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Culture for challenge quiz

In the questionnaire there are twelve questions about teaching habits.

Each question contains two statements: the one prefaced with (A) is representative of conventional ‘good teaching’; the one prefaced with (B) describes a learning-powered approach in learning-friendly classrooms.

Look at each pair of statements carefully and; pick an answer that represents where you think your practice falls in the spectrum between (A) — result ‘1’ — and (B) — result ‘6’. The scale is as follows:

1 My practice is like statement A
2 My practice is quite close to A
3 My practice is a bit nearer A than B
4 My practice is a bit nearer B than A
5 My practice is quite close to B
6 My practice is like statement B

Required fields are marked *

1.a) I advise students how to go about things to ensure they are successful
b) We have an agreed class/group strategies for approaching challenge at any level *
2.a) I support students to take responsible risks
b) My students monitor their own risk levels *
3.a) I model how I approach difficult tasks
b) My students can explain to me their successful strategies for accomplishing difficult tasks *
4.a) I tell my students about the importance of effort
b) I discuss the meaning of effort with students, the types to use and when to apply *
5.a) I give feedback that points out mistakes students have made
b) I offer clues for students to use to discover their own valuable mistakes *
6.a) I talk about how to get things right
b) We discuss different types of mistakes and explore how to deal with them *
7.a) I provide students with plenty of high challenge activities
b) I encourage students to select and to justify the level of challenge they intend to undertake *
8.a) I help students understand their mistakes by going over the content again
b) I train students to use questions that help them explore the nature of their mistakes *
9.a) I design activities to ensure students understand the intended learning outcomes
b) I design open-ended activities that encourage students to develop and pursue their own lines of enquiry *
10.a) Classroom display focuses on the strategies that lead to success
b) Classroom displays include hints and tips about what can be learned from frequently made mistakes *
11.a) I praise students for getting things right
b) I praise students for making mistakes and learning from them *
12.a) I reward high attainment
b) I reward students for unpicking a difficult challenge *

10 Responses to Culture for challenge quiz

  1. Geraldine Bedford 15th April 2018 at 9:38 pm #

    I feel that some of my answers are indicative of my role as a learning support worker, I often work one to one and, as such, develop strategies for each child as an individual.
    However we do discuss the child’s perception of mistakes and how to challenge their learning.

  2. Heather Scott 25th April 2018 at 1:01 pm #

    Again I feel that due to the nature of the children I work with, they do not have the level of understanding to set their own challenges academically or identify mistakes and discuss how they can learn from them. They can however learn to develop felxibility, growth mindset and embrace mistakes as learning opportunities.

  3. Cindy Ham 28th October 2018 at 7:22 am #

    Pretty happy that the culture is positive and on the right track. Need to inject some new ideas to back this up.

  4. Julie-Maree Jones 8th September 2019 at 6:31 am #

    With Kindergarten we are still learning how to use mistakes to learn. Unfortunately many students are coming to school fearful of making mistakes and we are having to change their preconceptions as well as their parents.

  5. Julie-Maree Jones 24th September 2019 at 7:11 am #

    With Kindergarten we are still learning how to use mistakes to learn. Unfortunately many students are coming to school fearful of making mistakes and we are having to change their preconceptions as well as their parents

  6. Jenny Clark 25th September 2019 at 3:57 am #

    With students who come from some other countries, making mistakes is not generally regarded as a good thing, or a helpful learning experience. Depending on the mistake, it can lead to “loss of face” in the eyes of family, peers and employers. This is common in Asian societies. It is a challenge for such students to take on board such challenge-friendly concepts, since experiences in their homelands generally don’t gel with what is espoused here–in a “Western” society. We need to be mindful of cultural backgrounds and their influence on each student in the outworkings of the classroom culture.

  7. Rachel Hughes 31st March 2020 at 10:55 am #

    My students are very unsure of themselves emotionally and I need to build this up before they will feel confident making mistakes.
    I already celebrate effort as well as success but must now develop this further.

    • Ruth McMeekin 7th November 2020 at 9:07 pm #

      I agree with you – particularly in these challenging times.

  8. Ruth McMeekin 7th November 2020 at 9:07 pm #

    I agree with Rachel (above). Particularly in these challenging times, some of my students are feeling less secure emotionally than before. Our focus is always on celebrating effort and lessons are planned to provide scope for children to choose the level of challenge and effort. More work is still needed to provide opportunity and build confidence for children to select with confidence the level of challenge.

  9. Karen Roberts 22nd December 2020 at 2:45 pm #

    I agree that pupils are feeling vulnerable in the current times, it is difficult to strike the correct balance between supporting and challenging at the moment with the fear of exposing vulnerability and the impact it could have.

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