1. Intelligent Learning Developing Quality Talk
Developing Quality Talk for Active Minds
Website: Growthmindseteaz.org
Gerry Miller
& Angi Gibson

2. Good student questions enhance learning
You are the students today, so your good questions will be valued!

3. EAZ teachers’ cross-phase network group meets four times a year
Has been working for last 5 years to develop teaching & learning in our schools – using quality research
Focus on AfL & Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset
A key area of Shirley Clarke’s Learning Team (2007) was introducing Talk (or Learning) Partners and promoting Quality Talk in the classroom
We saw this as an important way of improving student engagement and allowing deeper understanding
Intelligent Learning programme was chosen as a focus for this in , especially developing Quality Talk

4. Context: “Visible Learning”, 2009 by John Hattie (Professor of Education at the University of Auckland, NZ)
In the past, the majority of innovations or strategies could be shown to “work” because students show improvement – but nearly all students show some improvement
Visible learning is the result of 15 years’ research and synthesises over 800 meta-analyses (over 50,000 studies) relating to the influences on achievement in school-aged students
In a meta-analysis the effects in each study, where appropriate, are converted to a common measure (an effect size), such that the overall effects can be quantified, interpreted and compared
Hattie uses these effect sizes to allow us to make a much more sophisticated judgment on what is really making an impact on student learning and achievement

5. Influences on student learning
Reciprocal Teaching Homework
Peer Tutoring Mastery Learning
Ability Grouping Questioning
Feedback Aims & Policies of the School
Teacher-Student Relationships

6. Mastery Learning: Reciprocal Teaching:
All children can learn when they focus on mastering tasks in a collaborative environment.
Appropriate learning conditions in the classroom include:
High levels of cooperation between classmates;
Focused teacher feedback that is both frequent and diagnostic;
Variable time allowed to reach levels of attainment
Reciprocal Teaching:
Students learn & use strategies such as summarizing, questioning, clarifying & predicting
These are supported through dialogue between teacher & students as they attempt to gain meaning from the text
Each student takes a turn at being the teacher & often the teacher & students take turns leading a dialogue concerning sections of the text
Aims to help students actively bring meaning to the written word & assist them to monitor their learning and thinking

7. Influences on student learning
Reciprocal Teaching Feedback Teacher-Student Relationship Mastery Learning Peer Tutoring Questioning Homework Aims & Policies of the School Ability Grouping

8. Influences on student learning John Hattie – research from 180,000 studies covering almost every method of innovation
Effect Size
Reciprocal Teaching
Feedback
Teacher-Student Relationships 0.72
Mastery Learning
Peer Tutoring
Questioning
Homework
Aims & Policies of the School 0.24
Ability Grouping

9. “The most powerful single influence enhancing achievement is feedback”
Quality feedback is needed, not more feedback
Much of the feedback provided by the teacher to the student is not valued and not acted on
Students with a Growth Mindset welcome feedback and are more likely to use it to improve their performance
The most powerful feedback is provided from the student to the teacher
Expert teachers constantly look for feedback from students and other teachers about their teaching
Quality Dialogue in the classroom provides regular feedback for teachers

10. Questioning
So much of class time is spent by teachers asking questions of their students (often questions per day – Brualdi, 1998), but usually these are not open, inquiry questions, they are “display questions” that the teacher knows the answer to and do not enhance understanding or thinking.
Perhaps of more importance than teacher questioning is analysing the questions that students ask. Structuring class sessions to entice, teach and listen to students’ questioning of students is powerful (Hattie et al, 1998).

11. Why are student questions so important for good learning?
Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes

12. Why are student questions so important for good learning?
It engages them in the topic and builds on prior learning
Allows them to relate the topic to personal experience
Makes them think
Empowers them to take control of their learning
Teaches them to disagree intelligently

13. The Personal Nature of Learning
“It is students themselves, in the end, who decide what students will learn” – Olson 2003
“There are at least three worlds in the classroom”:
The public world, which includes teacher-led discussion and work tasks
The private-social world of informal peer interactions, whispers & note-passing
The private-individual world of self-talk and thinking
Those students, regardless of prior ability, who used the classroom and its activities to further their own interests and purposes, learned more than those who dutifully did what they were told, but did not want or know how to create their own activities – Nuthall 2005
Teacher does not control these two

14. Our aims to improve learning
Students become more self-motivated (Growth Mindset)
Less dependent on the teacher and more resilient
More quality talk enables students to make sense of the learning
Less teacher intervention
Classroom climate is more collaborative
Teacher gets more feedback from the students which helps her to improve teaching and learning
Learning becomes more student-led and less teacher-led

15. Our Learning Journey Refining and developing Assessment for Learning
Raising aspirations and improving resilience through Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset*
Using Talk Partners to discuss good learning
Developing Quality Talk through Intelligent Learning
*Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality & Development
Carol S. Dweck (Psychology Press, 2000)

16. Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development, Psychology Press, 1999
Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Mindset
About 40% of US students hold an incremental theory of ability
Slide 16

17. Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development, Psychology Press, 1999
Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Mindset
About 40% of US students hold an entity theory of ability
Easy praise is not the answer - it makes the situation worse
Slide 17

18. Incremental Learners – What does this mean to me?
Researched based Teacher, became interested in Carol Dweck theories of Incremental Learners.
I am a local, through education and training, as well as family support and encouragement I achieved my goals. However, the locality has changed as our data would demonstrate and pupils enter education with the belief that they are now ‘as good as it gets’. These low aspirations are encouraged within the family and so the myth perpetuates.
I was born, raised and educated with New York. Through education and training, as well as family support and encouragement I achieved my goals. However, the locality has changed as our data would demonstrate and New York Primary is now recognised as being within a super output area of deprivation, with the highest percentage of NEETs recorded. Once pupils enter education they soon assume an attitude that they are as they are, and what we see is as good as it gets. These low aspirations are confirmed within the family often supported by anecdotes that Mother, Father, Brother and Sister were also ‘no good’ at School and so the myth perpetuates. This mindset must be challenged as the School faces a raising standards agenda.
I joined New York Primary in September 2002 as a trainee GTP.

19. OFSTED 2002
“The quality of teaching and learning is inconsistent. It varies from very good to unsatisfactory.
“Curriculum planning and assessment strategies need to make sure that work builds on what children have already learnt”
This was a very clear message that soon drove our school improvement and development plan. A strict and proactive focus was placed upon Teaching and Learning strategies used with the classroom. However, this resulted in the Teachers becoming performing seals and the children adopting a passive learning behaviour. We were then again visited by OFSTED in 2006.

20. OFSTED 2006
“New York Primary School takes its pupils mainly from areas of high social and economic disadvantage. Almost half of its pupils are entitled to free school meals. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or physical difficulties is well above average.”
“When children enter the Nursery, their communication and language skills and their social skills are well below average.”
“Although many children join the School from difficult backgrounds and with challenging behaviour and attitudes, they soon settle into routines and expectations of the School. High standards in all areas are demanded from the outset and pupils soon acquire good behaviour and consideration for others.”
Although pupils self-esteem wanes considerably as they continue through School and their belief in their own capabilities flags on reaching the end of Primary School, I have nothing but respect and admiration for my pupils. On entering Key Stage 2 they face increasingly challenging barriers to learning and impact from the home situation. However, it became clear that until some of these self worth and personal capacity issues were tackled, then success and achievement would remain out of their reach.

21. Pupil Aspirations (Then!)
Me Mam says that homework is a waste of time, because I will never amount to anything!
You’re just like your father – you’ll be locked up by the time your 16.
No-one in our house can spell!
I’m good at sport but nothing else in school.
The Journey towards Self-Led Learning
I began my journey by realising very quickly that there was NO one step method to success! I found that the best way to promote independent learners was through an amalgamation of various strategies, mainly assessment for learning coupled with Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset theories. The Teachers were trained BUT now it was the children’s turn to become active learners.
The techniques that I used to implement change were first and foremost
Building Self Efficacy and Belief in Self Ability
Reinforcing and encouraging Steps of learning
Celebrating an awareness of Self Recognition
I never put my hand up in case I look thick!
I’ve never been any good at maths!
Slide 3

22. Techniques to Implement Change
Positive self-narrative and visualisation.
Increasing roles of responsibility within and around school through increasing the children’s sense of belonging (e.g. jobs – tuck shop, P.E. monitors, lunchtime monitors, office staff, recruitment board, school council) Modelling.
Managing the moment of impulse – good questioning techniques etc,.
Problem solving, mind mapping/templates, hierarchy of questions. Collecting facts before making judgements.
Regular review, post analyse of work and emphasis on perfect practice.
Building Self
Esteem & Belief
in Self Ability
Target setting (SMART)
Peer Teaching (Buddies)
Meaningful praise – recognising how their learning was moving on.
Recognising wrong answers as being a positive thing.
The 5 R’s for learning (Alps) Resilience, Responsibility, resourcefulness, reasoning and reflectivity-reflexivity
Less Teacher talk- more children's talk
Reinforcing and
Encouraging
Steps
of Learning
I began to record our Incremental learning journey into a checklist:-
Celebration
Self Recognition

23. Checklist of an Incremental Learning journey
Goals setting through visualisation
Use all data to target set for incremental improvement
Share and negotiate the curriculum with children
Give Parents’ knowledge of the curriculum (In Parents’ Speak)
Share national curriculum targets with Children and Parents
Separate the learning intention from the context
Teach skills of how to mark themselves – Success Criteria
Use posters and visual resources as aids for incremental learning
Check how familiar pupils are regularly (with content of posters)
Practise realistic tests throughout the year
Talk about emotions during learning and tests
Self talk before tests
Celebrate any success
Due to the changes implemented, the children absolutely thrived upon the programme, their confidence and self belief was overwhelming, they were not scared of challenges any more, they were welcoming them! They were incremental learners! (Believing their intelligence is not fixed)
The effect of this on their learning was phenomenal! The majority of my pupils were now totally tuned into learning, hungry for it even. They were now longer just content with finishing a piece of work, it had to challenge them. Their newly found learning goals and standards enabled them to think like an incremental learner.
Their mindset is now:-

24. We are all Incremental Learners How Incremental Learners Think!
I thrive on challenge
I throw myself into difficult tasks
I am self confident
I have learning goals
I like feedback on my performance so I can improve
I react to failure by trying harder
I engage in self-monitoring
I can ignore the low aspirations of my peers
I believe that intelligence is not fixed
My intelligence can be improved through learning
What was truly amazing was the fact that I, the teacher, was seen as the last resort (instead of the first) that the children would approach for help. The first was now their buddy, then their table buddies, and finally the teaching and non-teaching staff. It freed us up tremendously!
It gave us the time that we once never had, yet should have had, to guide and keep the pupils on track.

25. Self-Sufficient Students
Children, particularly Year 6, were so driven by our new way of thinking and learning that they invented a way of sharing and celebrating their successes. They did this through creating for themselves a Self-Sufficient Student reward scheme which enabled them to celebrate their changing successes in becoming independent incremental learners with growth mindset.
Their method of selection of Self Sufficient Student of the day is through a voting system, where all children and teachers participate in recognising the most successful student.
Firstly they talk with their buddies (between 2 pupils) and recommend the student who they think should be awarded with reasons. They then discuss this within their table groups (up to 8 pupils) and debate the 2 names their table should put forward and why.
Names are displayed on the board and the children who voted for them give the reasons for their choices to the rest of the class.
The whole class vote upon which children should be allocated the award, based upon how their success in becoming an incremental learner has been proven.
This programme has reached beyond the academic, with children expressing their views on what being an Incremental Learner means to them, and the impact that it has had on their life!

26. Pupil Aspirations (Now!)
No-one in my family can or has, I’m going to be the first!
I help my Dad, help me with my homework!
I don't wait for the Teacher to tell me what to do – I’m in charge now.
I still get stuck, but now I don’t stay stuck-I break it up into little bits.
Good teaching and Assessment for Learning can only take children so far on their learning journey. Too often their main focus is on boosting attainment at the end of KS2 for SATS, without implementing any real change in the students’ self-belief and ability to learn for themselves. At New York Primary School there is a determination to build self-motivated learners, who can ask good questions and work together to find the answers.
I love coming to School!
I don’t hate maths anymore, I’ve got it!
Slide 3

27. OFSTED 2010
“Teaching is outstanding. Pupils thoroughly enjoy lessons and join in all activities with great enthusiasm. Both they and their teachers have an excellent knowledge of how well they are learning and how they can improve...”
“Pupils’ enthusiasm for learning could not be stronger. In all lessons they tackle any challenge with energy and a strong belief that they will succeed. They make lessons buzz with excitement as they work in pairs and groups to meet the challenges their teachers set.”

28. OFSTED 2010
“A strong feature of lessons is the collaboration between pupils, either as Talk Partners clarifying ideas, or team players working together to solve problems.”
“The overwhelming strength of the school’s provision is the care, guidance and support it provides to enable pupils to overcome complex, and sometimes formidable, barriers to learning, so that they become successful learners who are happy at school.”
The future
Our recent Ofsted confirms that our pupils now have the ability to talk about their learning with confidence. If they were able to sit exams orally, they would easily exceed our expectations. Our challenge now is to enable our pupils to transfer their oral confidence to high quality writing. One way that we will be doing this is by using Intelligent Learning throughout the school.

29. My Next Challenge
As Carol Dweck says “successful individuals love learning, value effort and persist in the face of obstacles”.
As Steve Williams says “Good thinking and dialogue involves turning the chaos of information and experience into meaning” and many of our children have the skills to do this.
Our next step, is as Ros Wilson (Big Writing), says “Standards in writing are a direct result of standards of thought. If they can’t say it, they can’t write it. We need to use new vocabulary repeatedly if children are to retain it.” I am confident that Intelligent Learning will help our children transfer their good thinking into high quality writing, which will reflect their true potential.
Intelligent Learning provided a natural extension of our work to promote more independent learning in our pupils. During our initial discussion, we asked the question: “How do we ensure a good balance between teaching for remembering and teaching to enable intelligent learning”. Our answer was: “By teaching the principles of Intelligent Learning, we empower our pupils to be more active learners, who will naturally absorb and remember more”.
My Next Challenge
Working through this programme with other teachers has enabled me to develop a clear idea of how to implement specific strategies of Intelligent Learning at New York Primary.
As Carol Dweck says “successful individuals love learning, value effort and persist in the face of obstacles”. My vision is for all of our staff to have a deeper understanding of the Growth Mindset and Intelligent Learning so that we have a genuinely consistent approach to learner led learning that empowers our children to become self-sufficient.
As Steve Williams says “Good thinking and dialogue involves turning the chaos of information and experience into meaning” and many of our children have the skills to do this. Our next step, is as Ros Wilson (Big Writing), says “Standards in writing are a direct result of standards of thought. If they can’t say it, they can’t write it. We need to use new vocabulary repeatedly if children are to retain it.” I am confident that Intelligent Learning will help our children transfer their good thinking into high quality writing, which will reflect their true potential.

30. What do we mean by Quality Talk?
Intelligent Learners:
Use questions consistently to further their thinking at every stage of learning
Organise their thinking by making connections using concepts
Explore their thinking through dialogue with others
Use exploratory dialogue as a model for their own thinking

31. Consider all the ways in your school, your department or your classroom that you try to help pupils become more independent learners. How do they relate, in any way, to the list of habits of intelligent learners? Discuss in pairs for 2 minutes

32. What is Intelligent Learning?
Learning programme for teachers working together to refine classroom practice
Aims to develop quality talk (by students) in the classroom
Based on six 20 minute DVD programmes of teachers working with KS2/3 students
Written and presented by Steve Williams (Imaginative Minds):
“we use the word intelligent, not to denote a superior or innate brain power, but the working of alert, active minds, capable of self-sustained reasoning and learning”

33. Intelligent Learning Prog 1 Discussion Question: What do students who can think and learn for themselves do that is different from those who can’t?
Know how to ask good questions
Make connections using concepts
Explore thinking through dialogue with others
Able to explain their thinking by giving reasons
Able and willing to learn from other students

34. Play part of DVD programme 3
Some connecting concepts
Same different
Reason conclusion
Important ordinary
Cause consequence
Fact opinion
Principle evidence
Example counter-example
alternative