what is learning?. what makes a good comedian? learning is the hedgehog concept of schools
TRANSCRIPT
What is learning?
What makes a good comedian?
Learning is the Hedgehog Concept of schools
Where does learning happen in schools?
FOUR STATES RELATED TO LEARNING
• New
• Consolidated
• Treading Water
• Drowning
What learning isn’t.
Learning isn’t…
brand new.
Learning isn’t…
being busy.
Learning isn’t…
about current performance.
Learning isn’t…
necessarily quick.
KNOWLEDGE
• Is relatively self-contained
• Is agreed and verifiable
• Is ‘on’ or ‘off’
• Is continually increasing
Thinking about knowledge
Essential knowledge
• The monarchy in Thailand is held in high esteem by the majority of Thai people.
Essential knowledge
• Paris is the capital of France.
Motivational knowledge
Motivational - (Gee Whizz!)
• The average bee produces one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. (Horizons, March 2003)
Motivational - (Gee Whizz!)
• Henry David Thoreau once burnt down 300 acres of forest trying to cook a fish he had caught for supper. (The Times, 17 April 2003)
Transformational
• The annual budget of the Afghan government is around $460m – about one half of the monthly US military spend in Afghanistan. (The Guardian, 18 March)
Transformational
• The average sale price of a house in Detroit is $7100.00.
Wall Street Journal, September 2009
Can we identify knowledge that is….
Essential…Motivational…Transformational
SKILLS
• Are active
• Have to be encountered in practice
• Change from beginning...through developing...through mastering
• Are surprisingly stable
While teaching for understanding is a vital aim of schooling it is only one of many. We are thus not suggesting here that all teaching be geared at all
times towards deep and sophisticated understanding. Clearly, there are circumstances when this depth is neither feasible nor desirable.
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, ‘Understanding by Design’
Only Understanding?
‘Why have I recorded the Goldberg Variations again after 20 years?
Andreas Schiff, pianist, 2003
I think I understand it a little better now.’
It’s too soon to tell.
What do you think of the Chinese invasion of Tibet?
The Dalai Lama
‘The ability to generate a novel and philosophical idea is something one labours at
over a lifetime.’
Colin McGinn, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University.
In Prospect magazine, November 2003
The pre-frontal cortex is where our most complex thinking takes place. Recent evidence
tells us that the pre-frontal cortex doesn’t mature until somewhere between 18 and 23
years of age.
The pre-frontal cortex
‘...what is required for optimal cognition is a fluid balance between modes of mind that are
effortful, purposeful, detailed and explicit on the one hand and those that are playful, patient and
implicit on the other. We need to be able to generate ideas, and also to evaluate them.
Guy Claxton, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, 1997
Slow Thinking
UNDERSTANDING
• Important - but
• Complex
• Fleeting
• Unpredictable
• Inconsistent
What is the relationship between knowledge, skills and understanding?
Understanding
Skills
Knowledge
Under stand ing
K now ledge
Skill s
Is there any learning going on?
Is the learning appropriate?
Is the learning sufficient?
How is the context helping the learning?
How is the context hindering the learning?
New Consolidating Treading Water
Drowning
Knowledge
Skills
Understanding
Dr Robinson – “I am learning what a shield wall is”
Mrs Dolan – “I am learning how to examine maps to understand positioning”
Mr Dunster – “I thought William was the Prince nowadays – now I’m really confused”
Mrs Williams – “I learned all about 1066 last year”
Ms Northey – “I did do this last year but I had forgotten about the HusCarls”
Mr Macrae – “I like to examine sources of evidence. I have practised comparing them today”
Mr Lowde – “I feel I understand why nuclear deterrent is favoured by politicians”
History - SLT
Battle of Hastings
What helps learning happen?
Health and Diet
Dispositions
‘The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you live your life.’
Carol Dweck, ‘Mindset’2006
‘Believing that your qualities are carved in stone - the fixed mindset - creates an urgency to prove
yourself over and over. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel
like a winner or a loser’
Carol Dweck, ‘Mindset’2006
‘The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things that you can cultivate through your efforts. You can see how this believe creates a passion for learning. Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? Why seek out the tried and true instead of experiences that will
challenge you? Why look for friends who will shore up your self-esteem instead of ones
who will also challenge you?’
Carol Dweck, ‘Mindset’2006
Motivation
‘The research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the
thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it.’
Malcolm Gladwell, ‘Outliers, The Story of Success’2008
‘Practice isn’t the thing you do once you are good. It’s the thing you do that makes you
good.’
Malcolm Gladwell, ‘Outliers, The Story of Success’2008
Differentiation
FOUR KINDS OF DIFFERENTIATION
Learning styles
Multiple Intelligences
Developmentally appropriate tasks
Feedback
• According to multiple intelligence theory, there are nine basic types of
intelligence. Visual-spatial
Verbal-linguistic Logical-mathematical
Bodily-kinesthetic Musical-rhythmic
Interpersonal Intrapersonal Naturalistic Existential
D-mode Thinking
• finds answers, rather than examines question
• treats perception as unproblematic• values explanation over observation• likes explanations which are
justifiable and non-intuitive • seeks clarity, dislikes confusion• operates with a sense of urgency
and impatience• purposeful rather than playful• precise
Slow Thinking
‘Our most serious problems are not technical, nor do they arise from inadequate information.
Despite the … introduction of project and course work,students continue to be largely assessed, at school...and university, on their ability to manipulate data under pressure of time.
The possibility that work depends on ideas and that ideas differin their quality as well as their up-to-dateness, and that quality takes time to mature, seems to be almost universally dismissed.’
Guy Claxton
‘...what is required for optimal cognition is a fluid balance between modes of mind that are
effortful, purposeful, detailed and explicit on the one hand and those that are playful, patient and
implicit on the other. We need to be able to generate ideas, and also to evaluate them.
Guy Claxton, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, 1997
Slow Thinking
Memory
What makes a learning-focused school different?
Culture:
‘The Way we Do Things Around Here’
Effective Schools share two characteristics. First, they are
driven by learning. Second, they achieve high levels of
consistency.
Joe Murphy, 1998
Learning
We’ve been doing this for so long...
Curriculum
Assessment
Resources
Teaching
We are reversing the process
Should we have been doing this?
Learning Assessment
Resources
Teaching
Curriculum
The Four Quadrant Model
1211
109
8
1
7
65
4
3
2
13
1
23
4
5
67
8
910
11
1213
6
13
12
1110
9
78
12
3
45
Source: Adapted from A Brief History of Everything, Ken Wilbur. Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boston 2000
1
2
34
5
6
78
9
10
1112
13
I IT
WE ITS
Building the Learning Focused School – The 4 Quadrant Model
Systems and structures
Evidence - both soft and hard
Collective Passion
Individual Passion
What’s the difference between ‘x’ and a learning-
focused ‘x’?
Let’s think about 6 different elements
Continuous Improvement Plans
Recruitment
Displays
Newsletters
Classroom Visits
Parent Consultation Evenings
Personal Passion
- Focused on others and not themselves- Learners- Learners about learning- Outcome focused- Resilient- Conventionally good teachers
Source: The Looking for Learning Toolkit, 2008www.lookingforlearning.co.uk
Building the Learning Focused School – The 4 Quadrant Model
Individual Passion for Learning – Your Attitude
Are you a teacher, or a teacher for learning? (‘Self’ or ‘Other’ oriented)
How much have you learned about learning in the past year?
How have you altered your teaching this year to improve learning?
What question do you ask yourself at the end of each day/week/term?
Collective passion
- Individual and collective- Different, therefore equal- Assertive, not aggressive- Consent, not consensus- Self-regulating- Situational- ‘Now’ and ‘Future’
Source: The Looking for Learning Toolkit, 2008www.lookingforlearning.co.uk
Building the Learning Focused School – The 4 Quadrant Model
Individual Passion for Learning – Your Attitude
Are you a teacher, or a teacher for learning?
(‘Self’ or ‘Other’ oriented?)
How much have you learned about learning in the past year?
How have you altered your teaching this year to improve learning?
What question do you ask yourself at the end of each day/week/term?
Collective Passion for Learning – Our Attitude
How well do colleagues differentiate each other?
How many discussions have two or more people had about learning in their classrooms? - Collaboration about learning
How frequently do learning discussions occur?
Building the Learning Focused School – The 4 Quadrant Model
Individual Passion for Learning – Your Attitude
Are you a teacher, or a teacher for learning? (‘Self’ or ‘Other’ oriented?)
How much have you learned about learning in the past year?
How have you altered your teaching this year to improve learning?
What question do you ask yourself at the end of each day/week/term?
Collective Passion for Learning – Our Attitude
How well do colleagues differentiate each other?
How many discussions have two or more people had about learning? - Collaboration about learning?
How frequently do learning discussions occur?
Your school’s systems and structures
How well does your school monitor classroom learning?
What proportion of staff meetings are about learning?
Is your school improvement plan learning-focused?
Do you have learning-focused parents evenings, newsletters, displays etc?
Structures and Systems
- Displays- Newsletters- Planning- Meetings- Monitoring- Feedback (to students, teachers, parents,
Boards etc)
Source: The Looking for Learning Toolkit, 2008www.lookingforlearning.co.uk
Building the Learning Focused School – The 4 Quadrant Model
Individual Passion for Learning – Your Attitude
Are you a teacher, or a teacher for learning? (‘Self’ or ‘Other’ oriented)
How much have you learned about learning in the past year?
How have you altered your teaching this year to improve learning?
What question do you ask yourself at the end of each day/week/term?
Collective Passion for Learning – Our Attitude
How well do colleagues differentiate each other?
How many discussions have two or more people had about learning? - Collaboration about learning
How frequently do learning discussions occur?
Your school’s systems and structures
How well does your school monitor classroom learning?
What proportion of staff meetings are about learning?
Is your school improvement plan learning-focused?
Do you have learning-focused parents evenings, newsletters, displays etc?
Evidence for learning – soft and hard
Does evidence inform your school improvement plan?
Are you assessing and evaluating the right things?
Do you use a mix of soft and hard evidence?
How do you judge whether learning is happening in your classroom?
How would you describe your school?
Lucky Leading
Losing Learning
How would you describe your school?
Lucky Leading
Losing Learning
Good results, low understanding
of antecedents
Replication of success unlikely
How would you describe your school?
Lucky Leading
Losing Learning
Good results, low understanding
of antecedents
Replication of success unlikely
Not good enough results,
low understanding
of antecedents
Replication of failure likely
How would you describe your school?
Lucky Leading
Losing Learning
Good results, low understanding
of antecedents
Replication of success unlikely
Not good enough results,
low understanding
of antecedents
Replication of failure likely
Not good enough results,
high understanding
of antecedents
Delivery of success likely
How would you describe your school?
Lucky Leading
Losing Learning
Good results, low understanding
of antecedents
Replication of success unlikely
Not good enough results,
low understanding
of antecedents
Replication of failure likely
Not good enough results,
high understanding
of antecedents
Delivery of success likely
Good results, high understanding
of antecedents
Replication of success likely
The Learning Dashboard
Evidence- ABOUT TESTS and EXAMS- Focusing on the learning that matters- About pre and post
- ABOUT COMPLETED WORK
- ABOUT LEARNING IN ACTION- Are they busy, or are they busy
learning (L4L)- About factors that affect learning- About personal passion, collective
passion, structures and systems
Source: The Looking for Learning Toolkit, 2008www.lookingforlearning.co.uk