What makes a good lesson?

What makes a good lesson?

15 February 2012

Alistair Hamill

‘What makes a good lesson?’ School Development Day 15 February 2012

1. Introduction and context

• Post inspection priority

• Part of our ongoing staff development programme

• In line with DE expectations



• ESaGS

“School self-evaluation and self-improvement (with support) are at the heart of the policy. We believe that schools themselves, through honest and open engagement in self-evaluation, using effectively the wide range of data and information available to them, are best placed to identify areas for improvement and to implement changes that can bring about better outcomes for pupils.” (p1)



• ESaGS

“Rigorous self-evaluation is carried out by teachers and the whole school, using objective data and leading to sustained self-improvement… Teachers reflect on their own work and the outcomes of individual pupils.” (p15)



• ESaGS

“Self-evaluation leading to sustained self-improvement is therefore at the core of the new policy… While self-evaluation across the whole school is of fundamental importance, it is also important that individual departments (or Key Stage groups in primary schools) and individual teachers conduct their own self-evaluation and reflect on their performance.” (p25)



• TTI

“Self-evaluation is a process through which an individual teacher, groups of staff, the staff asa whole and senior management: reflect on their current practice; identify and celebrate the strengths of the school; identify and address areas for improvement in their work; engage in personal and shared professional development; and focus on improving the quality of learning and teaching, and the standards of achievement in the school.” (p4)



Objectives

1. To reflect on what makes a good education and a good learner, and to consider how these might inform the answer to the question ‘What makes a good lesson?’

2. To reflect on and share ideas concerning effective pace, challenge, questioning, use of effective pair and group work, use of appropriate differentiation strategies.

3. For Subject Leaders to examine the point in their departmental Action Plans in light of today’s training to see if any further additions and/or adjustments could be made.


2. What makes a good learner?

What qualities did she need to have to be able to do this?

What qualities did he need to have to be able to do this?

World Chess Champion, Anatoly Karpov

Although they need very different skills to be successful at their sports, what attitudes or dispositions did they both need to

have?

CreativityImaginationIndependenceInitiativeProblem solvingResilienceEmpathyGood judgementRisk takingFlexibilityHumilityConfidenceReflectiveness

ConcentrationCollaborationPrecisionResponsibilityOpenness CuriosityHumourCourageEnthusiasmPersistenceDisciplineToleranceUnderstandingSelf-awareness

Which of these dispositions do you want to develop this year?



Subject Subject

Subject

Subject Subject

SubjectContent

Skills

Dispositions



Critical Thinking task

• Objective: given some information, can the pupils figure out for themselves what questions they need to ask, rather than responding to questions I’ve set?

• Goal: to promote creativity of thought, lateral thinking, plus dispositions such as…?

How scared should we be…?!?

Some working assumptions:

Sample size = approx 2500

Three groups: diet fizzy, regular fizzy, no fizzy

One key figure: those who had diet fizzy were “61% more likely to get vascular problems than those who did not have fizzy drinks.”

One key question: how worried should we be by figures – and headlines – like these?

Diet Fizzy850

Reg Fizzy850

No Fizzy850

What proportion of the 850 are likely to suffer from heart attacks or strokes?

Internet search for ‘number of strokes per year in the US’ = 2 million

Out of? What is the total population of the US? = 307 million

• What then is the rate of heart attacks/strokes in the US? (Express it as a percentage) = 0.65%

• 850 people in non-fizzy group => on average 5 people out of 850 will have heart attack/stroke per year

• Diet fizzy increases the risk by 61%, so 61% of 5 = 3

• So … out of 2500 people

• 850 non-fizzy = 5 heart attacks/strokes per year

• 850 diet fizzy = 8 heart attacks/strokes per year

• So … out of 2500 people

• 850 non-fizzy = 5 heart attacks/strokes per year

• 850 diet fizzy = 8 heart attacks/strokes per year

Should we stop having our diet Coke breaks…?!?

61%



Critical Thinking task

• Objective: given some information, can the pupils figure out for themselves what questions they need to ask, rather than responding to questions I’ve set?

• Goal: to promote creativity of thought, lateral thinking, plus dispositions such as…?

In what ways do the pupils develop as a result of doing this task?


3. What makes a good education?



“Education is what is left over when you’ve forgotten everything you were taught.”



Diamond ranking exercise


4. The principles informing our practice

Our values

DE

TTI Inspection Report

World of work




• What is TTI?

The success criteria for evaluation – and inspection! (i.e. the mark scheme)

“The purpose of this section is to provide schools with an understanding of the criteria used by the Inspectorate when making judgments about the quality of provision.” (TTI, p11)

http://www.datpresenter.com/neelb/playpresentation.php?presid=301



• What does our Inspection Report highlight? (the Examiner’s Report)

“In approximately one-fifth of the lessons observed, the pace was too slow and the level of challenge for the pupils was low. There was over-reliance on teacher direction, work booklets, closed questioning and only limited opportunities for the pupils to engage in effective paired and group work.” p4

How do we plan our lessons to address these issues? To what extent would focusing more explicitly on the success criteria from TTI and the

skills and dispositions help us see improvement?



• What is the wider world of work looking for?

PD Lesson 1 - Communication under Pressure


What would your answers say about you in a high pressured interview setting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8VG_pePT3Y&feature=related


How many piano tuners are there in Seattle?


What does the interviewer discover about you through the answer you give?


What ‘habits of mind’ do you think you need to develop this year? How will you do so?



Our values

DE

TTI Inspection Report

World of work



5. Putting the principles into practice

• Different contexts … but overlapping skills and common dispositions

• TTI focus on both outcomes and process



• Different contexts … but overlapping skills and common dispositions

• TTI focus on both outcomes and process

How might we increase our awareness of and emphasis on developing dispositions? Should we have skills and dispositions objectives alongside learning objectives in lessons? What if we were to make the pupils aware of the dispositions we expect them to try to enhance? Could they measure their own progress? What difference would this make to their learning?



Learning and teaching – TTI p22

• Where are we now? What aspects on this list do we need to develop?





Achievement– TTI p30






Achievement– TTI p30


Standards – TTI p31




Pace

How do you define appropriate pace? To what extent does it differ in relation to the following factors: subject, teacher’s personality, class size, topic, ability range in class? What other factors influence this answer and how?



Challenge

In the context of my subject(s), what does it mean to challenge our pupils? How can we encourage them to take risks in their learning while providing them with the support they need to be confident enough to take those risks? What dispositions should they develop to enable them to manage risk and challenge better?



Effective questioning

How can we incorporate effective questioning more extensively? Where are the opportunities in my subject(s) to do so? What are the challenges I face within my subject(s)? How might these be overcome?



Effective group/pair work

Where are there opportunities for effective group/pair work in my subject(s)? What are the various forms this can take? Are there new strategies I could think of incorporating into my lessons?



Differentiation

In a senior high school context where everyone is entered for the same external exam, what does differentiation mean? How can we incorporate it better into our planning and lessons? What difference would it make to the learning if we did?



Objectives

1. To reflect on what makes a good education and a good learner, and to consider how these might inform the answer to the question ‘What makes a good lesson?’

2. To reflect on and share ideas concerning effective pace, challenge, questioning, use of effective pair and group work, use of appropriate differentiation strategies.

3. For Subject Leaders to examine the point in their departmental Action Plans in light of today’s training to see if any further additions and/or adjustments could be made.


Responding to the pupil tracking data – a departmental perspective

Why should Subject Leaders do this?

• Learning Guidance – seemless link between pastoral, careers and academic

• Subject Leader is accountable for his/her department

• Departmental review can identification of patterns to the barriers to achievement teacher and department-wide response

Documents

What makes a good lesson?