Informed choice: the essential ingredient of learner-centred education

Dylan Wiliam

www.dylanwiliam.net

Raising achievement mattersFor individuals Increased lifetime salary Improved healthLonger lifeGreater control

For societyLower criminal justice costsLower health-care costs Increased economic growth Increased pro-social behaviour

Raising achievement matters…Which of the following categories of skill is disappearing from the work-place most rapidly?

1. Routine manual

2. Non-routine manual

3. Routine cognitive

4. Complex communication

5. Expert thinking/problem-solving

…but what is learnt also matters…

Autor, Levy & Murnane, 2003

…now more than ever

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1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005

Dropout

HS Diploma

Some College

BA/BSc

Prof Degree

The only 21st century skillSo the model that says learn while you’re at school, while you’re young, the skills that you will apply during your lifetime is no longer tenable. The skills that you can learn when you’re at school will not be applicable. They will be obsolete by the time you get into the workplace and need them, except for one skill. The one really competitive skill is the skill of being able to learn. It is the skill of being able not to give the right answer to questions about what you were taught in school, but to make the right response to situations that are outside the scope of what you were taught in school. We need to produce people who know how to act when they’re faced with situations for which they were not specifically prepared.

(Papert, 1998)

Where’s the solution?Structure

Small secondary schools Larger secondary schools

Alignment Curriculum reform Textbook replacement

Governance Vouchers and charter schools (US) Specialist schools, trusts and academies (UK)

Technology Computers Interactive white-boards

School effectivenessThree generations of school effectiveness researchRaw results approaches Different schools get different results Conclusion: Schools make a difference

Demographic-based approaches Demographic factors account for most of the variation Conclusion: Schools don’t make a difference

Value-added approaches School-level differences in value-added are relatively small Classroom-level differences in value-added are large Conclusion: An effective school is a school full of effective classrooms

Informed choiceAbout what to learn (Curriculum)About how to learn (Pedagogy)Degree of choice should be influenced byConsequences (for the individual and for society)Maturity

Consequences of choices (and especially poor choices) about what is to be learned are generally greater than choices about how learning should be achieved, soFor younger learners, many if not most learning outcomes need to be non-

negotiable. As they get older their wishes should become predominate their interests (progressive lowering of the “safety net”)

From the earliest age, however, learners should be involved in decisions about how they learn best.

The test of successful education is not the amount of knowledge that a pupil takes away from school, but his appetite to know and his capacity to learn. If the school sends out children with the desire for knowledge and some idea how to acquire it, it will have done its work. Too many leave school with the appetite killed and the mind loaded with undigested lumps of information. The good schoolmaster is known by the number of valuable subjects which he declines to teach.

(Sir Richard Livingstone, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1941)

Curriculum: a selection from culture Balanced Rigorous Vertically integrated Internally consistent Focused

Principles of curriculum design

Informed choice about curriculumIntrinsic factorsWhat is the subject really like?Authenticity of experienceHabits of mindDeveloping identity (e.g., mathematics, plumbing)

Extrinsic factors“Critical filters” for particular careersFinancial rewards

ConsequencesClosing down of options (“leaky pipes”)Sensitive periods

Informed choice in mathematics

The alternating harmonic series

Torricelli’s trumpet

€

e iπ +1= 0

Euler’s relationF + V = E + 2

Goldbach’s conjecture

Informed choice about pedagogyTwo extremesTeachers doing the learning for the learnersTeachers “facilitating learning”Key conceptTeachers do not create learningLearners create learningBut all teachers can do is teach (learning vs. teaching)Teaching is the engineering of effective learning environments

Key features of effective learning environments:Create student engagement (pedagogies of engagement)Well-regulated (pedagogies of contingency)Develop habits of mind (pedagogies of formation)

Why pedagogies of engagement?Intelligence is partly inheritedSo what?

Intelligence is partly environmentalEnvironment creates intelligence Intelligence creates environment

Learning environmentsHigh cognitive demand InclusiveObligatory

Motivation: cause or effect?

competence

challenge

Flow

apathyboredom

relaxation

arousal

anxiety

worry control

high

low

low high

(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)

Why pedagogies of contingency?Intervention Extra months of

learning per yearCost/yr

Class-size reduction (by 30%) 4 £20k

Increase teacher content knowledge from weak to strong

2 ?

Formative assessment/Assessment for learning

8 £2k

Unpacking formative assessmentKey processesEstablishing where the learners are in their learningEstablishing where they are goingWorking out how to get there

ParticipantsTeachersPeersLearners

Aspects of formative assessment

Where the learner is going

Where the learner is How to get there

TeacherClarify and share

learning intentions

Engineering effective discussions, tasks and

activities that elicit evidence of learning

Providing feedback that moves learners

forward

PeerUnderstand and share learning

intentions

Activating students as learningresources for one another

LearnerUnderstand

learning intentionsActivating students as owners

of their own learning

…and one big ideaUse evidence about learning to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs

Keeping Learning on Track (KLT)A pilot guides a plane or boat toward its destination by taking constant readings and making careful adjustments in response to wind, currents, weather, etc.

A KLT teacher does the same:Plans a carefully chosen route ahead of time (in essence building the track)Takes readings along the way Changes course as conditions dictate

SummaryLearning power is developed more by how—than by what—we teach

Teaching is the engineering of effective learning environments

Effective learning environments involvePedagogies of engagementPedagogies of contingency Personalisation

Mass customization (rather than mass production or individualisation) Diversity

A valuable teaching resource (rather than a challenge to be minimized)

Assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning, and thus the central process of teaching (as opposed to lecturing).