Accelerated Learning newsletter, May 2007

As part of his work with a professional football club Alistair Smith helps players be mentally tough. In his view, having a mental edge marks a key difference between being a great player and being a great performer. As we completed this article Alistair’s team are battling it out in the play-off finals. Here he talks about what it’s like to be in with the action and what educationalists can learn from sport.

Football fans often have a skewed view of the role of a psychologist who works in sport. It is assumed that it is all about motivation and that their key role is to fire up the players. Most of the time that could not be further from the truth! The role is more akin to that of a relationships counsellor, part-time teacher, parent figure and mentor. The real work is done in pre-season, setting up ways of working which, through their transparency and consistency promote a culture of togetherness and shared purpose. This isn’t easy when you know that, every week, 11 people are going to be happy and everyone else miserable!

It is easier to de-motivate than motivate. Time spent in avoiding things which will de-motivate your players is time well spent. Just like students in any school classroom, players need consistency in expectation, a pattern to their working week, feedback from which they can learn, opportunities to make mistakes and correct them, relationships which are based on mutual trust.

Professional footballers are, by definition, mentally tough. They wouldn’t be there otherwise. They are used to competing. However, what stops a good player being a great player can be a lacking in some aspects of mental toughness. Elite performers have more of the component features in place than others. This comes through when you watch skills being demonstrated in the safe environment of the training pitch and then later an inability to do the same skills in front of a crowd.

I have spent the last season acting as a part-time consultant to a team. This complements our work at Alite with the Football Association. In an attempt to improve the levels of mental toughness across the squad I looked at some of the literature especially the work on ‘choking in sport’ and developed an inventory which I then used with all the players and with the staff. I’ve included a summary of components below. It's worth pointing out that not all players completed the process with enthusiasm, a few exaggerated their scores and one didn’t finish: so just like many school classes across the land! However, you may like to use my inventory with your students and sell it on the basis that this is the sort of thing ‘elite footballers’ do!

The Mental Toughness profile

1. Recovering from setbacks
2. Evenness of temperament
3. Competitive drive
4. Concentration and focus
5. Responsiveness and ability to learn

For each category I had a best and worst scenario and I asked the players to score themselves for each. For example under 1.Recovering from setbacks, ‘think of a situation when you have dealt well with a setback and score yourself and then, a situation when you have not dealt well with a setback.’ A player might think about coping with being left out of the team. They have a high score and a low score and a range which we can compare with others. We then have something practical to talk about and can then begin to introduce ‘recovery’ strategies. For each component we do exactly the same. Provided its practical and performance related, players will talk and get involved.

On a separate summary profile I asked the staff – manager, coaches, Physio, analyst and chief scout – to provide their scores. We then sat down and compared our scores and talked about any differences we had and then we looked at the scores the players had given themselves and talked through any of their differences. We then asked ourselves the question, ‘What can we do to improve each component for each player and across the team?’

In football, staff constantly talk about the attitude and character of their players. In the back of their head each staff member has a mental template of the ‘ideal’. This template derives largely from years and years of being involved in football and so can go unquestioned. It’s a bit like a teacher giving a score for a pupil’s ‘attitude’ without ever sharing what lies behind the score. What I tried to do was create a language and a set of agreed definitions which would make such conversations more meaningful. At the same time the best and worst scenario technique gave the players an opportunity to talk about relative strengths and weaknesses, which because of the weekly competition for places is something that is enormously difficult for them to buy into.

The components of the inventory then provide an ‘architecture’ for pre-season planning. We now know that what we set up has to promote positive development across the five areas. We need to think about this in terms of individual and team target setting, incentives and bonuses, match preparation, team talks, video analysis and de-briefing, what behaviours we reinforce on the training ground and how and what we say to individual players across the season.

My experience of developing a Learn to Learn programme transfers to the work in professional football. The message is simple: you get more of what you reinforce, so start by asking what is it you want to reinforce. Break the outcomes you seek down into easily understood components then plan for their regular reinforcement.

Wembley here we come!

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Mark Lovatt argues the case for developing learner skills making the point that “Expecting students to simply be able to work independently is like expecting students to pass a maths exam without ever having been taught maths.”

A common complaint from teachers is that they have to spoon-feed their students. “I practically have to do the coursework for them” or “I wish they would take more responsibility for their own learning” are common remarks you might hear in any staffroom in any school in the country. Is this so surprising when we spend so little time encouraging and teaching our students to think for themselves or to work independently? Is it so surprising when we spend most of our time teaching content and so little of our time explicitly teaching learner skills or helping to develop learner attributes?

The Alite Learning to Learn course is a start and provides a valuable way in for the rest of us but learning to learn needs to become part of every lesson. Until this happens and we spend as much time talking about how learning happens as what learning happens then it really shouldn’t surprise us that we keep on having to do most of the work.

Here are 25 easy ways to make learning to learn a part of every lesson:

1. Unpack the process with students - use and make reference to a model of learning, for example the four stage learning cycle – Connect, Activate, Demonstrate, Consolidate.
2. Use De Bono’s Thinking Hats in lessons (green hat, red hat etc) and discuss with the class why they are useful.
3. Build in frequent opportunities for group work and use the collaborative learning mats every time there is group work – always debrief how well they worked together in a group.
4. Use graphic organisers, eg double bubble and explain each time why we use them – ie to organise our thinking/sort our thoughts or to arrange different kinds of information.
5. Put up ‘Attributes’ posters on the wall and make reference to them, eg ‘Quitters never win – winners never quit.’ Talk about the characteristics of successful learners.
6. Step back and allow students to get it wrong from time to time – then debrief, eg “What did you do well? What did you not do so well? What will you do differently next time?”
7. Build in opportunities for students to work on, for example an extended research task – this gives you time to talk to students about developing research skills - how are they searching for information, organising information, and how they intend to present information?
8. Build in opportunity for students to present their work to others – spend some time discussing what good communication looks like and sounds like.
9. Involve students in setting ‘success criteria as frequently as possible, ie “If we do a really good job of this how will we know, how will we recognise quality?”
10. Create a culture of questioning in the classroom – encourage students to ask ‘quality’ questions using the Kipling question framework or ‘question stems’ – put up a question wall where students can stick up Post-it notes with their questions.
11. Stimulate curiosity and encourage creative thinking by asking “What if?” questions.
12. Encourage students to come up with solutions to issues or problems they have identified
13. Use the physical environment, ie arrange tables to facilitate group work, posters with suggestions for group roles, a ‘learner of the week’ board, annotated displays of student work so others can see what ‘good’ looks like.
14. Create a learning styles display and stick the names of members of the class nearest to the style they most like to learn in.
15. Introduce choice - plan for a number of different activities in the lesson, all of which lead to learning outcomes, and let students choose how they wish to learn. Reward responsible learning behaviour with increased choice – earned autonomy.
16. Allow plenty of opportunities for peer assessment and peer feedback against success criteria.
17. Spend as much time discussing HOW learning has taken place as WHAT learning has taken place.
18. Build time into lessons for students to reflect on their learning – use the review section of the cycle to discuss learning.
19. Use reflection journals against the 5 Rs, eg “One way I was Resilient… One way I was Resourceful...” etc
20. Refer to and use a number of different thinking tools, eg OPV (Other People’s Viewpoints), CAF (Consider All Factors), and PMI (Plus Minus Interesting).
21. Model learning/thinking yourself out loud, eg “One thing that helps me to remember information is…”
22. Link a reward system to the 5Rs, eg students collect stamps in lessons for being resilient, resourceful, reasoning etc – anyone with 25 stamps wins a bronze award, 50 wins silver, and 75 wins gold. These could be linked to prizes and/or letters home.
23. Put up a ‘thinking thermometer’ on the wall and use it to discuss higher order thinking and to introduce students to a thinking vocabulary.
24. Record conversations that students have in groups and play discussion back to the class asking if there is evidence of ‘quality’ conversation.
25. Use the 5 Rs to structure conversation in the class about learning behaviour, eg “Can you explain to me how your group is showing Responsible behaviour” or “This group is showing great Reasoning, can you explain to the rest of the class what you were doing just then?”

Good luck and remember the better we do the job of developing resilient, resourceful, reflective, reasoning, and responsible learners the less effort we will have put into demanding that coursework is completed and handed in on time!

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We report on a recent study into the relationship between video game violence and brain function.

In our March edition we reported on research that appears to indicate that what a child is involved in when they reach puberty is likely to be what they continue to show an interest for in later life. So, if they play sport, listen to music and study, they are likely to wish to continue to do so. If, however, they 'veg out' on the sofa watching television or playing video games, they are likely to show more of an interest in this than in their studies.

Now researches at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis appear to have proven that playing violent video games excites a different part of the brain than playing non-violent video games. They are not yet suggesting that this means that playing violent games will lead to real violence, but, knowing what we do about brain development, the research may indicate that this could be possible.

The researchers, led by Professor Vincent Mathews, randomly divided 44 adolescents into two groups. One group was given a non-violent, but exciting, video game (Need for Speed) to play and the other a violent video game (Medal of Honour). Both groups were allowed to play for half an hour and were monitored with a MRI scan (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

When the researchers looked at the results they found that the two groups of adolescents used completely different sections of their brains whilst they were playing. The group that had been playing 'Need for Speed' used the front area of their brain, an area that, amongst other things, is responsible for self-control and concentration. In contrast, those playing the violent game, 'Medal of Honour,' showed significantly increased activity in a part of the brain known as the 'amygdala'.

And what do we know about the amygdala? Well, this is the most basic part of the brain. It is believed to regulate our social behaviour and it is responsible for ensuring that we fulfil our basic needs (that we eat, drink and reproduce). It is also responsible for our 'fight or flight' instinct and it is associated with emotional arousal, in particular, anger. This part of the brain has nothing to do with logic, reasoning, decision-making, empathy or understanding.

Whilst Professor Mathews is keen to state that his research concentrates on short-term effects and does not look at long-term or permanent changes to the brain function, if we combine his findings with other research, it leads to some worrying conclusions. If we trust the 'use it or lose it' principle (that our brain develops the areas we use the most, particularly in puberty, and discards the connections previously made but no longer used), then children who constantly play violent video games are developing strong pathways in the more basic area of the brain - the part used for basic instincts, such as eating, survival and reproduction. And while they are developing the basic, animal-type part of the brain, they are not developing the areas that control logic, understanding and empathy.

More studies into the relationship between video game violence and brain function are planned and, in an online interview with Newsweek, Mathews stated, 'The fact that we're showing this should raise concern that exposure [to violent video games] could result in some longer-term changes. Parents need to be aware of this, and make their own decisions. The one thing they should not do is not pay attention.

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Judith Pandazis reflects on the three most important things on her desk and realises how far her computer literacy has taken her since setting herself the target of learning how to email!

Charlton Kings Infant School is a three form entry Foundation school for children aged 4-7. Headteacher, Judith Pandazis tells us about the three most important items on her desk:

“One item that is of very great importance to me is this picture of my two boys,” she says, holding out a photograph of two rather handsome young men in dinner suits. “When I look at it I am proud of the men they have grown into. This photo helps me to keep in mind the reasons why I became a teacher back in 1971. I look at it and think about how my job is about helping the children and staff at Charlton Kings grow, develop and flourish. By giving everybody who is part of the school plenty of opportunity to succeed, we watch them blossom as learners and as people. Possibly more mundanely, having the photograph here can help parents when they come to see me - not that I would suggest for a minute that you can only do this job if you have children of your own, but sometimes (especially when discussing more able children, or children with behavioural difficulties) it is useful for me to be able to say, ‘It’s OK, I've been there, I know what you are going through.’

The second item - which I actually now couldn't manage without - is my laptop. We are an eco school, so I try to send as much information by email as I can. It cuts down on paper. But my computer isn't just important to me for practical reasons. It reminds me of the learning that I have done in recent years. In 1999, one of my targets from my Performance Management Review was to be able to receive and send an email! It was a real challenge for me and I admit that back then I was scared of computers, yet now I find my laptop indispensable. My computer literacy has come a long way! I feel that this is an example for the children in the school (most of whom have great computer skills, even at their age). I can tell them about something that I found really hard, but managed to succeed in. It is also a reminder to me of how challenges can make you fearful and unwilling to try, unless the environment you are working in is a safe one.

Thirdly, I always have something on my desk that a child has made, drawn or written for me. For example, I have my collection of owls here, and this picture drawn by a child in Magenta Class. They remind me why I am doing my job and stop me from getting bogged down with the everyday tasks and paperwork that go with my position. I just love it when children come to my door and bring me something that they have made or achieved. It is a great opportunity to talk to them, praise them and thank them for their efforts.”

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