VIEWS From the pen of… GUY CLAXTON
The future of teaching and the myths that hold it back
In our regular series highlighting authors in UK education, we hear this month from GUY CLAXTON, author of The Future of Teaching, who argues that schools must do more to allow pupils to develop as critical thinkers.
There has never been a more important time to rethink education. The epidemic of Covid-19 has revealed just how many students flounder when they don’t have teachers constantly shepherding them around, telling them what to do and what’s ‘correct’. And the even more insidious epidemic of fake news and misinformation has shown, just as worryingly, how most schools have failed to equip their students with the ability and the inclination to think critically about the welter of dubious ‘knowledge claims’ that come their way. We should be teaching young people to be self-organising learners and critical thinkers, but mostly we are not. In fact, some schools achieve their good results by increasing students’ credulity and dependency. We know it is possible to teach for good results plus positive, general-
purpose dispositions of thinking and learning. Hundreds of schools around the world are living proof. In the fertile middle ground between stereotypically ‘traditional’ and ‘progressive’ approaches to education, young people can learn both powerful knowledge and powerful, generalisable ways of thinking side-by-side. But there are millions of schools in which this isn’t happening yet, and their evolution is being held back by some widespread misinformation about the mind, which argues that what these innovative ‘both/and’ schools are doing is impossible. This fake news is like the physicist who claimed to have proved that it is theoretically impossible for bees to fly. The most polarised version of this argument insists that ‘direct
instruction’ in a ‘knowledge rich curriculum’ is the only method of teaching that is compatible with the fundamental nature of children’s minds, as revealed by cognitive science. Knowledge is facts, they say, and to get these facts into long-term memory (LTM) they have to be squeezed through a narrow vestibule called working memory (WM). However, this constriction can be mitigated if you have lots of other facts stored in LTM already. This model of the mind originated in the 1970s when cognitive psychologists thought that the digital computer made a good metaphor for the design of the human mind. To ‘prove’ the validity of this model, the scientists tried to simulate the workings of the computer by asking people to remember lists of little disconnected ‘items’ like digits or words. But remembering lists isn’t what the mind evolved to do. We mostly
understand what we see and hear swiftly and effortlessly. The brain isn’t organised like an Amazon warehouse, with packages being shunted around. And when, in a classroom, youngsters are finding things hard to understand, it’s not because of some mysterious thing called ‘cognitive load’; it’s probably because their hard-working human being of a teacher just hasn’t pitched it quite right, and the children need more time to make sense of it by – as we all do – discussing it with their friends and colleagues. It certainly won’t help the situation to stuff their heads with more facts. Teaching is dynamic and nuanced. Simplistic and outdated models of
the mind misdirect teachers’ energies and inhibit their innovation. If we wise up about the psychology of learning, we can all find ways to teach that will give young people the minds they really need.
The Future of Teaching by Guy Claxton is published by Routledge. Save 20% through the Routledge website with discount code FOT20.
April 2021
BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (BESA) Lessons from lockdown
In her regular column for Education Today this month, JULIA GARVEY, Deputy Director General at school suppliers’ association BESA, looks ahead to Easter and reflects on a turbulent year in education technology.
Easter – now here is a festival I can really get on board with. A celebration of growth, rebirth and change that goes hand in hand with longer days, warmer temperatures and more time spent outside. And obviously there’s the chocolate. This year it seems even more pertinent than ever to be celebrating
Spring as we move out of national lockdown and enter a phase of more permanent school openings (we hope). As we begin to look forward with optimism it is also important to reflect on what has passed, and here too there is much to celebrate. I’m drawing on the recently published report from the All-Party
Parliamentary Group for Education Technology (APPG for EdTech) ‘Lessons from Lockdown: what we learned about Education Technology in 2020’ As you would expect, the report paints a vivid picture of the digital
divide; the difficulties experienced due to a lack of connectivity and access to devices, both of which have been well documented elsewhere. However, it also goes on to examine the broader context of how technology was used to deliver curriculum content, the impact on pupils with SEND, safeguarding challenges, and both pastoral care and student wellbeing. So, what conclusions can we draw and what are the lessons for the
future? Primarily, school has been changed forever. In-person parents’ evenings
may well be a thing of the past and students on long term sick leave or otherwise unable to attend school will now have far greater opportunities to be remain connected to classroom learning than might previously have been possible. I would encourage you to read the full report yourself and to whet your
appetite have pulled out three of the conclusions which I feel offer hope for a brighter future post-COVID:
Lesson 1 Schools should not just seek to replicate classroom teaching online but should embrace the pedagogic advances that EdTech allows. A timetable of live lessons is not necessarily a gold standard; there is a role for teacher- led video lessons, both live and pre-recorded, as well as for content produced by the educational supplies sector, and peer and collaborative study. Of course, remote learning should also encourage and incorporate non-screen-based activities, including reading books, putting pen to paper, arts and crafts and physical exercise. Lesson 4 As schools reopen, they should ensure traditional classroom teaching is coupled with the use of EdTech as a matter of routine, to enrich the variety of pedagogic approaches. This more blended style of learning would be on campus, within the school setting, but not necessarily always in the classroom. Lesson 10 Initial Teacher Training and the Early Career Framework must equip teachers with the knowledge and confidence to source and deploy effective EdTech solutions to support both the teaching and learning process and to drive efficiencies across school management. Schools should also provide inset or equivalent training and guidance for teachers as part of regular CPD. At the same time, the technology must be made considerably easier to find, procure and integrate too. I know the APPG is extremely grateful to the teachers, schools, experts
and tech providers who submitted evidence and have helped to shape the findings of the report. So as the sun shines and we transition from the Spring to the Summer term, I hope this report might provide some additional optimism for the future.
You can download a free copy of the APPG Report ‘Lessons from Lockdown: what we learned about Education Technology in 2020’ here
https://www.besa.org.uk/news/edtech-appg-repo…ns-from-lockdown/ Besa.org.uk
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