnaires students showed awareness of safety by comments such as “We were

shown a power point.” “The teacher told us the basics.” “We made a poster.” Staff answers stated

that safety cartoons were used (kept in jotters) self and peer assessment were also used.

Observations showed that all the students carried this out and were consistently reminded about

the safety rules.

Many examples were used to encourage observations using optical illusions, burning magnesium,

measuring temperature changes etc. These experiments also allowed selection of appropriate

equipment, recording data and presenting findings through blogs, jotter recordings, by power point

or posters.

Highlighted at this stage was the lack of analytical techniques (staff gave mixed answers depending

on their interpretation of what was implied by analytical techniques but did say that this became

more used in experiments in later units.) Opportunities for asking questions were there but at this

stage students were only learning words like hypothesis and had not gained in confidence in this

area.

The unit had not taken account of how to classify as the emphasis was on selecting equipment and

carrying out experiments for observing and presenting and reporting findings as in ‘The challenges’.

There were only a few of the top students who showed signs of developing skills of reasoning

‘Through experimenting and carrying out practical scientific investigations and other research to solve problems

and challenges:

It is suggested that the youngsters should be able to ask questions or hypothesise, plan experiments, select

appropriate equipment, carry out experiments, observe, collect and record data, take account of safety,

present and analyse data, review results and present findings.’

‘The main approaches are through observing, classifying, fair testing and linking two variables to determine

relationships.’

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 through providing explanations and evaluations. This would tie in with Bloom’s Taxonomy, where

this type of thinking is challenging for our young people.

3. Scientific analytical thinking skills

There is evidence from the teachers’ guide and power points that the youngsters have the

opportunity to be open to new ideas for instance the use of the Bunsen burner, Think back time at

the end of the lessons, Lesson 3 on ‘Trick or Treat’ on optical illusions and the lessons on challenges.

From the children’s’ answers there is less evidence that they have always understood what skills

they are learning. It is also difficult to see by looking at jotters that there is evidence of the above

skills.

Conclusions:

Evidence gathered from all sources has proven to be reliable and valid and suggests that the first six

weeks of the course are robust in terms of what is being taught and planned by the Science staff in

relation to the principles and practice laid out in the Curriculum for Excellence guidelines. However

in the first six weeks there is a need to review the way our youngsters are encouraged to ask

questions or hypothesise or carry out methods of classifying.

Evidence suggests that all students are enjoying the start of Science and that there is a strong link to

literacy and numeracy.

From the student questionnaires, informal discussions taken by myself and classroom observations

from members of staff and myself showed that the majority of our youngsters were able to

understand the safety procedures involved in a lab, choose the correct equipment for experiments,

record their work using tables and graphs and start to draw conclusions. Some students were also

able to begin to analyse data and make improvements to their investigations. Most were able to

present their findings and used a variety of ways to do so. Linking variables at this stage was found

to be difficult.

Recommendations:

For the future staff should increase the opportunity for students to hypothesise and to classify

perhaps by building in some of the CASE experiments.

One of the main findings to consider by staff for the future is the lack of evidence for the above in

the jotters and the random way in which investigations have been carried out across the classes (e.g.

lack of headings, lack of learning intentions or summaries). Students, even though the power points

stated what each lesson was about, stated that they sometimes wondered why they were carrying

out investigations even though they enjoyed what they were doing and ‘having loads of fun!’

“Children and young people develop a range of analytical thinking skills in order

to make sense of scientific evidence and concepts: This involves them in being

open to new ideas and linking and applying learning, thinking creatively and

critically, developing skills of reasoning using explanations and evaluations’

supported by evidence or justifications., making predictions and drawing

conclusions based on reliable scientific evidence.”


The Use of BBC Bitesize Message Board Forums

Jen Matthew

Earlier on in the year I was contacted by the BBC and asked to run the Chemistry

message board on BBC Bitesize. My role was to assist students with any

problems/issues that they might be having with the SG/Int2/Higher Chemistry

courses. Initially, the message board was not too popular, but as it got closer to exam

time I was bombarded with messages from keen students all wanting that little bit of

extra help with their Chemistry revision.

My intention is to make staff aware of the BBC Bitesize message board forums and the

potential they can have for assisting students with revision.

What is the Message Board?

The message board is currently available for 11 Higher Level subjects (Biology, Business

Management, Chemistry, Computing, English, Geography, History, Maths, Modern

Studies, PE and Physics). Students can log onto the BBC Bitesize web page and post

questions on the message board from the hours of 9am-9pm. The staff member

assigned to the message board then spends some time explaining the reasoning behind

answers to questions.


How Can I Use it in My Classroom?

It‟s not necessarily a tool that can be used during class time but what staff could

potentially do is post questions on the message board and ask students from your class

to post up their solutions. You may also find that you get a number of responses from

students all over the UK. I know I certainly did when I started posting questions on

the board.

It is also really handy for teachers to share model answers with students. It‟s not only

the students in your class that you will be able to reach but a vast network of students

across the country.


Colleagues don‟t even need to post messages on the board, but alerting students of its

existence is a step in the right direction.

Why Use The Message Board?

The number of students who understand their subject on a superficial level is vast.

Many seem able to rote learn content but when asked to implement their knowledge in

another format, are unable to make the link between what they know and what is being

asked.

I found this to be a real issue in Higher Chemistry as multiple choice makes up 40

marks of our final exam paper. In the marking schemes students are given the correct

letter but are given no reasoning behind why B would be the answer.

The genius thing about the message boards is that students are able to ask a teacher

to look at a past paper Q and get a detailed explanation as to why a certain answer

would be correct.


I definitely found that the majority of issues related to the answering of multiple

choice questions. Personally, that has given me an insight into what I could do

differently in my teaching of the Higher course. Next year I will definitely focus more

on MCh Past Paper Questions and may even run an Easter revision session wholly

focusing on Multiple Choice.

Are There Any Limitations?

The lack of publicity surrounding the message boards has been a major limiting factor.

I think that the more people who know about the facility, the more students will get

from their experience of using the boards. It would be great if teachers were able to

publicise the facility in their classes. Discussion with the BBC suggest that they may

run again over the Christmas period in the run up to prelims and then again in the run up

to final exams. If the demand is still high then it may be something that runs all year

long.

Check out some of the Chemistry posts on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbstandardgradeandhigher/NF23069770

Or you can find the message boards for other subjects on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/bitesize/higher/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbstandardgradeandhigher/NF23069770

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/bitesize/higher/


Learning Team Project – Promoting Higher Order Thinking Skills

Laura McKnight

Benjamin Bloom (1956) stated that there is more than one type of learning:

Cognitive - Knowledge

Affective - Attitude

Psychomotor - Skills

This taxonomy of learning behaviours has been described as ‘the goals of the learning process’ and

after a learning experience, the learner should have acquired new skills/knowledge and/or attitudes.

This highlights the importance of the provision of learning intentions within the classroom in order

to clarify the purpose and aims of the learning experience.

Throughout the year, I intend to replace written learning intentions at the beginning of my lessons

with visual images to encourage independent learning and to foster higher order thinking skills

within my S1 classes.

Aim of Project:

In order to promote higher order thinking skills within my classroom, I have been focusing

on the use of visual images at the beginning of my lessons to replace written learning

intentions. I have chosen to focus specifically on learning intentions because I believe that

pupils can become more engaged within lessons when they have a clear awareness of what

they are learning about, the skills that they will acquire and how they are going to be able to

achieve this. Clear learning intentions can increase confidence and motivation levels

amongst pupils which may then foster higher order thinking skills within the classroom.

I have been providing visual learning intentions to my S1 classes where an image or images

are shown at the beginning of each lesson. Pupils collaborate together in groups to write

down their understanding of the image and how this might fit in with the topic they have

been learning about. This allows pupils to share ideas about the relevance of each lesson

and encourages them to link current themes with previous learning. I am hoping that the

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/id/bloom_taxonomy.j


use of images will encourage higher order thinking as it gives pupils more flexibility to

explore the topics that we will be studying and allows them to voice their ideas as to how

concepts might link together rather than me simply telling them. I have also been using

images more often throughout my S1 lessons as a way for pupils to become more

independent through working co-operatively to share ideas rather than having me speak

through the learning intentions which does not allow for much pupil input. As stated above,

I have also been researching and implementing Bloom's Taxonomy throughout these visual

images in order for me to ensure that each image allows pupils to acquire new skills,

knowledge, and/or attitudes.

Implementation:

In order to progress gradually with my project, I implemented the concept of visual images

gradually. Initially, I presented a class with two pictures that represented the learning

intentions for that particular lesson. I also provided pupils with specific questions that were

to be discussed in groups and presented to the class at the end of the lesson.

Example:

The images above were displayed at the beginning of the lesson where S1 classes were

studying a ‘Who am I’ introductory unit. The aim of this particular unit was for pupils to

create a ‘My Journey’ map that detailed the important events that had occurred within their

lives to date. Pupils made lists of the important experiences that had occurred within their

lives the previous lesson and these images represented these ‘light’ and ‘dark’ times as they

were now going to choose one of these experiences to write about. In order for pupils to

link these images to previous learning, I included questions that would enable them to do

this.


Questions:

What are these 2 images/what do they mean? (Day/night, light/dark happy/scary etc….)

How do these ideas ‘fit in’ to what we have been learning about? (Good/bad times, happy/scary times, light dark times)

Can you give me an example of this? (Pupils are required to reflect on and recognise a light/dark time that they have experienced and share this with the class.

Outcome:

I continued to implement this strategy with all S1 classes and found that pupils engaged

very well with visual images. It enabled them to work collaboratively as they discussed their

ideas in groups and allowed me to check their levels of understanding as they shared ideas

as a class. Gradually, I reduced the number of questions until eventually classes were

expected to look at the images with no questions and be able to discuss their meaning and

relevance to the topic. I have found that the use of visual images not only as a form of

learning intention but also throughout lessons can encourage pupils to take leadership

within the classroom. It also promotes independent thinking and collaborative learning. This

can develop higher order thinking skills as pupils within my S1 classes have become more

aware of the purpose and relevance of each lesson through engaging with others to discuss

the importance and meaning of lesson specific visual images.


Encouraging Higher Order Thinking at Higher!

Sharlene Muir – Geography Department

Introduction

A large part of the Higher Geography curriculum is the study of physical landforms. It is very

common for Geography teachers to spoon-feed the process of how these landforms are created

to students by explaining the forces at work, how they shape the landscape and presenting it as

a 3 step diagram e.g. a waterfall (see below).

According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, students should be able to go from the basic understanding to

evaluation. It came to my attention while teaching the very adept Higher students that they

were perhaps only skilled and prepped for memorising knowledge and recall rather than

thinking deeply through the process of synthesis and evaluation.

I had to ask myself the question ‘Could my A-grade students work out how a feature is formed

without any help or are they programmed to switch off their intrigue and investigative brain to

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 wait on the answer being told to them?’ ‘Had I or indeed Geography teachers killed the

possibility of deep thinking in our subject or are Higher students at an age and stage where they

just want to know rather than discover? At Higher level, are they scared to get things wrong?

And so, the challenge to get the Higher students working out how features are formed

independently begins.

Methodology + Results

Test 1 - No framework; New Image

Higher class enter. Currently teaching Glaciation in the Lithosphere topic, an area in which they

are all greatly familiar through Standard Grade and Intermediate. Each student is given a piece

of paper and asked to describe the formation of the brand new feature presented to them on

the screen.

They are given 5 minutes to write down their conclusion of the formation.

Results

Note: There was much reluctance within the

more able students in doing this activity.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 One said she did not want to write anything that may be wrong into her notes. This prompted

answers on separate pieces of paper.

The selection of answers are all very similar. All show a very short and basic understanding of

what might have happened. In Bloom’s terms they have shown some evidence of KNOWLEDGE

and COMPREHENSION.

The idea of deposition by the glacier appears in all 4 answers yet they all know so much more

than this. None of the students actually considered the shape of the feature, why it looked the

way it did. The idea of erosion – a key Geography process hasn’t featured at all. Further, these

answers could be said to equate to someone with no real previous knowledge of the subject. It

appears the Higher students need help in applying their knowledge, enabling them to reach the

third step of Bloom’s taxonomy – APPLICATION.

Test 2 – Basic framework; Same Image used in test 1

Higher class enter. Each student was given a new piece of paper and asked to describe the

formation of the feature from the previous class with added basic framework. I encouraged

them to think deeper by providing them with 4 key terms – Plucking, Abrasion, Ice flow &

Direction and Glacial Power. These words were given in the hope that they would apply this to

what they know and to the image they were presented with.


Results

All students now demonstrated use of the key words applying them to the feature. This in turn

has produced a more thoughtful answer with greater use of geographical terms to work out the

feature formation. So when prompted, the students are able to access the information they

have and they feel more confident to create an explanation. In order to climb Bloom’s ladder, it

was vital that more framework was added to allow them to reach ANALYSIS.

Test 3 – Increased framework; Same Image used in test 1 + 2


formation of the feature from the previous classes with increased support framework. I

encouraged them to work in small groups to develop a range of leading questions that could be

used for any formation to conclude how it formed. They should use all previous knowledge from

Standard Grade and Intermediate.

Results

+

+

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 Results

The ideas from the students are now much more thoughtful. By designing their own questions,

they were able to apply their knowledge and organise their ideas in a more logical manner. They

were able to compare trends with other known features and generate an accurate explanation

for the formation of the feature. They felt confident with the leading questions confirming their

decisions. So with this increased framework, could they re-use this technique to organise their

ideas and explore how all physical features were formed?

Test 4 – Increased framework; New Image


formation of the feature from the previous classes with increased support framework. As

before, I encouraged them to work in groups to develop a range of leading questions that could

be used to conclude how the feature was formed.

Results


+

The questions designed were similar to those previously used but this time the students were

able to identify a difference within the feature. So some questions were slightly altered, thus

using an old concept but creating new ideas from it - a skill associated with SYNTHESIS in

Bloom’s taxonomy.

They were made aware it was still a glacial feature so many of the key terms and process at

work in the previous feature still applied. The answers were good and they were a vast

improvement to the initial answer given to the first picture.

Test 5 – No framework; New Image


formation of the feature from the previous classes with no support framework. They worked in

pairs. Could they APPLY previous knowledge and compose a new framework to demonstrate

SYNTHESIS?

Results

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 The image presented was a Sand Spit, a feature formed by coastal transportation and

deposition. The students did not write down any thinking questions to give them a framework

but did take longer to assess it. Many said they analysed the feature more thoroughly and asked

themselves questions of the feature, recalling what they knew about coasts already. The results

were very good in terms of actually taking time to think through what might have happened and

constructing a more detailed explanation with key geographical terms included.

Analysis + Conclusion

It appears that many Higher students are reluctant to or are unable to form an educated guess

to how something works or has been formed without the teacher guiding them through the

initial stages. By increasing the framework by prompting of key terms and the discussion of

leading questions, students were eventually able to formulate a reasoned conclusion. As the

framework was removed, many students continued to use the techniques to apply them to the

new features though some still hesitated and wrote very little. However, by continuing this

process of leading the able students out of their comfort zone, they will eventually climb

Bloom’s taxonomy and be able to synthesise and evaluate for themselves. I would like more

time to increase the problem solving capabilities by repeating this exercise until they are

completely confident. Further, if time permitted, I would spend time asking the students what

they felt about the process and how they reacted to it. As a class, they decided to create a flow

diagram (similar to a biological key) of questions that would eventually lead them to a feature.

This was an idea that has been started but not finished.

To conclude, I hope now that if my students are faced with a question in their exam on the

formation of a feature, that they will be able to think of key terms, recall information but most

importantly synthesise leading questions which will eventually draw them to form an accurate

conclusion of how that feature was formed without relying on remembering it word by word

from their textbook or notes.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to work on and develop this concept.


Linking the theory & practice of active learning

Brigitta Murray

In the context of the topic 'school', my S1 French class expressed opinions on school subjects. Some

stated that French was boring. I wanted to see if changing aspects of my teaching would increase

motivation and enjoyment. I decided to do a research project over four weeks between November

and December 2011 to see if more differentiated tasks, group work and more active learning which

would challenge the more able and support the less able, would improve students' interest and

motivation. They completed a questionnaire with their views on French and then again four weeks

later. They had 9 lessons between questionnaires.

Students were asked about their ability to self-motivate, classroom behaviour and confidence to

enable me to look for correlations between factors like interest and motivation or confidence and

enjoyment or confidence and appropriateness of pace and level of difficulty. These questions

challenged students to think about how they learn.

Students kept a diary of every lesson, recording activities and learning and their personal response

to them. They could refer to their diary while completing questionnaire 2 but I found (after the

event!) that they needed to be taught strategies to help them analyse what made a lesson enjoyable

as they often didn’t go beyond saying something was fun.

Between the 2 questionnaires the class worked in different combinations of groupings, often in two

groups divided according to ability. A starter task was always on the board at the beginning of each

lesson along with learning intentions and planned activities for each group Tasks were a balance of

quiet independent tasks like reading or listening and teacher-led activities or games for each group.

Where practice was required for students to develop a skill, an active approach was tried to

encourage collaboration with others, for example learning to form questions in French. In this task

pupils were in two teams competing against the clock and each other to organise themselves into a

human sentence, each pupil with one word of the question, which was cut up like a paper jigsaw.

Teams discussed how to order the question and organised themselves in that order. More able

students supported less able students while learning themselves by leading the task. Another

example of active learning was practising the time through a group game of Lotto. Cards with the

time written in French were placed centrally upside down. Students picked a card in turn and tried

to match it with the times on their grids. Students chose whom they worked with and how often

they played the game. The feedback from students in questionnaire 2 to the group work and more

active learning was usually very positive when they were asked to describe a lesson they enjoyed

and one they didn't enjoy, giving reasons.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 Findings

Before and after results from the questionnaires are grouped according to the inter-relationship

between individual questions. Results from both questionnaires are recorded so that differences in

data, which might result from the different experiences of the two groups, can be compared.

One aim was to improve pupils' learning experiences by moving from a more didactic teacher-

controlled classroom to more varied activities providing opportunity for self-determination, active

participation and appropriate challenge. In questionnaire 1 comments made in response to the

questions in Table 1 showed some pupils' need for challenge and others' need for a sense of

achievement.

sometimes I pick things up before others (ability group 1, questionnaire 1)

because I do struggle (ability group 2, questionnaire 1)

Results in this section show that there was a small but significant improvement in satisfaction level

with most aspects of how they were learning for both groups after the four weeks. It is interesting

that after working this way both groups had a greater preference for working at their own pace.

Table 2 charts pupils' motivation and results were mixed. In both groups more students in

questionnaire 2 felt they never allowed their behaviour to stop them learning. Given the small

sample, there was a significant improvement in the involvement of ability group 2 in the lesson.

There is little change in interest in either group between questionnaire 1 and 2, but the interest

shown by ability group 1 is consistently higher than ability group 2. This ties in with results in Table 3,

which considers affective issues. There has been significant improvement in ability group 1's levels of

self-motivation, which is not the case for ability group 2.

I believe Table 3 shows a link between the students' views of their self-efficacy and their enjoyment.

The improvement in enjoyment recorded for ability group 1 correlates with increased confidence.

Those who found French always or mostly easy went from seven to nine, while those who never

found French easy changed from one to none. This contrasts with the students in ability group 2.

Changes in confidence levels and enjoyment were mixed and do not show the same improvement.

In fact where more in group 1 thought French was easier than before, more in group 2 thought

French was harder than before.

Conclusions

The results from the 2 questionnaires seem to suggest that with a sense of achievement and

confidence, both self-motivation and enjoyment are also increased, regardless of any improvement

in interest. In the comments, several students made statements about wanting to be stretched or

enjoying self-directed tasks.

challenging, good thing (ability group 1)

I like getting pushed a little bit (ability group 1)

I like going of [sic] and doing things in pairs (ability group 1)

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 When describing a lesson they enjoyed and why, being good at something or being praised was

often given as the reason.

The evidence seems to suggest that changing teaching and learning strategies to more child-focused

active learning with opportunities for autonomy can lead to greater motivation and enjoyment for

those pupils, whose sense of self-efficacy is high (Bandura, A.,1993). However, these strategies alone

don’t seem to be enough to change students' motivation and enjoyment if their sense of self-

efficacy is low. In addition, while able students benefit from a virtuous circle where motivation is

sustained by increased confidence which in turn improves students' focus on their work, the lack of

improvement in confidence means self-motivation is not improved and students are consequently

more likely to be distracted and distract others from their work

Table 1

Table 2

Question Ability group always mostly sometimes never

The level we work at is right 1 (before) 3 8 2 -

for me 1 (after) 4 8 1 -

2 (before) 2 4 3 -

2 (after) 3 5 1 -

The pace we work at is right 1 (before) 3 7 3 -

for me 1 (after) 3 8 2 -

2 (before) 1 5 3 -

2 (after) 1 7 1 -

The way we learn suits me 1 (before) 2 7 4 -

1 (after) 5 5 3 -

Question Ability Group always mostly sometimes never

My behaviour stops me 1 (before) - - 7 6

learning 1 (after) - 1 4 8

2 (before) - - 6 3

2 (after) - - 5 4

I am fully involved in the lesson 1 (before) 4 8 1 -

1 (after) 2 9 2 -

2 (before) 1 4 4 -

2 (after) - 7 2 -


Table 3

Some observations from pupils’ diaries.

- I had a lot of fun playing the game and it was an active lesson

- Did I enjoy the lesson? Yes, it was quite challenging

- I enjoyed it because it was very fun

- I enjoyed Lotto because it was cool and helped me learn

- It was good on the PALE units, very fun

- I enjoyed the lesson because it was nice and calm

- I enjoyed the lesson because it was active and we had lots of fun

- Did I enjoy today? No, because everyone in my group was talking, grrrr.

- Lotto was boring

- I enjoy it because we were in pairs

- Too much moving around

- Yes, I enjoyed it because I had a lot of fun

2. Comments from students explaining why they particularly enjoyed a lesson.

- The subjects lesson. I was good at it

- When we held up our white boards on time with our answers because I got praise for being able to do it.

- Time it's very fun, I like it cause I'm good at it.

- One Friday we all came into the classroom and played the snake game all lesson but I actually learned more

than usual. It was fun and not so formal.

- Going through to the computer room and playing on Linguascope. We got to make our own games and play

games online.

3. Comments from students when asked to describe a lesson they had not enjoyed during the

development and why.

- liked them all

- I can't think of a lesson recently

- I can't think of one

- I can't think of a lesson I didn't enjoy, I liked them all

- no. I enjoy most lessons

- when we were learning about time, I was really bad at it

- when I got sent out the room for most of the lesson, it was boring but it was my fault

- when we played the snake game for a whole period, I dislike the snake game

- PALE units when listening to stuff I couldn't understand

Question Ability group always mostly sometimes never

I am confident about 1 (before) 1 6 5 1

speaking French 1 (after) 3 8 2 -

2 (before) 1 3 4 1

2 (after) 1 4 2 2

I find French easy 1 (before) - 7 5 1

1 (after) 1 8 4 -


The Theory Behind Good Teaching and Learning

Derek Simpson

“The principle goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new

things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” Jean Piaget

Rationale Our core business is learning and improving the quality of teaching and learning is

fundamental to raising achievement for all. This document will help to ensure that the

school delivers its aims and vision for learning.

Aims 1. To empower teachers with a model for lesson design planning in order to maximise

learning

2. To provide common criteria against which high quality teaching and learning can be

evaluated

3. To ensure a high quality of experience for all students to help maximise each individual‟s

potential, whilst supporting creativity and individuality

4. To maximise every students‟ potential

5. Every student – some progress with their learning every lesson

What does quality teaching look like?

Quality Teaching:

• provides carefully structured activities matched to student needs

• gives students some responsibility for their own work

• develops well planned, prepared and paced lessons that maintain high levels of

interaction with the class

• provides challenging work stemming from expert subject knowledge, how to teach

it and how students learn

• maintains high levels of student engagement

• creates a positive atmosphere in the classroom through excellent relationships

• pace, variety, challenge, expectations

• incorporates high levels of praise and enthusiasm

• uses a variety of approaches; strategies and techniques are well selected and time is

used productively

• uses homework effectively; particularly to reinforce and extend what is learned in

school, if not prepare for a new topic

• modelling good outcomes

• resources ICT

What does quality learning look like?

Quality Learning is:

• when students are motivated and enthused by what they are learning

• an active process – a product of doing rather than receiving

• builds on prior knowledge

• supported by both the teacher and other students, and takes the form of

interaction, collaboration and teacher intervention

• centred on the learners‟ responsibility for their own learning. They are able to

exercise choice, develop goals, plan their approach and work independently.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 • reflective and enables learners to monitor and review the learning

• where students make progress with their learning

• when students display a strong desire to contribute the effort and concentration required to

match the teachers‟ passion for learning

GOOD AND OUTSTANDING LESSONS

Guidance for Lesson Planning All lessons should be planned and resourced with consideration to the age, ability and needs of

the student. An effective lesson is structured to include a starter activity, the main body of the

lesson and a plenary. In addition, well-planned lessons contain the following elements:

1. Learning Objectives which are identified and shared

This needs to be a two step approach in which students are told not only the purpose of the lesson

but also what the teacher expects in terms of outcomes from activity. There is a need to

communicate why they are doing what they are doing and how it fits into the bigger picture of the

subject or their wider learning across the curriculum.

This might be achieved through: • the learning objectives being outlined to the students at or near to the beginning of each lesson.

• the students being clear about the learning objectives in terms of what they are expected to

learn. Objectives could be phrased in terms of:

„We are learning to …:

a. know that … (knowledge - factual information such as names of people or

equipment, places, symbols, formulae etc.);

b. understand how/why … (understanding – concepts, reasons, effects,

principles, processes etc.);

c. develop/be able to … (skills – using knowledge, applying techniques,

analysing information etc.);

d. develop/be aware of … (attitudes and values – empathy, caring,

sensitivity towards social issues, feelings, moral issues etc.);

e. explore and refine strategies for ... (creating, designing,

hypothesising, exploring alternatives). • The students understand desired learning outcomes. You want to tell students what you expect from

them as a high quality outcome of each lesson or part lesson and how they will be assessed on the

work they are to do, create or produce. This will usually be done through effective modelling of tasks

and describing or showing different possible attainment levels students will produce. Outcomes

could to be phrased in terms of:

‘What I am looking For …: (‘WILF’)

a. from everyone is…..’

b. you to be successful is...’

c. for top marks is….…’

2. Review learning from a previous lesson to link and consolidate

Review helps create links with previous learning. This helps build secure foundations for

subsequent learning, so that learners can progressively develop the skills, knowledge,

understanding, attitudes and values contained in the curriculum.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 3. Variety of Learning Activity

The main activity/activities in a lesson are critical in making learning an enjoyable and

challenging experience. It should stimulate learning through matching teaching techniques and

strategies to the range of learning styles and needs within your class. Effective lessons will

contain activities for visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners.

Ultimately, lesson preparation should involve using student data and assessments to design

different tasks to meet individual student learning styles. It should provide opportunities for

students to show and develop their skills and abilities to work independently and collaboratively.

When you decide how many tasks to cover in a lesson, and how long each should be, as a guide

try not to exceed the concentration span of students. Tony Buzan suggests that the average

concentration span corresponds roughly to chronological age plus one or two minutes. With

challenging classes take this figure as a maximum – so, for example, keep tasks under 12 minutes

for S1 students.

4. Differentiation to Enable All Learners to Succeed

Differentiation can be seen as an on-going process that is accommodating the needs of individual

students in Dunbar Grammar School. It ensures that teaching allows most learners to make at

least their expected progress in relation to their capability. It will also stretch the less able to work

as close to their capability as possible and the gifted and talented way beyond. Differentiation is

best achieved when based upon an informed review of the student's learning and therefore

through a diagnostic and formative assessment procedure. (See Appendix 1)

Differentiation within classes should therefore take account of students‟ current and target grades.

Other professional judgements through diagnostic and formative assessment may reshape initial

strategies over time, but this data should remain central to the differentiation employed in the

classroom.

5. Assessment for Learning

The key focus of assessment in teaching and learning is to enable students to be continually

aware of where they are now in their learning, where they can or need to get to, and, most

importantly, how best to get there.

Assessment is of prime importance to staff to inform their future planning and activity with

classes. We must recognise equally that it has a profound influence on student motivation and

self-esteem. Therefore it must show consideration and be both constructive and sensitive. Our

ability to share this information with parents effectively is key to students being supported as well

as possible at home.

Evaluation Any Teaching and Learning Policy will be achieved and supported by:

• A firm commitment to improving the quality of teaching and learning of students

• The development and improvement of learning and teaching as the central component in school

improvement planning

• The use of continuing professional development (courses, coaching, in-service, mentoring, training

and so on) within the cycle and framework of performance management and staff development days.

• The formal and informal monitoring systems which are already in place, augmented by lesson

observations, peer observations, work sampling, student voice and analysis of assessment and

examination data


Appendices:

Appendix 1

Improving the quality of teaching and learning through differentiation Differentiation is the process of meeting the needs of different types of learners in our

classrooms. This might be achieved by:

a. TASK Because students work in a variety of ways with their different strengtsh and aptitudes, a range of

tasks spanning the spectrum of abilities can be an effective way of differentiating.

b. RESOURCE Resources are available to challenge the more able and support students with special educational

needs. It means changing the resources by which students learn to meet their individual needs.

Practical strategies could include:

• Layout, design, graphics and readability of the resource.

• Training the pupils to use a variety of resources independently

• Reducing the dependence on whole class texts as a source for teaching.

• Variety of mediums for example marker pens and poster paper

c. RESPONSE The response of the teacher / adult / fellow student is a form by which differentiation can be

achieved. This is essential in cases where differentiation by outcome is planned as the teacher's

written or spoken response will vary from student to student. Marking of a student's work is an

important medium for differentiation by response.

d. OUTCOME Students working on a common un-differentiated task will inevitably produce different outcomes

to the task set, as long as the task is not too closed.

e. GROUP Differentiation by group is an important way to allow purposeful use of resources. Students could

belong to smaller groups within a larger teaching group. The students will have a record of the

groups to which they belong.

f. SUPPORT The different needs of the different students will inevitably mean that some students need greater

support than others. There are a number of strategies that can provide that support. Using the

skills of Learning Assistants in the classroom to create a positive learning environment for

example.

These strategies adapt teaching to the potential and needs of each individual, from the gifted and

talented to those with special educational needs, and as a result create a culture of respect for

others and their learning, whatever their gender, social background or ethnic group.

Dunbar Grammar School Learning Team 2011 - 2012 Appendix 2

1 The Importance of Preparation

This is based on the old trainer adage “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. What can the teaching

professional do before the learners have entered the classroom to ensure the session is going

to be productive and effective for everyone concerned? In particular should we review their

approach to lesson plan design against

The balance between listening, thinking and doing by the learners

The preparation and use of learning materials

Must Know, Should Know, Could Know

How Preparation impacts on Control

2 The use of routine

The importance of routine to classroom control in particular looking at the benefits of:

controlled starts

start-up activities

Registers

setting the agenda

3 Positive Role Modelling

The benefits of the teacher as a role model to the learning process including the importance

of:

Enthusiasm and energy

Effort, flexibility, and availability

Firmness and fairness

Knowledge of the content

Handling Questions

Key Principles & Approaches

Requests for clarification

Off-topic questions

4 Setting Behavioural Limits

Do we/should we set limits for acceptable behaviour and where necessary, enforce them

effectively. Current best practice is outlined as

Setting the ground rules

Communicating the consequences of non-compliance

When and how to use, or not use, infractions

Placing the emphasis on what to do next back on the learner

Avoiding Challenge and Escalation

Responding forcefully and fairly to challenges to your authority

o Noisy Learners

o Hecklers


Problem Solving in Physical Education

Jamie Stewart

Why? –

- After finishing university last year and carrying out my dissertation on the effects of

different teaching styles on pupils‟ motivation in PE, I was interested to see how

different styles of teaching could impact on pupil‟s performance in PE. Before

undertaking this project, during my years of placements at university, I tended to teach

pupils new skills rigidly – they were taught how to do the skill and then developed it.

How? –

- During 2 separate blocks of work with my S1 class, 1C6, I aimed at investigating the

difference in pupil‟s performance of a skill as a result of being taught the skills in

different ways. I decided to do this with my 1C6 as they are the least experienced of the

classes I teach and will have less previous knowledge of the activities they do in PE.

- Firstly, during the class‟ basketball block, I taught them how to shoot the ball using the

„set shot‟ technique. The teaching of this shot was very rigid – I showed the class how to

shoot and told them each of the key teaching points before setting them up in practices

to try and learn/improve their performance. Throughout the practices, I reiterated the

teaching points to both individuals and the class as a whole.

- In contrast to this, during the class‟ badminton block I taught the class the „overhead

clear‟ shot using a more guided discovery approach. This meant that I set the class up in

practices with set parameters (play the shuttle above your head; try to reach the back of

the court at the other side etc). During the practices I reminded the class of these

guidelines and also showed them different techniques that their classmates had

performed, giving them the chance to try out each one and find the best.

What were my findings? –

- When assessing the pupil‟s ability at performing each of the skills, I rated them on a

scale of 1-5 (1 = strong, 2 = above average, 3 = average, 4 = below average, 5 = poor).

The ratings I assigned to the class are shown in the table below.

Basketball Set Shot Badminton Overhead Clear

Strong 6 4

Above average 6 8

Average 4 9

Below average 8 2

Poor 4 5

- As seen in the table, when taught through a more direct approach in the basketball

block, 50% of the pupils were both below and above average. It showed a very even


spread amongst the class. When doing their problem solving task in badminton,

although less pupils were rated strong, more were average or above in their rating.

These results, I found very interesting: although it was in a different activity, doing a

different skill, the class as a whole showed better performance levels when performing a

skill that they had used problem solving skills to develop.

What next? –

- To carry on this project further, I would like to see whether or not the pupils retain the

skills they have learned this session. When the class takes part in the same activities in

S2 I would analyse their ability to play each of the shots at the start of the block to see

how much they have remembered and whether or not they are able to perform to the

same ability level.

dgs learning team report 2011-12

Documents

learning team work

dgs learning team

learning techniques

priorities of learning

school inclusion of

scottish learning festival

flexible group

year groups