Barry Smith - Learning about Learning

We are off to Islay for a few days R&R tomorrow afternoon.  It’s the first time I’ve headed off right at the final whistle of a term, I usually take a couple of days to ‘gather myself’ before we go, so it’ll be a new experience. 

We’re staying at the Youth Hostel which should be fun.

I think my excellent teetotal effort may come a cropper in the whisky distilleries….still, can get back on the wagon during term-time again!

Consequently I won’t be blogging for ten days or so.

Have a great Easter. 

We got wind of an excellent opportunity today for all schools and teachers in East Lothian.  It was from Learning and Teaching Scotland on the Scottish Continuing International Professional Development Programme (SCIPD).  It is for international exchange and visits for teachers.

More information here. 

Having just returned from another excellent 3 taught days on the SQH I have, increasingly, been considering the apparent dichotomy between what schools and school leaders are being asked to deliver and the reality of the world in which we live. 

We are currently in the midst of very exciting times with A Curriculum for Excellence and the changes it will bring to Scottish Education.  The focus seems to be shifting, quite rightly in my opinion, away from an emphasis on summative outcomes and more towards a process, connectedness, deep, ‘rich’ and skills driven view of education and learning.

Furthermore, as professionals, teachers are being asked to embody the essence of lifelong learning, constantly improving and innovating with practice, engaging in debate and generating,  evaluating and reflecting upon data in relation to ’what works’ and why.

At the same time, the message to school leaders it seems to me is that any changes made have to be lasting, long term and embedded within the curriculum.  I am thinking that this creates a tension.  If we live in a world that is constantly changing, as it seems clear that we do, then how do we define long term and lasting change?  In fact, the very question of what constitues ‘long term’ and ‘lasting’ I believe is something which we need to explore.  Certainly in terms of the way now organise our working lives, long term is no longer thought of in decades.  People no longer expect to be in the same job for 10, 20 or 30 years. 

So how does this translate to education?  I believe that there is still a view in some quarters of education that, in fact, people ’should’ remain in the same place for 5, 10, 15 years or more to ensure that they can make ‘a real difference’, and somehow not to do so shows either a lack of commitment or flightiness in attitude.   However, if we are preparing our young people for a world in which change is taken as the norm, both in terms of the development of technology, the way in which we work and the way in which we live, how can the teaching profession regard itself as in any way separate or different?  It seems to me that we will have to come to terms with a higher turnover of staff in the future as people make choices about where they live and work and how they organise their time and make their path through life.

Therefore, there may be more instances of people taking a job on for 2, 3 or 4 years before taking the next step in their career path.  This then throws up the question of how effective teachers are with their time in each post.  I have no doubt that a motivated, talented and committed teacher can make a difference to a school in one year, never mind 5 years. The big question for schools is how, if that is the only time you get from a member of staff(we are already seeing this with probationers), can we ensure that the ‘good bits’ are left behind as a legacy and employed by the new staff member who comes in. This is the long term and lasting change part.

On of the possible solutions must surely be a much more open view of classrooms, in order to share good practice.  Peer observation needs to be the norm, not the exception for one day a year or some other tokenistic gesture by school leaders to tick the HGIOS/HMIe box.  For the new generation of teachers coming through peer observation should hopefully be second nature.  We must ensure that we keep observation, team teaching and sharing good practice with high quality ‘in-house’ CPD at the forefront of our priorities in developing staff. To return to the days of closing your door and ‘getting on with it’ would be a disaster at this crucial time.

We had an interesting session on Thursday afternoon from Margaret Alcorn, CPD co-ordinator for Scotland.  While I did not agree with all she espoused in relation to the future direction of school leadership and CPD, she did make an interesting point about Chartered teachers.  She talked about our expert Chartered teachers as being the drivers of school based CPD, sharing good practice and developing others in the school community.  I believe that this is a particularly important point.  The potential of those involved in the Chartered Teacher programme to develop others is tremendous.

A final note, I heard an interesting statistic this week.  Over the next ten years, the Scottish executive will have to employ on average one head teacher per working day to replace those who will reach retirement age during that time, some 2000 new headteachers.  They will be times of perpetual change indeed.  It remains to be seen if and how we define and deliver lasting change.

I’ve just had a weekend off, completely, for the first time in a while.  Not even a cursory glance at the computer on Saturday and Sunday.  It was definitely needed.

Tonight I’ve just finished three out of four pre-course tasks for my SQH Unit 4 taught days at Peebles Hydro this week, Wednesday to Friday.  All that remains is my final formal presentation, on my learning to date with my school improvement project,  and my preparation for the programme review group meeting on Wednesday evening that I’ve agreed to be a part of.

I must admit this term has been an absolute marathon with everything that the SQH brings on top of the normal ‘everyday’ workload.  The great thing is that I have come through intact, just about!

I also have my swimathon on Sunday night, swimming 2.5km for Marie Curie Cancer research.  My training has faltered badly recently under the pressure of everything else, so I  think I might need the maximum 2 hours allowed to finish it!

Sleep required.

I found out about VIG only today in discussion with a colleague and we have decided to look at look at possibly using it with the ALPs programme.  What is the VIG you ask?

Video Interaction Guidance “is a technique which aims to improve communications and relationships for participants.  Participants are involved in discussing very short recordings of their interactions of their successful interactions with a Video Interaction Guider.”   The important word for me in this blurb is “successful”, focussing on where things have gone right and re-inforcing and exploring that strategy/choice/behaviour.

We already use digital video with the group, but this is much more focussed and will be delivered by a trained Video Interaction Guider.   This person will initially be another professional not directly involved with the ALPs programme, but it may be something we look to having as an integral part of the programme in future.

We finally managed to get one of the students, Conor, up and running with his learning log this morning.  The others will appear over the course of the next week on the ALPs site.  The difficulty has been getting access to the site while in school with the student present!

If you get a chance pop on to his log and leave a comment, it’ll mean a great deal I’m sure.  We have been encouraged by how engaged those on the programme are at the prospect of writing something that others will read and possibly comment upon - and that’s just the staff!

I had my first telephone coaching session today.  It was made available to the wider teaching population after depute heads and heads had the opportunity to take part, as far as I understand it.  I think it is going to be some of the best money I’ve never spent!  Taking the time to really explore important issues in relation to effectiveness at work and future possibilities I’m sure will be an invaluable piece of personal development.  Reflecting with immediate feedback, great stuff! 

I have six sessions over the next few weeks and we’ve set out a few markers on what I’m hoping to gain from the session.  The first is a ‘nuts and bolts’, operational target, improving my efficiency in dealing with the large amounts of information you are faced (bombarded?) with as a Pupil Support teacher.  To that end I’m meeting with Rob Jones, an information officer at ELC, this week. I’ll no doubt be blogging more about the sessions as the weeks go by.

I also had a great lesson with my S4 PSE class today.  We were discussing what a Curriculum for Excellence is and what it may mean for future generations of school children.  I asked the question, “What would happen if we abolished exams?” and sought feedback from the class.  Exams are obviously close to their hearts at this time so we had an interesting discussion.  Here is a selection of their responses.

Plus Points of abolishing external exams

Less stress for students

More prepared for working life (comment based on a change in curriculum structure)

Less time spent revising and ‘regurgitating’

Your teacher could assess you (This was seen as both positive and negative!)

Minus points

No evidence of qualifications or skills

Harder for employers, colleges and universities to select the ‘right’ people

Students might not know what they are good at

There is no ‘proof’ of what you’re good at for others

We also tried to think of alternatives and I was surprised by how difficult the students found it to perceive of a different way of doing things.  I suppose in some respects it says a lot for how clearly they identify with the current system and how and where they fit in to it.

Suggestions were things like an online ‘evidence bank’ detailing work they had done and skills they had obtained with evidence.  This was seen as a multimedia ‘package’.  Similar to this was the idea of a skills ‘passport’ (rings a bell with something I heard at the PT Conference).  Finally, the idea of teacher assessment/endorsement was strong, but beyond that not much else.  It made me think what a lot we have to change even in relation to youngsters really understanding and engaging with things like peer and self assessment and how this embeds itself in the curriculum. 

It’s great fun having these sort of discussions with the youngsters and I was interested that many of the themes that emerged were along the lines of current educational debate.  Out of the mouths of babes and all that!

We have our next SQH residential next week.  It is going to probably be the most intensive yet, and certainly will be the most taxing in terms of preparation.  We have to prepare four different pieces of work , three informal, small group presentations and one formal presentation in front of the larger group. In addition to that I’m out of school for three days, so organising three days worth of classes does not fill me with unbridled joy!

I’ve blogged quite a bit about thinking skills and creativity, it’s something I have a real interest in.  I am keenly aware my own personal development has been positively affected by becoming more emotionally literate and thinking about my thinking, perceptions, mental models whatever you want to call it, and subsequently accessing my own creative thinking in ways I probably didn’t realise I could.  Over the course of my posts about thinking skills I’ve had a number of people respond favourably to my raising the topic and also being interested in finding out more.

It has occurred to me tonight that perhaps this is something that we, as an authority, should be looking at in more detail and perhaps in a more structured way.  It is probably happening already, but if not is there scope for a group of interested individuals coming together to look at current research and educational practice in this area and perhaps recommend a way forward in terms of developing our practice? 

There seems to be no doubt that the development of thinking skills and creativity is high on the agenda in A Curriculum for Excellence.  I’m also keenly aware that I have little or no knowledge of what is happening in primary schools and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only secondary teacher in this position. 

Enterprise education  focusses extremely well on creativity from a mainly, but not exclusively, economic perspective and the link provides an overview of much of the excellent work currently taking place in East Lothian.  I have not however heard or seen much in the way of teaching the skills in a more holistic way, purely from a personal development and understanding perspective.  I’m prepared to be shot down on that one because I’m obviously only talking from my own experience in schools and I may well be wrong.

There is also the idea of development and progression of thinking skills, linked in some way, I would venture, to emotional intelligence.  I’m sure there are many ‘emotionally intelligent classrooms’ around the region and the country who are also employing thinking skills techniques both by chance and by design.  However, I’m not sure if there is much in the way of a real exploration of what works and is appropriate at what stage for youngsters(and adults). 

I think there may be a real opportunity for East Lothian to be a leader in this field, because from what I saw at the ‘Thinking about Thinking’ conference, everyone is pretty much at the same stage of development; ie using techniques such as brainstorming, mindmapping etc but there did not seem to be a huge amount beyond that, especially in the area of emotional intelligence.  Scottish Borders has dabbled with Feuerstein’s methodology but again there has not been an enormous amount of data generated as to its efficacy or usefulness in schools, although it does look very interesting.  Maybe I’m just looking at something which does already exist from a different perspective, I’m not sure.

Anyway, this has really been a bit of and idea in my head without too much basis in fact for it!  I’d be interested in hearing others views on this one. 

This past fortnght I’ve had real cause to consider my readiness for a senior management position.  I’ve had some encouraging feedback from people I’ve spoken to and this has been crucial in helping me really focus on what it means to step into the role.  I have also been considering how I measure up to my own espoused values.  I think I can say, as most people probably would, I fall short on acting out my espoused values at times, but that doesn’t mean I should disregard them, simply that need to continually reflect upon my decisions and priorities and on the way in which I communicate them with others. I’m sure this will help me develop my practice when I do get the opportunity of a senior management position. 

Writing this helps me be clear about what the important factors are.  I can summarise them in the following ways.

• Being driven by values.  Basing decisions upon these values.  My values are honesty, personal integrity, empathy, commitment, the continual development of self and others, patience and looking at the world from a fundamentally positive perspective.
• Understanding the duty or ‘calling’ of educating young people that I believe is fundamental to doing the job effectively.
• An awareness of the ‘current reality’ and a vision for the future, both personally and from an organisational viewpoint.
• Having a clear commitment and aspiration towards excellence in all areas, regardless of circumstance.
• Ensuring that we ‘get the job done’, whatever it may be.
• Being committed to using the ‘collective intelligence’ that every school has an abundance of, through the development and action of ‘learning teams’.

I have also recently had cause to consider the disappointment of getting to the final stages of the interview process for a senior management position, only to fall at the last hurdle.  From this I have learned firstly that I am definitely ready for the challenge and secondly that my interview technique needs some work.  I believe there is a CPD opportunity in there somewhere and that will be my personal development focus in the coming months. 

I have set myself some clear career goals and the past fortnight has been an extremely important time for measuring myself against them.  The learning I have done has been hugely significant and I’m happy to say that I can come away from the disappointment with renewed vigour and focus.

As my brother rightly said(sure he stole this from someone); there are no failures, only learning opportunities.  To some that may sound glib, but I believe absolutely that it is true.

Another interesting thing about going through this process is that I have been forced to reflect upon what would happen if I did end up moving into another position.  What would be left behind?  

The ALPs programme has recently got off the ground and many people have committed a great deal of time and effort to making it a reality.  Would that all be wasted if I were to move into another position?  I think not because the key to the success of the programme, in my opinion, is the investment of a great number of people.  It does not and should not come down to a single person being the key.  This is, I think, an important management model and strategy, ensuring that the ‘power’ for want of a better word, lies with a collective, all of whom have a significant investment and commitment to the success of the programme.  Shared vision would be the ’headline’ phrase.

My final consideration is what it means to seek opportunities for advancement.  I’ve been challenged on this recently by a friend at work. Does it mean I am less committed to doing an excellent job in my current role.  Again, I think not. My commitment has not and will not waiver, because I return to my purpose for doing the job and that reminds me I have to keep doing my best at all times.

What it means to me is that I am committed to having a positive impact on the lives of young people in as an infuential way as possible.  It is not an easy call to make, and is not a viewpoint that everyone shares, but we all have to decide on our path and be true to it.

Final point.  Is this an appropriate topic for a blog?  I’m not sure, I’d be interested to find out the thoughts of others, but I think that unless we engage in thinking about these issues there will always be un-uttered words or thoughts of disapproval by some towards the motives and decisions of others.  Discussion is surely healthy?

Professor Brian Boyd’s keynote speech focused on the place of thinking skills within a Curriculum for Excellence.  The main themes from the speech as I understood them were as follows :

Making the connections

Are we on the edge of a ‘New Enlightenment’ with the freedom being given to educators through a Curriculum for Excellence?

Thinking skills are equally important for the highest achieveing students as for those finding difficulty.  He suggested that youngsters are so well ‘trained’ for Highers that it ends up being more about reproduction than creativity and inquiry, the skills increasingly necessary to succeed in today’s society.  

Looking at the continuity of learning and transfer of skills eg p6/7 to S1

Learning to Learn - Metacognition

Thinking skills theories and programmes.

Understanding is key.  “Demonstrated understanding in new situations is the cognitive challenge that underpins thinking skills”

Co-operative learning.

Curriculum Architecture

ACfE as a focus for learning and an enabling curriculum.

No longer an accountability(as consequence) culture.

Fundamental principles that link thinking, creativity, enterprise, not just the delivery of discrete initiatives.

A love of learning.

What happens next?

Collegiality and collaboration will help both teachers and students.

Can we put the curriculum architecture in place?

Can we focus on achievement and ‘close the gap’ between highest and lower achievers?

Can we help teachers and learners co-create the curriculum?

I’m a fan of Brian Boyd and again, for me, he didn’t disappoint with this speech.  There was agreat deal more to it than my short summary, but I think I’ve covered the main thrust.  It was very interesting to hear someone who had a great stake in developing ACfE speak so passionately about his vision for it.   He also spoke of the practical implications of shifting the focus of what we do towards the skills of inquiry and creation and away from the constraints of exam results.  We are nowhere near that kindof curriculum at the moment and there will be much debate and discussion amongst us all as we move forward wth ACfE, but I for one am really excited about the prospects.  I heard a number of people who had been teaching for more than twenty years saying the same thing; they are more excited by ACfE than they have been about anything in their whole teaching career, surely that is proof, were it needed, of how significant the next few years could be.