Accelerated Learning newsletter, April 2007

Derek Wise, Headteacher of Cramlington Community High School and a member of the Gilbert Review on Teaching and Learning in 2020 tells us how Learning to Learn works in his school.

There is no doubt that there is a need for Learning to Learn:

“The illiterates of the 21st Century will be those who don’t know how to learn, un-learn and re-learn”
Alan Toffler

“The first, and most important ability you can develop in a flat world is the ability to ‘learn how to learn’… what you know today will be out of date sooner than you think”
Thomas L Friedman: The World is Flat

Even more recently, our own Gilbert Review: Teaching and Learning in 2020 commented: “Schools have a central role in helping pupils to develop the skills and attitudes for learning, on which they can draw throughout their lives. We take seriously findings that suggest that failure to do so adequately may result in stubborn barriers to pupils’ progress. A core feature of personalising learning, therefore, must be to ensure that these are as much the hard currency of learning, as say, knowledge of subject content.

In schools where the greatest progress is being made in these areas, teachers and pupils are developing a more sophisticated language with which to talk explicitly about learning and how it can be explored and improved. Such ‘learning conversations’ between teachers and pupils, as well as between pupils, enhance pupils’ engagement in their learning and their confidence to improve it.”

Whilst there is no real controversy over need, there are differences of opinion on how. There are two main approaches:

• The ‘cross curricular’ approach advocated by Guy Claxton ‘Building Learning Power’ based on principles rather than lessons, encouraging pupils to develop their 17 learning muscles and the language of learning ‘learnish’ or
• The Alite approach which sees a well supported (60 hours of teaching materials, lesson plans and resources as well as student profiling software) course focussed on developing the 5Rs of independent learning (Responsibility, Resilience, Resourcefulness, Reasoning and Reflection) as a first step in developing L2L across the whole school.

At Cramlington Community High School we have backed the Alite approach. Our ‘stand alone’ course for our intake year (Y9) receives a good time allocation and excellent accommodation. It integrates ICT and is staffed by quality volunteers from across different departments. In order to spread the message and ultimately L2L itself other staff ‘visit’ for a day whilst the L2L staff ‘model’ the role of the teacher in L2L.

We learned from the development of Accelerated Learning the best way is to spread something complicated across the school until it embeds.

DEVELOPMENT OF ACCELERATED LEARNING

Initial Stimulus
Everyone ‘has a go’

2 Departments Lead
Science and Humanities

Disseminate (1)
Staff Presentations
AL Handbook

Planning (1)
Schemes of learning for Science and
Humanities use AL Cycle

Disseminate (2)
Presentations/’Visits’ to
Science and Humanities

Planning (2)
All departments integrate AL
into their lesson plans and
Schemes of Learning

Disseminate (3)
Departments ‘open their doors’
to other schools – Cramlington Conference

All this was reinforced by P.M/Lesson Observation proforma/student questionnaires etc.

The development of L2L follows a similar pattern:

DEVELOPMENT OF L2L

Stand Alone

Dissemination (1)
‘Visits’/Staff Presentations/
Learning Wall (2004/6)

Dissemination (2)
5Rs captured in classrooms.
‘Learning Passports’ (2006/7)

Planning (1)
All departments build in
opportunities for students to
demonstrate 5Rs/Thinking Skills etc (2007/8)

Planned (2)
Pilot departments integrate L2L
into their subject e.g. Humanities in Y9 (2007/8)

Disseminate (3)
Presentations to staff from
Humanities. Staff ‘visit’
Humanities lessons. Student Voice.

Planned (3)
Prerequisite for all new courses
and revisions of SofW (Y7 and 8 2008)

Disseminate (4)
Staff presentations/’Visits’

Planned (4)
All Departments integrate L2L
into lesson plans

Again this is reinforced through lesson planning proformas and an attitude to learning grid (1-5 based on each of the 5Rs) which goes home.

The idea is to spread the 5Rs across the curriculum and not simply confine them to the L2L course. Initially staff from outside L2L are asked to identify where the 5Rs or L2L skills are happening and stamp the learners passport which all learners carry as part of their school planner. After staff get used to this, the next stage is to ask them to deliberately plan in opportunities for their students to demonstrate the 5Rs in action.

Thinking big but starting small has been our philosophy and it has certain advantages.

1. Its an immersive in depth experience for staff who develop common understandings and vocabulary
2. Since staff come from different departments they take this knowledge and experience back into their separate departments
3. Departments become ‘aware’ without being overwhelmed and are then ‘nurtured’ into capturing the 5Rs and eventually planning opportunities for developing the 5Rs
4. Confident departments – probably where a critical mass of staff have
experience of the stand alone course – start to integrate L2L into their
courses
5. Students are involved throughout the whole process – they develop a common vocabulary too.
6. ICT is naturally integrated as a ‘learning tool’
7. A consistency of approach develops across departments and between staff and students based around a common vocabulary.

So does it work? Certainly Accelerated Learning has been a great success in the school and L2L is going very well. As our May 2006 Ofsted reported:

“Students are very effectively involved in their own learning and quickly take on more responsibility for their own performance. For example, the L2L programme in Y9 develops positive attitudes to learning and students’ independence skills which are carried through into the rest of the curriculum and their future years in school.

Students respect and appreciate that the whole learning process is shared openly with them which helps them understand the relevance of particular topics….. The quality of teaching and learning in this school is exceptional because students become equal partners in learning”.

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Over 150 delegates congregated at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to share their experiences of the L2 Approach at the recent Alite L2 Users’ Conference.

A beautiful clear day awaits us as we begin our second national L2 Users’ Conference at the Ricoh Stadium Coventry. The purpose of the conference is to bring together those of us who share an interest in developing independent young learners. We hope we can prepare them for the challenges of an age where school suppliers are putting kevlar in school uniforms, 18% of 16 year olds have a mental illness and 10% say they would gladly give up school tomorrow for a chance at television fame: over taught and over wrought.

We start by exploring the rationale for a learning to learn approach in a school, acknowledging that there are differing approaches best summarised in a continuum between ‘taught’ and ‘caught’. Taught is when a programme is delivered in a discrete experience - typically by a number of enthusiasts. Caught is when we spread the thinking across the school and attempt - through student passports, coaching sessions, peer evaluation and whole school audit – to capture evidence of progress.

Schools vary in their receptivity and preparedness for a learning to learn approach so to insist that there is only one worthy starting point on the continuum from which to build ‘learning power’ is absurd. Some schools are ‘steady’ and need an injection of fresh thinking and some are ‘ready’ and can immerse themselves in it. Again, it’s a continuum with all points in between.

A ‘steady’ school may be characterised by a greater degree of internal variability: mixed ability and mixed motivation staff, less internal stability, lower morale, weaker leadership and a focus on day to day problems. Attempting an immersion or ‘deep’ learning to learn approach here is an invitation to disaster. It may be that a ‘taught’ programme will prove to be the catalyst.

A ‘ready’ school may show more of a development culture, there may be more readiness to engage with whole school approaches, greater optimism, higher energy levels and a coherence which characterises leadership. This is safer ground for growing a more ‘immersive’ or ‘caught’ learning to learn approach.

A school which is looking at learning to learn needs to start by identifying its ultimate and desired outcome – we do this in the Alite L2 approach by defining our desired student knowledge, attributes, skills and experiences – and then considering its internal capacity for transformation. Derek Wise pointed out the need to be thinking big whilst starting small. Emma Sims described the SSAT Deep Learning approach as an ‘ambition’ realised through nine gateways. In all of our practitioner sessions the prevailing metaphors were those associated with journeys. When eight very courageous 14 year olds from Stamford High School stood up for forty minutes and transfixed their audience they did so by talking about transformation. Their outcomes were highly personal and movingly so. Their teachers had used learning to learn as a tool for levering significant change - but they had done so by starting from where they were at and with what best helped them.

There is no single correct approach to learning to learn. We are proud of the fact that at our conference we recognise alternatives and display as many of the materials as we are able. Occasionally this backfires: can whoever mistakenly took all my display copies of the SSAT ‘Deep Learning’ publications please return them in a plain brown envelope!

• School suppliers debate the possibility of putting kevlar in school uniforms BBC Radio 5 News 17th April,
• 18% of 5 – 16 year old boys and 13% of girls living in households with a weekly income of under £100 had a mental disorder - National Office of Statistics 11th April, 2007
• Research with 700 11-16 year olds NFER 2006

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New research has shown that the extract from the leaves of the Chinese tree, the Ginkgo biloba tree when combined with other drugs can improve memory.

The extract from the leaves of the Chinese tree, the Ginkgo biloba, have been used for millennia as a remedy for many physiological symptoms. Now recent research (published on February 25th in the online edition of 'Nature Science') has found that an extract from the Ginko biloba tree (known as bilobalide), when combined with several other drugs, improves the memories of mice that have been genetically engineered to show Down's Syndrome symptoms.

The extract from the leaves of the Chinese tree, the Ginkgo biloba, have been used for millennia as a remedy for many physiological symptoms. If you enter its name in your search engine, you will come up with thousands of hits. Many of these are health companies trying to sell you the extract, claiming that it will help with a variety of problems; from asthma to hearing loss, stomach pain to memory loss and anxiety to dementias.

Now recent research (published on February 25th in the online edition of 'Nature Science') has found that an extract from the Gingko biloba tree (known as bilobalide), when combined with several other drugs, improves the memories of mice that have been genetically engineered to show Down’s Syndrome symptoms.

The researchers gave the mice a daily injection of drugs that included bilobalide and pentylenetetrazol (a drug used as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant). The mice were then given two different tests on a daily basis - one to do with object recognition and one to find their way around a very simple maze. After seventeen days the mice showed improvement in their memory and recognition skills and, for up to two months after the injections had been stopped, they were able to perform as well as their wild-type counterparts.

Professor Garner, leader of the research team from Stanford Universtiy in California, said, "Somehow the drug treatment creates a new capacity for learning."

The team is excited by the potential of the treatment, but is quick to state that this research was carried out on animals and that the safety of the drugs must be checked before a human study is carried out. Pentylenetetrazol is known to cause of seizures when high doses are given.

The research team also states that wild-type mice without tendencies of Down 's Syndrome were also tested. These mice did not show any improvement in cognitive ability or memory.

So, sadly, it would seem that those of us wanting to give our brains a bit of a boost may need to stick with Omega fish oils and Gingko tree extracts from health food shops and dodgy-looking websites!

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Richard Churches, the Principal Consultant for National Programmes at CfBT Education Trust burrows into the things on his desk and tells us the three most important items he finds.

Richard Churches is the Lead Consultant, Leadership Development at CfBT Education Trust. The trust is one of the top 20 UK charities and aims to provide education for public benefit in the UK and abroad. It provides training and advice, supports research and manages schools in more than forty countries worldwide.

In recent years Richard’s work has included designing the structure of the Fast Track teaching programme, being managing editor for the NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship) materials and lead consultant for the Consultant Leader Programme in EBD schools and PRUs (part of the London Leadership Strategy). Richard is also a trainer and writer, and his book NLP for Teachers, co-written with Roger Terry, will be published in December.

When you ask him about the three most important items on his desk, he doesn't hesitate for a second before pointing out the first:
"It is, without doubt, the photos of my children. I have a picture of my son, George, on the day I took him out for the last time. He has sadly since died of cancer. And, of course, I have pictures of my daughter, Lucy, who is ten now and into horse riding, amongst other things. They remind me of happier times and of how important my family is to me, however hectic work gets."

It then becomes harder for Richard to select only two more items. It appears that his desk is rather full. "I won't tell you about the pile of sweets one of my colleagues has just put on my desk, nor that my work is rather stuck in a corner. However, I do have a list pinned up. It's called 'Richard's Core Values'. They are:

• Putting the learner first
• Fairness
• Making a difference to the future

By 'putting the learner first', I mean any learner in any learning situation. The Fast Track teachers represent some of the most talented, emergent leaders that have ever been attracted to education, and all training opportunities we provide them with are intensive, challenging and interactive. Just as you would like to see in classrooms across the world. 'Fairness' is not meant to be wishy-washy. Being fair is extremely important and often leads to complete restructuring of training programmes. And 'making a difference to the future' speaks for itself - for the future of individuals and for the future of education as a whole."

Richard has several items on his desk (apart from the sweets) that indicate that others think very highly of him. There is the Love Bug soft toy given to him by his wife and the purple amethyst from his boss; "I run my hand over it when I need to be calm. Simply looking at it reminds me that we can all be calm whenever we want to be." Then there's 'boozometer' given to him by colleagues; "You know, one of those things you get at fairgrounds - to test how steady your hand is? It makes a noise when the two bits of metal touch.' From the other end of the phone I hear the muffled, simulated sound of glass smashing followed by a colleague laughing. "It seems that Nick is the only member of staff here who hasn't heard it before. Anyway, it reminds me to have fun and enjoy life. Not to get bogged down by all the other stuff."

However, when forced to pick a third item, Richard selects his 'feedback fish'. "It's good that I'm doing this interview, I haven't used this for a long time and I should have done! It's a notepad shaped like an angel fish. The fish is smiling and wearing a halo. I use it when I catch people doing the right thing. When someone has done something great, I write it down on an angel fish and put it on their desk - then they know it was appreciated."

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