iTeachFreely: Applied Learning 1 - what is applied learning?

As you may or may not be aware, here at Canons, one of the ways we share our good teaching and learning practice is during Teaching and Learning Communities directed time (or TLCs for short).

I head up the Applied Learning TLC and thought it would be a good opportunity to distill some thoughts on here of what it means and why it's important.

So what are the aims of the year in the Applied Learning TLC? Well all TLCs are running in a similar format. It's all about Joint Practice Development (JPD). We want to make sure as much good practice is transferred between teachers as possible. After receiving training in how to coach each other (thanks @ieshasmall) we utilised this new skillset to break into "coaching triads", allowing staff to focus on where they want to head with their pedagogy and how to get there.

So what is applied learning? BASICALLY: applied learning is a style of learning which equips and prepares people for life, learning and employment. As a product of the modern GCSE system myself, I find myself only now understanding how to learn. I found GCSEs challenging but excelled in them in terms of grades, then A Level came along with the requirement to self direct my learning and think about my subject synoptically. In retrospect I now know my failures at A Level were completely down to my inability to link my ideas together. I wasn't being challenged to deepen my thinking and was simply memorising facts and processes. It is this hindsight that makes things like SOLO taxonomy and @Totallywired77's Punk Learning so attractive to me. They truly prepare our students for lifelong learning. It would bring me no end of pleasure to think students in the future will look back on their time under my tutelage and feel I taught them more than just science and bad puns.

Applied learning is a very broad focus (is that an oxymoron?) but I want to direct my TLC towards Punk Learning which incorporates project based learning, student set objectives, creativity and life enhancing skills, all scaffolded by SOLO's excellent structure of progression to constantly challenge.

I supplied my TLC group with the following manifesto to get them thinking about applied learning. I can't remember how much of it was taken from another source, apologies if it was from you, please get in touch so I can give you credit.

Applied learning:

• links learning to the real world making it more relevant to students and giving a greater sense of purpose to what they are doing.
• places equal emphasis on knowledge, understanding and skills.
• gives students increasing opportunities to use and apply their learning so that they can see their learning in action and extend and develop it still further.
• requires students to be more active in their learning so that they are partners in the learning process rather than passengers or spectators – there is strong evidence that learning is much more powerful and lasting when this is happening.
• places greater emphasis on ‘deep learning’ that builds on, and makes connections with, students’ prior learning and experiences, as opposed to the simplistic rote recall of facts and what has been called ‘shallow learning’.
• requires students to increasingly take responsibility for their own learning, planning and organising progressively more challenging tasks and extended activities, so they are better prepared for future learning and life.
• supports students to reflect upon and develop their learning skills so that they become increasingly more effective as learners and better equipped for the future.

Watch this space for more musings on Applied Learning soon!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Creating a climate for risk taking in the classroom

Imagine a world where all SLTs taught consistentlyoutstanding lessons and staff saw them doing that and that alone. What would itprove? It would be great for our egos but how would it actually develop any ofour staff?

 Make no mistake, I know what good and outstandinglearning looks like,  I can and doachieve it on a regular basis but actually a major (arguably more important)part of my job is to create conditions for others to achieve this and create aculture where it's ok to take risks. It is these risks that eventually lead tosustained and continual improvement across departments and organisations.

 I'm currently part of a small group looking atdeveloping classroom practice around pupil interdependence, led by an excellentteacher in her 2nd year of teaching. I was quite excited about something she'ddone with us a few weeks ago and emailed her to say I was going to try it outwith a class for the first time, later that day. She replied that she happenedto be free that pm so could she pop in? My response? "Of course.”

I don't believe that the lesson would have beenrated outstanding but that wasn't the point. I was trying something new withpossibly my most challenging class. I'm not even sure how much it was actuallyrelated to maths- it was the process that I was interested in and wanted toexplore for future lessons. If I were a slave to the "SLT must beoutstanding at all times" mantra I would have turned my colleague down andlet her come in a week or two after I'd drilled the kids and played with it alittle more to iron out any rough edges.

 I choose not to do that. Why? Because that is notthe culture I want to be a part of leading. We tell pupils that it’s ok to failbut rarely show that to staff. As a school leader, I want staff to know thatit's ok to experiment, that we can be part of each other’s mutual development-that is what develops a truly excellent organisation - not a need to show howperfect we all are.

 After the lesson, I asked Athena to give me somefeedback- here it is (unedited)...

 

“Hey,

This is what I noted downafter the lesson:

· Engaging task with clear instructions and time allowance.

· Allowed pupils to choose their own groups and resources which gives themownership over their work.

· Very little involvement, instead you just ‘hinted’ and asked questions tocertain pupils about how they might want to go about directing the activity.

· I think that for a clear leader to emerge there needed to be a wholeclass ‘buy in’ and a sense that everyone was contributing to one final product– the smaller groups only cared about what they were doing really and didn’tseem to understand the importance of each other.

· Great consolidation in terms of what they would do differently next timeand how they would improve– I thought the end of the lesson was the most richin terms of learning, they came up with things like organisation,communication, team work.

· My main question would be what did you want them to learn from thelesson? Was it how to work together or was it to better understand the exampaper? I think if they had a clear understanding of your objectives for themand could see a more tangible outcome they would have worked more efficientlyhowever the fact that they didn’t was what made the discussion so good! "

PS.

I took Athena's feedback on board and have sincemodified and improved the activity with another class. Subsequently Athena andI have been involved in a mutually beneficial dialogue about our adventures in interdependence.*

*More of that to follow shortly.