After a whirlwind of workshops and school visits in Western Australia, led by Maree Whiteley, I’m allowing all the provocations, amazing practice and learning to land.
One key link that I’m making from all of my visits is the intentionality of leaders and practitioners to create the most meaningful learning experiences for the children in their care. These educators are wondering:
- What’s the most meaningful approach here for my students?
- Why are we doing things in XYZ way?
- What might it look like if we did things differently?
- How am I keeping my practice and approach fresh to ensure learning is deep and truly relevant for my students and school community?
Like any artist or craftsperson (and educators, we are craftspeople), we have a learning palette that we can mix in a multitude of ways and draw upon at any time
A provocation that got me thinking
Listening to James Nottingham speak at two workshops, one thing he shared got me thinking.
During his workshops, James opened the wondering for the audience:
What is in your repertoire of teaching approaches? Do you mix and blend direct instruction with P4C, Mantle of the Expert and inquiry?
Because if you don’t, James suggested, you are doing a disservice to your students.
I love a provocation that wakes me up.
In my own practice, could I honestly say that I have a broad-enough repertoire of practices to know, in my heart of hearts, that my practice is connecting with, supporting and challenging all students?
Am I keeping my practice fresh? Am I learning? Am I expanding and deepening my practice for the benefit of my students? Am I committed to spring-cleaning my pedagogy?
It takes effort and attention to stay this conscious in our teaching practice; it’s no mean feat to aim to have a skillful repertoire of practices and know exactly when and why to draw on each one for maximum learning impact.
Without paying attention to how we teach, though, James shared, could do more harm than good. Paying attention to how we teach and crafting experiences that truly deepen learning and motivate children will make all the difference to their lives in school now and beyond.
A powerful combination of pedagogical approaches
Then, that got me thinking, if a school were to intentionally focus on and embed three pedagogical approaches, what might they be and what impact/outcome might that have with students? I chose three because with three we can go deep – more and we might be spread ourselves too thin, less and we might miss out on a potent mix; three is a magic number …
For those of you who know me, you’ll know I love to play with a venn diagram. One of my lifelong inquiries is diving into the blend of play, inquiry and the LPA – Which, I believe and have seen, when embedded powerfully, will have a huge positive impact on students’ understanding of themselves as learners and create limitless learning opportunities for and with them.
But this isn’t the only possible combination of powerful pedagogical approaches. North Harrisdale, with whom James has worked closely combined:
- Jo Boaler ‘s maths
- James’ work on the Learning Pit (challenge) and feedback
- Instructional Coaching
- Philosophy for Children
And the impact on learners with these approaches was palpable. I’ll dive into two examples from this below. Before that, I’d invite you to wonder to yourself:
What three educational approaches might you combine for impactful learning for students and staff?
If you mixed it up, what might you add or change?
Two examples of intentional practice at North Harrisdale
Lesson One; Philosophy for children:
North Harrisdale runs P4C lessons for all age groups, led by Kirstie Fitz. Being involved in the learning in her class was a treat and it was an honour to witness such skill in facilitating learning and deepening discussions without judgment.
Some awesome things I noticed in Kirstie’s lesson:
💓 Incredible listening, building on ideas and threading in previous points. Better listening than mine to be honest!!
💓 Beautiful valuing of and wondering around students’ thinking. “We love students enough to challenge their thinking” Kirstie shared after. I just loved this and it’s actually added to my deepening inquiry on “what is love?” – Love is growth, love is freedom, love is challenge …
💓 A range of protocols involving movement, respect, wondering, pivoting. So skillful!
💓 Use of oracy sentence stems which were on the wall for reference and had become so embedded they were natural
💓 An invitation for a continuation of thinking after class. James Nottingham, FRSA who works closely with North Harrisdale suggests leaving every lesson with an offer for further open thinking. These students were left wondering, knowing they would circle back, “Should humans colonise Mars?”
💭I was left wondering:
What if every young person had the opportunity to play with thinking and perspective in this way?
How do these classes shape their mindsets in school and beyond?
How can P4C drive inclusion and acceptance and respect in a diverse learning community?
What would it look like if adults learned to interact in this way? Why don’t we have this in parliament (yet)?
What do you think? Should humans colonise Mars?
Lesson Two; STEM, combined with “ready, fire, aim”
In the next lesson, students were alight with motivation and deep into grapple. STEM teacher, Kaye Henning, shared as we walked into her room, “I’m taking a risk in my practice today. We’re using James’ ‘ready, fire, aim’ whilst using Makey Makey, which the students have never used before. I have no idea how this is going to go.”
I LOVED that! A teacher taking a risk with a smile on her face. And with visitors. I was 100% rooting for this lesson, whichever way it went.
James, in his workshops, had suggested leaving teacher input at the beginning of a lesson to a minimum, “as little as a few minutes if possible” he said. That way, students would dive straight into Learning Pit and struggle with figuring things out together. You can learn more about ready-fire-aim in this clip from our “challenge” course in Learning Pioneers:
What I loved about Kaye’s lesson is that the “hook” or provocation was massively motivating – She showed students a clip of playing music with fruit hooked up to Makey Makey – I mean, who doesn’t want to see fruit play music?!
Her input was something along these lines:
“We’re going to be in the learning pit today [cue cheers of “yay!” from the students!”]. Take a look at this … [plays video – gasps from students]. You’re going to make that happen. Here are a few things you need to know about your kit [shares about 3 instructions about taking care of the kit]. You’re learning in pairs. Off you go.”
The buzz in the room was palpable. Every single student was fully engaged and fully in the pit.
About half way through the lesson, Kaye gathered the students back on the carpet, showed them a few key “things” they needed to succeed and off they went again.
This time, one pair figured out how to get their fruit playing … Kaye said, “This pair has figured it out. You might want to come and ask them a few questions.”
Some of the students very naturally and enthusiastically gathered around the pair that had figuring things out. The ideas spread.
At the end of the lesson, not everyone had figured out how to make the fruit play. Kaye shared, “Some of us have failed, but we know what “fail” means – “first attempt in learning” and we’ll have another attempt next class.”
There were no sighs of defeat, no shrugged shoulders, just bright eyes of enthusiasm. These students were clearly adept at grappling with learning, learning from and with their peers and failing forwards.
The result?
Well, I’ll let you imagine …
What kinds of students would we be developing if all students were open to the perspectives and opinions of others and they all practiced this stance of open-mindedness regularly?
What kinds of mindsets would students develop if they regularly failed in lessons and this was a) normalised and b) built upon?
What kinds of adults would these open-minded, inquisitive, open to learning from failure students become?
The learning moves and learning approaches we put into action in schools and classrooms matter.
Let’s be intentional with them.
Let’s be wise.
And let’s take our own risks to dive into our own Learning Pits to embed the approaches that will enable our students to truly thrive.
