Those who can… won’t teach

After just five years as a secondary school English teacher in Leeds, I, along with a third of teachers who commenced teaching in English state schools in 2010, have resigned from mainstream teaching. I have voluntarily left a profession I am well suited to and which I’d hoped to make a career of. 

I resigned from state school teaching effective from August 2016 so you may wonder why it’s taken so long to put this to paper. Perhaps it’s because I’ve spent the last academic year wondering whether this might simply be an (unpaid) sabbatical; perhaps I am still reeling from the shock and frustration of finding myself in such a paradoxical position: I want to teach, I’m trained to teach, I can teach, yet I won’t.

Writing my resignation letter was a struggle and I cried when I’d sent it. I left an incredible team of English teachers at, for what it’s worth, an Ofsted-outstanding, highly reputable secondary school. So, if that’s as good as it gets in today’s schools, why leave?

My time in teaching saw a clear deterioration in my health. With almost all my time and energy exhausted, my stamina to meet the workload and handle the pressure dwindled as the years passed. I lost weight, my stress levels rose and mornings were typified by a dark feeling of dread as I struggled to find ways to ease the interminable workload.

As a teacher, 50+ hour working weeks dedicated to stacks of marking, lesson planning and Xcel tracking sheets is par for the course in an education system which values competition over collaboration. In the current exam-factory system, students come to represent data units and every member of teaching staff must prove their worth at regular data-collection intervals and, of course, via the all-important albatross around every teacher’s neck: the annual GCSE and A-level results. Whilst this is damaging to teacher morale, it is detrimental to our students,who are increasingly aware of their numerical value. It’s indicative of a failing education system when the happiness or lack thereof of each “data unit” is secondary to their academic progress.

This culture of accountability is not entirely unjust in its attempt to ensure educational equity, but its prevalence overshadows the central role school’s play in the development of the whole-child. Exam-factory schools staffed by overworked, demoralised staff do not leave much room for nurturing the individual, promoting social-emotional development and fostering students’ unique talents. Moreover, placing teachers under such scrutiny insultingly implies that teachers would not otherwise intend to support every child. Furthermore, the shocking paucity of funds in education mean that teachers are less and less able to adequately provide for each child. Increasing class sizes, lack of teaching assistants and bulging timetables mean less and less attention is available for each and every child.

A teacher-friend recently sitting in a whole-school staff meeting listened to a member of the senior leadership team acknowledge that their staff are working hard but that they must do “whatever it takes” to hit their Progress 8 targets. “Whatever it takes.” Loosely translated, this means teachers, stretched as they already are, must find more, give more, lose more: whatever it takes. Ultimately, they will lose out on free time, family time, healthy meals, exercise, a good night’s sleep or whatever everyday aspects of sanity they’re clinging to. There isn’t more time, no money arrives to spread the workload and the goal posts continue to jump further into the intangible distance leaving teachers defeated and students in the care of an exhausted staff body.

The question remains, should I apply for my next teaching job?

There are so many aspects of teaching which will not lose their appeal for me: sharing your days with high-energy young people is a pleasure and a privilege. I love teaching English and I believe I’m good at it. Yet, when I discuss with my sister, my husband, my friends, whether to go back to teaching, their answer is unanimously, ‘No’. They are convinced that I can transfer my skills to a happier place and, possibly, increase my earnings too.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Very. I’ve spent most of my adult life teaching or tutoring; it’s what I’m trained for, what I’m passionate about and what I feel inspired to do. But I’m not sure it’s worth the impact on my health, my relationships and my overall sense of well-being. Likewise, the state of education is bearing down on the mental health of the nation’s teenagers, with 11.5% of young people aged between 11-16 years suffering from a mental disorder, according to UK Mental Health charity, Young Minds. And the students don’t have the option of leaving.

Former conservative education minister, Michael Gove, famously remarked he would consider his work a success if morale in the staffroom was low. Well, congratulations Gove, morale is low. But staff turnover is high. And soon the staffroom will be empty.

 

Phenomenon-based learning: a case study

If you’re not sure what Phenomenon-based Learning is, have a look at my previous blog post or, if you’re very keen, this is a great website to get you started: http://www.phenomenaleducation.info/ 

During my WCMT travels I visited Tampere, the second largest city in Finland, where I observed a class of sixth graders (C6) starting the new school year with a phenomenon-based learning (PBL) project on the topic of Forests. They have previously undertaken PBL projects about Europe, The Human Body and Vikings with the same class teacher (T1).

When interviewed, T1 expressed her belief that school should, above all, provide a place for students to develop their self-knowledge and personal character as well as being a centre of academic learning. She believes that, because knowledge is everywhere in our society, students must focus on learning skills, most importantly perhaps, learning how to work together, to respect everybody, to plan and manage projects, to find and process relevant knowledge in a world where information is in abundance and to learn for themselves.

How was the PBL project organised?

The planning stage places students at the centre of the learning process. In their groups, the students discuss what they want to find out, set personal learning goals and decide how they will present their learning at the end of the project. This planning is usually completed as a group mindmap or padlet and students decide how they will create a common display to showcase what they’ve learnt.[1]

T1 then begins a class discussion, where students plan how best to learn those things, for example by taking a trip into the forest, visiting a museum, researching online or in the library, or by asking a professional such as a doctor to deliver a class talk. When they start to work, the students decide what they are most interested in learning more about and begin to research this in their groups, using the methods discussed.

How are students monitored or assessed during a PBL project?

During the project planning process, students consider how they will present what they have learnt at the end of the project. For example, at the end of their Vikings project, some groups made large, intricate model Viking boats which they presented to the class explaining the finer details of their models. This predominantly revealed their historical knowledge but they also communicated what they’d learnt in terms of design and technology, art and geography, alongside other skills. Another group researched and painted detailed cliffs which Vikings would have had to descend with their boats alongside presenting what they had learnt about cliffs as a geographical structure.

However, the final piece of work or presentation is not the only assessment or the most important one. T1 carefully tracks each student’s progress throughout the project through observations and 1:1 discussions with individuals. For each student, T1 makes careful notes from these discussions and shares this information with parents/carers.Parents are encouraged to return this monthly report with their feedback, enabling an on-going dialogue between teacher and student.

T1 also records the role that each student took in each project to ensure that students vary their roles from project to project. She also ensures groups can explain their project plan during the process and clarify their next steps to meet the deadline (time management is an important skill for students to develop through PBL).

T1 expresses that variation in assessment styles and grading is essential in changing education. Alongside written tests, T1 incorporates oral tests at the end of projects where students are given the opportunity to tell her what they have learnt in a discussion of their project. T1 has found many less academic students (in the traditional sense that they do not enjoy or excel at writing or written tests) express that they find oral tests much easier than written and have been very pleased, sometimes shocked, by the positive outcome of these oral exams.

Perhaps most notably, when grading their projects, T1 emphasises that it is not the final result that determines their grade, but the process they went through to achieve the final piece of work. For example, if a student decided to produce a painting, it’s not the painting that is graded but how they did it: the planning, the thinking, the ideas, the process.

 

The students also partake in peer assessment at the end of a project where the focus is on providing positive, constructive ideas on how to improve and achieve further. This leads into the class establishing a class goal (usually put on display in the classroom) to which all will aspire, such as, “We will listen when others are speaking.”

T1, like most teachers and headteachers who I spoke to in Finland, does not believe it is enough for parents to know how their child achieved in an exam. Instead, she relays an account of the child’s personal goals, news and feelings about their school experience to give parents/carers a broader perspective on how their child experiences school day-to-day gleaned from a monthly 1:1 with each student. Alongside test scores, T1 shares the students’ perception of their strengths, how they want to develop socially, emotionally and any personal goals they hope to achieve, even if related to a hobby, rather than an academic subject. T1 believes this to be the key to students’ self-knowledge, a balanced education and thereby, towards the student’s understanding of their direction in life.

 How successful is this teaching and learning method?

• When interviewed, students emphasise that they enjoy the freedom and independence afforded to them by this learning structure.
• Students work independently and develop a range of skills required in the modern workplace: discussion, teamwork, planning, time-management, online research, information processing and presentation skills.
• Subjects are integrated and students learn in a variety of contexts which makes the learning more relatable and meaningful.
• Students feel they are learning for themselves, not for the teacher or to pass a test. They have planned their own project and are motivated to take part for themselves, often deepening their knowledge through independent research which they choose to conduct at home.
• Students feel motivated because they have set their own learning goals and project outcome. Often, what they choose to find out is available in the textbook but, because they have chosen what to discover in their class and group discussions, they are self-directed which appears much more interesting and motivates the students.
• Project-based learning fires many problems at students which they are required to solve independently so they learn to think for themselves.
• Working together develops their social-emotional intelligence. T1 has found students improved their ability to solve disputes without her intervention possibly due to the improved communication and empathy skills developed via PBL.

Are there any disadvantages to this learning style?

• It can take time for students to acclimatise to this learning process. At first, T1 found there was a student who did very little, who claimed they didn’t know what to do or who complained that other students didn’t let him/her join in, but now they have completed one project and are more familiar with the process, they have vastly improved their ability to self-manage.
• It can be more work for the teacher to prepare in terms of planning, preparing the progress-tracking process and making time for monthly discussions with each student. Nevertheless, T1 finds the long-term benefits of her students’ self-confidence and the social coherence of the class to be very fruitful.
• The classroom can be quite noisy during PBL hours compared to a traditional image of a classroom of students working quietly at their desks but that is because students are active and at the centre of a truly student-led learning process. T1 explains that we don’t know what sort of jobs we’re preparing students for so it’s important that they have excellent team-building and social skills.
• Some students are very reliant on computers or tablets to complete their research so it is up to teachers to direct students to a variety of resources and learning contexts to develop their range of learning experiences.
• Schools, such as UK secondary schools, who organise the timetable into discrete subjects would need to alter school timetabling to enable PBL due to its cross-curricular nature and make time for teachers to collaborate during the planning process. This could be challenging given the workload of most UK teachers.

[1] Padlet is a quick and easy to use formative assessment tool for everyday use in the classroom. See padlet.com to create one or YouTube for a quick padlet how-to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c9vWCPn8ys

 

Creativity and self-led learning

If you enjoyed my previous blog about phenomenon-based learning or you are interested in cross-curricular learning, this is a good read about the benefits of heutagogy, or self-led learning, from ‘The learning planet’.

The Learning Planet

Fred Garnett is running an enquiry into creativity and heutagogy, and he’s asked me to write 50 words on this topic. Heutagogy, in a nutshell, is the study of learning that is determined by the learner. Self-determined learners can in turn become heutagogics themselves by developing critical awareness of their own learning preferences, goals and practices. Being a self-determined sort of learning person, I’ve resisted Fred’s limit of 50 words (‘I didn’t have time to write a shorter letter…’) but you can take what 50 word bits you want from this.

My thesis is this: All effective or meaningful learning depends on a good balance between Creative and Methodical modes.

MODES	Creative	Methodical
Ways of communicating	Connotative	Denotative
Ways of thinking	Divergent and open-ended	Convergent and judging
Ways of perceiving	Inward and reflecting	Outward and observing
Ways of making	Poietic and generative	Technical and imitative

Creative modes can flourish even…

View original post 795 more words

Everyman’s (and woman’s) rights

In Finland, anyone and everyone has the right to enjoy the countryside, no matter who owns the land, because of the legal concept, ‘everyman’s right’. Anyone may pick and enjoy the numerous varieties of mushrooms and berries that grow there; anyone may walk, ski, cycle, fish, swim and camp in the countryside so long as they respect nature and avoid disturbing the peace.

Whilst visiting schools in Helsinki, I was lucky enough to go mushroom picking in Nuuksio National Park with my lovely teaching colleague and her mushroom-expert husband, but it was her youngest son who showed me the best spots for berry-picking. This contented 3 year old and his 5 year old brother happily meandered through the damp, sunlit woods in their waterproof clothing, chatting, playing and identifying berries that are safe to eat (generously sharing some rather squished ones with me). Their relaxed manner and evident familiarity with the natural environment reminded me of how much time they spend outside each day at their Finnish Kindergarten.

The Finnish history of civil war and economic struggle in the twentieth century combined with their harsh winters has no doubt influenced what appears to be their national affinity with nature and this pervades contemporary life even in the capital. The weather never stops the Finns from jumping in a lake or enjoying their huge forests. And they don’t underestimate nature’s role in raising and shaping their children either.

The Finnish education system values free outdoor play and its influence on child development. Most Finnish kindergarteners and pre-schoolers, who might be as old as six, will spend two or three undirected hours of each school day outside simply playing and socialising. Even at grade school, where students are aged 7-16 years, the curriculum demands that children learn in “authentic environments” which pushes teachers and students beyond the classroom doors.

Many of the Finnish teachers I have met are very conscious of the fact that childhood is a time you can’t have twice so the magic of creative play should be enjoyed for as long as possible. Kindergarten, preschool and grade school teachers alike assert that children must not be rushed into growing up; they should be given time to play and thereby time to develop their social skills, self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Without these key life skills they will struggle to cope with academic aspects of the curriculum later in life. This prioritising of free-play and social time is reflected in the 15-minute breaks students at grade school enjoy every hour and in the reduced hours Finnish students spend in the classroom compared to other nations.

Too often, we read in the press of the lack of time given to play or recess in education systems around the world and its devastating effects on student confidence and self-belief. Despite the research marrying the role of creative play to the evolution of a child’s sense of self-identity, many countries insist on forcing their students behind desks from as young as four years old. Whilst literacy and numeracy skills are unquestionably imperative life-skills, there is little evidence to suggest that studying from such a young age improves student progress in later life.

Surely our curriculums must evolve to reflect the need for children to develop the social skills, creativity and independence to survive in the twenty-first century; we must value the development of the whole-child to ensure that school is a place where students discover their strengths, their interests and emerge confident, self-aware people who have the best chance of finding happiness and success, whatever they may choose to do in the future.

Mushroom picking in Nuuksio National Park, Finland

Phenomenon-based learning

Teachers around the world will be all too familiar with inputting unsolicited curriculum changes with little to no time or money to get them off the ground. It’s quite possible that teachers may struggle to see the point in some of these curriculum changes but, here in Finland, I think I’ve found one of particular interest and import: phenomenon-based learning.

“We’re not learning because of school; we’re learning because of life.” 

Finland is currently undergoing a curriculum overhaul and phenomenon-based learning is the phrase on everyone’s lips. This certainly wouldn’t scare many UK primary school teachers because it’s a lot like teaching by topic, however, one key difference in Finland is that this cross-curricular method will be implemented all the way through grade school, meaning up until students are 16 years old. Another noteworthy detail is that teachers must base the learning and teaching in its real context so that information and skills are developed regardless of any perceived boundaries between the subjects in the traditional sense.

According to the website, phenomenaleducation.info, “phenomena are  holistic topics like human, European Union, media and technology, water or energy. The starting point differs from the traditional school culture divided into subjects, where the things studied are often split into relatively small, separate parts.” This division of information into subjects has the effect of decontextualisation, thereby making the learning less relatable to young people and demotivating students. Phenomenon-based structure seeks to promote inquiry learning, problem-based learning, and creative thinking alongside being student-led in the true sense of the word. Students explore a topic or question (or phenomenon) of personal interest in their own way and present their findings, whatever their findings, as they choose. This puts the student as the active agent at the centre of the learning process, immediately giving value to any information or skills that they learn along the way.

So far, I’ve been a fly on the wall in two classes taking part in phenomenon-based learning and discussed the students’ progress with their teachers. One teacher commented on how their students have increased their confidence through the opportunities for social interaction on trips and visits; another explained how much more effort she has seen students put into the projects based on questions they posed and answered themselves. She also noted how much project-based learning demands students work together, requiring them to communicate and cooperate with each other- skills much needed by many of us in today’s world of work. This same teacher freely admitted that she doesn’t know what information her students will need by the time they enter employment: “I don’t know what they will need to know, but they will need to be able to think for themselves, solve problems creatively and work as a team. These are the skills they are learning here.”

Perhaps most notably, when I asked the headteacher for her views on phenomenon-based learning and the difficulties of tracking student progress that might arise, she remarked:

“We’re not learning because of school; we’re learning because of life.”

And she sincerely means it. This is not a headteacher under pressure to measure her students, or staff for that matter, against national standards. She is free, and seemingly very happy, to allow both learners and teachers to embark upon this exploratory learning path and see where it takes them. There are no preconceived learning outcomes or targets hidden up her sleeve, just a happy collision of idealism and logic which sees students empowered in the classroom as they develop transferable skills in an authentic context.

 

 

 

Helsinki: First impressions

It’s calm, it’s clean, it’s green and there are lakes everywhere.

I arrived in Helsinki on Sunday and was immediately struck by the calm, even at the airport, and those words don’t usually go together. Yet the theme continues… it seems things run pretty smoothly in Finland where even the capital city walks at an easy pace.

Suitcase in tow, I followed some mysterious directions to a brightly painted jungle tunnel to be greeted by a very lovely host family. So far so good!

So what am I doing in Helsinki?

That’s a good question!

I’m an English teacher from the UK and I’m here in Helsinki because I was lucky enough to secure funding from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (www.wcmt.org.uk) to explore how the Finnish education system so regularly tops the charts of international education leagues. I’ll be inquiring into questions such as:

What is so great about Finnish education? 

Are there any great differences between Finnish and British pedagogy?

How do teachers structure their lessons?

What do teachers do in the classroom in practice? 

What characterises the students’ attitudes to learning?

How do the Finns train their teachers?

What is the Finnish educational vision?

And many more…

Please see my first blog post for more information about how I came to be here and to find a link to the WCMT website. If you’d like to travel somewhere to conduct your own research in a particular area, they may well enable you to do so.

Exploring the Lukio

On Monday morning, I found my way to the Lukio (high-school) and, again, I was instantly struck by the placid atmosphere. Walking into the building, there are open spaces full of squashy sofas and armchairs where students are chatting or working. It’s quite a lovely feeling to be in a school where hardly anyone is rushing and the teachers are smiling, showing few signs of stress and overwork. Is it too good to be true?! Watch this space…

In the lessons I visited, I found a relaxed, purposeful mood – students use electronic devices at their leisure and teachers are referred to by their first names. Now, I am in a high school for 16-19 year olds for this week, but I am told the use of teachers’ first names is common practice throughout Finland and, despite being GCSE to A-level-age in UK terms (years 11 to 13), homework is not mandatory and takes roughly 20-30 minutes per subject but that depends on the teacher – some do not set any at all and they are under no obligation to. It remains to be seen how this affects their individual progress and I shall endeavour to find out more in this vein.

Chatting to the teachers in the staff room, I have found their reactions to some commonplace aspects of British education a pleasant surprise. During a discussion of teaching observations and the function of Ofsted in the UK, one teacher exclaimed, “Observations? By who?” Then ensued a stream of questions from the stunned teacher, who couldn’t imagine who would be observing you, why they would do so, what they would be looking for or what they might intend to do with the information. Several others had many questions and were sad to hear of the introduction of performance-related pay and low-teacher morale that characterises UK education. The teachers I have spoken to so far in Helsinki are content with their autonomy; it represents quite a different outlook compared to the culture of performance management and work scrutiny found across the UK. I’m looking forward to discussing these topics in greater detail over the course of the week.

To sum up my Helsinki experience so far, I’ve been so well looked after by so many lovely, helpful people, from my hosts to the teachers, to the guy in the shop who explained which milk is which. People are kind, even to a lone traveler like me 🙂

Creativity in the classroom

It’s another year brimming with changes to education in the UK. Assessing without levels wobbles along an uncertain path and new exam specifications are just getting started in many secondary and sixth form subjects, but I, along with many other teachers, hold concerns about how far these changes will prepare our students for their future in a rapidly changing world.

I am a secondary school English teacher from the UK and I’m going to be blogging while I travel in Finland and Denmark, where I’ll be exploring assessing without levels, “open architecture” lesson design and “school-free” pedagogy in the hope of finding inspiring practice to benefit teachers and educational institutions in the UK. I’m able to do this thanks to funding from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, who you should check out if you’d like to travel whilst researching something you feel passionate about. See their website here: http://www.wcmt.org.uk.

This is a somewhat serious opening gambit to my blog because I want to outline the purpose of my trip so, if you’d like to hear more about my general gallivanting around Finland, now is a good time to move on to my next blog post! If you’d like more background information on how I came to be here, please read on:

The Finnish and Danish education systems value ingenuity, creativity and risk-taking because, as well as knowledge, students need to develop their ability to apply and repurpose knowledge. Therefore, teachers need methods of teaching the curriculum that equip children with transferable skills and expertise to make them employable in a world of every-changing technological advancement.

“School-free” pedagogy supports the aim of Finnish education to facilitate learners, and thereby a workforce, capable of innovation, open-mindedness and creation. Whilst, the Danish aim to “instil in [students] the desire to learn more” and the employment of “open-architecture” learning enables “the well-rounded development of the individual student”. Such holistic aims mean that traditional values of teaching facts have been replaced by critical thinking, problem-solving and learning how to learn. I hope to explore how these aims are put into practice in the classroom.

Finland has established a global reputation as a model educational nation, consistently at the top of OECD international education system rankings and it is, according to the Finnish education minister, built on equality: all schools are “good” schools and individual talents are fostered. A recent study by the Smithsonian Institution showed that the difference between Finland’s weakest and strongest students was the smallest in the world despite teaching mixed ability classes and the absence of gifted programmes, selective grammars and private schools.

In Finland and Denmark, I’ll observe lessons, interview teachers and students, and visit teacher training schools to better understand how teachers employ pedagogies that instil values of innovation, open-mindedness and flexibility in the hope of bringing ideas home for the use of UK teachers. I’ll also use my blog to share any findings with the global teaching community.

I’m really looking forward to my Nordic travels and I hope you’ll follow along.

 

Rethinking the classroom

Welcome to my blog!

This is a very new blog, started in September 2016, so I’m looking forward to seeing it grow in the coming months… Browse around and read the ramblings of a traveling teacher. I hope you enjoy x