How to use evidence to support disadvantaged students: Metacognition and Self-reflection – Webinar

The EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit identifies meta-cognition as one of the key strategies for closing the achievement gap. But what is meta-cognition? And how can it be introduced to the classroom in a meaningful and beneficial way?

In this webinar, Professor Steve Higgins offers some practical advice on encouraging pupils to reflect more deeply on their own thinking. More broadly, he also examines how teachers can make good use of research findings to improve their practice.

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      string(441) "... K. (2012) The impact of the pursuit of ASDAN’s Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE) on GCSE attainment. Project Report. UWE/ASDAN.Y9Thinking & reasoning skills  (critical thinking, debating)Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 53, 4 ..."
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      string(5654) "Using research to inspire practice. (pp. 161-178). Paris, France: OECD.Y7, 8, 9Oracy (paired talk, P4C, formal debates, public speaking…)Mercer, N., & Littleton, K. (2007). Dialogue and the development of children’s thinking. London, UK: Routledge.Topping, K. J. & Trickey, S. (2007a). Collaborative philosophical enquiry for school children: Cognitive effects at 10-12 years. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 271–288.Topping, KJ & Trickey, S (2007b), ‘Collaborative philosophical inquiry for schoolchildren: Cognitive gains at 2-year follow-up’ British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 4, pp. 787-796.Y7, 8, 9Formative assessment (comment-based feedback)Black P, Wiliam D (1998) Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom. Assessment Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 139-148. 2. Hattie, J. (2009) Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses related to achievement, Routledge, London. Higgins, S., Kokotsaki, D. & Coe, R.J. (2011). Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning: Summary for Schools Spending the Pupil Premium. Sutton Trust-Educational Endowment Foundation.Y7, 8, 9Metacognition (language of learning, plenaries, journals) Whitebread, D. & Pino Pasternak, D. (2010) Metacognition, Self-Regulation & Meta-Knowing. In Littleton, K., Wood, C. & Kleine Staarman, J. (eds) International Handbook of Psychology in Education. Bingley, UK: Emerald.Y8Personal effectiveness (organisational skills)Harrison, N., James, D. and Last, K. (2012) The impact of the pursuit of ASDAN’s Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE) on GCSE attainment. Project Report. UWE/ASDAN.Y9Thinking & reasoning skills  (critical thinking, debating)Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 53, 4, 449-455.Whole-schoolGrowth mindset (shared language of learning)Claxton, G, Chambers, M, Powell, G & Lucas, B. (2011) The Learning Powered School: Pioneering 21st Century Education. TLO, Bristol.;  Perkins, D. (1995). Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence. New York: Free Press.Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House: New York.Engle, R. A., Lam, D. P., Meyer, X. S., & Nix, S.. “How does expansive framingpromote transfer? Several proposed explanations.,” Educational Psychologist, v.47, 2012, p. 215-231.Whole-schoolTransfer (managed approach)Engle, R. A., Lam, D. P., Meyer, X. S., & Nix, S.. “How does expansive framingpromote transfer? Several proposed explanations.,” Educational Psychologist, v.47, 2012, p. 215-231.Hipkins, R., & Cowie, B. (2014). Learning to learn, lifewide and lifelong learning: Reflections on the New Zealand experience. In R. Deakin-Crick, C. Stringher, & K. Ren (Eds.), Learning to learn: International perspectives from theory and practice (pp. 303–320). London, UK: Routledge.Whole-schoolAction Research as CPD (collaborative inquiry) Bell, M., Cordingley, P., Isham, C. & Davis, R. (2010) Report of Professional Practitioner Use of Research Review: Practitioner engagement in and/or with research. Coventry: CUREE, GTCE, LSIS & NTRP. Available at: http://www.curee-paccts.com/node/2303Crippen, K. J., Biesinger, K. D. & Ebert, E. K. (2010) Using Professional Development to Achieve Classroom Reform and Science Proficiency: An Urban Success Story from Southern Nevada, USA. Professional Development in Education, 36 (4) pp.637-661. Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (2002) Student achievement through staff development. In: Joyce, B. & Showers, B. Designing training and peer coaching: our needs for learning. VA, USA: ASCD. Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration [BES]. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. Available at www.educationcounts.govt.nz/goto/BES.  The importance of transferThere is not space here to explore each of these components in detail. However, as can be seen in Table 2 the L2L curriculum at Sea View formed part of a whole-school approach to teaching and learning, which aimed to ensure that the skills and dispositions developed through the L2L curriculum were able to transfer meaningfully to other subject areas throughout the school. The issue of transfer has often been the Achilles heel of L2L initiatives, since it is well understood that skills tend to remain rooted in the contexts in which they were developed (e.g. see Willingham, 2007). While it is self-evident that transfer can and does happen, to varying degrees – school would be rather a waste of time if it did not – it certainly does not always happen automatically, and thus requires careful planning and monitoring. One key way in which transfer was facilitated at Sea View was through a shared language of learning, used by teachers throughout the school to focus on the how, as well as the what, of learning (see Figure 2). For a more detailed discussion of transfer at Sea View, see Mannion & Mercer (2016).Figure 2. The shared language of learning at Sea View, comprising the school’s six core values with examples of supporting ‘processes of learning’. What was the impact of L2L at Sea View?By the end of year 9, there was a significant increase in the proportion of students either hitting or exceeding their target grades in the"
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Leadership

Rediscover Learning to Learn

20 Jun 2017

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      string(359) "... teachers, and therefore their pupils, back. Amongst these are the ‘victim’ mentality, believing the world is against them or the cynical hyper-rational, fixed mindset teacher who finds training of any kind a massive waste of time. Think of your staffroom and those whose demeanour and conversation habitually, unconsciously drain ..."
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      string(5674) "Habits help make it easy to get things done quickly, efficiently – and unconsciously. This means we don’t have to think too hard about how to carry out tasks – we simply do them habitually because it works. New ways of doing things, like social distancing, challenge us but begin to be habitual instincts in time. How strange it is to see crowds throbbing together now on television. The new normal is embedding! Getting more conscious of the way we do things however will help us be as adaptable and flexible as we can be… and also prevent us slipping into any unhelpful habits in challenging times.Do you remember the conscious incompetence you felt when first driving a car or teaching a lesson? That feeling of being unsure, panicky even, all too aware of every instruction and mistake? After much practice though you eventually moved to conscious competence, still learning, and eventually through to unconscious competence. Life got so much easier – you learned the habits!But did you learn good or bad habits? Bad teaching habits can develop, often unconsciously – too much teacher talk, ignoring the invisible child, favouritism, ignoring bad behaviour, tick and flick marking, arriving late to lessons, spelling mistakes, late reports etc. etc. I mention these because I have done them all at some time – but they can become routine, characteristic, habitual behaviours. I know this, because when these bad habits are mentioned in performance management meetings, there can often be a genuine lack of awareness of them. These bad habits are easy to solve though, through feedback – providing the recipient is open to change!More worrying though are the unconscious habits of thinking that hold some teachers, and therefore their pupils, back. Amongst these are the ‘victim’ mentality, believing the world is against them or the cynical hyper-rational, fixed mindset teacher who finds training of any kind a massive waste of time. Think of your staffroom and those whose demeanour and conversation habitually, unconsciously drain you of any optimism for the future. Think also of those others who lift our mood with their optimism and sense of humour. Which one are you? How can you find out? Becoming aware of our own habits of thinking is the first step towards self-awareness.Here are the 7 useful habits for great teachers outlined in my book ‘Teaching and Learning’Habit 1: Great self-managementRate yourself out of ten as you read the descriptors below:Reframing struggle or failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.Use stress management strategies like mindfulness techniquesDevelop resilient thinking so you can bounce back after being given critical feedback from a lesson observation.Make sure that everything you do relates to learning and progress for your students.Take care of your mind and body by eating healthy foods, exercising and growing your knowledge of how learning works.Be professional in appearance and behaviour – and prompt with reports and deadlines.Switch off and relax at home. Put the stresses of the day into a box to be retrieved tomorrow and enjoy time with your partner, children, pets, TV, garden, hobbies…Schools can promote a self-management culture through having a powerful and embedded coaching programme, internal and external training events, celebrations of individual achievements, consistent leadership and lots of staffroom cream cakes, laughs and social events.Habit 2: Reflective practiceGive and, more importantly, take feedback.Ask your students how you are doing as their teacher. Tell your leader how they are doing as your leader (gently!).Use metacognition to stand back and analyse why you respond in certain ways to situations.Constantly review how you can improve your teaching and therefore the learning in your classYou can’t be curious and angry at the same time – so get curious about behaviour!This habit means you’ll become much more flexible and more responsive to pupil’s needs.Habit 3: Cognitive FlexibilityAdapting to a changing world and ever-changing expectations is an essential habit for pupils and teachers. How many of these have you done?Find new ways of working – every week.Teach a different subject.Be on the lookout for new roles and opportunities.Talk to new/different people in the staffroom.Use the internet and social media to extend your contacts and find new ideas to try in the classroom.Visit other schools and lessons regularly – just for fun.Team up with other departments or year groups to work together on a theme.Take part in as many extra-curricular activities as you can – especially staff pantos and karaoke!Draw, paint, sing, dance – at whatever level, as often as possible.Coach others and self-coach to push yourself out of your comfort zone.Habit 4: OptimismTeachers must believe that all their pupils can succeed in something. Children must believe they can improve in anything and be filled with hope and the expectation that they can make progress. Toddlers wake up every morning believing that they can and will learn new things. They show a relentless optimism and determination to learn to walk, talk and find out about the world. We, and our pupils, need to rediscover this ‘inner baby’ curiosity and confidence. and put aside comparison with others and doubt about themselves and their abilities.There is a four-letter word that is much more important for learning than ‘exam’ and that is ‘hope’.Try to:Think of your very best moment of teaching this week. Relive it over and over and enhance the good bits to"
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Blogs

Great Teaching and Learning? It’s a habit!

20 Nov 2020

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      string(4414) "top-quality questioning episodes, it’s important to use time together to plan for the use of the Keys with follow-up activities and supporting scaffolds to ensure they work for all learners.Creating linksMy favourite Key is the Picture, which is one which I am keen to pick out during staff training sessions that focus on the Keys. I often use it as a starter task while students are settling and the register is being taken. It grabs learners’ attention and it encourages them to think of links—making valuable connections between new content and things they already know. The start of a lesson is a great opportunity for students to begin thinking independently about what relevance the picture has to their prior understanding(s) and then sharing those ideas and trying to understand different perspectives. The links need not be abstract, but because the link you find is personal it can’t be wrong—unless the content statement is a misconception. For example, a teacher can ask what the link is between a picture of a car tyre and what students remember from last lesson about the components of a healthy diet. If a student says, ‘I remember that dietary needs depend on the amount of activity you do and the link to a tyre is that the car tyre depends on mileage and type of car’, this is acceptable, because although I might not make that specific link, the content is correct. In this way the students are being strongly encouraged to link their understanding to a random concept, which is difficult at times because it requires a thorough understanding of what they have learned, as well as the ability to link it to something that it is not usually linked to. This requires real effort, which reinforces the original learning, especially if it is something quite obscure. It is in these particular lessons that I find the ‘domino effect’ of building on each other’s ideas and prompting occurs, curious class discussion takes place, and the activation of prior learning is rendered more effective.Identifying misconceptionsAnother Key which has proved particularly useful for teachers in many different curriculum areas to identify misconceptions in students’ understanding, is the Reverse Key. Here the students are asked to think and discuss things they might not see or that would not happen, e.g. Name five things that you would not see in Narnia, or identify three things you could not do on the moon. We often spend a lot of time asking students what they know and asking them to explain their reasoning, but by working backwards we can grasp a broader picture of their conceptual understanding. Engaging in deep learningThe Keys are accessible and fantastic as starters or mini plenaries, or even, depending on the task, built in to larger sections of lessons or added to throughout a topic. Used alongside Socratic questioning, students can engage in the lesson content at a deeper level, carefully considering how they know, the context of their knowledge and the limits of their knowledge.For me, the Keys therefore symbolise the start of a journey which values the development of whole school frameworks for students. They give students the tools to verbalise and structure the ideas in their heads in a way that is supported and encouraged by their teachers and which runs across all curriculum areas. When staff and students begin to self-identify the improvements that the Keys can make, it can be easier to introduce other structures that require more change. Monitoring the use of Keys across year groups and curriculum areas to ascertain how frequently they are used and whether the use is accurate and purposeful can then inform future CPD sessions. Then those sessions can focus on sharing great practice and exposing staff to a variety of ways of implementing the Keys that will support independent and group-based work. By no means do I think the Keys are the only way to encourage clear, critical and collaborative thinking, but do I think they are a great place to start on the journey—for staff and for students alike.Hanna Miller leads Metacognition and Thinking across the Thinking Schools Academy Trust and is responsible for training staff and driving improvement of teaching and learning.Tony Ryan’s Thinker’s Keys can be downloaded at www.thinkerskeys.com"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Getting Keyed up for Thinking

7 Jan 2020

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      string(3843) "guidance, as an intervention, had positive effects on young children with challenging behaviours. We have found across the Trust that training sessions for staff on the underpinning of the Habits initiative followed by whole staff ownership of developing bespoke interpretations and resources to integrate the language and ideals of the Habits has been visibly positive. There have been noticeable decreases in students receiving negative behaviour points and observable improvements in attitudes to learning.In some of the schools in which ‘Habit points’ are being administered, there are now many students who have moved from previously recording poor behaviour points to now receiving positive Habit points. In line with work by Burgess (2012), we also found that certain Habits have developed at a quicker rate than others. Staff are being critical and analytical when reporting data findings and are keen to further explore current pitfalls, e.g. the subjectivity of what constitutes a ‘Habit point’. This has led to important staff dialogue and insightful smaller scale studies taking place in department areas and year groups to measure the possible impacts of the Habit interventions on learning in more specific domains.On a broader scale we are now working towards a consistent cross-Trust approach towards the development of Habits and are trialling a research-informed model that staff and students at all levels can use to monitor their own progress towards becoming a better thinker in terms of dispositional development. The staged model focuses on the acquisition of key knowledge and gradual understanding of the thinking structures and strategies that can support ‘better’ thinking, which all of us can deliberately and consciously use to enable staff and students to take control and ownership of their own thinking and effectively reflect on their progress towards being more ‘thought-ful’.The Habits of Mind are infused throughout all areas of school life and our goal is to include parents and carers more and more in understanding, tracking and striving to develop the Habits that mean we are more confident in our capabilities. We are mindful of our role in modelling successful Habits and equipping our students with the strategies to develop successful Habits and become the best version of themselves in preparation for the ever-changing world that lurks beyond the school gates.Hanna Miller leads Metacognition and Thinking across the Thinking Schools Academy Trust  and is responsible for training staff and driving improvement of teaching and learning.References and further readingBurgess, J. (2012). The impact of teaching thinking skills as habits of mind to young children with challenging behaviours. Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties, 17(1): 47-63.Costa, A., & Kallick, B. (2006). Discovering and Exploring Habits of Mind. Alexandria: ASCD.Jones, M.V., Meijen, C., McCarthy, P. J., & Sheffield, D. (2009). A theory of challenge and threat states in athletes. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2: 161-180.Marzano, R. (2005). A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching with Dimensions of Learning. Heatherton: Hawker Brownlow Education.Murray, J. (2016). Skills development, habits of mind, and the spiral curriculum: A dialectical approach to undergraduate general education curriculum mapping. Cogent Education, 3(1).Quigley, A. (2016) The Confident Teacher: Developing Successful Habits of Mind, Body and Pedagogy. Oxon: Routledge. Yeager, D. et al. (2016). Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3):374-391."
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Leadership

Cultivating Habits of Mind

12 Sep 2018

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