VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
have plenty of resources, but very little of the raw material. The idea is that they trade with each other to get the things they need in order to sell the paper shapes to me. It takes a while for them to grasp it but when they do its incredible to watch them barter, negotiate and reason with each other, without actually realising that they’re learning the fundamentals of global trading! It’s cross-curricular too as there’s a social learning element to it when they realise how easily poorer countries can often be exploited by richer ones. Another one I like to use teaches students
about ‘onion skin weathering’. The process involves breaking down rocks, the way it happens in deserts. In lessons considering this recently, I started by telling them about my great, great, great uncle Gerald who was a famous geographer. I only recently found out about him when I was clearing out my granny’s loft recently and found loads of his old diaries. It turns out Gerald was a complete tearaway, who ran off to join the French Foreign Legion! One of his diaries told about one particular day when he was out on patrol with his comrades and they came under fire. Well, at least they thought they were under fire. After further inspection Gerald realised that the sounds they were hearing wasn’t gunfire, but the rocks breaking. He noticed that the rocks were hotter in the day and subsequently larger, but at night they became much cooler and shrunk. The constant swelling and shrinking was causing them to break; he actually discovered ‘onion skin weathering’. They were blown away and understood the process perfectly! Of course, I didn’t tell them that there was no Uncle Gerald.
What effect has it had on your students? They absolutely love it! It’s a real lightbulb moment for them at the end of the lesson when you show them what they’ve actually learned, and point out the knowledge they now have about a topic – it’s wonderful to see!
How have your colleagues responded? They’ve been really receptive, especially the
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geography department. They’ve seen ‘Stealth Learning’ techniques work again and again in their classrooms; it really helps students who aren’t normally very engaged or motivated because it’s approaching a subject in a completely different, hands-on and almost ‘secret’ way. They’ve all bought in!
What advice would you give to other practitioners thinking about adopting this approach? I believe there are two key elements for successful stealth learning. First, you must be very focused on what you want your students to learn. There needs to be a clear, focused learning objective that you tailor the stealth learning activity to. This ensures that the students will make progress in their learning, especially when you show them what they have learnt at the end of the
activity/lesson. Second, have fun with it. Try to be creative and a little bit “different.” The students will pick up on your enjoyment of the lesson and will become more involved in the stealth learning activity, enjoying it themselves. When students enjoy their learning, they want to learn more.
What's next for the "stealth learning" approach at All Saints? I would like to see us take a much more cross- curricular approach. It would be very interesting and informative to see what other departments do in this regards, and to be able to share our ideas and good practice. We will also be taking advantage of the changes to the GCSE specifications to introduce some more stealth learning for our Year 10 and Year 11 pupils.
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