THE JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE – LEARNING TOGETHER RESOURCE
Learning Together: Active learning
Achieving success for all learners
Journey to Excellence
Professional development pack topics have been chosen to help you plan a
journey through popular staff development themes. They provide “guided tours”
through some of the resources on The Journey to Excellence website as a
window onto excellent practice. Engaging with the associated activities will help
you to reflect on and develop your practice purposefully.
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This resource will be updated to reflect new and innovative
approaches as Curriculum for Excellence is developed. Please
email or comment in the box below any feedback on the
resource or suggestions for improvement to help keep the
resource up to date.
Active learning
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“In Scotland, as in many countries throughout the world, active learning is
seen as an appropriate way for children to develop vital skills and knowledge
and a positive attitude to learning.”
Building the Curriculum 2
Purpose of this activity
This pack provides opportunities for reflecting on your own practice and explores how
active learning engages and challenges children and young people in their learning. It
draws on the characteristics of excellence in this area, on illustrative practice from all
sectors and on the perspectives of a range of leading educationists.
The activities encourage you to:
• reflect on your practice in the area of active learning;
• extend your knowledge and expertise through studying some innovative and
creative practice;
• plan how to develop your practice to incorporate some new concepts and ideas; and
• share views with colleagues on active learning.
Once you have completed this professional development pack, you may find it
interesting to work through the companion pack on Collaborative Learning, an
important aspect of active learning.
Learning outcomes
After completing this programme you will have:
• identified your current level of knowledge and expertise of active learning strategies
and approaches;
• developed a deeper understanding of how methodologies can change to support
children’s learning;
• gained a knowledge of some innovative and creative practice in other schools;
• discussed and reflected on research evidence and the contributions of fellow
professionals; and
• planned, implemented and reviewed ways of developing active learning in your own
classroom practice.
Who is this for?
This programme is for all who work with learners in all sectors. It has particular
relevance for those who design and deliver learning experiences in the classroom, both
teachers and support staff. Indeed, the programme has relevance for a wide range of
partners and professionals working in other sectors and who contribute to services for
children.
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What will I/we need to work through this programme?
You will need access to the online resource which supports The Journey to Excellence.
Is this an individual activity or do I need to work with others?
The core activities enable you to work individually at a time and place of your choice.
However, there are opportunities to work with colleagues and to discuss and reflect on
how learners may be motivated. You will also be asked to try some of the activities
and record their impact on learning in your classroom. You may find it helpful to work
reciprocally with a colleague to observe each other’s practice and offer mutually helpful
feedback and advice.
The programme of study may easily be adapted at stage, department or whole school
levels to allow larger groups of staff to work through it collaboratively.
How long will it take?
This is a large pack. Sections can be undertaken independently.
Section
Time
1
Introduction
35 minutes
2
The use of a wide range of approaches
90 minutes
3
Learners' willingness and confidence
40 minutes
4
Thinking and Linking
50 minutes followed by time
for the task
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Open Questions
45 minutes
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Myths and Legends
10 minutes
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1.
Introduction
Broad area of excellence 1: Learning and Teaching
Learning and teaching is the core business of schools and
other centers of learning.
Read the active learning improvement guide
Prepare a checklist, grid or mind map that contains the main features of what you
consider to be active learning.
Informative: Promotion of active learning
This movie summarises the key points from the
improvement guide. Improvement guides show
how schools can move from ‘good’ to ‘great’ on
their journeys to excellence.
As you watch these movies add to your checklist or grid some aspects which are
similar to the learning activities that take place in your classroom or school.
Then, add two or three activities referred to in the moves which could be further
developed within your classroom.
Enriching the learning
Enriching learning through the provision of stimulating activities
in a special school.
An active approach in a primary school
Teachers describe how active learning situations are set up
throughout a primary school.
How do you enrich learning for your learners?
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2.
The use of a wide range of learning and teaching
approaches
“Imagination is more important than knowledge”
Albert Einstein
Key aspects of active learning
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Learners experience a wide range of learning and teaching approaches
Contexts for learning are challenging and enjoyable, and include creative and
investigative activities
“You can do it in stages instead of having to do it all at once” (Comment from a
learner in the movie: Creativity: A community of writers)
In what ways did the approaches at St Ninian’s improve learners’ motivation and
attainment?
Creativity: A community of writers
The pupils of St Ninian’s Primary School talk enthusiastically
about their writing. They collaborate to draw ideas from one
another. They generate their own targets and critically
evaluate their successes with assistance from their peers.
Pupils describe how they take their writing home to develop it
further, and teachers believe that attainment has improved.
Research Summary:
Fostering Creativity
Once you have read this article, you might like to consider:
What is Creativity?
Brainstorm with a colleague. Consider which curriculum
areas might be enhanced by creative approaches to learning.
“We really need to stop considering thinking as simply ‘intelligence in action’ and think
of it as a skill that can be developed by everyone” Edward De Bono 1982
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'I don’t talk about able and less able any longer. These terms don’t mean a thing.
OK, talk about more or less motivated, or more or less focused. We are all
capable of being brilliant in some way.' Secondary headteacher
Perspective: Concentration and memory – Brian Boyd
Brian Boyd contrasts surface learning and understanding. He
discusses the dangers of promoting only memory-learning and
challenges us to consider ways of developing instead deep
learning. He cites improvements in concentration, motivation
and engagement through improving the way we present
learning to ‘keep interesting ideas interesting’.
Perspective: Intelligence in the wild – David Perkins
David Perkins describes how we naturally apply different kinds
of intelligence to different circumstances in our lives. Practical
insight in a complicated world – self management, personal
commitment, strategies for decision making. He concludes by
suggesting that what counts is HOW we learn.
After watching these movies, refer back to the checklist or grid you made in the
introductory section and mark beside each activity you have listed whether it focuses
on “memory” or practising and developing “a skill”.
Research Summary:
Learnable Intelligence
'It is understood that learners’ ability is not fixed, but is alterable by the conditions of
learning.' Headline statement in one school’s Learning and Teaching Policy
Use the table from this research summary to take a straw-poll of
your class
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The ‘ability counts most’
model of achievement
The ‘effort makes a big difference’
model of achievement
understanding is something
that just happens
understanding usually comes gradually,
a bit at a time
if you are smart you get it, if
you are not you don’t
you can understand a little or a lot; you
can never understand anything
completely
if you don’t catch on quick, you
might as well give up for the
present at any rate
some people take longer to learn than
others – even quick learners don’t
always catch on right away
effort won’t get you far, ability
is what really counts
to understand you often have to hang
in there and persist
if you are not bright enough,
there’s not much anyone can
do to help you
success in learning depends on effort as
much as ability
if you can't do something, then
it’s because you’re not up to it
if you can’t do something it’s because
you’re not trying hard enough or you’re
not getting the right kind of help
Adapted from David Perkins, ‘Smart Schools’.
What skills will be needed to be an effective learner in the 21st century?
Why do we need to have more varied teaching approaches?
What activities will learners need to participate in throughout their learning
to develop and practise these skills?
Return to your checklist or grid of learning activities. Do you want to revise or
extend it?
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Choose three quotes from the movies and research
summaries in this section. Post them on stickers around your
work area to encourage you to reflect continuously on building
learners’ intrinsic motivation in your daily work.
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3.
Learners’ willingness and confidence as seekers of new
knowledge, understanding and skills
Key aspects
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Learners engage confidently in such activities, and are prepared to risk making
mistakes because they understand that they can learn from them.
Learners often demonstrate or explain information, ideas, processes and skills to
the teacher and to other learners.
They understand that excellent learning means being able to show or explain it
clearly to others in their own words, orally, in writing or in pictures.
Young children will be involved in ‘hands on’ learning.
As you watch these movies consider these questions:
“The children teach each other” - Why don’t we let children take the lead more often?
How can you give your learners more opportunities to learn in their own way?
Learning at the forefront
Campsie View School has given thought to pupils’ entitlement to
meaningful, enjoyable learning activities, their preferred learning
styles and to improving their learning skills.
As you watch this movie consider these questions:
What benefits arise in terms of quality of learning from this application of technology?
Do teachers need better developed ICT skills than their pupils in order for pupils to use
ICT as a learning tool?
Learning: Skills for the 21st Century
Pupils at Gylemuir Primary demonstrate innovative practice in digital
learning.
How does this digital learning reflect the skills and activities which will be required of
these learners in adult life?
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Illustrative: Challenge learning
Notre Dame High School challenges pupils with tasks to solve
problems; they work in teams and present the findings of their
research to their peers.
Carmondean Primary School pupils explain clearly how they
feel their learning benefits from challenges. They clearly enjoy
working together in teams. ‘I understand my own strengths and
weaknesses’ reports one child. Teachers admit they found it
difficult to hand over responsibility to the children, but that they
were then surprised with what they could do.
Brainstorm with a colleague:
What are the potential beneficial outcomes of the ‘challenge learning?’
approach for leaners?
Carmondean teachers felt it was important to give learners the scope to
make mistakes. What would you see as the risks and benefits of this
approach?
Thinking with what you know – David Perkins
David Perkins considers integrating KNOWLEDGE with UNDERSTANDING.
Providing pupils with opportunities to apply their knowledge means that rather
than know ‘about’ things, they can ‘do’ something with their knowledge.
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4.
The development of the ability to think, linking new
knowledge to what learners already know and can do
“In my opinion most schools do not teach thinking at all” Edward De Bono
“Education must be transformed to make thinking rather than knowledge its guiding
priority” Walter Lipman (1980)
Key aspects
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Teachers’ explanations of new topics and the skills pupils will learn are very clear.
They fully demonstrate the links with previous learning across the curriculum and
real-life situations and make new learning meaningful.
Teachers spend significant amounts of time actively teaching.
They deliver learning personally to individual pupils and groups according to their
needs, rather than relying on working only through textbooks.
Teachers present material actively in a structured way.
They continuously monitor the development of pupils’ understanding, tackle difficult
concepts in small steps, elaborate, enhance and exemplify.
An ethos for learning
Pupils at St Andrew's Secondary School demonstrate their sound
understanding through enjoyable learning activities. The role of the
teacher as ‘the most important ingredient’ in enabling learning is
highlighted.
Discuss with colleagues: If you were asked to list the three main
ingredients for excellent learning, what would they be?
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The following series of short movies explore teaching thinking and developing pupils’
folio of learning styles. As you watch them, compare what the movie on St Andrew’s
Secondary School says about learning with comments made in the other movies.
Consider: How can I use these ideas to help children to become effective
learners?
The case for thinking skills – Carol McGuinness
Carol McGuinness describes the benefits of using strategies in
unfamiliar contexts, teaching pupils to apply skills and make
connections to experience success where initially pupils may
have felt ill-equipped to deal with the problem.
A framework for thinking – Carol McGuinness
Carol McGuinness goes on to ask ‘How do we make children
think more skilfully?’ She urges caution in over-emphasising
individuals’ preferred learning styles and preferences at the risk
of narrowing their range of strategies.
Learning styles – Brian Boyd
Brian Boyd reinforces Carol McGuinness’s caution about
labelling children.
In this movie, how does the Portobello cluster use these ideas to help children to
become effective learners?
List as many different ‘types of thinking’ as you can. Extend it as you watch the
following movie.
Using visual tools
Staff within a cluster developed pupils’ thinking skills.
Use the table to monitor opportunities for your own pupils to use
these within a day.
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Types of thinking – Carol McGuinness
Carol McGuinness outlines five different types of thinking and
illustrates the kinds of skills associated with each.
OPTIONAL: Research summary
Learning to think
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5.
Many opportunities to respond to ‘open’ questions
Key aspects
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Staff questioning is skilled and young people’s responses are always listened to
and used to enhance their learning.
By being regularly asked open questions, they learn to give considered answers
from a personal viewpoint.
Children get time to think and reflect before responding and they all expect to be
invited to do so.
Their answers lead to further questioning and dialogue which form coherent lines of
enquiry.
All pupils understand that their individual responses will be valued.
Higher order thinking
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
Creating
Generating ideas, new products and ways of viewing things.
Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.
Evaluating
Justifying a decision or course of action.
Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging
Analysing
Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and
relationships
Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding
Applying
Using information in another familiar situation
Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
Understanding
Explaining ideas or concepts
Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining
Remembering
Recalling information
Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding
Print the table on the next page.
Working in groups try to list questions and activities which would develop
learners’ thinking, particularly higher-order thinking. A few examples are
completed. You might divide the tables between groups and synthesise
the results to save time.
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Remember
Verbs
Questions
Tell
How many…?
List
Name the…
Find
True or false…
Activities
Recite…
Write a list of…
Understand
Verbs
Questions
Explain
Write in your own words…
Predict
What happened next?
Activities
Illustrate the main idea
Retell the story in your own words
Apply
Verbs
Solve
Use
Questions
Give another instance of…
If you change these factors…
Activities
Make a model to show…
Analyse
Verbs
Compare
Explain
Questions
How was this similar to...
What were the motives of…
Activities
Design a questionnaire
Construct a graph to illustrate…
Evaluate
Verbs
Justify
Debate
Questions
Is there a better solution…
Do you believe …
Activities
Debate
Prepare a case for…
Create
Verbs
Compose
Design
Questions
Activities
Write a new recipe for...
Write a song
If you had all the resources, how Product design
would you deal with…
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Assessment: an integral part of learning
Senior management and pupils in a high school describe the benefits of
using assessment for learning.
Developing thinking at home – Carol McGuinness
Carol McGuinness gives examples of children achieving highly through
being engaged with the subject.
Social learning – David Weinberger
David Weinberger discusses young people’s habitual use of the internet and
its scope for active learning. He argues that online communities enable
pupils to connect with others very effectively, to collaborate and learn in
wider communities.
ICT and learning – Stephen Heppell
Stephen Heppell challenges traditional approaches to homework. Consider
what David Perkins and others said earlier about the HOW of learning and
the passive memorising of facts.
What skills are learners using when they are engaging with technology?
If you are working through this pack on your own…
Create an active homework activity for your learners.
Try to provide more active and participative tasks based in the ‘real’
world. Can the task be open-ended? How can you enable learners to
choose a context that interests them? Can learners be expected to
collaborate with others at home?
‘Challenge children to do things beyond their current knowledge or
skill level.’
Did they surprise you?
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Listed below are seven contentious statements drawn from opinion,
conjecture or research. In groups, discuss one or more of these.
There are no correct answers, but there should be lively debate. If
you unanimously agree or disagree, move to discussing ideas for
resolving the issues. Appoint someone to summarise your
discussion and feed back to the whole group.
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The ability to build understanding depends heavily upon questioning skills. Whose
questioning skills?
Schools have tended to assign questions and questioning to teachers rather than
learners.
There are 38 teacher questions for every one student question in the typical
classroom.
Pupils asked a question approximately once every 12 hours.
How can questioning build motivation, improve behaviour, increase engagement
and understanding?
Higher attaining learners ask more questions.
Learners become passive in classrooms due to teacher feedback.
Young people need extremely high order questioning skills in order to interact
meaningfully with the internet.
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6.
And finally
Mind Myths – Sergio Della Sala
Neuroscientist Sergio Della Sala reviews some common myths and
misconceptions about the human brain.
Now return to page one and spend a few minutes reflecting on your progress
towards the learning outcomes.
What changes will you make to your practice and what are your next steps?
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