Jaime-Lee, Head of Netball at WHS, explores the journal article ‘Questioning for Learning in game-based approaches to teaching and coaching’ from the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education
Harvey, S. and Light, R. (2015). Questioning for Learning in game-based approaches to teaching and coaching. Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 6 (1): 1-16.
‘Questions that encourage players to reflect on what they have just done will increase learning’.
A Games-based approach is just one pedagogy used in the teaching of PE. It is focused around practice through play, where players learn and refine skills while participating in matches. As skills are not broken down and taught individually, questioning becomes an important part of the learning. In order to achieve a Games-based approach, the PE teacher needs to move away from the traditional direct instruction teaching to open-ended questioning within the game of play.
The Games-based approach draws on 2 theories of learning – ‘The Zone of Proximal Development’ and ‘Complex Learning Theory’. The Zone of Proximal Development looks at focusing questions in the gap between what a player can learn on their own and what they can learn with direct teacher guidance. Complex Learning Theory focuses on the idea that learning is a combination of the mind and body.
Examples of good questioning in a Games-based approach:
How are you deciding when it is best to lead for the ball?
How could you improve your off-the-ball defence?
What is the most important thing to think about when deciding who to pass to?
What might happen if you do not receive the ball on your first drive?
Questioning needs to be open and give the player the opportunity to reflect on what they have just done. For players to show skill progression, they need to understand why they were successful/unsuccessful and how they can improve. For example, if a player is struggling to get free on a centre pass, rather than saying, ‘if you dodge it will help you get free’. Try, ‘how can you get free from your opponent?’, followed by ‘what if that does not work?’.
When done well, a Games-based approach allows players to not only make decisions independently but also to adapt to new or changing situations as they arrive. The use of well-constructed targeted questions will increase a player’s knowledge beyond where they could have reached on their own. The key is to ask open-ended questions at a point in play where reflection can occur.
Mr Richard Bristow, Director of Music and SMT Secondee, explores an article from Music Teacher Magazine looking at the idea of establishing ‘desirable difficulties’ in the way we use questions and approach tough concepts.
‘For music teachers, there are four overarching strategies that are most useful for introducing desirable difficulties into a music education context – recall practice, interleaving, the spacing effect and elaborate & listen’.
Passey’s impressive article quickly discusses some very useful strategies that musicians, working in the classroom, practice room or (eventually!) on the stage, can employ to help our learners overcome struggles and difficulties in our lessons. At the heart of this is often the ‘teacher as expert’ message which can be problematic to our learners, as they can so often see how effortless we, as professional musicians, can make something, whilst they are struggling with achieving the same technique. So much of this is linked to the way we present information. As Passey argues, it is far better for long-term memory to engage learners by active questioning and quizzes than to simply give them the information, where up to 50% of the information gets lost in future recall.
The recall strategy is something musicians use frequently; whether this is leaning specific exercises like scales or learning entire pieces from memory, as many of our scholars and performers at the WHS Young Musician events do. The huge benefit, as Passey summerises, is that finding learning something from memory difficult helps to reinforce the strength of the memory, ensuring the memory remains active and accessible in the future. The questions we ask are central to this; the learner might find playing from the score easier initially, but needs to be encouraged, through questioning, to see the development of their musical skill as being the ultimate goal.
The discussion on interleaving was also great to read, building on work we as staff have been doing on this in WHS recently, but with the benefit of close subject-specific focus. This involves switching between many different by related tasks, forcing the brain to make links with multiple pathways (‘desired difficulty’) rather than learning something in a ‘massed practice’ way, where the same bar or passage gets repeated over and over, forming a single pathway. I really like the idea of having interleaved practice sessions, where learners switch between playing pieces, exercises and aural skills to see the links between them and develop musical skills. Perhaps switching between instruments would provide even more connection, and I’m now wondering if asking my choir to perform their parts on instruments could really aid their musicianship. Again, the questions we ask form the backbone of creating links and avoiding potential cognitive overload and confusion.
The spacing effect is also another area where musical skill can benefit other subject learning. Long term recall is hugely helped by doing smaller amounts of practice regularly rather than lots of practice once a week. The same is surely true of exercise, and, as we head into Lockdown 2 at the time of writing, is something I am going to try to do more of!
The final passage, titled elaborate & listen, was for me the area that will have the most impact on my teaching, whether in the classroom or on Teams. I really enjoyed the idea of transformative improvisation – where you take an idea and improvise around it – as this is something that is useful to the performer, composer, and musicologist. Extending this by altering the style we perform in (‘try learning this passage of Mozart, but playing it in a Ragtime style’) can also be useful to develop these neurological pathways, and again something that readily transfers from practical performance to composition and the written word. The idea of listening is also vital; when we ask a question, how often do we actually listen to the answer? Sometimes the best question is one that gives the learner space to talk about their experience, vocalising the connections they are perhaps starting to make.
Regardless of the subjects we teach, and how we teach them, the idea of ‘desirable difficulty’ is an excellent one that comes from the questions we ask in our contexts. Celebrating challenge by asking difficult questions and enjoying the journey of learners answering with increased fluency is something to be relished.
Article title: An upward curve
Author: Guy Passey
Featured in: Music Teacher Magazine, October 2020 (accessed through the paper mag, not online)
This Friday Gem comes from Dan Addis and the Classics department
There are several different ways you can incorporate some physical movement into your questioning of students.
Simple use of physical movement in multiple choice questioning. Simply labelling each direction as an A or O you can ask the students to hold their hands straight in the air and lean to the side they think is correct and say either “AAYYY” or “OOOH”.
Creating physical gestures with aspects of understanding so that questions can be done using physical gestures rather than words.
E.g. Mark Wilmore connects the Latin verb endings to a physical gesture “-o = I (thumb pointing at own chest), -s= you (s) (finger pointing away), -t = he/she/it (thumb pointing to the side)”. The question then can be asked or answered by gesture rather than vocally.
E.g. Catriona Irvine adopts a pose connected with the meaning behind a grammatical point (Superman pose for the Subject doing the action and crossed arms for Object receiving the action)
This can also be used to prompt students in their answers and to help model correct answers for students.
Kinaesthetic questioning is effective because
It helps students strengthen storage in long-term memory, as the variety can help increase the number of neural pathways connected to certain aspects of knowledge.
It helps interleaving as it is a quick and easy way to start or end a lesson to remember previous material.
It requires students to focuson the front of the class rather than at their device, which helps ensure engagement in the lesson.
It helps all students focus, especially those with ADHD, by adding a physical component, especially important in KS3 groups where they are not moving around between lessons
In example 1. It helps students stretch their lumbar area and helps improve posture.
It encourages students who don’t want to speak up to demonstrate their knowledge, as well as allow for easier assessment of knowledge in the group.
It’s FUN! Fun to do, fun to watch. Just generally fun.
Points to bear in mind
Ensure students understand the rules and boundaries you want in place before such activity. They will get excited but if the rules aren’t clear they can become raucous.
We hope you enjoy some physicality in your lessons!
Dr Clare Roper, Director of Science, Technology and Engineering at WHS, looks at how advances in information technology have removed the barriers that often limit the scope for school students to embark on their own innovative authentic scientific research.
I was sitting in a lecture at Oxford University about 18 months ago when it suddenly became clear to me that the factor most often restricting school students from undertaking their own authentic research had evaporated and was no longer an issue.
Classroom science experiments commonly involve replicating known scientific phenomena to backup discoveries that are well documented in the scientific literature. Unfortunately, quite often we cannot even so much as replicate the data from a science textbook in a school laboratory because the data collection is too complex. Instead, we might explore the scientific process taken by a research group as we unpack a beautiful classic experiment and marvel at their discovery and how it has shaped our understanding of scientific concepts . A personal favourite is the magically simple experiment of Meselson and Stahl which elucidated how exact copies of DNA are created each time a new cell is formed [1]. At the end of a lesson exploring their experiment, it is customary to have a look at photographs of the scientists and perhaps consider how they may have come up with their experimental design.
Above: Meselson in his lab, 1958
I often ponder whilst looking at a black and white photograph of a scientist with his unrecognisable equipment, how this person might be perceived by the students sitting in front of me in our shiny new STEAM tower. Is this what being a scientist entails? Even after removing the stereotype of the person themselves, there is the barrier of the often sophisticated machinery and the hours of patient work required to collect sufficient data to make meaningful conclusions. I have no doubt that although we can enjoy the simplicity of their experiments in class, it surely reinforces the notion that novel scientific research is something inaccessible and unattractive to many school students.
In sport, there are countless role models of young athletes competing on the world stage, with celebrated successes at their local schools. The same can be said of talented young actors, artists, musicians and even activists and politicians. But try to think of a brilliant young scientist who has gone on to become a world leader having had the opportunity to hone their skills and find their path whilst at school. The fantastic news that two leading female scientists, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, have just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on genome editing [2] will certainly go a long way to inspiring more female scientists to dream big. However, like most leading scientists, their first taste of authentic research came after entering university and most are often only recognised much later in life.
The good news is that a growing number of passionate science teachers have teamed up with academics and a variety of institutions to provide opportunities for young scientists. Most research projects require access to expensive machinery or software that is beyond the reach of a school science department budget, and even those projects that are possible often tend to focus more on one or two aspects of the scientific process and cannot give the students carte blanche to explore their own curiosities because of time or cost constraints. Nevertheless at WHS we jumped on board and our students have benefitted hugely from projects including ORBYTS, and IRIS.
While I was in that lecture at Oxford that I suddenly realised that the missing ingredient that has recently evaporated was the need for the sophisticated machinery, and along with it, the prohibitive costs, and lengthy time required to collect data. The lecture was given by Prof Stephen Roberts, who specialises in machine learning and data analysis. Talking to him after his presentation about how ‘big data’ has shifted the emphasis in many university research labs from classic experimental design and data collection, towards a notion of data mining confirmed for me that the vast array of publicly available big datasets means that this modern approach to the scientific method makes novel research a feasible venture for all school students.
Scientific research using a data mining approach is exciting in that the data already exists, replacing the need for laborious experimental testing. The phenomenal progress in the field of artificial intelligence has meant that individual lab-bench experimental datasets are being replaced with enormous datasets which bring with them greater authenticity to the results, and also the ability to explore an expansive array of research questions that were never possible before. Data is amassing quicker than tertiary-level scientists can analyse it, and so the potential for school students to pose innovative research questions of these big datasets is not only boundless, but also a welcome and untapped asset in the quest to answer the world’s most pressing scientific questions.
Above: The Scientific Method
Novel research already on the go at WHS
We have already embarked on this exciting journey. Our first venture has been a collaboration with AELTC and IBM, who have kindly provided us with access to a huge dataset from the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Like all great research groups, and in true STEAM+ style, we bring together different skills. The creative powers of the unclouded vision of the young scientists, supported by our Director of Sport Ms Coutts-Wood’s expertise in sport science and my experience of data analysis, has meant than we are in the final stages of publishing our first scientific paper on the impact of serve speed on winning the point. How apt!
Two more groups started during lockdown. One group under the supervision of Ms McGovern (Head of Chemistry) in collaboration with the University of Bristol, has recently received a special award for their research on Air Pollution. The other group are drawing on the expertise at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Heidelberg, Germany and the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus outside Cambridge. Their research questions range from discovering the differences in proteins associated with immune function in red and grey squirrels, to determining which mammalian species do not have attachment sites for the coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) spike protein. These bioinformatics projects will be launched on the EBI website soon to allow other schools to join in as well. Watch this space!
Just as the new STEAM tower is about to open, so too are new exciting possibilities for our young imaginative scientists at WHS.
Above: Discussing exciting new findings in the STEAM tower
Millie (Year 13) explores issues surrounding food production and climate change.
If we look at the UK today, there has never been a wider range of exotic foods in our supermarkets and restaurants. In Western society, we are now able to access an unprecedented choice of fruits and vegetables. Just a few decades ago, no one could ever have dreamed of picking up a pineapple that was grown thousands of miles away at their local shops. Globalization has given consumers huge choices. But what does this mean for our environment, given current consumer demand in the United Kingdom?
Food and carbon in the UK
The food industry makes up 20% of the UK’s carbon footprint (Carasso et al, 2015), with the fruit and vegetable industries accounting for 10-12.5% of total food-related emissions (Garnett, 2006). This sector emits a small but significant part of our overall carbon dioxide emissions. The average person in the United Kingdom emits 15 tonnes of carbon per year, and this needs to be reduced by at least a third to be on the way to reducing the UK’s carbon footprint (Berners-Lee, 2019).
Food could be one of the ways to do this, as something we consume every day. It is important to consider the whole fruit and vegetable supply chain and where the largest carbon savings can be made. It appears that consumer behaviour is the most important factor, followed by transport, waste, agriculture, technology, energy usage, resources, and finally, processing and packaging. A safe and extensive new food system is needed for the production and distribution of fruits and vegetables and there are so many changes which could be made in each stage of the food system. It will be difficult to achieve a universal solution but making changes in all the different areas in the industry will eventually benefit the environment greatly.
Consumer behaviour
Above: Supermarket by Pixabay
Consumer behaviour is the most important factor in reducing emissions, as it underpins all the other areas of the industry. Consumer demand influences what products are brought to the shelves and the supply chains and processes that are used, so we have the opportunity as citizens to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of this industry. Consumers being aware of the environmental credentials of different food products is key to reducing emissions, as they can then make informed decisions about what fruit and vegetable supply chains they will support. According to Berners-Lee (2010), asparagus contributes to 125g CO2e for a local and seasonal pack but that same pack, flown from Peru to the UK in January, creates a massive 3.5kg CO2e. In this way, by being educated further and choosing more sustainable products, we can change the carbon footprint of this sector. It is difficult to change consumer behaviour, but it links all the factors together, and changing what the customer demands will change what the supermarkets supply. If we all work together, a big reduction in carbon dioxide emissions could be made.
Transport
Transport is one of the key contributors to the overall carbon emissions of the fruit and vegetable industry, and the next most important factor in lowering carbon dioxide emissions. Imports are a huge industry in the UK due to our temperate climate that can only grow a limited variety of crops. As summarized by the EU Fruit and Vegetables Regime: Producer Organisations (2017, p.5.), ‘Fruit and vegetables are by far the greatest source of imports in the UK food system’, making up 25.5%, with 15% of vegetables being imported and 62% of the fruits we consume (Garnett, 2006).
The UK becoming more self-sufficient would reduce the volume of imports needed, reducing transport emissions, so growing more of our own crops would really benefit the environment in most cases. This may require a change in consumer demand, however, to be viable, with the UK’s temperate climate. Reducing plane travel through changes in demand to less perishable goods is also really important, as the most carbon-intensive mode of transport, releasing 4.59kg of carbon dioxide per pound of goods (Berners-Lee, 2010). Increasing shipping and driving from abroad would also be very effective in reducing carbon emissions, despite some exceptions. Retailers could also be encouraged to source their items from places where more environmentally friendly transport methods are used, and this would be another useful way to lower the sector’s carbon footprint. Therefore, transport is really important in this climate battle, and a lot of changes could be made here, although there are challenges.
Above: food waste by PickPik
Waste not, want not…
Waste is another really important area in emissions reduction, as currently, one third of the food we produce is wasted (Royte, 2014), creating needless carbon dioxide emissions, and a 50% reduction in food waste could be achieved by 2030 compared to what it was in 2010 (Rothamsted Research, 2016) through various methods. Increasing awareness of waste and how it could be reduced along every stage of the food supply chain is vital, such as the modification of consumer expectation and the sale of fruits and vegetables which would have been wasted, such as the wonky fruits scheme.
Restaurants could also introduce more takeaway boxes, portion size choices and self-service to lower the volume of wasted food. There are many innovative solutions to this waste crisis, such as a new technology based on dynamic pricing created by the organisation Wasteless. Artificial intelligence is used to help retailers sell food that is perishable at the best price when it is near its ‘use-by’ date (Glover et al., 2020). Most shoppers reach to the back of the shelf, getting longer expiration dates so that shorter ones go to waste, according to David Cut, an employee at the company. The shorter expiration date could be made to look more attractive by lowering their price at the right moment to incentivise customers to buy that product over one with a longer expiration date. Therefore, waste is a really important factor in reducing emissions.
Agriculture
Above: Agriculture by SnappyGoat
Agriculture is the next biggest area for emissions to be reduced in this sector. This could be done through better and more efficient land use, using clever planting methods which would allow more food to be grown in the same space. Soil carbon sequestration, taking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, is a very viable and useful way to take carbon out of the air, even though this technology is new and could foster our dependency on greenhouse gases. Methods like this have been cited as necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Amann et al., 2008).
Less deforestation is essential, as out of three and a half tonnes per person per year on average produced by the food we eat, deforestation accounts for two tonnes of it (Tolley, 2019). We need to increase the number of carbon sinks and reduce the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and less deforestation is needed to achieve this. I believe that building sustainable agriculture is key to achieving a reduction in emissions.
The use of technology
The use of technology in agriculture is the next most important way to reduce the carbon footprint of this sector, as it is critical in reducing the damage caused to the environment. Technology, globalization and marketing have changed recent attitudes towards food, as we need to start prioritizing the environment and safety over consumer demands and money. Genetic modification is a very controversial topic and, even though it could improve the environmental credentials of many foods, many people are opposed to it, seeing it as unnatural. According to Buller (2005), there is no long-term data concerning the safety of genetically modified foods, and it is not known how they affect health or the environment long term. However, it could be an incredible way to increase productivity of crops, make them more resistant to disease and different weather conditions, and reduce emissions in this way. Technology is really important in agriculture in the 21st century, as there have been so many scientific advancements in the last 40 years (Rothamsted Research, 2016) and it has many possibilities, but there are always limitations.
Driving efficiency
The energy consumption and efficiency of the food industry is the also really important in making changes to benefit the environment. So much energy is wasted in the production, storage and transport of foods. Protected horticulture requires a lot of energy, so fewer crops should be grown in this way, and instead in their suitable climate, but this may not be possible without food supply chains being changed drastically. For example, the environmental footprint for strawberry production in the UK is approximately 1.2 CO2 equivalent per kilogram whereas it is 0.35 in Spain (Gaillard et al, 2009). This shows that shorter transport distances don’t necessarily mean reduced carbon emissions, as foods could have been grown in hothouses, such as tomatoes in the UK, and actually those flown in from Spain have lower emissions as they grow well in the natural climate there without increased energy emissions.
Also, improvements in the crop growing efficiency of glasshouses would be beneficial, such as with better lighting, excess crops being used as fuel, and reducing machinery usage for less effect on the environment. This would ask a lot of farmers to change their whole lifestyle, but big changes are needed to create big reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing refrigeration efficiency would be very beneficial, with refrigeration used in all parts of the supply chain, but it could be hard to implement nationwide. Renewable energies are the future, and their usage is needed for a sustainable future across the food supply chain. According to Berners-Lee (2010), solar power is the best renewable source with a lot of potential, but it doesn’t currently contribute a lot to energy supplies. Fundamental societal change will be needed but changes in energy efficiency and consumption could reduce emissions greatly.
Use of pesticides and fertilizers
Above: Soil by PickPik
Resource usage in agriculture is another key factor contributing to the carbon dioxide emissions of this sector, including pesticides and fertilizers. If we use our resources wisely, we can live well and provide a life on this planet for future generations too. We need to use a smaller volume of resources but in a more efficient way to produce crops in a new production-consumption system, according to Rothamsted Research (2016). Fertilizers and pesticides are so useful to produce enough food for the planet, increasing crop yields and reducing the effect of pests so that more products can be sold. However, they are detrimental for the environment in their production and use, and their overuse can lead to pollution, worsening the effects on the environment. Fossil fuels are used to manufacture fertilizer, making up 12% of food’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (Berners-Lee, 2019) and pesticides can greatly harm the environment, impacting directly and indirectly on biodiversity as they kill many pests and other species as well (Murphy-Bokern et al, 2008). Therefore, their usage should be monitored and limited, in my opinion. They could be used with other more carbon-friendly methods, such as the use of manure and biological control, to increase productivity. The use of resources in agricultural production is therefore very important, and they need to be used in moderation.
Packaging
Improving the efficiency of the processing and packaging of fruits and vegetables could reduce emissions in this industry, although there are challenges. This is the method by which the least tonnes of emissions could be saved, but there still could be changes made. Processing food is a great way to greatly increase shelf life, reducing waste and its associated high emissions. Also, packaging provides valuable information and can help food to last longer, so less of it is wasted. Overall, not a lot of modifications could be made here to improve the environmental credentials. However, methods such as consumers bringing their own packaging like Tupperware could make a small difference in emissions for shops. Also, supermarkets could use more carbon friendly packaging. For example, one of the UK’s largest supermarkets, Waitrose, say that they started to reduce packaging in 2009. Karen Graley, who works in packaging at Waitrose said that ‘Within the next five years, we will make all our own brand-packaging widely recycled, reusable or home compostable’ (Duffy, 2019). Small but no substantial differences in emissions could be achieved by processing and packaging.
Above: Grapes in paper bag by PickPik
Final thoughts
If nothing is done, by the end of this century, post global warming, there will be environmental, social and economic degradation. We can avoid a looming food crisis by united actions. All factors need to be considered, especially consumer behaviour, and this can be changed through media and advertising in retailers across the UK. To feed a growing population with nutritious, delicious, low carbon food, there will be many challenges ahead but if everyone, including food policy makers, producers, farmers, retailers and consumers works to influence the others and changes their actions for a more sustainable world, we can restore our relationship with nature and live better than ever. Big differences will need to be made and although there will be many challenges and difficulties, I believe that the carbon dioxide emissions of the fruit and vegetable industry in the United Kingdom can be reduced significantly.
References
Amann, J., Bouallou, C., Gros-Bonnivard, R., Jaud, P., Kanniche, M., Valle-Marcos, J. (2008). Pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxy-combustion in thermal power plant for CO2 capture. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359431109001471. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Berners-Lee, M. (2010). How Bad are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything. www.profilebooks.com. Last accessed 14th April 2020.
Berners-Lee, M. (2019). There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years. Cambridge University Press. Last accessed 14th April 2020.
Buller, L. (2005). The Eyewitness Guide To Food. DK Eyewitness UK. Last accessed 30th March 2020.
Carasso, N. and Fondation Daniel. (2015). Chapter 3. Food systems and greenhouse gas emissions. Available: https://foodsource.org.uk/sites/default/files/chapters/pdfs/foodsource_chapter_3.pdf. Last accessed 24th June 2020.
Duffy, N. (2019). Action Stations. Waitrose and Partners’ Food Magazine. Last accessed 3rd June 2020.
EU Fruit and Vegetables Regime: Producer Organisations. (2017). United Kingdom’s National Strategy for Sustainable Operational Programmes. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665637/National_Strategy_final_Dec_2017.pdf. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Gaillard, G, Dr., Mordini, M., Nemecek, T, Dr. (2009). Carbon and Water Footprint of Oranges and Strawberries A Literature Review. Available: https://saiplatform.org/uploads/Library/WG%20Fruit%20-%20ART%20Final%20Report.pdf. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Garnett, T. (2006). Fruit and Vegetables & UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Exploring The Relationship. Available: https://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/Fruitnveg_paper_2006.pdf. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Glover, F., Milne, G., Smithern, A., Greenfield, R., Lemanski, B. (2020). Positive Thinking: Tackling Food Waste Podcast. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cqd6. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Murphy-Bokern, D. et al. (2008). Environmental impacts of the UK food economy with particular reference to WWF Priority Places and the North-east Atlantic. Available: http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/environmentalimpacts_ukfoodconsumption.pdf. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Rothamsted Research. (2016). Agricultural Transformation Pathways Initiative. Available: https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep15873.6?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=agricultural&searchText=transformation&searchText=pathways&searchText=initiative&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSear. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Royte, E. (2014). One-Third of Food Is Lost or Wasted: What Can Be Done. Available: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141013-food-waste-national-security-environment-science-ngfood/. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Tolley, M. (2019). How to reduce your carbon footprint by 80% TEDxTelford Talk. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r06-dpRsEg. Last accessed 12th June 2020.
Dr Anna Field, teacher of History at WHS, explores an article from the journal Teaching History and how dialogue in the classroom can create layers of historical understanding
‘1069 and all that: the dialogic understanding of the Norman legacy in Chester’, Teaching History 175 (June 2019)
“…dialogue can be harnessed in the classroom and enable students to create meaningful connections between factual, conceptual, and contextual knowledge.”
Bird and Wilson’s impressive study investigates the role of classroom dialogue in the production and application of historical knowledge across a three-lesson Y8 enquiry on the Norman legacy in Chester. Using methods from sociocultural psychology, the authors argue that the students’ historical knowledge both shapes, and is shaped by, dialogic interaction in the classroom. How this is achieved, they contend, remains an understudied area. While the article’s focus is on classroom dialogue as a whole rather than questioning per se, the authors’ examples of classroom exchange demonstrate the importance of teacher questioning in the creation of explicit and tacit historical knowledge. The result is a carefully planned a well-executed consideration of the interaction between different levels of historical knowledge in KS3 pupils, which further suggests how dialogue can be harnessed in the classroom and enable students to create meaningful connections between factual, conceptual, and contextual knowledge. The authors largely succeed in their aim to shed light on the different ways to create these links.
According to Bird and Wilson, dialogue stimulates interaction and movement between layers of factual, conceptual, and contextual knowledge and thus promotes historical understanding. In the first enquiry lesson, the process gauging students’ knowledge unearthed misconceptions surrounding chronology. While the students could make inferences, it was clear to the teachers that deeper knowledge did not yet underpin those inferences, and was not yet at their ‘fingertips’ during class discussion. Transcripts of dialogue from the next two lessons demonstrated the importance of teacher questioning – ‘probing’ – in how students started to evaluate significance and generate collective knowledge. Teacher questions were guided by student inferences, using an open format that encourages students to use their explicit historical knowledge – facts, dates, events – to develop a tacit understanding of the ideas and beliefs that sources from this period reveal. The trajectory of questions can be traced from ‘wow, tell us more! What we learn from this’; to ‘how can we learn that information [from the sources]?’; to ‘why were they [the Normans] smart?’.
These questions generated a ‘moment of contingency’ in one pupil that guided the whole class to read the primary texts in a specific way. The authors showed that these interactions fostered a deeper and verbally explicit connection between ‘layers’ of historical understanding in the individual and the wider group. In the words of Bird and Wilson ‘in this way knowledge becomes dynamic, changing and flexibly understood rather than inert, static and brittle’, a key quotation which demonstrates the contribution their study makes to History education pedagogy.
Nazlee Haq, teacher of Maths at WHS, looks at the book Teaching Backwards and what it says about the teacher as detective and the power of metacognitive questioning
“Over a series of lessons, students should be asked metacognitive questions. These can be posed at any point in the lesson.”
Reduced face-to-face contact with students due to Covid-19 restrictions has highlighted how vital it is to get questioning right in the classroom to assess students’ understanding of the curriculum.
In ‘Teaching Backwards’ we learn that questioning is a tool for “looking for proof of learning”. The role of the teacher detective is to establish the quality and depth of learning that has taken place over a period of teaching. Teachers should also be able to forecast the types of questions students will ask, using the lesson plan as a prompt to do so.
As a teacher you know what you want your students to have learned by the end of the lesson, so that when they are assessed they can demonstrate a clear understanding of the concepts.
The right questions can act as proof as to whether students are on the right track to understanding content. Questions can take several forms:
To check for weak understanding
To create deliberate confusion to see how students deal with the challenge, although this tangential approach may not be appropriate for all students
Ask students to provide evidence for their answers
Help teachers to understand whether the students’ thinking process is robust and on track or not
Initial questions might be open, but also require students to provide support for their verbal answers. For example, “Tell me what you have learned so far about …..?” followed by, “Can you provide evidence for ….?”. By setting this type of expectation in questioning students, Hattie argues that teachers establish academic rigour in the classroom.
However, others have argued individual, pair, group or whole class that giving students ‘wait time’ is also valuable. By giving this allocated time students become increasingly skilled at giving detailed answers, enhancing the quality of their reflection.
Over a series of lessons, students should be asked metacognitive questions. These can be posed at any point in the lesson.
At the start, ‘Have you seen a problem like this before?’. Or during, ‘What part of this is easy/difficult to explain to someone else?’ and ‘What stages are crucial in explaining this concept?’ At the end, ‘How will you remember this learning?’ or ‘If you did this again, how could you do it better?’
I particularly liked this last set of questions as they prompt students to think about how they are working through problems.
Lily in Year 13 looks at the importance of sovereign wealth funds, telling us more about this area of Economics.
Simply, a sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund meaning countries can invest in shares and assets internationally in the hope that these investments will then increase in value. These profits can then be extracted by a government when shares are sold and ideally then used to benefit the country’s economy and citizens.
The term sovereign wealth fund was initially created in 2005 by the economist Andrew Rozanov who stated that the funds in question “are neither traditional public-pension funds nor reserve assets…but a different type of entity altogether”. A new and exciting form of investment was emerging, now commonly called the sovereign wealth fund.
Sovereign wealth funds are important because of the economic benefits they can bring to a country. The largest fund in the world at the moment is the Government Pension fund of Norway which “owns on average 1.3% of all equities listed worldwide”, which means that Norway owns 1.3% of global stocks and shares, now worth over $1 trillion in assets. This shows the scale of these funds and the influence they can have on the world economy.
One key benefit of sovereign wealth funds is the diversification of countries incomes. This is because sovereign wealth funds almost always invest in foreign assets which is particularly helpful if a country relies on a single commodity for their income as they are more at risk if that particular industry experiences a downturn. This is why many oil reliant countries have sovereign wealth funds as oil markets are often volatile. This factor has become particularly important in 2020 through the corona virus epidemic, one specific example being in the oil industry since “US oil prices went negative for the first time in history” in April 2020, resulting in companies paying people to take oil off their hands because the demand for oil had fallen so rapidly.
This shows the oil industry is particularly vulnerable to large fluctuations in price and if a country relies on oil for their income they could be at risk of an economic downturn (recession). Sovereign wealth funds have been shown to limit this risk as some funds around the Gulf (largely oil reliant countries) are already “channelling some of their billions back to counter the recession triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.”, showing how important these funds have already been for the recovery and survival of oil reliant economies throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.
However, there are debates surrounding the benefits of sovereign wealth funds as there will always be an element of risk in making investments since they can never be one hundred percent safe as assets always have the possibility of decreasing in value. This includes the idea of black swan events – the idea that some events are unpredictable and therefore markets cannot prepare for the shocks they cause. This is one way of stating we can’t predict the future and therefore will never be able to completely rely on an investment bringing positive returns. Which poses the question ‘is it a good idea to be risking millions of public money on the stock market?’
Sovereign wealth funds can be very beneficial but there are always opportunities for investments to turn sour. This means that it is important for a country to analyse the rewards that can be generated before creating a sovereign wealth fund. These countries are still not immune to black swan events which can disrupt the global economy however, if profits from these funds are used well they can actually mitigate these risks and add huge value to their economies, such as through diversification. A well-managed and cleverly invested fund will always benefit the country at hand if it is used wisely. These benefits mean that sovereign wealth funds are likely to become more and more common, making them important as they a likely to become a huge factor of the global economy.
Mrs Hattie Franklin, Head of Year 12 and Oxbridge Coordinator (Arts and Humanities), explores what learning at Oxbridge entails and how the Oxbridge and Academic Scholarship programmes can help WHS students with their applications and developing their attitude to their own intellectual curiosity and passions.
Oxford and Cambridge are two of the oldest and most famous universities in the world, ranked at the top of the league tables and justifiably revered for nurturing academia across all disciplines. The undergraduate offering is a world class education and students from all over the globe vie for places in the hope of gaining a well-respected degree which unlocks opportunities in life after university. The myths surrounding the interview process are legendary, the pace of the teaching is fast, demanding and rewarding, the co-curricular offering is rich, and some of the traditions are just a little quirky. But, with competition for places more intense than ever and no guarantee of a successful application, it can be an intimidating challenge to take on. So, I would like to talk through an overview of an Oxbridge education in this article and explain why it is perhaps a little more accessible than you might think.
What kind of thinker are you?
Are you naturally curious, question what you learn in lessons and enjoy debating hot topics with your peers and your teachers? Do you live by the Socratic maxim that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living for mankind’? If so, the Oxbridge teaching model might well suit you. The core teaching for each subject is based around conversations, normally between two or three students and their tutor, who is an expert on that topic. These are called tutorials (Oxford) or supervisions (Cambridge), and they offer a chance to talk in-depth about a topic and to receive individual feedback on your work. To prepare for each meeting with their tutor, students will have read the books on the reading list and prepared an essay a week, or sometimes, two. There is also a requirement to attend lectures, seminars and classes on a weekly basis to supplement learning. Terms are shorter than other universities’ and are only 8 weeks long which means that preparatory work for each term is set for the preceding holiday and examined in the week before term officially begins. So, in addition to strong academic ability, you need to have mastered those important study skills of organisation and time management and be motivated to study independently.
How do I know if it’s the right thing for me?
There is no typical Oxbridge student and no single experience. Students who are passionate about their subject, diligent, driven and, most of all, have a love of academic exploration are already embodying many of the qualities necessary to apply and to succeed. It is never too early to embrace academic excellence and WHS has a varied and exciting Academic Scholarship programme to inspire pupils at every Key Stage, including Rosewell and Explore lectures, subject societies and academic extension clubs, WimTalks and Symposia, masterclasses and more informal discussion groups such as the hugely popular Tea and T’inking. In our new STEAM tower, and through our STEAM+ initiative, we have a brilliant new space specifically designed to help ingenuity to flourish and allow creative experimentation in inter-disciplinary learning. The scholarship programme is a warmly inclusive one: a desire to challenge oneself and venture into new areas of interest are the only criteria for involvement. More on our WHS offering across the school can be found in Mr Addis’s blog here https://wakelet.com/wake/amIaQ4T3b_jPHEuEUGf3v
Above: Sixth Formers studying in the Common Room
I’ve decided to apply: now what?
Every student who decides to apply for Oxbridge will have access to individual and group support as part of the Oxbridge preparation programme. The programme is officially launched in the Spring Term of Year 12 and we assign students a mentor in their subject, with whom they will meet regularly to discuss and develop their areas of interest. The best candidates drive their own mentoring sessions, bringing ideas to the table and challenging themselves to think around their subject. Importantly, it should not feel like ‘extra’ work but an opportunity to explore areas that have particularly piqued your interest in lessons. A favourite author, a specific and niche period of History, a passion for Greek tragedy or a love of linguistics: there are no set boundaries and the world of academia really is your metaphorical oyster!
The application process
Oxbridge applications need to be submitted earlier than other universities, and students will need to finalise their Personal Statements in the summer holiday of Year 12, ready to review and send to UCAS before October half term. You will focus also in the Autumn term of Year 13 on preparing for any aptitude test and, if invited for one, your interview.
Urban myths abound about the ‘dreaded’ Oxbridge interview: as I prepared for my own, I was horrified to be told stories of the naïve student who was asked to throw a brick through a (closed) window or the hopeful who, when asked by the interviewing don to ‘surprise me!’, set fire to his interviewer’s newspaper with unfortunate consequences. The reality for me was a very accessible and interesting conversation about Medea and other Euripides plays, which I had nominated in the interview as my specialist subject, a few difficult questions to prompt lateral and dynamic thinking, and absolutely no requests to destroy any element of my tutor’s study.
Interviews can be unnerving: they are, by and large, a new experience in an unfamiliar place but your interviewer is on your side and will not expect you to be a global expert on your A level subject. At interview, the best candidates present their ability, interest and potential, and are encouraged to apply their knowledge to new problems.
You will be expected to engage in an intense academic conversation to allow you show what you know but also to demonstrate that you would flourish in a tutorial-style learning environment. There will be a few unexpected questions; primarily to stop you reciting your carefully learned, heftily rhetorical speech on why Homer is the best poet that the world has ever seen (He is. But your interviewer also knows that). Thinking hard, pausing to collect yourself, being measured, coherent and eloquent in your responses are all components of a good interview which will hopefully be enjoyed by both sides. With regards to preparation, practice is key to help you acclimatise to nerves and think quickly and logically, so do take advantage of any opportunities organized by the school and independently if you can.
Above: Year 12 Science
Fortes fortuna adiuvat
The highly competitive nature of the application process and the extra effort involved proves to be too much of a gamble for some. In addition, on review of the courses available, other students conclude that their dream university course is not to be found at Oxford or Cambridge. However, pupils who are confident, highly academic and have an intrinsic love of learning should certainly seek advice about Oxbridge application from the teacher of their favourite subject or the WHS Sixth Form Team. Whatever the outcome, the experience of an application will be an intellectually enriching and stimulating one, and it could result in three or four years of an unforgettable undergraduate educational experience.
Moreover, in addition to the academic experience, Oxford and Cambridge also both offer a vast range of activities to be enjoyed outside of tutorials, from debating in the Oxford Union to the Cambridge Footlights; from college choirs to becoming a sporting Blue; plus many of the usual student societies. Do contact me or Mrs Nicolas (for STEM subjects) or myself if you would like to find out more.
And one final word of advice about that interview: do have something in your arsenal which does not involve arson itself, on the off-chance that a world expert actually does ask you to ‘surprise them’…
