Case studies

Implementation of change

The course itself began on 1st October 1998 with 17 students expected and 13 actually present. I have a very strong memory of the first session partly because of the feeling of excitement I had and partly because I had a classic migraine attack after the first 15 minutes, which meant that for the next 10 minutes I could hardly see them! (I know that this was partly due to the ‘letting go’ having been involved in feverish activity to get things ready for the start).

A number of things happened at this first session that it is important to mention since they set the pattern for the subsequent sessions.

I tried to ensure that the learning ‘climate’ was relaxed not only through the way I interacted with students but through providing biscuits and drinks for them on arrival and having some music on in the background.

Registration was a multi-sensory experience in itself with students asked to place a sticky green spot against their name on a wall chart on their arrival. We had used this in the Summer School and felt that it may help commitment to the Course with students aiming for a continuous, visible stream of green attendance dots!

As students entered, a white board would announce the ‘big picture’ – an outline of either what they would be doing today or, for variation , what they might hope to achieve.

Sessions always began with some kind of warm up. This might be a Brain Gym in which the aim would be to stimulate right and left hemispheres and improve readiness for learning. The warm up in the first session was in fact to pair up with someone they did not know well and talk through why they had chosen to do the course, what they were looking forward to and what their concerns were. They then had to report back on their partner and the sharing of common concerns had a uniting and relaxing effect on the group. Whatever the precise form of the warm up subsequently used, the aim was to mark a break with their mainstream school day and to get them ready for learning.

At the first session I explained to them something about the Course, how it was different, experimental, possibly unique and how they were part of it. We spent some time on the Multiple Intelligences and I asked them to complete a questionnaire and then to fill in their results on a recording sheet which I would take a copy of (see Appendix). I regarded this as an important exercise despite some misgivings. The misgivings were to do with the issue of the precise number of intelligences and aspects of the questionnaire itself. The language of the questionnaire was not unambiguous and the students in any case react to it quite subjectively. The result could be that a student who scores most highly on, say, musical intelligence may allow this to unduly influence their assumptions about learning style and I can well imagine a situation in which a teacher too might place too much emphasis on one approach.

My approach to the exercise was, and remains, this. The precise number of intelligences is not as important as the recognition that there are different ways of looking at ‘smartness’ (as the UFA would say, the issue is not whether you’re smart but how you’re smart) and that individuals may have learning preferences and strengths that differ from each other. By being aware of these possibilities we can help improve – accelerate – leaning though this does not mean concentrating only on one or two intelligences to the exclusion of others. From a teaching point of view I was interested in student perceptions of themselves but the key issue was to deliver a course which would bring all intelligences/competencies into play at some point whilst giving students some choice about the way they accessed and produced work.

I introduced an idea which I have trialled in my mainstream GCSE work, namely to get two students each week to volunteer to monitor the news and produce a short presentation of key events. The presentation could take any form and I encouraged unusual creative ideas. The value of this activity is two fold. Firstly it helps connect up theory and practice. The point of economics is understanding what is happening in the outside world and it helps the subject to come alive. Secondly it is a powerful motivational and learning tool. In order to be able to present information to peers you need to feel comfortable with it. Most teachers know that teaching others is a supremely effective way of learning. It forces you to confront your understanding of the material and the reflection on appropriate presentational methods further re-enforces learning.

A final ‘ritual’ introduced at this session was the reflection at the end on the work done such as a simple ‘round’ of ‘something I liked’ or ‘something I succeeded in.’
Planning and reflection.
My planning of sessions tended to take place on the weekend before the next session though in reality planning and reflection were intertwined and virtually continuous as I sought various ways to deliver sections of the syllabus. How much to cover in a given session was partly a question of feeling my way. How to deliver the material was a mixture of perspiration and inspiration. At times I would simply sit at my desk and think through some possible approaches. Often something happened during the week – a headline or a chance event that would provide the key. For example a unit on Cost, Revenues and Break Even Analysis came out of a decision by City Catering to end staff tea and coffee provision and this became the focus for a case study.

Perhaps not surprisingly the sub-conscious seemed to do some pretty useful work too. The idea for the visualisation on the falling Pound Sterling, which I outline later in some detail, came to me as I drove down to London one Saturday morning.

Some of the planning took place during lunchtimes as students who were due to present the week’s news called in for a discussion on how they could go about it.

As an example of the planning and reflection process I include in the appendix an actual lesson plan from an early session followed my reflection on it.

Addressing the multiple intelligences – some highlights
Economics courses normally start with an exploration of the Economic Problem (which is basically that our wants are unlimited whilst the Earth’s resources are limited, thus leading to scarcity). The concept is not particularly difficult though it is often presented in standard textbooks in a fairly dull and unimaginative way. To improve student’s understanding here I tried initially to engage their emotions by focussing on what we – humans – had done to the environment making use of the memorable Green Peace quote about the Earth’s development compared to that of a 46 year old person which is reproduced in the appendix. As a homework task the students were to use pictures/images and words to explain the Economic Problem. (A similar activity was set for capital later on, which led to Dionne,s stunning homework also reproduced in the appendix). The thinking behind the exercise was to engage the students feelings and then to get them to use a ‘whole brain’ approach in the production of the summary. Williams (1986 p2-11)) stresses the importance of using right and left hemisphere processing the assumption being that images are right hemisphere activities, words left hemisphere and that the combination is more powerful than a single approach. Linguistic meets visual intelligence.

A cut in the rate of interest had taken place in October leading to a fall in the value of the £ Sterling. Getting students to understand what this means and its consequences – particularly after only 2 full sessions of economics is extremely difficult. I had been thinking about the value of visualisation – particularly for students who were strong on visual intelligence – and came up with an idea for a visualisation (see Appendix).

The importance of this actual example is not simply that it takes a novel approach but how it was subsequently used. For example I had never thought that the visualisation in itself would ensure understanding. But it did provide a kind of ‘mental scaffolding’ and also allowed students to answer questions about the consequences of a falling Pound correctly, an important criteria for a successful model. The follow up homework involving reading and thinking produced a superb piece of work from Tahreen Kutub, which was so good that it caused me to institute a silver star award, later to be supplemented by a gold star award for exceptional homeworks. I used one final follow up in the next session which involved a mix of the intelligences – mathematical/ logical, linguistic and inter-personal’. Students had to study a diagram (see appendix) on the impact of changing exchange rates on the price of imports and exports in two countries. They were given a few minutes to work on this on their own and asked to rate their understanding on a scale of 1 to 10. They were then encouraged to work in a small group to develop their understandings and then asked to repeat the rating exercise. Not surprisingly their assessments rose and following a final discussion with some input from me most felt they were at a level between 8 to 10.

Another topic that students find quite difficult because it is outside their experience is Economic Systems. In an attempt to get them to grasp some of the issues that had to be confronted I produced a desert island role play that led the participants in small groups through key issues connected with ownership, decision making, individualism versus collectivism and equality and fairness in income distribution. The role play is presented in the appendix and works once again by “plugging into” feelings (discussions normally get quite heated) and giving outlets for linguistic, interpersonal and intra-personal competencies to be brought to bear.

From the beginning the intelligence that I was most concerned about integrating into the course was Kinesthetic. I remembered vividly some ‘illustrations’ of physical learning from student centred learning workshops at the School back in the 1980’s; one in particular was used in a biology lesson representing the act of conception with students wearing swimming caps playing the role of sperms! But in fact there were many opportunities once the decision to look for them had been taken. Supply and Demand is usually taught visually with much use of diagrams and logical thinking. Whilst I still made use of this for homeworks, I devised an activity which complemented the traditional approach . After the students had had an initial introduction to the concepts involved, they were divided into 2 groups, given ropes, chairs, coloured paper and felt tip pens and asked to build, to construct, a fully labelled demand curve. The next learning point is to get them to distinguish between a factor which causes a movement down or up a demand curve and a factor which causes a shift in the entire curve. I set up a competition where in turn groups of 4 pupils would be called out to stand along the demand curve (the rope) at regular intervals. I would call out a change such as ‘price fall’ or ‘income increase’ and they were given 5 seconds to decide which way to move (up or down the curve or a hop to the left or right). On my command they had to make their decision and points were awarded depending on the number of students making the correct move. A variation was to let other groups set the scenario. No one at the end of it was left in any doubt about the difference between a movement and a shift a distinction which in this activity had actually been felt. This bodily learning was re-enforced at a later session, by which time we had also covered supply curves, when I set them a task for homework that involved building a physical model to illustrate at least one aspect of the work we had done. Sameer Khan’s invention which I show in the appendix was highly original and earned him a gold star.

By December I felt that it was time to build in some careful self-reflection and then to set some individual targets (SMART targets). It was common by now for students to choose their own presentational method and Sameer and Adris produced very different and very successful variations which allowed the expression of intra-personal intelligence. The SMART targets which followed on from the self-assessment also connected with this facility, Tahreen producing a master piece – again (see appendix).

One very important element of the course was the introduction of Learning Teams in session 25. I have mentioned earlier how I adapted a model I’d seen working at Land Rover to the classroom. The idea was to build in an additional level of support for the students and provide a framework in which they could discuss their progress. Teams would get an outline of a Learning Module and would be collectively responsible for ensuring that they were all at least ‘up to speed’ in all the areas specified, with the Team Leader taking particular responsibility for ensuring and recording team progress..

The construction of the team can be delicate and one of the reasons that I waited so long was to gain a real feel for strengths, weaknesses, and personalities so that the team would be a balanced one. In general a team consisted of a strong economist, a good ‘team’ person (who may or not be the same person) a skilled ‘mathematician’ and one of the students who was finding things a little tough.

I approached three of the students who I thought would make effective group leaders before discussions were finalised, to let them know what I envisaged and ask if they were prepared to take on the additional responsibility. They were happy to do so and realised that it would possibly help their own learning and give them additional access to me at lunchtime if they need extra support in supporting their team.

I introduced the idea to the group by outlining the potential benefits and saying that if they were agreeable we would trial it for a minimum of one month. If at the end of this time they felt it had not been useful we would simply abandon it. In fact they welcolmed the change appreciating the flexibility it gave us in terms of ways of working in class as well as the additional benefits of receiving the unit outline in advance of the teaching and the very real support they got from one another. Though students remained in their teams for the remainder of the course they were not the only groupings they worked in and were used only when appropriate – usually when coming to the end of a topic area when it was important to review the learning.

The residential at the School Cottage in May was, for many of the pupils ,the highlight of the entire Course. The Cottage itself is wonderfully situated on the Llangatock escarpment in the Black Mountains of South Wales and the broad idea was to provide an immersion experience broken up by walks and relaxation in the hills. It followed the students’ Mock Exams and was therefore perfectly timed to allow us to reflect on it, work on specific problems that had come to light and push ahead with the syllabus. It turned out to be one of the most intensive learning experiences I have been involved in with over 13 hours of the weekend stay devoted to Economics.

One of the key aims was to improve examination technique, in particular the quality of written responses. One way in which this was addressed was to get students to mark sample scripts (a grade B and a grade D script) with careful analysis of reasons for the awarding, or withholding , of marks. The focus here was clearly linguistic but what made it special was the immediate feedback and the students’ enjoyment in working as markers.

An activity, which illustrated the value of different approaches, was to do with one of the most difficult topics on the syllabus – elasticity of demand. Students were given a choice to join one of the 3 groups who would each present their findings after completing their activity: one was to build a physical model to demonstrate the concept, another to use a mathematical and graphical approach whilst the third group were allowed to use excerpts from a professional video to which they had to add their own commentary.

Two other activities should be mentioned, both of which were developed in conjunction with my colleague Anglea Billingham (Art/CDT) who accompanied us on the trip. One was to create a mural on the 3rd World. This was strictly time limited and started with a brainstorm to come up with a particular focus. Sixty minutes later a rather unique creation (shown in the appendix) had been produced highlighting the problem of 3rd World Debt and the obligations of the rich ‘North’ expressed by the proposition “U-O-Us” (ie You-Owe-Us) in contrast to the more usual “I-O-U”. On the Sunday morning the main activity was to develop a three dimensional mind map – a kind of “concept mobile” on an area of the syllabus we had looked at over the weekend. As this was done in groups and required drafting and discussion before the creation of the wire and card mind map, like many of the activities it involved a mixture of the intelligences.

Before the exam was taken we spent some time in one session on stress and in particular how to make use of a relaxation method borrowed from the Alexander Technique (1985). This involved lying down on the floor in a particular way – head supported by a book, knees bent, hands and arms resting on the chest or stomach. Students were then encouraged to imagine their backs lengthening and widening though to do nothing physically to make this happen. Whilst we did this Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei was played quietly in the background. We then talked through how and when they could use this at home.

Our final meeting before the exam was to turn out for me, and I suspect many of the students, to be the most special of all of the sessions. Apart from a few last minute tips the aim was to help evaluate the course for which I had prepared a detailed guide for both students and parents. Copies of these are reproduced in the appendix together with some of the responses they generated. This part of the evaluation was to be done at home.

It was the part that we did in the session itself that was special. The ending of a group is something which, I feel, gets insufficient attention and merits far more. I know that most of the students had put their heart and soul into the Course and had made some very significant relationships. My own relationship with the group was of a different order to that of most of my other classes. I wanted something to provide an outlet for some of those feelings and chose to try a simple idea, a variation of which I had used in PSE teaching and observed in our peer tutor training. Each student (and myself) had a headed sheet of paper prepared for them with their name on. The sheet was to be circulated and everyone asked to write something about the person whose name appeared at the top. We spent something like 20 minutes on this at the end of which time I asked if the students would mind if I photocopied them all before presenting them to their ‘owners’. I reproduce the copies in the appendix. I think it fair to say that students were both thrilled and touched by the comments – I know that I was. Interesting to reflect on just how few are the opportunities for such affirmation and the power and significance both of writing and receiving them.

REFLECTIONS

Following the Group’s final session on 6th July 1998 I wrote some immediate overall reflections opening with “It was a special course. Draining but rewarding”. And so it was. As I look back now having had the results, the written student and parent evaluations, further verbal feedback from the students and some of their other teachers, plus the benefit of a little time to add perspective, I feel I am in a position to offer some judgements on the two key questions raised in my action research.

Could the course be transformed?
Unquestionably, yes. I now have a set of materials and approaches which enable the entire course to be delivered in an Accelerated form paying due regard to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and multi sensory input.

Students were challenged throughout but remained highly motivated and were surprised and delighted by the quality of some of their own work. They were able to say at the end of it that the course had been both enjoyable and worthwhile.

Ultimately it was not difficult to find ways to change the input though it required considerable will and focus.

Pace, variety and a sense of student progress were essential elements in making the Course work and the pattern of sessions with their rituals provided a framework of continuity and security.

The warm ups were important in both energising the students at the end of a long day and in marking a changed atmosphere and approach from their mainstream work. I had been concerned that I would soon run out of ‘Brain Gyms’ but I was able to invent my own activities. One example was the knot tying work where one student had a diagram of a knot and had to communicate to their partner – who had a section of rope – how to tie the knot without showing the picture; this was not only good fun but involved mental and physical gymnastics.

Student presentations of work became an integral part of the Course and encouraged a sense of ownershipas well as leading to learning and self-esteem growth in the presenters. Sameer Khan’s presentation was memorable for me because he had the courage and trust in the group to stop a few minutes into it to say that he was “nervous and getting a little confused” before getting himself back on track. In his own words taken from his self-assessment on December 3rd 1998 (see appendix) “the most challenging interesting and knowledgeable session…. was the lesson in which I had volunteered to present my understanding of the Stock Market to the class….. For the whole week before my presentation I purchased and read the Business Section of almost every broadsheet newspaper possible so near the end of the week I had literally became a living Financial Times newspaper….. the presentation helped me to realise one of my weaknesses which is speaking to a number of people…… I need to try to overcome this….” He did.

Work in Learning Groups was also crucial. One of the things which occurred in the groups was students helping each other by explaining particular parts of the syllabus, often using drawings and diagrams to help them. This talking through – particularly when they were required to re-frame it because their partner had not understood it, re-enforced their learning partly perhaps due to a process which Win Wenger (1996) calls “pole-bridging” which he says occurs when we involve different areas of the brain in processing information.

Learning Teams were part of a learning experience which was language rich. Kotulak (1997) describes what happens when such environments are not provided and concluded that children’s intelligence (measured by IQ) was strongly affected by parental talk and interaction. A different area but a similar principle.

Throughout the Course an emotional component to the activities was both recognised and encouraged. Where possible I wanted to stimulate fierce debate whether it be to do with who could own what on a desert island or why women are paid less than men or why 2/3rds of the World’s population live in poverty. And where humour could be used it was.

I think that one of the factors that made activities successful was where they worked at several levels “hitting” a number of “intelligences” at once eg. the co-operative group work on division of labour leading to a dramatic role play and a creative write up. Similarly the work on wages exemplifies this when students were assigned job roles and asked to stand on a wage line at a point representing their best estimate of their weekly pay. Having been asked to account for their decision they were then repositioned according to actual figures and had a prompt in an envelope to help explain their relative position if they needed to use it.

There were some difficulties in the Course transformation however. Despite having one very gifted musician I did not use an activity that had a direct bearing on Musical Intelligence. I did suggest that students re-wrote the words to some of the ubiquitous Cold Seal double glazing local radio adverts and also to the football song “Three Lions” or indeed anything of their choice putting in alternative lyrics about inflation or the like but no-one took it up! I think that examples would have helped more here and feel that more thought is needed. Ironically I have always had a facility for re-writing words to famous songs mostly in comic style for staff reviews. I have no difficulty in recollecting them 10 or 15 years after the event!

The other difficulty was simply that of time. Fitting in the planning, the lunchtime meetings with students, the increased marking load was very demanding. Combined with the Course delivery this certainly took a toll on me and I know that particularly towards the end of the course students were feeling the strain too.

Were the outcomes successful?
Of the 17 students originally signed up, 11 completed the programme. One girl – a very promising economist was permanently excluded from the School (they weren’t all angels!), another left due to the illness in the family. Four of the boys felt that it was either too difficult or it was squeezing their time for other subjects. Attendance was very good though Dionne the Year 9 student lost six weeks due to a family holiday in the Caribbean and netball commitments.

When the grades came through in August (see Appendix) my initial reaction was one of disappointment. I had believed that 9 of them were capable of Cs based upon the Mock results and some allowance for their undoubted acceleration in the last four weeks of the Course. However, I now believe the results to be more than satisfactory. It is very difficult to reach concrete conclusions about the extent to which the Course has “added value” for reasons I outlined in the Audit. Dionne’s grade E is a real achievement. Her strengths are considerable and artistically she has a clear gift which she has used to help understand economics. She does however have difficulties with written expression and of course was still a Year 9 pupil at the time! Firas’ D was achieved in spite of the fact that since joining the school his reading age has been between 2 and 3 years below his chronological age. Nahida’s D was queried with the Examination Board and found to be two marks short of a C. The 3Bs and 2Cs represent very good performances but it is difficult to be certain how much of the success is down to the style and delivery of the programme.

Compared to the Year 11 GCSE Group the results are excellent though I would not wish to make too much of this comparison. The Year 11 grades were 1 C, 4 Ds, 3 Es, 1 F and 6 Gs, with a large proportion of the Gs including students who were long term absence problems or who missed one part of the Exam.

The students’ own evaluations are revealing.

“I am so pleased I never gave up ….. I’ve learnt to communicate with pupils …… older than me and proved I can work on my own. I’ve learnt a lot.”
Dionne Spencer Year 9

“I have learnt that I am able to perform in a fast paced environment …… I feel more confident in my other subjects.”
Gulfam Shahzad, Year 10

“This course gave me more experience of working in a team which is a skill that would be useful in the future ……. A piece of work I am particularly proud of is a moving model which shows how and why …… supply and demand is affected .. ?by changes in certain variables?. After I had finished the final exam …… I felt really good about myself.”
Sameer Khan, Year 10

“I think that I have improved my learning styles [and] am making use of mind maps to make notes. This course has helped me to improve my self confidence ….. I should always think positive when doing something. I liked ….. the learning groups [and] find it easier to discuss my weaknesses with a few people than in front of the whole class.”
Jaymina Ruparelia, Year 10

“I have learned a lot about my learning style finding that I learn a lot from visualisation and the use of colour.... the best thing was the different methods of learning used”.
Tahreen Kutub, Year 10

Parental evaluation has also been very positive:
“It gave me enormous pleasure in working with her……. Her time management has improved … I was very pleased my daughter took part in this course”.
Mr Kutub

“Watching her and seeing her determination has been encouraging… I think the course has been great for Dionne”.
Mrs Spencer

Other teachers have also made significant comments. Nahida’s Form Tutor (Head of Maths) believes that the Course has transformed her self-esteem. After the Student Positive Comment sheets had been completed she proudly brought this into School to show to him.

Though it is difficult to know what impact the Course had on other subjects, most students felt that they have been able to use at least some ideas and I note with interest that the performance of those students who also took Business Studies have just achieved outstanding results in their December Mock and put this down partly to their Economics Course.