Learning without Limits

September 2015

LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING

What does ‘learning without limits’ mean?

“The essential message of learning without limits is that all children should have the right to surprise us about what they may achieve.”• Alison Peacock 31 August 2015

Learning without Limits depends on a culture in which..

• there is on-going dialogue with children about learning and how to be a good learner •children develop confidence and belief in their capacity to learn and in the things they can do, alone and in collaboration, to enhance their power as learners

•These beliefs and principles reflect what we know about the growth mindset and learning habits•We believe in the potential of every child to succeed•We nurture and inspire all children to be independent thinkers and learners•Our approach to the concept of ‘gifted and talented’ is to provide opportunities for higher level thinking to all children•Our practice is informed by our understanding of how children learn

Talking about children and learning

Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset

• Ability, more able, highly able

• Work (something we do – possibly reluctantly – for someone else)

• Gifted and talented (implied genetic providence)

• Rewards (heavily behaviourist and weighted towards compliance)

• Results, performance data,

outcomes

• Skills, more skilled, highly skilled

• Learning (something we choose to do for ourselves)

• High achieving (possibly but not always as a result of grit and opportunity)

• Recognition (warmly affirming but weighted towards learner autonomy)

• Learning, learning, learning

Everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Albert Einstein

Every child is an individual

Recent researchResearch studies of learning and the brain, from the fields of education and neuroscience, have been brought together in the last decade to produce findings that are critically important for schools. These findings include:•The importance of understanding the plasticity of the brain•The importance of students’ mindsets for learning: •The importance of teachers’ mindsets for teaching: •The effects of ability grouping in all its different forms

Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics Education Stanford University “Ability and Mathematics: the mindset revolution that is reshaping education” November 2013

Ability grouping

Ability grouping is based on the idea that children have a fixed ability and need to be taught differently; it is a fixed mindset belief

Ability grouping

•See a child’s struggle with a particular concept as evidence that this is an important piece of learning for the child rather than a ‘lack of ability’ •Children not sorted into ability groups or given differentiated teaching on the basis of a prediction about what that group will achieve•Children with additional needs not perceived as a distinct group or singled out

Ability based thinking. The research found that…•without ability-based comparisons everyone felt free to learn and accepted as themselves, everyone felt equal and important•ability based labels deprived teachers and children of trust in the children’s learning capacity

Learning as a social activity

•Children actively encouraged to learn from and with one another•Expected and enabled to listen to, value and build on the ideas of others in their own learning•Learned to use each other’s resources to generate ideas, build confidence, support each other’s thinking, provide an audience and offer feedback•Pairs and groups changed frequently in response to activities and individual interests

Challenge…..

•Offering choices of activities at different levels provided challenge and extension for all children, without pre determining what any individual in the class might be capable of achieving and without undermining children’s belief in their own capabilities

How we already use challenge

•Teaching to the top•Growth mindset – can’t do it….yet, encourage children to persevere and continually challenge themselves•Learning habits – high expectations of children as artists, musicians, mathematicians etc.

How do we provide challenge?•During 2014-15 we focused on providing challenge in maths•This approach has needed lots of teaching about how to choose the correct level of challenge as well as lots of extra planning time. •As mathematicians the children are offered different levels of challenge that enable them to practise skills and concepts that they have been taught during a class or group session. The challenges range in difficulty from practising a skill to complex problem solving. The children choose the level of challenge that they feel is right for them.

Example of providing challenge in maths

Green Blue Black PurpleChoose 2 of thesenumbers to addtogether:

Choose 3 of thesenumbers to addtogether:

Find different waysof making 15 withthese numbers using+ & -:

Find different waysof making 15 withthese numbers using+,-,x,÷

1 35 9 1 1 62 4

1 35 96 1 7 62 4

1 35 7 10 62 4

9 35 12 1 710 62 4

Result of offering challenge• The children began to understand themselves as learners and gradually became more skilled at selecting a challenge that would enable them to learn. •We have a greater insight into how children learn, in particular the ways that girls and boys approach challenges differently•Being given choice has led to children being more creative in their choice of resources and strategies•We wouldn’t want to go back to limiting children by giving them tasks based on their ‘ability’ or teaching in groups based on ability • The children are thinking much more deeply about their learning – the how and why they have done it rather than just having done it.

Challenge…..• YR child in the autumn term 2014 “I chose to build with these bricks (Lego) because I haven’t used them before and they are very small.”• Y2 child summer 2015: “Some people don’t choose the right challenge, why would they do that? I like to challenge myself. I have never done a green sometimes I choose blue like when it is really tricky. Sometimes you can go straight to black or purple.”• “If we choose a challenge that is too easy for us (like the green) then we are not learning. We need to choose a challenge that we get some right and some wrong. Making mistakes is learning.”• “If the teachers decide they might choose the wrong challenge for you, then it might be too easy.”