This week, we have a post-it note activity that is all about collaboration between students. Morven’s Year 9 DT students considered the impact of physical disability on individuals’ lives using post-it notes to share ideas. Using post-it notes is quick in terms of teacher preparation time, but can be really impactful. Plus, the physical (rather than digital) nature of this makes the most of being back in the classroom together.
This is how Morven’s post-it collaboration worked:
Students were on their feet in groups of 4.
On different tables there were disability fact files.
Each group had 2 mins to read the disability fact file on their table. They then had to jot down ideas on post-it notes of activities that their user might struggle with.
At the end of the allocated time, they then moved onto the next table and repeated the activity.
Each group had a different colour of post-it note.
After groups had rotated round all tables, Morven chose one student from each team to give a brief overview of their fact file. Then as a group they evaluated all the post-it notes from across the groups and chose the three post-it notes which jumped out at them to share back to the class
Morven took photos of the post-it notes and put them on Teams.
Next lesson they will begin to design potential solutions for these scenarios.
Benefits
Peer evaluation is built into the feedback process – students need to review other groups’ ideas and weigh them up.
The pace kept students focussed and on task.
The physical nature of the activity capitalises on being back in the physical classroom.
Students were thinking for themselves using stimulus information.
Neurodiversity considerations for this activity from Isabelle and Catherine
Be aware of sensory sensitivities:
Touch: Some students might find the close proximity of collaborating on the same sheet of paper difficult.
Noise: Some students might find the group talking section of this too loud.
Be aware that the time allocation may not suit students with different processing speeds, so ensure that thinking time is built in to make the pace manageable.
Please be aware that it is important to set boundaries for some students who might have hyper-activity tendencies.
Ms Jenny Cox, Director of Co-curricular and Partnerships considers ‘School life outside the curriculum, is it important?’
“I need 3 A*’s to get to where I want to be. That means more focus on work less time on other things.”
I’m
sure we have all heard this or possibly said this at some time in our lives,
particularly when we feel under pressure. I’m pleased to say that Wimbledon
High bucks the trend with the approach that promotes work, work, and more work,
as being the key to success. We see the drive to achievement as a more rounded
and fulfilling experience. However, is everyone convinced of this?
Anxiety, self-confidence, motivation
and concentration can play a huge role in our mind during day-to-day life. How
we choose to deal with these can affect our well-being and our ability to
function effectively. Cognitive anxiety can exhibit itself as Fuzzy Head Anxiety, sometimes also known as Brain
fog anxiety, which can occur when a person feels so anxious, they have difficulty
concentrating or thinking clearly. At
times, high somatic
anxiety can lead to sickness, upset and a lack of appetite. Whilst it is normal to experience occasional cognitive
and somatic anxiety, especially during times of high stress, it important to
have strategies to help us lift ourselves out of this, as the worries about grades, about covid and about not
being good enough, are all very real concerns as we ease ourselves back into
‘normal’ life.
Look beyond yourself
It has long been acknowledged that acts of generosity raise
levels of happiness and emotional well-being, giving charitable people a
pleasant feeling known, as a “warm glow.”
In the Medical News Today, Maria Cohut (2017) wrote an article on how ‘Generosity makes you happier’. She reported on a study of forty-eight people, all of whom were allocated a sum of money on a weekly basis for four weeks. In short, one group were asked to spend the money and the other group asked to make public pledges and all participants were asked to report their level of happiness both at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. The results found that all participants who had performed, or had been willing to perform, an act of generosity – no matter how small – viewed themselves as happier at the end of the experiment. It is studies like this, alongside others, that convince us that our partnership and charities work, so heavily and generously invested in by our students, is vital to maintaining a sense of perspective and our sense of well-being.
Students performing music at Friday Jammin
Work hard and play hard
In 2020, 98% of the top ten highest achievers in Years 7, 8 and 9 at Wimbledon High took part in at least five sessions of co-curricular activities per week; is this a coincidence? Previous research has also revealed positive and significant relationships between higher physical activity and greater academic achievement (Chih and Chen 2011; Bailey 2006; Chomitz, Slining, McGowan, Mitchell, Dawson, and Hacker, 2009). There are a multitude of benefits to taking part in a balanced programme of co-curricular activities. Whether they are in school or externally organised, both appear to be hugely beneficial.
All
the feelings of immersing yourself in the activities you love will again enhance
feelings of well-being and start to reduce levels of stress, should they be
high. The well documented moments of Flow (Csikszentmihalyi,
Harper and Row, 1990) refer to those times when people report feelings of
concentration and deep enjoyment. These moments maybe found on the hockey
pitch, in orchestra, chess club, debating, GeogOn, Femigineers, whatever is
your passion. Investigations have revealed that what makes the experience
genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness; a state of concentration so
focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. People typically
feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of
their abilities. Both a sense of time and emotional problems seem to disappear,
and there is an exhilarating feeling of wholeness. This can be controlled, and
not just left to chance, by setting ourselves challenges – tasks
that are neither too difficult nor too simple for our abilities. With such
goals, we learn to order the information that enters our consciousness and
thereby improve the quality of our lives.
Life
outside the curriculum, is it important?
Evidence seems to point in the direction that a well-planned
and attainable life outside the curriculum will enhance academic studies,
promote feelings of well-being, and give a sense of perspective on day-to-day
anxieties. Having said this, we have
decided to research this ourselves. Look out for the opportunity to be part of
a piece of research later this year, conducted by Ms Coutts-Wood and I, where
we shall dig deeper into life at Wimbledon High. Specifically, we will be
investigating the impact of our co-curricular and partnership programmes on
academic progress and well-being.
Bailey, R. 2006. Physical education and sport in schools: A review of benefits and outcomes. Journal of School Health, Vol. 76, No. 8.
Chih, C.H. and Chen, J. 2011. The Relationship between Physical Education Performance, Fitness Tests and Academic Achievement in Elementary School. The International Journal of Sport and Society, Vol. 2, No.1.
Chomitz, V.R., Slining, M.M., McGowan, R.J., Mitchell, S.E., Dawson, G.F., Hacker, K.A. 2009. Is there a relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement? Positive results from public school children in the Northeastern United States. Journal of School Health, Vol. 79 Issue 1, P30.
Cohut, Maria. 2017. Medical News Today ‘Generosity makes you happier’
Teaching and learning Gem #43 – teacher and student collaborative experimentation – promoting student instinct, braveness and wider philosophical questions
Phoebe in the Art Department shares an activity in which students and teacher are all involved in a process of collaboration, making and responding. The activity makes teacher and student part of the same process, a democratising process and one which explores a fundamental philosophical question: what is the role of the artist, teacher and pupil. Who is the artist?
How it works:
Phoebe instigated a process of making and responding with the instruction ‘Respond to this piece. You have 5 minutes. When you are finished, give your response and a new canvas to the next person with these instructions’.
Phoebe provided the rules and parameters to stimulate production, yet each individual had the autonomy to intervene, influence and change the ‘chain of making’.
Phoebe’s own responses started and finished the process.
Neurodiversity considerations for this activity from Isabelle and Catherine
Encourage students to trust their gut instinct – a good explanation is key as you might get nervousness from students who might want to be perfectionists.
Benefits – Phoebe explains that:
The students found that the time limit forced them to work without thinking too much about it, allowing them to trust their instincts and be braver than if they had time to plan.
This was really beneficial at the start of year 12 where experimentation is vital for their development as artists.
It was also rewarding for them to see how their work could inspire each other.
Through group collaboration, we are exploring the role of the artist, the role of the teacher and the role of the pupil, raising the question: Who is the artist?
I want to repeat this activity in the coming weeks and see how much their work as grown and compare them with their initial responses.
Deputy Head Pastoral, Ben Turner, questions what role can schools play in tackling violence against women.
The killing of Sabina Nessa, a 28-year-old primary school teacher, has again brought the media spotlight onto how the government, and wider society, is protecting women and girls against violence. Six months on from Sarah Everard’s murder, questions are rightly being asked about whether women are any safer.
As we acknowledge the grief caused
by the loss of another young woman, we must also look at our continued work to
help safeguard young women in our own school community. While the spotlight has
focussed on other areas, Wimbledon High has been busy outlining the pillars of
the Wimbledon Charter. A set of principles around protecting young girls from
sexual assault and harassment, as well as taking a proactive, preventative
approach with both sexes in meaningful partnership with Kings College School,
Wimbledon, and other prospective partners.
The Charter seeks to outline the
key role every member of our and other school communities can play in
safeguarding young people, as we seek lasting change in the way that girls and
women are seen, recognising our role in wider society to protect and inform.
A safeguarding culture where
voices are heard and protected
The Everyone’s Invited movement
caused seismic shifts in the way that some institutions acted around reports of
sexual assault and harassment. In our own school we have asked hard questions
of how and when students are able to disclose what may have happened but also
how those voices have been protected. Fundamental to the Charter is the
acknowledgement that this is not solely a boys’ school issue. The importance of
specialist training for staff, but also an acknowledgement and protection of
peers, is essential in single and mixed sex institutions.
As a school we have taken some
definitive steps to ensure we continue to reflect an open and overt
safeguarding culture. The appointment of a Lead Counsellor, with a specialism
in sexual trauma, has been an important step. Making that role clear to
students and staff is equally important however and adding another ‘space’ that
girls can go has been vital. Building on the safeguarding update that all staff
receive, we will also seek to train at least four key pastoral staff as
specialists in sexual violence and harassment in partnership with Lime Culture,
which will be mirrored by KCS.
We must always ensure that we are
working in partnership with those agencies that can affect change beyond the
school gates. We are working closely with our Police Liaison, and other
partners in Merton, to ensure that the sharing of information around risk and
vulnerable students is always our first priority.
A proactive and synchronised
programme of Relationship & Sex Education
The time for tea is over, was a
line I wrote at the time of EI and the murder of Sarah Everard. I wrote it out
of frustration with the manner in which PSHE can often be forgotten or
diminished by teachers, and therefore schools, who are more focussed on the
scholastic integrity of their subject than paying credence to a curriculum
outside of their own department. Instead, schools have often deferred to
experts, experts who come in for thirty or forty minutes, finishing with the
notorious ‘cup of tea’ consent video, and ‘job done!’. The Charter is a call to
arms for all teachers, to recommit to the knowledge that discussion of these
topics, uncomfortable as they might be, is just as important, if not more so,
than the discussion of an historical text or Maths equation. Moreover, it is so
important that we have a candid conversation with ourselves, and our Year
Teams, as to what topics we are comfortable teaching, and how we need to be
supported in order to deliver the best RSE provision that our students deserve,
and require.
Even more important is the
knowledge that, through contextual safeguarding, we know that teens need to
learn about relationships and sex earlier. It is too late to be addressing
these issues at GCSE, when wider society and peer group are much more
influential to teens than their parents or their school. ‘Age appropriate’
needs to be rethought, and our long-term partners in the RAP Project, and It
Happens Education, are at the forefront of changing the landscape of
conversations within schools. Together we want to tackle such topics as dating,
partying, sexting, lad-culture & revenge porn. Teenagers are vulnerable to any
number of these issues, and we seek to empower them with the law, the power of
practicing discretion, mutual respect, and mutual consent.
This, however, is all very well
if we are not ensuring that the same conversations are happing with boys of the
same age. We are working with KCS, and other prospective partner schools, to
ensure that we are following a programme that is synchronised across year groups,
across schools, to ensure that teens are given the same information, earlier.
Meaningful and diverse
partnership
There are two crucial
partnerships that the Charter hopes to formalise. The first, recognises the vital
role that parents play, individually and collectively, in supporting what is
happening within schools. Parents face any number of individual challenges with
their teenagers, and as they age, we know that school and home are far less
influential than peers and wider society. Through parent consultation we know
that there is a great deal that can be done by giving all parents a set of
guidelines around parties, social time and curfews. We are believers in
‘elastic parenting’ and empowering teens to make decisions within clear boundaries.
Parents, however, need the support of schools, and most importantly, each
other, to ensure that they can put those boundaries in place, consistently.
The second partnership, and what
I believe is the long-term key to our education’s role in preventing violence
against women, is diverse and meaningful partnership between boys and girls. It
is essential that men see women as more than mothers and potential girlfriends.
Intellectual and social interaction, formalised across year groups is vital if
we are to change endemic attitudes. That is why the Charter is committed to
links like debating competitions for Year 10, leadership conferences for Sixth
Formers, and transition activities with Year 7.
So, what next?
We hope to launch the Charter
before Christmas and ensure that all steps have been taken, by both schools
before launch. We hope that when the media spotlight once again leaves this
issue, we will continue to be at the forefront of advocating for the safety and
protection of women and girls, and the Charter seems like a meaningful platform
to widen our fight.
Teaching and Learning Gem #41 – ‘Reflect’ check-in app in Microsoft Teams
Helen, Misha and Suzy trialled the new ‘Reflect’ app in Microsoft Teams with some of their classes this week. It allows teachers to ‘check-in’ easily with how students are feeling. We used it for academic purposes to encourage students to reflect on how they feel about their progress. Watch this video to find out more about it.
How it works
Once you have installed the app in Teams, you click on the ‘Reflect’ icon when you start a new conversation in the general channel.
You select a question from the drop-down list i.e. ‘How are you feeling about the material we covered today?’ or ‘How do you feel about your progress in this class?’ or ‘How do you feel about your last assignment.’ There are lots of options.
Students then select an emoji to represent their feeling.
They can further select from some adjectives i.e. ‘motivated’, ‘confident’, ‘ambitious’, ‘creative’, ‘happy’ etc.
You can set it so that only the teacher can see the responses (see below some screenshots from Helen for what the teacher sees):
Benefits
It is super quick and easy to use for both teachers and students.
The student is encouraged to reflect.
It makes every student’s feelings visible to the teacher.
The teacher can monitor the whole class spread of feelings, as well as dig down into individuals.
The teacher can review the responses using Insights to see patterns across the class and to track students attitudes over time.
The teacher can then adapt teaching if necessary or arrange one-to-one meetings with any student of concern.
It can be an opportunity for students almost to give feedback to the teacher.
Drawbacks
You can’t write your own question – you have to use one from the list (although the consistency in question does allow for tracking over time).
Students can’t add any further comments themselves (again, this keeps it quick and not onerous, but could be perceived as a drawback).
It is fairly broad-brush and definitely requires teachers to be proactive in digging into why a student might feel a certain way. It could be a good springboard into that discussion, though.
Director of Studies, Suzy Pett, discusses how the WHS English Department has started to decolonise the curriculum, including introducing a new A Level unit on postcolonial writers.
Rallying cries to decolonise the
curriculum have been building for a while now. It is one of the most important
conversations in education today and our recent alumnae have been vocal about it.
In a 2018 interview for Varsity magazine, Wimbledon High alumna, Mariam Abdel-Razek, speaks about her experience studying English at Cambridge. She says that, “sometimes it feels like I can’t be heard unless I’m shouting.”[1] In 2020, recent alumna, Nida, set up Wimbledon High’s first POCSOC (People of Colour Society). However, she emphasises that discussions need to be built into the curriculum, otherwise the “the burden is placed on the students of colour in schools to lead the conversations.” And, in a 2020 podcast at Oxford University, alumna Afua Hirsch raises the need to “[disrupt] the racket of positioning anything non-European as alternate”[2] as she discusses the role of the curriculum in structuring alternate worldviews and knowledges.
Alert to this vital dialogue and
convinced of the necessity to make change, the English Department at Wimbledon
High wanted to rethink the A Level course, among other elements of the
curriculum. Our new postcolonial coursework unit explores the writers Kiran
Desai and Derek Walcott. We are excited by the way our politically savvy
students will respond and the impact it might have for them both as readers and
citizens of the 21st century. The course carries with it weighty
concerns that couldn’t be more important to our lives today: politics of power;
societal alienation; belonging and dislocation;
migration; diaspora; and identity. These are a complex nexus of issues that
resonate for all of us in our lived experiences. This is a course that extends
far beyond the A Level classroom, and as English teachers, that fill us with excitement
and, to be honest, some nerves.
Our new course has been a year in the
making. So, how have we gone about it and what are the issues at the front of
our minds when teaching postcolonial literature?
Naming the
course
Whilst we are referring to our unit as ‘postcolonial’, this
is a controversial term. Some suggest that it implies we have moved beyond
colonialism, when clearly this is far from the case. Keen to learn from other
educators, we set up a Zoom call with teachers in US. We heard it was for this
reason that they had renamed their course ‘de-colonial literature.’ However, for us this is equally problematic.
It seeks to politicise texts by non-white authors by positioning them as ‘writing
back’ against colonial oppression. It risks distracting from the other
aesthetic or experimental modes important to an author. Certainly, this was the
view expressed by the brilliant writer Irenosen Okojie, who spoke candidly to our Year 12s and 13s last
year about her experience as a black author. Alumna, Nida Ahmed, also suggested
that the term ‘postcolonial’ risks singling out these groups of writers,
signalling that they are ‘alternate’ to ‘official’ literature. Of course, these
debates are all useful to have with our students. We are using ‘postcolonial’ not to imply that
colonialism is a ‘completed’ act of the past. Nor does it suggest that the only
intention of this literature and our reading of it is socio-political
decolonising.
Interrogating
our own default settings: Unpacking
our own ‘ways of reading’ the world/texts
As John McLeod writes, “the act of reading in postcolonial contexts is
by no means a neutral activity. How we read is just as important as what we
read.”[3]
As individuals, we need to unpack how we are approaching the texts. If you think you are approaching the texts
from a ‘neutral’ perspective, then you are aligned with the dominant white
culture. This approach to literature maps onto our approach to ‘reading’ our world.
Understanding our ‘default settings’ to texts and life is important, and so
revisiting our own identities throughout the course is essential if our reading
practices “are to contribute to the contestation of colonial discourses.”[4]
Risks of
intellectualising lived experiences
We were
interested to read the article of Edinburgh lecturer, Michelle Keown, who works
in a similar socio-economic environment to Wimbledon High. She warns that in a
predominantly white context, reading about other cultures could become “a
form of intellectual or cultural tourism.” The risk is that students use
the texts “to learn more about other cultures, which bespeaks
well-meaning, liberal sentiments, but also the highly problematic assumption
that one can gain knowledge of a culture by reading [fiction].”[5]
To avoid this, we will be asking students to actively engage self-reflexively
with the complex racial problems seen in the texts: How do those social
problems manifest within their own circle of social connections? Students need
to engage with their immediate contexts. We do not want to “tinker around
the edges” in our teaching of postcolonial fiction with students
“[failing] to really connect with racism as something that impacts them.”[6]
For us, it is important in our reading of postcolonial fiction that, through
self-reflexive thought and criticism, the social problems are relocated from
“over there” to “here”.
The power of this course is undeniable.
It involves a radical rethinking of our teaching practices and raises
far-reaching questions about what it means to ‘read’ English literature. We’re
intending to be bold and disruptive. In self-consciously re-examining how we ‘read’
literature, we are re-examining how we ‘read’ the world. By understanding the complex
relationship between text-reader-author, we can similarly hope to better
understand the complexities of our lived relationships.
[1] J.
Chan, ‘Rethinking the canon: the burdens of representation’. Varsity, 16
November 2018, https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/16578
[2] Discussion:
How does a curriculum introduce and structure alternate worldviews and
knowledges? [online podcast initially held at TORCH], University of Oxford
Podcasts, February 2019, http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/discussion-how-does-curriculum-introduce-and-structure-alternate-worldviews-and-knowledges
[3] J.
McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, Manchester University Press, 2000, p.
33
[5] E.
Denevi and N Paston, ‘Helping Whites Develop Anti-Racist Identities’, Multicultural
Education, vol. 14, no. 2, 2006, p.70
[6] M.
Keown, ‘Teaching Postcolonial Literature
in an Elite University: An Edinburgh Lecturer’s Perspective’, Journal of
Feminist Scholarship, 7 (Fall), 2015, p.103
This comes from Jess in our Geography department, who shared the idea in a WHS TeachMeet last year. It’s great for getting students out of their seats and learning from each other. Now that restrictions have been lifted, embrace the freedom and see if this idea could be adapted for your subject.
Jess writes:
What is Quiz Quiz Trade?
The teacher gives each student a question and the pupil writes the answer on the other side. Alternatively, the pupil can write their own question.
Once this has been completed the students pair up and they then ask each other their question (Quiz Quiz).
Once the questions have been answered correctly, the pupils then swap questions (Trade), find a new partner to repeat the process.
Neurodiversity considerations for this activity from Isabelle and Catherine
1. Allow and encourage a pause before students answer…this is not about speed!
2. This sort of activity might be trickier for autistic students. Allow students to hold up/show the question rather than ask it, and allow answers to be written on mini whiteboards. Alternatively they might prefer to sit this out and answer the questions on paper individually.
You can use Quiz Quiz Trade at any point in a lesson:
For example:
Before introducing new material to tap into prior knowledge
After a unit to review terms/case study material/languages vocab/maths symbols and equations
Before pupils begin a written task, such as an essay to gather ideas or understand processes
Quiz Quiz Trade is good in the classroom because:
It is brilliant for retrieval practice, strengthening memory by recalling information from long term memory and putting it in their working memory.
Students are working with peers and building confidence: It encourages co-operative learning and engagement.
It is based on low stakes quizzing, allowing students to get things wrong and get immediate feedback from their peers in a non-threatening way.
Examples of how Jess used this activity:
When I did it, I used it as revision for case study material. This then fed into some case study exam questions to consolidate their learning. Exampled below.
Clare Duncan, Deputy Head Academic, looks at the impact sharing passion for your subject can have on learning outcomes and STEAM.
‘Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire’ W.B Yeats
I’m guessing
that most, if not every, teacher came into the profession, not because they had
a love of assessment and report writing, but because they had a passion for
something – whether that be the writing of W.B. Yeats or, in my case,
the beauty of the Fibonacci sequence. I find it fascinating
that such a simple recurrence sequence, where each subsequent number is
the sum of the previous two numbers, is found so often
in the natural world. The sunflower seed formation – from
the centre outwards, of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13… and so on –
is one such stunning example.
As
educators, we have the envious position of having a captive audience on whom to
unleash our enthusiasms. As teachers we are always reflecting, always
thinking of ways not just to impart knowledge but also to spark pupils’
interest in our subject. By demonstrating passion and curiosity ourselves
we allow pupils to do the same – surely a worthy aim in itself, particularly
if we want them to become lifelong learners.
Even
more than this, students modelling your behaviour can assist them in their next
steps. It’s clear that the university applications that achieve the greatest
success are those in which students demonstrate their deep enthusiasm for the
subject, whether through their personal statement or at interview. In a recent Telegraph
article about the application process, Peter Claus, the new access fellow for
Oxford, discussed this idea:
‘Naturally
we’re crazy about our subjects as tutors – so we look for people of equal
fervour. Demonstrating independent intellectual fervour around your subject is
much more important than any Duke of Edinburgh awards. We need to see that
students have gone above and beyond and are aware of the culture of
their subject.’
Our
own Sixth Form Review reinforces that what teachers say and how they say it is
hugely important, particularly in terms of the expertise and interest
they themselves demonstrate. One student commented:
‘(it’s) impressive when teachers know their stuff‘ and described
taking the time after such a lesson to ‘let things sink in’.
So my
tips for teachers to think about would be to:
Impart your
passion to your students. By showing your excitement you may ignite it in them.
Find resources that
fuel your passion and allow you
to show them what excites you about your subject. (For me one such example is
the BBC’s More or Less1 where
the presenter explains – and sometimes debunks – the numbers and statistics
used in political debate, the news and everyday life.)
Don’t
underestimate the power of interdisciplinary learning. It is at the heart of our STEAM+ agenda. The best way to
help reinforce a student’s passion is to show them that it can be applied to, and enriched
by, multiple subjects.
And
why is instilling passion in students important? Here are words of Sara
Briggs.
‘When students are passionately engaged in their learning – when
they are mesmerized by their learning environment or activities – there are
myriad responses in their brains making connections and building schema that
simply would not occur without that passion or emotion.’ 2
So
what will I be adding to my lesson plans this Autumn? The Year 13 Further Maths
students will be introduced to the beauty of the catenary curve
and how it can be modelled in using hyperbolic functions.
The Head of WHS, Ms Fionnuala Kennedy, introduces Civil Discourse, a new strand of the school Curriculum which will equip students to join and influence crucial debates on the issues of our time with confidence, integrity and nuance.
Many critically important issues have arisen in the last eighteen
months and many injustices are rightly being uncovered. Outrage is being
expressed, with good reason, and Generation Z are politically
active, knowledgeable and engaged, in a way that generations prior to
it simply were not. Larger numbers of people than ever are seeking for a
fairer, more equitable world for all, and it feels timely and positive that
this is the case; not least because the unfolding events in Afghanistan this summer
have served as a shameful and terrifying reminder of how fortunate we are to
have access to an education system which is open, free, and encourages debate
and diversity of thought.
Yet at just the moment when the world should be pulling
together in our battle against a global pandemic, it seems we are more
polarised than ever. At a time when we are questioning the notion of binaries
in all sorts of arena, argument itself has become trenchantly binary. This
is an era of no-platforming, of cancel culture and of offence.
Asking questions, not seeking answers
And so at Wimbledon High, we want to ask the following questions, and explore their potential answers together:
How do we balance challenging and calling out hate
speech with protecting freedom of speech?
How do we resist the digitally driven mode of
oppositional, reductive discourse which has begun to dominate, and which leads
to the silencing of so many voices?
How do we access opinions which differ to our
own, avoiding getting stuck in the echo chamber created for us by social media?
How do we reclaim the art of listening, of
reasoning, and of thinking with nuance?
How do we articulate through our emotion,
rather than relying on emotion alone to express us?
How do we learn to be offended and to argue back, both
learning in the process, but also – crucially – teaching the listener why our
viewpoint deserves to be heard, perhaps even changing their mind in the
process?
And how do we explore the very notion of offence, ensuring the term
does not get weaponised by those keen to fight what has become known in the
press as a ‘Culture War’, and acknowledging that prejudice and hatred can cause
genuine hurt and distress, not just ‘offence’?
These are big questions, and not easily answered –
but that’s the point. The important discussions aren’t easy
but that’s exactly why they should happen.
Bridging the generation gap And, crucially, these discussions need to happen in an inter-generational forum. We cannot submit to the lazy and divisive notion that our age and level of experience renders us either too naïve/impassioned/‘woke’ (Gen Z) OR cynical/entrenched/outmoded (Boomers and beyond) to understand and learn from those of a different generation. As the Head of a leading school filled with amazing young women, it is not only my privilege but also my duty to listen to all of the voices around me and take on board a diversity of viewpoints – those of the students, of course, but also of the parents, the alumnae and the staff. It’s such a fine balance between allowing our amazing girls to feel heard and valued and respected, and also understanding that those of us in authority have wisdom and the perspective of experience to bring to bear. As one of our former Head Girls put it in an email to me:
“It really is people like you and the WHS teachers who make the
difference, by acting on the recognition that the wisdom of your
generation can be supported and enhanced by listening to and engaging with the
voice of ours.”
Hear, hear.
What next? And so, we will be threading Civil Discourse through the curriculum, through academic and pastoral, with sessions for Y7-9 in PSHE with Ms Kennedy, for Y10 in their PPE studies, Y11 in form times and Sixth Form in their Onwards programmes.
And the aim? Well, it’s simple: for our students to be truly
flexible, robust and open in their thinking, and for the world to
re-awaken itself to the notion of real debate and discussion, based on
authentic encounters between enquiring hearts and minds.
Rachel Evans, Director of Digital
Learning & Innovation, considers the impact of this year’s CPD on 21st
Century Learning Design, evaluates the Social Robots project against the rubric
and reflects on the value of this approach for teachers and students.
During the last term of this unprecedented school year, groups of teachers have been lifting their gaze beyond the challenge of the pandemic to reflect on the way we teach and learn. Since April, colleagues from the Junior and Senior Schools have been considering 21st Century Learning Design.(1) An academic research programme funded by Microsoft in 2010, the Innovative Teaching & Learning Research Project described and defined this pedagogical approach. Collaborative research was carried out across ten countries, with the Institute of Education in London as one of the partners. The outcome formed the basis of a framework for evaluating and designing schemes of work, and subsequently a programme of study for teachers.(2)
The six components of 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD)
21CLD is a lens through which we can
view the planning and delivery of the curriculum – as broadly as across a whole
topic, or down to the level of an activity within an individual lesson. The
rubric-based approach across the six topic areas prompts teachers to think
about how to effectively build skills which are not necessarily well understood
or embedded by other pedagogical approaches. Whilst we may not accept the
popular discourse about the necessity of ‘21st century skills’, the framework addresses
the need for students to beopen to new ideas and voices, direct and be
accountable for their own work, and conduct effective and meaningful
collaboration: all skills which are valuable in a swiftly changing world.
A collaborative professional development
opportunity
Teachers were assigned a module of
the course to work through independently, and then came together in study groups
to discuss the concepts and teach each other the module they had studied. This
has proved an exciting way to learn about 21CLD and apply it to our own
classroom practice. Mixed group discussions outside the silos of departments
and key stages revealed how this pedagogy is applicable across different
subject areas and age groups, and identified where there are connections with
existing approaches, such as Kagan structures or Harkness method for
communication and cooperation, and our STEAM+ interdisciplinary work.
The discursive approach allowed
teachers to be candid about their experience. Delving into the detail of the
rubrics brought self-reflection: one teacher saying “I thought we’d be
brilliant at collaboration, but actually we often co-work rather than
collaborate.” Teachers evaluated existing activities against the rubrics and
considered how they could adjust their lesson plans and projects to create
deeper engagement and more agency for their pupils, and substantive and
meaningful work as a result. New plans for a science project about pollution
and the revision of a history research topic are among the outcomes of this
period of study. Junior School teachers investigated how different levels of
the rubric might appropriate at different Key Stages: they plan to create
examples of suitable activities to inform the planning of lessons which will
develop skills over the pupil’s time in the infant and junior years.
The process was not uncritical, with
much debate in both parts of the school around the knowledge construction
module: balancing innovative approaches with the needs of the examination
system and our own belief in the value of scholarship made for interesting
conversations.
A real-life example of real-world
problem-solving
As I studied the course myself and
designed the programme for teachers, I evaluated one of my own projects.
The Social Robots Club, which the
Head of Computer Science and I began two years ago, is an excellent example of real-world
problem solving and collaboration within the 21CLD framework, which has arisen
organically through the interests of a group of Year 10 students. You can read
about their work in this week’s WimTeach[link], where the girls have written about their project
and experiences.
The purpose of the club was to
experiment with our Miro-E robots (3), in order to plan their inclusion in the
curriculum. It is the students who have driven the project forward. From our
early brainstorming about uses for the robots, they chose a goal, defined their
project and set to work. How does this activity measure up as an example of
21st century learning?
Collaboration
Students work as a team, assigning
roles for each task, and making their own decisions about the
process and product. The work is interdependent – for instance, dividing
up the writing of code into segments which will be later combined.
Skilled communication
Students have produced presentations
for Junior school staff, a lesson plan for Year 5 pupils, surveys and
a leaflet for parents and an assembly for the school community. They
carried out academic research including writing to the authors of papers
with further queries.
Knowledge construction
We had never used such sophisticated
robotics at school previously, but the group are already competent
coders, so are applying their knowledge. Research for the project
has covered psychology, pedagogy and computer science –
certainly interdisciplinary.
Self-regulation
This group of students have worked
on this project for a year and are clear about their aims, and what
success will look like. They plan their own work – in fact, Mr
Richardson and I joke that we are superfluous! – but we are there, of course,
to offer feedback and guidance to help the team make progress when
the project stalls.
Real-world problem-solving and
innovation
The project is problem solving on
a macro and micro level. The real-world problem is about improving reading
progress for primary age children, but every week is micro problem-solving as
we navigate a new and unfamiliar coding interface and sophisticated but
temperamental robots. The project will have a real-world implementation
when the robots are used by Year 1 next year.
Use of ICT for Learning
Technology is crucial to the project,
obviously, but most significantly, we will create a product for authentic
users – a robot creature who will respond with encouragement to a child
reading – a great deal of code will lie behind those simulated behaviours!
The benefits of 21st
Century Learning Design
On a practical level, 21CLD offers
teachers tools for creating learning activities which promote skills that we
would all agree are essential for study, work and life – to communicate clearly,
collaborate well and solve problems. When combined with our emphasis on
scholarship and our interdisciplinary STEAM+ philosophy, I find three further
important outcomes:
Building knowledge and appreciating complexity
In a fast-paced world, the experience
of going deeply into a topic or project for a sustained period will develop
sound knowledge and critical thinking skills. Grappling with complexity brings
an appreciation that not all problems are solved or ideas best expressed with a
sound-bite response. All fields of study are rich with nuance once we go beyond
the superficial.
Identifying unknowns, living with
uncertainty and resilience
The deeper students go into
complexity, detail and a wealth of knowledge, the more aware they become of what
is unknown, either to themselves or to others. In a year which has been filled
with uncertainty, an awareness that what we understand of the world is not
fixed or fully known is, at first, unsettling. Sitting with that uncertainty –
whether academic or otherwise – can build resilience. As the students write in
WimLearn this week, persevering through difficulty brings its own joys.
Curiosity and exploration
Having appreciated complexity and
experienced uncertainty, where do we go next? We have the answer enshrined
within our school aims: Nurturing curiosity, scholarship and a sense of
wonder. To achieve sufficient mastery of an area of study that we can begin
to push at the boundaries is where exploration and innovation happens; or, as
we wrote at the start of this year (4), in the spaces and connections between
traditional subject areas with our STEAM+ philosophy. Depth of study, knowledge
and skill is a firm foundation for exploration.
In conclusion, the exploration of
this course on 21st century learning design has been incredibly
valuable. At a time when we have been caught in the weeds of logistics and change,
the programme of study and our collaborative approach has opened up big ideas
and new conversations between teachers, which we will continue to explore next
year. This feels like the start of a new conversation about the way we use
technology in the classroom.
