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Ms Mary-Alice Lloyd George Spencer Foundation School & Technology College Nottingham, United Kingdom
Context
George Spencer Foundation School and Technology College is a mixed 11-18 school of average intake in the outskirts of Nottingham. As a Phase 4 Technology College, Training School and Leading Edge School, it has established many collaborative partnerships with schools in local, national and international communities.
In 2002 OFSTED recognised the school's outstanding success and its priority - to move from good to excellence in teaching. Grades for students ' learning had reached very good levels but did not match the excellent standards for teaching. For real improvement in learning (for life), the school embraced the findings of latest research into brain-based learning.
A Curriculum Project was designed to transform and personalise learning, to develop an explicit language of learning and equip students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to improve their own learning. This focus on learning was made a whole-school experience.
Our moral purpose was to make a difference in the lives of all students, so they could live and work productively in an increasingly complex society. We wanted school to be more effective, inclusive, flexible and motivating for a wider range of students. As Derek Wise, from Cramlington, said: ' You can succeed at exams and not be good at learning ' .
The future is not what it used to be so the status quo was no longer an option. So, Learning to Learn. We wanted free range not battery hens, ' not faster caterpillars, but butterflies ' (1). It was not good enough to be excellent at teaching. We needed to focus on learning. People who are good at learning will be better able to adapt and change to new situations and will be far more effective in a rapidly changing world.
What we currently offer
We've designed our curriculum in Years 7 and 8 to incorporate weekly Learning to Learn lessons. These were broadly based on the work of Professor Guy Claxton and incorporated whole-school literacy, numeracy and citizenship opportunities. These lessons are delivered by the students ' Learning Manager, whose role it is to support the student, help them build their learning power and, where necessary, to intervene on their behalf. As learning becomes more individualised, it is envisaged that the Learning Manager will also help students plan their personal route through their learning.
The programme of study includes work on how to improve self esteem; learning about human potential; the working of the brain; learning styles; higher order thinking skills and emotional intelligence designed to improve resilience. Students also practise effective learning strategies, such as different ways of selecting and classifying information, revising, strategies for problem solving, and team building. Through this, they will learn to be more resourceful. Part of the programme includes students evaluating themselves as learners and their own learning power, and setting targets as a result. In this way, we are hoping that students will become more reflective.
A weekly learning hour
A timetabled non-contact weekly Learning Hour with Learning Managers enables the review of learning and the setting of learning targets. The whole curriculum is structured in a modular fashion, with progress scans reported to parents in each module. Data on any one student is always ' fresh ' and students and Learning Managers find it invaluable in Learning Hour discussions. We improved the scans by adding measures of learning power. During the year Challenge Days enable cross-curricular learning experiences, which focus on Learning to Learn and developing metacognition. In the spirit of continual improvement and informed professionalism, the curriculum is updated and evaluated by those staff who engage with the students in this programme.
A shared and common language of learning - is this both possible and desirable? A common language is possible, desirable and essential, as supported by the work of DEMOS and the Learning Working Group. With central and regular collation of authoritative research on learning advances, we would all have a shared language with which to talk about learning. Learning is at the heart of our professional practice, yet there is ' no agreed vocabulary in which teachers might talk with their students about learning ' (2). Developing the right language and practices for learning is fundamental to personalisation. The time is ripe as we have never ' had a more receptive audience among the teaching profession ' (3).
Learning to Learn has allowed us to bring together diverse initiatives - such as Numeracy, Literacy, Citizenship, Gifted and Talented - more productively and cohesively. When a new initiative comes along, we can ask ourselves: ' Do we do it already or do we do something that is equally as good? '
Within school we do share a common language for learning. Learning to Learn permeates all we do- there are the discrete lessons, the ethos and the use of deep learning strategies in the classroom, a Learning to Learn target as part of performance management, and finally, Learning to Learn as an integral feature of our ' excellent lesson ' criteria for lesson observation and Learning Reviews.
As the Learning Managers deliver the Learning to Learn curriculum, they have a shared language for learning, the expertise to discuss metacognition and an awareness of the students' current level of development. All staff appreciate the need for the language of learning to be explicit with one another and with students.
Making the most of new knowledge
How do we make the most of new knowledge about the science of learning in our classrooms? The 90 ' s were indeed the decade of the brain, with much research to add and build upon the work of Brunner, Vygotsky and Feuerstein et al . Research is showing that one of the greatest blocks to learning is a person's belief that if they find something difficult, it means they are lacking in intelligence. This can now be challenged. Changing attitudes and equipping students with knowledge and understanding about learning are the essence of this aspect of the curriculum.
Learning is learnable
There is growing evidence that learning is learnable. Professor Howard Gardner ' s Smart Schools Project, within Project Zero, at Harvard, claims ' Learning is a consequence of thinking and good thinking is learnable by all students ' . A Learning to Learn curriculum can develop this in a structured way. It also provides students and teachers with a language about learning to reflect upon, and discuss, learning in a more meaningful way. It is also likely that it will enhance the ownership of the learning process by the student, increasing their self esteem and their sense of responsibility.
In 2001 our Advanced Skills Teachers produced a research-based Learning to Learn programme. Due to the plethora of research findings, it was essential to appraise these with intellectual rigour, using some of the work from the Campaign for Learning, whilst also identifying what would work for our specific requirements. At the time, very little material had been produced that translated such research into practical application. Thankfully, this is changing. Time spent visiting a few schools that were involved in similar projects was invaluable.
Claxton ' s classification useful
As mentioned, we used Claxton ' s classification of the learning needs of students to build this curriculum. He describes the 3Rs that students need to develop: resilience, resourcefulness and reflectiveness. He has subsequently added another - reciprocity.
Claxton ' s contention is that, if we can help students with their underlying attitude to learning and engender a ' can do ' mentality, helping them to become more open to new learning, trying new skills and different approaches, we can help them become people who will be successful lifelong learners.
The Campaign for Learning's thinking on Learning to Learn draws on a wealth of thinking and practice from a range of disciplines. These include cognitive psychology, neuroscience, assessment for learning, thinking skills, accelerated learning, emotional intelligence, and work on learning environments. Some of these influences have emerged from academic research, others from teachers in schools simply establishing what works or what feels right.
What are the implications for schools moving from teaching to learning and the way we train our teachers? ' Real change is real hard ' (4). It is very ambitious to try to contribute to the formation of a learning society. Learning to Learn is about an ethos that involves putting the learner at the centre of their own learning. This is achieved through the provision of the best possible learning environment, in which students understand themselves as learners and feel skilled to develop as lifelong learners.
Role of lead learners
The leadership team, as lead learners, are instrumental in driving the shift from teaching to learning. They create and sustain 'the vision', providing inspiration and motivation, leading development and, supporting staff and students. Leadership must be ruthless in challenging and justifying ideas and decisions, whilst providing the space and trust for staff and students to learn by doing, accepting the nature of 'calculated risk'. Once the vision is in place, they must ensure the school has the skills, incentives, resources and action plan to realise the vision. ' If we are to create the future, we must attempt to imagine it first. It will almost certainly not turn out as we imagined it, but unless we attempt the leap we will continue to be restricted . ' (5)
This vision must be understood, shared and owned by staff, students and parents. At the Harvard Project Zero, seven key principles for a Smart School were identified as follows:
These principles provide a structure for schools with a vision of a learning community that is rich in thinking and deep understanding, which functions with emotional intelligence, and produces students ready for the world they will enter.
Abandonment may be necessary
The demands of this vision mean that it must drive all that a school does. Perhaps this will even be at the expense of other good work. Brian Caldwell ' s theory of abandonment inspired us to abandon some of the tactics of good teaching in favour of a strategy for good learning. This covered changing the school design to enable learning, using technology to support learning and developing a workforce to deliver this learning. We decided to abandon key stage structures and content, and embrace the concept of ' readiness ' for learning and a move to independence in learning.
Traditional schooling focused on the acquisition of knowledge, rather than students' attitudes towards their learning or to themselves as learners. Given that you can teach someone how to read, getting them to practise reading does not mean they will want to read of their own volition. Any new curricula needed to put attitudes and skills at their heart, in the belief that the acquisition of knowledge and understanding would be enhanced as a result of the more motivated and skilled learners.
To this end, Curriculum Leaders were given a mission - design a curriculum that could develop learning power alongside subject content (once the saying was ' all teachers are teachers of English ' - should we now be saying ' all teachers are teachers of learning power? ' ) Claxton suggests developing learning power through explaining the learning process, commentating on progress, providing opportunities for students to strengthen their learning muscles and finally, modelling, whereby the teacher uses opportunities to model learning power themselves.
Curriculum Leaders took their Key Stage 3 schemes ' out of the box ' , identifying elements that would be required to ensure ' readiness ' for KS4. This ' irreducible core ' allowed space for the development of learning attitudes, knowledge and skills, so that students would be resourceful, resilient and reflective in their learning, i.e. ready, before moving onto the next phase. This phase will be a modular, flexible mix of academic, vocational and enrichment work tailored for individual learner requirements, and set at the pace of the learner. Faculties were asked to abandon the traditional notions of class sizes and times - they are piloting the use of half or full-year blocks of students for up to three continuous hours.
Building the learner requires us to look at three key areas: the learning experience, Learning to Learn and the Learning Manager. As students and staff contribute to this experience, there are implications for both. An understanding, and effective use, of learning styles are essential to this experience. Learning style data is captured and used by our teachers, learners and parents. A consistent model of learning must be applied across the school. We used Alistair Smith's Accelerated Learning Cycle, around which all our Learning to Learn lessons are planned.
Support through scaffolding
Learning is not about the consumption of information but rather the creation of meaning, value and action on behalf of the learner. Strategies chosen for learning must therefore provide opportunities for this to occur. The learning experience must be authentic and allow for both independent and interdependent learning to take place. Support through scaffolding enhances student success, resulting in increased self-esteem. The environment plays a key role in the learning experience, as Prashnig's Learning Styles Analysis suggests. Multi-sensory, high challenge low stress environments set the scene for, and support, the learning experience. The learner also needs commentary on his or her learning. Claxton sees assessment as part of commentating on performance alongside evaluating, questioning and tracking. As Black and William identified, it is essential that learners know where they are at, what they have to do to improve and how to make the improvements. Assessments that are motivating and raise self-esteem have profound effects on learning.
Another key aspect of this experience is the ability of the teacher to model learning power through their reactions to the unexpected, making the process of learning explicit through demonstration and sharing their own learning adventures. This requires confidence, a tolerance of the uncertain and an ability to be reflective and flexible.
The shift to learning must be successful, sustainable and transferable for effective change to take place. The school would be naive to embark on a transformation of this scale without considering the creation of an appropriate environment for this culture change. The elements of good practice built over the last ten years within George Spencer are proving to be an essential cushion for the exertions of innovation. Any school attempting innovation on this scale must ensure that its foundations are comprehensive and solid. Managing the feelings of parents, staff and students, and ensuring financial and educational accountability require confidence and competence in calculated risk-taking. It is important to stress that Learning to Learn approaches cannot be effective without other firm foundations, such as effective behaviour and assessment policies.
Unleashing the power of teachers
Staff are the fundamental agents of the shift from teaching to learning in schools. ' If we unleash the power of teachers we will unleash the power of students ' (6). For innovation to be successful, each individual in the organisation needs to go through several stages: they need to understand what the change is, be persuaded that it is a good idea, be involved in a commitment to adopt it, put it to use and, in doing so, have the benefits personally confirmed. The reality of each individual going through all stages in a sufficiently rapid timescale is unlikely. A small number will grasp and run with it very easily - the focus then shifts towards a critical mass of staff that will carry along the rest.
Personalising learning requires teachers to change the way they interact with students on a day-to-day basis. For some teachers, this may mean challenging 25 years+ of 'traditional teaching methods'. As with the students, staff need the new skills, the knowledge of how to use them and the attitude (motivation) to use them. It takes time to build relationships that can support staff in the questioning of core values and feelings, and instil the confidence to enable them to learn new skills. Teachers must be keen learners themselves. They should ' be selected for talent and trained for skill ' (7). All staff must be continuously engaged in CPD. Our intranet supports them in this. It is a source of past INSET material, recommended reading and links to relevant research. Performance management reviews have challenging, progressive targets related to Learning to Learn, ICT and pupil progress.
The critical importance of quality CPD cannot be overestimated. Training must be tailored to specific identified need, differentiated for staff, and be progressive over time. Our Curriculum project is a development of what has already been happening within our school. Through INSET during the last four years, subject staff have been developing their understanding of how children learn and incorporating different learning techniques into their lessons and programmes of study. Training must be accountable and time for consolidation must be given.
All training must be in line with the school's aims, which, in our case, is ' to secure excellent individualised learning for all ' . A coordinated needs-based INSET programme is a must. Where significant change is required, phased training programmes for identified target groups are very effective. We started with Curriculum Leaders, then Heads of Year, Learning Support Assistants and all other staff. Much of our INSET is provided in-house and staff are encouraged to become deliverers as part of their own CPD.
Whole-school INSET has built up a repertoire of understanding and strategies, covering areas such as accelerated learning, VAK, multiple intelligences, co-operative group work, emotional intelligence, learning through ICT and thinking skills, with an emphasis on higher order ones. Each INSET allows time for the application of training, ensuring that training effects practice in the classroom. Any concurrent activity provides individualised progression and learning through research. Training includes debates on research and current thinking, as well as pedagogy, and is always thoroughly evaluated. New staff and trainee staff benefit from ongoing catch-up training, to ensure continuity of understanding and practice.
Peer observation and coaching
Staff frequently participate in peer observation and coaching, as part of performance review, self-evaluation exercises and whole-school development. The use of Learning Walks (as opposed to behaviour patrols) means we can identify examples of best practice, identify further training needs and collect evidence for any specific questions we may want to ask. All staff are genuinely involved in the development of faculty action plans based on the whole-school priorities. There are frequent opportunities for staff to be involved in feedback and developments through their faculty teams and steering groups. Staff share their ideas in regular topical ' Learning Bulletins ' . Creative use of support staff increases the effectiveness of all adult contact and builds on staff strengths, without the barriers traditionally imposed, and allows teaching staff to gain more time for peer planning and development.
Learning to Learn is not an end in itself. Students must transfer skills and attitudes from their Learning to Learn lessons into other subject areas. It is recognised that this is not automatic and not easy. Learning to Learn lessons have an element that focuses on transfer and the rewritten curriculum for KS3 in every subject provides explicit opportunities to practise these skills. All staff are aware of the two year PoS for Learning to Learn lessons and can access the lessons anytime. The Learning to Learn materials incorporate illustrations from subject areas and, when appropriate, require students to apply a specific skill in a subject lesson, returning with the result to the Learning to Learn lesson to evaluate the effectiveness of it for them.
As the Learning Managers are skilled in the Learning to Learn curriculum and know what the students have learnt, both students and Learning Manager are able to use this information during learning reviews to help inform their individual review of a student's learning, and discuss the way the individual is approaching his or her learning and set targets.
Capitalising on the e-Revolution
Technology plays a key role in supporting this move from teaching to learning and in linking all education to real life learning. We need to capitalise on the revolution in instant communications and interactive digital technology; join the global learning web to share best practices and use converging technologies to aid education and learning.
We need to marry the world's best new methods of learning with ICT. Technology should be used to do new things, not just to do old things a bit better. As a Phase 4 Technology College, we have excellent ICT facilities and ICT-competent staff. Latest products provide students with motivating classroom tools and subject specific packages allow creative delivery of conceptual learning. Our expanding intranet, accessible from home, allows parents, staff and learners to access brain-friendly resources 24/7. All staff deliver ICT and undergo a progressive training programme.
What does Learn to Learn mean?
' Since we cannot know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned. ' (John Holt)
' Learning to Learn is a process of discovery about learning. It involves a set of principles and skills which, if understood and used, help learners learn more effectively, and so become learners for life. At its heart is the belief that learning is learnable . ' (8)
Opportunity to personalise learning
Learning to Learn enables us to personalise learning, as it allows every student to move from a position of being unconsciously unskilled through to becoming consciously skilled by overcoming denial, practising required skills and then sharing these skills with others. In George Spencer we describe Learning to Learn as a process of learning, where strategies used promote deep and strategic understanding and the language used is the language of learning.
What evidence is there that ' Learning to Learn ' Programmes actually make a difference to student outcomes? When OFSTED visited in 2002 they concluded: ' the school has the intellectual capacity, energy and courage to innovate, taking evidence from research and carefully evaluating the outcomes of its initiatives. The strategic decision to focus on teaching and learning is having a significant effect on practice in classrooms across the whole school… ' Visitors such as David Miliband, Professor David Hopkins and Lord David Puttnam celebrated the impact that Learning to Learn was having on students, commenting on their articulate use of the language of learning.
The language that students use in learning reviews about themselves as learners is informed and thoughtful. This powerful asset has led to students contributing to staff INSET, local conferences and dissemination to other schools, with universal celebration. Year 7 students create their own ' Myself as a Learner ' websites, regularly updating them, using evidence from their learning experiences, which will develop into their own online learning profiles. Informal and formal observations in our classrooms confirm that the learning experience for our students has been greatly enriched by the introduction of the Learning to Learn programme. ' Learning to Learn is a lesson that helps you in most subjects ' said one Year 8 student, at Baseline Level 4, and new to our school.
' Because everyone is different, we know that everyone learns in a different way. If you know how learning works, you know how to make learning more fun and how to make yourself work to the beat of your abilities. ' (Year 8 student, Baseline Level 6)
' I think all Senior Schools should do Learning to Learn because it helps you know what you are learning and what you are doing . . . I think Learning to Learn has helped me very much and it will help me in the futures as well! ' (Year 8 student, Baseline Level 4)
In July 2004, the first year group to have had this curriculum received their SATs results. After four years of stable (plateau) figures, all three subjects raised achievement across the board, with Level 5+ figures increasing by over 5% towards 90%. According to the Campaign for Learning, results can go up by 1/4 to 1/2 at GCSE- we will have to wait and see!
Footnotes
The Learning Revolution, G. Dryden.
About Learning. Report of the Learning Working Group, DEMOS.
The Learning Game, M. Barber.
www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk
Ms Mary-Alice Lloyd is Director of Teaching and Learning at George Spencer Foundation School and Technology College, in Nottingham, in the United Kingdom. She co-wrote the Learning to Learn curriculum that is currently in place at the school and has played a key role in the establishment of a Learning to Learn ethos across the school.
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