Independent Learning: The Red Herring?

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

There has been off and on, an obsession with Independent Learning over the last few years. The idea is based on the fact that often we feel our students are too dependent on us, and need (for university and the world of work) to be able to work a bit better on their own. Even OFSTED got involved in this, and some suggested that if the teacher was seen to be teaching, the lesson couldn't be Outstanding (the infamous quote, "If you talk for more than 10% of the lesson, it can only be Good, at best").

Obviously, many ideas connected with this are total nonsense.

From my blog post a few weeks ago (<here>), written after a few discussions with colleagues and my head hurting somewhat, I think the focus of 'independent learning' is a bit of a red herring. That's not to say independent learners and learning are not desirable, but it is part of a more complex system of what goes on in our classrooms. To sacrifice everything to get students working free-reign is potentially damaging to their progress.

For me personally, I like the ideas of an ‘ethic of excellence’ and ‘growth mindset’. I am a massive fan of Ron Berger and have blogged about him in the past: Redrafting to Perfection and TeachTweet #6 (16/01/14): Critique and Perfection – and I saw <this> last week. Some schools are trying to embed it fully within their schools <here>. Sparky Teaching do some really nice resources, such as <this>. There are even networks of schools now committed to focusing on this, see <here>. Even Ian Gilbert's book on Independent Thinking is not really about what you think it is going to be... he certainly doesn't set out a list of ways to simply unleash your students!

However, even with this, it's important to not get caught up with simply a new 'fad' or name for what boils down to just good teaching (This blog explore it well: <here>).

I had an emailed reply to my blog which raised a few questions and thoughts for me. Here is a summary that I think is useful to share:

• The focus shouldn't be on 'making everyone independent'. Focus on the students who need it most and consider your response and tools you provide to the student who replies with: "just tell us sir" or "do we need to know this for the exam" or "what is going to come up on the exam paper" or "do I need to know this"
• Very few students will become lifelong independent learners; don't kid yourself! How many of your students will continue to read and research for pleasure once there is nothing financially to be gained? Those that do, make it all worthwhile, although you'll probably never know!
• Setting an example of loving learning for its own sake is incredibly valuable. Independently minded young people love to hear about teachers with their own passions and interests. Children respond to a thirst for knowledge. 
• The suggestions I was given included "reading a book in the playground, tell them about your skydiving hobby, or show them your train-spotting notebooks... watch QI at the end of term for the hell of it, give anybody who can give you a piece of information that nobody else in the room knew a sweet, reward initiative and lateral thinking, praise the kid who gets an interesting wrong answer." 
• The Brilliant Club was another suggestion. We have used this for the first time at school this year and I can't recommend it more highly. A very rewarding experience for our students
• "The truly independent child is often one reading "His Dark Materials" under the desk on the back row, or drawing amazing cartoons on his exercise book, or staring out of the window!" - I think it's true to suggest that actually what I think I was looking for was motivated, capable, self-directed learners rather than independent ones. They are easily identifiable as the A/A* students. These are naturally to be celebrated, but don't need as much help to improve.
• If results in a comprehensive school are very high, it is likely that these are achieved by removing independence and doing much of the work for the students. The evidence of this would be: "carefully developed worksheets, well-structured lessons, lots of resources on the intranet to support homework, great wall-displays and so on." Is it more likely that you would find more independent learners in a school with "blank walls and a few moth-eared textbooks"?
• The better focus may be on learning habits which reduces the micromanagement from the teacher. This is where you instil classroom virtues; these may include the habit of looking up unfamiliar words in the dictionary or trying to find out from a book before asking the teacher (see <here>) or more time for reflection and self-assessment. 
• Sharing these virtues or values of learning will enable them to become embedded across the school; potentially the middle ability students can grow towards the A/A* and the lower ability may improve from D to C grades. However, "The strugglers will struggle to develop the habits and the high-fliers may well be resistant, as they have already been doing as well, they think, as they need to - so why put the effort in to develop better habits, which could be construed as making life easier for you..."

I think I'm in a better place with all of this now and hopefully I can share and communicate this with colleagues. Maybe Andrew Old will like this piece a little more... (he was right last time!)

Independent Learners, Independence... How? What? Why? HELP!!!

Image from Thank, Q

I have been struggling for over a year now. So many questions fly around my brain about independence. I'll start with what I have in my brain, right now:

• What does an independent learner look like?
• Is independence simply a final place that a large number of students get to regardless?
• How can I make my students more independent, without simply neglecting them and their needs?
• What does independence look like on a daily basis? Is it possible to observe in a lesson, for example?
• How can I convince my colleagues this is important or even desirable? (If our results are very good)
• Where do I go next...? And who can I take with me?

It's been a focus of our ACE (Aspiring for a Culture of Excellence) working party for over a year now. I'm not sure we're even close to cracking it.

Our first step was an 'easy win', placing a 3 B's poster in each room (read <here>) which were initially used quite a lot by staff. It's been nearly a year now; I wonder who was the last person who pointed at it and didn't allow a student to ask a question they could find the answer to?

We also ran a Family Learning Project (read <here> and <here>) which was a huge success and we will be running again this year. Staff have commented on how they have been able to refer back to it in lessons and how impressed they were. However we did this for Y7... and what next?

I have tried to do a few bits and pieces myself in my own classroom. With a Y9 Assessment, I gave the students the task, a selection of resources, my online guidance ( see <here>) and then left them to it. The results were varied, but generally as expected for a mixed ability Y9 class. With Y8, I got them to produce a booklet on the Exodus. They watched the Prince of Egypt (one of my fav films!) and then were left with a set of criteria, the textbook and a lesson in a computer room. Again the results varied greatly.

From these small scale, informal, trial and error pieces of 'research', I realised that the most able really excelled. I had some amazing work, way beyond what would have happened had I been more conventionally teaching them. That raised some important questions of how I deal with the bright students in my mixed ability KS3 classes... do I do enough? However I also realised that the less able can really struggle, especially the panic I heard about in 'Homework Club' with the TAs. I also saw 'middle' children perhaps making a great attempt, while others put in little effort as they did not fully engage without that constant encouragement. Certainly more problems and questions than solutions. 

With the Y8s, I did a knowledge based 'quiz' (read, 'test') and the results varied in an expected pattern, and the feedback varied... some enjoyed, some hated, some didn't really have an opinion.

In Y12, with the first A2 module in the summer, I tried some independent work (read what I did <here> and what I found <here>) which again didn't really have any gains, but no 'losses' either. I tried to extend their learning and writing by getting them to blog, which was a reasonable (but potentially unmeasurable) success. Read their postings <here>. Finally, I have tried to up my 'active learning' at A-Level and recently wrote about it for UKEdMag <here>.

Ultimately, I felt a little frustrated and not sure where and how to move forward.

We've sat down in the last few weeks to try and look again at this and below constitutes a few ideas that are currently 'out there'. I'd LOVE some feedback either via the blog or on by email <here>.

6th Form Induction
Possibility of doing things in a 'new way' with introduction to independence and some group based work in the afternoon. Although that great for a first day but the important thing is 'where next?'.

6th Form CP (Citizenship & PHSE) Lessons, General RE and General Studies
Looking at the syllabi of these are seeing them as a 'way in' to looking at skills and approaches that will encourage independence. For example, students were interested but quite passive in my "Science and Religion" module so I am looking to running it more as a 3 lesson - 'key questions', 'research' then 'debate' next year. We need to avoid 'death by woeful Powerpoint' presentations though.

'Extended Project' 
Not necessarily the EPQ offered by exam boards but something that students can get very actively involved in... may be signing up to one such project? Young Enterprise is incredibly successful at our school and this is  one opportunity. Perhaps an independent student newspaper (see <here>)? Or an essay prize or blogging project? (See <here> and <here>)

Cross Curricular Projects
Encouraging departments to look at ways of working together on different projects. This may work for KS3; we acknowledge there is just not the curriculum time for GCSE classes under the current model.

Lead By Example
Starting a pilot of an independent project and share it with other staff to hopefully inspire them!

Debating
A few colleagues and I have started a debating club which he hope to empower a committee to take control of. These will be our senior debaters (new Y13). In hindsight, we started at the wrong time of the school year, but hope to get it off the ground post-AS exams. This could be an 'extended project' that is worked on during former CP time.

Philosophy Club
Reading David Birch's new book (see <here>), I again wonder if I could run a philosophy club that focuses on philosophical enquiry...

Image from Australian Geographic

(Great) Barriers

Why? 
Our results are excellent, some of the top in the local area. Why the hell would we want to change the way we teach? When students were questioned a few years ago (according to my sources) they responded that their one criticism is that "teachers didn't talk enough". I can assure you there is a lot of teacher talk, particularly in A-Level lessons. We get lots of students on to very good courses at excellent universities... some go straight into very good jobs... are we really doing anything wrong?

"Just Tell us Miss" (@MissDCox)
This, it's SO this. Especially from the most able students. My incredibly bright Y11, Set 1 students got obsessed with the 'textbook definitions' for the key words despite me over and over saying as long as it was correct, it would get full marks, it didn't need to be word for word from an Edexcel approved textbook! On the other hand, there is a culture of what can only be called laziness, especially from low level disruptive students where it is far easier to just give them the answer to keep them vaguely on task and essentially quite.

Another thing?
This year we've started Open Door Week, formal SLT book monitoring... probably more things that I can't remember. How do we encourage staff to get on board? Change their established SoW? Extra meetings with people from other departments? Replan lessons that work perfectly well? Also some ACE peeps are wary that there could be a feeling of "Them again with their 'new' ideas?".

What's in it for me?
UCAS points? No? Not interested. There has to be motivation. In General RE, we stopped doing the NOCN qualification which had an external verification and, as such, certification, for our own syllabus this year. Thankfully, we have good girls who did the work for an in-house, but pretty (I made it!), certificate. 6th form is a hectic time... unless it will help with UCAS statement or gives UCAS points or a qualification that will actually get them a job, how do you get students to see the point? I think Tom (<headguruteacher>) is on to a winner with substantial cash prizes!

Ultimately we are working very hard as teachers, but are we working hard at the right things?

Could our energy be better spent instead of doing a lot of the hard graft for our students?

Over to you...
Tweet me <here>, email me <here>, comment below and challenge me, console me, fight me, inspire me....

A2 Independent Learning - Part 3 (What The Students Said)

A little while ago, I blogged about some Independent Learning I did with my A2 students. To read what it's all about, see here:

Part 1 - What I Did
Part 2 - What I Found

At end of each unit, students complete a progress tracking sheet. They reflect upon their grades for their home and timed essays, their progress and set two targets. While completing this, I asked them to turn over and answer the following too:

1. How did you feel about this topic? (More confident/less confident/same)
2. Did you feel you had sufficient resources?
3. Did you have enough time?
4. Do you feel you have sufficient notes in your folder for revision?
5. Did you enjoy working in this way?
6. Would you be happy to do it again?
7. How did you feel about your timed essay grade for this topic?
8. Any other comments?

The feedback varied but a few headlines from the answers they provided:

1. 4 felt less confident, 5 felt the same, 3 felt more confident and one said "less confident until we started sharing when I realised I knew it all!" - of the students who said less confident, three were students who struggle with confidence in the subject on many occasions.
2. They all felt they had enough resources - these were a mixture of printed material, documents uploaded to Edmodo and student-created resources from the previous Y13 students (the last of which some noted they were sceptical about!)
3. They all felt they had more than enough time. One student pointed out it was hard working on an essay together over the summer... the deadline was the end of term!
4. All bar two students said they had sufficient notes for revision. Both of these two students said they would have preferred more teacher notes.
5. 5 students didn't like it at all - they stated that they much prefer it when teachers give them the information (4 of these were the students mentioned in headline 1). 5 students enjoyed it, even if at first one of them was a little daunted. 2 didn't know! One of the most able students said, "I enjoyed having the responsibility of controlling my learning and time.", another said, "I enjoyed working independently as it really motivates me."
6. 4 said they would be happy to do it again, 3 said they wouldn't choose to do it, but would, 5 said 'no' to doing it again.
7. Only one student said they were more satisfied that usual! 2 said the same, and the rest said less happy. This was their first A2 essay so a step up, but as seen in my previous blog post, their results were approximately in keeping with their usual grades. This is an interesting perception on their part. 
8. There were few other comments aside from "I enjoyed spreading the workload."

What do I take from this?

Firstly, my consolidation in September including activities such as Speed Dating and Silent Debating were really important to most of the students; both the more and less confident students said this was vital to their understanding. They needed activities, in the classroom, with their peers to ensure that they were secure in their knowledge.

Secondly it was really clear there is still work to be done regarding teacher dependency. Too many of the girls stated that they wanted to essentially sit there and be 'spoon fed' the exact content. The trouble is, there is no 'exact content' in philosophy...

Student satisfaction was really interesting; why were they so unsatisfied with their result when generally speaking it was in keeping? Perhaps this is a good thing? Perhaps as because they had taken ownership over it and not done as well, it was more disappointing than if I lead them and they did not achieve? 

What next?

I am likely to be able to do this again in the summer of 2014. I will do something very similar, but perhaps share some of this information with the students. I want them to believe from the start that they will be able to get the same grades (if not better!) than if I teach them. 

I will also look at some further independent tasks for this class. Particularly for the more able students, it is a good way to stretch them towards the A*. I am trying to source articles that they can work on and incorporate into their essays. I think I now realise, I can give more ownership of the Implications unit to the students later in the year. Last year when I was teaching it, I was afraid to 'let go'.

Finally, it really highlights the work we as a school need to do lower down on raising the independence of our students. Their over reliance on their teachers was clearly evident, however the majority, when thrown in at the deep end, coped! 

The SHoM Family Learning Project (FLP): Part 3

Part 3 - What Did The Students Say?

This is my #TeachTweet video from 31/10/2013 about the project. It gives a some student opinion and views. I have 122 forms to read which will allow me to further update this post:

The SHoM Family Learning Project (FLP): Parts 1 & 2

Before I launch into this blog post, I want to thank Tom Sherrington aka @headguruteacher for his help, encouragement and support with this. I first heard about the idea at #TMEssex last year and decided it would be a great thing to do at my school. Read Tom's blog post <here>.

Part 1 - What We Did

What is the Family Learning Project?

Quite simply we asked Y6 students and their parents to go to the British Museum over the summer and show us what they learnt. It was completely open and students were encouraged to 'dazzle us'.

I had to play hockey the night of the launch with the parents, so I had to hastily make this:

Parents were given this letter at their information evening: <download>

Students had this in their welcome pack that they filled in during the first few days: <download>

Why did we do it?

I tweaked Tom's rational, as included in our letter to parents:

• School is all about finding things out and exploring new ideas.
• Learning is something that happens beyond the school gates.
• Families have a key role to play and can enjoy sharing in the learning process.
• Students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning.
• Learning takes many forms and there is not always a ‘correct method’ or specific goal.
• Creativity, resourcefulness and independence are all key attributes for learners.
• It is important to take an active interest in culture; museums are wonderful places to do that.
• Rigour and scholarship are important to us in our learning.

It was organised by our ACE team, but mainly me! It was a dream to start with, that people were quite sceptical about. I was given the go-ahead by the headteacher; the AHT lead of the ACE group and the Head of Y7 were very supportive too.

Ultimately the aim was to improve the independence of our students, get them to strive for academic excellence early in their school life, plus show staff what they were capable from the word go! 

Part 2 - What We Got

We had projects from 117 out of 122 students... I had quoted 97% return rates from other schools and I raised a few eyebrows. They were kind of right, as we only got 96%. Do not underestimate your own students; they are just as good as anyone else's!

The standard was also very high. We produced a microsite which you can look at here: tiny.cc/shomflp

I also produced this video (using photos from one of the Y7 form tutors): 

Blogs Coming Soon:

• The Prizewinner
• What I learnt
• What students and staff said

A2 Independent Learning - Part 2 (What I Found)

Each unit at AS and A2 is assessed with a 'home' essay and a 'timed' essay. The former completed outside of lesson time with full use of notes and the latter in timed conditions and no notes.

Below you can see the results compared to their AS performance and A2 target:

Some initial observations:

• Most students performed in keeping with their previous achievements.
• Student 1 finds the subject hard, but enjoys it. Her result was in keeping with previous essays.
• Student 2 has failed to submit a 'home' essay yet despite many requests, her 'timed' essay was a direct reflection of this. In conversation, she admitted her failure to do this has cost her.
• Student 3 was disappointed with her final grade, but said she had not done enough revision as she understood everything (as shown in her 'home' essay).
• Student 4 achieved an A. *update* 
• Student 5 has been very ill, yet has been working at home and achieved her target.
• Student 6 outperformed a sub-standard 'home' essay.
• Student 7 finds the subject hard and struggles with 'timed' essays.
• Student 8 admitted submitting a very sub-standard 'home' essay and showed her true capability with the 'timed' essay.
• Student 9 performed very well on both essays, she is an able and enthusiastic student.
• Student 10 finds the subject hard, her ALPS is optimistically high and as such her result is about on target for this stage of the course.
• Student 11 was disappointed with her 'home' essay and as such worked hard for the 'timed' essay.
• Student 12 consistently performs well, and these two essays back up her hard work.
• Student 13 is performing at the expected level.
• Student 14 has underperformed at the start of A2 after outperforming all targets for AS.

To remember:

• This is their first A2 essay which demands more than EdExcel. I will compare this result to their next unit results in a later blog post.
• Students deadline for the 'home' essay was the end of the year in July... only a few managed this! 
• Students who submitted in September possibly didn't put suitable time and effort as they were under pressure.

Initial Conclusions:

It seems on these results that by completing this particular unit independently, there has not been a significant deterioration or lowing of students results. However, there is no noticeable improvement either! I'm currently unconvinced as to whether this is a better way for them to learn, however it proves that independently students can achieve similar results to when they are taught more conventionally.

The most important thing for me is that due to the particular set of circumstances (explained in the earlier post <here>), the time was utilised effectively enabling me to be further ahead with the A2 syllabus than I would otherwise be. It means I am not neglecting a particular unit, nor allowing learning to be substandard.

Further Questions

I will be blogging again on the student view of this unit; their thoughts and reactions to studying in this way.

• If students can learn this way but only get similar results, is it desirable or not when I am available to teach?
• Is this something which should only happen in specific circumstances?
• Would all units be as easy as this to be self taught? (NB this is one of the more straight forward at A2)
• Did this only work at A2 due to the 'Foundations' of the AS? 
• How will their next unit results compare? (To be revisited and blogged about in the future!)
• Was this an unfair comparison due to timing? (Summer term, summer holidays etc)

Update - read what the students said <here>.

A2 Independent Learning - Part 1 (What I Tried)

The post-exam period is very difficult for Y12. They are exhausted after AS exams and largely in holiday mode, some are also leaving the subject (or planning to!). However perhaps as I know the demands of the A2 and want to get it started, or maybe because I am mean, we get back to work.

The slightly individual situation we currently have is that we teach the AS between three teachers, however the A2 is taught by just two teachers. As such there four lessons per fortnight post-exam where work needs to be set. 

My colleague and I who both teach the A2 decided on a topic each, and then set a variety of tasks. I simply emailed the students this video:

I provided some background reading, pointed them in the direction of the course textbook as well as the extensive resources stored on our Edmodo and via my student blog (see <here>).

I then scheduled ten lessons of independent study, supervised by our other colleague, which totalled 8hrs and 20mins. Plus homework.

I picked the section on 'Atheism and Critiques of Religious Belief' and the only advice I gave the students was: "Marx, Durkheim, Freud, Jung and Dawkins" (as seen in the masks at the top of this post!). This makes up the core of scholars covered in the EdExcel textbook, which I freely admit I use as a guide.

This section is important as it feeds into both papers we do 'Developments' and 'Implications' but equally is the least likely section to appear on the 'Developments' exam.

Deep down I knew I could recover if it was a disaster, but I was optimistic!

In my scheduled lesson time, I began 'Religious Experience' answering questions related to 'Atheism...' but trying to keep things to a minimum and trying to make all responses "Have you read...", "Have you looked in...".

Part 2 (What I found) is <here>.
Part 3 (What students said) is <here>.

Being The Boss?

To me, there will only ever be one Boss. However, it's undeniable that part of our role in the classroom is be in charge of learning, discipline, toilet issues...

As part of my schools' ACE working party (that's for another post), we decided to try and target the habit of many of our students who tend to put their hand up very quickly as soon as they encounter a problem. This runs from Y7 to Y13.

We decided to adopt Jim Smith’s idea from “The Lazy Teacher’s Handbook”,C3B4ME. We are using a student designed poster, see left, and decided to leave off 'Me' (or the Boss as I have also seen it). This was conscious as we wanted students to really focus on the tools available to them before asking for help.

It is designed to be a point of reference for the teacher and a reminder to students to take a minute, and see if actually they can tackle the problem on their own, or with the resources immediately to hand.

A poster has been put up in every classroom around the school at the start of this academic year (download <here>). A Y7 student designed the poster as part of a competition designed to help give ownership to pupils.

Measuring the outcome will be difficult. This is just one small part of a far wider strategy to make our students more resilient learners, less dependent on the teacher to take them every step of the way. It's also important to be concious that the teachers' role is far from redundant, there is a constant need to stretch the students and this will never go away.

I did think it was important to explain why this blog was called TDRE Boss Blog though; it's a Springsteen reference. I think as teacher, often you need to take centre stage as The Boss, but equally "nobody wins unless everybody wins" and it's important to constantly reflect on how that can happen in your classroom.