Views & Opinion


Playing to be educated Comment by ALICIA BLANCO-BAYO, Early Years teacher at Kirkham Grammar School


Although play has been researched from an educational and psychological perspective for many years, I worry there is still a misconception about its true power, and the impact it can have on children’s development. Is it because the traditional interpretation of schooling is that of learning to recite numbers and letters, so one can eventually use them at some point in life? Is it because during play the excitement for learning comes from the child, and there is less delivery of concepts as such? Or is it because our education system expects a particular type of response that can be measured and given a score? I do find myself wondering why play is only


discussed amongst philosophers, psychologists and some educationalists, yet there are still people who lack the understanding and acceptance of such a fascinating concept in the word of education. I was educated according to very traditional


methods where pen, paper, a text book and a blackboard were essential if there was anything to be learnt. However, using these methods


meant there were lost souls who ended up choosing more practical professions because this type of teaching did not suit their needs. The ability to follow instructions and


complete a task is a skill, but a skill that each individual develops differently. Let’s analyse what we might be assessing when we observe children respond to an instruction and as we do that, let’s try to work out what the child might have got out of it. “Use these blocks to make a model” is a


simple instruction that might be followed by many children. At this point, do we tick a box and say the child has achieved one of the objectives, or do we question whether being able to follow this simple instruction benefited the child in any way? I would do away with the concept of


following instructions as such, in an attempt to use adult/child interaction to provoke meaningful engagement during play. “There are some building blocks on the


carpet, would you like to help me build a model? What do you think we could build


together?” This is a simple instruction during a process of interaction that has helped the child feel secure. I can still tick the box but on this occasion, I have started working on the development of the social and emotional skills the child will need to be able to engage in discussion about the model that is being built. The model is built while the adult and child


are engaged in a dialogue that is having an impact on the way the child’s imagination develops. As the cycle of imagining — creating — imagining – creating occurs, the child is also developing the ability to think and solve problems. This can take place without having to set a specific task and then judging the child’s performance according to how well the child has completed it. I prefer to observe the child’s ability to imagine how his model becomes a castle where only red dragons can live. Building a model thus becomes an enjoyable


activity which enables the child to develop a series of skills: the ability to think independently and imagine that magic happens when adult- child interactions bring play to life.


How peer partnerships can empower staff and stem the flow of teachers leaving the profession


Comment by DENISE INWOOD, former senior school leader, now managing director of BlueSky creators of BlueSky Education


With problems around teacher retention still making headlines, I’m hoping the recent publication of the government’s first ever set of teacher professional development standards will go some way towards stemming the flow of those exiting the profession. Better late than never in my opinion, the new ‘Standard for teachers’


professional development’ published by the Department for Education, is to be welcomed for setting out a clear description of effective practice in professional development for teachers and making plain the importance and status of professional learning to expert and effective teaching. I believe that the energy and dynamism of pupils and students requires


teachers to review and modify their approach constantly, not only on an annual basis, but also day-by-day and lesson-by-lesson. The development of reflective practice necessary for this is first learned during Initial Teacher Training, but it’s a skill set that needs to be honed and refined throughout a teaching career. As the standards state: ‘Professional development should include


collaboration and expert challenge. Professional development that aims to change teachers’ practice is most effective when it includes collaborative activities with a focus on the intended pupil outcomes. Thinking about collaboration, the views of Dylan Wiliam, emeritus professor


of educational assessment at the Institute of Education, London, struck a chord when he said: ‘Collaborative learning in the classroom works when you have group goals (so you have students working as a group rather than just working in a group) and individual accountability, so that every single student is individually accountable, as well as collectively accountable, so you can’t have any passengers. There are many ways in which teachers can set those two conditions, but if you can establish group goals with individual accountability


October 2016


then the research evidence suggests that can approximately double the speed of student learning. ‘When you create accumulative learners - when you create a group of people


who meet collectively on shared goals to help each other master something - something rather magical happens. You actually get a higher level of achievement, greater sustained engagement than you can do on your own.’ I’d say this is also true of teachers working collaboratively with their peers


within and across schools to achieve shared goals. Their goals don’t need to be broad and far reaching; they can be very specific and time bound. But all specific goal-setting enables the fluid movement of collaborations, enabling individuals to move in and out of collaborations effectively as their own goals are achieved or shift. This means that some collaborations may be quite transient, whilst others are longer lasting. Some core collaborations may last a considerable time, with professionals moving in and out of them as necessary. This increases the challenge and really mixes up the dynamic in longer term collaborations, a very powerful contributing factor to raising professional reflection and engagement. Formal partnerships between schools are the anchors that enable the


communities to come together, even when these communities are ‘virtual’. Adding virtual communities to the collaborative landscape enables professionals to ‘fish outside their pool’ and really challenge their own perceptions by introducing dissimilarity. It also raises questions about perceptions of excellence, challenging mental frameworks, which in itself really drives professional learning. I really hope that the new standards change the dynamics of professional


development, heralding a new era where teachers are better supported, with ready access to the evidence and expertise they need to further their careers so that they are inclined to stay in the profession for longer.


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