Transcript Document

How can we use a sociocultural
psychology of education to improve
classroom education?
Neil Mercer
Through working with…
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Teachers
Local authorities and schools
Policy makers
Parents and families
Through working with…
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Teachers
Local authorities and schools
Policy makers
Parents and families
Interprofessional working requires…
…the building of common knowledge
…the development of a common language
…an appreciation the different motives,
accountabilities and priorities which shape
the lives of different professionals
..appreciating that we work in an activity
system, not just as various individuals
(A. Edwards, 2009,
Scot. Ed. Review)
The relationship between psychologists
and teachers
• What do we offer?
•What do they think of us?
•How can we work together most
effectively?
Teachers’ views
‘What do you think of educational
psychologists?’
They are…
• “ a child’s only hope of getting
a statement”
•“assessment people”
•“very rare beasts”
•“good at making me feel guilty”
“First of all the question made me laugh - it's a wry
laugh. Two reasons; faced with very tricky
children in class, teachers look forward to, hope
for/expect some insight and practical help from
the Ed Psychs. In fact - always after a long wait
and lots of paper work - what they say is nearly
always hopelessly anodyne, vague or impractical
and doesn't tell you much you don't already know.
On the other hand - now I reflect - the ones who
were involved with very long term children with
severe needs and knew the families well were
great, insightful and supportive to everyone”
“ One Ed Psych made a big impression during
my teaching years because he was a
sympathetic, caring and committed man
who tried very hard to help a deeply
troubled Aspergers boy I taught. His (and
our) efforts however were severely
hampered by very restricted funding from
the LA and the parents unwillingness to
admit their child's vulnerability and
increasingly depressive tendencies.”
Psychologists are commonly expected
to…
• assess children’s abilities
• work with children with
‘difficulties’
•justify children not being in a
mainstream class or getting
special help
Psychologists are less often expected
to…
• Be concerned with the learning of
‘mainstream’ children
• Be involved in CPD sessions
• Work with teachers to design better
teaching
• Help to assess the effects of
teaching on learning outcomes
Educational psychology in Scotland: making a
difference (2011)
• ‘There is the potential for [educational psychologists] to make
wider contributions to the curriculum, working with colleagues in
education services to identify areas where their expertise
might have the greatest impact. This might include improving
learning, teaching and supporting transitions as part of the
successful implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.
• The research function of educational psychology services could
contribute more to improving outcomes for children and young
people. This applies in particular to the priorities selected for
research and and the use that is made of the results of
research to inform policy and practice.
• there is scope for much more to be delivered, in a broader
range of areas, so helping to support the increasing growth of
education as a ‘learning profession’ which is continually
reflecting upon, and improving, its own practice.’
What kind of psychology underpins the
curriculum?
‘The curriculum we have was formed under what might
be termed an individualistic paradigm of human
psychology and behaviour….
In recent years this paradigm has been challenged. The
idea of the self as an isolated individual whose
behaviour and decisions are motivated solely by rational
self-interest has come under increasing pressure.
Insights drawn from a range of disciplines - such as
behavioural economics, neuroscience and psychology strongly suggest that the brain is essentially social,
having evolved to function within group settings.’
(Royal Society of Arts: Curriculum and The Social Brain, 2010)
The social brain
The social brain hypothesis in evolutionary
psychology contends that human brains
have evolved to be as big as they are so
that we can think about and manage our
relationships with other people.
(Grist, 2006; Dunbar, 1998)
Recent neuroscience research supports
the idea of…
..the brain’s pro-sociality, i.e. the brain’s
constant orientation to others and the
creation of meaning through brains
interacting, rather than through the
operation of discontinuous, internal,
individual cognition.
(Torrance & Maclure, 2010)
What kind of psychology should underpin the
curriculum (and the teaching of it)?
Sociocultural Psychology
emphasises that:
•knowledge and understanding are jointly
created
•dialogue between adults and children can
provide an intermental framework for
intramental development
•What happens in a classroom needs to be
understood in social context (within an
activity system)
Language plays a vital role in cognitive
development
Ways of talking
Lev Vygotsky
Ways of thinking
Language plays a vital role in cognitive
development
The amount and quality of the spoken dialogue
children experience at home is one of best
predictors of their eventual academic
attainment
(Hart & Risley, 1995).
“Mothers or carers who have an “elaborative”
conversational style have children with more organised
and detailed memories... Mothers who...seldom use
elaboration and evaluation, have children who recall less
about the past. Longitudinal studies have shown that it
is the experience of verbalising events at the time that
they occur that is critical for long-term retention.”
(Goswami and Bryant,2007, p. 8)
For many children, good language
experience at school is their only
hope
Working with policy makers,
authorities, teachers, what can we
do about it?
What is most teacher-student
interaction like?
“In the whole class sections of literacy
and numeracy lessons…
most of the questions asked were of a
low cognitive level designed to funnel
pupils’ responses towards a required
answer.”
(Smith, Hardman, Wall & Mroz, 2004)
Whole class talk: example 1
Teacher: OK. Looking at the text now I want you please to
tell me what tense the first paragraph is in.
Girl:
The past tense.
Teacher: Yes it’s in the past tense. How do you know it’s in the past
tense?
Girl:
Because it says August 1990.
Teacher: You know by the date it’s in the past tense, but you know by
something else you know, you know by the doing words in the t
ext that change. What’s a doing word? What do we call a doing
word David?
David: A verb.
Teacher: A verb good. Will you give me one verb please out of this first
paragraph. Find one verb in this paragraph. Stephen?
Stephen: Rescued.
Teacher: Rescued, excellent, excellent and that’s in the past tense.
(Hardman, 2007)
Whole class discussion: example 2
Teacher reads text :
'Ten to twenty Daddy-long-legs can live together in this cage. It is fun to
watch then at night. They are more active then. They rest during the day.
If you look into your Daddy-long-legs cage when they are resting, your
shadow will wake them suddenly. Then they will scamper round the cage,
bouncing up and down in their funny dance. A few minutes later, they will
all be resting quietly again.'
Teacher: Who has a question?
Susan: How many spiders can fit in a cage?
Reggie: It didn't tell
Susan: Yes it did
Justin: Reggie doesn't think it told us
Susan: Charlie?
Charlie: About ten or so.
Susan: Mara?
Mara: Ten to twenty.
Teacher: Ten to twenty. Daryl…what question would you ask?
Daryl: If you came by and looked, if you looked in the Daddy Long Legs
cage, what would the Daddy-long-legs do? Justin?
Justin: Your shadow would wake him up and then
they would start scampering around and...
Mara: And in a little bit all of them will lay down
and go back to sleep again.
Daryl: He kind of left something out
Teacher: What did he leave out?
Daryl : When they bounce up and down
Teacher : In a funny dance, right. That was a good
question Daryl. And Justin, I like the way you brought
in the use of shadow.
(Brown and Palinscar, 1989)
The most effective teachers...
1. …use question-and-answer sequences not just to
test knowledge, but also to guide the development
of children’s understanding.
2. …teach not just 'subject content', but also how to
solve problems and make sense of experience.
3. …treat learning as a social, communicative, dialogic
process.
(Rojas-Drummond & Mercer, 2004; Kyriacou & Issitt, 2008)
Talk about literary texts that does not
encourage comprehension has the following
characteristics:
•teachers merely check students’ comprehension
by seeking yes-no answers, and leave little room
for students to make sense of the text;
•teachers frame the question in such a way that
the students only have to complete the teachers’
incomplete sentence.
(Wolf, Crosson & Resnick, 2006)
Talk about literary texts that promotes
students’ high-level comprehension has the
following characteristics:
•teachers summarise what students say, which
provides an opportunity for other students to
build on these ideas;
•teachers encourage students to put the main idea
in their own words;
•teachers press the students for elaboration of
their ideas, e.g. ‘How did you know that?’ ‘Why?’.
(Wolf, Crosson & Resnick, 2005)
Some whole-class dialogue strategies
that work
• Ask ‘why’ questions (rather than only ‘what’ questions)
• Ask not just one, but several students for reasons and
justifications for their views before going into a topic
• Ask students to comment on each others’ views
• Hold back demonstrations or explanations until the
existing ideas of at least some students have been
heard (and then, where possible, link what you say to
issues they have raised).
(Mercer & Dawes, 2007)
How does this transfer into a large scale
implementation?
The epiSTEMe project
•Maths and science in Year 7
•26 schools
•Dialogic teaching intervention
•Randomized control trial
How well did it work?
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+Some teachers v. enthusiastic
+ Some positive results: learning gains
+ Practical implications
but…
- Some teachers resisted
- Researchers dominated
- Lack of institutional support
- Practical nightmares!
- Policy makers don’t want to know!
In conclusion…
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We need a sociocultural psychology which recognizes
that we have a social brain: we think collectively
using the tool of language
Working across professional boundaries requires the
development of common knowledge and a common
language
If you want to effect changes in an institution, you
have to work at the level of an activity system, not
just with individuals
If you introduce a new element into an activity
system, it will have unpredicted effects on what
happens before as well as after the point you
introduce it
SATs in English primary schools
OFSTED and the focus on phonics
Research Assessment in British universities
For more information…
[email protected]
www.thinking-together.org.uk