Some interesting approaches to building school cultures.

“Schools cultures that support excellence can look very different.” Ron Berger ^[1]

One of the more enigmatic findings in Graham Nuthalls work is his unpicking of classroom and learning cultures ,  not all of which are  positive and nurturing. Where the relationships between students determining largely whether they are supportive or not. Nuthall shines a light on this problem but gives (disappointingly - am I allowed to even think this? )little by way of practical solution. He suggests that to negate negative peer cultures teachers should  “subtly work with it to manage each students learning opportunities “ and to “ create a powerful classroom culture that overrides the natural peer culture”.^[2]  So what might a "powerful classroom culture" look like?  

Due to the complex nature of cultures, it may be useful to look at some case studies of how different institutions have set about tackling establishing a “powerful classroom culture” . The Expeditionary Learning schools, and Uncommon school may at first appear diametrically opposed being either student centric to teacher centric models. However, it is the commonalities that may provide more use in establishing our classroom cultures. I recognise strategies and approaches from both in my classroom, and that’s OK. It really is.

The clearest and most impassioned view of what powerful learning communities can look like can be found within the pages of Ron Berger’s inspiring book “An Ethic of excellence” If you haven’t read it, you must. Do it now. Go to a bookshop. Take my car. Just do it. In it, Ron shares his passion for high quality student work, which provides for him, and the teachers at Expeditionary Learning Schools, the mechanisms for building a supportive and challenging community. High quality student work encapsulates all aspects of how and what students do: from Maths work to how they communicate publicly. They make clear what the expected standards are for each aspect of school life and then relentlessly teach and model it so that students understand what they must do in order to attain it. It clearly makes for aspirational and motivated students who know how to provide one another with “kind, specific and feedback” during the act of learning.

At the heart of Expeditionary Learnings philosophy^[3] (and similar schools such as the High Tech High group of schools in San Diego) is that success is defined by getting everyone to the top of the mountain not just ourselves. The strength of the school resides in the strength of its community. Students are therefore obliged to think of others and their role with their community, and as a result see themselves as active participants in their education becoming “crew not passengers” ^[4] along the way. In fact, my first classroom experience at High Tech High saw me naively ask a student what they were working on. The student showed no signs of pity in his response, but did not show me his work, but showed me around the classroom describing in astonishing detail the work of his fellow students. It was clear that their work was his work, and as result he benefited from a deep understanding of the subject.

It is no surprise that these schools engage with the wider community as a lever for student responsibility and learning. In these schools, the students undertake public exhibition of their work. These high stakes, reviews of their learning and character occurs regularly throughout the year and becomes the motivational mechanisms for the students.

My first exposure to students exhibiting their work was at High Tech High in San Diego. The students had been building toys for first graders that involved using a cam in the toys mechanism. The first graders had been interviewed by the students to develop a design brief, allowing them to make a bespoke toy for the younger child. A dozen or so international visitors were lead into the exhibition hall by the Larry Rosenstock, CEO and founder of HTH, and Rob Riordan, the legendary Emperor of rigour. The hall was already a mass of parents, families and business leaders from local toy factories. This was quite a daunting audience. My eyes settled instantly on a student who appeared to have no toy on display in front of them. Approaching her, she smiled, and I asked “Where is your toy?”. She smiled again and said “I did not get it finished in time”. At this exact moment David Price, our party leader and very astute educator, interrupted and asked “Where is your work?”, “Again she smiled and began to explain again “I did not get finished in time, but I will get it ready for the first graders on Monday”. Just as I was about to ask what had happened, Martin Said, a true gent and master classroom craftsman, interrupted asking "Sorry, where is your work... This is a rather extreme form of student accountability. As extreme as this sounds, with three unknown adults, who are hugely interested in education, that have travelled thousands of miles to be there are grilling you on where your school work is.

The surprising thing for me was how well she coped with this. She smiled, listened  to our questions, communicated clearly, honestly responded to our queries. Infact, she excelled in this situation. Her work was actually finished, but she had run out of time putting a high-quality finish onto it, and was not prepared to put inferior work on show. Yet, she had a large ring binder file, overflowing with her learning, which she gleefully shared and explained. It was very clear that she had learned lots of physics, lots of technology and was getting to grips with how to be a very successful learner. The exhibition served as very productive reflection for this student.

Now, I know that at first glance this looks almost superficial with students standing next to their work in a kind of glorified show and tell. I know it also sounds risky, with parents and visitors coming in to view the quality of student work, ergo your work. Furthermore, I know this sounds a complete pain in the backside scheduling student work, writing letters and organising an event in an already bounteous workload. I know these things, yet I wholeheartedly recommend that you do this. If I can’t convince you then please speak to your Art department at school, who have always done this, and ask what effects it has on the students. It does indeed require a curriculum set up to do this to this scale, but even small extent it can raise the stakes for students on quality and importance of their work matters. A simple mechanism is to may be sit at parents evening looking at student work rather than just some numbers on a piece of paper.

These schools clearly and obviously value both academic and character building success, and provide the operational conditions that allow student to thrive here. Berger challenges us to imagine a school culture that for students to fit in they must do well academically and be kind. What would you have to do in your school and classroom to start to work to this end? To normalise academic success as “what we do around here” requires more than one teacher efforts being supported fellow teachers, sharing and using consistent language of practice and shared values are essential. We intuitively understand this, as part of what we rely on to work as teachers. Our challenge is to provide classrooms that students get to see this too.

On a visit to two expeditionary Learning schools I was struck by the consistency of language used by the teachers. Nearly every classroom exchange (and hallway for that matter) involved the language of choice that lead in making their own decisions. The notion that self-direction  is powerful in these communities, although it should be noted that students may not naturally provide such a supportive environment. Communities need building, and one such story comes from Kathy Greeleys’ wonderful book “Why fly that way?”^[5] The transformation of a disparate and fractious groups of students into a cohesive and supportive community is far from a straight story, beset with setbacks and slow progress. Greeley’s persistence and belief in keeping classroom culture at the heart of her endeavours and planning eventually works for these students. At times, she took the brave decision to shelve the curriculum until the issues in the class had at least been challenged. This will certainly ring true to a lot of teachers where either the students’ behaviour, attitudes and relationships must be addressed before they are able to productively engage with the curriculum. It reminds me that sometimes culture must trump content.

At the heart of Greely’s approach was the belief that rituals and routines can be used to value the qualities of the community they were striving to be. Her students were provided many opportunities to talk and share thought and feelings, as she sought agreement on the student culture, in circle time. Circle time- the act of sitting students in circles in order to talk may seem a little childish or even hippy-ish, but they do allow sharing without authority, hierarchy and the sharing of ownership, and in doing so help build relationships.

Berger, Greely, Expeditionary learning and High Tech high encapsulate much of what was defined as the conditions for “Powerful learning “ ^[6] The components as:

1. . What they learn is personally meaningful.
2. What they learn is challenging and they accept the challenge.
3. /What they learn is appropriate for their developmental level.
4. They can learn in their own way, have choices, and feel in control.
5. They use what they already know as they construct new knowledge.
6. They have opportunities for social interaction.
7. They get helpful feedback.
8. They acquire and use strategies.
9. They experience a positive emotional climate.
10. The environment supports the intended learning.

Uncommon schools

“Teaching is the best and most important work in our society” Doug Lemov 390

The first thing that strikes you about Uncommon schools is just how teacher centric their approach appears. They take this approach as a group of pragmatic idealists that didn’t chase educational equity in the abstract but pursue it relentlessly as instructional problem solvers in learning communities. It is based on a belief that students rely on teachers to create such environments. They started by looking closely, analytically even at what the most successful teachers did, the ones whose students were “joyfully engaged academically, working collaboratively as a team, and generating jaw dropping results”. In his book, Teach like a champion 390 Lemov identifies that teachers are not often serious about learning from teachers that are like this.

This approach is remarkably similar to the Effective Teacher behaviour research of Reynolds and Mujis ^[7] we saw in chapter 7, in which we summarised effective teacher as:

Effective teachers are confident in their ability, and highly committed to the success of all students. Their interactions are consistently fair and respectful, inducing a sense of trust in their classroom. They have the ability to think analytically and conceptually allowing them to be flexible in their approaches. They act proactively and are constantly seeking out information to make good decisions. They set high standards, modelling them and hold others accountable. They have an overwhelming passion for learning and what education can do. They work in teams, understand the motivations of others and seek to influence them in positive ways. They communicate clearly and are inclusive. They employ a variety of teaching methodology that engage and stimulate thinking. They take an active interest in their own pedagogical content knowledge and use this knowledge to teach as well as they can. They create classroom communities that provide an ordered and civilised climate where students feel safe and suitably challenged. They teach and they learn and seek to model the behaviours that exemplify these noble pursuits.

The teachers the Uncommon Schools studied excelled at the parts of a teachers job we often take for granted, or consider to mundane: How we patrol our classrooms; How we ensure that all students are engaged; How we target questions; How we frame situations in a positive light; How we use time well; and how we strategically move students on . Uncommon schools take pride in “well delivered lessons [with] a heart of love, and [the] celebration of teachers for their impact on students life trajectories.” It sees itself as an organisation that is about great teaching and teachers most of all.

Their approach is based upon “sure fire routines, and a joyful culture that builds a productive platform for learning”. It is more than just really good classroom management with a critical focus upon a “culture of error” where it is safe for students to show their mistakes. A culture that resonates loudly with the themes of this book: students’ prior knowledge, their misconceptions and how we can use feedback well.

Teachers are portrayed as artisans, who use simple tools to craft learning and students. The tools may be simple, but things of beauty can be created . It is the focus on getting what may be considered the small things right, and much more. In perfecting the use of simple tools, we get to reflect upon the art of teaching too. Lemovs’ book, forms the basis of teaching toolkit for teaching well and ensuring all students achieve. Lemov insists on naming techniques so that a common language can exist to allow teachers to “analyse and discuss” the classroom, and perhaps more importantly be ready to “adapt and adjust” the techniques so their style, context and students are catered for as well as possible.

The problems of teaching are endemic, and therefore “entirely predictable” according to Lemov. You may have seen this approach alreadyon this blog, with PEEL’s “teacher concerns”. Similarly the Uncommon Schools approach seeks to align common problems with “specific, concrete and actionable techniques” . It is the skill of the teacher to select the right tool, for the right job at the right time.

The Uncommon Schools is neatly encapsulated in what seems to be a benign teacher action whilst issuing resources., in this case a worksheet. The teacher has the student practice handing sheets around the classroom so that it takes around 10 seconds to complete, rather than the usual  80 seconds, thereby saving a significant amount of time each lesson, each day and each academic year This allows the students to concentrate more on what matters: the cognitive work, and many of  their routine and rituals are used to build “strong learning habits”  and increase student autonomy so that the proportion of cognitive work increases. This may not sound that important to leafy suburban schools, but the structured approach and the accountability and autonomy the routines imparts have been seen as instrumental in tackling the achievement gap between the rich and the poor. The ethos of Uncommon schools is to focus “primarily on serving students of the greatest need”. These may well be the students who do not have the consistent and structured home lives that lead to good self-regulation and learning habits, so the orderly approach provides their experience of how this can help a person become successful.

Interestingly, the idea of culture in Uncommon Schools is linked inextricably to behaviour, once more reminding us that behaviour management is not enough, as Lemov rightly points out “order is necessary but not sufficient for learning, and culture is more than just eliminating disruption”. Lemov goes on to define what culture means in this context identifying five principles, that when “well balanced” can provide for a “strong” learning culture.

The following table will hopefully illustrate the hierachy within these principlesand gives prompt s for teacher thinking and planning steps. 

Principle	Definition	Implications for the teacher.	Planning questions
Discipline	Knowing the right way to do something.	Students must be shown/ taught how the teacher wants each task done.	When and where do the students get to practice these routines/ techniques? How do you know when this routine has become a habit?
Management	Process of reinforcing behaviours	Relationship building is an essential part of this. Rewards and sanction become less effective over time.	How do you construct relationships that are ”non-transactional” i.e. contain no rewards or punishments. How do I link good learning behaviours and academic success?
Control	Capacity to cause someone to do what you ask	The power a teacher has to assert control over a class the more freedom can be given. Students are more likely to be controlled by someone they trust.  Being specific with language-e.g. instead of saying “calm down” rephrase to say “please return to your seat and start your work”	How can you phrase your requests so that they are more likely agreed to? How do you build trust with students/
Influence	Next step beyond control. Helping a student to internalise the thing you suggest	Aim of using influence is to get students to believe in long term success by wanting to behave positively. Often a failure to exert influence is what stops students from believing in classroom cultures designed for their benefit	How do you move students from behave to believe? How can you building in greater autonomy so that the students have greater ownership of the responsibility for learning?
Engagement	Engaging students in “important, interesting and challenging work”	How do we get students to do more of the cognitive work?	How do we transport students to “real scenarios?” How do get students to have a vested interest?

So, what can we learn about classroom culture from these institutions?

Most importantly, culture does not lie in the differences between these approaches, but rather in their commonalties. Just as we need to be able to explain the concepts of our subjects in multiple ways, we also need a variety of approaches to start, develop and maintain a productive classroom community. Kathy Greeley’s book- Why fly that way? – highlights that the answer will be different for different students in different contexts, there is no one right answer. But it is in the blend of elements that we can begin to understand.

Both emphasise high academic expectation as a central tenet to their approach, communicating that all students are capable of achieving highly. Students success is clearly correlated to teacher expectations. ^[8] However, this is easier said than done. Poor differentiation, along with teachers de-selecting concepts which they believe students cannot comprehend, even before the students have attempted them, ultimately cause our students to experience low expectations All too often we just hidebehind the claim that we have high expectations of their “behaviour”. Yet the mathematics here is simple:

Low Academic expectations + High Behaviour expectation= Low expectations

Our craft and skill here, is how we sculpt a culture that encourages student to be willing to tackle all that you throw at them academically speaking, and how we grant access to all of the content to students who are “less able” or in reality students who have impoverished prior knowledge. Lest we forget all students have the same capacity to learn, it is just the so called “more able” have a higher starting point when it comes to the attainment tests, that inform our opinions of ability. Our ability  to express high expectations begins with how well we can cater to their needs.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect that both approaches share is the prominence of the teacher. Without highly motivated and supremely motivating great teachers neither system would work. Do not be misled by the apparent student centric view of Expeditionary Learnings approach. There is a great deal of design, organisation relationship building along with brilliance in their teaching behind this successful school culture. Likewise, it would be folly to think that the teacher centric aspects of Uncommon Schools are the be all in and end all of their success. Their culture works because the teacher creates the environments in which students take increased levels of autonomy and responsibility in their learning.

Both organisations believe that the act of learning can be learned, so that students can increase their capacity to do more of the cognitive work of learning, which ultimately, they develop deeper academic understanding. Routines and rituals are ubiquitous in both approaches in order to provide smooth running classrooms and facilitate student work. It is the habit-forming nature of these ways of working that forms the basis of the students learning skill set and attitudes.

Routines and rituals require a common language and understanding. Sharing language with fellow teachers and with students allows the conversation of the classroom to be about learning, and how to do it. Learning becomes the culture, and how we use routines and procedures and their associated pedagogical purpose are what changes it.

Finally, both approaches understand that it takes time to build a truly aspirational and supportive culture, and that the rules and routines are just the start points, and that we must proactively develop our classroom cultures.

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Some suggested Reading and References

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[1] An ethic of excellence _ Ron Berger.

[2] Graham Nuthall The Hidden Lives of Learners NZCER

[3] Now this section of the book is going to make me sound like some right jet setting Charlie, and for that I apologise. Although the sweet Maine lobster in Portland, and the view from the Pacific Beach Alehouse in San Diego make it ever so hard to be sincere with this apology.

[4] Expeditionary Learning Core Practices.

[5] Kathy Greeley Why fly that way?

[6] Ron Brandt http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/198179/chapters/Conditions-for-Powerful-Learning.aspx  Accessed 27/07/17

[7] Reynolds and Mujis 1999 The Effective Teaching of Mathematics: A review of research

[8] Speybroek et al: The Role of Teachers' Expectations in the Association between Children's SES and Performance in Kindergarten: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

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. 

Establishing a classroom community.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Establishing, is the wrong word, why build something to let then crumble?


The idea of having an activity at the beginning of the year to build a classroom community (e.g find someone who ....can juggle) is described by Kathy Greely as lame. How is this going to affect the people leaving our classrooms, how will it affect their academic success? The solution is not to think in terms of only establishing a classroom community, but how to maintain and strengthen it.


I have been increasingly concerned over one of my classes of late, it is a class that has a few disaffected students whose behaviour has had to be managed. I'm not adverse to a bit of behaviour management, but in terms of affecting student learning, I'd rather focus my energies elsewhere. I must admit I've had to work hard to establish the basic behaviours in this class. However, a few months after I started writing this post I am seeing a wonderful improvement not only in behaviour, but how they are with one another and how they approach their studies. I'm really pleased for them,

So what did I do to improve the situation. On reflection  the following strategies have been most helpful, in no particular order they are:

1. What good learners do? Agree it, refer to it, amend it. I do this with every class at the start of the year, but the craft is then to use it regularly, when things are going well and when things are not going so well. I'd say this is possibly the central pillar to my classroom practise.

2. Changing groups. Regularly, with the clear stated purpose of we work with everyone in our community, We can learn from and help everyone else learn. The consistency of this approach is key, and not being tempted by groupings that appear to work.

3.Learning intentions, be explicit. Make aspects of how you want students to be as part of lesson success criteria, whether it's a learner attribute or how they are as part of the community.

4. Show how it happens in your organisation. How do the adults do it. We are very fortunate to have glass walls in the offices and work areas so students get to see how the staff interact. However, they are oblivious to this unless it is pointed out to them.

5. Maintain a no put down zone. Vigorously defend each students to make mistakes safely in public, without fear of someone ridiculing them. Praise effort and thank students for their ideas, and use them as useful start points to teaching.

5. Public critique and public exhibition. This is based upon the previous one. However, I think these are an ideal place to strengthen the community. Be sure always to use the Feedback norms, in every session. Inviting outside visitor in to see student work communicates in no uncertain terms that what the students are learning is important beyond their classrooms

6. Refer to the students locality. Establishing a sense of pride of the school and the wider location is good way to help students feel connected to where they are from. This can be a big motivator. I often frame projects to do this.

7. Debrief and feedback. White hat feedback is best as it's non judgemental. This places the responsibility back with the students.  Photographs, quotes, tally, contribution pie charts are all recommended to help do this. I have found these cards helpful in making very clear how I expect the students to act.

8. Establish Quality Criteria for the behaviours that you want, the nature of establishing and agreeing these is in itself useful in developing the community you want. Although these are done by negotiation (and rightly so) they have the huge benefit of having sophisticated behaviours in child friendly language.

Debriefing tools for Enquiry Based Learning

I have compiled a list of ideas to help teachers get the most from the debrief of enquiry based/ experiential/ open ended learning activities. If you have any more I would love to here from you to add to this resource.

A brief guide to debriefing


The major responsibility for conducting successful enquiry based learning rests with the debriefing phase of the exercise. The debriefing is an important process designed to synergize, strengthen, and transfer learning from the experiential exercise. The most successful way of doing this is through non judgemental feedback

Developing the willingness to be debriefed

At the very start of the learning experience it is vital that an overview of what the session will look like is important for learner. This must be done and valued regularly. It must include and highlight both a reflection and debrief session: reflection should be a quiet individual time and debriefs will tend to be whole classes or at least large groups.
The agreement of success criteria at this point is invaluable, whether it is a skill or an attribute. This will encourage students to buy into the process, value the feedback and change their practices (ie learn)
The quality of debriefs is dependent on trust, so the better you know your students the better their response will be. Therefore plan to increase the intensity of them over an academic year.
Debriefs do not always occur at the end of session and short punchy “refocus” style one shouldbe planned in. It may also be beneficial to host responsive ones to change the direction ( whether it be a behavioural or content problem) , although it may be better in the long run to allow a mistake and its consequences manifest itself before intervening. A longer term view should therefore occasionally override a short term management issue.

Health warning

When debriefing ,especially when sharing data or feedback on performance the emotional state of the students and the emotional impact of this feedback should be considered. Emotion is an important feature of any learning experience, so this is not something to be avoided but use in a positive manner. Remember and highlight that you can probably learn more from mistakes is a way of addressing this educatively.

Questioning

Planning for debriefing cannot be reduced to a set of simple instructions. Trial and error and perseverance are necessary. It is important to think about the questions that you ask, encouraging pupils to give longer answers. Teachers need to plan the analogies, stories and contexts to be used to encourage transfer.
Teachers should also encourage students to ask the questions, so that overtime the proportion of teacher questions reduces. This may not become equivocal, as the teacher will always have the overview and purpose of the enquiry in mind.

Below I aim to exemplify useful questions that can be used to debrief an activity. These are not sequential and you may decide to focus on only one area of questioning? You students or at least their actions will inform of this. Each and every question could be proceeded by asking why? Or How? Although a simple “Go on” will add to the open ended nature of debrief, and allow students to think about their own learning and experience rather than answer a teacher question.

Content questions

The table includes a few (overlapping) questions to draw out the learning that has taken place. The teachers role is to a) check and challenge accuracy b) clarify and highlight key learning points c) connecting ideas together d) compile the learning for the class. “Flipcharting” the ideas can help make this learning visible to all. It may also provide a start point for the next session .for example highlighting misconceptions

What have you found out?
What fact has led you to learn more facts?
What’s been the most useful thing learned in developing your understanding?
What have you learned that you did not know before?
What facts can you now link together?
What’s the most important fact learned?
What have you learned that has changed how you think about this problem/ idea/ concept?
Did anyone find a similar thing?
Did anyone find something different?
Do you still think that’s right?
What questions do you still want to ask about the concept?
What have you seen? what does it tell you?

Process /Learner skill question

What tools have been useful? How?
What was your most useful questions?
How did you go about reading the information?
Did you think of the questions first or did you allow the information to “guide” you? Do you think that was the most helpful?
How did you interact with the information?
What conversations helped you learn today?
What was the moment when you realised that you had learned something/ corrected your previous ideas?
Did anyone double check their work, see something missing and go back to correct it?How often did you reflect?
How did you attempt to join ideas together?
How (often) did you use the success criteria?
What strategies have been helpful? Eg drafting

But these can be more specific about a particular skill.

How did you set about...
How did thinking like that help you....
What made you decide that this skill was going to be helpful?
How would you get better at..

Or even Science specific.

How do you know your test was fair?
Why do you trust the data you have produced?
How do you know your data answers your question?
Was your data precise enough to be helpful?
Does the evidence support each
What assumptions have we made?

Learner attribute questions

How did you get unstuck?
How did you avoid/manage distractions?
How did you plan your work?
How did your motivation change over the session?
How did you respond to problems?
How did you get yourself interested in this work?
How did you manage your time?
How did your behaviour affect your own/ others performance?

Metacognition

Although a lot of the strategies and question here are metacognitive in nature, specific strategies will only enhance your students experience.
Specific questions that run along side a particular procedure or task, can facilitate this. For example while taking measurements asking How accurate are you being? How many decimal places have you recorded? Have you recorded the data accurately? Will train the students to do this greater confidence and accuracy?

Wrapper activities, ie those that you start and end the session with can be used for a wider range of tasks. So asking What knowledge might be useful?
• How motivated are you today?
• How might you work out things for yourself?
• How will you mentally link what you see and what you are learning throughout the lesson?

Will help set the students of in the right direction, rephrasing these at the end will help students visulaise the strategies used.

Teacher observation and record keeping

Teacher time should be split between supporting students and observing students. Observation should be intense and detailed notes should be kept for debrief purposes. These should include quotes, who was interacting with who and how. What resources where being used and how? What questions were being asked and who were they asked of. Collecting numerical data, also provides a reflective mirror for students to consider the learning taking place. So number of students on task, number of procedural questions asked, number of smiles/points/ nods of heads can reveal something useful to the students. The timing of the activity should also be recorded, as this will help contextualise the feedback. An occasional snapshop picture of what each individual is doing will also bring a different perspective. Likewise the use of video and photograph to capture behaviours and interactions are invaluable . Before and after feedback scenarios can be used to demonstrate the progress being made by the class.
This allows spontaneity and responsiveness to the situation unfolding around you, but also had grist to your mill when debriefing students. It also ensures that you feedback is non judgemental, an important emotional.
Classroom structures and procedures
It important that students are debriefed together, so arranging the furniture to facilitate the conversation will help. So a circle of chairs is the obvious answer. Ensure that all students are included is important, do not start the debriefing until they are quiet and included.
Ideally these will become self managing in some respects but teachers need a purpose to each debrief, although allow space for other ideas to come to the fore. Praise piggy backing on ideas, and encourage the use of protocols to manage this situation. For reticent students (or groups) you may occasionally want to take turns around the circle, allowing a 30 second think time after ask a question will reduce the stress of having to respond. Although I would not advertise it, accept a pass from students, expect them to contribute to the classroom community. Teachers therefore need to establish a No Put down Zone so that they are free to express their opinions.
The simple procedure of asking a question before nominating a student to respond, encourages all students to think and reflect and prepare to respond. All the usual good practice of wait time after a question has been asked and a student response should be utilise by the teacher and trained into the students.
Intervening without interrupting
Post it notes with either prompts or observations can be placed in front of students. These can reinforce or challenge behaviour ( in its widest sense).
Alternatively, hosting small meeting with groups of students will allow you to pass information on which is then disseminated by these students. This can be content or procedural.
Simply writing down quotes and displaying them in the class can provide ongoing feedback to the learners. Although you may want to discuss ways forward from this.
Ticking, crossing or smiley facing pre agreed success criteria can also provide ongoing feedback. By placing this in a prominent position students can quickly be sensitized to its use and the feedback being provided.
Reflective practices.
Teachers may want to set a selection of questions for students to respond to in writing on their own, before a debrief takes place. Students will therefore be better prepared to respond, and less likely to adhere to a response a peer has given.
Alternatively giving students a choice and encouraging extended writing can also be very productive.
1. Describe your experience of....
Now respond to at least 2 of these questions:
2. What thinking processes did you use?
3. Were you successful? Why?
4. What problems did you overcome? How did you do this?
5. Did you think creatively? How did you do this?
6. What skills have you developed over this challenge?
7. If you were to do this again what would you do differently?

Target setting questions

The final part of a debrief should look to move the students forward.
What’s the next step in this project?
What will you do differently next time?
What do you need to make this task easier?
How could you solve these problems?
What areas are you still finding difficult?
Do you need to redo any sections?
Do we need another point of view?

Why can't even Ofsted identify learning?

I have been rather proud of my use of a simple Building Learning Power strategy.I even blogged about it ( http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-have-posted-this-brief-clip-to.html )Whereby at the start of the year, with every class, I ask the students to come up with a helpful list of " What good learners do?" and also "what good learners do when they get stuck". This has been a useful classroom management tool and has led me to believe that my classroom is focused on learning. I'm not so sure now.

It definately a classroom management tool, a good one at that, but how much of it is genuinely about learning. This according to Professor Graham Nuthall is a common problem, teachers confuse good pupil behaviour for good learner behaviour. His research clearly shows that these are distinct. For example all of my classes state good learners "follow instructions" and "stay on task", and many of them include "avoid distractions". Yes, these could lead to a situation could take place but do not actually describe what students do when they are learning. Maybe the hardwired teacher default position of "behaviour first, learning second" explains but does not excuses my use of this tool. Maybe it is just easier to see behaviour than learning.So why is learning so difficult to see or quantify? Could it be that teachers are over focussed on behaviour and learning is lost within this? Could it be a teachers reluctance to surrender control of the learning?
Today's report from Ofsted about how well students behave in school, is exactly what I'm talking about on an infuriating scale. Surely schools are about learning and not behaviour factories. Of course young people are well behaved, just like all other age groups. Is this what Ofsted is for? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8637064.stm )

Thankfully I always have a copy of PEEL's learner behaviours on the wall adjacent to the class displays. I refer to this with my students as where we are heading, but not as often as I should. This is focused on learning, and therefore that teachers can see the learning behaviours in their students.

These include: Plans a general strategy before starting and Challenges the text or an answer the teacher sanctions as correct. I love this the locus of control is crashing away from the teacher.

The full list can be found here( http://peelweb.org/index.cfm?resource=good%20behaviours ) I recommended displaying these in your classroom and sharing them with your students at the very least. You never know an Ofsted inspector might see them......

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