A Portrait of Expertise.

There are only a few pieces of writing that have struck a pedagogical chord with me. The ones that have made you stop and think again about the how, the why and the complexity of what we do as teachers are rare. One such piece is "Knowledge and Teaching: foundations of the New Reform" by Lee Shulman. It is an odd piece, not research, not necessarily for teachers but an opinion piece on policy and reforming teacher education way back in 1987. In 1987 I had an embryonic quiff and had started to like the Smiths.

The first two sentences of the article nails it, and was perhaps true until Graham Nuthalls work came along. It says:

"Richly developed portrayals of expertise in teaching are rare. While many characterisations of effective teachers exist, most of these dwell on the teachers management of the classroom"

In researching my forthcoming book, The Expert Teacher, this pretty much describes alot of what is out there.

Shulman develops what is believes is more important:

"We find few descriptions or analyses of teachers that give careful attention not only to the management of the students in the classrooms, but also to the management of ideas with classroom discourse". (my emphasis are italicised and Shulmans is in bold.

This is still true today. We rarely speak of management the learning of ideas in teacher texts, yet it is entirely right that both are necessary for a successful lesson/class/teacher. For me,this makes Nuthalls studies so enlightening,as he  pursued the ideas during the process of learning to give real insight. In identifying the management of ideas Shulman creates a purposeful way of introducing the very important concept of Pedagogical Content knowledge: the knowledge teachers have that allows them to manage ideas in the classroom.

The second paragraph of the article then provides the most wonderful portrait of expertise, written by the mysterious Gudmundsdottir. (Sadly, the full text is to be found in an unpublished Doctoral dissertation called Knowledge use among experienced teachers: Four case studies of high school teaching) This piece of writing is one that I keep re-reading, as it is both succinct and rich. What follows are my thoughts and interpretation of this portrait of an expert teacher.

The first four words of the portrait tell us exactly how teachers develop. It takes time. 25 years of time. Time that the profession is rapidly loosing. Nancy, the subject of the portrait is a teacher who is part of "continuing study" of experience teachers. Continuing study instantly suggests that mere snapshots are not enough in capturing the nuanced complexities of what teachers do. Again, my mind is reminded of the complexities that Nuthalls work revealed. For instance. 

Nancy depth of knowledge of her subject and pedagogy is highlighted which begins Shulmans definition of Pedagogical Content Knowledge.  It is this unique combination of knowledge that makes a teachers professional knowledge unique, purposeful and special. 

The initial descriptive of her classroom does exactly what Shulman says usual classroom descriptions do: it describes the management of the classroom. Nancy "tempers boisterousness" and behaves like a "symphony conductor" Nancy teaches, prompts thinking and students interaction with her and the ideas being taught. It is clear that Nancy knows her students and everything that is occuring in her classroom, and it is the "substantial interaction" that would allow allow her make the assessments to make decisions about pacing, ordering and necessary structuring described. 

However, this is not what makes this portrait special. As yet there has been no mention of the management of ideas. But what follows reveals the innerworkings of an expert teachers mind.

Nancy knows what she expects of the students with this particular piece of content, and how their knowledge will develop. Additionally she has already worked out the questions and teaching prompts needed for a range of teaching situations. She refers to:what the students may need to do; her questions; what is most important.There is purpose and priority in her thinking and it is clear that she is combing knowledge of the content and of pedagogy. 

Shulman describes this as a"conceptual framework", that she uses guide "her own sequencing of material and formulation of questions" and how to "divide [the content] appropriately for assignments and activities". Over the years  teachers develop their PCK,  and this was the first glimpse we were given. 

So far the following ideas of what expert teachers know have been highlighted:

1. What the key ideas are for each topic
2. How to use these key incidences are for differing pedagogical purposes.
3. What content is most difficult.
4. How to organise the content for differnt students.
5. Where to place emphasis and
6. How to place knowledge into themes.

A framework for trawling through our PCK in more detail can be found here.

What follows in the portrait deepens what we understand about expert teachers. The day Nancy arrives to work ill, barely able to speak. Nancy's teaching style, previously described as pretty much evrything passing "through Nancy" transforms into much more student led teaching style,that remains organised that allowed a students to engage with the content with care. Expert teachers have this flexibility as they have PCK, their knowledge goes beyond merely knowing the subject well, they know, and can apply their rich knowledge of pedagogy to different situations, students and content. Importantly they know that successful teaching looks has more than one "style".  What is especially glorious about this article is the celebratory feeling it gives about teacher knowledge. Nancy's ability is described as "dazzling" and "virtuosity" of the learners in her care. For me the focus on classroom management belies the ability and professional knowledge that the teaching profession has.







Shulman closes this section with two key questions, that bring me back to this article.

1. What is it important for me to believe, understand  and know to allow me teach as well as I possibly can? What are the gaps? What is next for me to develop?

2. What can we do to help other teachers teach with Nancy's skill? 

The second is question is as important as the first. Teacher collaboration and sharing of practice are key to our development. PCK gives us the framework through which we can become expert. 

The article then goes on to discuss and structure PCK in a more formal way, and is worth the read. But for me the work of Nancy is inspiring and she is the teacher I wish to be. 

Simple Enquiry Based learning structures

Firstly, I will point out that I don't think this lesson is a true enquiry, but a stepping stone towards enabling students and me to reach that goal. This blog post is all about the processes involved. In the previous lesson the students had experienced a similar structure whereby they moved around our open learning space, with simple experiments, experiences or demonstration for them to observe/ do / reflect upon. The received non judgemental feedback on their "on taskness/ learning".

The lesson began with a simple circle time, with the students asked if they needed to add or change their what good learners do poster. They were then given the challenge to produce a brief lesson to teach Conduction, Convection and Radiation and the structure of the room and resources was explained to them. They were also given the big picture of the process too.

We then came up with the success criteria for their lesson plans. Asking the students what they thought success would be like, gives clarity to the task and ownership of the task to the students. This example, is basically a recounting what they know goes into a lesson, a recap (and subsequent application) of our learning to learn course.

They then picked numbers from a pot to find a partner, the novelty of this technique threw up a couple of interesting exchanges. Firstly, two students who I would never place together came up. They looked at me and said is it OK for them to work together, I lied and said " Of course I trust you to be productive". To their credit the issues I had managed throughout the year did not manifest themselves and the students responded with a high level of responsibility. The second came from a quiet student, who offered in the debrief that he had "enjoyed working with people he had not done with this year... it helped me think in different ways". I was spell bound, I will use this randomisation again.

The classroom was arranged in the following way.

The sofas had been pulled up in front of a whiteboard and the PC had three videos on the this topic for them to watch through our school version of Youtube. On an a joining whiteboard a sign in system asked the student to record what they watched, if they recorded notes and if they had subsequently went onto use the information.

Four laptops were set up on one desk as a research station. Students had to again sign in and state the question that they we going to search an answer for. They had a time limit of 10 minutes per person, although this was used flexibly as a way of providing non judgemental feedback on time management. This was designed to remove the random googling that my students do and for them to consider how much time they spend on tasks. Students too often passively research, and glance at web pages gleaning non related facts, this strategy forced them to identify the thing they wanted to learn about before addressing a resource. I hope the limiting of IT access does not seem too controlling especially in this age of IT ubiquitousness. The aim of this session is the development of the student skills to use these effectively. The structures were chosen to facilitate this. I also find it useful to consider a sliding scale from teacher to student to control where the responsibility lies for each decision. This session is this light a slight nudge towards the students in this regard, but one that I hope will allow them to take up the reigns themselves.

A further book based resource island with six general school text books was set up in one corner of the room. The limiting of this resource was to encourage sharing of resources and hopefully discussion of the information.

One final area was set aside with pens and paper where the students gathered to plan and create their lessons.These were circular tables to encourage good communication rituals.

The students set about this task, I took a back seat and circulated with a sheet of flip chart paper noting down what they were saying and doing. I noted the time at which these observations were made. After about 15 minutes or so I pinned these to the wall and invited the students to gather around. As they did they bean to read what I heard, after a few initial chortles the students settled down and looked a bit brow beaten. I remained impassive doing my best man waiting for bus impression, I did not want to show any sign that I had made a judgement. You can clearly see that the behaviour was not as on task as it could be. I asked for an opinion and the consensus was that they needed to be more focused.

Lesson feedback

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As the lesson proceeded these sheets clearly demonstrate the students becoming more on task. Again the same impassive strategy was used to pass this praise on. This is so important as it allows them to build their own intrinsic motivation rather than be reliant upon mine.

The students worked to a deadline to create their lessons and then were again randomly paired with another group to teach each other. The students were very focused and confident in their conversations here, asking questions and challenging one another. I must say it was a pleasure to see this happen.

The end of lesson debrief started with the question "What has helped you be successful?" Implying that they have been successful and probes to find out why. This metacognition is vital in this style of learning experience to highlight the process and the transferable skills used, as things like content and we worked on computers tend to dominate the student experience. The students were very aware of the reasons they were successful. They came up with
1. Learner attributes- "we were on task", "we helped each other when we got stuck"
2. Learner skills " I found the success criteria told me exactly what to do ?"

3. Collaborative learning , with one student in particular being astute " Working with someone new, was really helpful, He helped me look at the problem in a different way, I would have described what was going on, but we actually talked about why it was useful, I wouldn't have done that on my own".

4. Content Knowledge- Several students referred to "last lesson" , "what we did last lesson" and "my notes from last lesson"

The pride from the students was palpable, not only in their successful learning, but in the way they had achieved it. To celebrate this I asked them to identify the one thing that they were most proud of, to think about what it feels like and how they might get that feeling again. I specified that they would not be asked to share this, it was just for them. I gave them a minute or so of silence to reflect on this.

I then asked them to identify one person who had impressed them and share how they had done this. I gave them a minute to think about this and then started with a volunteer, as I felt confidence would be important in building momentum, we then progressed in a clockwise fashion around our circle. they did this very well, giving specific praise, identifying resilience, creative, detailed explanations, thoughtful questions, patience and pleasingly every student was named at least once. Some were praised more than others, but none the less everyone had impressed someone. The reason for this was to reinforce the good learning behaviours, make it clear that it's not only me who sees what is happening in our learning space and vitally consolidate our learning community.

The Hidden Lives Of Learners

These are the slides I used during my TeachMeet NorthEast Presentation on Graham Nuthalls work.
On the surface Nuthalls work is very simple. He assessed prior learning, wired each student and teacher for sound, used classroom observers to note interactions and resources, assessed again, interviewed learners about their learning experiences and finally correlated learning with this data. But what you get is so much more. An inspiring synthesis of the hidden lives of learners!. Even the methodology employed has a useful message for teachers, we must listen and look out for the learning that is taking place.

Hidden lives of learners from DKMead

The concept of the three worlds that a learner exists in is instantly a useful planning and reflective tool for teachers. Another neat way of thing about it is Pam Hook's question "What is happening at the ampersand?" This book gets to the heart of the confluence between teaching and learning.

The question posed is illustrative (but not definitive) of how messy the business of learning is. The first posing is difficult unless you know the answer. The second is easier by virtue of your prior learning. This allowed you to deduce what the answer is, but not that you have learned anything!
Students learn what they do.

Consider the amount of learning forgotten by students, especially that crammed for an exam. Nuthall makes clear that students do not become content experts but experts in classroom procedures that is imprinted upon them lesson after lesson, day after day.

So when it comes to seeing learning teacher and students can find it difficult. In fact Nuthall makes it clear that when asked what learning looks like teachers describe good behaviour, not even learner behaviours as opposed to seeing the process of learning. The next few slides prove that I too have failed to see the dichotomy. I have blogged about this previously. Fortunately my PEEL Good learner behaviours display rescues me intermittently.

Three exposures

The seemingly random picture of the Queen, an anagram and a choice of number. Is used to demonstrate a key finding of Nuthalls work. Students need 3 or 4 different exposures to a fact in order to commit it to their working memory. This is the second exposure to the content to be learned from the questions asked earlier.

Evidence

The first of the graphs (slide 26) see the students increase in ability from left to right. It is unsurprising to see the more able students be more successful in a module of work than the weaker ones. This is typical. What is a little surprising is the influence of prior learning. The more able arrive already knowing more, and this is the sole difference in their success. The amount of learning by all students is equivocal, independent of ability. This probably explains why Finland's schools are considered so successful. This is the reason I celebrate performance against target, rather than "grade" with my students. Again I have blogged on this.

The graph on slide 28, is a source of comfort for teachers, and again typical. It highlights that the majority of the learning in the class has come either directly or indirectly form the teacher. The weaker students are more reliant upon the teacher than the more able, and are more reliant upon direct teacher input. A clear call to arms for effective differentiation if there ever was one! It is also important to note that the learning from the choice of teacher designed activities, will also be influenced by the peer culture and social status systems our students construct in and out side of school. On top of this,there is still a significant amount of learning that is self or peer derived. hence the warning from Hattie! Students require training and structures in giving effective feedback.

The one that I do not know

Is a quote from one one of my students, directed at his peers, who persistently ignored him.I intervened and was lucky in my timing in two ways. One that I overheard his plea, but also in that my lesson plan, the ensuing conversation that we had was the third exposure to the information he was struggling with. Now, he knows the what he doesn't know, and when asked the content and the action of learning are linked. So, when I ask whats the one that you don't know he replies "condensation!", the right answer.

The table shows the frighteningly uniqueness of learning. The numbers in the final column, ranging from 44- 89% are the amount of learning that is exclusive to one or one and a single other student. This too is independent of ability. I have not yet assimilated this into my pedagogy, as fully as I expect we can, but I do engage level ladders with a range of suggestive ability indicators. I annotate these with code, for every students, sampling them frequently. So BM is book marking. MMT a mid module test, TQ a teacher question etc. i revisit them when I am unconvinced that a student has not learned them. This way I can (crudely) track the learning taking place.

Finally the ISBN, and the forth and final exposure to the previous answer. The Hidden Lives of Learners. Read it, Think about, Reflect upon your practice, but most of all enjoy it.

This Years Teacher Record Sheet

Last year I was determined to make the most of the informal observations that I would make as a matter of course during teaching. I thought long and hard about what I would see in my class, part of this was to catch the students doing something right. So last year I redrafted this four times to get it right.

So, it is therefore obvious that I have started a fresh this year. Although I have definitely learned something. I am hopeful that this years model, is more focused on the learning my students are doing and will inform the next teaching/ learning step easily. This will be shared with my students at the very start of the year. Every student will have one that I will fill in during lessons and when I look at their work.

The first section is all about improving on task behaviour, students work better if they think you are watching them, hence my insistence in not solely recording if homework is completed, but class written work, learning tasks such as a card sort and their involvement in discussions. The final one is so important to record as all students should be involved in this, for many reasons some students will struggle to complete all written tasks. I also want to add value on task discussions.

The second section is all about the quality of their learning, and, again this will completed during and after lessons. It is based around my own interpretation of Biggs Solo Taxonomy. It is one of my key focuses of my learning agenda this year, so it should be helpful to centralise this. I must stress that this is not just for written work and sitting in and listening to conversations will be just as valid.

The next section is a relic from last year, which is the ANECDOTES section, a hugely powerful classroom management tool. Poor learning behaviours being recorded and then recited back to students changes behaviour. Take for example " This is the third time this half term that you have not had a pen, you did not have one on the 12th and 19th of June!" Students very quickly get embarrassed into doing something different. More importantly the recording of good learning behaviours turns out to be a reward in itself, all with the added benefit of basically writing your reports as you go along. The anecdotes will include significant events and notes taken form random classroom scans.

I have added my schools Five R'S of good learning characteristics. These being Reasoning, Reflectiveness, Responsible, Resourceful, and Resilience. To reflect upon afterwards, possibly through discussion with the students. I intend to classify them positive or negative for each characteristic. The motivation for this is that this makes up a big part of our student monitoring and reporting system. So I want at least some evidence to reflect upon rather than just a gut feeling.

Then finally comes the assessment section, the things I would normally record in my record book, exam scores and grades for individual tasks but also a grade based upon topic specific observations made per topic. (More on this too follow.) The other novelty included is a record of science specific thinking skills which I am currently developing in place of the new APP's.

So there you have it draft one of this years record keeping, hopefully learning focused, dialogue fueling, and evidenced based decision guiding. Any comments on improvements are gratefully accepted. I'm sure draft two is just around the corner.