Primary
The children are more active learners and involved in the learning process. The use of weekly learning partners has been incredibly successful. Children get the opportunity to sit with new people, develop new friendships and learn from others and their expertise. Silent modelling is a super tool and really requires the children to think – co-constructing the success criteria, taking ownership and more involved.
The culture of my classroom has changed – children have much higher self-efficacy and independence as a result. Peer relationships have improved drastically as a result of talk partners and parents see these results. Children embed knowledge better as a result of constructing success criteria and they know what they have to do to improve – not just what I tell them. They talk and find this out themselves. They have much richer and deeper language surrounding learning and can engage in discussions better.
This course has made me think! It has given me the opportunity to think about the whole teaching process. It has enabled me to see things more clearly from the children’s point of view. It has helped me to create a strong learning culture within the class. It has also given me a lot of tools to help me achieve this.
I am more confident in addressing challenging learning – exploring mistakes and misconceptions with the children. Attainment has definitely improved overall. There has been a strong impact on EAL/low level SEND/lower EXS (working at the expected standard) attainers. Children are working harder. I am feeling more confident in challenging the practice of colleagues.
The use of mixed ability teaching has been successful, particularly for lower achievers. I will never have a group of lower achievers on the same table again. Weekly talk partner makes discussions between children so much more purposeful than before. Celebrating and praising fabulous mistakes has helped children be confident and make progress.
This has made me stop and think more about who is benefiting and why. Really thinking about how best to assess learning, do retrieval and my style of delivery. It has been fascinating to hear all the research pulled together in a one stop shop and have high quality conversations about practice with other professionals. This has enabled analysis and intent surrounding key issues of which there are so many. The meeting of minds and thoughts and practices of others is key.
I am confident that everything I do is to the benefit of the learner. Children are more resilient and self-assured. On the spot discussions move learning on and also make children a partner in their learning. Learning partners have made a huge difference to the class, especially in class but also out of class – fewer playground disputes, no ‘tight’ friendship groups. Shared learning intentions made children once again partners in their learning and made them focused.
I’ve been able to experiment with and discover new opportunities to develop positive ways in which children learn more in my class that are manageable and make me feel more than ever that I am making a real impact in the job I do.
Since starting this training I have seen a huge impact on the children’s skills and learning. I feel that they are more confident within themselves towards their own learning. This has been because of extrinsic rewards being taken away. Each child is now more resilient to making mistakes and is only in competition with themselves rather than with the rest of their peers.
Children no longer operate for rewards – they work for themselves and purely for the benefit of their own learning. This ensures that children are focused on their knowledge and gaining more to support that knowledge to grow. Rather than rewards, children praise each other, learning from the praise that is provided from the teacher. This has enabled motivation for individuals who have thrived and fully appreciated praise from their peers.
They have really embraced learning partners and I feel this has been so beneficial for the needs of all the children: EAL new to the country, looked after children and Social and Emotional Mental Health.
Secondary (Netherlands)
I have been much more aware of the impact of my teaching. Or maybe even the lack of impact of my teaching. The whole process has given me a big sense of achievement and confidence. My students are more enthusiastic about my classes. I think that the fact that I enjoy teaching this way also affects their way of looking at me and my subject.
I am making more time to consider how I enter a project. Each lesson is divided up and I make more time to really ensure that students are on track. I have changed the layout of my classroom to consider a more active stance in lessons. Colleagues are asking questions and Kim and I are lucky enough to have time to work with the upper school on strategies to use with exam classes which our fellow colleagues are really enjoying. Students are positive, I’m positive – what more can I ask for?! Fellow staff and management are 100% on board so rolling it out gives me energy. Learning from all the other schools has really energised me.
Learning about cognitive load has led me to change the way I teach and give feedback. Chunking and checking and letting students think about what they take home from my feedback has helped them to focus on one or two things instead of all the things I asked for before. Talk partners has helped in social skills. Having to try things helped me to really do it and not just think of doing it after reading a book.
I’m more aware of what I’m doing, trying new forms of teaching, seeing things work in the lessons, seeing the kids ‘grow’. It was nice to exchange ideas on good practice with colleagues. IT gives me a clear vision of where I want to go with formative assessment. I hope to encourage other colleagues to try some forms of formative assessment.