Evidence-informed middle leaders
Jane Elsworth and Stephen Foreman
- Members of the Research School leadership
team at Huntington School
An introduction to supporting
middle leaders to be evidenceinformed and effective
Jane Elsworth
-
Geography SLE
Assistant Director of Huntington Research School
Email: [email protected]
Exam boards
New assessment regimes at
all key stages…
Life without levels…
Increased literacy and
numeracy demand…. etc
If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to
make 5 widgets, how long would
it take 100 machines to make 100
widgets?
Answer: 5 minutes
In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads.
Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it
takes 48 days for the patch to cover the
entire lake, how long would it take for the
patch to cover half of the lake?
Answer: 47 days
Shane Frederick, “Cognitive Reflection
Test”
Need to create the conditions for middle leaders
to grow great teachers….
•
•
•
•
•
Expertise in pedagogy and subject
CPD
Tools
Senior leader support
Time
Reasons for Iceland’s success at Euro 2016?
Key Facts about Icelandic Football
• Population: 330,000;
• 778 UEFA qualified coaches: 1 coach per 424 people
(England have 5000 UEFA B qualified coaches: 1
coach per 11,000 people);
• More than 100 outdoor artificial-turf mini-pitches,
as well as 22 full-size undersoil-heated artificial
pitches;
• Football training is now all-year round.
Need to create the conditions for middle leaders
to grow great teachers….
•
•
•
•
•
Expertise in pedagogy and subject
CPD
Tools
Senior leader support
Time
Case study: Evidence-informed
memory techniques in planning for
effective GCSE Geography revision
Jane Elsworth
-
Geography SLE
Assistant Director of Huntington Research School
Email: [email protected]
How can we get Y11 students to revise
more effectively and improve outcomes?
Evidenced Based Interventions
10
Effect Size (months gain)
Feedback
Meta-cognitive
Peer tutoring
Homework
Phonics
Learning
styles
Individualised
learning
Arts
Ability grouping
0
£0
Independent learning
Outdoor
learning
After
Parental
school
involvement
Summer
schools
Sports
Performance
pay
Pre-school
1-1 tutoring
ICT
Smaller
classes
Teaching
assistants
£1000
Cost per pupil
The EEF Teaching & learning Toolkit
Metacognition: Meta- what…?!
•
•
•
•
Devising checklists;
Paired planning;
Questioning;
DIRT time (in response to
feedback);
• Revision strategies
• Shared writing;
• Live mocks; etc.
An evidence-informed approach to revision
Expertise is key:
1. Sensory memory – must pay attention to it to
allow it to be ‘encoded’
2. Make it meaningful – do something with it,
‘consolidate’
3. Practise – use it up to 6 times in different ways in
order to transfer it to the long term memory
4. Check it – tests, quizes, plenaries, teach others,
present, act on feedback etc to challenge your
brain and strengthen the neural pathways
M3
An evidence-informed approach to revision
A plan – interleave and space topics/examples
Use tools – flash cards, graphic organisers,
cartoons/images, round robins, mnenomics.
Test yourself and others
No more than 30 mins at a time (2x 15 mins is
ideal) as your brain works better this way than
in a prolonged session
The Reality…
Stephen Foreman
-
Subject Leader for Design Technology
Research Lead Huntington Research School
Email: [email protected]
‘Solutionitis’
Identifying a false Growth Mindset
‘The Mindset
reality’
Teachers, Parents Often Misuse
Growth Mindset Research, Carol
Dweck Says
"As the Growth Mindset has become more popular and taken
hold, we are beginning to find that there are pitfalls," said Dweck.
"Many educators misunderstand or misapply the concepts."
Identifying a false Growth Mindset ‘The Mindset reality’
Myth 1: If we teach kids about it, then we’re doing growth mindset
•
•
•
•
A more nuanced approach is needed
Much more effective when routed in subject pedagogy
Developed over time, no quick fixes
Employ stealth tactics
Myth 2: Telling students “You can do anything”
• While this may be true, simply asserting it does not make it so
• Set high standards for students but scaffold the path to meeting those
standards (Austin’s butterfly)
• Develop mastery learning over performance learning
Myth 3: Praising effort alone
• Effort + Strategy + Feedback
• Be honest with your students, if they aren’t learning effectively, work with
them to find new learning strategies
• Effort cannot be divorced from the learning process
Evidenced Based Interventions
Case Study: Disciplined Inquiry
Stephen Foreman
-
Subject Leader for Design Technology
Research Lead Huntington Research School
Email: [email protected]
Traditional approach to teacher development …
Professional Objective
Develop effective modelling techniques to improve
and refine student understanding of a range of
complex scientific tasks. Use a range of scaffolding
techniques to improve understanding.
Traditional approach to teacher development …
Professional Objective
Develop effective modelling techniques to improve
and refine student understanding of a range of
complex scientific tasks. Use a range of scaffolding
techniques to improve understanding.
Intervention
Impact
Cohort
Inquiry Questions:
How does <intervention x> impact
on <pupil learning need y> for
<pupils z>?
Intervention
Impact
Cohort
*Adapted from the lesson study model derived from the Teacher Development Trust
What is my inquiry question?
What student cohort have I identified for the intervention and why?
What Pre and Post tests will give me the best results?
What control factors will best ensure that my inquiry is ‘disciplined’?
What are the limitations and obstacles that affect my inquiry?
What are the results of my inquiry and how generalisable are they?
Disciplined approach…
How does <students modelling how to
answer 6 mark QWC questions> impact
on <increasing results on these
questions> for <students in top sets
compared to lower sets>?
Intervention
Impact
Cohort
Inquiry Question-Example
How does <8 x 10min structured
teaching sessions of tier two vocabulary>
impact on <increasing the frequency of
tier two vocabulary use in extended
writing> for <FSM boys in KS3(YR7)>?
Intervention
Impact
Cohort
Develop a range of Feedback techniques to improve
writing performance in year 7 English
How effective is <Feedback> for <improving writing
performance> in <year 7 English> classes?
How effective is <‘Wedding Cake Feedback’> for
<improving extended writing performance> in <year 7
English> classes compared to teacher only feedback?
Identifying a need…
Impact
In September the English department began evaluating and reflecting upon student
outcomes like most schools do, they wrote this:
*‘Close analysis and reflection upon
our KS3 End of Year data
highlighted a stubborn progress
gap, stemming from unaddressed
literacy needs in our teaching of
mid-low starters’
This statement was produced after some detailed
reflective analysis of the data
NB* simplified process shown here
Identifying a need: Diagnostic PAG test
After identifying the literacy skills gap based on data outcomes they decided that they
needed a ‘baseline’ measure of pupils current ability to really analyse the issue. To do this
they developed a Punctuation and Grammar (PAG) diagnosis test.
This test was then undertaken by the groups of students identified by the data analysis.
The results were analysed and patterns, trend and anomalies were identified at individual
class level thus providing specific, targeted data focussing on real student needs within
individual classrooms. This set against the traditional focus on holistic data outcomes, as we
have done in the past, is far more targeted and in reality much more useful for teachers.
Impact
The analysis of this data can now be used by teachers to selectively target
individuals or groups of students they teach. Individual inquiry questions are also
being derived from this information
and department priorities are aligned
to these outcomes, making the whole
process much more coherent.
Your inquiry question could take several different forms, one example based on the
results from the PAG test is shown below.
Inquiry Question-English example
How does <a sequence of six sentence parsing
starter activities> impact on <the use of
terminology in analytical writing> for <lower
ability Year 9 students>
Parsing. to analyse (a sentence) in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the
parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc.
In summary:
•
•
•
•
Effective teamwork;
Subject/classroom specific;
Support structures;
Signpost the available evidence
Implementation matters: how is as important as
what
In the US, healthcare workers failure to wash hands effectively was a major cause
of death through infection and cost $billions
Researchers created a checklist for surgical teams. Trial showed 66% reduction in
infection rates, ~1500 lives in 18 months. They packaged the principles of
handwashing into a practical intervention.
There can be a shortage of practical vehicles (interventions, CPD training, guidance)
to help get evidence working in the classroom and for your students, at scale and
with rigour (eg AfL)
Key message: you need to create the conditions
for middle leaders to grow great teachers….
•
•
•
•
•
Expertise in pedagogy and subject
CPD
Tools
Senior leader support
Time
Any questions?