Creating a learning culture: Conditions for learning

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Section 4 Resources. 85 ... of the key teaching strategies explored in the Conditions for learning unit but it is also ... as within units, or select one or two sections within a unit for attention. ...... Children who are willing to reorganise their goals in response to ...... number; or for older children a quote from a poem or play).
Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture Conditions for learning Professional development materials

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Contents General introduction

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Introduction to conditions for learning

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Section 1 Personal, social and emotional development and its impact on learning

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1 Self-awareness

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2 Managing feelings

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3 Motivation

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4 Empathy

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5 Social skills

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Section 2 The learning environment and its impact on learning

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1 Creating a positive ethos

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2 Establishing classroom routines

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3 The physical environment

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Section 3 Effective teaching and its impact on learning

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1 Questioning

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2 Explaining

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3 Scaffolding

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4 Demonstration and modelling

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5 The use of ICT

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Section 4 Resources

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Accompanying video Creating a learning culture, ‘Conditions for learning’ Clip 1 Talking about learning Clip 2 Earthwatch: learning and teaching in the outdoors Clip 3 Speaking from experience Clip 4 Classroom routines Clip 5 Using displays: Foundation Stage Clip 6 Models and images Clip 7 Teacher modelling

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General introduction Helping children to develop as confident, enthusiastic and effective learners is a central purpose of primary education. Excellence and Enjoyment: a strategy for primary schools affirms a vision for primary education that provides opportunities for all children to fulfil their potential through a commitment to high standards and excellence within an engaging, broad and rich curriculum. Ofsted reports show that the best primary schools and early-years settings achieve this. In these schools and settings children are engaged by learning that develops and challenges them and excites their imagination. The learning and teaching environment in these schools and settings is shaped by an understanding of what children can achieve and by teaching that meets their individual needs as learners.

A note about the units This collection of continuing professional development (CPD) materials on conditions for learning is one of six units that focus on important aspects of learning and teaching in the primary years. The six units are organised into three themes: • Planning and assessment for learning • Creating a learning culture • Understanding how learning develops Although the content has been organised under the headings given above, it often overlaps across units. For example, questioning is one of the key teaching strategies explored in the Conditions for learning unit but it is also addressed in other units. Learning and teaching is a broad and complex area of study. It is important to note, therefore, that these units represent a starting point for whole-school investigation, action and reflection on areas for improvement identified within the school development plan or, within an early-years setting, as part of the management plan or quality assurance process. The introductory guides to Learning and teaching in the primary years (May 2004) offered advice and suggestions for identifying areas for development through self-evaluation. Self-evaluation is an essential element of effective school performance management systems. Such systems make clear links between school improvement,

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

teachers’ performance, management objectives and CPD plans and can therefore help to deliver personalised learning for all children. The CPD materials in these units provide opportunities for professional discussions about teachers’ work which will support both individual and school development needs.

How to use the units There is no expectation that schools and settings will use all of the materials in the units. You should use the materials flexibly, to support your school development needs and CPD focus. You may, for example, decide to combine elements across units as well as within units, or select one or two sections within a unit for attention. In order to facilitate such cross-unit and within-unit usage, a chart itemising the content of each unit is given on the inside back cover of all the units. Each section of a unit includes materials for staff study, discussion and reflection, along with ideas for how the materials could be used in professional development sessions. Some of the suggested activities are developed fully to provide models for organising staff sessions; other suggestions are briefly outlined. Schools and settings may go further than indicated in the materials by using some of the many excellent resources that already exist, for example other Primary National Strategy, QCA and DfES materials, subject association resources and readings and so on. Some suggestions for further resources are given in the units. Enquiry groups may also wish to draw on support from local authority colleagues or others and work with other schools and settings who are focusing on the same areas for development. It is anticipated that a designated member of staff will take the lead in selecting and running CPD sessions based on these materials and that you will adapt and supplement these materials for your particular context. While many of the materials are written with primary teachers and practitioners in mind, you will want to include teaching assistants, parents, carers and governors when appropriate.

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Introduction to conditions for learning Most teachers and practitioners would readily agree that helping children develop as confident, enthusiastic and effective learners is one of their major aims. This is because we recognise the central role of learning in our development as individuals and in the development of civilisation and society. Schools and settings can help children to learn specific skills (e.g. become better users of tools, become more fluent readers and so on) but we can also help children become better learners through helping them recognise their own learning strengths and areas for development. There are many working theories about how children learn (and some of these are explored in the Classroom community, collaborative and personalised learning unit). Learning has both affective and cognitive dimensions and in this unit we will be looking at important physical, social and emotional factors that have a profound impact on our behaviour, our motivation and hence our learning. Humans can learn in adverse conditions but there are some fundamental conditions that must be in place if learners are to make the most of learning opportunities. At the most basic level of human needs, this means our physical needs for shelter, warmth, food and drink have to be met. But beyond these basic conditions there are other factors to be considered if learning is to thrive. This unit explores some of the factors that help create the best conditions for learning.

Aims of this unit The aims of the Conditions for learning unit are to consider: • how different factors interact to create the conditions for learning; • how schools and settings can create supportive conditions for learning.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

CPD ACTIVITY What factors influence the conditions for learning? This introductory activity will be useful if you wish to create an overview of factors that affect conditions for learning before moving on to looking at some of these in more detail. Alternatively, you could go straight to any areas of focus that you have already identified in your development plan.

Aim • To share current beliefs and practice on the factors that create the best conditions for learning.

Materials • Poster paper.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, form cross-year groups of three or four. Reflect individually for a few minutes on an occasion when you have been successful or unsuccessful at learning something new (e.g. using a new program on the computer, cooking a new dish for the first time, learning to drive, learning about the life of someone from a radio or TV programme). Think about: – the physical and social conditions you were in when you undertook this new learning and any impact these had; – what helped you to learn; – what hindered your learning; – what was easy about the learning; – what was difficult about the learning; – how you felt during and after the learning experience. • Share these thoughts in small groups and come up with ten key principles or ideas that facilitate learning. • Which of these can be applied to children’s learning? • Use the stem ‘Children are more likely to learn successfully if:’ to write a set of statements about children’s learning. Here are some ideas created by a group of teachers doing this activity. How do these compare with the ones on your list? Children are more likely to learn successfully if they: • have their basic physical needs met (are not hungry, thirsty, tired, cold, etc.); • feel unthreatened, secure, safe and valued; • feel a sense of belonging to the group; • are engaged and motivated; • can see the relevance of what they are doing;

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• know what outcome is intended; • can link what they are doing to other experiences; • understand the task; • have the physical space and the tools needed; • have access to the necessary materials; • are not disrupted or distracted by others; • can work with others or on their own, depending on the task; • are guided, taught or helped in appropriate ways at appropriate times; • can practise; • can apply the learning in both familiar and new contexts; • can persevere when learning is hard; • can manage their emotions if things are not going well; • recognise that all learners make mistakes and mistakes can help us improve.

• When you have made group lists, create a shared list and discuss any points that arise (e.g. the conditions might vary for different contexts, tasks or groupings). Identify areas where there is a consensus. You might like to write each item in your list on individual sticky notes so you can sort them into the following categories: – ethos; – physical environment and its organisation; – resources and their organisation; – emotions; – behaviour; – cognitive elements, such as understanding; – teaching and support; – systems and structures in the learning environment.

Next steps • Creating the conditions for learning requires us to pay attention to all of these aspects, but you will need to identify priority areas if you have not already done so (see page 21 in Learning and teaching in the primary years introductory guide: supporting school improvement). You should move from this introductory CPD activity to the section or sections you have identified as your priority for continuing your investigations in this area.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Section 1

Personal, social and emotional development and its impact on learning In this section the focus is on five affective aspects of learning and their impact on creating the conditions in which learning can thrive. Personal, social and emotional skills impact directly on how we perceive ourselves and how we behave as learners. It is recognised that children’s difficulties in learning or any reluctance to learn may be caused by such things as demotivation, fear of failure, and the impact of managing feelings on behaviour, rather than by a lack of ability. The affective aspects considered in this unit are:

managing feelings motivation

social skills

empathy self-awareness

These five aspects (or domains) are those addressed in the Primary National Strategy pilot project, Developing children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills: a whole curriculum approach (SEBS). They derive from the influential work of Daniel Goleman (1995). Handout 1 (pages 11–12), which is taken from these materials, shows these domains in more detail. Supporting children in developing these aspects of learning, and recognising their relevance across the whole curriculum, can help children become confident, well-motivated, independent learners. Children with these skills also contribute more effectively to building a community of learners and creating a social environment where learning flourishes.

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The section on personal, social and emotional development from Curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage, pages 28–31, and the Personal, social and health education and citizenship at Key Stages 1 and 2 guidance (QCA, 2000) should also be read if undertaking the CPD activities in this section. Research has shown that paying attention to supporting the development of the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills that are the focus of this unit can have a positive impact on: • educational and work success; • behaviour; • inclusion; • learning; • social cohesion. A summary of the research evidence for these claims is given in the Learning and teaching in the primary years CD-ROM. This section considers: • what these key personal, social and emotional aspects of learning consist of; • why they are important; • why giving attention to these key aspects of learning is an important element of creating the conditions for learning. The CPD materials aim to support schools and settings in reflecting on their current practice and in deciding on their next steps in regard to these key aspects of learning. In the units on ‘Understanding how learning develops’ we look at progression in these aspects of learning and give case studies showing how they are located within the whole curriculum. Developing children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills: a whole curriculum approach has been trialled during 2003 and 2004. It will be available to all schools and settings from April 2005. It contains a wealth of practical teaching suggestions organised around themes such as ‘Going for goals’, ‘New beginnings’, ‘Bullying’ and ‘Changes’.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

handout 1

Social, emotional and behavioural skills Self-awareness • We are aware that feelings, thoughts and behaviours refer to different things • We are aware that our feelings vary in intensity • We know that all feelings are acceptable but that not all behaviours are acceptable • We recognise that context affects the acceptability of different behaviours • We recognise we can have conflicting feelings • We are aware that our feelings affect our behaviours • We are aware that our thoughts affect our feelings and behaviours • We can label and talk about feelings, using shared understandings • We can recognise a feeling in ourselves from external and internal cues

Empathy • We understand that all people can feel the same range of emotions • We know that different people will feel different emotions in the same situation • We understand that our actions affect other people – we can make them feel better or worse • We can use ‘cues’ to guess other people’s emotions and to imagine how we would feel if we were them • We can take on another person’s point of view • We can distinguish between accidental and deliberate actions • We are able to recognise situations in which we may need to hide our feelings to avoid upsetting others (and those where we should not) • We are able to support other people, e.g. by making them feel happy and by using ‘good listening’ when they share their feelings – demonstrating the skill of ‘active listening’

Managing feelings • We understand the difference between ‘impulsive’ and ‘thinking’ behaviour • We are able to wait for what we want (delaying gratification) • We know that our thoughts can alter our feelings and behaviour • We know how to calm down / relax • We can talk about / share our feelings • We use positive self-talk / visioning (rehearsing events in the mind) • We are aware of strategies to solve social and other problems which immediately affect us

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handout 1 Self-motivation • We know what short- and long-term goals are • We are able to break goals down into smaller steps • We know our own strengths and what leads to good outcomes for us • We recognise what is helpful/unhelpful to us in achieving our goals • We practise sustained effort and learning • We have the ability to anticipate obstacles and plan for them • We are prepared to take responsibility where appropriate • We are able to recognise excuses and the ways we sometimes try to absolve ourselves of responsibility • We are confident enough to take appropriate risks • We are flexible in switching goals when necessary • We are able to tolerate frustration, e.g. by – keeping the big picture in mind – believing that we can get there – using positive self-talk and visualisation • We have a range of strategies for ‘bouncing back’ from mistakes and setbacks • We are able to enjoy and celebrate our achievements

Social skills • We take turns and share • We understand and use non-verbal communication effectively • We are able to make our communication appropriate to the context • We are able to talk about feelings effectively • We respond appropriately to others’ emotions • We know how to be a good listener, using the skills of active listening • We use ‘I feel statements’ instead of blame • We use assertive language / assertiveness skills • We use skills of negotiation with others • We know how to compete fairly • We can deal respectfully with confrontation and have conflict-management skills • We know how to apologise and make amends (making up with people) • We know how to be sensitive when giving feedback to others (From the pilot materials Developing children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills: a whole curriculum approach)

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

CPD ACTIVITY Barriers to learning Aim • To identify the social, emotional and behavioural skills that are needed for learning.

Materials • Handout 1. • Photocopies of Curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage, pages 28–31. • Blank paper.

Organisation • In pairs, take a piece of paper and fold it down the centre. On the left-hand side, list the behaviours you are concerned about in your school or setting because they are barriers to learning. • On the right-hand side of the paper, write a word to describe the alternative positive behaviour to each of the words you have written on the left. • Look carefully at the words on the right. How do they relate to handout 1 and pages 28–31 from Curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage? • Reflect on the following questions: – What have you learned from talking together and completing the activity? – What implications does this learning have for what you might do in the classroom or setting? – What can you try out or apply in your work over the rest of the week? • You might like to consider asking the children in your class to complete the same activity. (From Developing children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills: a whole curriculum approach, training manual)

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Part 1

Self-awareness Self-awareness refers to the capacity we have to understand our own thoughts (cognitions) and emotions – what we think and feel and why we do things. It is a key component of human intelligence as it can influence all aspects of behaviour, including thinking and learning. Self-awareness enables us to reflect on ourselves and on our interaction with others.

The importance of self-awareness in creating the conditions for learning Self-awareness is a key factor in becoming a successful learner and is also at the heart of social and emotional well-being. In schools and settings, self-awareness can have a number of benefits. It can: • help children make sense of what they think and feel; • help children develop the ability to manage, organise and direct their thinking, feeling and learning;

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• support achievement and attainment.

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Self-knowledge is particularly helpful in planning and decision making. Effective learners are able to plan their learning, and to anticipate what they might need and what obstacles they might meet. They can talk about the way they learn best, but they do so in the self-knowledge that this can be highly variable from topic to topic and from time to time. They also know that their preferred way of learning or ‘learning style’ is not fixed for life, but is open to change. Self-awareness is important for self-motivation and for developing a clear sense of identity. Selfaware children understand themselves, their thoughts and feelings and can use this knowledge to make choices about how to behave, how to relate to others and how to initiate their own learning.

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Strategies that foster children’s self-awareness and self-regulation, develop their capacity for reflection and self-evaluation, and enhance their ability to think about their own thinking and learning in relation to themselves and others, include: • being given formative assessment of their learning progress and needs;

• identifying their own criteria for success;

• being given opportunities to exercise personal choice;

• personal goal setting (short-term learning goals, long-term life goals);

• discussing their own and others’ feelings, moods and emotions;

• planning how to use their time and resources;

• discussing their own preferences and personal values;

• predicting what they will do well and what they will have difficulty with;

• reflecting on their own learning and behaviour and how it impacts on others (e.g. using recording, their own drawings, ICT, learning logs, autobiographies or journals);

• recognising their own achievements, strengths and weaknesses;

• being provided with an ‘emotionally safe’ environment in which to talk about their thoughts and feelings (e.g. circle time or community of enquiry);

• reviewing and evaluating what they and others have done;

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• receiving feedback on their behaviour;

• learning how to mentor and support the learning of others;

• reflecting on learning styles and strategies – their own and those of others;

• specifying their own learning objectives.

• evaluating their own skills and abilities in working with others;

There is a background paper on metacognition (thinking about your own thinking) in the Learning and teaching in the primary years CD-ROM.

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CPD ACTIVITY Self-awareness Aim • To audit ways to develop self-awareness in children.

Pre-meeting task • Read the list on page 15 and add any ideas of your own. Identify and note the details of occasions, over one week, during which you have offered such opportunities within your classroom or setting.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, share some examples of practice and any gaps you have identified in undertaking this ‘mini-audit’. As a large group, identify the main areas of well-established practice and areas for development.

Next steps • Decide on the main areas for further development and the activities you are going to undertake to support children in developing self-awareness.

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Other possible CPD activities • Watch the Conditions for learning video clip 1 ‘Talking about learning’. This shows children reflecting on how they learn. Discuss the potential for developing self-awareness through such explicit discussions. Try the approach used in the video with children and report back about what you found. • Revisit the guidelines for PSHE and citizenship and the Foundation Stage guidance for PED. Discuss where self-awareness is included in these. Plan a unit of work that encourages children to engage explicitly with self-awareness. • Watch the Conditions for learning video clip 2 ‘Earthwatch: learning and teaching in the outdoors’. This shows children discussing and compiling a record of achievement about their personal progress during a residential visit to an outdoor education centre. Discuss the value of this in developing self-awareness.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

section 1 part 1

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

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Teaching strategies for developing self-awareness These are a few brief suggestions that you could try in the classroom. Such activities are best developed over time and should be revisited and revised at regular intervals.

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What kind of learner are you?

ions and in ning behaviour, during lessons or sess lear n ow ir the ut abo ion uss disc in Engage children for learning unit.) plenaries. (See also the Assessment example: themselves as learners include, for on ect refl to n dre chil age our enc t Questions tha Self-awareness Question Reflection on learning What have you learned? Reflection on achievement What have you achieved? Identify reasons to feel positive ud of? What do you feel good about / pro Think about preferences What do you like doing/learning? Be aware of strengths What do you do well? Be aware of difficulties/problems What do you find hard? Identify any obstacles to learning What don’t you know/understand? Plan and set targets for the future arn? What do you want to do/improve/le Own responsibility for learning t possible? What do you need to do to make tha or available Reflection on help that is required d? nee What help do you ning Reflection on different ways of lear What ways helped you learn this? ning style Reflection on the most effective lear fer? pre / t bes n lear What ways did you Self-assessment as a learner learner? What do you think of yourself as a

. s mean for the children you work with want to discuss what these question will you s stion que such ial g spec usin re with Note: Befo different age groups, and to children you make these ideas accessible to Does it vary with age? How would as an additional language (EAL)? grounds and children with English back ral cultu rent diffe from ren educational needs, child

Feelings circles (FS, KS1) Draw circles on the floor and label them with three feelings – happy, sad, angry. Illustrate the feelings by drawing faces with these expressions. A child (or pairs if you think they wo uld feel happier) places a teddy or other soft toy in the circle to show how it feels in a give n situation. Allow the children some thinking tim e before giving the teddy to someone to plac e in the right circle. Example situations could be: • Teddy loses his favourite toy. (From Developing children’s social,

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• Teddy’s friend goes to live in a new house a long way away. • Teddy falls over and hurts his knee. • Teddy’s teacher says that he has done a good piece of work. • Teddy’s teacher gives him a big smile. • Teddy is playing with friends.

emotional and behavioural skills: a whole curriculum approach, Them e 4 ‘Feels good’)

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Recording achievements in learning Ask children to record their achievements in learning, to help them have a clear and positive view of themselves as learners and to identify key g Record of achievement in learnin points in their progress. Such a target or goal. record could be used for any area 1 My 2 How I know I have achieved it. of the curriculum or area of at I have done well. learning. The example here is one 3 Wh improve. 4 What I have worked hard on to used with a Year 4 class. 5 Who or what has helped me. 6 What I am pleased about. 7 My next target or goal.

Signed………………………………

Date …………………….

Metacognitive challenge

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and metacognitive level: Choose an area of learning in which you want to • Why is it goo d for children to learn to ...? challenge and foster children’s self -awareness • What kind of … are you? (e.g. lear and understanding. Pose some cha ner, reader, llenging wri ter, arti st) questions that involve evaluative thin king about: • What five hints would you give • the purposes of learning; to help a younger child learn to ...? • self as learner; • What must you do to improve you r learning • the learning environment; of ...? • strategies to improve learning. The following are some questions that challenge children’s understanding of a learning task at the cognitive

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Part 2

Managing feelings Self-awareness makes it possible for us to manage our own feelings and desires. Without self-awareness, we are prone to be more impulsive: to lash out or behave selfishly, for example, without seeing what the consequences might be. If we have some self-awareness, we are more able to recognise how we are feeling, which creates the possibility that we might pause, weigh up the situation more fully and remember what we really want, in the long term. Understanding a little about strong negative emotions helps us to work with them rather than let them take over and impact on the classroom or setting. There are four key things to remember about feelings: • Feelings build up over time. A series of small irritations can mean that one more minor upset leads to an over-reaction.

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• Emotional memory is extremely powerful and non-specific. If we have had a very powerful emotional experience, an unrelated sight, sound or smell can be linked to the feeling; when we see, hear or smell this again, the same feelings might be elicited. • If we feel a very strong emotion, such as fear or anger, it takes a long time for our emotional ‘temperature’ to cool. During this time it is easy to feel the same emotion again. • Emotions are triggered very quickly, while rational thought is triggered more slowly. Sometimes we have responded to our feelings before we have considered the appropriateness of our actions. For more information about this you might like to use the Primary Strategy CPD materials ‘The importance of emotions in the classroom’ (see the Behaviour materials detailed on page 86). Both adults and children benefit from learning about their feelings and how to manage them to ensure that feelings enhance learning rather than getting in its way.

The importance of managing feelings in creating the conditions for learning Managing feelings and ‘self-regulation’ can work positively in the learning environment in a number of ways. Learning to manage feelings has a direct link with behaviour, which in turn impacts on the conditions for learning created within a classroom or setting. Equally, it

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

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is important to recognise that feelings may be a response to an ethos or conditions for learning which are not sufficiently supportive for some learners. Managing feelings can help learners achieve what they want by enabling them not to be thrown off course by passing distractions or temptations. Children with fragile self-esteem, for example, can easily be blown off course by a chance remark, and they may therefore have difficulty in bringing an activity to a conclusion or finishing a piece of work. Children can be taught ways of calming themselves down – though unless they are also cultivating self-awareness, they won’t remember to use their strategies in the heat of the moment. Knowing when to hold ground, when to walk away and cool down and when to seek support is very useful in creating a productive learning environment. Managing feelings is integral to effective learning. Learning involves a range of feelings. There are positive ones, like absorption, satisfaction and pride at a successful conclusion. And there are unpleasant ones, such as frustration, confusion and even fear. Learning always happens at the outer edges of our zone of competence and control, where unexpected things are bound to happen, and where outcomes can be hard to predict. Building up children’s resilience in the face of the ‘downs’ of learning is a vital part of primary education. Learning to regulate their own ability to push themselves – to trust their own self-awareness about when to persist and when to take a break – will help them develop as independent learners. Part of professional judgement is to gauge when to intervene and when to resist the impulse to check up on children, and when to refrain from moving learners on to some other task.

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Possible CPD activities • Focus on the feelings involved in learning, especially those usually considered to be ‘negative’: frustration, confusion, disappointment and impatience. In pairs, add other feelings from your own experience that are involved in learning. Compare yourself now with how you were 10 or 20 years ago, in terms of your ability to handle these feelings. Are you now more able to cope with negative feelings? What has helped you? Would it be the same things that would help the children, or are they different? What are the implications for the classroom? •

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• Watch video clip 2, ‘Earthwatch: learning and teaching in the outdoors’. This shows children overcoming feelings of fear and apprehension about climbing and abseiling. Discuss the conditions which enabled them to manage their feelings. • Revisit the guidelines for PSHE and citizenship in the National Curriculum and Curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage for personal, social and emotional development. Discuss where these guidelines include selfawareness. Plan a unit of work for each phase or key stage which encourages children to explicitly engage with managing emotions.

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

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Undertake the same activity, but this time focus on positive feelings involved in learning.

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Teaching strategies for developing the ability to manage our feelings These are a few brief suggestions that you could try in the learning environment. Such activities are best developed over time and should be revisited and revised at regular intervals.

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Discussing distractions

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n cussions on ‘How we ca Involve the children in dis them scuss what happens to manage distractions’. Di concentrate but get when they are trying to Where of things distract them? distracted. What kinds ctible? themselves most distra and when do they find ings, concentrate in the morn Are they better able to do to enings? What can they the afternoons or the ev things less distracting? (Some make their environment t up they will just have to pu they can control; others can e classroom of ‘Ways we with.) Build up a list in th keep our concentration’.

Recognising emotions Get the children to ident ify feelings that they find difficult to manage. Encourage them to notic e: • when these feelings arise most strongly; • how they express or deal with them; • what the consequenc es are; • whether there is a mo re effective way of expressing their feelings.

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Explosion This activity is taken from Developing children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills: a whole curriculum approach, Theme 2 ‘Getting on and falling out’. Show the children that you have a balloon and a pump. Explain that you are together going to tell a story about a girl called Annie who could not control her anger. Explain that you will start the story off and that each child will then contribute a sentence to the story that tells about something that goes wrong or makes Annie more and more angry. Each time something makes Annie angry, you (or a volunteer child) will put more air into the balloon, which is Annie’s ‘anger store’. Once upon a time there was a girl called Annie. Annie spent all her time being angry – everything in the world seemed to make her angry, even things that other people liked. One day Annie got out of bed and there were no cornflakes left … She was ANGRY! (Pump air into the balloon) Then she went upstairs to get washed and the water was cold … The toothpaste all squirted out everywhere …

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She missed the bus … Her friend ignored her on the way to school … She was late because … The children take over the story, contributing one sentence each (it could be something that makes them angry) until the balloon bursts. Teaching point Anger is cumulative – sometimes it is one little thing that tips us over the edge. Sometimes it is one big thing.

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Part 3

Motivation Intrinsic motivation involves knowing what you want to achieve and being willing to pursue those goals, even in the face of difficulties. To create high levels of intrinsic motivation, teachers and practitioners have to help build children’s self-efficacy. Children with high levels of intrinsic motivation usually attribute failure to lack of effort rather than lack of ability on their part. Recognising that one can learn from setbacks and mistakes is important. Self-awareness is the key that enables us to construct and pursue our personal goals with skill and with sensitivity to the goals of others. Resolving priority clashes between goals is an important skill to develop. Sometimes ‘deferring gratification’ is the intelligent thing to do, and having some techniques to help is useful. At other times, however, seizing an unexpected opportunity and being willing to reorder your goals as you go along is important.

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The importance of motivation in creating the conditions for learning Effective learners need to be able to identify the goals they want to pursue. Being good at regulating their own motivation helps children in school in at least three ways: • The ability to remember why they are persevering with an externally set goal may help children achieve the understanding and strive for the outcome that they want. • Children who are willing to reorganise their goals in response to adult suggestions or demands are easier to teach, and will achieve more in educational terms. • Knowing when to stick with a difficult project that will achieve a goal and when to give it up because it is proving more trouble than it is worth is valuable in terms of children’s emotional health and well-being. Developing the habits of self-motivation is an essential ingredient of ‘learning to learn’. If children are to become better at learning, they have to want to learn, which means they have to see the importance of learning to learn. They need to develop a certain independence, in which they enjoy setting and working towards their own learning goals, developing their own skills of research, and managing both time and resources. Above all, self-motivated learners are curious: they are not afraid of challenge, and they like asking questions to which they do not have a ready answer.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

External motivation

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

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The value of using external rewards to bolster motivation is a debatable issue. Some research shows that external rewards do not promote a learning culture. Rewards such as stickers may be enjoyed by the children, but a common effect is that they strive for the reward not the satisfaction of the achievement. Research also shows that although teachers and practitioners intend to distribute rewards fairly (and think they have), it is often gifted and talented children, children with special educational needs and disruptive children who receive a disproportionate number of rewards. There may therefore be a negative impact on many in the class who receive rewards relatively infrequently. The issue may be somewhat different when it comes to rewarding appropriate behaviour that supports learning. Intrinsic motivation is what we seek to promote in children as it encompasses mature emotional and/or social behaviour. An individual who is intrinsically motivated is either able to set long-term personal goals (e.g. ‘I will practise my handwriting every evening as I want to be able to write neatly and quickly’) or sees activities being worth while in their own right (e.g. ‘I read about history because I find it really interesting’). Such motivation, however, requires the ability to defer gratification and as such is a behaviour which is linked to the stage the child has reached in the development of their social, emotional and behavioural skills. Many of the children who find it difficult to behave appropriately in the classroom are still developing their social, emotional and behavioural skills and are therefore at a developmental stage when they may need the support of external motivators such as praise, notes home, stars, stickers, commendations in assembly and so on to help them learn and sustain appropriate behaviour for learning.

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CPD ACTIVITY Achieving goals Aims • To consider: – motivation towards goals; – the barriers to achieving these goals; – implications for learners.

Materials • Sets of blank cards or sticky notes. • Poster paper or flipchart.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, each individual makes a list of about a dozen current goals for improving the conditions for learning in the school or their class and then writes a brief description of each goal on a card or sticky note.

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• Next, rank these in the following different ways: – In order of importance. How much do you value attaining each goal? – According to their timescale. Which goals are the very long-term projects? Which goals have a definite end-point? • Share your reflections with a partner and identify one goal each that you seem to be having trouble with. • Then discuss with your partner the barriers to achieving this goal and make a plan for how to get there. This might include clearly stating the goal, identifying sub-goals and identifying ways to get started. • Use the following question as a prompt for discussion: – What kinds of problem with prioritisation do we experience, and what structures are in place to help support and clarify such clashes? • Discuss whether having the opportunity to explicitly identify and prioritise goals was helpful to you. What are the implications for your work with children?

Next steps • As a group, identify key goals that you have set from this activity. You might like to write them on a large sheet of paper and display them in the staff room. • Then agree some actions to achieve your goals over the next few weeks. • At a subsequent meeting, discuss what you have done or found out. Discuss what helped you to keep working on your goals and what hindered you. How does this help you to understand more about children’s motivation? Discuss what your next steps will be.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Other possible CPD activities • To prompt discussion about the circumstances in which external motivators might be needed, share any examples of things you do because of external motivators and things you are intrinsically motivated to do. The point of the activity is to suggest that in some circumstances even adults may require external motivators for some activities, for example promising yourself a ‘treat’ of some kind for completing a difficult or unpleasant task (‘I’ll sit down with a glass of wine / cup of coffee / chocolate biscuit when I’ve finished doing my reports / bathing the dog / cleaning the oven’). • Watch the Conditions for learning video clip 1 ‘Talking about learning’. This shows children involved in a discussion about how they learn. Discuss the potential for developing children’s awareness of motivation through such explicit discussions.

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• Ask children in your class what motivates them. Share these insights in a staff meeting. Discuss how you balance external and intrinsic motivation and help children develop intrinsic motivation. • Consider the complexity of the relationships between home and school or setting and how this impacts on your relationships with the children. Might this have an impact on their motivation and learning? What are the implications for you and your school or setting in developing links with families? Are there any particular implications for children who: – come from different cultural backgrounds; – and learning EAL; – are refugees or asylum seekers; – have profound or complex needs; – are engaged with a range of professional agencies? How can positive home–school relationships be used to strengthen a child’s motivation to learn? • Watch the Conditions for learning video clip 2 ‘Earthwatch: learning and teaching in the outdoors’. This shows children as they prepare for, undertake and debrief on some challenging activities. Discuss the factors that supported their motivation to overcome the challenges posed during the climbing and abseiling session and also when coping with adverse weather conditions on the seashore.

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Teaching strategies for developing motivation

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These are a few brief suggestions that you could try in the learning environment. Such activities are best developed over time and should be revisited and revised at regular intervals.

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s of of work (e.g. biographie its un o int ’ als go r fo g and Build the theme of ‘Goin m diverse cultural, ethnic fro als du ivi ind r he ot d scientists, explorers an ulties in achieving ve overcome great diffic ha o wh s nd ou gr ck ba gender like to change, or ren the things they would ild ch th wi ss scu Di ). als their go t which they don’t uld like to undertake, bu wo ey th cts oje pr ing rn the lea Not enough time? sons. Too much effort? rea eir th cit Eli . to d un get aro gh support? Fear of failure? Not enou Invite a visitor who has achieved something th at they can demonstrate to the children – for exam ple, learning to juggle – to sp eak to the children. Ask the children to plan some qu estions to ask (e.g. ‘Cou ld you do it when you we re little?’, ‘Is it hard to learn?’). Make sure the Make time at the start of the week for visitor is briefed in adva nce. Ke y po ints to draw out might children to bring up questions they be that the skill took time to learn and would like to pursue. What would they that practice and persiste nce we re ne ce ssary. Record the visit in like to find out about? Make a ‘wonder photographs for a display or class book. wall’ of the things we are wondering about. Create time for a child to nominate their favourite question for the rest of the class to discuss. Ask children to research answers for with genuine Respond promptly and homework. ared interest to children’s sh and news. discoveries, information resourced with Provide a role-play area children’s materials reflecting the ities, and give family lives and commun and materials the children time, space another in to collaborate with one at children different ways. Ensure th nities to and adults make opportu explain their listen to each other and nning provides actions. Ensure that pla ies to initiate children with opportunit activities, and their own learning and itively to those that adults respond sens child-initiated activities.

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

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Part 4

Empathy Empathy is the ability to step outside your own goals, habits and beliefs, and put yourself in other people’s shoes. It is the ability to enrich your communication and perception by looking at the world from different perspectives. Very young children look at the world from their own viewpoint but they rapidly develop the ability to build models in their minds of how things look and feel to others. Just as their own actions reveal some of what they want, think and feel, so, they learn, do other people’s. By picking up these clues, they find they are more able to link their own world with the worlds of others – including those from diverse backgrounds who may have differing beliefs, practices or priorities. With increasing sensitivity, they are able to detect other people’s responses to what they are saying and doing, and thus to anticipate and defuse potential conflicts, and create more effective forms of collaboration and partnership. For some children, however, for example those on the autistic spectrum, this can be particularly difficult. It is important to be aware of these differences in the children we teach.

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The importance of empathy in creating the conditions for learning Empathy impacts on children’s lives in schools and settings in a number of ways: • It is a tool that enables children to play and work well with one another. Encouraging one child to imagine what another child felt like when experiencing an antisocial or prejudicial act is a familiar way of trying to resolve conflict and develop a harmonious working atmosphere. • It plays a significant role in enabling young people to establish relationships. Instead of being at the mercy of others, children can be helped to see what they can do themselves to create more enjoyable friendships and relationships. When it comes to learning to learn, empathy has an important role to play. In history, drama and literature, understanding a complex situation demands an empathic appreciation of the positions of different participants. In science, the ability to think what it might be like to be a hermit crab, or even (as Einstein famously did) to imagine what the world would look like if you were riding on a ray of light, enriches the learning experience and offers new insights into information.

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One form of empathy is especially important for learners. It is the ability to pick up and reflect back the physical and mental habits of those around them. Neuroscientists have found that our brains are built to imitate, and it is this tendency that enables children first to mimic, and then to internalise, the ways of talking, arguing, remembering and thinking of more experienced people. Making good choices about who to accept as learning models enables young people to keep on expanding their repertoire of positive learning skills and dispositions. Learning from others is fundamental to education. Empathy allows us to understand the intentions and meanings of other people as well as to predict what is likely to happen next. It also allows us to understand the value that others place on the different elements of learning.

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Possible CPD activities • Consider how the school or setting can improve the quality of its listening at all levels. In a staff discussion, try playing the game where each person who wants to speak has to restate what the previous speaker said, to that person’s satisfaction, before they can have their say. It can reveal strikingly the extent to which we hear what we think people are saying and what we want or expect them to say, rather than what they actually said. • Watch the Understanding how learning develops video clip 1 ‘The launch of the SS Great Britain’, which is a history lesson about the launching of the ship. What learning and teaching experiences enable the children to speak from the viewpoint of another person? • In small groups, explore the potential of different subjects or areas of learning to stretch children’s powers of empathic imagination. Aim to come up with at least two suggestions for every year group and every subject. Consider any particular area of relevance to your school or setting (e.g. asylum, migration).

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

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Teaching strategies for developing empathy These are a few brief suggestions that you could try in the learning environment. Such activities are best developed over time and should be revisited and revised at regular intervals.

Foundation Stage example es and Involve the children in identifying issu ourage the finding solutions, and in so doing enc from the children to think about those issues ieved viewpoint of others. This can be ach itive through affirming and praising pos makes behaviours, and explaining that this children and adults feel happier.

Example y would The group were discussing how the for a rearrange the nursery to make it safe them. Alex visually impaired child about to join the block complained about having to move n’t say that area to a smaller space but said ‘I wo ’t want her to Kirsty or she might think we don to come and join our group.’

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ns for , learning for suggestio See Speaking, listening ing and nce alley, thought track activities such as conscie lum. used across the curricu hot-seating that can be

Briefly introduce a character to the children, giving a few traits such as ‘generous’, ‘kind’, ‘awkward’, ‘scruffy’. Ask them to imagine what else they can say about the character. Have a discussion about the basis on which they made their predictions. When are we most likely to be right and when are we wrong? Is it a good thing that we sometimes jump to conclusions about other people? Ask the children if they can think of a time when they made a wrong assumption about somebody. What happened? Get them to write a story about someone who is always jumping to conclusions about other people, and the kinds of trouble it gets them into.

you ask a child a question and In ‘circle time’, play a game in which the person on their right. Start they have to answer as if they were ‘What are you wearing?’ Then with simple physical questions like the children would be expected progress to other information that ‘Have you got any brothers or to know about each other, such as y may not know the answers to, sisters?’ Then try questions that the ns to make something up. and get them to use their imaginatio the game, get the children to When they understand how to play ask each other questions.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

k like from a the classroom would loo at wh e ag vis en to ren Ask the child example if they were: different viewpoint, for • a fly;

from another country; • a child newly arrived humans had never seen Earth or o wh t ne pla r he ot an • a visitor from before. ch other. enges’ such as this for ea all ch y th pa ‘em t se to Get the children

Rounds With all the children gathered on the carpet, explain that Teddy (or another soft toy) is feeling excited. Start by saying ‘I think Teddy is feeling excited because his granny is coming to see him tonight’ and then pass the teddy round the circle. As the teddy is passed round, each child should try to think of a reason why Teddy is feeling excited. I think Teddy is feeling excited because … When it gets back to you, ask Teddy why he is feeling excited and then choose one of the ideas from the group. (From SEBS, Theme 4 ‘Comfortable feelings’)

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Part 5

Social skills Each of the other four personal, social and emotional aspects of learning examined in this unit – empathy, self-awareness, motivation and managing feelings – contributes to the development of a broad, varied repertoire of social skills. There are countless skills that enable us to work with and get along with others. Most children are supported to learn them by their family rituals of feeding, bathing, dressing and so on. They pick social skills up without thinking, simply because they are born wanting to know how to join the society that surrounds them. It is important to be aware of the variance in such norms among children from diverse cultural backgrounds and the need to work proactively with children, parents and carers, and the local community, in order to resolve any potential cultural clashes arising from differing expectations.

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In the social situation of school or an early-years setting, children may need to be supported to learn more complex social interactions. For some children it will require a good deal of unlearning, and attempting to override previous learning. New skills, such as turn-taking and sharing, may have to be learned. It is here that the deliberate naming and coaching of ‘acceptable’ social behaviour has its place. Educational achievement and social development may be jeopardised for those who have difficulty making this adaptation. Explicit attention to social skills enhances the emotional well-being of anyone who has to mix harmoniously with others. Broadening the range of social skills is also important in the context of learning to learn. Much learning, though not all, takes place in social situations, and effective learners need

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to possess the social skills that allow them to learn in public and develop as learners. These include:

• knowing the local rules of argument and debate; • having the courage and the skill to articulate and defend a minority opinion; • knowing when to talk, and what to talk about, and when to hold back and listen; • being able to share information and ideas clearly; • knowing how your strengths complement those of the team you are working and learning with; • being able to take feedback without getting upset, and to give feedback without causing offence; • choosing the right people to learn with, and therefore from;

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• being able to join or lead a group; • being able to apologise; • knowing how to take turns fairly; • knowing when and how to interrupt someone else’s conversation; • knowing how to resolve conflict; • being able to take part in a reflective discussion on the processes and methods of learning that are being used, to take stock and to change tack if necessary. All of these social skills of learning are capable of being developed in classrooms. Adults can model ways of talking, thinking and acting. The skills of turn-taking, explaining and listening can be modelled and explicitly encouraged in ‘circle time’, for example. By varying the kinds of learning groupings that children take part in, their repertoire of social skills becomes broadened.

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CPD ACTIVITY The hidden curriculum Aim • To consider any hidden curriculum gaps between the social skills we value in theory and the social skills we practise.

Materials • Copies of the values and/or principles of your school or setting. • Sets of blank cards or sticky notes. • Poster paper.

Organisation

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• At a staff meeting, consider the social skills that are mentioned explicitly or implicitly in policy and/or curriculum documents. Write on sticky notes some ways in which these are manifest in your school or setting and ways in which they may be denied or undermined. For example, ‘We say we value careful listening as a social skill. We practise this by having well-developed speaking and listening activities in the classroom, but I don’t think we, as adults, always listen to the children very well. We encourage children to work collaboratively but do we model this in our work with other adults?’ • Share initial thoughts as a whole group and discuss any disparities between the social skills that are valued in theory and those that are reinforced in practice. • Decide how you will find out if these impressions are true. As a whole staff, you might decide to do some observations of the way staff talk to children as they interact with them during breaks and mealtimes. Or you might decide to ask the children. The important thing is the thinking and questioning you will do, as a group of professionals, as you try to generate more detailed ‘self-awareness’ about your social norms and practices. • When you have collected evidence, return for further discussion on: – What are the social skills that we model? – Are there any areas where we could reduce any slippage between our rhetoric and reality? – What ‘social skills’ would we like the children to develop further? – How will we do this consistently?

Next steps • As a group, identify key ideas that you have discussed during this activity. You might like to write them on a large sheet of paper and display them in the staff room. • How might you apply the ideas you have learned in your work over the next few weeks? Agree some practical steps and how you will monitor and share the impact of these. Some brief suggestions and further resources are given on the next few pages. • When you next meet, discuss what you have done or found out and what you will do next.

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Other possible CPD activities • Giving and receiving feedback are important social skills for professionals, especially those who want to learn. If you do not do this already, arrange visits to other classrooms, preferably a different age group, to observe how social skills are supported and discover any areas for possible development. This should be followed by a conversation about the visit between the people involved. In a meeting beforehand, work in fours to produce guidelines that will ensure that such conversations will be of maximum benefit to both partners. What is it you are trying to achieve? What kinds of observation are best avoided? Should the observer offer all their perceptions, or should they hold back and just ask questions? Agree a set of guidelines as a whole staff. After the peer observation has taken place, report back to the staff as a whole. Decide what form this report should take.

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Background reading 2, ‘What research and practice tell us about peer coaching’, on pages 27–29 of the introductory guide Continuing professional development may be helpful when undertaking this activity. You could follow this activity by discussing how you develop children’s skills in giving and receiving feedback with one another and the kind of guidelines and ground rules you have in place in classrooms. There are examples of these on pages 64 and 65 of the Assessment for learning unit. • Track a small number of children throughout the day, observing when they use social skills to good effect and when they seem to lack the social skills to deal with a situation. Do any patterns emerge? What are the implications of this and what can you do about it? • Watch the video clip of Year 4 children having a ‘jigsaw group’ discussion after they have undertaken group research into different aspects of Celtic life. (This is on the video that accompanies Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2, professional development materials.) As you watch, concentrate on the range of social skills the children are using, such as giving feedback in a positive manner. Consider what experience the children need to have had to encourage these skills.

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Teaching strategies for developing social skills These are a few brief suggestions that you could try in the learning environment. Such activities are best developed over time and should be revisited and revised at regular intervals.

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Children learn different social skills in different kinds of group – so deliberately vary the kinds of group that they do their learning in: friendship pairs, non-friendship pairs, first-language pairs, same or different gender, larger groups and so on. Get the children to report back on how they found each way of working and reflect on any difficulties they had in collaborating. They can keep a record in their ‘learning journal’ if they are keeping one.

pairs’ work Regularly ensure ‘random e everyone has an together, so that over tim ow everyone else in opportunity to get to kn t in half, sentence the class. Use pictures cu games like ‘Find halves that match up or occasionally to add a someone who also …’ g process. sense of fun to the pairin going activities’) (From SEBS, Theme 1 ‘On

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

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Discuss with your children the possibility of setting up a ‘buddy stop’ in the pla yground, where children can wait if they don’t have anyone to play with. Di scuss different ways of approa ching children at the bu ddy stop (e.g. ‘Shall I sit with you?’, ‘Would you like to play?’, ‘How are you fee ling?’). Emphasise the importance of including everyone and how nice it feels to be included an d to include.

• Remind children of the class charter and the importance of ‘being kind to each other’. • Write the names of each child on a strip of paper. Put them in a tub and ask each child to draw out one name. The children should keep the name secret. (If a child draws their

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Secret friends own name you will have to swap it with someone else’s name.) • Explain that this is a very special guessing game. Explain that the name they have drawn is special and that they are going to be that person’s secret friend. They should do three kind things for their secret friend over the week. The children must keep their names secret. • At the end of the week the children should tell the class who they think their secret friend was and why they think this. (From SEBS, Theme 1 ‘Ongoing activities’)

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Section 2

The learning environment and its impact on learning The learning environment is made up of several factors which overlap and impact on each other in a variety of ways. In this section we will be looking at three sets of factors: • ethos; • behaviours and routines; • the physical environment. The learning environments we create in schools and settings are only part of the environments the learner inhabits. While teachers and practitioners may not be able to influence the wider environments of family, community and society, research shows that the learning environment has a powerful influence on children’s achievements, and that children from similar social backgrounds progress at different rates depending on the school they attend. In other words, school-level factors, including ethos, do make a Wider community difference.

Classroom/ setting

School

Group

Family Society

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The child’s environment

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Part 1

Creating a positive ethos Introduction After even a short time, visitors often comment on the ‘feel’ of a school or setting – the atmosphere they pick up as they walk around and talk to children and staff, look at work, take in the surroundings and see how children and adults behave towards each other. They may comment on it having a ‘real buzz’, ‘being calm and orderly’ or, less positively, ‘scarily quiet’ or ‘chaotic’. In picking up on this ‘feel’, visitors are responding to the ethos the community has created. The ethos of schools and settings underlies every aspect of their life and is all-pervasive. Its impact is powerful. Children quickly pick up on ethos – norms and expectations (which is not to say they always conform to these). Ensuring a positive, shared ethos is a high priority because of its importance for the life of the community and its impact on learning. In learning environments where the ethos supports learning:

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• there is an expectation on the part of both adults and children that learning is important and enjoyable, and that everyone can achieve; • teaching uses a range of approaches and there is a culture of collaborative learning; • teachers and practitioners are ambitious for children and expectations of learning are high; • children are motivated to be ‘the best that I can be’. Several areas contribute to creating the ethos. These include those listed on handout 2 on page 45.

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CPD ACTIVITY Creating a positive ethos Aims • To consider the ethos of the learning environment. • To identify areas for development to support the creation of a positive learning environment.

Materials • Handout 2 on page 45 (optional). • Copies of your values statement, equal opportunities policy, which discusses both generic and legislative requirements, and comments on ethos and values from your Ofsted report. • Sticky notes and poster paper.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, discuss and list what you think are the elements that make up the ethos of your school or setting. Or use handout 2 and annotate it with additional ideas.

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• In pairs, consider what is said about ethos in your documents and Ofsted report. Consider the extent to which you feel each element in your list is represented in the documents and whether you feel this is an area that is securely in place or one for development. On sticky notes, record the three most secure areas and three that need attention, along with evidence for your views. • Collate the sticky notes. It should be visible if some areas are considered priorities for development or well embedded by the majority of staff. As a whole group, discuss any disparities revealed. As a result of these discussions you may wish to undertake a detailed audit of those areas of practice (see ‘Resources’ section). • If you agree on the priorities for action, look at the CPD materials listed below and decide which you will use as support.

Looking at ethos: resources chart Area for development

These CPD materials and other strategy materials

Values, beliefs and principles underlying policy and practice

• Designing opportunities for learning, section 1 • CRE and Behaviour and attendance audit tools (see ‘Resources’)

Emotional well-being of the learning community

• Section 1 of this unit Behaviour and attendance audit and CPD materials

Relationships within the learning community

• ‘Social skills’ in section 1 of this unit

How the environment is organised and cared for

• ‘The physical environment’ in this section • Self-evaluation grid in module 4 in the NLS/NNS coordinators’ handbook

Nature of relationships with the wider community, including parents and carers, and other professionals and agencies engaged with the child and family

• ‘Involving parents and carers’ in Assessment for learning, section 2, and the associated video clips (clips 9–11) • Conditions for learning video clip 2 ‘Earthwatch’

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Systems for promoting good behaviour and regular attendance

• Behaviour and attendance materials (see ‘Resources’)

Language used within the school or setting

• First CPD activity (page 48)

The attitude taken to children’s community languages and their use

• Second CPD activity (page 48)

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handout 2

Ethos Several areas contribute to creating the ethos of the school or setting. These include: • the values, beliefs and principles underlying policy and practice; • the emotional well-being of the learning community; • the nature of the relationships within the learning community (adults with adults, adults with children, children with children); • a shared understanding of the rights and responsibilities of all members of the learning community; • the nature of relationships with the wider community – parents, carers and other professionals and agencies engaged with the child and family; • the systems for promoting good behaviour and regular attendance; • the systems for combating bullying and discrimination in all its forms; • how the environment is organised and cared for; • the ways adults speak to and listen to children; • the attitude taken to children’s community languages and to their use.

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Ethos: how we use language How adults use language (both written and spoken) can have a powerful effect on creating a supportive learning environment. Small comments can destroy learners’ self-esteem or boost it. Respectful language between adults and learners signals respectful relationships. Most teachers and practitioners try to use language that aims to demonstrate their commitment to equal opportunities and fairness. They adjust their language to offer differing degrees of challenge and support to meet the diverse needs of their children.

Supportive language Hughes and Vass (2001) have identified three types of language that are helpful in supporting learning and motivation. They are:

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• The language of success. – Signal confidence to children of their ability to succeed with phrases such as ‘I know you can …’. • The language of hope. – Create an ethos where it is acceptable for children to say ‘I’ll try but I need some help …’ rather than ‘I cannot do it’. Support this by using phrases such as ‘You can do it …’, and ‘What helps you do it?’ • The language of possibility. – Learners may express limits to their achievements with phrases such as ‘I’m no good at …’ and ‘I always get X wrong’. Support a climate of greater possibility by the language you use in response, such as ‘Yes, you did get it a bit mixed up but let’s see which bit is causing you problems’. (From Hughes, M. and Vass, A. (2001) Strategies for closing the learning gap. Network Educational Press)

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CPD ACTIVITY How we use language Aim • To consider how language use can help create the conditions for learning.

Materials • Handout 4 – Things teachers say and what they really mean • Handout 5 – Things children say and what they really mean. • Handout 6 – Examples of ‘no-blame language’. • Sticky notes and poster paper.

Organisation • Children are very adept at picking up on the language used by adults. In pairs, look at handout 4. After enjoying the jokes, reflect on what this light-hearted example reveals about the language used and how it is interpreted. Together you may like to suggest a few more examples. • Now reverse the situation. Handout 5 has examples of things children often say. What might they really mean? Add further examples. How could you respond to such comments in order to support a positive learning culture? • Apart from the words, what other aspects of language use will influence how your message is received?

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• Share paired discussions in the larger group and reflect on how you use language to create a supportive learning environment. • Then discuss the ideas about language outlined in the box on supportive language on page 46. • Return to handout 5 and see if any of the suggested responses fall into these categories. • Discuss the impact on ethos and self-esteem of responding using positive language and avoiding negative language. • Look at handout 6. Can you add any further examples? • What are the implications for your work with children who have special needs in communication or interaction, or those who are at the early stages of learning EAL and those who are from different cultural backgrounds? How might these be addressed?

Next steps • Agree to try using positive and no-blame language in response to children who are experiencing difficulties with some aspect of learning (cognitive or affective). • Agree some practical steps and how you will monitor and share the impact of these. At a subsequent meeting, discuss what you have done or found out and how you will continue to develop this.

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Other possible CPD activities

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• Agree to observe adults talking to and listening to children over a set time period. Undertake the observations in a variety of contexts – classroom, playground, whole class, group work, etc. At a subsequent meeting, share your findings and discuss the implications of the ways adults speak and listen to children (e.g. Are adult–child exchanges positive in tone? When are bilingual children comfortable using their first language?). Decide any actions you need to take as a result of these discussions.

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• Watch the Conditions for learning video clip 3 ‘Speaking from experience’, an extract from the NLS materials Supporting children learning English as an additional language. This shows a bilingual teacher recalling her personal experience of schooling in this country. Discuss in pairs what is most significant for you about what Maria says. Then, as a group, discuss what you mean by ‘safe, settled, valued and belonging to the class’. Compare your thoughts with those on handout 3. • Agree to work with your children to create and use affirmative posters using the language of success, possibility and hope. Assess and discuss their impact on ethos and the learning environment.

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handout 3

Speaking from experience: interview with Maria Maria speaks about ‘feeling safe, settled, valued and belonging to the class’. By ‘safe’ is meant: physically safe from intimidation and racist bullying; safe to take risks and ‘have a go’ at answering questions and talking in the classroom, without fear of ridicule. By ‘settled’ is meant: being acclimatised to new surroundings, routines and language used. (The amount of time needed for settling in and confidence building can be quite short given appropriate support from the teacher, the class and the school.) By ‘valued’ is meant: being respected as an individual with a home language, culture, life experience and intellect. By ‘belonging to the class’ is meant: being recognised and recognising yourself as a member of the class with the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else. (From Supporting children learning English as an additional language (Module 2), NLS, revised 2002)

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(From a parody text ‘The true guide to teachers’, created by a group of Year 5 children)

handout 4 1

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handout 5 1

Things children say and what they really mean What they say

What it might mean

A way to respond using positive language

No one will play with me.

I can’t do this. It’s too hard.

Robert’s copying me.

I always spell beautiful wrong.

That was easy.

I’m stuck.

I don’t like writing.

I can’t understand this.

Can I stay in at lunchtime?

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handout 6 1

Examples of ‘no-blame language’

• What do we need to remember here? • I know you can . . . • Which part didn’t I explain well enough? • That’s right, isn’t it? • Lots of people get mixed up on this bit. • I’m sorry, I should have made it clearer. • OK, so you haven’t quite mastered it yet. • Up to now this bit has proved a little tricky. • You will remember . . . • Your choice / it’s up to you / you decide. (From Improving the climate for teaching and learning in the secondary school, DfES, 2003)

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Part 2

Establishing classroom routines

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Familiar and established routines and procedures can support learning. They provide a ‘road map’ that helps learners know what to expect. They can help part of the learning process to become automatic, thus freeing up cognitive space to concentrate on something else. They can support social interactions and establish a sense of security for children (e.g. established procedures around arriving in the classroom, routines for registration, book changing, circle time, shared activities with parents and carers). However, it is essential that the learning within these routines is made explicit and shared among teachers and practitioners and with the children. Only in this way will the learning potential of routines be fully utilised. Well-established and clear rules support learning by setting expectations and making the consequences of poor behaviour or learning effort explicit and publicly shared. Rules and routines are established by actively teaching them to learners (e.g. getting a class to create agreed rules at the start of term). Effective teachers and practitioners put effort into establishing norms and expectations when they first begin work with a class or group of children (e.g. by praising cooperative behaviour or by making sure bilingual children know they can use their first language). They continually revisit and reinforce them (e.g. reminding children of the rules they have created for taking turns in speaking and listening sessions at the start of such sessions – or getting children to remind each other). Familiar routines and procedures are also built into lesson planning through the way the lesson is structured and paced. (See ‘Lesson structure’ in the Designing opportunities for learning unit for this aspect of establishing routines.) For more information about rules and routines you could also look at the behaviour pilot CPD material ‘Setting expectations and teaching positive behaviour’ in Behaviour and attendance: developing skills (see ‘Resources’ section for details).

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CPD ACTIVITY Routines Aim • To consider the value of established rules, routines and structures and their roles in creating the conditions for learning.

Materials • Conditions for learning video clip 4 ‘Classroom routines’ • Poster paper

Organisation • At a staff meeting, watch video clip 4, which shows a history lesson (see background details of the video clip on page 55).

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• Note the rules and routines the teacher uses in the lesson. What evidence is there that these are familiar and established rules and routines for speaking and listening? How does the teacher explicity remind children of these? • How do these familiar routines support: – behaviour? – learning? – social interactions? – adult–child interactions? • In pairs, share successful rules and routines you have established in your learning environment. These might include: – securing the children’s attention; – entering and leaving; – changing activity; – managing resources. • Then discuss the following questions: – How are the children involved in developing rules and routines which recognise the rights and responsibilities of all members of the community? – What learning is intended to be developed through these routines? – What do the children actually learn? – Is the routine exploited to extend learning? – Is there anything you can learn from each other? • Discuss any causes for concern. What is causing the problem? • As a whole staff, discuss ideas for changing or re-establishing rules and routines. Who needs to be involved? • Next, consider rules and routines that involve the whole school or setting, for example: – going to and from assembly; – coming in after playtime; – lunchtime routines; – going swimming.

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• Are there any rules and routines that are causes for concern? For example, swimming may be a cause for concern for some religious groups; coming in after playtime may be managed in different ways by different adults. • What causes the problem? Discuss ideas for changing or re-establishing these routines to make them more successful. Who needs to be involved? How can the whole staff support this initiative?

Next steps • As a group, identify key ideas that you have discussed in this activity. You might like to write them on a large sheet of paper and display them in the staff room. • How might you apply the ideas you have learned over the next few weeks? Agree some practical steps and how you will monitor and share the impact of these. • At a subsequent meeting, discuss what you have done or found out and plan your next steps.

Video clip 4 – background details

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The school featured in the video clip is Foredyke Primary School, which is situated in a large area of social housing in Hull. As part of an ongoing project within the LEA*, the teacher has worked to establish a range of speaking and listening strategies with his class of Year 5 children. Oral work is a central feature of his approach to learning. In order to ensure that valuable learning and teaching time is not wasted while children organise themselves into a variety of groupings, he spends time at the beginning of the year establishing the rules for speaking and listening. The constant use of the different groupings and strategies such as ‘finger bullet

pointing’ in all areas of the curriculum ensures that the children know the routines and expectations. In this lesson, two teaching assistants are working with children with a statement of SEN, and a teacher from another school is observing the session. This visiting teacher is part of a learning community of local teachers who are involved in implementing similar approaches in their classrooms. * Further examples from the project of speaking and listening activities used across the curriculum are included in the Classroom community, collaborative and personalised learning unit (pages 24–27).

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Part 3

The physical environment

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The physical environment has a significant influence on learning. It gives children clear messages about how we value them and how we value learning. It can be supportive of independent learning. Developing independent learning has far-reaching implications for the ways that teachers or practitioners and children interact, the tasks that are set, the responsibility that children take for their own learning and the opportunities teachers or practitioners plan for children to initiate and extend their own learning. One way to begin looking at developing independence is to consider the ways that the physical environment can support learning.

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CPD ACTIVITY The learning environment Aim • To evaluate the physical environment as a context for learning.

Materials • Handout 7.

Pre-meeting activity • In pairs, complete handout 7 in relation to your learning environment.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, discuss your learning environment in small groups, using the following prompts: – What elements of your learning environment promote learning and support all learners? This might include layout, display, resources, organisation of materials, and deployment of ICT equipment. – Where and how is ICT equipment located in the environment? What sort of learning might the layout encourage or discourage? – What are the most successful elements? – What would you like to change and why?

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• Come back together to create a list of successful elements within the environment that support learning and learners. • Identify any areas where you feel you could make changes and decide how you will achieve this. For example you may decide to ensure all classrooms have a comfortable and inviting book area.

Next steps • Identify and implement one change you could make immediately to make the environment more supportive of learning. • Decide on further improvements you could make to the learning environment. Monitor the impact of changes you make. • At a subsequent meeting, discuss what you have done or found out and the further steps you will take (a detailed audit on the classroom environment can be downloaded from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ literacy/publications/cpd/63569/).

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handout 7 1

Assessing the classroom environment Focus area

Desirable elements

Sharing objectives and reviewing learning



Learning objectives displayed and used



Key questions displayed and used in lesson starts and plenaries



Key questions, prompts and scaffolds available to support children’s talking and thinking about learning



Curriculum displays include statements and questions to highlight key learning points



Layout of classroom supports inclusive, interactive teaching approach



Seating and tables used flexibly to support working in different contexts and for different purposes



Layout of classroom and provision of resources support collaborative learning



Display reflects the learning process in different curriculum areas, not just finished work



Metacognitive prompt posters remind children how to …

Positive affirmations



Positive affirmations displayed in the classroom and referred to regularly, e.g. posters, successes boards. Diversity in all its forms visibly celebrated

Tools and resources



Tools are well organised, clearly labelled and accessible



There is a wide range of books, attractively displayed, well organised and accessible



Other resources are well organised



There are opportunities to learn indoors and outdoors



Resources, including equipment and visual images, reflect their family lives and a range of learners and their communities in an inclusive manner



ICT-based resources are organised in a way that promotes appropriate use by both teacher and children



Space is used appropriately to promote seamless working at and away from the computer or other ICT resources

Learning process

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Evidence

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Other possible CPD activities

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• Watch the Conditions for learning video clip 5 ‘Using displays: Foundation Stage’. – The teacher (Lisa) uses sticky notes to record brief observations and sticks them against the appropriate early-learning goals on display. Could this be adapted for the age group you are working with or the setting you are working in? Could older children be involved in noting their self-assessments in a similar way? – The segment featuring the ladybird display shows a child using a display to practise counting. What aspects of learning does this display support? Are there any ideas that could be used or adapted in your own setting? – Discuss the video clip using the following prompts: How could this practice be developed in Year 1 and Year 2? What are the implications for the way in which Key Stage 1 learning environments are organised? What information would teachers need in order to build on the Foundation Stage practice? • Undertake a learning walk around the learning environment, including the grounds. What elements of shared areas support learning? How does the set-up in the ICT suite or ICT equipment in the library support different learning approaches? Which areas could be improved? Ask for suggestions from the children, parents and carers, and governors or management committee members, as well as staff. How can these be built into development planning? • Watch the Conditions for learning video clip 2 ‘Earthwatch: learning and teaching in the outdoors’. Discuss the particular potential of the ethos and holistic nature of outdoor environments for promoting learning.

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Section 3

Effective teaching and its impact on learning Many attempts have been made to identify the teaching characteristics that contribute to effectiveness. These include the competences for trainee and newly qualified teachers, the characteristics identified by Ofsted when judging teacher performance, and those generated from research projects that have sought the views of teachers and children. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for example, suggested five key dimensions of teacher quality, based on data collected from 11 countries. These are: • knowledge of substantive curriculum areas and content; • pedagogic skills, including the ability to use a repertoire of teaching strategies; • reflection and the ability to be self-critical; • empathy and the acknowledgement of the dignity of others; • managerial competence, as teachers assume managerial responsibilities within and beyond the classroom. In this section we concentrate on one of these key dimensions – pedagogic skills and the ability to use a repertoire of key teaching strategies. The quality of teaching is one of the factors that contribute to creating the conditions for learning. Revisiting key teaching strategies offers opportunities for reflection and self-appraisal as well as the promise of improved learning and achievement for children. Teaching strategies are used within a pedagogic approach. Different pedagogic approaches reflect different theories about how children learn. These are explored in the Classroom community, collaborative and personalised learning unit. Teachers select from their repertoire of strategies those that will best support different kinds of learning. This careful matching is a key part of teachers’ professional expertise.

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Part 1

Questioning Questioning lies at the heart of learning and teaching. Research over many decades has shown that some teachers and practitioners ask too many closed and unproductive questions. Learning is enhanced when we ask fewer but better questions, and seek better answers, giving children sufficient ‘wait time’ to think and respond. Adults help children learn by asking productive questions, and by encouraging children to ask their own questions. They sustain thinking during dialogue by using alternatives or extensions to questions that challenge children’s thinking. An enquiring classroom creates a culture of learning when both adults’ and children’s questions are valued and genuine dialogue is promoted. This section explores the following elements of questioning: • purposes of questioning; • how teachers and practitioners use questions;

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• how we can improve questioning, including: – alternatives to questions; – planning questioning to promote thinking (Bloom’s taxonomy – see page 70); – helping children ask questions for a variety of reasons, including as a starting point for their own enquiries.

CPD ACTIVITY Purposes of questioning Aim • To consider why teachers and practitioners ask questions.

Organisation • In a staff meeting, discuss the following questions in pairs: – What is a question? – Why do teachers and practitioners ask questions? – Why do children ask questions? • Regroup and discuss the main points from the paired discussions as a whole group. • After your discussions, share the sections ‘Purposes of questioning’ and ‘How teachers and practitioners use questions’ on pages 60–62.

Next steps • Observe some teaching. Note the number of questions the adult and the children ask and their purpose, the length of the response, and any use of alternatives to direct questions. Note down a few examples of the adult’s questions. Bring this information to the next meeting on questioning.

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Purposes of questioning Why do we ask questions? People generally ask questions because they want to know something. Teachers and practitioners use questions for a wider range of reasons, for example to motivate, to assess, and to promote reflection, analysis or enquiry. Questioning can help facilitate learning. Through questioning the adult can: • focus attention; • arouse interest; • stimulate thinking; • find out what children know; • review, revise or recall learning;

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• invite everyone to engage in discussion;

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• engage individuals such as more able children or those who may be reticent in offering a response; • probe children’s understanding;

• diagnose difficulties and misunderstandings; • stimulate curiosity and invite children’s questions; • get children to explain, predict or give reasons; • help children express what they think, believe or know; • help children make learning explicit; • help children apply their learning.

However, the use of questions also has a potential to inhibit intellectual activity and save children from the effort of having to think. Closed, factual questions with known right answers are useful in testing recall of knowledge but they do not encourage children to persist in their thinking and learning. Questions need to make children think about the learning objectives but they can also encourage thinking beyond the objectives, to help children make creative links to other areas of learning and life.

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Questions are broadly of three kinds: • empirical – concerning facts about the world; • conceptual – concerning ideas, definitions and concepts; • value-related – concerning beliefs about the worth and merit of things. These broad categories often overlap and sometimes a question can relate to all three types. For example, ‘What is a friend?’ can be answered empirically by giving concrete examples from one’s experience of the world, or conceptually by defining in a more abstract way the meaning of the word, or value-related by making a judgement about what a friend should be and do. Questions that are conceptual or value-related are often called ‘higher-order’ questions, because they involve thinking at higher levels of abstraction.

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How teachers and practitioners use questions Teachers and practitioners ask a lot of questions – studies show that it may be more than 300 a day. These can usually be divided into three categories. Category

Purpose

Example

Managerial questions – behaviour

To do with running the class

Have you got your pencils?

Information/closed questions

To test recall of knowledge

How many sides has a triangle?

Higher-order/open questions

To make children do more than

What is music?

and task

remember

The first two categories are factual and empirical, whereas higherorder questions are critical, creative, conceptual or value-related. Perhaps teachers and practitioners ask too many questions. Studies suggest that those who ask most questions are less likely to: • receive questions from children; • promote elaborated answers from children; • encourage children to contribute spontaneously to dialogue.

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The more children are questioned, the less they tend to show initiative in their responses. We should try, therefore, to ask fewer but better and more demanding questions – and to use alternatives to questions to stimulate their thinking. A good question poses an intellectual challenge – provoking what Piaget called the ‘cognitive conflict’ which can help children move on to more advanced levels of development. Poor questions may limit, diminish or dismiss thinking. If questions are confused, unclear, too complex or too simple, they produce unproductive responses. Questions that are too closed or narrow often are really just asking children to guess what the adult is thinking. When too easy, they can be of the traditional stimulus–response: ‘What is this?’, ‘What is that?’ When too hard, they may result in the questioner answering the question: ‘What is a frog?’ ‘An a ... am ... amph ... amphib ... amphibian!’

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Improving questioning There is a place for the quick, closed, fact-finding question of the quiz type. A memory test can reinforce and remind children what they know, and can help them to remember. For specific purposes, such as mental arithmetic, closed questions can provide a significant cognitive challenge. The acid test of a question is: Does it provide a worthwhile challenge? In providing a challenge, there needs to be a balance between closed ‘quick-fix’ questions, and open questions that demand more complex and higher-order thinking. Examples of open-ended questions that genuinely invite children to think include: • ‘What do you think ...?’ • ‘How do you know ...?’ • ‘Why do you think that ...?’ • ‘Do you have a reason …?’ • ‘How can you be sure …?’ • ‘Is this always so ...?’ • ‘Is there another way/reason/idea …?’ • ‘What if ...? / What if … does not …?’ • ‘Where is there another example of this …?’ • ‘What do you think happens next?’

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A number of questioning skills have been identified in research. These include: • sequencing a set of questions – moving from literal to higher order (this is particularly supportive for EAL learners and some children with SEN); • pitching appropriately – putting the questions clearly; • distributing questions around the class – to the less forthcoming children as well as those who are more outgoing; • prompting and probing – giving clues where necessary; • listening and responding in a positive way – inviting children’s questions; • challenging right as well as wrong or underdeveloped answers; • using written questions effectively – with key questions for further thinking.

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Responding to questions: thinking time How teachers respond to children’s answers is crucial. Often teachers will accept a child’s answer, repeat it and move on to a new question. Increasing ‘wait time’ to 3–5 seconds can result in significant changes, such as: • children giving longer answers; • more children offering to answer; • children being willing to ask more questions; • children’s responses becoming more thoughtful and creative. There are two types of thinking time – after the question and after the answer. The first allows children time to produce more thoughtful answers; the second allows the questioner responding (and the listeners) to think for a few seconds about the answer. Research argues that this second wait time is the more crucial. Allowing silence after asking a question is a deliberate act by the adult to encourage a more thoughtful response.

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Alternatives to questions There is a danger, even with skilful questioning, of following a pre-set agenda and not encouraging children’s initiative. In adopting a ‘teacherly role’ we can dominate the talk by asking too many questions and imposing our own meaning. Those who ask too many questions tend to discourage children from giving elaborate or thoughtful answers. Overusing a pattern of repetitive fixed questions – Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why? – will result in children asking fewer questions themselves, giving short responses, rarely discussing with peers, volunteering few ideas and showing confusion. One way of resolving this is to use alternative to questions. Some alternative strategies that can prove more effective than questions in stimulating thoughtful discussion are given in handout 8. Different children need different sorts of alternative. Often the ‘puzzled listener’ role will be effective if it reflects genuine interest and attention to the learner’s answer. Strategies to support thinking and talking include pause, prompt and praise.

Pause, prompt, praise section 3 part 1

Pausing This includes allowing thinking time. Sometimes a minimal encouragement will prompt further thinking – ‘Hmmm’, ‘Uh huh’, ‘Yes’, ‘OK’, ‘I see’. Non-verbal encouragement includes eye contact, facial signals such as smiling, and body gestures.

Prompting and probing This involves giving verbal encouragement, for example by checking whether we have understood what the child has said and giving opportunities for rethinking and restating an

idea – ‘Can you explain?’, ‘Tell us again’. Probing questions include: ‘Why do you think that ...?’, ‘How do you know ...?’, ‘What do you mean by …?’, ‘What if ...?’, ‘Is it possible that ...?’

Praising This is giving positive feedback. Being specific and personal with praise – ‘That’s an interesting answer’, ‘I like the way you ...’ – can foster general participation by supporting the hesitant, rewarding risk-takers and valuing contributions.

Extending dialogue Rather than accepting short answers, we support learning if more extended answers are sought (see page 65). This can also be encouraged if the questioner takes on a more challenging role on occasions: for example, disagreeing or putting an opposing argument and not rewarding children simply for making a response. The handbook to Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2 (page 22) suggests some dos and don’ts for extending classroom dialogue.

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The use of ICT to improve the quality of interactions, questioning and dialogue

CPD ACTIVITY

The interactive whiteboard can promote increased interaction between the teacher, the children, the subject and the technology itself. It allows children to engage with the same central focal point in the classroom – something that is not easy to achieve with other types of technology. It also enables the teacher to refer back easily to previous learning and resources. Children can use the dynamic representation of systems, images and text to explain their methods, to support their reasoning, to demonstrate their understanding and to teach others. The ability to interact physically with the software, by manipulating the text and images on screen, stimulates 'on-task talk'. Children may talk for longer than otherwise in their responses and use an extended range of vocabulary in their explanations. These are all features promoted in learning theory and it is these qualities of learning that teachers point to when they talk of the benefits of using this technology. The interactive whiteboard can encourage questioning and intervention at a range of levels, including open and closed questions as well as probing and evaluative responses, all as part of the general flow of the lesson.

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Developing alternatives to questions Aim • To consider alternatives to questions.

Materials • Handout 8 – Alternatives to questions. • Handout 9 – Beyond the question mark: reminders for September.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, split up into small groups to discuss and list different ways of responding to children that do not involve the use of questions. Give an example for each of the alternatives to show how it might be used in practice. If you have undertaken classroom observations (see the previous CPD activity, ‘Purposes of questioning’), these observations can feed into the discussion. • How can ICT help develop questioning? • Share and discuss your lists. Compare them with handout 8 and add any further examples you have identified.

Next steps • Create an agreed guide to ‘Developing alternatives to questions’ that could be shared with staff, parents and carers. Handout 9 is an example of the outcome of this for one school.

Further resources • A set of leaflets including ‘Talking in class’, which has a section on alternatives to questions, is available as part of the pack Teaching literacy and mathematics in Year 3.

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handout 8 1

Alternatives to questions Using alternatives to routine questions can actively encourage thinking and dialogue. Ways to do this include: Withhold judgement

• Respond in a non-evaluative fashion • Ask others to respond

Invite children to elaborate

• ‘Say more about …’

Cue alternative responses

• ‘There is no one right answer’ • ‘What are the alternatives?’ • ‘Who’s got a different point of view?’

Challenge children to provide reasons

• ‘Give reasons why’

Make a challenging statement

• ‘Supposing someone said …’

Contribute your own thoughts or experience

• ‘I think that …’ • ‘Remember when …’

Use ‘think–pair–share’

• Allow thinking time • Discuss with a partner, then in a group • Pair children so they can discuss in their first language

Allow rehearsal of responses

• ‘Try out the answer in your head’ • ‘Try out the answer on your partner’

Invite children’s questions

• ‘Would anyone like to ask Pat a question about that?’

Use thinking aloud

• Model rhetorical questions • ‘I don’t quite understand’

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Ask a child to invite a response

• ‘Ali, will you ask someone else what they think?’

Don’t ask for a show of hands

• Expect everyone to respond

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handout 9 1

Beyond the question mark: reminders for September Whole-school aims Why we need to focus on questioning skills: • To develop more active learning by getting children to question each other and the teacher more. • To provide children with the opportunity to tackle abstract and conceptual questions in order to develop their confidence and competence in higher-order thinking. • To develop teacher questioning skills through the use of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Next steps Following our June INSET on teacher questioning, the following strategies/procedures were discussed to encourage good questioning. Question tree to be displayed in every classroom to show seven different types of question. This is to be used as a reference point for both teachers and children. Group discussion poster to be displayed and referred to. Introduce the poster during circle time and try to encourage group activities in your classroom, especially when asking the higher-order questions. You will get a better-quality answer if the children are allowed to discuss the question as part of a group. Questions you are going to ask identified in planning. Don’t leave asking a question to chance! Often we will ask knowledge-based questions! Planning in the questions we are going to ask will allow us to see which types of question we are asking. Remember to build in the higher-order questions. Use the coding system which has been set up: each colour identifies a different type of question. Experiment with using the question track game and concept cartoons to aid questioning. When asking a question remember the following: • Allow the children time to wait and think. • Allow the children the opportunity to share their ideas (first with a partner then with a larger group). • When discussing ideas the teacher should value all contributions and withhold judgement. • The teacher to challenge thinking by posing an alternative point of view. • The teacher to model asking and answering questions. Happy questioning! (Created by Norwood Green Junior School, Hounslow)

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Planning questioning to promote thinking There are many taxonomies of thinking but perhaps the most familiar is that of Bloom (1956). According to Bloom’s taxonomy, analysis, synthesis and evaluation demand more complex and ‘higher’ levels of thinking. They also make greater demands on children’s linguistic resources. Questions that ask for knowledge, comprehension and application demand less complex and thus ‘lower’ levels of thinking.

Higher- and lower-order levels of thinking (Bloom’s taxonomy) 1 Knowledge – for example, ‘Who?’, ‘What?’, ‘Where?’, ‘When?’, ‘How?’ 2 Comprehension – for example, ‘What do we mean by ...?’, ‘Explain ...’.

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3 Application – for example, ‘What other examples are there?’ 4 Analysis – for example, ‘What is the evidence for parts or features of ...?’ 5 Synthesis – for example, ‘How could we add to, improve, design, solve ...?’ 6 Evaluation – for example, ‘What do you think about …?’, ‘What are your criteria for assessing …?’

One effective strategy is to ask questions that make increasing cognitive demands on children, to move from simple knowledge or recall questions, through questions that ask for comprehension or explanation, and on to questions that ask for application, then analysis, synthesis and finally evaluation. Often this will mean moving from the ‘What?’ and ‘How?’ descriptive question, to the ‘Why?’ and ‘What for?’ question that asks for a more complex response. A good question offers a progressive and productive challenge to learning. It provides a model for the sorts of productive question that children can ask of themselves and of others. To develop our questioning we need to ask fewer questions and better questions (including more higher-order questions), and to help children to ask their own questions.

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Helping children ask questions Young children usually start their time in the Foundation Stage full of questions. If we want children to be active and adventurous thinkers, we need to encourage them to continue to ask questions. One way is to provide opportunities for them to ask questions other than the managerial questions they so often ask. If children themselves identify what they want to know, then when they ask a question they are much more likely to value and remember the answer. Some questions will not be easy to answer. One teacher was asked: ‘What is the difference between the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect?’ She did not feel able to give a full answer at the time, so she involved children in researching an answer and got in an ‘expert’ to judge the different answers to the question. Display children’s questions and come back to them. They can be sorted into categories, for example: • questions we can answer;

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• questions we can find the answer to; • questions that cannot be answered. Discuss with children the nature of good questions. Ask which of a list of questions is the best or most interesting question. Find out what questions they would most like to have answered. A simple way to assess the ability of children to devise questions is to give them a common object, such as a chair or a cup, and ask them to list as many questions about the object as they can. Another way is to take a subject of current study and see how many questions children can create about it. A third way is to choose a text, such as part of a story or poem, and see how good they are at interrogating the text by asking them to create questions about it. First teach them about different sorts of question (national test marking schemes give some suggestions). Children can be supported in learning to ask questions through teacher modelling and the use of reciprocal teaching strategies (Palincsar and Brown, 1984). Handout 10 gives further suggestions for activities to encourage children’s questioning. With practice at creating questions, the fluency and flexibility of children’s questioning will improve. After a year in an enquiring classroom, children are usually able to generate more questions and a wider range of questions about any topic of study.

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handout handout10 1

Activities to encourage children’s questioning Activity

Details

Topic questions

Groups devise questions about a topic to research.

Reading/study review

Children ask questions about what they are reading or listening to (see the

questions

national test marking schemes for the sorts of question that teachers and children may forget to ask).

Hotseating

Children take turns to choose to be a character from literature, history or current affairs. Others create questions to ask the child playing the role.

Questions game

One child chooses an object, person or place. Others have 20 questions to find out what it is. Only ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ answers are allowed. Only three direct guesses are allowed. Play in groups of six (e.g. two choose, four ask).

Question and answer

Children devise questions to fit a given answer (e.g. a person, place, thing or number; or for older children a quote from a poem or play).

Any questions?

Children write a question (empirical, conceptual or value-related). Each question is then given to an ‘expert’ partner to answer.

Interview questions

Decide on someone to interview (e.g. a visitor or a local VIP). Children devise, share and evaluate the best interview questions.

Question your

Devise, write and display questions to stimulate thinking and discussion about

classroom

objects, pictures or texts in your classroom. Record the questions children pose.

Keep a questions

Collect any interesting or puzzling questions that arise in the classroom. Create

box, board or book

a place to write, store or display your questions, such as in a box, on a board or in a book. Set aside some time, such as at the end of the week, to choose and discuss a question. Alternatively, share out the questions for children to work on at home. Or swap questions with another class or group.

Metacognitive

Display some metacognitive questions to encourage children to assess and

questions to assess

reflect on their own learning, such as ‘What have I learned?’, ‘What have I found

learning

hard?’, ‘What do I need to learn next?’, ‘What would help me do better?’. Discuss these in a plenary session. Older children could write their responses in a learning log.

Introduce artefacts

Examine artefacts (e.g. a wide variety of seeds and grains, a collection of bones,

that may be new to

a range of cooking implements from different cultures) of different materials or

the children

designs. Give children time to explore them and pose their own questions about them.

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Possible CPD activities Use the following prompts to facilitate staff meetings. The tasks should be related to your planning.

Planning a sequence of questions (Socratic questioning) • A Socratic sequence of questions begins with the concrete and literal (e.g. ‘What is a butterfly?’), proceeds through analysis (e.g. ‘How does a butterfly differ from a bird?’), leading to an abstract or organising concept (e.g. ‘So what defines an insect?’). Consider the question ‘What is the value of asking a sequence of questions?’ and compare your answer with those of colleagues. • Choose a topic that you are planning to teach and plan a progressive sequence of questions related to the topic.

Encouraging children’s questioning

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• Consider the question ‘What is the value of children asking questions?’ Compare your answer with those of colleagues. Discuss ways of encouraging children’s questioning. • Questions to prompt reflection and discussion include: – Who asks most of the questions in your classroom? – Is the importance of questioning discussed with children? – What opportunities are children given for asking questions? – Is there evidence of children’s questions on display? • What particular examples show your children’s ability to ask interesting and relevant questions?

Creating a questioning learning environment • Discuss ways of creating an enquiring learning environment with colleagues. Some questions for reflection or discussion include: – Who in the classroom is doing most of the talking and the thinking? – Do adults ask too many questions? – Are we allowing enough thinking time? If so, when? – Do we support children in their talking and thinking? How? – What can be done to shift from closed questions to those that genuinely invite reflection and problem solving? – How can we encourage children to ask more questions? – How does the use of ICT contribute to questioning? – How do you create a questioning classroom?

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Part 2

Explaining

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Explanations abound in day-to-day interactions between adults and learners. Sometimes the teacher or practitioner is giving the explanation to assist learners to develop their understanding of a subject, process, relationship and so on; sometimes the learner is explaining their thinking (and this is often a key assessment opportunity). Children recognise – and value – clear explanations. We have all experienced the impact of explanations that have helped clarify our understanding and those that have served only to confuse or puzzle us further. If we listen to someone giving a good explanation it often contains some of the following elements:

• Structure. Ideas are broken down into sections and linked together logically. Often a key idea is given first (e.g. all insects share common characteristics), followed by details (e.g. they have six legs and a body that is divided into three sections). A time sequence may be followed (e.g. first the king gathered together all his soldiers), or a cause-andeffect structure may be used. • Good subject knowledge. The speaker has a good grasp of the subject – it is difficult to explain what we don’t understand ourselves. • Adaptation to the audience. Language is carefully chosen (e.g. the way we would explain how to teach reading to a parent or carer might be different from the way we would explain it to a fellow practitioner. We may need to take particular care when explaining things to children with different cultural expectations, those who are learning EAL, or children with special educational needs in cognition and learning or communication and interaction).

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• Use of exemplars. The explanation is illustrated with examples, particularly ones which relate to learners’ existing knowledge and interests. • Engaging the learners and supporting understanding through a range of strategies. This might include the use of visual aids or actions, the use of analogy and metaphors, the use of graphic organisers, and so on. • Responsiveness to feedback. The explanations are amended in the light of feedback from the learner. Further explanations are offered if understanding is not achieved, or explanations are shortened if it is clear that the learner has understood. • Effective use of voice and body language. The delivery sustains attention and interest. • Length. It is to the point and fairly brief, or it may be broken up with questions in order to check understanding.

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CPD ACTIVITY Considering our current practice Aim • To encourage staff to consider what makes a successful explanation and put this into practice.

Materials • Conditions for learning video clip 6 ‘Models and images’, or any other video that shows an adult explaining something to children.

Organisation • In a staff meeting, watch the video clip. Use the list of attributes of effective explanations given on page 74 to identify their use in the clip you are considering. • Discuss your observations and identify where the explanations were most successful and where you felt there were areas for development. How did the use of ICT support the explanations? • Half the staff (group A) then spend 5 minutes preparing an explanation about why schools or settings might decide to have a mid-morning break and the other half (group B) spend 5 minutes preparing an explanation of why there are yellow zig-zag lines outside schools (or any other explanations of your choice).

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• Get together in A–B pairs. A should give their explanation to B, who should give feedback based on the list of elements above. The roles are then reversed. If there is time, amend your explanations in the light of the feedback.

Next steps • Reflect on what you have learned about explanations. • Plan some explanations in more detail than you would normally and try these in the classroom. If possible, arrange to observe each other as you use the explanation you have planned, and give each other feedback. • At a future staff meeting, discuss how you will continue to develop your own and the children’s use of explanations. Note: Children can be introduced to reflecting on what makes a good explanation during work on writing explanation and when using explanation objectives from the speaking and listening materials Year 1 / Term 1, Year 2 / Term 3, Year 3 / Terms 1 and 3, Year 6 / Term 3.

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Part 3

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Scaffolding One important view of learning, based on the ideas of Lev Vygotsky, is that inexperienced learners learn from working with more expert others. Working with a more experienced person, the inexperienced learner can achieve more than they could working on their own – they are ‘scaffolded’ by the expertise of the other. Gradually the learner takes over more and more of the task from the expert until they can do it without assistance. They are then ready to take on new, more challenging learning, again scaffolded by an expert. Thus they continue to move from dependence to independence, constantly increasing their own expertise. Vygotsky claimed that this was how children learned ‘naturally’ within societies and families. In teaching, scaffolding involves offering support when new ideas and concepts are introduced. This support may be through demonstration and modelling in shared and guided work (see the next section), by providing support such as frameworks and prompts, by offering opportunities for bilingual learners to use their first language, and by working alongside a group or individuals offering oral or other prompts. Recognising when to withdraw teacher scaffolding is important if children are not to become overdependent. Moving children on from scaffolded learning to independent learning involves offering children scaffolds such as criteria cards for self-evaluation, cue cards and writing frames that they can decide when (or if) to use. This helps children develop awareness of their own learning (metacognition) and the opportunities to work things out for themselves. Asking children in a plenary to reflect on the strategies they have used is a further essential element of scaffolding: children are again encouraged to be explicitly aware of their learning processes.

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CPD ACTIVITY Scaffolding Aim • To consider how learning is scaffolded.

Materials • Conditions for learning video clip 6 ‘Models and images’.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, watch video clip 6. • How is the children’s learning scaffolded by: – the teacher? – the equipment used? – the resources available? • How, when and why is this support withdrawn?

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• In pairs, plan a teaching episode in an area of learning or foundation subject that will involve you in scaffolding a new piece of learning. Arrange to observe this being taught. Focus on a small group of children and observe the impact of the scaffolding on their learning.

Next steps • At a subsequent staff meeting, share your observations and discuss the implications and your next steps.

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Part 4

Demonstration and modelling Demonstration and modelling are key learning and teaching strategies that scaffold or support children’s learning to take them successfully from what they know into new learning (see ‘Scaffolding’ on page 76). They are interactive whole-class teaching strategies that involve both teacher-led activities and children contributing and trying things out. Modelling and demonstrating are directly linked to the objective for the lesson or series of lessons and support children’s new learning so they are able to successfully take it on themselves. Modelling should: • make explicit to children the underlying structures and elements of what is being taught;

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• provide a supporting structure, which can be extended and used to apply the objective that has been taught. Teacher modelling involves the teacher showing how to do something while simultaneously describing what they are doing and explaining why they are doing it. Modelling often involves slowing down the process so it can be seen clearly. It offers learners the opportunity to: • see and hear the process; • ask questions if something is unclear; • discuss what they have seen and heard with other learners and with the ‘expert’ undertaking the modelling; • see that expert learners may modify or correct a process as they undertake it.

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In literacy, modelling and demonstrating are the key strategies in shared reading and writing to make sure that children understand both the process (e.g. how a narrative is written) and the particular example (e.g. writing a further chapter for a story). In mathematics, models give children a picture or image to help them understand the mathematics and set out the steps involved in a solution to a particular problem. Demonstration is short, clear and precise, promoting a skill or setting out the steps involved in a solution to a problem. Children need to be given the opportunity to practise and apply the processes and structures that have been modelled and demonstrated. When following up demonstrating or modelling, emphasis needs to be placed on quality questioning.

CPD ACTIVITY Teacher modelling section 3 part 4

Aim • To consider how teacher modelling supports learning.

Materials • Conditions for learning video clip 7 ‘Teacher modelling’.

Organisation • At a staff meeting, watch video clip 7. Note the techniques the teacher uses and consider how this supports children’s learning. • In small groups, discuss in what ways modelling supports children’s learning. Create a joint list. Your list will probably include the following: – provides a visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning experience; – provides an opportunity to model the language associated with the process and the subject-specific language; – makes the thought processes of an expert learner explicit; – shows what can be achieved and sets high standards; – provides a concrete example for children; – demonstrates new or difficult concepts within a meaningful context; – can point out difficult areas and repeat these if necessary; – offers opportunities to check on children’s understanding. • Share examples of teacher modelling undertaken across the curriculum. Identify an opportunity during the coming week when you can include teacher modelling. Take time to plan this in some detail. Monitor the impact of this carefully planned episode and decide on your next steps.

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Part 5

The use of ICT ICT is a curriculum subject in its own right, designed to provide children with a range of ICT skills and capabilities. It also has a significant role to play in learning and teaching across the curriculum. Technology offers a learning medium with distinctive features. These can be used to support and enhance the development of learners’ knowledge, skills and understanding. This section of the materials considers how teachers or practitioners can integrate the use of ICT into their day-to-day teaching across the curriculum. The ideas and ICT examples briefly outlined in these materials provide an introduction to those aspects of learning and teaching that are exemplified within nine subjects of the primary curriculum on the Primary National Strategy ICT CD-ROM (see ‘Resources’ section). When using the materials in this section it is recommended that the person leading the learning and teaching CPD activities uses these ICT materials to help with their planning and to exemplify practice.

Aspects of teaching and ICT as a teaching tool While ICT can be used to support teaching in many and varied contexts, successful use reflects the extent to which teachers or practitioners interact with children, and children with the curriculum area being taught. Successful use of ICT can: • reduce planning time; • introduce greater variety and stimuli that capture children’s interest, generate enthusiasm and prompt ideas and thinking; • provide improved access to different media and resources that help children to communicate and explore; • overcome barriers to learning for children with disabilities; • accelerate the pace of the lesson. ICT is a tool to help the teacher or practitioner; it does not do the teaching for them.

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Teachers and practitioners can make valuable use of many of the features and facilities of ICT, especially when the teaching involves: presenting, re-presenting and communicating demonstrating modelling

accessing and analysing testing and confirming

CPD ACTIVITY ICT as a tool for teaching Aim • To consider how ICT can support teaching across the curriculum.

Materials • Handout 11 – Using ICT as a teaching tool. • Blank posters headed ‘Demonstrating’, ‘Modelling’, ‘Accessing and analysing’, ‘Presenting, re-presenting and communicating’, ‘Testing and confirming’. • Sticky notes.

Organisation

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• At a staff meeting, read handout 11 and use this to think about examples from your own teaching that fall into each category. Consider why and in what ways this teaching was successful. • Working in cross-year pairs, share your use of ICT. Write on sticky notes examples of when you made successful use of ICT as a teaching tool, and relate these to the five aspects of teaching on the handout. • Regroup and share examples by placing the sticky notes on the appropriate poster. • Discuss the following questions: – What was particularly successful? – Which of the five aspects of teaching did ICT support? – How did ICT contribute to the teaching? – Why was the teaching successful? – Are there examples of good practice we can share and develop? – Are any aspects underrepresented? • You may wish to watch some of the examples from the Primary National Strategy ICT CD-ROM to complement and extend this activity. • From the examples you have shared or seen on the CD-ROM, select one use of ICT you may not have made use of in teaching. Work with a partner to plan how you will use this, and identify the aspect or aspects of teaching you plan to focus on in the session. Agree to report back on the success of the lessons and how ICT supported your teaching. • Allow time to discuss with subject coordinators and the ICT coordinator any subject-related or ICT-specific issues you are concerned about.

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handout handout11 1

Using ICT as a teaching tool Examples of how ICT might be used as a teaching tool to support the five aspects of teaching Demonstrating Using ICT to: • show children techniques (e.g. how to measure in science and mathematics); • contrast ideas (e.g. in art and music); • share other children’s work for discussion and review (e.g. in literacy and history); • compare children’s own performances and interpretations (e.g. video clips in PE and drama).

Modelling Using ICT to: • give children simulations of real-life problems or events (e.g. a circuit in science or changes in landscapes in geography); • show children how to analyse text and use a writing frame (e.g. in literacy or history); • provide an image that supports a concept (e.g. use of sound and pictures in PSHE to simulate different emotions and feelings, use of a spreadsheet as a mathematical model – ‘What will happen if ...?’).

Accessing and analysing Using ICT to: • provide children with access to information in different forms (e.g. DVDs, audiotapes, signs and symbols, a range of languages); • find things out (e.g. exploring a website in any curriculum enquiry); • show children a range of text types (e.g. nonfiction text in literacy, analysing how authors use language to express emotions and feelings in PSHE); • present alternative representations and images (e.g. deciding on the most appropriate charts for

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data collected in design and technology, comparing the works of different painters in art, producing changing patterns or sequences, for example of sound in music or numbers in mathematics).

Presenting, re-presenting and communicating Using ICT to: • share children’s ideas and processes (e.g. their designs developed in design and technology); • exchange information (e.g. using desktop publishing in ICT, PowerPoint presentations in PSHE, communication aids where children have disabilities); • refine and improve the quality of children’s work (e.g. editing text in literacy); • communicate views and information (e.g. children emailing other children about local environmental issues in geography, screen-capturing the steps and stages when problem solving in mathematics).

Testing and confirming Using ICT to: • ask ‘What if…?’ questions and gather data to test, confirm or refute conjectures (e.g. using datalogging equipment in science to compare the effect of changing one factor at a time in a fair test); • scrutinise a database (e.g. exploring the impact of changes to a local environment in geography, using a range of ICT-based resources in history to track the effects of changes via images); • use an interactive teaching program (ITP) (e.g. generating number sequences, shapes or patterns in mathematics leading to a general statement that can then be tested further).

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CPD ACTIVITY Embedding ICT in learning and teaching Aim • To consider how to further develop the embedding of ICT in learning and teaching.

Materials • Medium-term plans.

Organisation • In pairs, review the use of ICT to date, the successes achieved, and the impact that using ICT has had on the children. Use these discussions to begin to plan the next steps. Look at your mediumterm plans for the next half-term and identify where and how you might best use ICT to enhance your work. Set yourselves two goals for how you plan to embed the use of ICT in your teaching during that half-term in one area of the curriculum. • Regroup and share your goals.

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• Use the goals to review the way ICT is to be used to enhance learning and teaching across the school or setting. • Discuss the following questions: – What features of ICT are we embedding into learning and teaching? – How will ICT support these aspects of learning and teaching? – Are aspects of learning and teaching and areas of the curriculum under-represented? – How might we progress the use of ICT to support specific aspects of learning and teaching? – Are there examples of good practice we can share and develop? – What do we need to do now to ensure that ICT helps us to enhance the quality of learning and teaching for all children? • Use the discussion to begin to set out an action plan for the future, building on good practice in the school or setting and using the subject and ICT expertise that exists. Agree on how the ICT resources might be made best use of and what ICT CPD support might be needed to help achieve this. Identify what local external support is available and how this might be drawn on. Use the ongoing agreed goals to inform and share a vision of how the school or setting will move forward and what everyone will endeavour to achieve. • You may wish to refer to and use slides, videos and resources featured in the Leadership team ICT toolkit to support and extend this developmental work and the CPD programme.

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Other possible CPD activities • Observe pairs or groups of children undertaking work using ICT. Reflect on what they are doing that they could not do without ICT. Consider how using ICT has enhanced their learning.

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• Run a series of practical workshops in which peer tutoring can be used to present ideas for using ICT.

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Section 4

Resources

Additional CD-ROM To complement these materials, a double CD-ROM will be available in the autumn term. CD 1 Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years This contains all the units from this set of materials plus additional materials such as background research papers, further case studies and advice on running CPD sessions. It will be fully searchable through a key word search. CD 2 Excellence and Enjoyment: making the curriculum your own This CD-ROM has been designed as a companion to the Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years materials. It is intended to help support schools and settings in making the curriculum their own – in designing their curriculum in order to develop key aspects of learning through curriculum subjects, and to promote enjoyment and creativity as important routes to excellence. This CD-ROM contains an extensive bank of resources and examples (including video material from schools and settings sharing their own ideas and experiences), which are arranged both by curriculum subject and according to the ‘key aspects of learning’ that are highlighted in the Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years materials. The aim is to provide resources that can help schools and settings focus on and develop particular areas of their curriculum, and to give ideas about creative teaching approaches as part of a planned process of whole-school curriculum design.

Other resources Audit tools • Behaviour and attendance: in-depth audit for primary schools, Booklet 2: Whole-school ethos. Downloadable from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/ • Behaviour and attendance: in-depth audit for primary schools, Booklet 4: Continuing to improve the quality of teaching and learning through classroom level factors. Downloadable from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/ • Index for inclusion (Centre for Studies in Inclusive Education, 2000) • Learning for all: standards for racial equality in schools (Commission for Racial Equality, 2000)

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• Supporting children learning English as an additional language (revised edition, 2002), Appendix 2 ‘Supporting pupils learning EAL: Checklist of inclusive practice’. Downloadable from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/literacy/publications/inclusion/63381/ eal_appendices2.PDF

DfES, QCA and PNS publications • Behaviour and attendance: developing skills www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/banda • Curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage (QCA/00/587) • Developing children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills: a whole curriculum approach (DfES 0759-2003) •

Emotional health and well being (DoH and DfES, 2004)

• Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years: introductory guides (DfES 0344-2004 and 0243-2004) • ‘Guidance for personal, social and emotional development’, National Curriculum handbook for primary teachers in England (DfES, 2000) • The impact of parental involvement on children’s education (LEA/0339/2003) • Improving the climate for teaching and learning in the secondary school (DfES 0349-2003). • Learning and teaching for children with special educational needs in the primary years (DfES 0321-2004 G). • Learning and teaching using ICT: leadership team toolkit (DfES 0369-2004) • Literacy coordinators’ handbook (DfES 0284-2002) • National Curriculum handbook for primary teachers in England (DfES, 2000) www.nc.uk.net • Primary National Strategy ICT CD-ROM, available from Prolog, tel. 0845 6022260 (DfES 0473-2004) • Speaking, listening, learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2 (DfES 0627-2003 G) • Supporting children learning English as an additional language, revised 2002 (DfES 0239-2002)

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Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

• Supporting children with special educational needs in the literacy hour Part 3. www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/literacy/prof_dev • Teaching assistants in primary schools: an evaluation of the quality and impact of their work (Ofsted, 2002) • Teaching literacy and mathematics in Year 3 (DfES 0495-2003) • Working with teaching assistants: a good practice guide (DfEE 0148/2000)

Useful websites • Antidote: campaign for emotional literacy www.antidote.org.uk • Becta www.becta.org.uk and www.ictadvice.org.uk • Building learning power www.buildinglearningpower.co.uk • Campaign for learning www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk • National Curriculum in Action www.naction.org.uk • Philosophy for children www.sapere.net • QCA schemes of work for citizenship www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/ks1-2citizenship/ • Quality circle time www.circle-time.co.uk • Reflective teaching www.rtweb.info

References and further reading • Alexander, R. (2001) Culture and pedagogy. Blackwell • Bloom, B. S. et al (1956) Taxonomy of educational goals. Handbook 1: cognitive domain. McKay • Claxton, G. (2002) Building learning power: helping young people become better learners. TLO • Fisher, R. (1990) Teaching children to think. Stanley Thornes • Fisher, R. (1995) Teaching children to learn. Stanley Thornes

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004

Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

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• Gibbons, P. (2000) Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: teaching second language learners in mainstream classrooms. Heinemann • Goleman, D. (1995) Emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam • Greany, T. and Rodd, J. (2003) Creating a learning to learn school. Network Educational Press • Hargreaves, A. (2003) Teaching in the knowledge society. Open University Press • Hughes, M. and Vass, A. (2001) Strategies for closing the learning gap. Network Educational Press • Joyce, B., Calhoun, E. and Hopkins, D. (2002) Models of teaching, tools for learning, 2nd edition. Open University Press. • Lepper, M. R. and Hodell, M. (1989) ‘Intrinsic motivation in the classroom’, in C. Ames and R. Ames (eds.) Research on motivation in the classroom, San Diego Academic Press • Muijs, D. and Reynolds, D. (2001) Effective teaching: evidence and practice. Paul Chapman • Palincsar, A. and Brown, A. (1984) ‘Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities’. Cognition and instruction 1 (2), pp. 117–175 • Pollard, A. (2002) Readings for reflective teaching. Continuum • Pollard, A. (2002) Reflective teaching: effective and research-based professional practice. Continuum • Richardson, R. and Wood, A. (1999) Inclusive schools, inclusive society: race and identity on the agenda. Trentham • Wragg, E. C. and Brown, G. (1993) Explaining in the primary school. Routledge • Wragg, E. C. and Brown, G. (2001) Questioning in the primary school. Routledge

Acknowledgements Many organisations and individuals have contributed to the development of Learning and teaching in the primary years. The Primary National Strategy would like to thank them all for their expertise, advice and comments.

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Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years Creating a learning culture: conditions for learning

Primary National Strategy | DfES 0523-2004 G | © Crown copyright 2004