The Teaching Delusion: Why teaching in our schools isn't good enough (and how we can make it better)

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As they move from novice to expert, students should become less and less reliant on their teacher. The stabilisers can be removed, gradually. However, to achieve the independence we are aiming for, we mustn’t leave students to be independent on the journey. This is the great paradox of independent learning: the best way to achieve it is to not allow it to happen. 1

The Teaching Delusion - Some Reflections - Interactive Maths The Teaching Delusion - Some Reflections - Interactive Maths

Thinking - "Thinking is the interaction of knowledge, from our environment and our long term memory" Not everyone understands this. There are some who believe that independent learning means minimising the role of the teacher at every stage in the learning process. For them, teacher-talk is bad; student-talk is good. Direct-interactive instruction is oppressive; discovery learning is liberating. Textbooks are old-fashioned; online research is the future. The irony is that all of this will actually make it less likelythat students will ever become independent.Another key part of improving teaching is to make use of lesson observations. There are two broad types of lesson observations: Secondly, differentiating in this way creates learning gaps. If students learn different things, a gap between what one student knows compared to another automatically appears. If students are taught in different ways, some will learn in the best ways, and some won’t. Common sense tells us this will also lead to gaps. However, if you had tried and failed to jump an even wider ditch beforehaving success with the three-metre one, you might not have bothered with the three-metre ditch, deciding that you don’t really like jumping ditches and you’ll look for a bridge instead. Cognitive Load Theoryexplores the limits of working memory and how these can be overcome. Dylan Wiliam has described this as ‘the single most important thing for teachers to know’. 2If teachers need to know it, then school leaders need to know it too.

5-Minute Guide to: Knowledge vs Skills – The Teaching Delusion A 5-Minute Guide to: Knowledge vs Skills – The Teaching Delusion

In chapter 4, Robertson starts to build toward implications for actual teaching. This chapter acts as a brief summary of ideas from a variety of sources in this field, including: Misunderstandings about the relationship between knowledge and skills typically leads to an over-emphasis on skills in the curriculum. This is what we see in schools that claim to have ‘skills-based’ curricula. For example, if we want students to be able to debate the causes of climate change (a skill), they first need to learn specific declarative knowledgeabout the causes of climate change. If we want them to be able to perform a particular dance (a different skill), they first need to learn specific procedural knowledgeabout this dance. In theory, the principle that teachers should take steps to cater for natural differences between students is a sensible and equitable one. However, this does notmean that different students in a class should be taught:As important as ensuring that all students have access to appropriate support when they need it is ensuring all students are appropriately challenged. When we get this right, we propel learning forward. When we get this wrong, we slow learning down. But what is an appropriate level of challenge? Jumping ditches Guiding our thinking about the class as ‘a unit’ should be the 80% Success Rulethat we discussed in the previous chapter: before we move on, we want at least 80% of the classto be demonstrating success. A useful analogy is weightlifting. If we are to build muscle, we need weights to feel heavy, but not too heavy. The same is true of intrinsic load. We need intrinsic load if we are to learn. If there isn’t enough, we are likely to get bored. If there is too much, we get cognitive overload. As we have said, optimising intrinsic load is our goal. I can drawa labelled diagram of an atom, showing the arrangement of the three sub-atomic particles which make it up Taken from The Teaching Delusion 3: Power Up Your Pedagogyby Bruce Robertson, published by John Catt Educational.

The Teaching Delusion 2: Teaching Strikes Back by Bruce The Teaching Delusion 2: Teaching Strikes Back by Bruce

Because all of these things cause extraneous load, none of them are good for learning. The more extraneous load there is, the less intrinsic load working memory can process. Hence, the less it can think about the things that are most important for it to be thinking about. Because every lesson is about learning, every lesson should have a clear learning intention, whether this be for students to learn something new, to consolidate their learning (through practice or revision) or to demonstrate their learning. In a personalised approach to learning, all students willlearn to some extent. However, this extent will differ from student to student, depending on what they are being taught and how. The gap between students who know and can do the most and students who know and can do the least will never be closed. Barton, C. (2018) How I Wish I’d Taught Maths: Lessons Learned from Research, Conversations with Experts, and 12 Years of Mistakes. Woodbridge: John Catt EdThis does not mean that we are aiming to produce clones. Far from it! Rather, it means that we want allstudents to know and be able to do specific things, as a minimum. In other words, we want allstudents to learn our core curriculum. This is about social justice and inclusion. It might take some longer than others, and some might need more support than others, but everyone should be aiming to learn this curriculum, in full. As with almost everything, we will always find the odd exception to this rule. There area small minority of students who, in particular subjects, are able to learn well on their own, with little need for a teacher. However, this is very rare. The vast majority of students learn best according to the novice–expert principle.

The Teaching Delusion: Why teaching in our classrooms and

Lovell, O. (2020) Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory in Action. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational Ltd. Sadly, this is often misunderstood. In a misguided attempt to ‘personalise’ the curriculum according to interest and preference, some schools advocate approaches designed to do exactly this. They are making a big mistake. Principally, there are two reasons why. Consuming time and learning gaps An exception is when it comes to students learning what we plan for them to learn. Here, difference isn’t a good thing. We want allstudents to learn everythingset out in our curriculum. However aspirational this aim might be, it is what all teachers should be aiming for. Effectively, intrinsic load is ‘good load’ and extraneous load is ‘bad load’. That’s perhaps oversimplifying things a little, but it helps to reinforce a key point: to maximise student learning, we should be aiming to optimiseintrinsic load and minimiseextraneous load. 4 Like so many principles and initiatives in education, ‘differentiation’ has evolved into something it never should have been: it has undergone a ‘lethal mutation’. 1

Newspaper articles, PowerPoint presentations and all related activities are the medium to deliver a message. The medium usually has little value in itself. It is the messagethat is most important. Success criteria relate to the evidence you are looking for to determine if students have learned what you intended. A useful acronym is WILF: ‘WhatIamLookingFor’. If students can ‘state’, ‘write’, ‘describe’, ‘explain’ or ‘draw’, this can evidence learning. Saying that ‘I know’, ‘I understand’ or ‘I am able to’ doesn’t evidence learning. While it might be true, it isn’t evidence. Success criteria should make clear what evidenceof learning needs to be produced.