Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the most reflective one of all?

The Big Bang: Do Targets Actually Work?

Does target-setting decrease performance in schools?

It is taken for granted in schools and academies that targets for teachers and children are motivating, measurable, and improve performance, whether it is through learning, better grades or performance management.

No learning can take place in the classroom without an objective or target; no teacher can be relied on to do their job properly without setting targets each year; and certainly no leader can motivate their staff without drilling their whole-school targets into them every TE Day.

But where is the actual evidence that targets, and in particular SMART targets, do any good?

Has anyone measured the productivity of schools before and after target-setting, and is there a significant rise in progress, both for teachers and students, since this immersion into measurability?
Owen Barder, Senior Fellow and Europe Director at the Centre for Global Development, writes in his blog:

When you do think about why we have targets, it turns out that the reasons are not very good.
“targets motivate people”
On the whole, they don’t. Most people – especially public servants – already want to do a good job. It is conceit to think that setting a target is going to make someone work harder. When targets do cause people to behave differently, it is usually to do something perverse to meet the numerical target.
“targets set direction”

It is important for everyone in the organisation to know and understand what the organisation is trying to achieve. But that should mean getting on with the work that really matters. Targets turn people’s attention to being seen to meet targets instead.

PMI, PAP & PIE

EXPLANATION	TEXT
P=PLUS POINTS Things I felt were particularly good or worthy about what I saw, heard and/or did
M=MINUS POINTS Things I felt didn’t quite work and could be a source of further reflection and possible improvement
I=INTERESTING POINTS Things which particularly interested me, surprised, intrigued, puzzled me

EXPLANATION	TEXT
P=POSITIVE What were the things that you did that enabled you to use your strengths at this particular moment?
A=ACTION What single thing, if it were to happen more frequently, would make a significant difference to your work right now?
P=POSSIBILITIES What thing(s) need(s) to change so that you can use your strengths, more often, in the future?

1. Draw a pie. Make each slice represent the important parts of your life. (Or concerns or skills or revision topics or...)
2. Place pie face down in the middle of the table. No need to sign.
3. Mix up the pies. Choose one and offer an interpretation of it to the group.
4. What are you learning?
5. Re-claim your own pie and share the significance of the different pieces.
6. On the reverse side of your pie, re-draw it in such a way that it reflects a better and more preferred way of valuing your time.
7. Now share with group members.
8. What is the most important thing you have to change, in your current situation, to bring this preferred pie into existence?

The Silent Teacher

Portfolios as reflection - the biggest nudge to independent learning?


It is impossible to identify what you are learning at a time quite close to the learning task. Far better to reflect when learning is not taking place...
Emotion gets in the way of reflection; also the intellectual difficulty of the sudden switch. As J P Powell writes in Autobiographical Learning, "One has to be able to move rapidly...from...intense involvement in a discussion of a substantive point to a metra-discussion of ideas and feelings quite unrelated to what was being talked about a short time before".
Questions to consider:

• How far should a reflective journal be shared?
• How can we encourage a "write it as it is, not as you would like it to be, nor as you think it should be" approach?
• Should it be used as emotional catharsis or "rant"?
• Should it be entirely descriptive?
• Should it reflect on values?
• Should it be ego-centric or open to alternative perspectives as a kind of lens?
• Should it position personal reflection in relation to the "bigger picture"?
• Should it look backwards or forwards? Should links be made between previous experience and future action?
• Should it be allowed to question the status quo?

Shifting Sands...

Technical Rationality versus Reflection-in-Action


Donald A Schon's book "The Reflective Practitioner" examines how most professions still use a learning model based on the 19th Century: ie that general principles and professional knowledge are applied to concrete problems. There is a hierarchy implicit between research and practice - "first, the relevant basic and applied science; then, the skills of application to real-world problems of practice". And there's the idea that "if unlimited resources could be poured into the necessary research and development (of whatever), then any such objective could be achieved."
But! he cites Nathan Glazer's view that this only works with higher professions such as medicine or law which "operate in stable institutional contexts". Minor professions such as education (charming!) "suffer from shifting, ambiguous ends and from unstable institutional contexts of practice, and are therefore unable to develop a base of systematic, scientific professional knowledge."
"In the varied topography of professional practice, there is a high, hard ground where practitioners can make effective use of research-based theory and technique, and there is a swampy lowland where situations are confusing "messes" incapable of technical solution. The difficulty is that the problems of the high ground...are often relatively unimportant to clients or to the larger society, while in the swamp are the problems of greatest human concern".
"There are those who choose the swampy lowlands. They deliberately involve themselves in messy but crucially important problems and, when asked to describe their methods of inquiry, they speak of experience, trial and error, intuition, and muddling through."
"Other professionals opt for the high ground. Hungry for technical rigor, devoted to an image of solid professional competence...they choose to confine themselves to a narrowly technical practice."
What is Reflection-in-Action?
Like children trying to balance randomly weighted building blocks, positive and negative results in business should be taken "not as signs of success or failure in action but as information relevant to a theory of balancing" (metaphorically speaking!)
When something falls outside the range of ordinary expectations..."the practitioner allows himself to experience "surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomena before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behavior. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomena and a change in the situation."
When someone reflects in action...

• he becomes a researcher
• is not dependent on the categories of established theory and technique, but constructs a new theory of the unique case
• does not keep means and ends separate, but defines them interactively as he frames a problematic situation
• does not separate thinking from doing, rationalising his way to a decision which he must then convert to action
• his experimenting is a kind of action, therefore implementation is built into his inquiry

Reflection-in-action may be rigorous in its own right, bridging the creative art of practice in uncertainty and uniqueness to the scientific art of research.

Reflection-in-action can proceed , even in the shifting sands of education, because it is not "bound by the dichotomies of Technical Rationality".

Food for thought...

Make homework work harder!

Picture this:

Homework which generates no marking or photo-copying.
Homework which encourages creative thinking.
Homework which gets students fired up for the next lesson.
Now read on...


Poetry:

1. Draw a Venn diagram/ double bubble diagram to show links and connections between 2 poems in the "Conflict" section of the anthology. Next lesson: Pair & share-feed-back.
2. Same, but between a poem and a theme.
3. Add a poet to the Glossary in the Reading Group forum on the VLE. Next lesson: Revision using Glossary.
4. Write 10 higher order questions on a poem of your choice. Next lesson: Students swap books and answer each others' questions or group discussion using questions as catalyst or play "test the teacher" by asking teacher the questions, then student taking the "chair".

Making links & connections:

1. Why are the skills for this lesson like those in another subject? Students draw double bubble/ Venn diagram. Next lesson: Share ideas, then play "What's the Point?" Students have 1 minute to come up with as many reasons as they can for the skills being taught being useful in life and learning. Then give them the learning question!
2. 14;24;44: Students write in their books why the skills learnt are relevant now (change age to suit student), 10 years, then twenty years later. Next lesson: As above.
3. Give the student the learning question for the following lesson, and get them to make a list of success criteria. Next lesson: Use for checking their learning at each stage of the lesson.
4. Write up today's lesson in the style of: an autobiography, a recipe, a Top Twenty hit-list, a play-script...Give them the choice. Next lesson: Pair and share.
5. Draw a diagram of what you learnt this lesson. Next lesson: Pair & share. Feed-back on each others'.
6. Why is learning like a conker? Why is an argument text like a space rocket? Why is that character like a rocking-chair? Students write down as many reasons as they can. Next lesson: Where in the syllabus is it important to make links and connections? Where in other subjects and in life..? Then have a lesson on making comparisons between texts, poems, themes, characters, essays...

Success criteria-the "Hit List":

1. What is the success criteria for the lesson objective today? Next lesson: Pair & share, then compare to national levels or exam board assessment bands. Are students more or less ambitious? Which criteria is the same? Different?
2. Prioritise success criteria for today's learning in order of importance. Next lesson: Pair, share & compare. Do a Diamond 9 with the whole class and get them to write down their top 3 as personal targets.
3. See no 3 above.
4. Give students the learning question/ success criteria for the following lesson. They design the lesson, using the school's planning proforma. Next lesson: Pupils share lesson ideas in groups. Vote for the best lesson. Group or student teaches the lesson!

Unit 1 practice - non-fiction:

1. Invent a persona: Their age, gender, hobbies & interests, politics, income bracket, style, family & relationships. Present it as a mini-biography. This will become the addressee - the audience for a piece of persuasive writing. Next lesson: pairs swap books and do a writing task directed at that particular addressee.
2. As above, but for the addresser - the writer.
3. Write with purpose! The student chooses from a huge list of possible purposes (see previous post) and writes a short piece. The only rule is it has to be about trains( or a music festival, or a sandwich, or a holiday in Britain...) Next lesson: Books are left open on desks and pupils circulate and read each others', guessing the purpose, marking it for SSPs, adding post-its with positive comments, etc. Students return to their own book and reflect & correct.
4. SSPs and proof-reading: Students write a short piece related to the previous lesson and proof-read it for SSPs. Next lesson: Students sit in outer and inner circle. Turn to face each other. Swap books and proof-read then outer circle rotates. Repeat several times. By the end, books should be thoroughly marked and proof-read! Students reflect & correct & write personal SSPs targets.
5. Write an exam paper. Find texts, write questions, add marks awarded... Next lesson: Students swap and do each others'!

Literature texts:

1. Write 10 questions to ask a character using Bloom's taxonomy. Next lesson: Teacher/ student is hot-seated and asked the questions.
2. Make links and connections between the characters/ themes/ plot of the text and a film/book/poem of your choice. Make it as silly/ random as you wish-eg. why is Lennie like the "River God"? Why is the Inspector like Voldemort..? Next lesson: Student volunteers to give their comparison - rest of class make double bubble diagram. Leads to lesson on comparison controlled assessment (Macbeth and Animal Farm?)...
3. Research social context. Next lesson: Bull's eye diagram or quiz or add to online Glossary.
4. Add item to online Glossary. Next lesson: discussion forum linking comments with social context/ new learning.
5. Write a list of clues about a character of your choice. Next lesson: Play "Who am I?"
6. Play the "Furniture Game" with a character: If they were a food item, a piece of furniture, a weather type, a holiday destination...what would they be? Next lesson: Hot-seat a character and guess who they are; ask questions to different pupils in role, guessing their character, write a poem from the point of view of the character, using as many poetical techniques as possible...

Climate of learning:

1. What makes a successful learning environment? Students describe their "dream classroom". Next lesson: Pair & share. Prioritise, compare, make a list...
2. How can we make "listening" visible? Students make a list. Next lesson: Use to discuss and create success criteria for Speaking & Listening.
3. How can we feel "safe" giving our opinions in the classroom? Students list possible problems and solutions. Next lesson: Teach Grice's Maxims of conversation, and compare to the class list.
4. How can we stop boys/ more confident members of the class dominating group discussion? (Or any other "problem" that is threatening the climate of learning). Next lesson: Test out some of the solutions and feed back/ reflect).
5. Create a positive climate! Students prepare a short piece of writing for homework, using agreed success criteria from previous lesson. Next lesson: Homework is left on desks all around the room and outside on the landing. Students are armed with post-its and circulate, leaving smiley faces and positive comments whenever they see a student has hit the success criteria. Pupils count up how many post-its they got! (Idea stolen from primary school)

ICT: 

1. Use on-line sites such as BBC Bitesize, Sparknotes, VLE to revise a text/ paper. Next lesson: Write down 5 things they learnt.
2. Start a personal learning blog. Use the Reading Group link to write an ongoing journal tracking revision or a literature text. Next lesson: Share students' thoughts. Encourage them to read each others'.
3. Add to on-line Glossary of poets, poems, characters, books.
4. Reading for pleasure: Add a question to the reading discussion forum. Next lesson: Students join in chat-room.

Final thought:

Homework which connects naturally with the previous and following lesson is relevant, vital and motivating.

Any writing tasks which are given infrequently, out of context and without thought to the learning abilities of the pupil are irrelevant, paper-wasting and generate hours of extra mark-load for the teacher, which is out of proportion to the learning by the pupil.

Just a thought...

The Big Write

Light a candle, or have one flickering on the whiteboard.

Play soft music.

Start the "Big Write"...

The idea is that students have been building up to an extended piece of independent writing. This will be assessed and levelled/ graded by the teacher. (As well as self, peer-assessed...) Students become used to getting in "flow", the feeling of writing taking over, of the "writer's block" sensation being overcome. All good practice for controlled assessments and exams, as well as continuing good practice from primary school.

Writing is seen as a quiet, independent activity; a calming, pleasurable experience that is being valued, not hacked about with the 4 part lesson structure.

After all, the ideal is surely to work towards the "no part" lesson?

How often?

Whenever it naturally occurs after a unit mirroring the writing process? As mid-term assessment? Every few weeks? Plan so that mark-load is bearable.

All other bits, pieces, stuff in exercise books should not have to be marked by the teacher. Instead, ensure use of embedded AfL in the classroom gives instant snapshots of attainment.

All "Big Write" work to be kept in a separate folder for moderating and evidence of pupil progress. Exercise books do not get shown at parents' evenings, but these do!