VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
Viewfromthe classroom I
n our ever-popular series of articles looking at
aspects of pedagogy and life behind the school gates, Education Today this month speaks to Terry Portch, head of geography at All Saints Catholic Secondary School in
Dagenham, about using ‘Stealth Learning’ in the classroom.
Tell us about your school All Saints Catholic School is a mixed Catholic school located in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, catering for learners aged between 11-18 years. We’re currently attended
by approximately 1,200 students, and have 79 teachers and 31 support staff. Despite being located in an area of social
deprivation, our school continues to thrive and our students excel; we’ve firmly established ourselves as one of the leading schools in the borough.
You have adopted a "stealth learning" approach to teaching - where did the idea come from? Back in the early 2000s I read David Leat’s, Thinking Through Geography, and ever since, I’ve been hooked on coming up with my own new ways of making geography lessons more exciting, engaging and enjoyable for my students. The book focuses on the premise that teaching
geography using thinking skills will develop transferable learning expertise through interaction and independent learning. And boy, does it! Thinking Through Geography sparked an incredibly effective and different style of learning, but in my lessons I wanted to take it a step further; enter ‘Stealth Learning’. In my experience, children (and adults too for
that matter!) are far more likely to remember something if it’s unusual or fun, so I try to make my lessons as entertaining as possible. The ‘Stealth Learning’ technique is a perfect fit for the way I like to teach!
How does it work? Stealth Learning introduces learning objectives through non-traditional tools, such as games, to encourage students to let loose and get to know the material; children don’t actually realise that they are learning until the end of the lesson. They think they’re playing a game or listening to a really cool story, and asking questions about it, but all the while, and unknown to them, they are learning. It’s all about approaching a lesson from a bit of an oblique angle!
Do you have any examples of the approach in action? Absolutely! The ‘Trading Game’ is a particular favourite of mine. Students are split into groups, with each group representing a specific country. I tell them the objective is simple: they have to make a number of specific paper shapes and sell them to me. Where the fun comes in is that each group will have different resources and raw materials. So for example, one of the poorer countries might realise that they have plenty of raw material, i.e. paper, however, they don’t have resources such as scissors to cut the paper and make the shapes. Similarly, richer countries will
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www.education-today.co.uk July/August 2016
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