AHDS Annual Conference November 2014 'Teaching Scotland's Future: What you need to know and do.' Keynote by Alistair Smith.

1. Learning
Together:
focusing on what
matters most
AHDS
November 2014

2. “You just kinda dae stuff…”

3. Learning
Together:
focusing on what
matters most
AHDS
November 2014

5. “If I had to reduce all of
educational psychology to just
one principle, the most
important single factor
influencing learning is what the
learner already knows...”
David Ausubel, 1968

6. 1.Connect
4. Consolidate 2. Activate
3. Demonstrate

7. Content – this is what we will learn
We will learn more about effective learning and
teaching, about staff development, what works
in classrooms and how we can lead learning
Process – this is how we will learn
We will learn through formal input, discussion
and reflection, practical experience and transfer
Benefits – this is why we will learn
We will be able to use our new ideas and
insights to further improve our professional
practice

8. Where would
you take me?
What would you
tell me?

9. Own your own story

10. Culture is different to
climate: culture shapes the
everyday preoccupations
and determines the limits
of possibility; climate is the
emotional state which
prevails as this occurs

11. Culture
Poor schools talk about Coping and
Administering
Good schools talk about Teachers and
about Teaching
Great schools talk about Learners and
about Learning
World Class schools talk about Re‐inventing

12. What are the everyday
preoccupations?
Do they work to your
advantage?
Shift the everyday
preoccupations and secure
exceptional gains

13. Environment

14. Environment

15. Environment

16. Environment

17. Environment

18. Environment

19. Environment

20. Environment

21. Environment

22. Modelling

23. Modelling

24. Modelling

25. Modelling

26. Each space within the
school provides an
opportunity to reinforce
what you value about the
experience of learning and
the behaviours of learners

28. Great Learner Behaviours
Noticing
Explaining things
Asking good questions
Learning something new
Practising hard till you get it right
Thinking carefully
Listening carefully
Trying different ways of doing things
Being a learning friend who helps others learn
Making someone else happy
Becoming better at sharing
Reading every day

29. Challenge the casual assumptions
which kill aspiration
‘It won’t work with our children…’
‘We already do that…’
‘My staff aren’t ready for this…’
‘We are winding down for …’
‘Our staff are already working flat out…’
‘I’d love to do that but…’
‘Our members…’

30. Social Capital
Advance systems rely more and more on peers as their
source of innovation and deep improvement.
How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better, McKinsey and
Company, 2012
The most abused educational research finding these
days is this: “the quality of the teacher is the single
most important determinant in the learning of the
student” … Success in any innovation is determined by
the degree of Social Capital in the culture of your own
school.
Professional Capital, Transforming Teaching in Every School, Hargreaves and Fullan,
2014

31. Social Capital
Behaviour is shaped more by groups much more than by
individuals. Cohesive groups with less individual talent often
outperform groups with superstars who don’t work as a team.
Professional development does not have much impact on
student learning when it relies on individual learning and does
not focus on follow‐through support for teams of teachers to
learn together. Success in any innovation is determined by the
degree of social capital in the culture of your own school.
Professional Capital, Transforming Teaching in Every School, Hargreaves and
Fullan, 2014

32. Agree and Align what Impacts
Shared Planning of Learning Episodes
(You Plan, We Practice, I Teach)
Peer Observation Trios
Coaching and Live Coaching
Focused Learning Walks
Learning Improvement Group(s)
Embedding Agenda Items
Solution Space and Briefing Butterflies
Needs and Offers
Classroom Tours
Define and Enshrine what Works

33. “Focus
relentlessly on
what matters
most – learners
and learning”

34. Core Purpose
Clarity
Coherence
Consistency
Community

36. Fitness test
Find what, for you,
fits your context
and put it to
the test

37. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

38. Prairie
Schools
Precipice
Schools
Valley
Schools
* * *
Summit
Schools
Slope
Schools

39. Pass the fitness test
• Is it right for you? Is it right for your
school? Your learners?
• Is there someone with whom you can
share it and test it?
• Will it improve learning?
• Is the improvement in learning
significant?
• Will it still be improving learning in
three years time?

40. Core Purpose
Clarity
Coherence
Consistency
Community

41. focusing on what matters most

42. Authenticity test
Find what, for you,
feels authentic and real
and make it
your own

44. Pass the Authenticity Test
• Judgments about authenticity and ‘impact’ are too
subjective
• Observers are often ‘seduced’ by the elements and
do not see the whole. We are ‘unduly optimistic
about our powers of observation’ (Coe 2014)
• Too often we focus on ‘proxies’ for Learning (Coe
2014)
• We are heavily influenced by the judgments of
others around us (Milgram 1969)

45. Which recent educational ideas could
your school track?
• Drafting and Re‐drafting based on peer feedback ‐ Ron Berger
• Interleaving and Desirable Difficulties ‐ Robert Bjork
• Applications of neuroscience – Sarah Jayne Blakemore
• Highly structured lesson observation – Robert Coe
• Metacognition and Learning to Learn ‐ Guy Claxton
• Nurturing Growth Mindsets ‐ Carol Dweck
• Developing Social Capital – Hargreaves and Fullan
• Evidence Based Interventions ‐ John Hattie
• Co‐Operative Learning – Spencer Kagan
• Peer Influence in Classrooms ‐ Graham Nuthall
• Purposeful Formative Assessment ‐ Dylan William
• Applying Cognitive Science ‐ Daniel Willingham
• SOLO taxonomy and Constructive Alignment – John Biggs

46. focusing on what matters most
intentionality

47. Intentionality test
Find deliberation and
purpose in what you
choose to do

48. Which individual, amongst
your colleagues, would
you consider to be the
‘best’ teacher and why?

50. • Is confident in the content to be taught
• Is confident in how the content taught will be assessed
• Knows the existing and target Performance Levels of all individuals within the class
• Knows which students have special or particular needs
• Knows or has accessed the reading ages of the class
• Has adapted or differentiated the lesson to suit needs of all in the class
• Has a lesson plan in some form and has prepared in advance of the lesson
• Engages the class from the outset
• Accesses what class already knows or can do
• Shares the learning outcomes and refers to them throughout
• Provides or directs to key information
• Asks compelling questions
• Invites contributions and ideas
• Checks for understanding
• Provides specific feedback with time to improve
• Reviews progress regularly

51. Pass the Intentionality Test
• Is your design of learning and the lessons which
deliver learning based on an understanding of
learner need?
• Is the process of design, or the thinking which
shapes that process, deliberate?
• Do you ‘own’ the process of design and the
thinking which shapes that process?
• Is there flexibility in your professional approach?

52. focusing on what matters most
intervention

53. £25,000
£5,000
£250
£50

54. Intervention Impact
1. High Teacher Expectations High Medium Low
2. Purposeful Intensity High Medium Low
3. Improvement Feedback and Marking High Medium Low
4. Peer Tutoring and Collaboration High Medium Low
5. Sharing and Revisiting Learning Outcomes High Medium Low
6. Interactive Learning Environment High Medium Low
7. Metacognition High Medium Low
8. Spaced Rehearsal and Review High Medium Low
9. Teacher Subject Knowledge High Medium Low
10. Reduced Group Size High Medium Low
11. Improving Pupil Questioning High Medium Low
12. Growth Mindset in Pupils High Medium Low

55. Influence Impact
1. Growth Mindset in Pupils High
2. High Teacher Expectation High
3. Improvement Feedback and Marking High
4. Metacognition High
5. Spaced Rehearsal and Review High
6. Sharing and Revisiting Learning Outcomes High
7. Peer Tutoring and Collaboration High
8. Interactive Learning Environment Medium
9. Purposeful Intensity Medium
10. Improving Pupil Questioning Medium
11. Teacher Subject Knowledge Low
12. Reduced Group Size Low

56. Impact vs cost
Most promising for
raising attainment
Summer
schools After
Cost per pupil
Effect Size (months gain)
Collaborative
£0
8
0
£1000
Meta‐cognitive
Peer tutoring
Homework 1‐1 tuition Early Years
(Secondary)
Teaching
assistants
Mentoring
school
ICT
Performance Aspirations
pay
Smaller
classes
Setting
May be
worth it
Small
effects /
high cost
Feedback
Phonics
Homework
(Primary)
Small gp
tuition Parental
involvement
Individualised
learning
Behaviour
Social
www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit

57. The classroom interventions which I
think have most impact…
• Accessing Prior Knowledge and Utilising Prediction
• Authentic Engagement
• Reinforcing and modelling High Expectations
• Differentiated Challenge
• Enquiry and High Quality Questioning
• Finding Excellent Solutions or Products
• Metacognition
• Land‐Marking Progress against agreed Outcomes
• Purposeful Assessment and Feedback
• Pragmatic Rehearsal, Consolidation and Transfer

58. Learning
Together:
focusing on what
matters most
AHDS
November 2014

59. Learning Together:
Focusing on What
Matters Most
twitter: alatalite
al@alistairsmithlearning.com
www.alistairsmithlearning.com