CONTRIBUTORS
Feedback: building personal agency in education?
This month, regular contributor FELICIA JACKSON, chair of the Learn2Think Foundation, calls for a change in the way we engage children with learning.
Rocking chemistry!
In her latest column, Education Today contributor KIRSTY BERTENSHAW looks at spicing up the teaching of the rocks cycle and weathering with some great tips for classroom teachers.
Engaging children with their education is an important part of the learning process but for many the constant pressure and focus on grades can create a barrier to learning, instilling a fear of failure rather than a love of learning. While experienced and engaged learners may well enjoy school, there are many who don’t always get why it matters or what their role in the process should or could be. A sense of agency is critical for adults to be happy in their work lives, so why should it be any different for children? Ruth Dann’s latest book, ‘Developing Feedback for Pupil Learning: Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Schools’ is a research-based examination of how to address a pupil’s learning gap within the context of feedback. It explores what works, what doesn’t work, for whom and why. Dann says that feedback is a communicative tool which teachers use to convey what needs to be done for learning to progress. It seeks to close a gap between learning (now) and learning (next). Often it is handled in a fairly technical way by teachers, who assume that pupils will understand the feedback messages in the way that the teachers intended. In reality this is often not the case.
It is evident from the government’s own statistics that the performance of pupils in England has not improved in relation to other countries and certain groups of children repeatedly underperform. Part of the answer embedded in the recent government White Paper (2016) is to strive to find out the answer to ‘what works’.
Ruth Dann says, “Feedback can be seen as a two-way process in which the teacher and learner can better understand each other’s priorities and begin to negotiate ways to progress. Any feedback designed to shape learning must be acted upon by the learners and made their own. It becomes personal and internal at the point of learning. Feedback, even if focused on curriculum content must be seen by pupils as having relevance and meaning for them.” She argues that greater attention needs to be given in schools to helping pupils understand why aspects of their future learning is important, suggesting they need to envisage themselves as learners with new and increasing knowledge. Encouraging pupils to share their new learning with pupils in lower year groups can have a role here, acting as revision and consolidation for older pupils while also providing younger pupils insight into the kind of learners they might wish to be.
In school settings there must be some way in which feedback can be regarded not as a fixed coded message for pupils to act on, but part of a relationship between teachers and learners which has meaning for both. How this might be achieved, relies on teachers and pupil s having trust between each other and the possibility for dialogue about teaching and learning within the school. If you’re interested in developing that process within your school, then this book is a great place to start.
The Learn2Think Foundation is planning a pilot project in the next academic year, putting critical thinking, questioning and dialogue at the heart of the curriculum. If you are interested in talking part please call 07958 923 182.
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Teaching the rocks cycle and weathering is either a joy or a terrible bore depending on the experience of the teacher or the resources available. Here are a few ways to make the topic more interesting! Invest in one good rock set! It is worth the money to have a set with multiple examples of each rock type and a guide to identifying them. This means you don’t need to know much about rocks yourself and if the set gets mixed up, it’s easy to sort. If your set doesn’t have a good identification key, use different coloured nail polishes to mark a spot on each rock and make a key. Modelling how rocks are formed makes it more interesting for kinaesthetic learners and explain the processes in a simple visual way. Sedimentary rocks are formed from layers of sediment, so take some plasticine and form small balls. Take different colours of plasticine and put them together in thin layers, incorporating the small balls of plasticine. After 6-10 layers, squeeze the layers together so they stick - this is now a model of sedimentary rock. During this process, ‘fossils’ can be added – small rocks, shells, pasta shells, or pieces of paper.
Metamorphic rocks are sedimentary or igneous rocks subjected to heat and pressure. To model this, take the plasticine sedimentary rock and gently press between the palms of the hand. If the model is larger, press harder and for longer. The layers should start to deform and twist with the contours of the hand. Igneous rock can be easily modelled by warming the plasticine in the hands and mixing it together, as molten rock would be mixed under the crust of the Earth.
Another method is often called the “choc cycle” - use grated white, milk and dark chocolate as the sediment, then press layers of it together to represent sedimentary rock. Warm it slightly and press it for metamorphic rock – imagine it was a chocolate bar that partially melted in your pocket! Then melt fully in a bowl over hot water to represent the rock melting and becoming magma. Once cooled and set, break the chocolate open to see how the types of chocolate have mixed.
Weathering is also part of the rocks topic and can be turned into a practical by adding diluting acid to marble rock chips to show chemical weathering. This could be done with a large piece of marble in a jar, so the chemical can be observed over time. Physical weathering can be shown in two ways. The easiest way is to freeze a jam jar full of water overnight. Be sure to place it in a thick zip lock bag as the glass will break when the water expands, showing freeze-thaw weathering. General physical weathering is more exciting to demonstrate. Simply put a large piece of chalk in a small jar and shake vigorously! Small pieces of the chalk start to break off, and the chalk becomes rounder, just like pebbles on a beach.
Biological weathering is all around us outside. Take a class outside and see if you can find weeds growing through the tarmac or at the side of buildings. Look for lichen on walls or paths. If possible, go for a walk around a cemetery and see the combined types of weathering apparent on grave stones or in an old church.
February 2018
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