Barry Smith - Stuff and things

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. 

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. 

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to attend this Inter-Authority conference on Thursday.  The focus was the position of thinking skills and the explicit teaching of thinking skills within a Curriculum for Excellence.  Authorities showcased what was happening in their area in relation to teaching thinking skills in nursery, primary and secondary schools.  

I attended Scottish Borders session on Feuerstein’s Instrumental enrichment.  This is a theory and set of teaching techniques based on the premise that the fundamental structure of the brain is modifiable (structural cognitive modifiability) and therefore patterns of behaviour and thinking are also modifiable.  Nothing ground-breaking there I hear you say, and yes I’d agree, I think it is widely accepted now that the structure and connections within the brain are a lot more malleable than was thought in years gone by.  What instrumental enrichment and mediated learning experience purport to do is give us the tools to do this.  On first hearing it sounded a bit like brainwashing to me but once I got past that initial knee-jerk reaction to the language and tried a couple of tasks I began to see what it was about.  The idea is relatively simple in that it helps thinking skills by using techniques to identify patterns, categories and connections.  In a nutshell developing metacognition. learning how to learn.

A number of teachers were trained in this way of thinking, teaching and learning just over two years ago and every probationer teacher in Scottish Borders has been trained in mediated learning experience techniques.  I was impressed by the team’s presentation and the principles and practice espoused by Feuerstein.  Several attendees mentioned the language(, instrumental enrichment etc) involved as being a potential barrier, but those who are working with the Feuerstein techniques on a regular basis said they did not find this.  I’m not sure, I’d like to see it in action, although Feuerstein had a great deal of success working with Jewish youngsters who had undergone traumatic experiences at an early age during the second world war.

The training is not inexpensive and this may be part of the reason that it has not been embraced by more authorities but I’m going to do my best to find out more.  I can see an immediate place for techniques of this kind in helping some of our more troubled youngsters become more emotionally literate, as well as equipping them with thinking tools to tackle situations from multiple viewpoints, a skill which is vital for maintaining positive interpersonal relationships.  Learning how to learn is a skill that has applications regardless of academic ability and therefore it seems to me that there is great scope for teaching thinking skills explicitly to all youngsters.  Brian Boyd, the keynote speaker at the conference spoke passionately about developing thiinking skills in our young people, and staff, and what that could mean for Scottish education. More of this in my next post. 

It has been a hectic few weeks as I think I’ve mentioned ad infinitum recently with the launch of ALPs, SQH Unit 3 and other ‘enjoyable’ pressures.   However, I think I was beginning to feel a bit empty in the fuel tank, the red light was certainly on.  I knew that the brain was threatening to become full of broken biscuits because I hadn’t done any reading for three or four days, a sure fire sign.  I also hadn’t done any drumming for two weeks prior to tonight so it was great to go bash them to bits and switch fully on to another ‘mode’ of brain activity. I’m feeling re-invigorated now and ready for the next few hectic days.  It really is amazing what a completely different challenge and focus does to help order the rest of the brain!

I’m going to the ’Thinking about Thinking’ inter-authority conference at Murrayfield tomorrow.  I’m excited about attending because I believe that teaching thinking skills explicitly is an idea that will be developed further in the coming years in Scotland.  I’m convinced it has huge potential for the development of self awareness and emotional literacy in young people and adults.  There is a keynote speech from Brian Boyd who was one of my tutors at teaching college and someone for whom I have great respect.

I’ll no doubt report back on that tomorrow.

Ice-breaker fun!

We finally got ALPs off the ground today with our induction day at the Pennypit Community Centre at Prestonpans, a really top class facility.  It was a great day and it was tremendous to see all the ‘thinking’ becoming ‘doing’. 

I was also delighted that the input from all the different people connected together to present a discernable ‘whole’.   It re-affirmed again to me that we are ‘on to something’ in delivering a model of this type. The blend of personal development, active learning through outdoor education, thinking skills, mentoring and employability skills has great breadth and depth of skills development coupled with reflection.  By the reaction of some of the parents who attended our induction there is a positive feeling about the potential benefits of the programme too.  

We were very pleased to welcome Kay Affleck, who is responsible for ELC pre-vocational opportunities, along for an hour this morning and we had a good chat about the possibilities for the ‘careers’ focus of this group in S4.

I’l be writing more in the coming week, but I think most of my ALPs blogging will migrate to our new site with short updates and pointers here from time to time. 

….is tomorrow!  We have our induction tomorrow and it looks like everything is in place for the start of the programme.  We’ve had a couple of last minute issues with students, but that is the nature of things, so we will be starting with a slightly reduced group size, but hopefully will be back up to full strength in the next week or so. 

I’m actually ridiculously excited. I’ve been thinking tonight about the number of hours that a great number of people have given to the project before it has started, it is fantastic.  All those 7.30am meetings since back in October, and only a fruit scone, croissant and a coffee induced headache to show for it! 

The work will continue as the programme progresses, we are already considering how we can further integrate or ‘mainstream’ this kind of provision to give opportunities to a larger cohort.  I’m particularly excited about teaching our thinking skills course, I believe the potential benefits are enormous and will be keeping my blog updated with the progress.

I’ve produced a short ‘welcome’ powerpoint presentation for students, parents, staff, mentors and guests who will be coming tomorrow.  It can be accessed below, but I stress it’s short!

active-learning-partnerships-induction-day-powerpoint.ppt

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about reading Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline.  Over the last few nights I’ve been reading about the concept of mental models.  The idea is not new to me, nor I suspect to many others who have read the book.  The interesting thing about Senge’s description in my opinion is what we do with our mental models.  We are able to test them by speaking openly to other people rather than making assumptions about what they may or may not be thinking.  This gives us accurate ‘data’ to use in daily interactions and decision making.  

In removing assumptions and challenging our mental models which can be harmful and limiting, we are able to interact in a much more effective and efficient way.  By extrapolating what this means to the organisational scale, if people are open to testing the validity of their assumptions about others then the kind of communication which will take place between people will, I would think, inevitably be more honest, open and fruitful. 

If we could teach this in such a way that young people understood the ideas and ‘took control’ of their thinking and decision-making in this way it could be incredbly powerful in helping them develop relationships with others and resolve difficulties.  More thinking skills means more options. 

I suspect that effective communicators probably challenge their own mental models inherently to a great extent, but the powerful ‘bit’ for me is making this kind of thinking explicit in your every day dealings with people.  It must surely make you more aware of your own prejudices and promote a more open minded outlook and way of communicating.  I’ve been trying to be more aware over the last couple of days and I’ve been fascinated at having ‘caught’ myself a couple of times reverting to a stereotypical view or reaction very easily.  Powerul stuff.

It leads me on to an interesting experience I had at the end of the day today.  I’d asked staff to complete a very short questionairre about creativity to help me with my SQH comparative study.  Out of about 75 I gave out I had a return of about 20 which I suppose isn’t far from what I expected.  The interesting/strange thing was that two questionairres were returned to my pigeonhole crumpled up and not completed.  I thought maybe it was kids(doing them a disservice I know), but they didn’t know I was conducting the survey, my name wasn’t on it and I’d only announced it at the staff briefing.  So it got me thinking, what are the mental models at play that provoke this kind of reaction?  I’d really like to know because the people who did it could probably provide me with an interesting viewpoint on much of what I was investigating, but unfortunately I suspect I never will.