Education LeedsAnnual Lecture 2007

Creating a positive learning climate –

What works?

Professor Tim Brighouse

Education without failure

Is it an impossible dream?

Can Leeds succeed where others have failed?

The Task“I was supposed to be a welfare statistic……. It is because of a teacher

that I sit at this table. I remember her telling us one cold, miserable day that she could not make our clothing better; she could not provide us with food; she could not change the terrible segregated conditions under which we lived. She could introduce us to the world of reading, the world of books and that is what she did.

What a world! I visited Asia and Africa. I saw magnificent sunsets; I tasted exotic foods; I fell in love and danced in wonderful halls. I ran away with escaped slaves and stood beside a teenage martyr. I visited lakes and streams and composed lines of verse. I new then that I wanted to help children do the same things, I wanted to weave magic.”

(From evidence submitted to ‘The National Commissionon Teaching and America’s future’,

1999.)

The Contexts

The Big Cities

• Multi-faith and no faith

• Multilingual

• Multi-race

• Multiple identities

The Contexts

The Schools• Strong Achievement Culture• Tenuous hold on Achievement Culture• Fingertip hold on Achievement Culture

• Estate Schools• Crossroads Schools• Schools in Affluent Areas

The Values

SUCCESS not FAILURE

MULTIFACETED not GENERAL

INCLUSIVE not EXCLUSIVE

IPSATIVE & FORMATIVE not NORMATIVE

LIFELONG not ONCE AND FOR ALL

The Everyday Currency of Successful Teaching

FAILURE

SUCCESS

HIGHLOW

LOW HIGH

EXPECTATION

EXPECTATION

LOW

LOW

H IGH

H IGH

SELF/ESTEEM

SELF/ESTEEM

Expectation7 ways to pitch for success

• Asking Questions

• Explanations

• Story

• Deploying VAK etc.

• Learning Example

• Formative Assessment

• Alter ego & Virtual tutoring

Self-esteem20 things teachers do

• THE MORNING• NOTICE – name and identify• LISTEN – so ask questions about thoughts• CREATE A PAST – to reminisce about• LAUGH – share a joke• REMEMBER – birthday – event• ADMIRE – out loud to others• PRAISE – in writing• RESPECT – family/history/culture• SHARE – football team/pop star/sweets

• STEAL – crisps• PROMOTE – tell good stories to other staff/kids/family• ACKNOWLEDGE – something they are better than you at• RECOGNISE – around the school, not just in the lesson• “I SAW THIS AND THOUGHT OF YOUR” – give them a

cutting from a newspaper or magazine about their team, etc.• COLLECT – grot• CONTRIBUTE – to the ‘X’ factor• MARK – privately• FIND – the invisible child• CONFESS – to private interest

Outstanding Teaching

1. Beliefs• Transformability rather than ability of children• Success for all not some• Intelligence in multifaceted• Every child needs a worthwhile relationship with at least one

adult in may not be them• A child’s failure to learn is a challenge to their teaching

strategies not a sign of inability on the part of the child• A child showing great effort in learning is a sign of their

character not their lack of ability

Outstanding Teaching

2. Habits and behaviours• Always improve their story telling technique• Always polish their skill in questioning• Always extend their “best explanations”• Observe other colleagues’ techniques• Sing from the same song sheet… up to a point• Treat teaching as a co-operative activity… use “we” a lot• Store and share videos and/or dvds of “best” explanations for student use• Use formative and ipsative assessment in their marking• Teach alongside, behind and in front of youngsters• Share leadership and management• Teach in the corridors• Share their “hyacinths” in learning

The Passionate Teacher

‘Of some of our teachers, we remember their foibles and mannerisms, of others, their kindness and encouragement, or their fierce devotion to standards of work that we probably did not share at the time. And of those who inspired us most, we remember what they cared about, and that they cared about us, and the person we might become. It is the quality of caring about ideas and values, this fascination with the potential for growth within people, this depth and fervour about doing things well and striving for excellence, that comes closest to what I mean in describing a ‘passionate teacher’.

Robert Fried

• The teachers talk about teaching

• The teachers observe each other’s practices

• The teachers plan, organise, monitor and evaluate together

• The teachers teach each other

School Improvement

‘The essential pieces in the jigsaw of a successful school’

‘How Head Teachers survive and thrive’

School Improvement

Butterflies

Data

Learning Technologies

X

Average ofall schools

QUADRANT A QUADRANT B

QUADRANT C QUADRANT D

Rate of improvement over 3 years

Family of schools of similar socio-economic background

14X 15

X

17X 18

X

16X

7X

8X

6X

9X

5X

4X3

X

2X1

X

12X

11X

13X

10X

Key Stage 2, 3 or GCSE Key = X: These are 18 schools, numbered 1 - 18

Cracking the cycle of disadvantage is the key to higher standards

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8FSM Band

%ga

inin

g 5+

A*-

Cs

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Non LondonLondon

Key to FSM bands

1 5% or less FSM2 5+ to 9%3 9+ to 13%4 13+ to 21%5 21+ to 35%6 35+ to 50%7 Above 50%8 Grammar Schools

Future ChallengesNew Skills & Understanding

• Understanding of the global system

Movement of capital, people, culture• Capacity to think creatively and analytically within disciplines

Beyond the textbook• Ability to tackle problems and issues that do not respect

disciplinary boundaries

e.g. Aids, large scale migration, global warming• Knowledge of and ability to interact civilly and productively with

individuals from quite different cultural backgrounds – born within one’s own society and across the planet

• Fostering of hybrid or blended identities• Fostering of tolerance/respect

‘The teacher who treats their groups as stars will have as many stars as they wish, and the teacher who believes that they are working on the front line because they are working in a multi-racial inner-city school will have as many battles as they could wish for’.

Pauline Lyseight Jones

The Teacher

‘I have come to the frightening conclusion: I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal

approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess

tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of

inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated; a child humanised or

dehumanised’.

Ginott 1972