1. COMMUNICATING
MY VIEW ON THE
„TAKE TIME OUT‟
CONFERENCE
MARCH 2013
“ENHANCING CLASSROOM
LEARNING”

2. THE CONCEPT
 A THREE DAY CONFERENCE FOR
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS TO
STIMULATE AND SUPPORT GENERAL
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH
ENQUIRY AND REFLECTIVE PRACTICE,
CRITICAL READING, PROFESSIONAL
CONVERSATIONS AND WRITING, AND
ESPECIALLY THE CONTRIBUTIONS THESE
MAKE TO LEADERSHIP, CONFIDENCE AND
CAPABILITY FOR PERSONAL AND
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

3. PLENARY KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
AND FACILITATORS
 DR. RAPHAEL WILKINS: Assistant Director(International
Consultancy and Knowledge Transfer) and Director of
International Affairs in the London Centre for
Leadership in Learning, Institute of Education,
University of London, and also the President of the
College of Teachers.
 Enhancing learning through relevance to students.
 Enhancing classroom learning through enhancing
teachers‟ learning.

4. PLENARY KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
AND FACILITATORS
 DR. ELEANORE HARGREAVES: Author Of “What Makes A
Good Primary School Teacher: expert Classroom
Strategies”(2002) And recently published article
“Teachers‟ Classroom Feedback: still trying to get it
right”(2012)
 Learning: principles and practices(keynote)
 Purposes of Learning(workshop)
 Feedback: Principles and practices for enhancing
learning(keynote)
 Learning and Human Relationships: Collaboration and
Human purposes(workshop)

5. SPONSORED PRESENTATION
 MR. NEIL RICHARDS: Principal,
British International School of
Phuket, Thailand on behalf of CIE.
 The role of leadership in enhancing
teaching and learning

6. EXECUTIVE CHALLENGES
 CHALLENGE 1: What practical steps could your school take
to encourage teachers to talk about learning[rather than
„performance‟, „work‟, or „teaching‟? What might the
difficulties be and how would you overcome these?
 CHALLENGE 2: What practical steps could your school take
to encourage teachers to provide feedback to pupils, both
verbal and written, which really helps students to learn in
a valuable way? Why might this be necessary?
 Challenge 3: To what extent are the students in your
schools enabled to use collaboration in order to learn?
Which kinds of collaboration do they use? What might stop
this happening and how could you make it happen more
often?

7. The key concepts this
presentation will focus on are;
 Learning: principles and practices
(executive challenge 1)
 Feedback: principles and practices for
enhancing learning (executive challenge 2)
 Learning: through collaboration(executive
challenge 3)
 Leadership (5 min audio)

8. LEARNING :
PRINCIPLES AND
PRACTICES

9. ILLERIS‟ (2007)
DEFINITION OF LEARNING
„ANY PROCESS …THAT
LEADS TO PERMANENT
CAPACITY CHANGE‟

10. Learning can be seen as:
„a change in state, which
alters how we act on the
world and in turn change it
by our actions….
[Learn: To be, To do, To know]

11. TALK ABOUT LEARNING
One proven way to
encourage people to
learn, is to talk
about learning

12. HOW DOES LEARNING
HAPPEN
 All learning contains 2 very different processes
[in varying proportions]:
1. Interactions between the individual and the
environment [inter-personal and societal]
2. Acquisition deriving from new interactions and
relevant earlier learning determined by
 Content (something must be learned) and
 Incentive(something must set acquisition in
motion)
[desire, novelty, challenge, interest, necessity
or force]

13. Students‟ perspective
 I learn when I get ideas from other people
 I learn well when I am in control of my actions
 I learn when motivated
 I learn when I choose the time and the way to do it
 I learn when the teacher builds on concepts already
known to us
 I learn when I interact with other people
 I learned when I kept doing small things again and again

14. Comments from KGS students
 Learning is when you've studied something so well that it isn't
something you have to try really hard to recall, but instead it
almost comes naturally whenever you need it or see something
related to it. If that knowledge is more like a reflex than a
memory, then you've learnt it, not just studied it.
 I learn best when I'm sitting up with some sort of background noise
e.g. TV or music. And when it's a subject I enjoy
 Learning is when you understand and are able to explain in your
own terms. I learn best in a comfortable cool place (school should
get A.Cs)
 Learning is something I don‟t know and can pick up from other
people or from books or from my friends, from cricketers,
footballers etc.(MS)
 learning is when it makes a difference for better in your life. You
learn best when you open your heart and brace concepts with open
mind, I learn best when there is no expectation.

15. Comments from KGS students
 I think I learn best when I am surrounded by people
who think in different ways and have different
approaches towards life. At the same time, in the more
conventional way, students learn a great deal in the
classroom by interactive teaching methods such as
presentations, videos, movies etc. I do strongly feel
that along with covering the syllabus, teachers must
understand that students learn best when they are
given short breaks during a lesson to rejuvenate
themselves and be more attentive for the rest of the
lesson.
 Learning for me is retaining information which I can
apply practically in the future without needing revision.
I learn best when on a deadline.

16. LEARNING CAN BE CONFUSED
WITH:
 Teaching: “The long standing culture
of classroom is: teaching is telling,
learning is listening, knowledge is
subject matter taught by teachers
and found in books.” This does not
accord with evidence from research

18. LEARNING CAN BE CONFUSED
WITH:
 Performance: working towards
exam performance substitutes
„learning‟
 Work/activity: students completing
a „learning‟ task or activity, does
not mean learning has occurred
 Memorization: practice rather than
analytical analysis.

19. As learners we all vary on
this, depending on context
Learning orientation(GM)
 We believe that effort can
lead to success
 We believe in our ability to
improve and learn, and not
be fixed or stuck
 We prefer challenging
tasks, whose outcome
reflects our approach
 We get satisfaction from
personally-defined success
at difficult tasks
 We talk to ourselves: when
engaged in a task we talk
ourselves through
Performance orientation(FM)
 We believe that ability leads
to success
 We are concerned to be seen
as able, and to perform well
in others‟ eyes
 We seek satisfaction from
doing better than others
 We emphasise competition,
public evaluation
 When the task is difficult we
display helplessness:
“I can‟t do X”

20. AS A LEARNER ARE YOU
PERFORMANCE ORIENTED?
LEARNING ORIENTED?

21. WHAT ABOUT YOUR
STUDENTS?
ARE THEY
• PERFORMANCE ORIENTED?
• LEARNING ORIENTED?

22. Changing from “work” to
“learning” is one element in
changing the language and
climate of the classroom.
We are
here to
learn!

23. In current times we can see:
Schools that are
driving
 Values are visible
 Focus on
reflection and
learning
 Leadership is
distributed
 Values of trust,
respect
Schools that are
driven
 Values are unclear
 Passing on
performance
pressure
 Leadership is
“top-down”
 “Toxic
relationships”

24. FEEDBACK:
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES FOR
ENHANCING LEARNING
[AND LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING]

25. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY
‘FEEDBACK’ TODAY?
Teachers‟
comments on the
learning or
performance of
learners

26. Feedback can be
1. Evaluative (assess, gauge, estimate
performance. e.g. 8/10)
2. Descriptive (what to do, what is
missing. e.g Use ruler to draw light
rays) or
3. Provocative (provoke thinking about
learning and pupils self direction. e.g.
What is the criteria for significant
figures in the answer?)

27. With a focus on
1. Self,
2. Task,
3. Task processes or
4. Self regulation?
 e.g. Disappointing! You can do better than
this. Please rewrite.

28. Feedback promotes a learning
orientation when the focus is
learning, not self
 Feedback becomes effective when
pupil response is not
 „I‟m so great!‟ or
 „I‟m so bad‟, but
 „Now I know how to improve and
learn more- today and in the
future‟.

29. Praise could also encourage
engagement if it was learning-
oriented:
 Learning oriented praise:
Well done! This is great because you
have shown me the evidence for your
theory being correct [in science]
 Performance oriented praise:
This is excellent again. Your science
work is very good.

30. Feedback examples
 the answer is incorrect as the value from the graph for
„f‟ is 8 not 6.
 Label the graph
 Your writing needs to be legible
 Reinforce your basic concepts
 Use correct terms
 Good presentation, but could have been more accurate
 Use sharp pencil for the diagram

31. Feedback examples
 I think you understand quickly what is explained in
class, but you really must consolidate this with regular
H.W.
 Faulty understanding
 Avoid redundancy
 Excellent! Can be used as a model answer
 Incomplete and incorrect diagrams
 Use diagrams to substantiate your answer
 A more thorough analysis of the sources provided would
have enhanced the quality of your answer

32. Feedback examples
 Inappropriate tone and language used
 One sided argument was given when the question
specifically used the word “Discuss”
 Ideas should have a logical progression
 To take adequate benefit of error carried forward make
sure no steps are skipped in your working

33. Turning descriptive feedback
to Provocative feedback
 Define “Principle of moments”
 “For an object to be in equilibrium, the sum of
clockwise moments about a point/pivot is equal to the
sum of anticlockwise moments about the same
point/pivot”
 Descriptive feedback “complete statement includes- For
an object to be in equilibrium”
 Provocative feedback “ would this statement be true for
an object in equilibrium or not in equilibrium?”

34. Learning oriented feedback
should encourage pupils to:
1. Take more initiatives,
2. Act more independently and
3. Approach their learning more
critically
These aspects are central to
their capacity for human
fulfilment.

35. Leadership:
 www.cie.org.uk/audio/neil_richards/index_html