CONTRIBUTORS


Is resilience the key to success in education?


This month, regular Education Today contributor FELICIA JACKSON, chair of the Learn2Think Foundation, discusses resilience in schools, and examines how we should be helping our children overcome challenges.


There has been a resurgence of interest in ways of helping children deal with mental health issues at school, and rightly so. For many the stresses and strains, whether educational, social or physical, can be overwhelming.


In many ways, we expect children to deal with these


stresses as a matter of course, and don’t always support them in healthy mental development. In the wider world there is a new awareness of mindfulness as a


means of focusing on the positive. The latest incarnation is a recognition of the importance of resilience as a route to happiness, a step beyond what some see as the ego-based annexation of spiritual mindfulness. Mindfulness pioneer Rick Hanson, has written a new book,


“Resilient", about the need to develop “12 fundamental inner strengths’ if we are to become more robust. These include compassion, mindfulness, learning, grit, gratitude, confidence, calm, motivation, intimacy, courage, aspiration and generosity. The list seems self- evidently helpful but how to develop such skills in a chaotic and ever- changing school environment? What’s intriguing is this development in conjunction with the way


the world is changing around us. We need to build a more resilient world to adapt to ecosystem change and we need to build a more resilient society to manage the changes coming forced by increasing automation and inequity, which are likely to challenge the business, working and living models we’re used to living within today. A number of programmes have sprung up which focus on helping


children develop their own resilience. What is usually meant by this is learning to work as a team and rely on others, and learning not to give up when something ‘doesn’t work’ or doesn’t go as planned. It’s about teaching problem -solving in a fun way to ensure that children learn that trial and error includes error. That’s to be lauded, as are the practitioners who enable children to


experience these approaches. What matters in the wider educational system, however, is the importance of embedding these values within the educational system every day. In many ways it’s arguable that developing student’s skills and ability to respond positively to challenges and setbacks is a key goal of education. That means it teaches that ‘error’ or being wrong isn’t necessarily a bad thing, rather it’s a milestone on the road to learning something new. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill. Building individual resilience, the belief that they can overcome,


results in students being open to learning. Critique becomes no longer personal, but rather another part of the learning journey. The development of the idea that learning is a pursuit, it’s something to experience not be given, helps to develop motivation and reward effort. And when the self-help books are arguing that this is the way forward, it’s worth considering whether your school is encouraging children to learn in the most effective way, and whether scores and percentages of correct answers is giving the most helpful message.


18 www.education-today.co.uk


Fun science - Not just for science week!


This month, in the wake of March’s British Science Week, Education Today’s resident STEM contributor KIRSTY BERTENSHAWcalls for science to be fun all year round.


British Science Week is in March, and usually means fun science activities in schools, external providers coming in, or a visit to the Big Bang Fair, a huge STEM event for young scientists and engineers. Interactive shows, theatre productions and cook experiments are rife, bringing enthusiasm to children of all ages. However, fun science is not just for science week! Why shouldn’t science be fun more than once a year? Students


thrive on the excitement of new things, which could be provided in lessons. Extend the interest of students by incorporating some of those things that make science week so successful into your own provision. Here are a few tips on how to have fun science in your lessons!


Start with the wow factor! Too often children see experiments on social media that make them say wow, but they never learn how! Even something as simple as ethanoic acid and sodium bicarbonate can elicit wonder and amazement from pupils, especially if you are generous with the amounts used! Once you have them hooked, you can investigate the science of what has happened with easily seen signs of a chemical reaction. This is a starting point – pupils can then investigate other simple changes and decide if they are chemical or not.


Real world links Some topics can be drier than others, so try and include as many links to real life as possible. For example, cakes used to rise because they were made with yeast, but this was unreliable and not all cakes rose well. Then, baking powder was introduced! The thermal decomposition of baking powder is predictable, so now cakes can be baked in a uniform way. Try baking cakes using both yeast and baking powder and compare the two – respiration in a living organism verses a chemical reaction! Tell stories of amazing discoveries like iron in lodestone to find magnetic north, horrific natural disasters like the volcanic destruction of Pompeii, and injuries that lead to new understanding like Phineas Gage and the pulsing brain injury.


Hands on is more exciting Even if it seems pointless to show classes something obvious, show them anyway! Get pupils to be as hands on as possible. Often, even the most reluctant students can be galvanised by the chance to do a practical activity. The rock cycle can seem boring but get classes to shake beakers with freshly snapped chalk in, to simulate weathering. Do it for long enough, and you have smooth pebble like rocks, just like at the seaside. Even simple experiments are worth the time and effort for the enthusiasm they produce. Try getting the whole class to experience air resistance by running around with their coats held open so the wind can fill the coat, then with their coats closed so there is less resistance. Classifying animals could be taught using a box of plastic animals such as farm animals, wild animals and sea creatures. Mix them up and give pupils a heap of them to group. How will you group them and why? This might seem simple or too long an activity for the benefit, but not only will the pupils learn how to sort them, they will also learn reasoning skills and communication, in a fun way!


April 2018


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