Book Club

Learn. Practise. Develop. Transform.

The Hidden Lives of Learners by Graham Nuthall.

How do I use this journal? • The journal is structured through key extracts taken from the book (in chronological order).

You can work through them one by one, or dip in and out at different point. The extracts are

structured under the headings of Chapters 1 to 4.

• Chapters 5 and 6 are included through suggestions for classroom enquiry. If you carry out

the classroom enquiry, you are advised to read the detailed information about Nuthall’s

study in Chapters 5 and 6.

• Chapter 7 is a summary of the key points in the book. It was written by Nuthall’s colleagues

after his death. Nuthall was terminally ill as he wrote this book. When you read it, you will

notice that he makes references to running out of time. The final activity in this journal is a

challenge to turn Chapter 7 into an infographic or sketch-note for sharing with your

colleagues via the staffroom wall, the PACT PLD website or Twitter.

How will I learn from this process? • Reflect via words and sketches what you learn from each extract. Highlight, underline and

muse on each extract. Refer back to the book to gain a deeper understanding.

• Discuss your reflections with others and practise implementing what you learn in the

classroom.

• Share your reflections online via the Book Club section of The PACT PLD website and

develop your understanding further by engaging with others across our partner schools.

• Use the opportunity for deep thinking and discussion to transform how you approach

teaching.

What is in this journal? • Key extracts

• Key questions

• Space for written reflection and sketchnotes

• Further reading

• Suggested classroom enquiries

Who is Graham Nuthall and why is this book so important?

Regularly cited by prominent educational thinkers as being one of the most important books about

learning ever written, The Hidden Lives of Learners gives an insight into the internal realm of the

child in a landmark book based on thirty years of research.

Graham Nuthall wanted his research to be based on a real understanding of the individual nature of

the teaching and learning process. He has been cited as a man who ‘would rather search out

unknowable truths than spend his time gathering evidence to support myths and rituals’.

You can find out more about Graham Nuthall and his research via this video from Jan Tishauser

taken at ResearchED Netherlands 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t14aOSI0mH8

Pre-reading task: Follow the links below.

https://chartered.college/the-hidden-lives-of-learners-teacher-book-review

https://reflectingenglish.wordpress.com/tag/graham-nuthall/

What are your initial impressions of the book based on the book review and the blog above?

Do you feel this book may offer you a deeper insight into the way children learn, and subsequently,

how you teach them?

CHAPTER ONE: What do we know about effective teaching?

How do you monitor the visible signs that you see in the faces of your learners?

How do you gauge the ‘with-it-ness’ (Kounin, 1970) of your learners?

When do you know for certain that a child in your class has really understood something?

Is learning the natural consequence of actively engaged minds?

Is there a risk that learners can come to know what teachers are looking for and ‘play the game’?

Think of your learners, could any of them be ‘playing the game’ with you? How do you know?

“The central business of teaching is about creating

changes in the minds of students – in what

students know and believe and how they think. The

ability to create change means that, in some way,

teachers need to be constantly reading the minds

of students. Are their minds focused? What are

they understanding, or not understanding? What

do they really think?” (Page 23).

“In an early study of teachers’ thinking, Philip

Jackson (1968) found that experienced teachers

develop a high level of sensitivity to students’ level

of interest, their involvement, and their

motivation” (page 24).

What is the criteria by which your teaching has been evaluated? Is it fair?

Are there aspects of good teaching that you think are visible to someone who is looking, or will they

always be influenced by what is ‘fashionable’ in teaching?

What is your own measure of whether or not you are a good teacher?

“For all the insights that direct observation might

provide, we should not base our evaluations of

teaching on some universal model or set of models

of good teaching. We simply cannot tell by

looking…

Whatever is fashionable at the time determines

what researchers look for and what they see”

(pages 25 & 29).

Do you think a good teacher is good because of their personality?

What do you mean by ‘personality’?

What factors (other than personality) impact on how a teacher interacts with a class?

Further reading

http://www.learningspy.co.uk/featured/is-love-the-most-important-thing/

https://lobworth.com/2016/05/07/the-impact-of-personality-in-the-classroom/

“There is no consistent evidence that teacher

personality relates to teacher effectiveness with

students… Intuitively we know that personality is

important. The problem, however, lies in trying to

define what we mean by personality.

Personality relates to how a person interacts with,

or responds to, other people.” (Page 27)

What numerical assessment systems (or equivalent) do you use in your classroom? Do they

accurately reflect learning?

Why is the notion of measurement of learning so persuasive in education?

Is the effectiveness of your teaching measurable in numbers?

“We have accepted the myth that we can

describe learning with numbers… If we

believe that learning consists of filling the

mind of a child with small interchangeable

particles of knowledge that are all of equal

size and significance – like beans in a bag –

then numbers would make some sense.”

(Page 29 & 30)

What is the implication of this for curriculum plans, schemes of work or lesson plans?

What is the argument for ensuring consistent methods are used by teachers in the classroom?

What factors make consistent implementation of methods difficult if not impossible to achieve?

Further Reading

https://www.tes.com/news/why-consistency-overrated

https://mcsbrent.co.uk/cheng-reaction-six-months-in/

“Every subject area has gone through periods where new methods of

teaching were introduced, and old methods disparaged… In the realities

of the classroom, methods do not exist. Every teacher adapts and

modifies so-called methods. Research shows that teachers who believe

they are using different methods may be doing essentially the same

things, and teachers who believe they are using the same method may be

doing quite different things… A great deal of misunderstanding comes

from assuming that activities given the same name are the same

activities. Pharmaceutical drugs do not change their content when given

to different people, but teaching methods do change when carried out by

different teachers with different students” (Pages 32-33)

Does learning require motivation? Can one learn unwillingly?

Can a demotivated and unengaged student learn?

What role does motivation play in your classroom?

Further Reading

https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/motivation-for-

learning-is-there-a-point/

“There is a strong tendency to equate motivation

with learning… if students are interested and involved

in an activity, they will learn from it. Being attentive

and engaged is equated with learning. However,

students can be highly motivated and actively

engaged in interesting classroom activities, yet not

learning anything new. Learning requires motivation,

but motivation does not necessarily lead to learning.”

(Page 35)

How can a teacher find out what students believe, know, can do or feel prior to teaching?

How can a teacher find out what students believe, know, can do or feel after teaching?

Even if you can know that information, how can you plan teaching to meet all those levels of

believing, knowing, doing and feeling?

“Effective teaching means students learn what you

intend them to learn… But whatever you intend, in

order to know if you have been effective, you must

have some way of knowing what your students

believed, knew, could do, or felt before you taught

them and what your students believed, knew, could

do, or felt after you taught them. Learning, of

whatever kind, is about change.” (Page 35)

What does Nuthall mean by, ‘students learn what they do’?

In your classroom, does ‘peer culture win every time’ (page 37)? Nuthall says that working with peer

culture is the only way we have of managing the substantial part of students’ learning. Do you

agree?

Nuthall is advocating covering less of the curriculum in order to design and carry out effective

learning activities. To what extent do you agree with this?

What does Nuthall mean when he says, ‘effective activities are managed by the students

themselves?’

Further Reading

https://www.tes.com/blog/teaching-teacher-how-student-led-learning-can-help-

your-pupils-become-independent-and

“A set of premises or underlying principles that we

need to take into account when thinking about

effective teaching:

First premise: students learn what they do.

Second premise: social relationships determine

learning.

Third premise: effective activities are built around big

questions.

Fourth premise: effective activities are managed by

the students themselves.” (Page 36 – 38)

CHAPTER TWO: Myths and Misunderstandings about Assessment

Can qualifications that students use as a measure of their success (to get into university or to get a

job) also be used as a measure of evaluating schools? Is this a contradiction?

When students gain good marks in your class, do you see that as a measure of their success, your

success, or both?

Would you be happy to be judged on the results / qualifications your students gained? Is that a fair

test of your teaching?

“We cannot make up our minds what qualifications

mean. Sometimes we see them as a result of teaching

(when evaluating schools), and sometimes as a result

of student ability and hard work (in relation to

applying for work). They can’t be both, can they?

Most people just accept both claims about

qualifications without noticing the contradiction.”

(Pahe 40)

How do you measure levels of motivation and commitment in your classroom?

Does motivation affect the outcome of students’ results in tests in your classroom?

What would you learn about your students if test results were always accompanied with an analysis

of motivation? Is there an accurate way of measuring motivation?

Classroom Enquiry

For the next test you are planning in class, design a measurement of student

motivation. Compare the test results with an analysis of the students’ motivation.

What do you learn? Does it offer you any new insights?

“When test results are reported,

they should have attached to them

an analysis of how motivated and

committed the students were to

doing well on the test” (Page 42).

Read the description of the intelligent memory search system on pages 46 – 48. Based on your

experience, what do you think makes something ‘stick’ in a students’ memory?

Read the description of the deduction and inference system on pages 48 – 50. Based on your

experience, how can we ensure students have enough prior understanding/knowledge to be able to

make logical and accurate inferences and deductions? Do we have any way of knowing if they don’t

have enough prior understanding/knowledge?

What makes logical sense to students is trusted. If a misconception makes logical sense, it can be

embedded as true. How do you find out if your students have misconceptions? Do you address

misconceptions directly? How?

“Students’ minds seem to have two systems operating

simultaneously. One system is an intelligent memory search system.

It tries to re-find, from whatever cues are available, the information

needed to answer each question. The second system is a deduction

or inference system. Its function is to work out, again from

whatever cues or background knowledge are available, what the

answer should be logically.” (Page 46-47)

“We discovered that a student

needed to encounter, on at least

three different occasions, the

complete set of the information she

or he needed to understand a

concept” (Page 63)

CHAPTER THREE: Understanding how students learn and remember

what they learn

What is the implication of this finding for curriculum planning?

How many times do students encounter information in your classroom? Do you plan for them to

encounter it a number of times?

How does an insight into working memory impact on your lesson planning?

“New concepts are not created and transferred to long-term memory until enough

information has accumulated in working memory to warrant the creation of a new

concept… Our data, to stress the point, suggest that three complete sets of relevant

information, interpreted and integrated in working memory, are the minimum needed

for the construction of new belief or concept.” (Page 73)

How do you ensure that multiple interactions with information or concepts ensure students stay

engaged with the content?

Are there any circumstances when simple repetition would be your strategy of choice?

Nuthall says that learning depends on the information students are exposed to, the time given to

process the new concepts and the context of the classroom. Which of those do you have most

control over?

Further Reading

https://primarytimery.com/2017/09/16/memory-not-memories-teaching-for-long-

term-learning/

https://thirdspacelearning.com/blog/clare-sealy-introduction-cognitive-load/

“[Students] need to be taught the concept, or to encounter a full

explanation of the concept, at least three times... This does not mean

simple repetition. Simply repeating explanations or activities is likely

to be boring and turn student off engaging with the content in

appropriate ways. What it does seem to mean is that students’ minds

need time to process new information. They need opportunities to

come to the material in different ways. It also means that the single

brilliant explanation is not, in itself, enough” (Page 81).

CHAPTER FOUR: Life in classrooms: the contexts within which learning

takes place.

Consider the semi-private world of on-going peer relationships. This is the world where transgressing

peer customs may have worse consequences than transgressing the teacher’s rules and customs. Is

this something that you recognise from your own experience at school? Is this world as powerful as

Nuthall suggests?

Nuthall suggests that the power of the semi-private world of peer relationships means that teasing

and bullying go unnoticed by teachers. How far do you agree with this? Are there ways in which you

are able to gain insight into the semi-private world of peer relationships?

How much impact does the private world of the child’s own mind impact on their potential to learn?

Consider this in relation to your own classroom. Do you know children whose experiences at home

are weighing on their mind and impacting on their behaviour and willingness to learn? How do you

come to know what is going on in the child’s mind? How can the child be supported?

Teacher-managed activities…

• the concept would not have been learned if it

had not been for the experience the student

gained from a teacher managed activity.

Self-generated learning experiences…

• Choice of teacher-designed activity… when

students chose from a set of alternatives

designed by the teacher

• Self-designed activity… when students were

allowed to design the critical learning activity

for themselves

• Spontaneous peer talk… when the critical

learning activity was a spontaneous

conversation… not required by the teacher.

(Page 84 and 85)

What is the implication of the finding ‘buried in the data’ at the bottom of page 86? How does this

impact on how you might plan for your learners?

How much control can a teacher have over spontaneous peer talk? Can teachers enable or constrain

it? What are the benefits and risks of creating a classroom environment where spontaneous peer

talk can take place? Who is most at risk?

How much free choice do you give students and why?

Classroom Enquiry

Design an enquiry to measure the proportion of teacher-managed activities

compared to self-generated learning experiences in one of your lessons. Compare

the findings with what you planned for that lesson.

How do your students deal with disagreements about knowledge?

How do you ensure all students get access to resources and information during group work? Does

the status of some children mean that other children get limited access?

Is a teacher able to monitor and control the way concepts are shaped through peer talk?

Further Reading

https://www.theconfidentteacher.com/2013/01/top-ten-group-work-strategies/

https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/group-work-in-primary-classrooms-no-longer-a-

waste-of-time

“Much of the knowledge students acquire come from their peers, and

when it does, it comes wrapped inside their social relationships. Often,

those with status know the answers and control access to information and

materials. Those without status are likely to have limited access to

information and materials, have to ask for the answers and may have to

provide something in exchange. These social relationships change

constantly, and students have to spend time in class maintaining and/or

changing them.” (Page 93 – 94)

How much do you aim to learn about your students’ private and home lives? How much does this

knowledge support you to help students to learn?

Given that understanding peer culture is a recommendation in the book, how comfortable do you

feel with this notion? What are the risks?

Do you feel that students have the right to an alternative culture that should remain private? Who

should have access to this culture? Why?

“Getting closer to students and their hidden peer culture raises ethical as

well as teaching concerns…

Students surely have a right to self-protection, which includes the right to

an alternative culture within which they are safe from the teacher. How

far should the teacher intrude on the most intimate aspects of their

lives?” (Page 106)

CHAPTER FIVE: How students learn from the variety of their

experiences.

Classroom Enquiry Organise to make a recording of a student group discussion to analyse. Listen to

the recording. Try and categorise the learning experiences of the students by

considering the seven categories of information (on pages 124 and 125) that built

up in the students’ working memory during the task. Analyse the data and consider

which categories of information the students encountered most and evaluate whether that

supported them to embed the knowledge or understanding in their long-term memory.

CHAPTER SIX: Ethnic differences and learning

Classroom Enquiry

Organise to observe a group of students from diverse backgrounds working

together. Using the model in chapter six, compile a case study of one or two of the

children where you note down their interactions and consider whether their status

in the peer group impacts on their learning. Share your findings with your

colleagues and facilitate a discussion about the potential for racist comments or behaviour which

marginalises to go unnoticed in a peer-led situation.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Teaching for learning: a summary.

Use the headings in this chapter to create a sketch-note, infographic or

poster to share with your colleagues.

Share your work on the staffroom noticeboard, on the PACT PLD website or

on Twitter.

Use your resource to lead a session for colleagues where you explain how

the insights in The Hidden Lives of Learners can support better teaching

and learning.