1. Buckinghamshire County Council Providing Challenge March 2013 Tessa Ford Tford@buckscc.gov.uk

2. Buckinghamshire County Council Objectives Raise awareness of how to develop real learning and Growth Mindsets Consider strategies to promote learning and increase the level of challenge within the classroom Raise awareness of different strategies that you should see in a “High Challenge” Lesson

3. Buckinghamshire County Council If you went into a ‘Challenging’ lesson what would you expect to see?

4. Buckinghamshire County Council Challenge Challenge is for ALL children Making children think (for themselves) Independence, depth (not just acceleration) Opportunities for creativity Asking questions

5. Buckinghamshire County Council Characteristics of a Successful learner?

6. Buckinghamshire County Council Learning Guy Claxton thinks that the widespread view of intelligence as a fixed, innate property is pernicious. It puts a ceiling on what students can be expected to achieve and tells them that they are either bright or stupid. It leads to resignation among low achievers and a lack of resourcefulness on the part of the ‘bright’ producing school leavers unequipped for a rapidly changing world. What students require is not to be spoon-fed facts, many of which they will never make use of, but the ability to know what to do when they don’t know what to do. This, for Claxton, is true intelligence – something that comes from somewhere deeper than the conscious, rational mind.

7. Buckinghamshire County Council Claxton’s 4 Rs Resilience: 'being ready, willing and able to lock on to learning'. Being able to stick with difficulty and cope with feelings such as fear and frustration. Resourcefulness: 'being ready, willing and able to learn in different ways'. Having a variety of learning strategies and knowing when to use them. Reflection: 'being ready, willing and able to become more strategic about learning'. Getting to know our own strengths and weaknesses. Relationships: 'being ready, willing and able to learn alone and with others'.

8. Buckinghamshire County Council Talking ‘learnish’ How did you do that? How else could you have done that? Who did that a different way? What was hard about doing that? What could you do when you are stuck on that? How could you help someone else do that? What would have made that easier for you? How could I have taught that better? How could you make that harder for yourself?

9. Buckinghamshire County Council Carol Dweck and Mindsets Carol Dweck’s research has revealed that we all hold mindsets about our intelligence, ability, personality, etc. Roughly half of us hold fixed mindsets about our intelligence, thinking that our successes are due to innate, natural ability or talent and our failures are due to a lack of these qualities. Roughly half of us, on the other hand, hold a growth mindset about our intelligence, believing that our successes are caused by such factors as effort, application and good study skills, and believing that failure is remediable: we’ll need to work harder, apply better strategies, seek appropriate support and intervention, etc.

10. Buckinghamshire County Council “Students who hold a growth mindset do better in school, teaching a growth mindset enhances their achievement. There may not be a correlation between the mindset one holds and one’s performance until students encounter difficulty. For many students the challenge-levels they experience in school can be perceived as low – they might not encounter many concepts which they regard as problematic, difficult and demanding. They may well be developing fixed mindsets, and differences arise once difficulties are encountered: individuals with fixed mindsets tend to show low levels of resilience, persistence and creative problem-solving, and therefore fail to make progress, whereas individuals with growth mindsets thrive on adversity, and grow new ways of coping and progressing”.

11. Buckinghamshire County Council “As educators we have a huge responsibility to support our students in developing a growth mindset which engenders a lifelong love of learning, not a short-term obsession with performance” Carol Dweck www.carol-dweck.co.uk

12. Buckinghamshire County Council Ways to add challenge: Questioning Adapting Plans Differentiated tasks but allowing self- differentiation Classroom Organisation Problem-solving / Extended Tasks

13. Buckinghamshire County Council Bloom’s taxonomy of questioning  Knowledge – Who, what, where, when?  Comprehension – What do we mean by..? Explain….  Application – What other examples are there?  Analysis – What is the evidence for ….?  Synthesis – How could we add to, improve, design, solve….?  Evaluation – What do you think about….? Could you do it better…..?

14. Buckinghamshire County Council The Jaberwocky problem Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogroves, And the mome raths outgrabe 1.What were the slithy toves doing in the wabe? 2.How would you describe the state of the borogroves? 3.What can you say about the mome raths? 4.Why were the borogroves mimsy? 5.How effective was the mome raths’ strategy?

15. Buckinghamshire County Council Conclusions: Knowledge tasks are fine as a start, but if we stay at the knowledge level, surface learning may result with little challenge Knowledge tasks may be necessary, but they are never sufficient. We must avoid rote learning of facts and procedures Deep learning in contrast to surface learning requires higher order tasks than knowledge The higher the task the more likely deep learning and challenge will take place. Challenging questions that develop Higher Order thinking need to be planned for

16. Buckinghamshire County Council Open-ended questions What do you think….? How do you know….? Why do you think that….? Do you have a reason…..? How can you be sure….? Is this always so….? Is there another way /reason/ idea…? What if…? What if… does not…? What is another example of …..? What do you think happens next….? I wonder why …..

17. Buckinghamshire County Council Aim Fewer but better questions Higher-order questions including generalisation Encourage and help children to ask their own questions Questioning reveals, clarifies and extends students’ thinking.

18. Buckinghamshire County Council Top-down planning How can we expect children to achieve work at a certain level (e.g. Secure Level 3 in Y4) if we never confront them with work at that level? So: 1.Plan for Higher Ability first 2.Consider appropriate differentiation, if needed, then: 3.Add appropriate scaffolding for Middle Ability 4.Add further support for Lower ability - but ensure no group is restricted to ‘their task’

19. Buckinghamshire County Council Effective Differentiation … means that all students should be given hard work that they can do and support will not usually come in the form of the teacher's one-to-one help

20. Buckinghamshire County Council Classroom Organisation for Challenge Effective group work –Letting groups ‘go’ –Letting groups support each other –Guided group work Problem Solving No Hands up Encourage appropriate self differentiation Have extra challenge activities available Top-down planning

21. Buckinghamshire County Council Key messages Enhance – Enrich - Accelerate Get all pupils, but especially the more able to discuss and show you what they have learnt Adapt existing plans Use problem-solving activities as extension Use targeted questioning and encourage pupils to ask questions of you and each other Establish classroom/school systems to extend the more able