Learning How to Learn – in
classrooms, schools and
networks
Sue Swaffield
University of Cambridge
Supporting schools developing
AfL
AAIA Conference
14 September 2005
Stratford-upon-Avon
Outline
• Overview of project
• Conditions that support
classroom practice
• Approaches to embedding
• Critical friendship
Overview of project
Learning How To Learn
KMOFAP
Black and Wiliam 1998 review
(Inside the black box)
The Learning How to Learn Project
• 4 year Development & Research project
• 40 primary and secondary schools in 5 LEAs
and one VEAZ (1500 teachers & 6000 students)
• Investigating the CONDITIONS in classrooms,
schools and networks that support development,
spread and sustainability of AFL practice
• Limited intervention at school level (inset, data
feedback and ‘light touch’ critical friendship)
• Research through qualitative and quantitative
data, at classroom, network and school levels
Teacher and school conditions
that support classroom practice
drawing on staff questionnaire
The Staff Questionnaire
• A quantitative measure of values and
reported practices, and change over time
• 3 sections:
– A. Classroom assessment practices
– B. Teachers’ professional learning
– C. School management systems
Scale X
This school now
About you
Never Rarely
true
true
Teachers’
Assessment
Practices
Often Mostly
true
true
Scale Y
How important are these
assessment practices for
creating opportunities for
students to learn?
Not
important
I provide
guidance to
help my
students
assess their
own work
Limited
importance
Important
Crucial
Bad
practice
Classroom assessment practice
factors
• A1: Making learning explicit
• A2: Promoting learning autonomy
• A3: Performance orientation
A1: Making learning explicit
• eliciting, clarifying and responding
to evidence of learning;
• working with students to develop
a learning orientation
A2: Promoting learning
autonomy
• widening the scope for students
to take on greater independence
over their learning objectives
and the assessment of their own
and each others’ work
A3: Performance orientation
• a concern to help students comply
with performance goals
prescribed by the curriculum
through closed questioning
and measured by marks and grades
Teachers classroom practices - 2002
2002
mean rescaled factor score
100
90
80
practice
70
values
60
50
40
making
learning explicit
promoting
learning
autonomy
performance
orientation
Changes in teachers’ classroom
practices, 2002-2004
2004
100
100
90
90
80
practice
70
values
60
mean rescaled
factor score
mean rescaled factor score
2002
80
50
40
40
promoting
learning
autonomy
performance
orientation
values
60
50
making
learning explicit
practice
70
making
learning
explicit
promoting
learning
autonomy
performance
orientation
Mean changes in teachers’
assessment values and practices
2002-2004
rescaled mean change score
6
Making
learning
explicit
4
2
0
-2
practice
values
Promoting
learning
autonomy
-4
-6
-8
Performance
orientation
Teachers’ professional learning
factors
• B1: Inquiry
• B2: Building social capital
• B3: Critical and responsive learning
B1: Inquiry
• using and responding
to different sources of evidence
• carrying out joint research and
evaluation with colleagues
B2: Building social capital
• learning, working, supporting
and talking with one another
B3: Critical and
responsive learning
• through reflection,
self-evaluation,
experimentation and
responding to feedback
School leadership and
management factors
• C1: Deciding and acting together
• C2: Developing a sense of where we are
going
• C3: Supporting professional development
• C4: Auditing expertise and supporting
networking
C1: Deciding and acting together
• Involving staff in decision making
and using their professional knowhow in the formulation and critical
evaluation of school policy
C2: Developing a sense of where
we are going
• Clear communication by SLT of a
clear vision, and the fostering of staff
commitment to the whole school,
based on good working knowledge
among staff of school development
priorities which they view as relevant
and useful for learning and teaching
C3: Supporting
professional development
• Providing formal and informal
training opportunities
C4: Auditing expertise and
supporting networking
• Information is collected on practices
that staff themselves think they do
effectively, and on informal teacher
networking in which they play an
active role.
• Teachers are supported in sharing
practice with other schools through
networking.
School conditions that support learning how to learn in classrooms
Developing a sense of
where we are going
Supporting professional
development
Auditing expertise and
supporting networking
Making learning explicit
Inquiry &
Critical and
responsive
learning
(Teachers’
classroom
based
learning)
Promoting learning
autonomy
Discussion 1
Supporting classroom practice
• How could the classroom level factors be
used to deepen the dialogue about AfL?
• How can teachers be helped to promote
students’ learning autonomy?
• How can teachers be supported in classroom
based collaborative learning?
• What can I do?
Embedding Practice
drawing on interviews
with school co-ordinators and headteachers
Embedding
Becoming integral to the
structure and culture
of the school
The process of embedding …
• Seen as a sequential process?
• Implies building consensus?
• Seeks homogeneity of practice?
Some issues
• The existing situation
• Conceptions of leadership
• The model of change
Approaches to embedding
Structural
Cultural
Professional
collaborative
activity
External
influences
APPROACHES
TO
EMBEDDING
Management
mechanisms
Cultural
leadership
Mandate
Change practice
Change thinking?
Mandate
Tipping point?
Change practice
Spread ideas and
practice
Change thinking?
Encourage individuals
Discussion 2
Embedding practice
• How could the idea of seeing the embedding
of practice structurally and culturally be used?
• How can school leaders be supported in
embedding practice both structurally and
culturally ?
• What can I do?
Critical Friendship
drawing on interviews
with critical friends and school co-ordinators
Role of the Critical Friend
• Liaison among the project partners;
advocate for the project
• Initial inset
• Feedback of data from first staff
questionnaire
• Critical friendship for development work critiquing plans, asking questions, linking
to other resources and research
• ‘Light touch’
‘Light touch’ critical friendship:
an oxymoron too many?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Trust
Understanding
Critical engagement
Whose critical friend?
Expectations
Roles and responsibilities
Dependency avoidance
Relationships with researchers
and LEA advisers
Discussion 3:
Critical friendship
• How can ‘light touch’ critical friendships
best be established and maintained?
• What are the particular issues about
critical friend type relationships that need
to be addressed?
• What can I do?
www.learntolearn.ac.uk
James, M. et al. (2006) Learning How to Learn: tools
for schools (A4 practitioner book of inset materials in
the TLRP Improving Practice Series, linked to website),
London, Routledge.
James, M et al. (2006) Improving Learning How to
Learn in classrooms, schools and networks (TLRP
Improving Learning Series (Gateway) Book), London,
Routledge.
Journal Special Issue: Research Papers in Education
(2006)
Discussion 1
Supporting classroom practice
• How could the classroom level factors be used to
deepen the dialogue about AfL?
• How can teachers be helped to promote students’
learning autonomy?
• How can teachers be supported in classroom based
collaborative learning?
• What can I do?
Discussion 2
Embedding practice
• How could the idea of seeing the embedding
of practice structurally and culturally be used?
• How can school leaders be supported in
embedding practice both structurally and
culturally ?
• What can I do?
Discussion 3:
Critical friendship
• How can ‘light touch’ critical friendships
best be established and maintained?
• What are the particular issues about
critical friend type relationships that need
to be addressed?
• What can I do?