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- Herausgeber: Independent Thinking Press
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Serie: Independent Thinking on series
- Sprache: Englisch
Jackie Beere's Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning: Developing independence and resilience in all teachers and learners is a practical guide full of educational wisdom to help teachers make a genuine difference to the lives of every young person in their classroom. Foreword by Ian Gilbert. All the evidence shows that the most valuable asset in any classroom is the teacher at the front. No matter what changes are made to systems or to the curriculum, one certainty remains: children will be helped or hindered in their learning, job prospects, life chances and, indeed, happiness by the teachers they come across during their time in the education system. In this all-encompassing book on teaching and learning, Independent Thinking Associate Jackie Beere draws on her many years' experience as a teaching assistant, primary teacher and secondary head teacher to re-energise every teacher's passion for their profession. She champions both children and teachers as learners, and together with expert advice on how to instil the habits of independent learning in all pupils shares great practice that delivers outstanding outcomes for all educators. Jackie encourages teachers to embrace challenge and change, and suggests ways in which they can provide a model for their pupils when it comes to developing independence and resilience. She also offers expert guidance on how teachers can build rapport with their students and cultivate with them a sense of co-ownership of their learning journey so that they work hard, value their learning and fulfil their potential. Essential reading for all teachers and school leaders who wish to make an impact on the teaching and learning in their school. Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning contains some material previously published in The Perfect Lesson (ISBN 978-178135244-1) and The (Practically) Perfect Teacher (ISBN 978-178135252-6), and is one of a number of books in the Independent Thinking On ... series from the award-winning Independent Thinking Press. Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning has been shortlisted for the Educational Book Award in the 2021 Education Resources Awards!
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Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning has the potential to be a game-changer. Grounded in reality, it shows how, through self-reflection, assessment and evaluation, educators can transform their everyday teaching and achieve better outcomes – and, more importantly, the book also recognises how pupils can help them to do just that. I shudder to think how many children might achieve more if the half a million teachers in the UK put into practice the common sense and practical advice it contains.
DAVID REESON, INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT IN SOCIAL CARE AND FORMER DIRECTOR OF KPMG
Jackie has produced a book that looks at the job of teaching from numerous angles. Written with a sense of the reality of life in classrooms, it pulls together a range of theoretical perspectives and is full of suggestions for developing the craft of teaching to improve learning for all pupils.
We all want to be better teachers, and reading Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning will help us improve our practice.
MICK WATERS, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON
Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning is a very reflective piece of work that has a mixture of practical solutions and research-informed ideas. It is a fantastic tool for every teacher and school leader, and an excellent resource for CPD with staff. A must-read.
ELIZA HOLLIS, EXECUTIVE HEAD TEACHER, THE FOREST CE FEDERATION OF SCHOOLS
With Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning, Jackie Beere offers a timeless guide which reflects on the elements of great teaching and learning through the lens of her extensive experience in the profession. Jackie Bconsiders the latest agendas and policies alongside previous versions, offering well-informed critiques of the best approaches to teaching and learning. The book is essential reading for entrants to initial teacher training, providing an up-to-date compendium of approaches, ideas, dos and don’ts that will serve them well on their journey in teaching.
LUCY WESTLEY, SENIOR LECTURER IN INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING, UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON
Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning is perfectly timed as we enter an era of accessible and plentiful research on metacognition, cognitive science and pedagogy.
As time-poor professionals, it’s helpful to have clear navigation to bridge the gap between research and practice, while not forgetting the emotional aspect of teaching. In Jackie’s own words: ‘I have sifted through the jargon and pulled out what I believe to be the very best practice that works to help our children learn.’ And this is exactly what you will find in this book. It is an incisive and comprehensive guide that draws on trustworthy research and presents it in a digestible form, supported by reasoning from classroom experience. It has lots of practical ideas to help busy teachers in any stage of their career, with each chapter being relevant for the challenges faced in modern-day teaching.
Overall, this book is a superb addition to any teaching and learning library – and is a resource that will surely stand the test of time.
GAVIN BOYLE, DIRECTOR OF LEARNING, ST CHRISTOPHER’S SCHOOL
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INDEPENDENT THINKING ON …
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Jackie Beere
DEVELOPING INDEPENDENCE AND RESILIENCE IN ALL TEACHERS AND LEARNERS
E
This book is dedicated to my wonderful mum and my amazing grandchildren, Lyla, Josh and Taran, who all represent my fortunate past and my precious hopes for the future.
When writing this book, I was always thinking about all the inspiring teachers I have known and how much our future, as a nation, depends on them.
FOREWORD BY IAN GILBERT
Since establishing Independent Thinking in 1994, we have worked hard to share with educators around the world our belief that there is always another way. The Independent Thinking On … series of books is an extension of that work, giving a space for great educators to use their words and share great practice across a number of critical and relevant areas of education.
Independent Thinking on Teaching and Learning takes us right back to where it all really started, when I was fresh-faced and fresh out of teacher training, and no one had heard of academies, Ofsted or, indeed, me. I had come into the world of education (as a teacher of French) to be able to work directly with young people on learning and motivation, and I knew that there were many different approaches that could be used in the classroom to make things better for all young people.
While we didn’t have Twitter as a vehicle for people to tell me how stupid I was to suggest that students might learn in different ways, it meant that we could have real conversations about the nature of teaching and learning and about how, although learning is learning, we don’t have to treat everyone the same in the classroom.
And who knows, maybe some of the things people talked about back then didn’t do all that they claimed to do, but they did something and that something was worthwhile. According to Durham University researcher Steve Higgins, although the claims made about ‘pseudo-scientific’ practices were wrong, ‘the practices undertaken in schools may have some education value for other reasons’. Indeed, iihe suggests that those claiming such approaches can’t work because the science behind them is flawed are themselves displaying a ‘lack of critical (or scientific) thinking as brain-gym and NLP might be reliably effective at achieving certain outcomes, just not for the reasons the proponents expound’.1
In other words, teachers aren’t stupid and who is anyone to tell them that what works doesn’t work? After all, as we have been saying for a long time now, there is always another way, especially in the world of education. Which is why long-time Independent Thinking Associate Jackie Beere is still so much in demand for sharing her insightful, compassionate and rigorous approaches to teaching and learning across the UK and further afield.
And why this book is such a perfect addition to a series for teachers which is all about thinking for yourself.
IAN GILBERT BIRMINGHAM
1 S. Higgins, A Recent History on Teaching Thinking. In R. Wegerif, L. Li and J. Kaufman (eds), The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Teaching Thinking (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2015), pp. 19–28 at p. 21.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Ian Gilbert for persuading me to write this book and renew my passion for the most important profession in the world. We have shared our journey through decades of change in education initiatives and in life – and if I ever want a new perspective, I know who to turn to. He has gathered around him an amazing group of educationalists at Independent Thinking, who never fail to have the energy and passion required to inspire. I want to thank the Independent Thinking family for giving me decades of opportunities to keep finding ‘another way’.
Everyone at Crown House has always been so supportive, patient and helpful throughout the long and challenging process of writing – I couldn’t imagine working with a nicer bunch of people.
Without my husband, John, to provide me with encouragement and feedback, this book would not have seen daylight, so a massive thank you to him and also to my daughters, who continue to inspire me. Since the arrival of my grandchildren, my belief in the teaching profession and the power it has to influence the next generation has multiplied. I want to thank all the teachers who work so hard to mould our children into great learners despite the challenges of the 21st century. We need to value and reward them for the vital work they do.iv
CONTENTS
FIRST THOUGHTS
Teachers are so important. According to Ron Berger, the best question you can ask any pupil or member of staff to find out what a school is like is: what does it take ‘to fit in, socially and academically’ around here?1
And now, at last, Ofsted agrees: ‘Inspectors must use all their evidence to evaluate what it is like to attend the school.’2
Make no mistake, it is the teachers that create the experience of school for the pupils.
The advice in this book draws on the latest educational research and many of the Ofsted descriptors of ‘outstanding teaching’ that have been produced over the years. Even if they are not the latest guidance, they are still useful references for what success looks like. However, this book is determined not to merely link practice to Ofsted’s latest sound bites, because they change with every government or secretary of state for education. Each has a different agenda and tends to dispose of previous policy for political reasons. Remember initiatives like Every Child Matters, SEAL (social and emotional aspects of learning), PLTs (personal, learning and thinking skills), character education, personal development, curriculum intent, AfL (assessment for learning), safeguarding and citizenship? All have had their time in the sun and some, as you will see in this book, are still relevant and useful.
2This book aims to be a timeless guide to great teaching and learning, aimed at new teachers and teachers who want to renew their passion. I have sifted through the jargon and pulled out what I believe to be the very best practice that works to help our children learn. You have the assurance that the advice in this book is not included simply to satisfy this administration or current inspection framework; it is included because it has been tried and tested by great teachers over decades.
The current focus on ‘evidence-led’ practice is helpful, but every child is an individual. We always need to remember that while research can claim that a technique works brilliantly, in practice we might find that it doesn’t work for certain children. Research can also be contradictory. Is red wine healthy or dangerous, and what really is the best way to learn to read and write? This book is based on my own judgement, informed by evidence, but grounded in my experience of the huge variety of human responses to learning in different contexts. Use this book to find out what works, then find out what works for you and your individual pupils and build on that to fulfil their potential.
There has never been a more important time to be a teacher. Our young people seem more fragile and insecure than ever. This insecurity can destroy any chance of happiness and blight potential achievement. Social media dominates their lives and has the capacity to create a contagious culture of comparison and, thereby, self-judgement. Everything from their looks, the music they choose to listen to and the places they go can be measured by ‘likes’ and ‘friends’. Teachers can offer an antidote to this pressure by modelling and nurturing the love and support for each other that is innate in all of us. Helping children to be resilient as they learn and giving them thinking strategies – metacognitive tools 3– will protect them from taking social media – or themselves – too seriously.
Teacher recruitment and retention is a serious problem, especially for schools in disadvantaged areas that need great teachers the most. Our school leaders are facing massive challenges – coping with budget cuts and ever-changing political diktats – but they know that their main priority is growing wonderful teachers. Teachers are all individuals with their own unique strengths and challenges: there has never been only one way to be a great teacher. I hope that teachers and leaders can use this book to build on their strengths and challenge their weaknesses so that they make the greatest impact on each and every child’s academic and personal progress.
Every child in this country will become a more resilient, productive, confident and generous citizen if they learn with teachers who care enough to show them that they have limitless potential to be happy and successful.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
VICTOR FRANKL3
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1 R. Berger, An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003), p. 35.
2 Ofsted, School Inspection Handbook. Ref: 190017 (2019), p. 39. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-eif.
3 V. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (New York: Pocket Books, 1984 [1959]), p. 86.
CHAPTER 1
UNLEASHING YOUR TEACHER POWER
Have you any idea how powerful you are? If you have any doubt about the difference you make to the lives of the children in your class, consider your own education. Can you think of the teacher who inspired you or the teacher who belittled you with a comment that still resonates in your adult life?
No child remembers a secretary of state for education or Ofsted chief inspector, but every child remembers a teacher or teaching assistant (TA) who believed in them or shared a passion that became contagious. It’s often not the stuff they taught us that we remember, but the way they connected with us. The way they really listened, cared about us and understood our world. The way they modelled their own passion and beliefs, so we could tune in and enjoy the thrill of learning.
As teachers, we may have experienced a moment of flow when a class is truly engaged and entranced by our message. It’s a delight to connect with our learners in this way – but it takes much more than a good lesson plan and an interesting topic to do it. What makes it happen is often that unspoken humility and love in our body language, facial expression and eye contact that seeks a human connection first – and educates later.6
WHAT DO THE LEARNERS SAY?
Pupils at two excellent schools made the following anecdotal comments when asked about their school experiences:
So, how can you really connect with and enthuse your pupils – even the most difficult ones – and turn them on to learning?
CONNECT AND CALIBRATE
Great teachers tune in and connect with their pupils, greeting them by name with a smile and noticing their mood. During the lesson they constantly respond to the pupils’ moods, calibrating their voice and body language, improvising and tuning in to keep the human connection when the education begins. Demonstrate the behaviours shown in the image that follows with love and a determination to open their minds to learning.
Teaching can be an exhausting and exhilarating profession – on the same day! It’s not how you feel or what happens to you that matters; it’s how you connect and calibrate that matters in the classroom. How you respond to pupils depends on how you perceive the world. This chapter will help you discover how to choose the mindset that will help you make the most of the power you have as a teacher.
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11You don’t have to be a certain type of person to be a great teacher. Check out these examples of great teachers with whom I have worked:
Teacher A: the showstopper. He dresses up in relevant costumes and uses drama to get the content across to his pupils. He loves to think up unusual ideas or challenges and is passionate about his subject.
Teacher B: the quietly spoken grafter. Dedicated to his learners, he plans their learning meticulously to meet individual needs. He uses stories and international themes to generate interest.
Teacher C: the edgy, sassy teacher. She uses classroom technology to enhance learning experiences. Her previous life as a journalist and experience with her own children has made her determined to learn how to make a difference in education for the 21st century.
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham said that good teachers won’t all have the same style, but the two things that they have in common – that matter most for pupils – are that they demonstrably like their pupils and that they present the learning in a way that makes it interesting. The emotional bond between pupils and teachers, for better or worse, has a big impact on learning.2
It’s important to really know your pupils and the context of their achievement in your school. That means knowing which groups need challenging, supporting or pushing. Always be particularly concerned about how you’re helping 12those children who show up on your school data as not making enough progress, especially with literacy and numeracy skills. These may be the ones who struggle, coast or need more challenge.
CHOOSE YOUR MINDSET
Your mindset is a choice that eventually becomes an unconscious habit. How you think about your job and your pupils comes from the inside out and will define your experience as a teacher. Decide now to suspend your disbelief and take control of your thinking. It will help you become a better teacher and, as a major side benefit, it will help every other aspect of your life. It did this for me.
In John Hattie’s seminal work Visible Learning for Teachers, he argues that the most successful teachers and school leaders believe that ‘success and failure in pupil learning is about what they, as teachers or leaders, did or did not do’ and that successful leaders nurture this way of thinking in their teachers. ‘We are’, says Hattie, ‘change agents!’3
Hattie goes on to outline eight ‘mindframes’ that teachers and leaders have which maximise impact on learning, saying that they:
Believe that their core task is to evaluate the effect of their teaching.
Believe that success and failure in student learning is about what they did or did not do.
Want to talk more about the learning than the teaching.
13 See assessment as feedback about the impact of their teaching.
Engage in dialogue with their pupils and listen to them.
Enjoy the challenge and avoid making excuses or just ‘doing their best’.
Believe that it is their role to develop positive relationships in classrooms/staffrooms.
Inform everyone about the language of learning.
You can’t change the pupil’s home background, the school’s lack of funding or Ofsted’s latest demands. The only thing you can always change is the way you see things – especially the way you think about your job: a job that changes lives.
Hattie drew some crucial conclusions about nurturing beliefs and values that impact on our thinking. Our school culture is underpinned by the principles that create mindsets which, in turn, shape the actions and attitudes of staff and pupils.
We need to believe that we are evaluators, change agents, adaptive learning experts, seekers of feedback about our impact, and be engaged in dialogue and challenge about learning. We need to see opportunity in error, that there is no failure – only feedback – and spread the message about how powerful we can be as teachers and the impact that we have on learning. It’s encouraging to realise that the most important quality needed to become a great teacher is being self-reflective about the job! This is something you can master by being determined to think purposefully in a way that works to make you the best teacher you can be.
Make no mistake: the way you think makes you the teacher you are.14
So, what are the habits and behaviours of the most successful teachers? A quick survey of teachers on Twitter produced this Wordle:
Where do all these essential behaviours of the very best teachers come from? We all hold fundamental principles and beliefs, out of which come the values we believe to be important. From these emerge our mindframes or 15mindsets (the ways in which we unconsciously think about the world and which, in turn, affect our attitudes and actions). These attitudes and actions can then become unconscious habits and personality traits that can have a positive or negative effect on our performance.
The wise words of Andy Griffith and Mark Burns sum up how teachers model brilliant learning every day for their class:
Teachers must personally demonstrate the qualities and behaviours they expect from their learners by consistently living those qualities and behaviours themselves.4
LOSE THOSE LIMITING BELIEFS AND FIXED MINDSETS
Never underestimate the power of the principles, beliefs and values that rule your life. They constantly work away in your unconscious mind, creating thoughts, inner dialogue, 16
