Leading view papers – Days 1 to 7

Ask them what they think!

 

 

How do we meet the challenge of inspiring learners? Asking them what they think is a good starting point.

In 2006 I carried out small group face-to-face interviews with year 11 students at Tideway School, an 11-16 mixed ability specialist technology college. The school of 650 students serves the small town of Newhaven, situated on the south coast of England, not far from the city of Brighton.

Interviews lasted up to 30 minutes; all of the students were 15 or 16 years old and the groups were balanced in terms of gender. The ability range targeted were those in the top 15% of the year 11 cohort. Interviews were semi-structured, the purpose being to explore student perceptions of their learning experience and how it could be improved.

A number of common themes emerged from this consultation.

Sean
‘I don’t need a teacher standing over me in a classroom for a whole hour during a lesson, instructing me or telling me what to do or checking up on me. I would prefer teaching to be more flexible, with the chance to attend small group tutorials or even one-to-one instruction with my teacher.’

Many students saw a clear need for a change in classroom practice. They valued their teachers, but they wanted to work with them in different, more constructive ways.  In Teaching in the knowledge society, Andy Hargreaves describes the teacher of the future as a facilitator, rather than a director of learning and it is this model of pedagogy that students were suggesting.

Jasmine
‘Why do I need to start school at 8am, finish at 2.15 and spend so much time moving from one classroom to another as I change lessons? Why can’t I study from home at times, or in the local library or any space in school where I can use a computer?’

For a number of students, anytime-anywhere studying that encouraged them to take responsibility for their own learning was attractive. In England and Wales, every primary and secondary school will have its own learning platform by 2008. In the official ‘Making IT Personal, Learning Platforms’, the DfES describes just this scenario, with students accessing learning online (along with their teachers), both in and out of school, and at any time.

Stuart
‘Why do I have five one-hour lessons a day in different subjects. Can’t the timetable be more flexible to allow me less time in some subjects and more time in others. I sometimes learn best with small chunks of time – why can’t I attend six 20-minute maths sessions in a week, rather than two long hours. Why can’t I have a two-hour English lesson; try studying any play in a small space of time. I need more time to get into it.’

If we really take all of the research into learning styles seriously, then surely the ‘one-glove-fits-all-approach’ can no longer be seen as a viable option. At Bishops Park School, in Essex, they have been experimenting with a different structuring of their school day, the timetable and the groupings in which young people are taught. They follow very closely the principles of the Human Scale Education movement.

Sharne
‘Why can’t I work with friends and get support from them in the work that I do. Why are there not opportunities for me to work with friends from other schools – they are doing similar project work to me.’

This goes to the very heart of the nature of pedagogy. How do students learn best: on their own or with others? While there is a strong culture of collaboration in European schools, in the US the opposite is the case. This represents in many ways the conflict in UK schools, between private, individual, personal study and the role of the group.

James
‘Why can’t we have more outside experts. I attended a Holocaust lecture that was given by a concentration camp survivor in school. That had the single biggest impact on my learning than any classroom lesson I can think of in school. I recently took part in lessons that were taught by a BBC science expert. Quality stuff!’

All schools have a visitors programme but the role of the outside ‘expert’ needs to be more heavily embedded in the whole curriculum.

Simone
‘Why can’t I make more use of technology to contact my teachers for support? I have got a mobile phone but not the internet at home. I would imagine that most students have got phones, yet all they do is tell us to put them away.’
More effective use of current communication technology was a constant theme in these discussions, although a reliance on technology can ignore some of the issues relating to teacher workload and access for those who don’t have this technology at home.

Stephen
‘At the moment I am working on up to five pieces of coursework for different subjects and there is no cross over between them. Would it be too difficult for school to come up with one major piece of coursework, that included elements from all the subjects that I am currently doing coursework in. That would make more sense to me. And I would probably learn more.’

This was one of the major recommendations of the Tomlinson Report in the UK, in 2004 (the bulk of Tomlinson’s recommendations were subsequently rejected).

Hannah
‘I am taught in classrooms where 25 student desks and chairs face the teacher. The computer suites look like call centres, with rows on rows of PCs. Why can’t we have classrooms that are as creative in design as the teaching that takes place?’
Many policy makers would agree with this, although in the UK the Building Schools for the Future programme has yet to make any significant impact. Ultralab, at Anglia University, has been involved in some interesting research in this area.
A clear and consistent message from students was that ‘more of the same’ was not the solution to disengagement. The challenge for the future, for the education establishment, is to research more deeply the views, concerns and solutions offered by learners and then to move quickly to implement change.  Each year that is lost condemns one more generation to a failure in learning, a situation that can only have serious long-term consequences for individuals, for society and for the state.
A note on this research: the names of students have been changed and there has been some alteration in dialogue from the original transcripts to make more coherent sense of statements that were made.

Further reading

Ultralab: Design my School Project: ww3.ultralab.net
Human Scale Education: www.hse.org.uk/
Hargreaves, A. Teaching in the knowledge society.
BBC. Classrooms of the future: news.bbc.co.uk
Tomlinson Report: www.dfes.gov.uk
Making IT Personal: Learning Platforms: publications.teachernet.gov.uk
Learning Platforms/DfES.
Building Schools for the Future: www.bsf.gov.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr Jim Fanning is Assistant Headteacher at Tideway School, in Newhaven, East Sussex, United Kingdom (www.tidewayschool.org)

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