Tuning into learners minds

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Tuning into learners minds
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Tuning into learners minds
What are we talking about?
How do you do it?
Why is this so important?
Why can it be difficult?
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Tuning into learners minds

• What are we talking about?

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The most common image of a teacher at work has
her in front of the room, either addressing the
whole class or choosing students to answer
questions. Magdalene Lampert
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• Our children cant listen and cant think
  because we have turned them into workbook idiots
• Martha Collins

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Three basic methods of teaching

• Coaching
• stand back, observe performances
• provide guidance
• applaud strengths, identify weakness
• recommend practice

• Instruction
• essentially explanation
• lay out the whats whys and wherefores of a topic
• tell students what to do

• Facilitation
• less directive not just answers but how to
  inquire
• engage students in a more open-ended way
• support their explorations of a topic

Source David Perkins Smart Schools
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There is not much choice of the basic method

• do you need to get across a complex bundle of
  ideas in which students have little background? -
  then you had better employ instruction to start
  with
• do you need to ensure thoughtful practice and
  informative feedback - then you had better coach
• is it a puzzling concept that youngsters are not
  likely to grasp without working it through it in
  their on minds in a very active way? Then you had
  better employ facilitation

Source David Perkins Smart Schools
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Tuning into learners minds

• Why can it be difficult?

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• Coverage is the enemy of comprehension.
• John Dewey

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• Thinking is recognised as being one of the most
  tiring activities known to man, which presumably
  accounts for so few doing much of it for
  themselves.
• Watt Nicoll

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Why can raising the quality of interaction in
the classroom be difficult?

• Traditionally schools have put the emphasis on
  knowing
• rather than understanding
• Traditionally teachers have been expected to do
  the learning to or for their pupils
• Thinking is demanding for pupils
• It takes time to think and understand and the
  emphasis is
• on covering an overloaded curriculum
• Quality interaction does not directly produce
  written
• evidence of success and it is more difficult to
  assess
• understanding than knowledge
• Its not easy to help a class of thirty
  children to think and
• understand together

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higher order thinking
depends on
high levels of interaction
depends on
safety to discuss
depends on
respect for other peoples ideas
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Tuning into learners minds

• Why is it important?

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Encouraging more interaction in the classroom

• The most successful teachers all engage in
  above average levels of interaction with the
  pupils. This appears to be an important
  determinant of pupil progress.
• Maurice Galton and Brian Simon, Progress and
  performance in the Primary Classroom

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• The message of extensive research on the nature
  of human thinking and learning can be boiled down
  into one sentence learning is a consequence of
  thinking.
• David Perkins Smart Schools

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Learning involves

• making sense of new information
• working out what it means to us, given what we
  already know
• restructuring our existing knowledge
• building new and more powerful ideas

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Learning depends on conversations

• You dont know what you know until you say it.
• James aged 9
• Thought is closely related to language talking
  is the prime vehicle for human thinking and
  learning. Not all thinking depends on words
  conversations can be internal, but are
  particularly effective carried out in pairs or
  groups where different ways of interpreting
  evidence can be explored to mutual benefit.
• Lev Vygotsky Thought and Language 1962

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understanding being able to make knowledge
meaningful to you
transfer being able to use and apply knowledge in
different situations
retention being able to retain and recall
knowledge

• all three are important goals for education
• they are separate from each other, but linked
• understanding is critically important for the
  other two

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• We cant teach effectively unless we know to
  some extent at least what our learners are
  thinking

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Tuning into learners minds

• How do you go about it?

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• ask better questions
• ask questions better

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Issues with questioning

• Why do you ask questions in the classroom?
• What difficulties can there be in asking
  questions in the classroom?

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Reasons for asking questions

• to clarify understandings
• to engage with children
• to elicit discussion
• to elicit information
• to get feedback on teaching and learning
• to find out what they know
• to focus attention

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Difficulties with questioning

• creating a climate for quality questioning
• when no-one answers
• you may get side-tracked
• some people answering all the time
• pitching at a level where all children understand

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ask better questions

• reflect on why you ask questions
• play fewer guessing games
• ask fewer and better questions
• ask more hot or fat questions
• be aware closed questions can be fat
• plan key questions in advance
• use a range of strategies to fatten up your
  questions
• start with simple questions and progress to more
  challenging ones
• try the six honest serving men
• get pupils to generate their own questions

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hot questions

• What do you think?
• Why do you think that?
• How do you know?
• Do you have a reason?
• Can you be sure?
• Is there another way?
• What do you think happens next?

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Using closed questions to provoke thinking and
test for misconceptions in science

• is grass alive or dead?
• is it always true that metals are magnets?
• does light travel from you eye to an object or
  from an object to your eye?
• is it always true that mammals give birth to
  live young?
• is it always true that water is a liquid?
• is it always true that twins are the same sex?

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Ask big or essential questions

• Big questions
• have no simple right answer
• provoke thought
• require discussion and enquiry
• get the heart of a topic or discipline
• raise other important questions
• challenge our assumptions and arguments we may
  have taken for granted

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Examples of big questions

• What is a friend?
• Is all History biased?
• Why do we have numbers?
• Why is art important?
• How is feeling or mood conveyed musically/
• What is a good thinker?
• Should animals be killed/
• What story do maps tell?

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Turn closed questions into open questions

• Instead of asking
• Is this a polygon?
• What is 8 and 4?
• What is bullying?
• What are the organisation of organs in the
  digestive system?

• Ask..
• What are the properties of a polygon?
• What questions could 12 be the answer to?
• Are bullies always bad people?
• How would you explain the organisation of organs
  in the digestive system to someone who did not
  know?

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Dont ask the question give the answer and ask
why its correct

• Instead of asking
• Is this a complex sentence?
• Can 7/9 be simplified?
• What kind of film is Star Wars?

• Ask
• Why is this a complex sentence?
• Why can 7/9 not be simplified?
• Why is Star Wars a science fiction film?

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Ask questions that explore opposites,
differences, categories and exceptions

• Revised question
• Why does this circuit work and this one does not?
• Which of these two openings makes you want to
  read on?
• When would it be right for young people not to
  obey their parents?
• What is the same and what is different about
  mammals and birds?

• Original question
• What do we need to make circuits work?
• What makes a good story opening?
• Should young people always obey their parents?
• What is a mammal?

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Dont focus on the answer, focus on how to work
the answer out

• ask..
• How would you find
• 2/3rds of 24?
• How do you know that
• someone is your friend?
• What questions would
• you have to ask yourself
• to decide if the germans
• were responsible for the
• first world war?

• instead of
• What is 2/3rds of 24?
• What is friendship?
• Were the Germans
• responsible for the first
• world war?

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Plan key questions in advance

• plan only a few key questions
• decide on the level, order and timing of
  questions
• consider embedding key questions at the start of
  a lesson, or
• structure and sequence questions from easy to
  more difficult
• have some standard follow-up questions to prompt
  and probe

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• I keep six honest serving men
• (they taught me all I knew)
• their names are what and why and when
• and how and where and who.
• Rudyard Kipling
• The what?, who, where? and when
  questions tend to elicit information, and the
  how? and why questions interpret that
  information

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Start with simple questions and progress to more
challenging ones

• Knowledge can take in information and recall it
  when needed
• Comprehension can give basic meaning to
  information
• Application can use a learned skill in a new
  situation
• Analysis can break information into parts and
  relate it to the whole
• Synthesis can combine existing elements to
  create something new
• Evaluation can make an objective judgement about
  the value of something based on a recognised
  standard

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ask questions better

• wait time
• no hands up
• think, pair and share
• ask for five
• signals for understanding
• show me boards
• avoid evaluative responses
• minimal encouragers
• prompting and probing questions
• take the answer round the class
• traffic lighting
• thumbs
• ABCD cards
• whiteboards
• exit passes

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Establish rules and routines for class discussion

• Its ok to
• be yourself
• make statements
• interrupt
• make mistakes
• agree or disagree
• ask questions
• enjoy yourself
• be honest

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Banish put-downs and sarcasm

• No put-downs in this classroom, including self
  put downs.
• Classroom notice
• The only person you can laugh at if they get
  something wrong in here is me.
• One of an RE teachers opening statements to a
  new class

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Leave wait or think time

• More pupils are likely to offer an answer
• The frequency of answers from less able pupils
  rises
• Pupils give longer answers
• Responses are usually more thoughtful or creative
• More pupils ask questions

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Two kinds of wait time

• Teacher asks a question
• Pupil responds
• Teacher reacts to the
• pupils response

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Provide structure as well as time

• Think, pair and share
• Ask for five
• Take the answer round the class and bring it back
• Combine wait time with prompting questions can
  we add to Toms answer?
• Do it like an auction when you see one hand go
  up wait for a second and a third
• Use no hands up and expect everyone to be ready
  with some kind of answer

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Devise signals that pupils can use to give you
feedback

• Thumbs
• Traffic lights
• Fist and palm
• Show me boards

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I understand
I am not sure if I understand
I dont understand
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Traffic lights
I dont understand

Im not sure I understand
I understand
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Always respond positively

• brilliant
• good
• I like that
• ok
• yes
• thank you

less evaluation
more acceptance
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• Evaluative responses
• nearly
• almost
• not quite
• Interpretative responses
• could you say more
• why did you say that? or simply mmm

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Minimal encouragers

• These suggest Please continue. Im listening
  and I understand. for example.
• Mm-hmm Tell me more Oh?
• For instance? I see Right
• Then? Yes really? And?
• Go on So? I hear you Sure?

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Use probing questions to search for more
information

• Probes are precise questions designed to unpick
  a pupils train of thought and encourage them to
  explore it more deeply.
• Can you explain what you mean by.?
• Can you show me what you mean by?
• Can you tell me more about.?
• Are you sure?
• Why do you think that?
• Are you saying that.?
• What is the evidence for that?
• How do you know?
• How did you work that out?
• Can you give an example of.?
• Can you explain why.?

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• what would you say if you did know?

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Use prompting questions to give hints

• These give hints or suggestions about what
  strategies they might try to solve a problem or
  come up with an answer for themselves.
• You could try.
• Would..help?
• Have you compared your idea with?
• What about.?
• Why not.?
• Have you tried.?

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Devise challenging group activities

• have a wash
• beat the teacher
• get on the carousel
• jigsaw it
• set a team challenge