Schools of Our Dreams.....

Having participated in the weekly #Ukedchat last night I thought it would be interesting to see if there were enough variety in the ideas to create a forward looking school. I certainly felt uplifted by the conversation and one thing remains very clear, the network which is in place on twitter is of the highest calibre and we certainly feel privileged to be part of it.

The title of the conversation was to design the school of your dreams. The first interesting thing to come out of this was that all of the ideas were very student centred and involved dedication, innovation and above all else a whole lot of hard work. There wasn't one mention of a return to the traditions of the 20th century, nor was there one mention of a need to improve discipline in our schools, in fact behaviour in the negative sense didn't even enter the conversation. Just to make that clear, the two ideas being put forward by the GOVErnment at the moment didn't even enter the thoughts of those who work and love education!!

In terms of building design, there were strong feelings towards modern open plan learning environments and a move away from individual classrooms. Furniture to be fit for learning and not because it agrees with the bursars purse. This would certainly give a greater freedom of movement and create a much more dynamic environment. If this is then tied into the calls for smaller class sizes at certain times but also much larger groupings at others, this type of building design would make this more possible. I reiterate at this stage that those calling for returns to "traditional" behaviours (and by traditional we really mean autocratic do as I say behaviour) would struggle to imagine how this is possible. Yet for those in education the only thoughts and emotions are excitement and how this would create greater opportunities for learning.

As is often the case, independence towards learning figured highly on the agenda but this time there was the start of some real exploration towards achieving this. A great variety of curriculum with less emphasis on working towards exams would be the model used giving teachers and learners great autonomy towards their education. There was a strong feeling that technology could play a big part to achieving this. iPads and tablets would allow for information to be accessed as and when needed rather than a prescriptive lesson in a computer room. Learning has to model the way we work and live and our young people are used to having access to email, google and social networks. The working hours would also be more flexible to fit it with the learning needs of the young people in the hope that this would encourage learning as a part of life and not just something which they have to do at school. 

Other aspects of this school would be centred around outdoor learning, quality written feedback to aid progress, target grades and levels would be a thing of the past and the community would be much more involved in the school itself. One idea being that the learning resources and library would be the ones used by those who live in the area. 


The exciting thing for me is that this practice is going on in our schools all around the country, however it is vital that the networks which came together to generate these ideas go from being web chatter into something which actually makes a difference. It needs to be the start of a movement across all schools and one which must not be drowned by political education policy which is being based on one man's thoughts. A man who only has his own time at school to base them on. The voices of many experts must be able to be heard in order for this dream school to become the norm, because lets be honest, we all know that given truly greater freedom, it should be very possible.

A Motivational Climate.......Part Three

The third addition to our Motivational Climate Setting series looks at the Reward Systems which are used in your classroom and asks you to questions whether they serve the purpose they are intended for. 


A lot of what follows expands on an earlier post we wrote entitled Punished by Rewards - please read this if you haven't done already. Having written about the use of rewards in schools and asked the questions about why we have to bribe our young people into conforming to learn, we thought we should at least begin to look at alternative ways of setting a climate where the young people learn because they want to, because they have their own reasons and not ones which we have forced onto them.

Before we move on to looking at solutions, I just want to give another example of the mindset which widely exists in educational circles and to throw out some further questions. I was in a conversation the other day surrounding Year 10 and 11 students and how they always become less and less interested in commendations for their work. The fact that this came up excited me as it allows for all sorts of exploratory questions as to why. Instead, however, the questions being asked were ......... how can we get them to like commendations? ..... there must be a way we can get them to like receiving commendations...... can we get a competition going? ......... should we have a prize draw? ...... is it because they are not cool? etc. Have we got so entrenched into this mindset that we now have to incentivise the incentives!!!! The bottom line is that receiving commendations through Years 7, 8 and 9 hasn't served any purpose to these young people and as a result they do not value them. We need to take the hint.


Once again the findings on the ground are supported by what the research is telling us; incentives generally only work when the task is repetitive and mundane as it can act as a light at the end of a dark tunnel. It has also found that even with incentives, through time, the thought of not doing the mundane task becomes more appealing then any incentive on offer and a person may opt to not do the task. Learning should never be repetitive or mundane and therefore it should not require incentives in order to make it happen.


To move forward on this do we simply remove the brown envelopes containing any strategy which acts as a bribe from our schools and watch what happens? Or do we need to consider further what is left once such systems are removed? Does it create a void which will do further damage? Will our young people feel undervalued? Will they switch off further? Will behaviour get worse?


Maybe ask yourself these questions and think about your classroom or school depending on your current position of influence and can you start to trial examples and comment on any of the above? Have you already got examples to put forward? Simply is there a better way?

A Motivational Climate.......Part II

To continue on the thread about setting a motivational climate from the start I thought I would concentrate on our second important factor which is Challenge.

At the start of any year it is important that the young people in your classes know they are going to be challenged over the next year. Educational research from Prof. John Hattie on what influences student learning includes challenge as one of the 3 most important influences.

Prof Philip Adey, 2008, states "what the research shows consistently is that if you face children with intellectual challenges and then help them talk through the problems towards a solution, then you almost literally stretch their minds" 

If we tie this into what we know about motivation then an increase in cleverness will kick start their internal drive and get them seeking to know more. As educators we can not therefore starve our young people of opportunities to be challenged. 

There are many ideas out there about how to create challenge within your teaching and I would encourage you to find which ones work best in your setting. For now though, we wanted to put something a little different forward to fit into our focus on the start of the year.

The issuing of Target Grades - Include Solutions has written before about how target grades could possibly constrict a young persons internal drive and restrict their intrinsic motivation and to be rid of them would create an interesting study. However, in most schools this is not going to be possible, not yet anyway, unless you are a headteacher reading this, so we have looked into making this more fluid for our young people. Instead of just giving the target grade to them which has probably been given to you by a data manager ask for the Chance Table from which it has been generated and use that to allow the young person, through a 1:1 discussion, to be part of choosing their target for that Year. If you look at these for a given student, it will show you their percentage chance of getting each grade compared to similar students from similar backgrounds, KS2 results, Gender etc. Traditionally what schools do is take the one with the largest percentage and make that their target grade. So if under the B Grade column lies a percentage of 38% and that is the highest, then that will be their target. However, under the A and A* Grades may be percentages of 25% and 15% respectively. This tells us that 40% of students actually go on to achieve greater then a B. Should we not be allowing our students to be aspirational and at the very least believe that anything is possible.

This of course is supported by further research studies which have found that with time, and a lot of it a person can master almost any task and that includes subjects taught at our schools. Encourage this, find examples of success and share them with your young people as this will help with their belief.

It is this conversation which will help set the early climate, all you need to do is make sure you maintain it from one lesson to the next through your teaching.

A Motivational Climate.....

Motivation flourishes when the climate of the classroom is right and it is the teacher who controls the settings. Getting it right can take time and a lot of thought but by taking a few important steps can begin to offer an environment which allows students to grow. Over the next week we will be sharing with you some ideas which you can use as the new term begins

The first is the Ice Breaker which is a tactic aimed at getting to know your classes and to allow them to get to know just a little bit about you. It works in the very same way that any ice breaker works, in that they share something with you about them and you do the same back. However the success of this comes from what you get them to share with you and vice versa.

I use the homework of the first lesson to set them the task of preparing something which shows me who they are. It is vital that you get them to search their abilities/interests/ambitions as this can then be used throughout the year in your general conversations with them. You are much more likely to be able to challenge and push them if you know who they are. The information they share with you is priceless and must be treated sensitively but used in the correct way it can help set a positive tone from the beginning.


If you are going to get your students to open up, you have to be prepared to do the same and this is where what you share with them comes into play. For this to have any lasting impact you should consider the following:

• It shows you in a different light
• Has a element of challenge
• Something exciting
• Interesting to them

One teacher I know uses the video of her sky diving to break the ice, another shows clips from their past musical career. I have lined up for this September a video of me crossing a wire bridge 200m off the ground with an expression which clearly shows my anxiety. 

We like this strategy as it begins to tap into the greater reasons for learning which we feel should be part of the everyday learning conversations which take place in schools. It is also a very light hearted way to start the year and helps to get relationships growing within your classroom. It is very different to the no smiles approach we are told at University and with some classes it may not be appropriate, but I am sure there is a place and a class where you can try it out. 

An Intrinsic Update - Growth or Fixed

A lot of what Include Solutions does on a daily basis is talk to professionals about their experiences of developing an ethos which motivates young people intrinsically rather than extrinsically. This however is a very broad area to try and develop within education so we constantly ask ourselves one very simple question; What would an intrinsically motivated school look like?





Although a simple question it can not bring simple answers and this is why talking to fellow professionals is vital in this process. Today Dr Barry Hymer led a session on exploring the contribution of mindsets towards intrinsic learning motivation and gift creation in the classroom. I am sure that some people in the audience looked at the title with a slight gasp, however with what followed any sceptical attitudes were replaced by ones much more open to this idea of radical reform.

Punished by Rewards

As we offer our students more and more rewards in school, we ask the very simple question......Why?

This doesn't need to be a very long blog entry, its sole purpose is just to get people questioning why schools are so keen to offer so many rewards in school. Rewards for behaving in an appropriate way in class, rewards for bringing the right equipment, rewards for getting the highest grade in a test. One school we have seen bases its whole rewards policy on a points system to control student behaviour by linking it to whether or not students should go to the end of year ball. How can we expect our students to be intrinsically motivated if we are surrounding them with extrinsic rewards. There is too much research out there which shows how extrinsic rewards stifle intrinsic motivation (see earlier blog post) yet we continue to 'bribe' our students into learning.

Student Target Grades - Why?

Since our last blog post focussing on Intrinsic Motivation, we have been talking to schools about how we can make our school systems more supportive to increasing this type of motivation. We will, through time, address many of the outcomes, however the one which came up time and again and the one which I want to throw out there today is all to do with Target Grades.

Motivation - An Intrinsic Approach

The business model of the 20th Century was one based on carrots and sticks; If you do this you will get this bonus and if you don’t then you will get nothing, apart from more work to do by an even tighter deadline! The strange thing is this worked and it was fairly successful as a motivator. As with time however, things have moved on and the carrot and stick motivator is being proved time and time again to be ineffective as a method of motivation and so some of the largest business’ in the world are turning their attentions to a new model.

Teachers' Dress Code

More of a discussion starter as opposed to a blog post...

Does the way a teacher dresses affect behaviour?

Does a smart teacher command more respect? Is a casually dressed teacher easier to get on with? Should you dress smarter the higher up the ladder you are? What about a D&T teacher - is it practical to dress smartly?

Let us know what you think...

TR

Behaviour in our Schools.....How much does it concern you?

I happened to be looking on the Guardian Website (nothing political/election based I can assure you) and I came across a section titled Classroom Violence, yes there is a designated section on the website of one of our national newspapers titled Classroom Violence. Are things really that bad that this area of education has its own section containing 283 related articles detailing stories about violence in our schools. This also comes at a time when Ed Balls reaffirms his message that teachers should be allowed to use reasonable force to restrain students. The question I ask to all prospective/current trainee teachers is how much do these media stories increase the concern you have regarding behaviour management ahead of any teaching practice you undertake? Does it begin to become more of a concern then actually delivering good content to your students?

Outdoor Education - Its Role in Behaviour Management

From the very start of my teaching career I made the decision to get involved in activities outside of the classroom. I was lucky that my first Educational Visit came early on, in fact is was at the end of my teacher training year when I got invited to go on the Watersports Visit to the South of France. I also volunteered to take charge of the Year 7 Football team from the September of my NQT Year (this was purely because I love Football). At the time, I was totally unaware of how powerful these activities were going to be with regards to the Behaviour Management in my classroom. Since that first trip to France, I have participated in and lead many other Educational Visits, because of the way that it inspires, motivates and challenges the young people. The Hub provided by Include Solutions has a designated area which will look at how you can use your experiences outside of the classroom to build relationships with your students and in turn improve the behaviour management within your classroom. You will be provided with practical advice and strategies to assist you on your journey so that you get the most out of your role as a Teacher. BR

Not Smiling Until Christmas Part II......

To continue on from the last thread posted by Include Solutions, we thought we would look at the university advice of not smiling until Christmas a bit more....


It is very important to have a learning environment which is well disciplined, after all this will aid the learning process. So what is well disciplined? Some would argue that it is an environment where by the students do as they say, they talk when you want them to talk, they work when you want them to work and they smile/laugh when you give them permission to do so and if and when they fail to follow any of the 'rules' they are given, they receive a sanction. That way you have total control and your students will then learn everything you want them to learn....won't they?  


What then is another argument for a well disciplined classroom......


Well others would argue (and at Include Solutions we would fully support this argument) that a well disciplined classroom is one in which the 'Routines for Learning' form the basis for behaviour, capped off by your obvious enthusiasm and high expectations for what your students can and will achieve. Here are two simple classroom management suggestions to get you thinking and working towards a more holistic approach....think about how it maintains your standards at a high level whilst at the same time it demonstrates to your students that you care.....

• Insist your class is lined up in silence before entering the classroom, pull them up on it if they are too noisy, but then greet them with a personal good morning or good afternoon as they walk through your door, ask them how they are doing, whether they had a good weekend and whether their football team won etc.
• Use a starter/bell work to set the tone for the learning environment, again you can pull up any students who are not working, and you must do this, but more importantly you must go around and speak to every student in your classroom and find something to praise them for. 

The question that we ask you to reflect on is where does the approach of not smiling until Christmas fall??

Not smiling until Christmas....

Why do universities insist on their ITT Students not smiling until Christmas...


It was something I was told during my own training; that I should not smile until Christmas if I wanted the behaviour management within my classroom to be good. From speaking to ITT students recently, it would appear that the same advice is still being given today. What we need to think about is how does the stern, non personal approach help with building relationships, inspiring and motivating young people, 3 of the most important ideas any new teacher should focus on. The message that needs to be going out must deal with behaviour management strategies, of course it must, but it must be very much working alongside how to build relationships with young people and the role that effective learning and teaching strategies play in all of this. Over the next weeks, Include Solutions will begin to explore this idea. BR.

Welcome to Include Solutions Ltd

Include Solutions Ltd is the Behaviour Management Hub... keep coming back for updates and information about where this is all leading... TR