THE IMPORTANCE OF CLARITY
We will start by exploring why clear destinations are so critically important for teachers and learners
in terms of autonomy, motivation, and progress.
BUILDING LEARNER AUTONOMY
When teachers create real clarity for their learners around what success looks like, learner
autonomy improves dramatically. Emma, and many other teachers like her, now ensure that their
learners know where they’re going and know what they have to do to get there. As it says in the
Level 1a descriptor, ‘Learners are clear on their next steps to close their own gaps.’ As learners
develop greater clarity about the journey ahead, their grades tend to improve rapidly, and they
become less and less likely to keep pestering their teacher with questions for clarification. This
enables the teacher to spend less time teaching the class as a whole and more time teaching
individuals or groups, thereby addressing specific rather than general learning needs. Many
teachers who have been through our Outstanding Teaching Intervention are finding that they now
have more time for working with small groups and individuals due to the increased autonomy of their
classes.
Autonomous learners can lead themselves to success. They waste less time wondering whether
what they’re doing is actually helping them to make progress, and invest more time in getting on with
the things that really advance them to where they want and need to be, such as planning next steps,
redrafting their work, and incorporating feedback. We can’t get to Level 1a without clarity. In Leaders
of their Own Learning, authors Ron Berger, Leah Rugen, and Libby Woodfin assert that teachers
need to know exactly where they and the class are headed. Unless this is the case, they ‘cannot
effectively involve learners in the assessment process or coherently track learner progress
themselves if they haven’t established clear learning targets before instruction begins’.1 When
learners are certain about what they have to do, and the steps that are necessary to get there, the
quality of classroom conversation tends to increase markedly. Questions such as, ‘What do I need
to do now?’ and ‘Is this right? I’m not sure …’ get replaced with, ‘I’m pretty sure I’ve got that bit right,
but do I need to ...?’ When learners have clarity they can plan better, ask themselves and others
better questions, and give more accurate feedback to themselves and others too.
MOTIVATING LEARNERS
Many teachers face learners who lack motivation and this can be a major source of pain for both
parties. There are all sorts of reasons for motivational deficits in learners. We touched on many of
these in our book, Engaging Learners, and offered various strategies to address them. Time and
again, the research shows that motivation plummets when learners are in the dark about what they
need to do. The feeling of incompetency can really affect their motivation. On the other hand, when
this situation is reversed and learners are shown how to develop and build a felt sense of skill and
achievement by working step-by-step towards clear and relevant goals, they can become very
focused indeed. In his book, Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as an activity that
completely absorbs a person. However, if the challenge seems too high, learners will often feel
threatened and withdraw from the task. Sometimes this task is well within the learner’s ability to
achieve. The important point is that the learner doesn’t think it is.
In his book, Visible Learning for Teachers, John Hattie shows that the biggest determinant of learner
success at school is their own expectation of success.2 Most learners naturally feel insecure about
their current levels of knowledge or skill, and this is significantly compounded when they are unsure
about what they have to do. Feelings of incompetence can soon swamp them and lower their
expectations. However, when learners are clear about the journey, and clear about the key steps
they need to take, and get constructive feedback from their teacher and peers throughout that
journey, they will be much less likely to give up. They will remain resilient and stay in flow.
We chose the Blue Peter versus Scooby-Doo anecdote because it helped Emma to realise that she
was making too many assumptions about her learners’ mind-reading skills (Surely they think the
same as me? Surely this is obvious?) and she was unaware of this blind spot in her own teaching.
She discovered it was not at all obvious to her learners. As a result, they were getting increasingly
demotivated and she was finding it harder and harder to teach them.
Poor motivation is a serious issue in schools and one that we’re passionate about addressing. Our
experience of working with black belt teachers around the country has shown us that they use great
strategies to support their learners to achieve clarity. We’ve seen teachers rapidly become
successful at showing each learner their destination, getting them to turn that into a personal goal,
and then helping them to feel competent. The learners achieve this sense of competence because
they see the value of the destination and feel confident that they can successfully manage the
doable steps needed to get them there. Flow once again becomes possible. Poor motivation is
replaced by high motivation as learners begin to connect with a growing sense of mastery.
CLARITY MEANS PROGRESS!
It’s no accident that teachers who provide the greatest clarity about destinations get better results.
The clarity that they hold about learners’ destinations, and ways of getting them there, allows these
teachers to instruct learners better and provide them with appropriate examples to aspire to and
model. It also enables them to quickly adjust their teaching to get learners back on track if
challenges arise. We’ve worked with many teachers, in both primary and secondary settings, who
have an excellent track record of getting great results year after year.
One of the key features of their success is the clarity that they have built up over their teaching
career. They know what they’re looking for from their learners, not just at the end of a topic but
throughout. They’ve become black belts at demystifying success. First, they’ve learned this for
themselves, and then they’re able to transfer this clarity to their learners. In his book, Embedded
Formative Assessment, Dylan Wiliam quotes a number of research studies which demonstrate that
learners make more progress when they have a clear ‘understanding [of ] what they are meant to be
doing’.3 These studies show how important it is for teachers to be consciously deliberate about
where they want their learners to go. The findings also suggest that teachers would do well to
develop greater empathy towards their learners as they struggle to make sense of the journey
ahead – a point we’ll take up later in the chapter.
Extract from Chapter 3 – Defining and De-mystifying the destination, Teaching Backwards
© Mark Burns and Andy Griffith