An essential aspect of a community of enquiry, of which you are a part, is keeping practice under review and researching the effects of changing practice.This accurate and continual self-reflection gives the school a real picture of itself as a learning organisation and the information is used to plan further improvement action.

Reflecting on your changing practice. This section of self reflection aims to answer the question “How far have I come?”

1.1 Looking back: where have you come from?

In the first session of this programme you looked at the idea of a learning friendly classroom culture. You explored the differences between teacher centred, learner centred and learning centred classrooms through the Culture Tool 1, and delved deeper into classroom culture for learning centred classrooms with Culture Tool 2.

 1.2 Looking back: in a bit more detail

Again at the start of this programme you looked at the four dimensions of a learning centred classroom culture through the Culture Tool 2.

• Relating for learning: 
  • the changing roles and responsibilities of teachers and learners, where learning becomes a shared responsibility. Pupils are given more responsibility for their own learning, the role of the teacher changes from ‘the sage on the stage’ to ‘the guide by your side’; the role of the pupil moves from ‘passenger’ to ‘crew’ and ultimately ‘pilots of their own learning’.
• Talking for learning:
  •  the sort of language content and style to enhance learning, making learning the object of conversation. The way we express ourselves in the classroom creates a powerful linguistic environment that teaches young people the best of what we know about learning. The language of learning helps pupils to discuss, understand, and become conscious of using their learning behaviours.
• Organising for learning: 
  • activities and classroom routines feed learning habits and learning becomes the object of learning. Learning activities are designed to stretch and challenge by having a dual focus – to explore content and stretch pupils’ use of their learning behaviours. There is a strong underpinning of not just ‘doing’ learning but reviewing and reflecting on the process in order to make meaning and apply it elsewhere.
• Celebrating learning: 
  • the outward signs of the values that underpin the approach, making learning the object of attention. In this dimension failure has been redefined; being stuck is seen as interesting and mistakes valuable. Effort, questions and taking risks are recognised, attended to, acknowledged and praised. These and other things serve to make visible the underlying values of the learning environment.

The teacher’s role becomes one of surfacing learning; to make learning public; to train some of the tricky bits; to talk about it; to recognise and celebrate it as it happens; to nudge it along assisting pupils to grow their learning capacities; and to design activity to stretch a wide range of learning habits. This uncovering of learning ensures pupils discover, use, understand and grow their learning habits. There is a shift in emphasis from performance to learning, from content to process, from teaching to coaching.

1.3 Looking back: on enabling progression

Now it’s time to look more closely at what you have changed about your way of working in order to enable the use and growth of specific learning behaviours.

• Which of the nine Stepping Stones 2 modules have you worked on ?
• What did you change in your classroom as a result ?
• [It may be helpful to look back over your learning enquiry plans.]

1.4 Looking back: getting closer to the action.

It’s time now to ask yourself some harder edged questions that link directly with the particular learning behaviours you have been working on in the last few months.

Firstly download the progression grids relating to the behaviours that you have chosen to focus on. [You will have already met these in the Stepping Stones 2 modules.]

So far, you have:

• Looked at your students through the lens of the Noticing learning grid
• Gained a sense of what becoming better at Noticing looks like
• Considered how you might shift the culture of the classroom to nurture Noticing

Now we look more closely at classroom activities and language to provoke and guide students to get better at Noticing; to build

Go to the phase that you have already identified as the one that most of your students need to develop next.

In each Tab box below you will find; an overview of the teacher’s role; a couple of  ‘quick wins’ or introductory activities; a couple of  activities to surface Noticing; routines (must haves) to encourage noticing; some suggestions for teacher talk and If- Then statements; a review/reflection mat.

Moving from Grey → Purple

• Overview
• Into & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Report

Receives: Minded to look for what they like

In the Receives (purple) phase, students need help to notice attentively. They readily the see the familiar or obvious but need help to go further. They can describe what they have seen but this too lacks detail. Students know that being distracted isn’t helpful to noticing attentively and do try to ignore common distractions.

In pursuing this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of:

• Introducing the idea of Noticing
• Helping students to better focus their noticing
• Insisting students describe what they see/hear/smell/feel

I Spy With My Little Eye

Taster activity

 

Join the dots

 

Offer students a random set of dots (or picture of the night sky). Invite them to seek items such as:

• A letter of the alphabet
• An animal
• A regular shape
• A face
• Or something linked to the content of the forthcoming lesson

More Ideas

More ideas

 

Show and talk about this animation

Story Guide & Story: ‘Strawberries & Carrots’

Story and guide

 

Invite some students to be Learning Detectives. Task them with seeking and capturing examples of effective learning on camera / video. Build the outcomes into a display that helps all students to become more aware of the effective habits of others.

Teacher Talk

To nudge students from Grey to Purple, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To control distractions

• When you look carefully what sort of things do you find out about . . . ?
• Well done, you were looking at that very carefully.
• What takes you off task? Is there anything you can do about it?
• You spent a long time noticing those details. Well done.

To describe what is noticed

• What do you notice when you do that? How does it feel?
• How did it feel when you jumped/stretched/rolled/balanced ?
• You were really good at noticing things today!
• Tell me what you can see
• Describe it to me

To notice beyond the familiar

• What kind of things do you find out by feeling or touching something
• What about smelling and tasting?
• And what can you find out by listening or hearing?
• Can you think about times when you shouldn’t touch, smell or taste?

To notice what they are interested in

• Why do you like this?
• Is this important to you? Why?
• What do you enjoy?

To describe what they have observed

• How does this colour/music/picture make you feel?
• Did you notice what happened then?
• Can you see any patterns in that?
• How is this different from that?  Can you see how these two … are alike?

An If – Then suggestion:

If I notice something unusual, then I tell my friend about it.

If I feel that I am becoming distracted, then I will take a deep breath and look carefully at what I am doing.

Learning Mat

A Learning Mat is a simple tool to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, it’s an A3 or A4 laminated sheet that is kept on tables or used as part of wall display. It shows various aspects of a learning habit. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that are being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

This mat is blank. You will find one that has suggested behaviours on in the Value/Green section. In this one you and your pupils could fill in some ideas for specific Receive/Purple behaviours that you want your pupils to start using. They can of course be individualised for specific pupils.

Download a blank version to make your own

Moving from Purple → Blue

• Overview
• Intro & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Reflect

Responds: Minded to notice for what’s needed

In the Responds (blue) phase, students know more about distractions and what in particular distracts them. They know the triggers and take steps to divert or diminish them. Their focus now is on the task in-hand, usually on set by teachers or parents. They strive to notice what is required and look for first, differences, and then similarities in what they know about. Such noticing usually causes them to ask questions as their interest grows.

In pursuing this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of:

• Helping pupils explore their distraction triggers
• Assists pupils in focusing attention on the requirements of the task/enquiry
• Offers opportunities to raise questions linked to what is being noticed.

Killer

Coaching notes Linking ideas

Viewing Frames

Do you want your students to

• Recognise that noticing can be fun
• Appreciate the value of noticing
• Appreciate noticing as a way into greater interest
• Appreciate noticing as a precursor to making links.

Try these resources to introduce your students to attentive noticing.

• Coaching Notes
• Learning Challenge
• Resource
• DIY
• Rating Wheel

Similarities and Differences

Use pairs of objects, images, sounds or concepts etc. Invite students to identify as many similarities and differences as they can. Challenge them to find at least 10 of each and to find one that nobody else has noticed. Encourage students to represent these similarities and differences on a Venn diagram (similarities in the overlap, differences outside), or in other ways they feel appropriate.

Visible Thinking Routine

See, Think, Wonder

• Invite students to make an observation about an object (artwork, image, artifact) or topic. Follow up with what they think might be going on. Encourage backing up their interpretation with reasons.
• Ask students to think about what this makes them wonder about the object or topic.
• The routine works best when a student responds by using the three stems together at the same time, i.e., “I see…, I think…, I wonder…”. If not you need to scaffold each response with a follow-up question for the next stem.

This routine encourages careful observations and thoughtful interpretations. It helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry. Use it at the beginning of a new unit to motivate student interest. Try it with an object that connects to a topic during the unit of study. Use the routine with an interesting object near the end of a unit to encourage students to further apply their new knowledge and ideas.

Go to visiblethinkingpz.org for more examples and information about visible thinking routines.

To see this routine on the Visible Thinking Website, go to:

https://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/ConnectExtendChallenge/ConnectExtend_Routine.html

Teacher Talk

To nudge students from Purple to Blue, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To maintain focus

• What might distract you?
• What puts you off?
• What happens when you lose focus?
• How did you keep going?
• Did . . . put you off?
• What did you do to keep going?
• What can we do when we feel that we are losing focus?
• How did/will you re-focus?

To notice the familiar

• What does this remind you of?
• Ring any bells?
• Have you seen anything like this before?

To focus noticing

• What would you like / need to know more about
• What would you like to find out?
• What must you find out?

To notice differences and similarities

• How is this different from that?
• Can you see how these two … are alike?
• Can you agree which are the 3 most important differences / similarities?

To create questions about what is noticed

• What are you asking yourself about …
• How is this puzzling you ?
• What’s really happening here?
• Having noticed X what questions does this cause you to ask?

An If – Then suggestion:

If I notice something interesting/important, then I will ask my friend a question about it to see what (s)he thinks.

If I notice how things are different, then I will look for similarities also.

Learning Mat

A Learning Mat is a simple tool to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, it’s an A3 or A4 laminated sheet that is kept on tables or used as part of wall display. It shows various aspects of a learning habit. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that are being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

This mat is blank. You will find one that has suggested behaviours on in the Value/Green section. In this one you and your pupils could fill in some ideas for specific Responds/Blue behaviours that you want your pupils to start using. They can of course be individualised for specific pupils.

Download a blank version to make your own

2a) Activity 2: How well does my classroom climate encourage Noticing?

As teachers, we are in the habit-forming business. Those habits that we model in front of young people influence the ways in which they perform and behave. Therefore, we need to be sure to foster productive learning habits. If we frequently require students to work at pace, we are not building their ability or inclination to take time and to notice subtlety and nuance. In such ways do good teachers, albeit inadvertently, stifle the very behaviours they are seeking to promote.

A classroom climate that supports and nourishes an inclination to notice attentively is characterised by calm, patience and a spirit of curiosity. Attending to detail can be a slow but fascinating journey.  

To enable this, teachers will need to believe that;

• Attentive noticing of and for detail provokes insight and builds understanding
• Students need time to notice detail and discern underlying patterns
• Noticing has to be done by students, not for students

And in shaping a noticing friendly classroom you will develop students who come to believe that;

• Attention to detail is a stepping stone to deeper understanding, but takes time.
• Looking or sensing the deeper detail adds fascination and interest to subjects/discipline. 
• Noticing is not only about looking

Get a feel for your classroom culture and how it may be working for or against becoming increasingly noticing friendly. 
Look through the culture ideas carefully and consider whether you already use some and whether any appeal to you to try.

1a) What do we mean by Noticing?

Learning often relies on being able to pay attention to what you are interested in: not necessarily thinking about it, just really noticing how it looks, what it is made of, or how it behaves. Many professionals, from poets to scientists to business managers, rely on this quality of attentive noticing: being able to identify the significant detail, or to let an underlying pattern of connections emerge into their minds. Sometimes you have to be patient before the detail or the pattern will reveal itself to you, like looking for sea creatures in a rock pool. And this is a skill that can be strengthened with practice. We often pick up this skill from people around us. Babies very soon learn to work out what their mother is focusing on, and to ‘share joint attention’ with her. It helps to be around people who are demonstrating this ability to watch carefully and turn their observations into accurate descriptions. Getting a really clear sense of what, before starting to think about how or why, is very useful.

From Building Learning Power by Guy Claxton 2002

1b) What does being a good Noticer involve?

A well formed Noticing habit involves being ready, willing, and able to:

• Be attentive to details and subtleties in seeking to understand things
• Seek underlying patterns patiently, understanding that connections may take time to emerge.
• Actively use all the senses to gather information to build understanding of the world around.
• Gain a clear sense of the ‘what’ of something before considering the ‘why’ and ‘how’.
• Recognise that learning is often complex and difficult and takes time and effort to accomplish.

So, at a less abstract level, students need to learn how to focus their attention; to look patiently beyond the obvious to see detail and subtlety; to be able to identify the relative importance of what they are observing; to develop the ability to see detail in the context of the bigger picture; and to develop the ability to explain, hypothesise about and explore what is being noticed. When looked at from these diverse angles, growing noticing moves well beyond encouraging a student to ‘look carefully’.

Our progression grid for Noticing has 6 components:

1c) Unpicking the columns; what contributes to a readiness to Notice?

1d) Unpicking the rows; getting better at Noticing

Of course, the development of Noticing doesn’t grow neatly up each column or evenly across the phases in the grid. The five broad phases of dispositional growth (purple – orange) are affective ways in which people may be inclined to behave: we call this inclination ‘mindedness’.

So far, you have:

• Looked at your students through the lens of the Reasoning learning grid
• Gained a sense of what becoming better at Reasoning looks like
• Considered how you might shift the culture of the classroom to nurture Reasoning

Now we look more closely at classroom activities and language to provoke and guide students to get better at Reasoning; to build the phases of Reasoning mindedness.

Go to the phase that you have already identified as the one that most of your students need to develop next.

In each Tab box below you will find; an overview of the teacher’s role; a couple of  ‘quick wins’ or introductory activities; a couple of  activities in order to surfacing Reasoning; some suggestions for teacher talk and If- Then statement: a reflective learning mat

Moving from Grey → Purple

• Overview
• Intro/quick win
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Report

Receives: Minded to say why.

In the Receives (purple) phase, pupils become more curious about things. They may enjoy talking about what they are thinking but as yet find it hard to explain why they think it. They will enjoy the challenge of comparing and contrasting things or guessing or estimating how things might be. Precision isn’t yet part of their bag.

In this phase, the role of the teacher is to:

• Introduce the idea of Reasoning
• Introduce compare and contrast
• Encourage pupils to talk about what they are finding

Show and talk about this animation

Hide and seek

Story and guide

 

 

Picture Sudoku

Activity Resource

 

Crime Scene

Create a scenario where there is a victim of a crime. Describe the physical surroundings as matters of fact. Ask the pupils to say what they think happened and why. They have to create reasoned arguments for their conclusions.

Venn Diagrams

Use a Venn Diagram to record similarities (in the overlap) and differences (round the outside).

Highlight to identify and distill the most significant ones.

 

 

Teacher talk

To nudge students from Grey to Purple, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To use trial and error

• Don’t rush at it
• Do you need to think it through?
• If it doesn’t work, try something else
• Have a go! See if it works
• Try it and see

To encourage self talk

• What did you do?
• Are these the same?
• Does this go with that?

To describe / explain what they are thinking

• What do you think is happening?
• Tell me about it
• Can you explain how you did that?
• Can you/we explain that?

To estimate / compare and contrast

• What do you think will happen
• Can you estimate . . . . . .
• What is your best guess?
• How are these things different / similar?

To offer reasons

• Why do you think that?
• Why do you think … is a good/not good idea.
• Let’s talk it through
• Talk to your friend about  . . .

An If – Then suggestion:

If I am thinking something through, then I will explain to my friend what I am thinking

If I decide to do something, then I will ask myself why I chose to do it.

Learning Mat

A Learning Mat is a simple tool to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, it’s an A3 or A4 laminated sheet that is kept on tables or used as part of wall display. It shows various aspects of a learning habit. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that are being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

This mat is blank. You will find one that has suggested behaviours on in the Value/Green section. In this one you and your pupils could fill in some ideas for specific Receives/Purple behaviours that you want your pupils to start using. They can of course be individualised for specific pupils.

blank version to make your own

Moving from Purple → Blue

• Overview
• Intro & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Report

Responds: Minded to form a line of argument.

In the Responds (blue) phase, students have more confidence in their reasoning although they may not be correct. In ‘convincing’ they may use the words ‘I reckon’ or ‘without-doubt’ They are also then able to justify forming a correct logical chain of argument. They use words like ‘because’ or ‘therefore’ or ‘and so’.

In pursuing this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of:

• Encouraging the use of reasoning tools
• Encourage The use of ‘because’, explaining their reasons
• Encourage the use of questions…Why might that be? What if I did…?

More ideas

Button

 

 

Shapes Translated

Coaching Notes DIY Resource

 

Odd One Out

Identifying similarities and differences are one of the most powerful learning skills since it requires students to notice detail, distil information, make links, and use their reasoning skills in order to spot the odd one out.

 

Odd Man Out

Give pupils sets of words or pictures and ask them to identify the odd one out and give reasons for their choice. E.g. in the group Square, Circle, Triangle, Cube the cube is the odd one out because the other shapes are all two-dimensional. [Of course, circle could be the odd one out, for different reasons]. Extend the activity by asking them to create sets with an odd one out as challenges for other pupils to solve.

 

 

Quarantine

One of the school students has come down with the dreaded Tropical Parrots Disease. He came into school before it was diagnosed and no-one knows yet whether anyone else has become infected. Everyone has to stay in school for three weeks in quarantine. The task is to decide where everyone can sleep, so that girls and boys sleep separately, and each room is supervised by at least one teacher. Every child and every member of staff needs a bed. Students need to use logic to find an acceptable solution.

De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

Pupils reflect on an issue from different perspectives in a structured and disciplined way. They wear six different coloured hats in turn, each of which indicates the sort of thinking required at the time. The discipline which this imposes is very helpful for clarifying issues, it makes pupils separate out different types of reaction and thinking, and helps them to focus on one aspect of a complex problem at a time. (de Bono, 2000)

Ranking

Give students (possibly in pairs) pieces of information or ideas or pictures or statements as a set of separate items, usually on cards. The subject could be: possible causes of global warming; the sayings of Christ; discoveries of the last 20 years; the music of Gershwin; causes of WW1; poems of Sylvia Plath; healthy lifestyle indicators; famous people etc.

The criterion for ranking the cards is given or negotiated with students. It could be to rank the cards in order of importance, appeal, relevance, how controversial, any other appropriate criterion.

The task is to debate the relative merits, to place them in rank order according to the chosen criterion, and to be able to explain and justify the ranking based on evidence rather than opinion.

Lesson on Probability

Take a look at this maths lesson on probability. Let us know if you think it’s useful.

Probability_Notes.ppt Probability_Pres.pp

Visible Thinking Routine

• What’s happening here?
• What makes you say that?

This is one of many visible thinking routines to be found on the visible thinking website:

https://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/WhatMakes/WhatMakes_Routine.html

The first question in this routine is flexible: it is useful when looking at objects such as works of art or historical artefacts, but it can also be used to explore a poem, make scientific observations and hypotheses, or investigate more conceptual ideas (i.e., democracy).
The first question invites students to describe what they notice, see or know, but it is the supplementary question (What makes you say that ?) that requires them to build explanations. It promotes evidence-based reasoning and when the students share their interpretations it encourages them to understand alternatives and multiple perspectives.

Teacher talk

To nudge students from Purple to Blue, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To ask questions

• What are you asking yourself?
• What do you think is going on?
• I wonder why . . .

To decide if it is correct

• Is that the right answer?
• Does that make sense?
• Because???

To justify / convince

• Why do you think that happened?
• Are you sure?
• You explained that really clearly.
• How else might you tackle this?

To speculate

• I wonder why that happened?
• What caused .  .
• What might happen if … ?
• What do you think will happen ?
• What can we suggest ?
• Look for a pattern
• How do these things fit together?
• Can you find anything that should not be here?
• What makes you think it does not fit?

To explain to others

• Well done, that’s a good reason.
• You explained that really well.
• Everyone in the group understood what you meant, That’s a really good reason/explanation.
• How can we explain . . .
• Why do you think this?

An If – Then suggestion:

If I am explaining what I think to my friend, then I use words like ‘because’ to help me to give my reasons for thinking it.

Learning Mat

A Learning Mat is a simple tool to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, it’s an A3 or A4 laminated sheet that is kept on tables or used as part of wall display. It shows various aspects of a learning habit. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that are being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

This mat is blank. You will find one that has suggested behaviours on in the Value/Green section. In this one you and your pupils could fill in some ideas for specific Responds/Blue behaviours that you want your pupils to start using. They can of course be individualised for specific pupils.

blank version to make your own

Moving from Blue → Green

• Overview
• Intro & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Reflect

Values: Minded to prove a point or argument

In the Values (green) phase, students understand the importance of needing to show how they worked something out. Now they can give a watertight argument based on generalisations ( deductive reasoning). There is an assumption at this phase that students can communicate their solutions in a written form.

In pursuing this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of:

• Encouraging students to try several ways of looking for evidence
• Encourage the use of symbols and diagrams to express what they have found/proved
• Encourage the idea of finding the truth, saying why they think they are right
• Have students use deductive reasoning.

Brain Teasers

Use brainteasers to stimulate logical, deductive reasoning. For example:

• Marie, Claude, and Jean are in a competition. Here are their results:
  • The youngest person received the least points.
  • Claude got half of the points of the eldest.
  • Jean received as many points as both others combined.
• Who is the eldest?
• In the debrief, focus in particular on how the problem was solved, rather than on the correct solution. See www.sharpbrains.com/teasers

Careful thinking

Trainer notes

Liepz & Bounz

 

Coaching Notes Learning Challenge Observation Sheet DIY Resource

 

Code Breaking

Present students with coded messages and require them to work them out using their deductive skills.

Start with simple substitution codes where, for example, each letter is replaced by the one after it in the alphabet. (i.e. b replaces a, c replaces b etc. etc.) 

Increase difficulty by using more complex cyphers.

 

A maths lesson using code breaking. (Let us know what you think of this)

Decimals_3_Pres.ppt Decimals_3_Notes.ppt

 

Latin

Learn some Latin! The verb structure is very logical. When you have demonstrated some rules about changes to the end of verbs, maybe using different colours for the endings for I, you, he, etc., pupils can predict the changes to the ends of other verbs. Discuss the meanings of prefixes. Work out meanings of other verbs based on the model. Transfer the skill of deducing meaning to other languages, including English.

Try the visible thinking routines ‘Claim, Support, Question’ or ‘Tug for Truth’
These are 2 of the many visible thinking routines to be found on the visible thinking website:

Teacher talk

To nudge students to move from Blue to Green, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To seek evidence

• Are you convinced?
• Are you sure?
• Why are you not sure of this?
• Is this evidence convincing you?

To decide if it is true

• What would convince you?
• Why is that?
• Is that true? Why?

To prove using evidence

• What evidence can you give to support your case/argument?
• So???
• How do you mean?
• What sort of evidence would make your case?
• Where would you look for evidence of proof.
• What makes you say that
• What would it take to convince you?
• Do you have good reasons for . . . . ?

To employ deductive reasoning

• What does  . . . tell us about  . . ?
• What are the implications of that?
• Do we know a rule for this ?
• What sort of question do we need to pose here?
• It follows that . . .
• Therefore
• Hence
• Implies

To convey their thinking with clarity

• How would you explain your view to your friend?
• Could you show this in a diagram?
• Would this convince others?
• Can you turn this argument/evidence/ explanation into a diagram/flowchart/graph?
• What would be the best way to convince others/ help others to undertstand?

An If – Then suggestion:

If I want to convince someone else of my line of thinking, then I will explain the evidence I have used.

If I know the general rule, then I will consider how I might apply it to solve a particular problem.

Learning Mats

Learning mats are tools to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, they are A3 or A4 laminated sheets that show various aspects of a learning habit. They are kept on tables or used as part of wall display. pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that is being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk

As pupils become more proficient at reasoning the statements could be upgraded to reflect later phases of the reasoning progression grid. Pupils often enjoy making their own learning mats describing the particular skills they are working on.

Learning-about-Reasoning.pdf

Using Learning Mats

You could also use Learning Mats (in ‘teacher speak’ or ‘student speak):

• To raise awareness of  the habit
• To spread the school’s common language for learning
• As an aide-memoire for students and teachers
• As a self-assessment support for students
• As an audit tool to support teacher planning. i.e. which of the reasoning skills are implied in the lesson plan and therefore how will they be surfaced in what you draw attention to/orchestrate the lesson.

 

Moving from Green → Yellow

• Overview
• Intro & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk

Organises: Minded to check and counter check for accuracy/logic

In the Organises (yellow) phase, Reasoning has become a skilful habit. By this stage proofs have been made but then thinking begins again…’is this proof good enough?,  Is there a flaw in this argument that I haven’t spotted? Is there any counter evidence I need to consider?’ This is a highly cautious phase

Strategy games

Use games that require strategy and logical thinking. From noughts and crosses to chess, from hangman to backgammon, such games help to develop and refine reasoning skills. Many appear in the form of maths investigations and problems: Frogs; Tower of Hanoi; Nim; Connect 4; etc.

Assembly

Summary of the activity on page 67 from The Teacher’s Toolkit: Raise Classroom Achievement with Strategies for Every Learner by Paul Ginnis 

How?

1.  Students work on their own or in pairs to assemble logically coherent material that has been cut up into separate parts. Choose the materials and the divisions carefully.
2. The simplest form of assembly is sequencing. There needs to connect them in a logical sequence . The sequence could be provided by chronology or by logical steps in an experiment or technological process, or the order of events in the narrative of a story, or  the logic of a mathematical calculation, or the rationality of a cumulative argument.
3. The material to be assembled might be text or pictures or symbols or a combination.
4. Other forms of assembly include:
   1. put together a picture, e.g. select and position cut-out drawings of scientific apparatus for a experiment before it’s carried out; position  cut-out items based on comprehension of a text or spoken description in English or a foreign language, for example position furniture on a room plan, people in a scene, buildings on a street plan, settlements on a map.
   2. geometry, e.g. construct five equally-sized squares from an apparent jumble of shapes.
   3. insert labels correctly that have been cut out from diagrams
   4. show the connections between cause and effects by physically placing cards with key words on them in relation to each other, e.g. war, cries, and revolutions in history or fictional characters and their actions in an English novel or play. The distance between the cards symbolises the strength of the relationship between them – the further apart, the weaker the relationship.

Visible Thinking Routine revisited

What Makes You Say That – Connections and Extension

You have already met this routine in the Blue phase. This is an extension, again from the Visible Thinking website.

What Makes You Say That? is a simple and flexible routine can be used in combination with almost any routine. Use it as a way to ask students to expand on their ideas or to explain their thinking and reasoning by simply using the phrase “What makes you say that?” as a follow up question, in general conversation, and in written work.

Have students practise different ways of using the routine. For example, use it with Think Pair Share to practise giving evidence with a partner. Create work sheets that remind students to explain their reasons by asking “What makes you say that?”. In a whole group discussion document student ideas on a chart that clearly lists Interpretation and Justification.

Experiment with different ways to document students’ thinking from the routine. Try videoing or audio taping the routine in action and asking students to look or listen for evidence during the conversation. Writing ideas on post-it notes is always a good option as students’ individual ideas can be shared with the class. Students can also experiment with drawing their reasons or acting them out.

Teacher talk

To nudge students to move from Green to Yellow, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To reduce uncertainty

• Can we be sure?
• Are we assuming too much, here?
• Have you made any assumptions?
• What makes you unsure?

To detect flaws

• Is that true?
• What makes you think that?
• What makes you think it may not be correct?
• Can you find any flaws in this?
• Why should you check for errors?

To seek counter evidence

• What must we do?
• Will that be enough?
• Might there be more to it than meets the eye?
• Does that prove / disprove it?
• What’s the trap many people fall into here?
• Good you have spotted the fallacy there.
• What counter evidence would you look for?

To evaluate pros and cons

• What can you deduce from this?
• What would that mean for . . . ?
• Which thinking tool would help us to solve this puzzle?
• If . . . . .  Then . . . . .
• What reasoning tools do we have available? Which shall we choose?
• Is that going to be up to the task in hand?
• On the one hand
• Can you mount a counter-argument?
• There are two sides to everything
• How about . . . ?

To present proof

• Go on then, convince me.
• Can you explain that clearly to others?
• How might you illustrate your line of thinking?
• Would your audience be convinced?

An If – Then suggestion:

If I believe that I have proved something, then I will go back over it to check that I have not made any errors or false assumptions.

If I feel certain about an issue, then I will check for any counter evidence.

2a) Activity 2: How well does my classroom climate encourage Reasoning?

As teachers, we are in the habit-forming business. Those habits that we model in front of young people influence the ways in which they perform and behave. Therefore, we need to be sure to foster productive learning habits. If we frequently ‘polish’ student responses to make them more logical and well-ordered, we are not building their powers of disciplined thinking; explaining clearly what they mean to others. In such ways do good teachers, albeit inadvertently, stifle the very behaviours they are seeking to promote.

A classroom climate that develops and supports the inclination to reason is characterised by learner generated, evidence-based arguments designed to convince and persuade.

In order to develop reasoning friendly cultures teachers need to believe that:

• Constructing logical arguments backed up by evidence is an essential life skill
• To become effective reasoners, learners need repeated opportunities, across all subject disciplines, to describe, explain, justify and prove what they are thinking and why.

And through such a reasoning friendly culture students come to believe:

• Making evidenced based argument helps me to produce high-quality work
• Views and opinions are not enough, I need  evidence and even counter-evidence
• It is not enough to convince myself – I need to be able to convince others

Get a feel for your classroom culture and how it may be working for or against developing students as disciplined logical thinkers.
Look through the ideas carefully and consider whether you already use some, and whether any appeal to you to try.

1a) What do we mean by Reasoning?

Reasoning is the kind of logical, analytical, explicit disciplined thinking that schools often focus on (sometimes to the exclusion of some of the other elements). There is a lot of interest at the moment in ways of teaching thinking, and there are many materials for teaching thinking on the market. In BLP, such ‘Show your working’ kinds of thinking are a very important part of the good learner’s toolkit, but they are not the be-all and end-all of learning. In fact, research suggests that secondary schools have not been very successful at developing students’ ability to think logically in real life.

It turns out to be quite difficult to free any kind of thinking or learning skill from its ties to the particular setting and subject matter in which it was originally practised.

Nevertheless, being able to construct logical arguments or make practical use of Venn diagrams, for example, is very useful, and good learners need practice at using such tools in the context of their real-life concerns.

Extract from Building Learning Power. Guy Claxton 2002

1b) What does being a good Reasoner involve?

A well formed Reasoning habit involves being ready, willing, and able to:

• Resist jumping to conclusions
• Seek justifiable evidence to shape sound, well-honed arguments.
• Scrutinise your assumptions
• Seek evidence and counter evidence, look for false steps and carefully draw conclusions.
• Remain suspicious, doubting and self-doubting in order to avoid unwarranted certainty.
• Convey your logical thinking clearly, through dialogue, symbols, analogies, prose and pictures.

So, at a less abstract level, students need to learn the inclination to resist impulsive responses; to respond logically and thoughtfully; to apply logic by explaining, justifying and, ultimately, proving what they think; to utilise a range of reasoning tools; and to develop strategies for presenting their reasoning to others persuasively. When looked at from these diverse angles growing reasoning moves well beyond encouraging a student to ‘think it through’.

 The Reasoning grid below takes account of the constituent parts of building the habit of Reasoning

Our progression grid for Reasoning has 5 components:

1c) Unpicking the columns; what contributes to a readiness to Reason?

1d) Unpicking the rows; getting better at Reasoning

Of course, the development of Reasoning doesn’t grow neatly up each column or evenly across the phases in the grid. The five broad phases of dispositional growth (purple – orange) are affective ways in which people may be inclined to behave: we call this inclination ‘mindedness’.

So far, you have:

• Looked at your students through the lens of the Imagining learning grid
• Gained a sense of what becoming better at Imagining looks like
• Considered how you might shift the culture of the classroom to nurture Imagining

Now we look more closely at classroom activities and language to provoke and guide students to get better at Imagining; to build the phases of Imagining mindedness.

Go to the phase that you have already identified as the one that most of your students need to develop next.
In each Tab box below you will find; an overview of the teacher’s role; a couple of  ‘quick wins’ or introductory activities; a couple  activities to surface Imagining; routines (must dos); some suggestions for teacher talk and If- Then statements; Reflection mat.

Moving from Grey → Purple

• Overview
• Intro & quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Reflect

Receives: Minded to re-play reality.

In the Receives (purple) phase, students are busy building up their range of experiences of the world and this in large part prescribes how they imagine things to be. Their imaginative state is still often suggested by adults but they are recognising that others can and do have different kinds of feelings and thoughts to themselves. This can be the source of some discomfort.
In this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of:

• Introducing the idea of imagining
• Organising many opportunities for students to imagine
• Encouraging students to talk about what they are imagining

The Mind’ s Eye

Taster activity

 

I Spy with my Three Eyes

Story and Guide

 

Beanstalk Stories

Starter activity

 

More ideas

More ideas

Create a setting where students are more likely to engage the imagination and wonder.

Change the environment to stimulate learning habits

At Roath Park Primary School in Cardiff, Victoria Scale-Constantinous discovered that her Year 1 children had little conception of imagination as being an essential part of ‘good learning’. They thought ‘good learning’ meant neat, correctly spelled and done on time, while imagination ‘is when you think about stuff and see pictures in your head’—but they didn’t get the connection. So Vicki decided to deliberately try to stretch their imagination muscles, and to show them what an important part of learning imagination could be.³ She wanted to give the children the opportunity to ‘incubate’ their ideas, so she changed the ‘home corner’ into a ‘Creativity Corner’ by dint of making a dark tent with a black sheet, decked out with fairy lights and CDs of relaxing music. The children were told that they could use the tent if they wanted to consciously make use of their imaginations to help them with whatever they were doing. To get them going, Vicki held whole- class ‘imagination sessions’ where the children closed their eyes, listened to music, and then discussed the ideas that had bubbled up into their minds. The children decided they would record their ideas in special ‘imagination books’ and they made their own ‘imagination badges’ (along the lines of Native American ‘dream-catchers’) which they could wear whenever they thought they had made productive use of their imaginations.

After just a few weeks of this deliberate focus on imagination, the number of children who said that their imagination helped them to learn had shot up from 4 to 19, and many now go into the Creativity Corner if they are stuck or want to improve their work. They have learned to use imagination as a powerful learning tool.

Teacher talk

To nudge students from Grey to Purple, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

For nurturing Imagination

• What does [an imaginary character] look like?
• Who has an imaginary friend? What are they like?
• Does this book give you any ideas?

To think about others

• Can you imagine what (s)he might be thinking about?
• How might she be feeling?
• (S)he thinks differently
• You see this differently

To activate memories

• Think back to when . . .
• What did it sound like?
• Use  . . . to give you an idea

To nudge imagination

• Can you picture . . . ?
• What if . . .
• What else might happen?

To encourage visualising

• Can you use your mind’s eye to see what that might look like?
• Can you imagine yourself doing that really well?
• Can you imagine what that would be like?

To praise cautious outcomes

• That’s a good try. I can see where your idea came from.
• That’s going to be a safe way of doing/thinking about/completing that.
• That’s just what I expected to see. Well done.

 

An If – Then suggestion:

If I imagine something, then I will tell my friend about it

If I want to use my imagination, then I will close my eyes and think about being somewhere else / doing something else / seeing something else . . . .

Learning Mat

A Learning Mat is a simple tool to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, it’s an A3 or A4 laminated sheet that is kept on tables or used as part of wall display. It shows various aspects of a learning habit. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that are being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

This mat is blank. You will find one that has suggested behaviours on in the Value/Green section. In this one you and your pupils could fill in some ideas for specific Receives/Purple behaviours that you want your pupils to start using. They can of course be individualised for specific pupils.

Download blank version to make your own

Moving from Purple → Blue

• Overview
• Intro & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Reflect

Responds: Minded to imagine beyond the rules of reality .

In the Responds (blue) phase, students are broadening their range of experiences not only of and in real life settings but also through stories and myths and art and fairy tales. such stories allow them to appreciate that at least in stories the rules of reality can be broken or disregarded. In the growth of empathy they are again stepping out of their more restricted world and into the lives of others through film or the internet. This allows them an insight into the lives of others. So their growing experiences leads to more imitative and responsive imaginative outcomes.

 In this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of:

• Engaging students in a fantasy world
• Helping students explore other worlds
• Orchestrating imagination across the curriculum
• Encouraging imaginative responses

Stimulating the imagination

• Use music to create atmosphere and stimulate imaginative thinking.
• Provide varied, unexpected and ever-changing visual experiences — on whiteboards, classroom walls, in ideas banks, through web-links, etc.
• Read vivid prose and poetry that captures details, moods and atmospheres.

Show and talk about this animation

Linking Ideas — Imagining

Linking Ideas

 

Open the mind’s eye

Ask students to visualise, for example, a snowy mountain peak until the image fades – discuss how long this could be sustained

Now visualise  hovering over the mountain and exploring the terrain by helicopter – the experience will have lasted longer

Now provide students with a guided visualisation of the mountain that triggers their imaginative faculties – discuss the features of this experience

Enable students to identify the ways of triggering their own imaginations when provided with stimuli. Invite them into a city at night, or the alimentary canal, …

Engaging all the senses to trigger the imagination

This type of activity is useful in all phases of imagination growth.

Show a black and white image, for example

Activity 1:

Say ‘I want you to be nosy – notice anything about the picture, and when you have done that, share what you have noticed with your partner’
What have you done ?

• Encouraged idea of nosiness, inquisitiveness, curiosity . . .
• Given a very precise task – notice something, and tell your partner.
• Used word notice rather than see – why ?
• Started with a low challenge task
• Used the word ‘when’ – presupposes success

Does anyone want to say what they think is happening here?
In each case, ask the respondent to look again at the picture to identify the clues that led them to that conclusion. Use ‘what makes you say that’ or ‘because’ to deepen thinking.
Conversely, seek alternative explanations. Ask ‘what else could that be ?’ Use the maybe hand as you go, raise fingers as you illicit alternative explanations until you have a handful of possibilities.

Activity 2:

Ask participants to study the painting in silence for 20 secs. This time, invite them to see the picture in colour – ‘turn up the colours in your head and tell me what you notice’.
Ask who can see colours (some can, some can’t !). Ask them what they can see in colour. Respond to answers by probing for more detail to deepen thinking – is it a dark blue ? How would you describe it? Etc.

Activity 3:

Again 20 secs silence before responding:

• Now turn up the sounds coming out of the picture – and when you have heard them, tell me what you hear.
• Probe detail – how long is the sound ? Broken or continuous? Volume? Pitch? What can you compare it to?

Activity 4:

Now I am going to count to 3. On the count of 3 I want you to jump into the picture and stand somewhere in the picture. When you notice something new, share it with your partner. Ok 1,2,3 Go !
Share ideas in whole group. Probe with:

• Where did you stand ? Why ?
• What can you smell ?
• How do you feel ?
• If the opportunity presents itself, try to cross-reference the senses: If someone says it is cold, ask what is the shape of cold; or the taste of cold, or the sound etc.

How might you use the technique ?

• As a starter for creative writing
• As a prelude to reading a book – start with the B&W copy of the dust jacket.
• To build empathy
• To scaffold the use of all of the senses
• To trigger the imagination

Using ‘Could be’ language

The importance of using ‘Could-Be’ language is well researched. It encourages more genuine engagement with what is being taught; how students will question and solve problems more readily if  knowledge is presented as provisional. It’s about shifting the tone to more tentative, less cut and dried. The opposite is ‘Is’ language which positions the learner as knowledge consumers where their job is to try and understand and remember. ‘Could be’ language immediately invites students to be more thoughtful, critical or imaginative about what they are hearing or reading.
Could be language includes phrase like;
In most cases; may include; may on occasion; wide variety; could be; probably; possibly; most often; there are other ways; one of which….
For more on using ‘could be’ language, see page 69-71 in  The Learning Powered School

Teacher talk

To nudge students from Purple to Blue, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To consider breaking the rules of reality

• What happened in that story that couldn’t happen in the real world?
• What do we mean by ‘pretend’?
• So, if we can break the rules in this imaginary world, what might happen next?

To begin to develop empathy

• Who/what could we copy?
• What do you think they are really trying to say, but don’t?
• How is [character] feeling about that?
• Put yourself in her shoes

To explore alternatives

• How else could this fit?
• What else might explain . . . . . ?

For consider what might be

• Are there any other possible explanations ?
• I know what it is, but what could it be?

To play with new ideas

• That’s a really unusual/fresh idea.
• How else might you combine those things?
• When do you get your best ideas bubbling up into your mind?
• What can we learn from our dreams?
• What do you think might happen if….

To broaden sources of imagination

• Close your eyes – what can you see? Hear? Feel?
• What do you think it tastes like?
• Reach out – can you touch it?
• That’s an interesting approach . . .

 

An If – Then suggestion:

If I read a story / see a film, then I will try to imagine what the characters are feeling.

If I feel I am getting stuck and need a good idea, then I will ask myself what could be done

Learning Mat

A Learning Mat is a simple tool to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, it’s an A3 or A4 laminated sheet that is kept on tables or used as part of wall display. It shows various aspects of a learning habit. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that are being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

This mat is blank. You will find one that has suggested behaviours on in the Value/Green section. In this one you and your pupils could fill in some ideas for specific Responds/Blue behaviours that you want your pupils to start using. They can of course be individualised for specific pupils.

Download blank version to make your own

Moving from Blue → Green

• Overview
• Intro & quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Reflect

Values: Minded to put their imagination to practical use

In the Values ( green) phase, students know how to use their memories of experiences and stories to achieve their own imaginative writing. They are able to abandon their inhibitions and create other worlds. They can see that in the world of imagination they can ‘get’ things to act differently and this frees them to think more boldly.
In pursuing this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of:

• Encouraging students to think laterally and create their own worlds
• Encourage visualisation of outcomes.
• Enabling students to respond empathetically to others’ different views
• Continually stimulating students’ imagination

Stimulating the imagination

• Use music to create atmosphere and stimulate imaginative thinking.
• Provide varied, unexpected and ever-changing visual experiences — on whiteboards, classroom walls, in ideas banks, through web-links, etc.
• Read vivid prose and poetry that captures details, moods and atmospheres.

Jabberwocky

Use the Lewis Carroll poem Jabberwocky to explore the meaning and nature of imagination and how we use this capacity to aid learning in many aspects of our lives.
Coaching Notes Learning Challenge Linking Ideas

Mind Maps for imagining

• Use mind maps to encourage students to imagine how their thoughts and ideas seem to work when the rules of reality no longer apply
• Use mind mapping at the beginning, middle and end of a unit of study to show how imaginations have travelled
• Use a ‘thought shower mind map’ at the outset of a lesson to stimulate ‘out of the box’ ideas

 

What do you think this might be?

Use an image that contains some mystery, and also some clues, for example:
Ask – ‘What do you think might be happening here ?’
What is it for ? To stimulate students to speculate and formulate hypotheses.
How might you use it ? Almost any image will do, but one linked to your own subject often works best.

It could be combined with a ‘slow reveal’ on a whiteboard where the image is revealed step by step (this makes it a revising activity also, as new information encourages students to change their initial perceptions). As a ‘script’ to accompany the image, consider using ‘See Think Wonder’, which is a habit-forming activity in the next section, or ‘What makes you say that’ from Reasoning.

See / Think / Wonder

See Think Wonder is a visible thinking routine that encourages students to notice attentively and make careful observations (See), to make thoughtful interpretations, to reflect on what they are noticing, to make links to what they already know, and to distil the important bits (Think), and finally to ask a question about what has been noticed (Wonder). It helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry.
Use this routine when you want students to think carefully about why something looks the way it does or is the way it is. Use the routine at the beginning of a new unit to motivate student interest or try it with an object that connects to a topic during the unit of study. Consider using the routine with an interesting object near the end of a unit to encourage students to further apply their new knowledge and ideas.
The routine works best when a student responds by using the three stems together at the same time, i.e., “I see…, I think…, I wonder …. “ However, you may find that students begin by using one stem at a time, and that you need to scaffold each response with a follow up question for the next stem.
See/Think/Wonder is a David Perkins visible thinking routine, to be found at his visible thinking website.

Teacher talk

To nudge students from Blue to Green, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To nurture links to past experience

• What have you read/seen that might give you another way of looking at this?
• What / who does this remind you of?
• Do you remember . . . . . . ?

To grow Empathy

• Who might see it differently?
• I wonder what (s)he would want me to say/do?
• How would /should your response to that sound so that you show empathy.

To encourage pupils to let their minds roam

• Let’s just give it a go !
• What’s your best guess ?
• I wonder how ..
• What else might be going on here?

To imagine what they want to achieve

• Can you see where you are going?
• How else might you get there?
• That’s a good visualisation of where you are trying to get to. How did you come up with that?
• Is your visualisation good enough to start thinking about a plan?

To play with ideas

• What do you feel might be happening?
• Find a quiet corner, put you brain into rest mode and see what ideas bubble up.
• Trust your instincts.

To suspend reality

• What would happen if …
• Break the rules . . . .
• If normal rules didn’t apply . . . .

An If – Then suggestion:

If I am not sure what to do / say, then I will try to think what another person would like me to do / say

If I am not sure what to do / write, then I will let my mind wander to see what I come up with.

Learning Mats

Learning mats are tools to encourage students to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, they are A3 or A4 laminated sheets that show various aspects of a learning habit. They are kept on tables or used as part of wall display. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that is being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk

As pupils become more proficient at imagining the statements could be upgraded to reflect later phases of the imagining progression grid. Pupils often enjoy making their own learning mats describing the particular imagining skills they are working on.

Learning-about-Imagining.pdf

Using Learning Mats

You could also use Learning Mats (in ‘teacher speak’ or ‘student speak):

• To raise awareness of  the habit
• To spread the school’s common language for learning
• As an aide memoire for students and teachers
• As a self-assessment support for students
• As an audit tool to support teacher planning. i.e. which of the imagining skills are implied in the lesson plan and therefore how will they be surfaced in what you draw attention to/orchestrate the lesson.

Moving from Green → Yellow

• Overview
• Intro & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk

Organises: Minded to let their imagination run wild

In the Organises (yellow) phase, Imagining has become a skilful habit; they are organising themselves to fuel their imagination further. They often collect pictures or songs or poems or artifacts  that they may use to trigger their imagination in the future. Their listening habits have shifted to being focused on understanding other viewpoints and all this combines to give them insights into other real and imaginary worlds. This gives them what they need to achieve original outcomes.
In pursuing this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of;

• Encouraging students to pursue their own goals
• Allowing students time to play with ideas
• Not expecting a clear plan of action from students ( imaginations don’t like to be tied down too early!)
• Encouraging students to collect things to trigger their imaginations

 Capturing ideas

• Encourage students to brainstorm or mindmap and keep notebooks or Post-its of interesting ideas to feed their creativity. Do this collectively and individually.
• Elect one student ‘Plant of the Day’, whose job it is to suggest unlikely ideas.

Draw me the answer – can you draw ‘Change?’

A connecting or transferring activity to stimulate the use of the imagination
Use drawings to release student imagination and to encourage students to identify the key features of whatever it is they are drawing. [Much like Mind Maps, this is also a Distilling and Link Making activity].
It is at its most powerful when the ‘thing’ being drawn is abstract – change, democracy; fairness; liberty; fear etc.

 

Play the prediction game

• Show video clips of e.g. Messi preparing to kick a ball, Bolt preparing to run a race, as well as other sports and entertainment people rehearsing ahead of action.
• Discuss what they are doing to ‘play the movie’ in their heads before they do the deed.
• Explore occasions when this could be useful in students’ own lives.
• Identify the triggers and habits required when anticipating the right action.

What if … challenges

• Provoke students to think ‘What if… we ran out of oil in 25 years… we lived in a two-dimensional world… we all lived for exactly 70 years… tennis balls were heavier… we had two moons…’
• Encourage students to build collaborative spider diagrams that explore the possible ramifications of such eventualities.
• Extend the imagining in creative presentations using a variety of media.

Nurture imagination

The mind shifts information with time. Use music, candles, projected lights, silence, and meditation to create calm space for this to happen. Give students time for wandering in their minds to access their passive imagination and the images stored in their subconscious mind.

 

Step Inside – a visible thinking routine.

The visible thinking routine ‘Step Inside: Perceive, Know, Care about‘ helps students to explore different perspectives and viewpoints as they try to imagine things, events, problems, or issues differently.

The routine asks students to step inside the role of a character or object—from a picture they are looking at, a story they have read, an element in a work of art, an historical event being discussed, and so on—and to imagine themselves inside that point of view. Students are asked to then speak or write from that chosen point of view. This routine works well when you want students to open up their thinking and look at things differently. It can be used as an initial kind of problem solving brainstorm that open ups a topic, issue, or item. It can also be used to help make abstract concepts, pictures, or events come more to life for students.

https://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03g_CreativityRoutines/StepInside/StepInside_Routine.html

Teacher talk

To nudge students from Green to Yellow, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

For broadening sources of imagination

• That’s a good idea. Did you find it on Pintrest?
• The way you have structured all your triggers will be really helpful.
• What else might you turn to?

For listening to understand

• What is X really saying here?
• What are the feelings underneath the words?
• What is their viewpoint?

To find novel outcomes

• That’s a really interesting idea. Are you going to try it?
• That’s very different – well done!
• Be creative, do it your way!

For rehearsing actions in the mind

• Before you do … picture yourself doing it really well in your mind.
• In your picture think of all the things you need to get right/do well. Think of yourself doing it really well.
• What do you think it will feel like to do that?
• I did this by visualising …

To encourage intuition

• Don’t worry – we don’t always know what will happen!
• I don’t know – shall we give it a go?
• Follow you intuition
• Trust your instincts
• Mighty oaks from little acorns

To grow creativity

• We will know/find out – later
• I don’t know – yet
• What if it didn’t have to be like that ?

 

An If – Then suggestion:

If I have an idea / inkling / intuition, then I will play with it to see where it takes me.

If I am listening to someone else talking, then I will make every effort to understand how they might be feeling and what they might believe.

As teachers, we are in the habit-forming business. Those habits that we model in front of young people influence the ways in which they perform and behave. Therefore, we need to be sure to foster productive learning habits. If we frequently do the speculation for them, we are not building our students’ imaginations. In such ways do good teachers, albeit inadvertently, stifle the very behaviours they are seeking to promote.

2a) Activity 2: How well does my classroom climate encourage Imagining?

A classroom climate that supports and nourishes the inclination to imagine is characterised by an interest in other possibilities, in what ‘might be’, in alternatives and different ways of doing things. Such classrooms deliberately encourage learners to follow their intuitions and to take risks to pursue their own creative ideas.
To develop an imagination friendly culture teachers need to believe that:

• A learner’s imagination is one of their most important/effective learning tools, fueling  creative, original outcomes
• Learners need time and repeated opportunities to speculate, hypothesise and visualise
• Imagining involves taking risks which are all part of learning

And such imagination friendly  cultures will enable students to come to believe that:

• It is okay to follow a hunch
• There are many different ways of tackling a problem
• ‘If I imagine myself doing something beforehand I will get better at doing it for real.’

Get a feel for your classroom culture and how this may be working for or against helping students to develop imaginative approaches.
Look through the ideas carefully and consider whether you already use some, and whether any appeal to you to try.

SS2-Activity-2-Classroom-Climate-for-Imagining.pdf

1a) What do we mean by Imagining?

Imagining is an important way of thinking but one that seems to be afforded too few opportunities in classrooms. Imagination isn’t  just a cute faculty that children use to weave fantasies: it is one of the most effective tools in the learner’s toolbox. Scientists, designers and executives need a powerful imagination just as much as painters and novelists, and it can either be developed, through appropriate experience and encouragement, or left to shrivel up. Good learners are ready and able to look at things in different ways. They like playing with ideas and possibilities and adopting different perspectives (even though they may not have a clear idea of where their imagination is leading them). They use pictures and diagrams to help them think and learn.

There are two kinds of imagination: active and receptive. In active imagination, you deliberately create a scenario to run in your mind’s eye. Sports people use this kind of mental rehearsal and experiments have shown it to be very effective at improving their level of skill.

The second kind of imagination is more receptive, like daydreaming: letting a problem slip to the back of your mind, and then just sliding into a kind of semi-awake reverie, where the mind plays with ideas and images without much control on your part. Successful learners and inventors know how to make good use of this kind of creative intuition. They are interested in inklings and ideas that just bubble up into their minds.

Extract from Building Learning Power. Guy Claxton 2002

1b) What does being a good Imaginer involve?

A well formed Imagining habit involves being ready, willing, and able to:

• Use the mind as a theatre in which to play out ideas and possible actions experimentally.
• Use a rich variety of visual, aural and sensory experiences to trigger creative and lateral thinking.
• Explore possibilities speculatively, saying ‘What might …’, ‘What could …’ and ‘What if …?’ rather than being constrained by what is.
• Retain a childlike playfulness when confronted with challenges and difficulties.
• Be aware of intended outcomes whilst adopting a flexible approach to realising goals.
• Rehearse actions in the mind before performing them in reality.

So, at a less abstract level, students need to have a wide range of experiences on which to base their imaginations; to have the bravery to take imaginative risks; to have the ability to visualise what they will do in advance of taking action; to be happy to allow their minds to explore intuitions and possible lines of enquiry; and to create innovative creative outcomes. When looked at from these diverse angles growing imagination moves well beyond encouraging a student to ‘be creative’.

Our progression grid for Imagining has 6 components:

3. Unpicking the columns; what contributes to a readiness to Imagine?

1d) Unpicking the rows; getting better at Imagining.

Of course, the development of Imagining doesn’t grow neatly up each column or evenly across the phases in the grid. The five broad phases of dispositional growth (receives – embodies) are affective ways in which people may be inclined to behave: we call this inclination ‘mindedness’.

So far, you have:

• Looked at your students through the lens of the Resourcing Learning learning grid
• Gained a sense of what becoming better at Resourcing Learning looks like
• Considered how you might shift the culture of the classroom to nurture Resourcing Learning

Now we look more closely at classroom activities and language to provoke and guide students to get better at Resourcing Learning; to build the phases of Resource Learning mindedness.

Go to the phase that you have already identified as the one that most of your students need to develop next.

In each Tab box below you will find; an overview of the teacher’s role; a couple of  ‘quick wins’ or introductory activities; a couple of ideas to bring out Resource Learning; Some routine ideas; some suggestions for teacher talk and If- Then statements; Reflection mat

Moving from Grey → Purple

• Overview
• Intro & Quick wins
• Activities
• Routines
• Talk
• Review/Reflect

Receives: Minded to use resources they are given and the strategies they are told to use.

In the Receives (purple) phase, students begin to use the things and strategies they are given to help with their learning. The concept of resourcing learning is beginning to form. They become aware that it might be useful to watch and listen to others and that this can be useful in their own learning. They see their teachers as a source of expertise and can become too dependent on this unless supported to broaden their range of strategies and resources.

In pursuing this phase, the role of the teacher becomes one of :

• Introducing the idea of Resourcing Learning
• Training students to use different strategies and resources
• Making a particular range of resources available
• Expecting students to avail themselves of the resources they need

Show and talk about this animation

More ideas

More ideas

 

 

 

Snowy and Patch

Story and guide

 

 

 

Finding Out About

Activity:’Finding Out About…’

Classroom layouts.

New classroom layout

St Petroc’s in Cornwall had a new classroom that needed to be equipped for the coming year – a blank canvas. Having taken up BLP they set themselves the brief  to create a flexible, neutral space that would facilitate learning.

The first decision was to put all the furniture on casters to maximise flexibility within the space, they centralised the resources so as to give access to large whiteboards at child height on every wall. This was to enable pupils to think about, explore, plan and reflect upon their learning, these would become the Working Walls, ensuring that all information was current and relevant. A range of work and break out spaces were provided including tables and chairs, bar tables and stools, sofas, bean bags, and an architect’s desk. Display boards were minimised, but those that remained were covered in neutral backing paper in order to maintain a calm space where the pupils’ work would provide the colour.

So the scene was set for a learning focused classroom. What had not been anticipated was the buzz that the room created amongst the staff. Each asked if they could be given the opportunity to spend a week in the room with their class. Each class started on a Wednesday. The departing class shared with the new class one thing that made a difference to their learning that week. By the end of the term, every class had had the opportunity to work within the space, learn from each other and taken the  principles back with them to their own classrooms.

Here are more shots of the classroom….

Teacher talk

To nudge students from Grey to Purple, use language like this to nudge each column of the grid:

To encourage pupils to use different materials

• Copy me
• I do it like this. Can you do that ?
• Follow my lead
• Have a go with this

To encourage pupils to fetch and use tools for learning

• Could you go and get . . . . .
• We’ve not used this before, have we?
• Has that helped you to do it?
• Use this – I find it helps me when . . .

To encourage pupils to use different strategies for learning

• What did you do last time ?
• Do you think that will work here ?
• How else might you try to do this ?
• Have you seen something like this before ? What did you do then ?

To encourage pupils to seek for advice

• Who could you ask?
• Aside from me, who could you ask?
• Who might know? Why not talk to them?

To consider when alternative resources may be required

• You might need a XX resource to do that.
• Have you got everything you need?
• Where might you find a XX
• You might be missing . . . .

To observe how others do things

• What have you noticed from watching xxx?
• I can see that you have been watching …
• Watch him/her carefully – you might pick up a good idea

To set an If/Then target from Grey to Purple, try:

If I am asked to do something then I will use the resources that my teacher gives me.

If I am finding it hard, then I will watch how my friend is doing it.

Learning Mat

A Learning Mat is a simple tool to encourage pupils to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. Basically, it’s an A3 or A4 laminated sheet that is kept on tables or used as part of wall display. It shows various aspects of a learning habit. Pupils refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that are being stretched. They help pupils to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

This mat is blank. You will find one that has suggested behaviours on in the Value/Green section. In this one you and your pupils could fill in some ideas for specific Receive/Purple behaviours that you want your pupils to start using. They can of course be individualised for specific pupils

Download blank version to make your own

As teachers, we are in the habit-forming business. Those habits that we model in front of young people influence the ways in which they perform and behave. Therefore, we need to be sure to foster productive learning habits. If, for example, we always select resources for students to use, we are not building their expertise in finding their own resources. In such ways do good teachers, albeit inadvertently, stifle the very behaviours they are seeking to promote.

Activity 2: How well does my classroom climate encourage Resource Learning?

A classroom climate that supports and nourishes the inclination to capitalise on what and who is around to resource one’s learning is characterised by a belief that learners should do it ‘for themselves’. This is helped by a coaching approach that nudges responsibility onto learners to make choices about when, how and what strategies and resources are needed for what task.

To build a resourcing culture, teachers’ beliefs will need to include:

• I am but one resource that can and will help students to learn
• Classroom strategies and resources are aids not props for learning
• Imitating the successful strategies of others is a key learning behaviour
• Learners will need to be enabled to exercise choice over the use of resources

And in making classrooms ‘resource-use friendly’, students are helped to believe;

• ‘Good copying’ is not cheating
• All learning needs strategies and resources and it’s okay to use them
• ‘I am responsible for selecting which resource is best for me’

Get a feel for your classroom culture and how this may be working for or against a friendly resourcing-learning environment.
Look through the ideas carefully and consider whether you already use some, and whether any appeal to you to try.

1a) What do we mean by Resourcing Learning?

In the early BLP framework it is called capitalising. It’s about being on the lookout for strategies, resources and forms of support in the environment that can help you in your current learning or problem-solving. Traditional schooling assumes that intelligence is all in the head. But recent studies show that it is much fairer and more accurate to see good learners as people who are ready and able to make intelligent use of all kinds of strategies and things around them—floor space, filing cabinets, dictionaries, notebooks, personal organisers, telephones, libraries, e-mail and, of course, other people. 

1b) What does being a good Resource Learner involve?

Being a good resource learner involves learning with the help of many different sources –other people, books, the internet, music,the environment, experience…and making intelligent use of all kinds of  strategies and things to aid learning. In the early stages, it means selecting and making the best use of known strategies and classroom resources but this swiftly moves on to embracing a much wider and varied range of possibilities. This involves being able to seek novel ways of solving problems by exploiting the potential of known strategies and what is around them including things you may never have thought of as a resource. Importantly it includes being able to adapt and adopt the ways other people do things; taking their habits and values into your own repertoire.( imitating) Gradually students can improve their physical skills, absorb ideas and thinking patterns by observing the approach and detail of how others do things. When looked at from these diverse angles, growing resourcing moves well beyond encouraging a student to ‘read pages 24 and 25’.The Resourcing Learning grid below takes account of the constituent parts of building the habit of Resourcing Learning

Our progression grid for Resourcing Learning has 5 components:

1c) Unpicking the columns; what contributes to a readiness to Resource Learning?

1d) Unpicking the rows; getting better at Resourcing Learning.

Of course, the development of Resource Learning doesn’t grow neatly up each column or evenly across the phases in the grid. The five broad phases of dispositional growth (purple – orange) are affective ways in which people may be inclined to behave: we call this inclination ‘mindedness’.

We wish you well with your rich activity/learning enquiry. Do let us know how it went…

Maybe you would like to write a blog about it to feature on our website for the benefit of the Building Learning Power community.

So far, you have:

• Looked at your students through the lens of the Me-Learning learning grid
• Gained a sense of what becoming better at Me Learning looks like
• Considered how you might shift the culture of the classroom to nurture Me-Learning

Now we look more closely at classroom activities and language to provoke and guide students to get better at Me-Learning; to build the phases of Me-Learning mindedness.

Go to the phase that you have already identified as the one that most of your students need to develop next.

In each Tab box below you will find; an overview of the teacher’s role; a couple of  ‘quick wins’ or introductory activities; a couple  activities to surface Me Learning;a routine or two; some suggestions for teacher talk and If- Then statements; Reflection Mat.

As teachers, we are in the habit-forming business. Those habits that we model in front of young people influence the ways in which they perform and behave. Therefore, we need to be sure to foster productive learning habits. If, for example, we don’t offer students a language and opportunities to talk about themselves as learners, we are not building their potential to become self-regulating . In such ways do good teachers, albeit inadvertently, stifle the very behaviours they are seeking to promote.

Activity 2: How well does my classroom climate encourage Me- Learning?

A classroom climate that supports and nourishes the inclination to reflect on and learn from the process of learning is characterised by an interest in the ‘how’ of learning, a belief that reflection consolidates learning and that responsibility for learning lies with the learner.

To bring about a learning-how-to-learn culture, the teacher needs to believe that;

• Learning how to learn is indeed possible and learners can take control of their own learning
• Talking about the process of learning (the how) is of equal importance to talking about what has been learned
• A coherent and consistent language for talking about the learning process helps learners to understand themselves as learner

And through a friendly learning-how-to-learn culture, students will come to believe;

• I have command of my learning habits
• How I do things is as important as what I do
• Talking about the process of learning helps me to become a more effective learner

Get a feel for your classroom culture and how it may be working for or against building students’ understanding of themselves as learners.
Look through the ideas carefully and consider whether you already use some, and whether any appeal to you to try.

 1a) What do we mean by Me-Learning or Meta Learning ?

 Meta-learning involves drawing out of your learning experience a more general, explicit understanding of the process of learning, and specific knowledge about yourself as a learner. Let’s take these two aspects of meta-learning in turn.

There is a wealth of research which shows that good learners know a lot about learning.

They possess a vocabulary for talking about the process of learning itself, and are able to articulate how learning works.

Good readers, even quite young ones, are often able tell you half-a-dozen things they can do when they come across an unfamiliar word: they sound it out, break it down into bits, re-read the previous sentence, read on to see if the meaning becomes clear, look at the picture and think about it, and so on. And so, more generally, for good learners. The more able they are to talk about their learning, the more likely they are to be able to apply their knowledge to new domains too: meta-learning increases generalisation.

And good learners also need an accurate sense of themselves as learners. Being a good learner means being able to take your own strengths and weaknesses into account as you are weighing up a learning challenge, or deciding on a course of ‘professional development.’

The skills and dispositions of meta-learning can be cultivated simply by a teacher’s persistent use of questions such as ‘How did you go about finding that out?’ or ‘How would you go about teaching that to other people?’

Extract from Building Learning Power by  Guy Claxton 2oo2

1b) What does being a good Me-Learner involve?

We have given meta learning the friendly title of Me-Learning. Becoming a Me-learner; being able to assess the effectiveness of your own learning process and regulate it for greater success, is made up of several strands; How you become and stay motivated and plan your learning, how you build and organise your ideas; how you learn with and from others; how you manage your learning environment and  how you monitor your learning process itself in order to improve. When looked at from these diverse angles, growing meta learning moves well beyond encouraging a student to ‘think about it’.

The progression grid is made up of sections from several of the other learning behaviours that you will have come across previously. Here they are drawn together to reflect a person’s self knowledge about their learning. The grid below captures of the constituent parts of building the habit of Me-Learning

Our progression grid for Me-Learning has 6 components:

1c) Unpicking the columns; what contributes to Me-Learning?

1d) Unpicking the rows; getting better at Me-Learning.

Of course, the development of Me-Learning doesn’t grow neatly up each column or evenly across the phases in the grid. The five broad phases of dispositional growth (purple – orange) are affective ways in which people may be inclined to behave: we call this inclination ‘mindedness’.

Activity 1

• Colour in the cells where you think your pupils are secure.
• Draw a red line across the grid to denote where you think most of the school’s students could and should reach by the time they leave.
• Please take the results of these tasks with you to the Professional Learning Team session shown in Section 4

We wish you well with your rich activity/learning enquiry. Do let us know how it went…

Maybe you would like to write a blog about it to feature on our website for the benefit of the Building Learning Power community.

So far, you have:

• Looked at your students through the lens of the Planning learning grid
• Gained a sense of what becoming better at Planning looks like
• Considered how you might shift the culture of the classroom to nurture Planning

Now we look more closely at classroom activities and language to provoke and guide students to get better at Planning; to build the phases of Planning mindedness.

Go to the phase that you have already identified as the one that most of your students need to develop next.

In each Tab box below you will find; an overview of the teacher’s role; a couple of  ‘quick wins’ or introductory activities; a couple of  activities to surface Planning; some suggestions for teacher talk and If- Then statements; reflecting mat.

As teachers, we are in the habit-forming business. Those habits that we model in front of young people influence the ways in which they perform and behave. Therefore, we need to be sure to foster productive learning habits. If for example, we talk about planning but never give students an opportunity to plan their own activity but rather do it for them, we are not building their  inclination to manage their own learning. In such ways do good teachers, albeit inadvertently, stifle the very behaviours they are seeking to promote.

Activity 2: How well does my classroom climate encourage Planning?

A classroom climate that develops and supports the inclination to plan is characterised by an understanding that planning is a key element in becoming an independent learner; thinking ahead of taking action and resisting the temptation to rush at things.  

To  build a planning friendly culture teachers need to believe that: 

• It is a schools job to develop students as independent learners
• Learners should take responsibility for planning and organising their own learning
• Time needs to given to planning and thinking ahead; the pay off comes later

And from such a planning friendly culture students come to believe: 

• I can exercise control over the future by thinking ahead of doing
• Planning my own learning gives me greater satisfaction
• Thinking ahead of action helps me to achieve success

Get a feel for your classroom culture and how this may be working for or against positive approaches to students becoming willing and able to plan learning for themselves.
Look through the ideas carefully and consider whether you already use some, and whether any appeal to you to try.

1a) What do we mean by Planning?

 Planning, is the ability to take a strategic overview of your learning, and make sensible decisions. It means:

• taking stock of the problem and the parameters within which you must work
• assessing the available resources, both inner and outer, and deciding which you think are going to be needed
• making an estimate of the time the learning will take, and the competing priorities that may have to be delayed or sacrificed
• imagining a route-map for the learning
• anticipating hurdles or problems that may arise along the way.

Good learners like taking responsibility for planning and organising their learning. They welcome opportunities to decide for themselves when, where, why and how they are going to learn—and to get better at doing so. Research shows, for example, that people who can make a reasonable estimate of how long a task will take are more likely to finish on time, and to do better work.

Extract from Building Learning Power. Guy Claxton 2002

1b) What does being a good Planner involve?

Being able to think ahead isn’t the whole story of Planning. Becoming an effective Planner of your own learning needs you to know something about yourself as a learner; your interests, your needs, your wishes. Training the process of thinking ahead often starts simply by asking students to find the resources they will need to carry out a task. But planning your own learning is a sophisticated task. It involves a personal, silent assessment of your learning skills ( ‘What can I feasibly achieve? What am I capable of doing? What resources would bolster my chances of success?’) The more timid, less confident or lower achieving students may find such planning a daunting prospect. Introducing and requiring students to work learning out for themselves will take time and careful planning on the part the teacher. When looked at from these diverse angles growing planning moves well beyond encouraging a student to ‘think ahead’

The Planning grid below takes account of the constituent parts of building the habit of Planning. As a grid it is probably one of the most straightforward and even boring! The emphasis we would like to stress is not so much the growing sophistication of a plan but rather the move growing move towards giving students the opportunity and power to plan learning for themselves. Without such habits they will never become independent learners.

Our progression grid for Planning has 6 components:

1c) Unpicking the columns; what contributes to a readiness to Plan?

1d) Unpicking the rows; getting better at Planning.

Of course, the development of Planning does not grow neatly up each column or evenly across the phases in the grid. The five broad phases of dispositional growth (purple – orange) are affective ways in which people may be inclined to behave: we call this inclination ‘mindedness’.

Session agenda

If this team session is your first one in Stepping Stones phase 2, miss out 2.

1. Session objectives

What do we want to achieve? ( 5 mins)

2. Sharing classroom experiments

How did our experiments go? ( 20 mins)

Share

• the changes in practice you tried
• how students reacted
• what you learned
• what next as a result

Probe

• what was getting in the way?
• what seemed difficult?
• what would make it easier?
• what made it work particularly well?
• why it was successful?
• changes in your behaviour

Talk about impact (general)

• improvements in the ‘feel’ of the classroom culture
• increased time on task
• less low level disruption
• more talk about learning
• greater enjoyment in learning
• more/renewed interest in the subject
• more harmony in the classroom
• greater willingness to try, and try different ways
• Less/more avoidance of…..
• Improvements in……
• Increases in…….
• Little of no change in…

Impact (specific)

• Or…consider the behaviour-specific improvement indicators for the learning habit you were improving. (i.e. as shown for this behaviour in section 5c below)

3. Recapping on-line materials

What did we think of the materials? ( 15 mins)

Reactions to

• The Making Links grid
• Where pupils are secure
• Where the pupils could be secure when they leave for secondary school
• Classroom culture ideas
• Activities and talk ideas

4. Planning what to do

What do we need to do next? ( 10 mins )

Decide

• Which ideas should we all adopt as a school strategy?
• How the progression of Making Links should be built across the school. ie how the phases of Making Links might play out against key stages and even year groups.

5. Personal action planning

What am I going to do? ( 20 mins )

5a.Consider

•  how you want your pupils to improve/develop/enhance their approach to Making Links
•  what you are going to do to bring this about
• develop your enquiry question.

Think of it like this…

If I do  XXXX will it improve/develop/enhance YYYY

This is the crunch question. Your pupils are unlikely to change unless you change!

Capture your learning enquiry as a question

5b.Put a short enquiry plan together

5c.Discuss which of these possible impacts on students have been observed;

• more inclined to seek connections or identify patterns
• greater confidence in sensing cause and effect
• willingness to link new learning with past experiences
• improved ability to apply what they already know in new situations
• preparedness to change their views
• increasingly inclined to link with others to deepen understanding
• realisation that some new things remind them of things they already know / understand
• increasingly able to see links across subject disciplines
• others you may have observed…

Or if you want to be more specific you could use the indicators from the progression grid

6. Evaluate team session

How did we do as a team? ( 5 mins )

We wish you well with your rich activity/learning enquiry. Do let us know how it went…

Maybe you would like to write a blog about it to feature on our website for the benefit of the Building Learning Power community.

So far, you have:

• Looked at your students through the lens of the Making Links learning grid.
• Gained a sense of what becoming better at making links looks like.
• Considered how you might shift the culture of the classroom to nurture making links.

Now we look more closely at classroom activities and language to provoke and guide students to get better at making links; to build the phases of link making mindedness.

Go to the phase that you have already identified as the one that most of your students need to develop next.

In each Tab box below you will find; an overview of the teacher’s role; a couple of  ‘quick wins’ or introductory activities; a couple of  activities to srface Making Links; some suggestions for teacher talk and If- Then statements; Reflection mat.

As teachers we are in the habit-forming business. Those habits that we model in front of young people influence the ways in which they perform and behave. Therefore, we need to be sure to foster productive learning habits. If we simply tell students how new learning fits with previous learning, we are failing to understand the learning process and we’re not building their ability or inclination to seek connections and create meaning for themselves.. In such ways do good teachers, albeit inadvertently, stifle the very behaviours they are seeking to promote.

Activity 2: How well does my classroom climate encourage Making Links?

A classroom climate that supports and nourishes the inclination to make links and create meaning is characterised by an understanding that meaning can only be created by learners themselves. For this reason, knowledge is seen as provisional and open to question, changed all the while by new learning which is then actively reconciled with existing understandings.

To enable a friendly link making culture, teacher beliefs will need to include:

• The most influential aspect of learning is what the learner already knows
• Learning is individual sense making, and hence learning needs to be understood in the context of, and aligned with, existing knowledge by the learner
• What and how we know is a complex web of understanding, not a set of isolated facts
• What we think we understand constantly evolves

And in developing a friendly link making culture students will come to believe;

• Growing my understanding is about seeing connections between new learning and what I already know
• New learning makes me question what I previously believed/thought.

Get a feel for your classroom culture and how it  may be working for or against a friendly link making approach.
Look through the ideas carefully and consider whether you already use some, and whether any appeal to you to try.

1a) What do we mean by Making Links?

Making links between different things comprises not only the ability to see or make relationships but also the inclination to look for them.

Trying to hook up new experiences with what you already know is what some people call ‘making meaning’.

New ideas become meaningful to the extent that we can incorporate them within our own mental webs of associations and significances. When the patterns of relationship to be discovered are rather complex or subtle, business guru Peter Senge calls it ‘systems thinking’. Good learners get pleasure from seeing how things fit together. They are interested in the big picture, and how new learning expands it.

Good learners can make all kinds of different links. They can link together this lesson’s physics topic with what they were doing in maths last week. They can look for links to their own goals and interests, to discover the relevance of the new learning to their own lives. They find links to their own real-life experience—using new ideas or theories to make sense of past impressions. They weave new events into their developing autobiographical story relating them to their sense of self. They can connect new learning with their own opinions and beliefs, so that they come out not just knowing something new, but looking at the world in a different way. And—very importantly for creativity—they may look for analogies in their own memory that give them a handle on a complicated new domain. ‘What’s it like?’ they ask themselves.

Extract from Building Learning Power by Guy Claxton

1b) What does being a good Link Maker involve?

Learning is about making connections – you will experience them through the ‘ah ha’ experience of seeing a connection between two previously isolated concepts, or the satisfaction of seeing the connection between an abstract idea and a ‘hands-on’ concrete experience. It’s how you make sense of the world. To be a good link maker you need to keep stimulating your brain and enriching your experiences because through active learning you quite literally ‘build’ your own mind. This is done in many ways; through having a repertoire of cognitive strategies; through the social process of constructing knowledge; by connecting experience and learning; through how you direct the work of learning, sometimes called meta-learning or simply reflection (see the module on Me-Learning). And at the heart of all this is your attitude to knowledge; whether it is bound up in rules and ‘is-language’, or whether you see knowledge as provisional, ever building and changing. When looked at from these diverse angles growing link making moves well beyond encouraging a student to ‘look for a link’.

The Making Links grid below attempts to capture these constituent parts of building the habit of Making Links.

Our progression grid for Making Links has 6 components:

1c) Unpicking the columns; what contributes to a readiness to make links?

1d) Unpicking the rows: getting better at Making Links.

Of course the development of making links does not grow neatly up each column or evenly across the phases in the grid. The five broad phases of dispositional growth (purple – orange) are affective ways in which people may be inclined to behave: we call this inclination ‘mindedness’.

We wish you well with your rich activity/learning enquiry. Do let us know how it went…

Maybe you would like to write a blog about it to feature on our website for the benefit of the Building Learning Power community.