Transcript Slide 1

From Good
…to Outstanding
…it is not possible to improve outcomes for pupils
simply by teaching the curriculum harder and longer;
teachers have to strengthen pupil’s pleasure in learning
and their self-esteem.
James and Pollard, 2010.
Continuing Professional
Development
Course attendance was the main vehicle for professional
development in most of the schools … and using
consultants to provide in-school programmes of support
to tackle a specific need.
HMI 2002.
… the “cascade” approach was fraught with
problems and was perceived by staff as having
minimal direct impact on classroom practice.
McNamara, Webb and Brundrett, 2010
Most teachers were very willing to plan professional
development activities. In the main, however, such
planning tended to be short term, focusing on the
courses to be attended or other development
opportunities to be undertaken.
It was rarely perceived as part of a longer-term
sequence or cycle of activities which would lead from
enhancing the skills or knowledge of the teacher to
enabling pupils to achieve higher levels of
performance.
Ofsted 2002
Good professional development within the
school was a key factor in helping teachers to
encourage and assess creative approaches to
learning and improve their subject knowledge.
Externally produced resources and short
training courses had limited impact without
local training and continuing in-school support.
Ofsted 2010
it seems clear that we can be much more
deliberate in organising schools in ways that
enhance teacher learning and the learning of
other adults.
Sergiovanni (2001)
The Professional Environment
James and Pollard (2010) noted that throughout the wide ranging issues it
explored, there was one key area of agreement;
‘Most projects produced strong evidence that a key to
improved learning and achievement by pupils is the learning
of teachers’.
A collaborative professional environment
promoting teacher learning is also supported by the research of
the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP).
How adults learn, and how they develop a reflective learning culture, and
how the school becomes a “learning organisation” are essential if the
totality of learning is to be the central feature of the school.
Davies, 2006
What tools are available to this professional environment?
Dudley explored the lesson study model through the TLRP.
The Cambridge Primary Review describes the key outcomes:
1.
Research Lesson Study engages teachers at all levels of
experience and sustains their interest over time;
2. It involves pupils directly in the analysis of teaching;
3. Leads to innovation in lesson design and improvements in
pupil achievements.
James and Pollard, 2010
‘Learning earns the centre stage position because it is a
powerful way for the school to adapt, to stay ahead, and to
invent new solutions’.
(Sergiovanni, 2001).
The “Learning How To Learn” project
makes these practices explicit:
Sustainability depends on professional development that
encourages teachers to re-evaluate
their fundamental beliefs about learning,
the way they structure tasks,
the nature of their classroom roles
and their relationships with pupils.
James and Pollard, 2010
Long term sustainability depends on an environment that not
only promotes reflection and collaborative learning and
that also builds the capacity of its leaders at all levels.
Fullan 2005
Leadership of Learning
Effective shared leadership will be vital
to the continuing progress of the school;
leaders at all levels … who proactively and naturally …
bring about deeper reform
and help other leaders working on the same issues
Fullan, 2005
These leaders will need to be given opportunities to achieve if
the school is to develop into a successful primary school fit
for the 21st century:
one that is educationally effective in the short term but has a
clear framework … to translate … vision into excellent
educational provision … in the medium to long term.
Davies, 2006
Teachers need to question their accepted ways of working;
focussing on a specific issue for school enquiry
James and Pollard, 2010
The SPRinG project
(Social Pedagogic Research into Group work) implores
Group work skills need to be approached developmentally: …
practical “relational” strategies, based on principles,
provides a successful approach to raising standards and
improving behaviour.
James and Pollard, 2010
Our children are highly task focussed. If we are to truly
release their potential, we need to provide them with the
opportunities to develop their independence through group
collaboration.
They will be leaders of their own learning, just as we will be,
and we will really be able to afford the claim of leadership
at all levels.
The New Build.
School buildings should inspire learning. They should nurture
every pupil and member of staff.
Ministerial introduction to the BSF consultation, DfES 2003
• The Steer committee report (2005) reported that building layout had an
identifiable affect on children’s behaviour.
• It implored schools to develop communal areas as civilised and wellordered places that offer opportunities for positive social interactions
between children and adults.
• Lundquist, Holmberg and Landstrom (2000) recognised the impact of noise
on children’s levels of annoyance in particular.
• It is important for schools to recognise that young children are far more
susceptible to poor acoustic conditions than adults (Elliott 2002)
• Children may have different psychological responses to a wide range of
environmental factors from adults (Corsi, Torres, Sanders and Kinney, 2002).
• ‘School facilities affect learning. Spatial configurations, noise, heat, cold,
light, and air quality obviously bear on students’ and teachers’ ability to
perform’,
M Schneider, 2002.
The Commission for Architecture and the Built
Environment (CABE 2010) outlined the implications:
School buildings will have to become more accessible and
adaptable for … the change in learning patterns and
the implications of increased ICT use.
Futurelab ask two pertinent questions:
1.
2.
‘What if … we design spaces for learning
competences as well as content?’
‘What if … most learning was collaborative?’
Tim Rudd et al (2006).
If we are to put collaborative learning at the heart of the
process, we need to consider how spaces can interact
to promote collaborative learning for both teachers
and children.
The government’s guidance for the Building Schools for the
Future programme advocates the:
… need to plan for professional development … to ensure
they can contribute effectively to, and get the most from,
the programme.
DCSF (2009).
Current research does not address the way in which primary
school spaces are interconnected and influence one
another, how they are used pedagogically, or how they are
managed and maintained. This has meant that a particular
learning space has tended to be examined in isolation
rather than in the context of the learning environment.
Wall, Dockrell and Peacey, 2010
Where do we go now?
• The Plowden Report (CACE 1967) led the call for a pupil-centred
classroom pedagogy. It expounded an approach encouraging group
work that it would allow teachers to focus on particular children at any
one time whilst others would be occupied on independent collaborative
group tasks.
• The issue for the school is about how learning is encouraged in these
group settings.
• Blatchford et al (2010) make it clear that research ‘results show that
with-in class grouping, rather than class level organisational grouping
initiatives, may have greater potential to raise standards’.
It is more important … to prepare pupils to work effectively together,
[through] a long term commitment [to] developing relational and other
social pedagogic practices [so] pupils respond with improved
attainment, classroom behaviours and pro-learning attitudes.
Blatchford et al, 2010.
• There is a reasonable consensus that specific forms of interaction
need to be taught to elicit productive collaborative learning; (Barnes
and Todd 1977, Chinn and Anderson 1998).
• The Learning How to Learn Project offers strong evidence that
children’s learning depends upon teacher learning, so
developing the professional environment and using these skills as
teachers (indeed as any adults involved in the learning of the children)
is crucial.
• There is strong evidence to suggest that children in this kind of
dialogue continue to reflect on the subject matter long after
finishing the work (Howe et al, 2005)
The needs of the professional environment and the development of a
culture of leadership blend seamlessly with the development of
collaborative learning with and amongst the children.
The SPRinG project would seem therefore to offer insights for the school:
• Group-work skills have to be developed.
• We cannot just put children into groups and expect them to work well
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together, particularly when adults can also find it difficult to work with
others.
Develop strategies with teachers likely to lead to high-quality,
thoughtful group work.
These strategies need to allow teachers the freedom to adapt grouping
practices for different purposes and learning tasks.
Adults need to support and guide groups, and monitor their progress,
in ways that encourage independence rather than directly teaching
pupils.
It is positive in its message that given space and time to develop pupils’
group working skills, teachers can bring about a transformation in the
teaching and learning environment.
It encourages the link to the built environment: to be successful, group
work must be integrated into overall classroom organisation and
management.
Summary
• …if we are not careful, classrooms may be places where
teachers, rather than children, do most of the talking; …
where instead of thinking through a problem children
devote their energies to trying to spot a correct answer,
where supposed equality of discussion is subverted by … a
kind of talk which remains stubbornly unlike the kind of
talk that takes place everywhere else. Alexander
• The Primary Capital Programme is focussed on
transforming learning so there is a clear need to consider
‘adopting more adventurous styles and flexible teaching;
and implementing more effective collaborative learning
between pupils.’ Blatchford et all.
Amongst the ten principles for effective learning, the Teaching and
Learning Research Project includes:
– The overriding impact on pupil
learning;
learning depends on teacher
– the benefits of
improving the quality of group work and
– where senior
management support innovation it becomes
pupil’s ability to cooperate and collaborate;
– the significance of informal learning;
sustainable.
Pollard, ‘Professionalism and pedagogy – A contemporary opportunity’
• Alexander states that: ‘If classroom talk is to make a
meaningful contribution to children’s learning and
understanding it must move beyond acting out cognitively
restricting rituals’.
• Can a change to the built environment be the catalyst for a
deeper change in the professional environment and
encourage a culture of leadership in the school? Given
thorough preparation, most emphatically, yes it can.