Ep 006: What's Wrong With Planning Activities?

How can we safeguard against pedagogical fads? Is 'engagement' pupils getting up, having experiences and teaching each other? Or does 'engagement' describe pupils enthralled through teacher exposition and questioning, and engaging in lots of practice? Pritesh and Neena explore.

Timestamps:

0:10 Seduced by Teaching Ideas
2:27 Blu Tack Lesson Reflections
5:08 Ofsted Panic and Teacher Talk
7:54 Activities Versus Content
12:28 Building the Knowledge Web
17:51 Rehearsal, Feedback, and Practice
22:48 Engaging Explanations Matter
26:15 Voice, Pause, and Story
30:43 Intentional Teaching Delivery
37:26 Thinking Hard to Learn
41:21 Next Episode’s Reward Debate

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Hosts: Pritesh Raichura and Neena Sharma
Operation Education is a Bunsen Blue production.

For high quality CPD (INSETs, school visits, including teaching lessons for staff to observe, coaching with groups of teachers) from Pritesh, visit www.bunsenblue.com/cpd

Transcript

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Pritesh:
[0:00] We have been doing some deep thinking about lessons past where we look back

Pritesh:
[0:07] and we go, why did I teach in that way? And how was I seduced by these ideas?

Neena:
[0:14] So what particular memory has resurfaced for you then?

Pritesh:
[0:17] So first of all, it was the same year eight class.

Neena:
[0:23] Oh, those poor year eight children.

Pritesh:
[0:24] As that photosynthesis lesson I described last time. Second of all, if I've just remembered this, Thank you. There was a set of twins in year eight and I taught one of them this year eight class and at the beginning of the lesson I'm about to describe they had swapped places so I had a people that I didn't actually teach who I taught before in my lesson but that's a whole separate story this.

Neena:
[0:45] Happens quite I've heard this like quite a lot actually from teachers where twins just swap places intentionally just for the

Pritesh:
[0:52] Jokes of course you would if you're a twin that is.

Neena:
[0:55] And you're identical right

Pritesh:
[0:56] And you're obviously yeah just.

Neena:
[0:59] Preface it with rather obvious

Pritesh:
[1:02] Facts it would be so funny if non-identical twins try that, anyway.

Neena:
[1:11] So seeing the obvious

Pritesh:
[1:13] So of course they would do that but anyway that that derailed the start of the lesson anyway, but then the rest of the lesson was about limited resources like fossil fuels coal all natural gas and how they're eventually going to run out, and so what i did to teach this lesson was to have a, lump of blue tack stuck on one far wall and over the course of the lesson the kids had to take turns to go and retrieve a portion of that blue tack and keep it for themselves and then eventually someone would go and get some blue tack but there would be none left for them because the limited resource had run out oh my goodness and this was my kind of kinesthetic activity for kids to like feel and experience limited resources good old vac learning and just in case there were some non-kinesthetic learners in the room to make sure it was everyone was getting involved and understanding and learning, the the rest of the lesson was then making a comic strip to explain and summarize that.

Neena:
[2:19] Love that.

Pritesh:
[2:20] So that's one that I came up with that I found in the back of my kind of mind that I've just recalled.

Neena:
[2:26] The deep, dark recesses of your memories.

Pritesh:
[2:28] Yes. I do want to just add and clarify that this idea of, matching the activity to a particular pupil's learning style whether that's kinesthetic auditory or visual has completely been debunked as, kind of the optimal way for people to learn but it was something that I believed at the time, and I guess the second thing that I wanted to reflect on with this particular, activity that I had planned with the BluTAC is actually, the good thing about this lesson and this activity is that the idea of limited resources is something that can seem quite abstract if not explained particularly well and the idea of, having some blue tack and each people you know having to take some and then eventually it running out and then realizing oh this is there's no more left and tying that to the word and the vocabulary limited or limited resource, is actually really helpful because it helps the pupils to concretely understand an idea that might otherwise be very abstract if it was just a an explanation with words only and so.

Pritesh:
[3:45] I think that, you know, in some ways, there is elements of this lesson that are helpful in helping and developing people understanding. But the issue that I have with it on reflection is the sheer amount of time invested in an activity that involved people's constantly getting up and out of their seats probably meant that they weren't really thinking about what the meaning of the limited resources and tying that to the experience. That same idea of using the blue tack as a way as a concrete example to illustrate the point can be done much better with a clear explanation and still using that model but not spending five minutes with the kids each person in the room getting up running around grabbing a bit of blue tack going back to their seats and i think that distinction is quite important to make so the principles of a good explanation are still important the idea of concrete ideas, is definitely an important part of what makes a good explanation and helps people's access learning and the ideas that might otherwise be abstract, but it's the way that they were implemented in that lesson which actually means they're unlikely to benefit sufficiently from that concrete experience what about you have you had any memories come

Pritesh:
[5:04] flooding back about your early years of teaching.

Neena:
[5:08] Yes I have but what I'm about to share isn't of a particular lesson but it's more of um so this was a time when we were expecting an imminent Ofsted inspection and we had oh the big oh and we had an additional inset day arranged

Pritesh:
[5:27] Um wait is that a thing you could do I mean.

Neena:
[5:29] I think we did it it was just like panic stations go go go and a message that one of the senior leaders delivered was that if an Ofsted inspector is walking along your corridor and is passing past your classroom or entering it At that point, you need to ensure that they don't hear you as the teacher speaking, but instead they should just be hearing student voices instead. So I turned to whoever my, I refer to them as like froligs, you know those colleagues that become your friend, froligs, who was next to me and I said, I mean, I did try and whisper it, but we've already established my foghorn voice. So it was pretty, it was still pretty audible. But I said brilliant can't wait until that happens because I'll just leave my classroom and make a cup of tea obviously I don't need to be there kids are teaching themselves we'll get an Ofsted outstanding win-win

Pritesh:
[6:29] You get a cup of tea you also get the outstanding and the school.

Neena:
[6:33] Benefits this is it this is exactly it oh

Pritesh:
[6:36] This is the problem with when like accountability and interpretation and the wrong idea and it's just a mishmash and it's just the wrong thing that That actually reminds me, I remember, I'm trying to think where I heard this from, but there was a teacher who had lost their voice. So they delegated the teaching of the lesson to a pupil to kind of lead and facilitate. And the Ofsted inspector loved it. And they got outstanding, because I think individual teachers were graded back in the day.

Neena:
[7:03] This was really back in the day,

Pritesh:
[7:05] Wasn't it? And so they got an outstanding grade, not having uttered a word in the lesson. Now, do you know what? I actually think if you have such a strong culture and you can actually not have to say a word and the productive lesson happened, that is kind of impressive. I'm not going to lie. But the idea that this was used to then celebrate the idea of eliminating teacher talk and maximizing the amount students are talking is just the wrong kind of seductive idea that we've talked about. So we talked about why silent debates minimizing the amount of teacher talk is so problematic in our last episode of operation.

Neena:
[7:46] Education i thought you were never gonna say

Pritesh:
[7:49] That i know i forgot to say at the start so i thought we've been in love that um so we've.

Neena:
[7:54] Discussed what is wrong

Pritesh:
[7:56] Yes now we need to think about well what what is what is was there any bits of that that was actually right, but really what are the principles that we should be looking out for that guide our thinking now? The way that I would summarise what is problematic with silent debates, where the kids are reading each other's bits of sugar paper and adding comments on something they've never really learnt about before, or digging out water, H2O, laminated from trays of water to try and understand photosynthesis, is that...

Neena:
[8:48] Or just re-watching the same video film over and over again.

Pritesh:
[8:53] Of course.

Neena:
[8:54] Or colouring in posters.

Pritesh:
[8:56] All of these things the thing they have in common is that it's the activities that are memorable and not the content, and this reminds me of a Dan Willingham quote which is memory is the residue of thought.

Neena:
[9:12] Okay I love that and that is a very popular quote what does it mean

Pritesh:
[9:17] So my understanding of it is that if we boil down what is learning fundamentally it's, the brain attends to some new information, knowledge, ideas, and whatever it's thinking about, that's the thing that will stick in that brain for a longer time. Like if you're thinking about where was that tray? How much did we splash each other in the lesson? Wasn't it fun that there was all these laminated bits of paper stuck around the room and I had to get one. And then me and my friend reached for the same one and we both competed to see who could get it. But then there was so much blue tack and we were throwing the blue tack on each other as well and that was really fun, then well that's what they're going to remember and they're not going to remember carbon dioxide plus water produces glucose plus oxygen carbon dioxide is found in the atmosphere water is found in the soil like they're not going to remember any of that because they weren't thinking about it because memory is the residue of thought that's my take on it okay.

Neena:
[10:23] So actually the problem with these types of activities is even if the original intention is good and is sound from teachers because they want to try and support and enhance learning the reality is these activities detract from it because what's left the memory that's left of is not the content of what they've learned but how much fun and inverted commas that they've had from that activity so So they're not actually supporting and enhancing that learning. They're distracting from it because they're not it's not focusing on the content. It's just that activity.

Pritesh:
[11:05] Yes. And so that's a really nice way of summarizing that. And that leads me on to the idea of so then if we shouldn't be planning activities, then what should we be planning? And I think the answer is that the activity that the kids do has to be the content. In other words... Pupils in the class need to be hearing a really clear explanation or they need to be answering questions about the thing that they need to learn or they need to be reading information about the thing that they need to learn and we need to make sure, that they are following that and thinking about that only and not being distracted by the details of the activities and the instructions and the random other things that are not the thing we want them to remember, the thing that we want them to learn.

Neena:
[12:00] So the explanation itself of the content needs to be the engaging thing because that's what they're learning from. So what makes an engaging explanation?

Pritesh:
[12:14] So as always, I think this has become a bit of a mantra on operation education. I guess there's the content and then there's the delivery, the two elements to it. But just taking a step back from that, focusing in on the content in a bit more detail.

Pritesh:
[12:29] I think one of the most transformative ideas that I've come across in kind of reading when, on my journey of reading about how to teach better how to explain things better how to make things land better is rooted in cognitive science and the research on cognitive science and, i think the most powerful metaphor that i've come across that underpins everything that i that that links to all the ideas that i think work best in the classroom is the idea that, as experts in for me it's science for you it's english whatever subject it is that we are teaching we have a really clear web of knowledge in our heads that in cognitive science i guess they call schema, so i just think about lots of individual dots which represent each note each of those dots or nodes of knowledge and then you've got a link between them so.

Pritesh:
[13:23] Each idea each fact that makes up a bigger explanation it's not just a list of facts it's a interconnected web of knowledge with, those ideas all linking together in lots of different ways and as experts i have, a web of knowledge a schema in my head that's really granular i can think about each precise chunk of information that makes up photosynthesis or limited resources or in your case shakespeare and macbeth and the analysis of the plot the analysis the themes whatever it is, i'm not the expert english teacher even though i love to pretend to be.

Neena:
[14:02] You really do

Pritesh:
[14:04] Alliteration it's all that all comes back to really isn't it.

Neena:
[14:07] When you talk about English, you literally refer to alliteration and Macbeth.

Pritesh:
[14:11] That's my only two. But then when I talk about science, I just talk about...

Neena:
[14:14] Photosynthesis. Either way, it's just, you know, those nodes, that schema, that web of knowledge.

Pritesh:
[14:19] Pretty small. It's pretty small.

Neena:
[14:20] It's pretty limited, Mr. I-Ture, isn't it?

Pritesh:
[14:22] I've got to step it up.

Neena:
[14:23] Someone's got to be building, extending that schema is all I'm saying.

Pritesh:
[14:27] Well, I need some help there. So the the web of knowledge i think is such an apt metaphor because if we as the experts have that the assumption is that the pupils in the class, that web of knowledge either doesn't exist if it's a topic that they've never encountered before there are some you know if they've never even heard of macbeth before they don't know very much about macbeth it's going to be, it's almost It's like a blank slate they're starting from. Or there's like very bits of prior knowledge that they might have. They might have come across some of these ideas before. But it's we're going to add a lot of nodes of knowledge and a lot of links to this. And so then the challenge and the fun of teaching becomes how can I chunk this up so that I'm teaching one node at a time and adding one link at a time? And that is what planning a really good explanation effectively comes down to. And across a unit of work, it's about, well, by the end of the unit, how much of this web of knowledge will I have built and how much how well embedded it will it be in the minds of the pupils?

Neena:
[15:38] So as the teacher who's the expert holder of knowledge, so we've got very clear defined nodes and scheme like these webs of knowledge, essentially, and we have to be imparting something similar to the kids. But we've got to be aware of that expert kind of induced blindness because they're starting from as you said either a blank slate or just perhaps disconnected bits of prior knowledge so how do we replicate the schema in our minds for that particular topic into the kids brains

Pritesh:
[16:16] Yes and so that has to mean that we have to think about, I don't just go into my lesson thinking, oh, I'll teach about photosynthesis and about that reaction. It's what precise bits of knowledge will I teach in what order? And the most important thing there is that you chunk that and you make sure you explicitly give that knowledge to the class rather than putting it all on posters and hoping for the best when they go around that they're going to absorb that information. So it's about how you're going to chunk it and how you're going to check they get it as you go along.

Neena:
[16:50] Okay. So we've got the planning of that content clear, concise, and chunked. And then you said about checking or...

Pritesh:
[17:00] I love all these C's coming through.

Neena:
[17:02] I mean, you know, I don't want to say it again, but yeah.

Pritesh:
[17:06] Queen of alliteration.

Neena:
[17:07] I mean, you know, you said, if I said it, it would be quite, you know, but if you're saying about me, I'll accept it.

Pritesh:
[17:13] I'll give you that compliment.

Neena:
[17:14] I would never refer to myself in that way.

Pritesh:
[17:16] Of course you wouldn't. So we've got, yeah, absolutely. you've got these chunks of knowledge that you're delivering one bit at a time. But this is the bit that I find really interesting because...

Pritesh:
[17:28] There's a grain of truth in that old way of teaching that we alluded to at the start of this episode and last episode. Okay. Which is we're saying kids might go around, absorb information from posters around the room, come back and teach each other. And I think in the kind of explicit teaching model, there are still elements

Pritesh:
[17:49] of that that we want to preserve. So we still you know i might still explicitly teach a particular idea rather than relying on a poster and the kids interpreting or potentially misinterpreting that information i'm going to make sure i deliver a clear explanation that the all the kids are attending to i'm making sure they're all paying attention with my beautiful cue to that call to attention three two one star whatever it might be i'm checking to the other or there, i then give that explanation really chunked way but then i might genuinely use give an opportunity for them to tell teach each other what i've just taught them but crucially they might practice in their pairs, having heard a really good explanation so that pair work is still happening they're still reinforcing that knowledge with each other yes but they're not the chances that they're doing that well and right are now much better because they've had a clear explanation from the expert teacher yes and importantly i'm chunking that so once they do that short rehearsal and practice it's rehearsal it's not guessing it's not.

Pritesh:
[18:56] Interpreting and i think this is what i picked up.

Pritesh:
[19:00] I'm then listening back to what they've just shared and then I'm giving them feedback if it's not quite right. And then they're practicing again. And so this is where we've gone from that minimal guidance to actually making sure every child in the room is making progress. Every child has the opportunity to feel successful. Every child has the opportunity to rehearse and practice and get feedback, then practice again. And then when they share those answers and they get it right and i'm tying that to that warm specific named praise they are loving their lives feeling super successful rather than a little bit lost a bit confused maybe some of them feel successful but some of them don't, it's just engineering success in the classroom to a much more refined heightened granular precise way.

Neena:
[19:48] Brilliant so they're not learning from a poster and then possibly perpetuating misinterpretations between themselves from the outset they're given that knowledge that rich knowledge from the teacher but you're saying obviously we don't then expect complete science in the lessons we want them to be discussing in their pairs and I think you said kind of the rehearsals like the verbal rehearsal practicing these ideas getting that confidence and fluency but also really important you also don't just stop there that process is your your collecting or gathering data getting feedback and And fundamentally, you're just ensuring that they have really secured that knowledge and they've nailed it before perhaps, is that before they then move on to, or you move on to the delivery of the next chunk of knowledge? And then you just repeat that process. And I guess that is what helps with connecting those nodes one at a time that then eventually builds that web of knowledge and that schema.

Pritesh:
[20:54] Yeah i mean that was such a concise explanation and what i would add there is just i mean i've used pair work as an example of reinforcing and rehearsing that knowledge but it could equally be other types of questioning it could be, questions they answer on mini whiteboards that the teacher then scans and checks or it could be other types of questioning and i think that has to be something we return to in future episodes yeah and we can look, at each of those strategies in turn.

Neena:
[21:23] Should we go into the delivery a little bit? I think that is also something that we'll probably delve into later detail in a future episode. But if we've said just in terms of the headlines of it, so you've planned the content meticulously beforehand, but then how are you delivering it? We know it's clear concise it's chunked but if we are standing by this concept and we believe it we have this deep belief in conviction that the teacher has that kind of expert or a word coming up but like the expert authority and they're imparting all that subject knowledge um actually Well, what I've just thought of, actually, is this idea of engagements. We kind of mocked and ridiculed a little bit some of the previous activities and lessons that we've taught earlier on in a career.

Pritesh:
[22:14] Guilty as charged.

Neena:
[22:16] But they came from good intentions in terms of wanting the kids to be engaged. It was just a bit misplaced in terms of what exactly engages the kids. So I think the assumption or the understanding at that time was so-called fun activities, which we've established kind of actually distracted from the learning rather than promoting it. But I think we have to keep with this idea of engaging the kids. And just to be very, very clear that that's something that I,

Neena:
[22:45] we believe wholeheartedly in. We are educators and not entertainers but we still need to make sure that the kids engage with that content and i think that's where the delivery comes in i think back in the day we didn't need to focus on that as teachers because we were delivering quite little content but now if we're the expert authority imparting that subject knowledge we we're not talking you know relentlessly for an hour and having no kind of interaction from the kids it's clear concise chunked but we're still teaching the kids so how do we make that delivery engaging and I'm thinking lots of ways but number one it's that use of voice isn't it and that kind of variety to try and really hook the kids into into what we're explaining to them

Pritesh:
[23:39] Yes and this the idea of engagement is, is correct as you said but that's exactly what made those ideas so seductive we thought engagement you of course you have to engage the class but the way we're engaging them was the wrong way because it the thing that they left remembering was the activity and not the content but if we deliver the content explicitly, but do that dryly then we are not going to build schema successfully like this is why we you know wouldn't lecture for an hour as you said to the class so part of that is chunking it up as you said and part of it is delivery in voice can you tell me some ways that you use your voice, or some things that you have in mind to help you channel a voice that is more engaging.

Neena:
[24:31] I think variety is the key because we always criticize like a monotone like why is that so problematic because after a while we just stop paying focus or attention to it the variety and the range in how we use our voice that makes us sustain that attention I sometimes think of it as like news readers sometimes the way that they kind of go up and down in their intonation but I think let's do a quick reminder or recap of the different elements of voice because as I've said previously, I think voice is like this generic term for this tool that we have. And I think it's the most powerful tool, natural tool that we as teachers and educators have at our disposal. But if we're thinking about really varying it, then it is about that volume, that pace, that tone and the pitch. And I know we've talked about tone and pitch quite a lot when we were discussing that call to attention. But I'd love to speak for a moment about kind of volume and pace so I know I say I'm a foghorn we've talked about the importance of having a projected voice for a call to attention but actually

Neena:
[25:42] It's really powerful to sometimes during an explanation, drop the volume of that voice. You still need to be at a decent enough volume that the kids at the back of the classroom can access it. That's really also what we mean by being inclusive. But really, the effect you want is that they almost are adjusting their body language and they're kind of leaning in.

Pritesh:
[26:08] I literally just did that.

Neena:
[26:09] To hear the next word that comes out of your mouth i

Pritesh:
[26:13] Literally just leaned in when you went quieter.

Neena:
[26:16] Because it makes it sound like what you're saying is it's almost like you're sharing a secret and it's mysterious and it's really interesting to know also almost instinctively as i'm doing that my pace is also affected i'm kind of not necessarily speaking a lot slower but i'm definitely incorporating dramatic pauses yes i love i'll go back to my normal my normal voice now i love the power of pause because i just think there are so many benefits to it so I think kind of pedagogically in a way that pause just creates a break in an explanation that allows the kids to cognitively process what they've just learned but also from a cultural perspective the engagement and the excitement it creates because it's that suspense and anticipation of what's coming next as well

Neena:
[27:20] And it's just really fun to play around with this I think that phrase that you coined about try it out and your pets not partners it's part it's part of it we want it to become habitual right and I would say part of my planning for lessons would be not just ensuring my explanations are clear concise chunked and we haven't gone in too much into economy of language but that's also important I would also plan in how I would use and adapt my voice at various points as well. So we talked about telling it like a secret. You could share it like a story. But yeah, just using your voice, varying it in order to engage.

Pritesh:
[28:02] And how might, for an English teacher... You are literally telling lots of stories as part of your teaching. And maybe that might be true in a subject like history, say. But how is a maths teacher or a science teacher, how can we tell stories in our classroom better? Do you mean we literally have to come up with stories? Or is it just we're delivering the explanation like a story? What are your tips for that?

Neena:
[28:27] Yeah, I don't think we necessarily need to make up lots of random, arbitrary anecdotes. So if there's a standard textbook equation that starts off with Daniel went into a shop you can do things like exchange that name for like a name of a pupil in in the class and just elucidate like a little bit and that's also a little bit bringing the fun and frivolity but it's engaging because the kids feel that it's relatable kind of to them and it also becomes a bit of an in-joke in that lesson as well that you can then refer to throughout the lesson but in subsequent lessons and I think that's very bonding and connecting and is part of that kind of relationship building winning as well it definitely goes into yeah the winning hearts so

Pritesh:
[29:13] I think there's actually two things you've said there that I think are really powerful one is naming pupils in examples which then naturally makes you use your voice more it makes it more exciting because instead of it being, here's another example we've got josh goes into a shop did a dose nina goes into a shop and you're just much more likely to to engage the pupils as a result, but the second thing is is is really consciously not only changing the name but using your voice deliberately and i think even if it wasn't an example with the name i've seen lessons where even when you say, and then the next step in in this equation. You divide both sides by two. Why do we divide both sides by two? Let me have a think. Ah, it's because. And just even that, that thinking aloud, which maths teachers are so great at, by using your voice in a way that adds intrigue, a sense of mystery, can just transform an explanation and make it feel much more engaging. Because our brains, the human brain and our human ears are attuned to storytelling. And Dan Willingham, again, he uses that idea that stories are privileged in our minds and we're much more likely to remember them.

Neena:
[30:32] Yes. And stories connect us as human beings. And this is from the beginning of time, isn't it? And I love that you use the word deliberate, which I didn't, but that's exactly what it is. So it's almost like...

Neena:
[30:44] We all have a voice and we all teach using our voice but it's very easy just to just to take it for granted so i think so maybe one of the biggest takeaways of today's episode is and i know we have referred to it before and we will dive even deeper in later episodes too but it's just to think yeah in a careful way being intentional deliberate about exactly how you use your voice and try it out and i would say as well actually with any of these you know

Neena:
[31:12] If it's sort of a new strategy or a different approach to teaching and it's hard isn't it when we're when we're trying to do something that we're not accustomed to or we're unfamiliar with and we do need to build the confidence i know we've joked about practicing on your pets not partners and there is definitely an element of that that practice helps to build that confidence and for these things to become habitual but you do also want to be trying it out in a lesson and sometimes it can be a bit intimidating trying some or experimenting with something brand new with that really challenging year 10 group so just find one of your classes that perhaps you have a stronger rapport with and that are open to experiencing you know new things maybe if you've got like a top set year seven that's just you know one example um is so so try out changing your you're all varying your voice in a deliberate way with with that class that you've that you've selected

Pritesh:
[32:07] That's a great concrete tip for teachers to go away and try it with a class that they think it will land well with and I think that, what's fascinating about some of these strategies like use of voice in the classroom with these examples is, that they tie back to something we've been talking a lot about on operation education, which is increasing a sense of joy and warmth in the classroom. And it's almost like when you go from, I'm just teaching this equation, seeing where this, what, where this goes over here, and then this or photosynthesis, blah, blah, blah, to being like, and this is what's intriguing about my subject and isn't this amazing and oh did you know just, this idea of i'm telling it like a secret or i'm telling it like a story or there's a sense of intrigue here just, makes the class feel convinced that you love the subject and if that comes across it just is more likely to bring out the best in the kids and their relationship with both you and the subject, It's not going to suddenly revolutionize overnight, but it's all these little signals they get from their teacher that, oh, this Sarah really seems to like this topic. They're more likely to enjoy it or miss is really making this sound like it's super important. It must be important. I believe and buy into that.

Neena:
[33:31] Yeah, that's so true. And demonstrating love of your subject, like it's just it becomes infectious, that love. And exactly as you said, it generates the joy in the room as well. And it's just very very inspiring and there will be times where kids will you know might mock you all right calm down miss don't get overexcited about like whatever this is but we know they say that but they're blooming loving their lives because you know if you've got a choice of the two classrooms but it seems like the teacher's just going through the motions and mechanics versus someone who is you know genuinely excited about what they're teaching i think that has a transformative impact on the on the learning environment

Pritesh:
[34:11] Is there a danger that this advice that we're sharing is misinterpreted as hold on this sounds like what you're saying is you you're going back to entertaining your classes rather than educating them what would you say to that criticism potentially.

Neena:
[34:26] I would say i would disagree with that and i'd say no it's not going back to that and the reason is you're still standing by the fundamental principles of you are starting off with planning your lesson with how you are with the content of your excellent explanations so the clarity and concision and chunking of them and the economy of language and you're making sure that when you're delivering it in that engaging way by varying your voice for example that you're kind of it just grounds you I think and keeps you rooted and makes you disciplined because you you have that clarity yourself. In exactly what your explanation needs to consist of, and how you are building that schema, those words of knowledge in your kid's mind. And if you've combined that with also having the foundation of a strong culture in that classroom, then actually, there's not too much danger of getting getting waylaid there.

Pritesh:
[35:28] I think 100% agree with you. It's like, you are going to be winning their minds by building that schema really clearly, but if you use your voice in a more engaging way you're more likely to hold their attention which increases the likelihood of them learning more, you're also winning hearts more at the same time because they are falling more in love with your subject or they're more inspired and infused, by the subject and even if they don't leave thinking this is the most interesting thing in the world at least they think and they know that you think it's interesting and that is important because that automatically is just more engaging it's like you think about cpd you have to sit through would you rather two identical content delivered one that the person just sounds like what they're saying is beautiful, fun engaging interesting important, or versus identical content but the person just sounds like they're just telling you here's what great teaching is this is another strategy like i know what cpd i'd rather be sat in even though the content is identical and i think that's a good analogy perhaps in this in this case for.

Neena:
[36:40] Sure and i'm also just thinking you know if kids are if you truly engage them then they'll just forget to be you know distracted and they They won't want to, you know, disrupt either. So I think, yeah, engaging the kids in the right way.

Pritesh:
[36:57] Yes. Okay, final thing that I want to touch upon with regards to explicit instruction is... If we're saying we're explicitly planning explanations out and telling kids, the knowledge or breaking that skill down, getting them to practice each chunk, individually, building that up, a misconception might be, hold on, so you're telling the kids absolutely everything. They're not thinking. They're not thinking hard at all.

Pritesh:
[37:26] What might you say to that?

Neena:
[37:29] Just them actually learning and practicing some of those key ideas and then recalling them accurately is actually takes up a lot of their thinking time and their cognitive space so actually i just think that's a prerequisite for what comes afterwards they're not going to be in a position to really manipulate that knowledge in a very flexible way until they've been explicitly taught it and that they have rehearsed and practiced it sufficiently and when they've got to that stage and level of confidence then the next step in stage is for them to kind of yeah where they're just they're just thinking on then a different on a different level but do not underestimate um the power of thinking that goes into just genuinely learning brand new knowledge for the first time in a way that they are actually going to retain it for the future and as i say to the kids like if you can't remember I say this at the start of recaps if you can't remember it then you haven't actually learned it

Pritesh:
[38:32] Absolutely and I think that, It's easy for us. You alluded to expertise or expert induced blindness earlier. And I think that's so true of the subjects that we teach. We might think, oh, just the reactants of photosynthesis and where they come from. That's the basic stuff. I want them thinking about what factors affect the rate of reaction of photosynthesis and why. So we'll go over that stuff really quickly. The basic stuff, because they're not thinking they'll think hard in the later parts. But that's you've just explained that that's kind of flawed thinking in some ways because even getting to grips with what are the basic building blocks of knowledge the basic nodes of knowledge, if that's brand new information to you it is thinking hard I mean I think back to when I've had to like if I've been learning when I go to a new country and I'm trying to learn like the basic phrases, my goodness me by the time I've learned the third word I've learned hello good morning good afternoon you asked me what good good morning is and i've already forgotten yeah and does that mean that i'm just not thinking hard absolutely not i think i am thinking hard it's just this is new to me so i'm going to need so much practice and then, i might then be able to do something interesting with like thinking about how i might use that within a sentence but that feels miles away if i haven't got the words in the first place and the vocabulary in the first place exactly so to kind of summarize activities T's.

Pritesh:
[39:58] End up being more memorable than the content and that can and that can happen when we're seduced by those, ways of learning that are active learning and the kids are moving around to learn all that kind of stuff so we got to be thinking, what is the content the kids need to master and how can I deliver a really clear explanation or model that's going to support them to master that content and that will require not only a good explanation but opportunities to rehearse and practice and answer questions, we then talked a bit about how we deliver that well-planned content using our voice in a really engaging way telling it like a story or really thinking about telling it like a secret involving the kids names in those explanations are three concrete ways that the pupils can really feel more engaged in that explanation, and lastly we addressed that the idea that well recall, is just really basic no no no it is thinking hard and that's a precursor to them doing more meatier stuff with it with that in terms of making links or manipulating that knowledge, we've covered a lot in that episode i'm exhausted that is a complex that's a complex web of schema that we have weaved and so it's definitely something we'll be returning to yeah in a future.

Neena:
[41:22] So, Pritesh, what's our question or scenario for next week?

Pritesh:
[41:26] So, there is a school which currently has a system where individual pupils earn, points. So, some schools call them praise points, others call them merits, others call them achievement points. And pupils can earn these individually. And in this particular school there is currently no system for what happens to individual pupils once they accumulate a certain number of points, and the current proposal is that maybe pupils can trade or swap a certain number of points for certain items for example 10 points and they can swap it for a pen or 20 points and they can swap it for a chocolate bar or if they get a hundred points there might be vouchers for a high street retailer, so the scenario is is this a, good option or is an other alternative better if the goal is we want to motivate the kids as much as.

Pritesh:
[42:39] Of Operation Education, then get in touch. Email me on pritesh at bunsonblue.com. If your school would like high-quality CPD, then get in touch with me via bunsonblue.com forward slash CPD.