Intelligent Learning
Developing Quality Talk
Developing Quality Talk for Active Minds
Website: Growthmindseteaz.org
Gerry Miller (Gmiller@waitrose.com)
& Angi Gibson (Angi.gibson@northtyneside.gov.uk)
Good student questions
enhance learning
You are the students today, so your
good questions will be valued!
EAZ teachers’ cross-phase network group
meets four times a year
 Has been working for last 5 years to develop teaching &
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learning in our schools – using quality research
Focus on AfL & Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset
A key area of Shirley Clarke’s Learning Team (2007) was
introducing Talk (or Learning) Partners and promoting
Quality Talk in the classroom
We saw this as an important way of improving student
engagement and allowing deeper understanding
Intelligent Learning programme was chosen as a focus for
this in 2009-10, especially developing Quality Talk
Context: “Visible Learning”, 2009 by John Hattie
(Professor of Education at the University of Auckland, NZ)
 In the past, the majority of innovations or strategies could be
shown to “work” because students show improvement – but
nearly all students show some improvement
 Visible learning is the result of 15 years’ research and
synthesises over 800 meta-analyses (over 50,000 studies)
relating to the influences on achievement in school-aged
students
 In a meta-analysis the effects in each study, where appropriate,
are converted to a common measure (an effect size), such that
the overall effects can be quantified, interpreted and compared
 Hattie uses these effect sizes to allow us to make a much more
sophisticated judgment on what is really making an impact on
student learning and achievement
Influences on student learning
Reciprocal Teaching
Homework
Peer Tutoring
Mastery Learning
Ability Grouping
Questioning
Feedback
Aims & Policies of the School
Teacher-Student Relationships
Mastery Learning:
All children can learn when they focus on mastering tasks in a
collaborative environment.
Appropriate learning conditions in the classroom include:
 High levels of cooperation between classmates;
 Focused teacher feedback that is both frequent and diagnostic;
 Variable time allowed to reach levels of attainment
Reciprocal Teaching:
 Students learn & use strategies such as summarizing,
questioning, clarifying & predicting
 These are supported through dialogue between teacher &
students as they attempt to gain meaning from the text
 Each student takes a turn at being the teacher & often the
teacher & students take turns leading a dialogue concerning
sections of the text
 Aims to help students actively bring meaning to the written
word & assist them to monitor their learning and thinking
Influences on student learning
Reciprocal Teaching
Feedback Teacher-Student Relationship
Mastery Learning
Peer Tutoring
Questioning
Homework
Aims & Policies of the School
Ability Grouping
Influences on student learning
John Hattie 1999-2009 – research from 180,000
studies covering almost every method of innovation
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Reciprocal Teaching
Feedback
Teacher-Student Relationships
Mastery Learning
Peer Tutoring
Questioning
Homework
Aims & Policies of the School
Ability Grouping
Effect Size
0.74
0.73
0.72
0.58
0.55
0.46
0.29
0.24
0.12
“The most powerful single influence
enhancing achievement is feedback”
 Quality feedback is needed, not more feedback
 Much of the feedback provided by the teacher to the
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student is not valued and not acted on
Students with a Growth Mindset welcome feedback and
are more likely to use it to improve their performance
The most powerful feedback is provided from the student
to the teacher
Expert teachers constantly look for feedback from
students and other teachers about their teaching
Quality Dialogue in the classroom provides regular
feedback for teachers
Questioning
 So much of class time is spent by teachers asking questions of
their students (often 300-400 questions per day – Brualdi,
1998), but usually these are not open, inquiry questions, they
are “display questions” that the teacher knows the answer to
and do not enhance understanding or thinking.
 Perhaps of more importance than teacher questioning is
analysing the questions that students ask. Structuring
class sessions to entice, teach and listen to students’
questioning of students is powerful (Hattie et al, 1998).
Why are student questions so
important for good learning?
Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes
Why are student questions so
important for good learning?
 It engages them in the topic and builds on prior learning
 Allows them to relate the topic to personal experience
 Makes them think
 Empowers them to take control of their learning
 Teaches them to disagree intelligently
The Personal Nature of Learning
“It is students themselves, in the end, who decide
what students will learn” – Olson 2003
“There are at least three worlds in the classroom”:
1.
2.
3.
The public world, which includes teacher-led discussion and work
tasks
The private-social world of informal peer interactions, whispers
& note-passing
Teacher does not
The private-individual world of self-talk and thinking control these two
Those students, regardless of prior ability, who used the classroom
and its activities to further their own interests and purposes,
learned more than those who dutifully did what they were told,
but did not want or know how to create their own activities –
Nuthall 2005
Our aims to improve learning
 Students become more self-motivated (Growth Mindset)
 Less dependent on the teacher and more resilient
 More quality talk enables students to make sense of the
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learning
Less teacher intervention
Classroom climate is more collaborative
Teacher gets more feedback from the students which helps
her to improve teaching and learning
Learning becomes more student-led and less teacher-led
Our Learning Journey
 Refining and developing Assessment for Learning
 Raising aspirations and improving resilience through Carol
Dweck’s Growth Mindset*
 Using Talk Partners to discuss good learning
 Developing Quality Talk through Intelligent Learning
*Self-Theories:Their Role in Motivation, Personality & Development
Carol S. Dweck (Psychology Press, 2000)
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and
Development, Psychology Press, 1999
Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
I believe that
intelligence is not fixed
My intelligence can be
improved through
learning
I thrive on challenge
I throw myself into
difficult tasks
I am self-confident
Incremental
I can ignore the
low aspirations of
my peers
(Growth)
I react to failure
by trying harder
I engage in selfmonitoring
I have learning goals
I like feedback on
my performance so I
can improve
About 40% of US students hold an incremental theory of ability
Slide 16
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development,
Psychology Press, 1999
Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
I don’t like challenge
I don’t want to risk
looking stupid
I am vulnerable
I believe that
intelligence is fixed
I was born bright/not
very bright
Entity
I tend to conform
to the low
aspirations of my
peers
(Fixed)
I react to failure
by switching off
and avoiding the
issues
I like easy
performance goals
and being told I’ve
done well
About 40% of US students hold an entity theory of ability
Easy praise is not the answer - it makes the situation worse
Slide 17
Incremental Learners –
What does this mean to
me?
•Researched based Teacher, became interested
in Carol Dweck theories of Incremental Learners.
•I am a local, through education and training, as
well as family support and encouragement I
achieved my goals. However, the locality has
changed as our data would demonstrate and pupils
enter education with the belief that they are
now ‘as good as it gets’. These low aspirations
are encouraged within the family and so the myth
perpetuates.
OFSTED 2002
 “The quality of teaching and learning is
inconsistent. It varies from very good to
unsatisfactory.
 “Curriculum planning and assessment
strategies need to make sure that work
builds on what children have already learnt”
OFSTED 2006
 “New York Primary School takes its pupils mainly from
areas of high social and economic disadvantage. Almost
half of its pupils are entitled to free school meals.
The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or
physical difficulties is well above average.”
 “When children enter the Nursery, their communication
and language skills and their social skills are well below
average.”
 “Although many children join the School from difficult
backgrounds and with challenging behaviour and
attitudes, they soon settle into routines and
expectations of the School. High standards in all areas
are demanded from the outset and pupils soon acquire
good behaviour and consideration for others.”
Pupil Aspirations (Then!)
I’m good at sport
but nothing else in
school.
Me Mam says
that
homework is
a waste of
time, because
I will never
amount to
anything!
I’ve never been any good
at maths!
You’re just like your
father – you’ll be
locked up by the time
your 16.
No-one in our
house can
spell!
I never put my hand up
in case I look thick!
Slide 3
Techniques to Implement
Change
•Target setting (SMART)
•Peer Teaching (Buddies)
•Meaningful praise –
recognising how their
learning was moving on.
•Recognising wrong answers
as being a positive thing.
•The 5 R’s for learning
(Alps) Resilience,
Responsibility,
resourcefulness, reasoning
and reflectivity-reflexivity
•Less Teacher talk- more
children's talk
Building Self
Esteem & Belief
in Self Ability
Reinforcing and
Encouraging
Steps
of Learning
Celebration
Self Recognition
•Positive self-narrative and
visualisation.
•Increasing roles of responsibility
within and around school through
increasing the children’s sense of
belonging (e.g. jobs – tuck shop,
P.E. monitors, lunchtime monitors,
office staff, recruitment board,
school council) Modelling.
•Managing the moment of impulse
– good questioning techniques
etc,.
•Problem solving, mind
mapping/templates, hierarchy of
questions. Collecting facts before
making judgements.
•Regular review, post analyse of
work and emphasis on perfect
practice.
Checklist of an
Incremental Learning
journey
•Goals setting through visualisation
•Use all data to target set for incremental improvement
•Share and negotiate the curriculum with children
•Give Parents’ knowledge of the curriculum (In Parents’ Speak)
•Share national curriculum targets with Children and Parents
•Separate the learning intention from the context
•Teach skills of how to mark themselves – Success Criteria
•Use posters and visual resources as aids for incremental learning
•Check how familiar pupils are regularly (with content of posters)
•Practise realistic tests throughout the year
•Talk about emotions during learning and tests
•Self talk before tests
•Celebrate any success
We are all Incremental Learners
How Incremental Learners Think!
•I thrive on challenge
•I throw myself into difficult tasks
•I am self confident
•I have learning goals
•I like feedback on my performance so I can improve
•I react to failure by trying harder
•I engage in self-monitoring
•I can ignore the low aspirations of my peers
•I believe that intelligence is not fixed
•My intelligence can be improved through learning
SelfSufficient
Students
Pupil Aspirations (Now!)
I help my
Dad, help me
with my
homework!
I still get stuck, but
now I don’t stay
stuck-I break it up
into little bits.
I don’t hate maths
anymore, I’ve got it!
No-one in my family
can or has, I’m going
to be the first!
I don't wait for
the Teacher to tell
me what to do –
I’m in charge now.
I love coming to
School!
Slide 3
OFSTED 2010
 “Teaching is outstanding.
Pupils thoroughly
enjoy lessons and join in all activities with
great enthusiasm. Both they and their
teachers have an excellent knowledge of how
well they are learning and how they can
improve...”
 “Pupils’ enthusiasm for learning could not be
stronger. In all lessons they tackle any
challenge with energy and a strong belief that
they will succeed. They make lessons buzz
with excitement as they work in pairs and
groups to meet the challenges their teachers
set.”
OFSTED 2010
 “A strong feature of lessons is the
collaboration between pupils, either as Talk
Partners clarifying ideas, or team players
working together to solve problems.”
 “The overwhelming strength of the school’s
provision is the care, guidance and support
it provides to enable pupils to overcome
complex, and sometimes formidable,
barriers to learning, so that they become
successful learners who are happy at
school.”
My Next Challenge
 As Carol Dweck says “successful individuals love
learning, value effort and persist in the face of obstacles”.
 As Steve Williams says “Good thinking and dialogue
involves turning the chaos of information and experience
into meaning” and many of our children have the skills to
do this.
 Our next step, is as Ros Wilson (Big Writing), says
“Standards in writing are a direct result of standards of
thought. If they can’t say it, they can’t write it. We need to
use new vocabulary repeatedly if children are to retain it.”
I am confident that Intelligent Learning will help our
children transfer their good thinking into high quality
writing, which will reflect their true potential.
What do we mean by Quality Talk?
Intelligent Learners:
 Use questions consistently to further their thinking at
every stage of learning
 Organise their thinking by making connections using
concepts
 Explore their thinking through dialogue with others
 Use exploratory dialogue as a model for their own
thinking
Consider all the ways in your school, your
department or your classroom that you try to
help pupils become more independent
learners.
How do they relate, in any way, to the list of
habits of intelligent learners?
Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes
What is Intelligent Learning?
 Learning programme for teachers working together to refine
classroom practice
 Aims to develop quality talk (by students) in the classroom
 Based on six 20 minute DVD programmes of teachers working
with KS2/3 students
 Written and presented by Steve Williams (Imaginative Minds):
“we use the word intelligent, not to denote a superior or innate
brain power, but the working of alert, active minds, capable of
self-sustained reasoning and learning”
Intelligent Learning Prog 1
Discussion Question:
What do students who can think and learn for
themselves do that is different from those who
can’t?
o
o
o
o
o
Know how to ask good questions
Make connections using concepts
Explore thinking through dialogue with others
Able to explain their thinking by giving reasons
Able and willing to learn from other students
Play part of DVD programme 3
Some connecting concepts
Same
Reason
Important
Cause
Fact
Principle
Example
alternative
different
conclusion
ordinary
consequence
opinion
evidence
counter-example