Challenging Learning in the 21st Century

James Nottingham www.p4c.comwww.jamesnottingham.co.uk

The Learning Challenge – in the pit

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Praise can make pupils scared of challenge

Our praise often teaches pupils that

easy success means they are intelligent and, by implication, that errors and effort mean they are not.

Prof Carol Dweck, Mindset

“Pupils show greater motivation, are better behaved and are more likely to be independent and strategic thinkers when teachers are not obsessed by grades.”

Focusing on learning

“If there is one new thing we need in our school system right now, it is a well-developed focus on learning.”

Chris Watkins, Institute of Education, Aug 2010From an analysis of 100 international studies on how children learn

Well-meaning but potentially damaging praise

Clever girl!

Gifted musician

Brilliant mathematician

Bright boy

Top of the class!

By far the best

Rewards, rewards, rewards

10/10

Mueller and Dweck, 1998

In six studies, 7th grade students were given a series of nonverbal IQ tests.

The effects of different types of praise

Intelligence praise

“Wow, that’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.”

Process praise

“Wow, that’s a really good score. You must have tried really hard.”

Control-group praise

“Wow, that’s a really good score.”

Mueller and Dweck, 1998

Number of problems solved on a 3rd test

Boys get 8 times more criticism than girls

The effects of praise

Swimming

“You do your best swimming when you concentrate and try your best to do what Chris is asking you to do”

Ballet

“What a brilliant ballerina you are!”

A new Dawn (Fraser) ?

Comparing test scores

92

85

73

64

43

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86

78

70

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85

84

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Number of students who lied about their score

John Hattie’s Visible Learning (2009)

Influence Effect Size Domain (1) Self-report grades 1.44 Student (2) Piagetian programs 1.28 Student (3) Formative evaluation 0.90 Teaching (4) Micro teaching 0.88 Teacher (5) Acceleration 0.88 School (6) Classroom behavioural 0.80 School (7) Interventions for SEN 0.77 Teaching (8) Teacher clarity 0.75 Teacher (9) Reciprocal teaching 0.74 Teaching (10) Feedback 0.73 Teaching (11) Staff-student relationships 0.72 Staff (12) Spaced vs. mass practice 0.71 Teaching

Feedback is a major influence on learning

Pioneers of Educational Psychology

Piaget (1896 – 1980) Vygotsky (1896 – 1934)

Piaget (1896 – 1980)

Biological

Development leads to learning

Object world

Knowledge is constructed

What a child is

Vygotsky (1896 – 1934)

Cultural

Learning leads to development

Social world

Knowledge is co-constructed

What a child will be

How much challenge?

We need more stories and less facts, for narrative develops an understanding of sequence; we need more dialogue and less transmission of knowledge, for it is through dialogue that we learn most; and we need more challenge and less instruction, since it is from challenge that one grows in body, mind and spirit.

Matthew Lipman, 1991

The Learning Challenge

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Pick a concept, any concept

Pets Fairness

Evidence Tourism

Proof Truth

Language History

Names Number

Friends Thinking

Belonging Knowledge222

What is challenge?

55 99

What are your ground rules for class discussions?

Lynx and Lamb are the twin daughters of April Gaede,

an activist and writer for the white nationalist

organization National Vanguard. The twins' grandfather

wears a swastika belt buckle and uses the Nazi symbol

on his truck

The twins believe Adolf Hitler was a great man with

good ideas, such as incentives to improve the genetic

quality of the German people, and marriage loans to

help qualified German families

In 2003, they were featured in a Louis Theroux BBC

documentary, entitled Louis and the Nazis, on anti-

semitism and white supremacy in the United States

PRUSSIAN BLUE

What if these two were in your class?

Stealing is wrong

Robin Hood was a good

man

Cognitive Conflict is key to engagement

I should report

bullying

I should hit back if I am

bullied

Cognitive Conflict is key to engagement

Video of challenge with 3 year olds, shown last year

Challenge with Year 5 pupils, available online

Filmed by Channel 4 in 1999. Video at: www.p4c.com/video-clips

An Ethos for Learning

Not all of our questions answered …

… but all of our answers questioned

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ANALYSE

ANTICIPATE

APPLY

CAUSAL-LINK

CHOOSE

CLASSIFY

COMPARE

CONNECT

CONTRAST

DECIDE

DEFINE

DESCRIBE

DETERMINE

DISCUSS

ELABORATE

ESTIMATE

EVALUATE

EXEMPLIFY

EXPLORE

GENERALISE

GIVE EXAMPLES

GIVE REASONS

GROUP

HYPOTHESISE

IDENTIFY

INFER

INTERPRET

ORGANISE

PARAPHRASE

PREDICT

QUESTION

RANK

REPRESENT

RESPOND

SEQUENCE

SIMPLIFY

SHOW HOW

SOLVE

SORT

SUMMARISE

SUPPORT

TEST

VERIFY

VISUALISE

A selection of thinking skills

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Recent Demo Lesson Concepts

Is it possible to have no weather? (Yr 7)

Are habits the same as addictions? (Yr 8)

What’s the difference between tragedy and romance? (Yr 9)

What is culture? (Yr 10)

Is zero the same as nothing? (Yr 11)

Eureka moments come from challenge

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Eureka!

Kriticos = able to make judgments

Critical Thinking

Comes from the Greek, Kriticos

Meaning: able to make judgments

Source: www.etymonline.com

www.jamesnottingham.co.uk

james@p4c.com

www.challenginglearning.com

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