Sutton
Marvellous mistakes: normalising error
All teachers regularly made deliberate mistakes on the board for the class to discuss. There is now less competitive behaviour as they relax about making mistakes.
Some teachers found it easier to celebrate mistakes in maths, where they were now more confident. Spotting mistakes has made it fun and they now have a positive attitude and language about making mistakes.
In writing children are less likely to take ownership for their mistakes so there still seems to be some stigma about spelling mistakes etc.
The ABC feedback strategy is working well to get children to discuss mistakes and pick them apart:
A – agree (Does anyone agree with that?)
B – build on (Can you say more about that?)
C – challenge (So what could they have done?)
This has removed anxiety as all children can be involved.
All teachers said children were less competitive as a result of celebrating mistakes and more children are putting their hands up to reveal misunderstandings.
Task/learning related praise
Three teachers said they praise everything now and it is more genuine because it is specific.
All teachers praise children for making a contribution which has encouraged more children to put their hands up.
All teachers gave praise for specific academic achievement which has led to children being more likely to remember the praise.
Comparative reward systems
All teachers found it easy to implement getting rid of comparative rewards so they were unaffected by the change.
Removing Golden time and rewards had been difficult for specific children but overall children don’t care about them.
One teacher still has 10 minutes of game playing at the end of the week.
Parents are the only ones complaining about the lack of rewards. Children decided they needed to teach their parents why they were not fair.
It had been difficult to get all the staff on board. There were differences in the way teachers were handing them out.
The teachers who had removed them said there was less stress, they had an easier work load and pressure was removed from them.
I introduced the idea of not having comparative rewards and we had a class vote. Only 6 students wanted to keep the house points, 4 of whom were house captains and didn’t want to give up their job and felt they would not be contributing to the house ‘effort’. About 8 children actively wanted to get rid of them and were open about feeling low if they didn’t get as many points as someone else in their room. The others didn’t care either way – they didn’t see the value of collecting points as they didn’t get anything for them: ‘It’s just the house flags move for the week, everyone is happy for a bit, then we go back to normal. The younger kids need it more but we don’t!’
Arjun Davé, St. Dunstan’s C of E Primary School
Mixed ability
All teachers were changing talk partners regularly. Children loved sitting with different people. The classroom is calmer, children are making more friends, sharing ideas and making progress in their learning.