Action Research Learning Teams Update
Shirley Clarke began formative assessment action research learning teams in 2001. These consist of groups of about 30 teachers, drawn together by a LA or a network of schools, who meet 3 times during a year to have an update and discussion with Shirley about the various elements of formative assessment and to share their findings. On the afternoon of Day 3, each team holds a showcase event for local schools to share their research findings.
2009 Learning Teams are listed below, with contact details. Feedback from these teams will be given in summer 2009. Findings for Day 2 and Day 3 from the 2008 teams can be found below.
A new section for coordinators is ‘What the Learning Teams did next’ : accounts by Learning Team coordinators of how they took things forward after the initial year. This can be found at the end of the Learning Team findings.
GO to 2009 Learning Team findings
Contact details for 2009 Learning Teams
One new independent team has been set up for 2009, working entirely on their own, but willing to share their feedback on this site. Contact details:
GO to 2008 Learning Team findings
Contact details for 2008 Learning Teams:
GO to 2007 Learning Team findings
Contact details for 2007 Learning Teams:
GO to 2006 Learning Team findings
2006 Learning Teams: Blackburn with Darwin, East Lothian, Essex, Gloucester, Lincoln, North Yorkshire, Powys, Salford.
Go to What the Learning Teams did next
What the teachers are asked to do
By Day 2……….
Learning Team Action Research Tasks after Day 1
The ‘growth’ mindset
- Experiment with the strategies suggested for developing a ‘growth’ mindset with your class/es. Talk to the pupils about it, modifying the elements for your age group.
Involving pupils in pre-planning
- Before you do any detailed planning, introduce the elements to be covered (knowledge and skills) in a visual form and ask children what they already know about those things, what they would like to know and what they would like to be able to do. Create a visual interactive display to make future learning explicit and use it to show new learning taking place. Do this with one unit of work only to begin with, then move on to another.
Learning objectives
- In short term plans separate the learning objective from the context for each lesson and, for knowledge learning objectives, link them with a key skill. Do this in one subject only if this is new, then move to others. Make this separation explicit to pupils when introducing the learning objective (e.g. ‘This is what we are learning and this is how we are going to learn it’.)
Success criteria
- Plan process success criteria (what they will need to do in order to achieve the learning objective). Start with one subject only and plan with someone if possible. Use web resources if you are not sure.
- When introducing a learning objective for the first time, pupils must generate the success criteria for maximum effect. Use one of the following techniques, or your own ideas for this to happen:
- Give them a good finished example of the work they will be doing (writing/mathematics/art/PE video etc.) and ask what features they can see/what the thing consists of.
- Show 2 contrasting pieces of finished work as above and ask which is best and why. The analysis via talking partners will generate the success criteria, by focusing on what the poorer example could include to be as good as the better example.
- Get them to do one example first (if a repeating exercise or skill for which the finished product does not reveal the success criteria) then tell you what steps they followed or needed to include)
- Ask pupils ‘Can you……?’ If yes, ‘Prove it! What do I have to do first, next and so on?’
- Demonstrate how to create the finished product by doing everything wrong, so that the pupils have to correct you, thus creating the success criteria
- Have ‘sloppy success criteria’, with an incorrect piece, which need to be put right
- Demonstrate, possibly with a visualiser, with talk partners deciding what the elements/steps consist of as they watch you
- Have ‘talk partners/learning partners’ as a constant feature of your lessons. Decide a random choosing technique and which other strategies discussed you want to experiment with, including your own ideas. Share the rationale for the whole thing with pupils and parents, emphasising that partners change every one or two weeks. Create talk partner success criteria and use these for developing pupil awareness. Remember to avoid questions with ‘hands up’, but instead ask talk partners to discuss.
Remember to
- Build on what you are already doing
- Start slowly..one subject/one lesson at a time
- Talk to each other about what you are doing-compare notes-plan together where possible
- Jot down notes about things you’ve tried out and what happened
- Look for impact on children’s learning, the evidence for this and your teaching
- Think of yourself as an action researcher-these are starting points or ‘ways in’-modify or experiment with your own ideas as you go along.
By Day 3…….
Learning Team Action Research Tasks after Day 2
- Continue trialling the ideas from before, building on Day 2 feedback and any of your own ideas.
Effective questioning
- Experiment with changing recall questions into more worthwhile questions: the range of answers, the statement, right and wrong, starting from the end, the opposing standpoint. Aim for your responses to build confidence rather than the opposite via subtle ‘put downs’.
Discussing quality
- With open skills, before children start to work, compare two pieces to demonstrate quality against one of the success criteria of today’s lesson. Buy a flexi-cam or visualiser or use one of the suggested techniques. Make this a valuable teaching section of the lesson, and get the children involved through talking partners: (How does this bit fulfil the success criterion? How well has it been done? Now look at this person’s work. How does it compare to the first in terms of the success criterion? Why is it better? Exactly? How could the first one be improved to make it as good as the second? Etc etc.) With writing, remember to focus in on precise, small extracts rather than trying to compare huge pieces of work.
Success and improvement (best successes and where to improve)
- During lessons, stop the children and either a) use an old piece of work to project and discuss or b) choose one person’s work (at random) to project at the front to discuss what has been done so far. The aim here is to teach the children continual review strategies, rather than stopping at the end when it is too late to affect the work in progress. Do not read the work out-you will lose most of the impact of this process.
Success and improvement consists of getting the class, in talking partners, to:
a) Look for the 1 or 2 ‘best bits’ of the work. Although it is useful to begin by asking if the person’s work has included the success criteria so far, the most important discussion will arise from identifying excellence (which bit/aspect is most effective/really stands out/do you like the best?), as this builds up children’s idea of quality. After sharing children’s opinions, decide together the 2 best bits and highlight/circle/underline on the projected work.
b) Look for one part which could be improved. Again, get children to discuss and decide and then highlight/underline/circle in a different colour the bit to be improved on the projected work. ‘Improved’ usually means changing something or extending it.
c) In pairs, children do the improvement for the child and these are shared and one chosen to write on the projected work.
This process acts now as a model for children to do exactly the same thing on their own work, working together on each other’s work in turn.
Summary
Aim for lessons /series of lessons to consist of
- sharing long term and short term learning objectives
- deciding success criteria unless they have already been generated
- demonstrating quality by comparing two pieces,
- checking their work against the criteria to make sure they are included
- modelling success and improvement during lessons followed by getting them to decide on their own success and improvement needs, working sometimes in pairs, sometimes alone, making improvements there and then
- focus ends of lessons on discussions about successes identified and improvements made
Current Learning Team findings
DAY 2 FEEDBACK JUNE 2009
The following elements of formative assessment were the subject of teachers’ action research:
Establishing whether pupils had a ‘fixed’ or ‘growth’ mindset (Dweck, 2006) then finding strategies for creating a growth mindset culture; Involving pupils at all stages of planning; Developing strategies for decontextualising learning objectives and making sure they are authentic; using pupil generated success criteria to maximum effect; Establishing random talk partners.
- The fixed and growth mindsets
- Involving pupils in planning
- Learning objectives and success criteria
- Talk Partners
DAY 2 FEEDBACK JUNE 2008
The following elements of formative assessment were the subject of teachers’ action research:
Establishing whether pupils had a ‘fixed’ or ‘growth’ mindset (Dweck, 2006) then finding strategies for creating a growth mindset culture; Involving pupils at all stages of planning; Developing strategies for improving learning objectives and using pupil generated success criteria to maximum effect; Establishing random talk partners and finding best ways of developing dialogic talk.
Click to read the teachers’ 2008 Day 2 findings
- Developing a ‘growth mindset’
- Involving pupils in planning
- Learning objectives and success criteria
- Talk partners
2008 Learning Teams
DAY 3 FEEDBACK AUTUMN 2008
The following elements of formative assessment were the subject of teachers’ action research:
Improving their questioning, using a variety of strategies, such as Bloom’s Taxonomy and De Bono’s thinking hats, including giving the question with a range of possible answers; turning a recall statement into a statement for discussion; presenting pupils with a right and wrong version and asking for reasons; starting from the answer; asking questions from an opposing standpoint. Improving the talk/dialogue between children and teachers. Using old products at beginnings of lessons to generate success criteria and, using two contrasting pieces, analysing in order to develop an understanding of quality. Presenting different versions of excellence to avoid prescription. Developing mid lesson, whole class feedback of one random child’s work via a visualiser, using the success and improvement approach and adhering to one or more specific success criteria. Using this analysis to model and lead to self and cooperative peer assessment within lessons. To develop their previous work and feedback any new developments.
Click to read the 2008 Day 3 findings
- Improving questioning and talk
- Use of product comparisons for quality
- Integrated feedback
- Further developments
Click to read the 2007 Day 2 Learning Team Findings
Birmingham
Glasgow
Moray
North Tyneside
Reading
Wokingham
Click to read the 2007 Day 3 Learning Team Findings
Birmingham
Glasgow
Moray
North Tyneside
Reading
Wokingham
Click to read the 2006 Day 2 Learning Team Findings
Blackburn with Darwen
East Lothian
Essex
Gloucester
Lincoln
North Yorkshire
Powys
Salford
Click to read the 2006 Day 3 Learning Team Findings
Blackburn with Darwen
East Lothian
Essex
Gloucester
Lincoln
North Yorkshire
Powys
Salford
Click to read…
What the Learning Teams did next
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