Plus One Learning Cycles – Process Overview

Rationale

The only way we can have long-term improved impact on the learning of young people is through embedding teaching excellence in all that we do.  To ensure any new knowledge, attitudes, and skills for teachers becomes embedded habit, requires regular opportunities to discuss and analyse new approaches, apply and practise new strategies in the classroom, as well as the structured reflection time to unpick the impact and, where necessary, refine approaches further. 

Developing teaching performance is a complex process. It involves:

• In some cases, becoming aware of, and then unlearning, attitudes, skills and habits that are may be both unconscious and ineffective. 
• Working within the limited time and processing capacity of teachers
• Codifying a shared language for the ingredients and processes that ensure teaching leads to greater impact on the learning of young people
• Building relational trust to enable truthful feedback to be shared and owned by the receiver
• Taking new knowledge about pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment and then translating it into enhanced teaching performance
• Seeking to develop greater teacher agency, efficacy and autonomy through increasing levels of performance

Given the complexity of the process, it’s important to use a robust ‘theory of action’ approach to developing teaching/leadership so that it:

1. Reduces the risk for teachers of the common barriers to their own learning and performance growth
2. Increases the potential for self and collective efficacy for teachers
3. Limits the potential opportunity cost of lost time using flawed processes
4. Ultimately positively impacts on the learning and achievement of young people

Process

The process builds upon the work of Jenni Donohoo about collective teacher efficacy, the most impactful strategy for raising learners’ achievement as identified by John Hattie’s most up-to-date meta-analysis.

Key components that will enrich the learning of those participating:-

• Collaboration – this enables teachers, through structured deep discussion about planning, teaching, and reflection, to unpick the underlying thinking processes that they use. This collaboration will be enhanced through the development of a shared language for key aspects of teaching.
• In each of the cycles, there will be the valuable opportunity to stop and reflect on the craft of teaching and how it can be more impact on the learning of children/young people.
• Each session will provide rich opportunities for deep discussion to help all think through the planning of implementation of new strategies, evaluating the impact of them, and reflecting on next steps.
• Reflection – At the start of each subsequent session, they’ll be time to reflect on the impact of implementing the action plan, and the learning that has resulted.

Through the process, teachers will build up a learning portfolio of what they’ve planned, tested and reflected on. The outcome of the programme will be a presentation of their portfolio covering the following questions:

Cycle 1

The first cycle will start with whole school INSET (typically August/September).  The day will be composed of three sections.

Overview of process and exploration of key areas 

This session will explore why lessons can be hugely engaging for our learners but lead to low levels of recall three or more months later, despite the huge amount of effort committed by teachers in planning and delivering the lesson.  Learning, at its heart, requires human beings to be able to remember.  After all, you can’t have learned something that you can’t recall!

Underpinned by the influential research of Ebbinghaus, Sweller & Clark, Willingham, Bjork & Bjork and others, this session will explore the most common barriers that lead to otherwise engaging lessons being utterly forgettable, along with strategies and tools to avoid this happening using the ‘Schema for Teaching’ below.  Typically in cycle 1 we explore potential ‘plus ones’ in prior knowledge (being feedback driven in our teaching), modelling, and questioning (checking for understanding)

Teacher are in incredibly busy, operational roles. Therefore they often lack processing capacity to develop several areas of their role at once.  Having multiple improvement foci also:

• Increases the risk of confusion when discussing improvement
• Increases the potential for failure or setback as several areas are being simultaneously worked on
• Increases the range/scope of feedback dialogue 
• Making identifying the causes of improvement/setback harder to pinpoint

Therefore a ‘plus one’ focus is more manageable and pinpointing the most beneficial area to improve for the teacher/leader is crucially important.  The INSET day will conclude with a planning session pinpointing this ‘plus one’ focus, and the sources of feedback teachers will gather to enable them to accurately evaluate the impact on learning.

Test Stage

Between INSET Day 1 and INSET Day 2, teachers will engage in implementing their action plans, supported by their HoD/HoF and testing out their new approaches, refining them as they do.  They will gather feedback on the changes that have resulted from implementing their ‘plus one’.

Cycle 2 – INSET Day (Typically November)

We’ll begin INSET 2 by reflecting on the impact of teeachers’ ‘plus one’ from cycle 1.

The ‘Reflect’ stage process provides time for teacher teams to evaluate the impact of actions on the gains, pains, and learning about themselves as teachers and the learning of their classes.  This reflection will also be the point to share the feedback sources with their peers, so that others can pinpoint takeaways for themselves.

After reflecting on cycle 1, we’ll explore other areas on the ‘Schema for Teaching’ to identify a potential ‘plus one’ for cycle 2. Typically in cycle 2, we explore potential ‘plus ones’ in deepening thinking and challenge, scaffolding, and retrieval. Cycle 2 will proceed in the same way as Cycle 1 with HoDs/HoFs facilitating and supporting staff with the implementation of their action plans through their team meetings.

Celebration Event

At the end of cycle 2 (typically Feb/March), at a twilight event, staff will present to a group of their peers for 8-10 mins the learning portfolio that they have gathered using the prompts listed further up this page. This supports collaboration, reflection and deep dialogue about what makes great teaching in our context.