Pedagogy, curriculum & assessment

Jon Curtis-BrignellAssistant Head: Teaching and

Learning

Redesigning Schooling

What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?

1. What are, for your school, your desired outcomes of education (DOEs)?

Consider:• the knowledge, abilities, attitudes and values which

you want young people to have acquired by the time they leave school.

What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?

2. What kinds of learning, in your school, with your students, will deliver your DOEs?

Consider:• What do students need to learn in order for you to

have achieved your DOEs?• Different kinds of learning processes are needed to

deliver different kinds of outcome.

What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?

3. What kinds of teaching will lead to the kind of learning that is needed?

Consider:• Teaching is a way of engaging different kinds of

learning processes in learners’ minds. It depends on stimulating and engaging the kinds of learning that will deliver the outcomes you said you valued.

What kind of teaching for what kind of learning?

4. What kind of leadership is required to create the kinds of teaching and learning which are desired, and so ensure that students leave your school with your DOEs?

Consider: • Only when you have some clarity about the first three

questions can you begin to prioritise the leadership strategies that will cultivate the necessary kinds of pedagogy.

Pedagogic leadership

A culture of and for learning

A school signals its values through different aspects of its culture. There are the visible, public espousals of these values through brochures, websites, speeches, newsletters and other publications.

(Lucas and Claxton, 2013)

A culture of and for learning

Most importantly, values are conveyed moment-by-moment by teachers in classrooms – through their running commentary; the kinds of activities they create; the way they lay out the furniture or configure group work; the kind of language they use and the example they set.

(Lucas and Claxton, 2013)

Curriculum is pedagogy

The failure to realise that curriculum is pedagogy has been one of the great tragedies of the last quarter-century in England’s education system…. curriculum development is an inherently creative process. It is the process by which teachers take the desired outcomes from the intended curriculum and convert them into engaging activities in classrooms. - Dylan Wiliam, Principled Curriculum Design

Curriculum is pedagogy

• We need to create ‘real’ understanding (powerful knowledge)

• Depth before breadth – focus on excellence

• The Trivium: Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric

• Extended enquiries (independence)

• Portfolios of excellence

• Interleaving rather than blocking content

• Embedded formative assessment

• Habits of Mind

What is your ‘signature pedagogy’?

Signature pedagogies make a difference. They form habits of the mind, habits of the hand and habits of the heart…. they prefigure the culture of professional work and provide the early socialisation into the practices and values of a field. Whether in a lecture hall or a lab, in a design studio or a clinical setting, the way we teach will shape how professionals behave…

(Shulman, 2005)

English departmental signature pedagogy

The backward design of a curriculum

• Define what a learner/historian/mathematician/artist /etc should know and be able to do by y11/13, and then work backwards to devise a programme of study from y7 to achieve that.

This will include:• ‘Big ideas’ / threshold concepts• Powerful knowledge (‘knowing that…’)• Key skills (‘knowing how to…’)

Programme of study

Obviously in secondary schools, the content of GCSE will have a strong influence on the selection of ‘big ideas’. But schools should be careful not to assume that GCSE syllabuses embody all the big ideas that will be important, either for further study, or for life after school…Focusing only on what is important for examination success may help the school succeed, but is likely to be disastrous for current secondary school students.- Dylan Wiliam, Principled Assessment Design

Threshold concepts / big ideas

Learning should be an adventure, not a journey.- Martin Robinson

A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress. As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even world view.

Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines”,

Examples of Threshold Concepts

Threshold concepts are:

• Integrative: Once learned, they are likely to bring together different parts of the subject which you hadn’t previously seen as connected.

• Transformative: Once understood, they change the way you see the subject and yourself.

• Irreversible: They are difficult to unlearn – once you’ve passed through it’s difficult to see how it was possible not to have understood before.

• Reconstitutive: They may shift your sense of self over time. This is initially more likely to be noticed by others, usually teachers.

• Troublesome: They are likely to present you with a degree of difficulty and may sometimes seem incoherent or counter-intuitive.

• Discursive: The student’s ability to use the language associated with that subject changes as they change. It’s the change from using scientific keywords in everyday language to being able to fluently communicate in the academic language of science.

Big ideas in English

• The relationship between context and meaning• The relationship between form, structure and

meaning• The relationship between language and meaning• The relationship between grammar and meaning• The relationship between the writer and the reader

in constructing meaning: the role of interpretation.

Threshold concepts from a SoL on Poetry

• What it means to be poetic: the notion of crafting poetic language.

• The nature and importance of figurative language and metaphor.

• The kinds and importance of poetic form.• The impact of structure on meaning; structural devices

such as metre, rhythm, rhyme that are used to achieve this.

• The role of the reader in constructing meaning: 'informed personal response'.

• Ambiguity of interpretation

The English draft model

Schemes of Learning - Consistency

Don’t forget

• Consider transition (map the gap)• Inspire and interest students• Build in testing, assessment and challenge• Build in real understanding (not teaching by numbers)• High expectations - you get what you settle for.

Learning is what happens when students are forced to think hard!

Assessment without levels

“What we want is a model of ability based on each child being capable

of anything and us looking progressively, through assessment, at what

ideas a child has understood.”

Tim Oates, Cambridge Assessment

“A culture shift regarding the nature, range and purposes of

assessment needs to take place, in recognition of the new opportunities

provided both by the new curriculum and the removal of levels.”NCTL Report September 2014

“Assessment should be the servant, not the master, of the learning.”Dylan Wiliam

Why change from levels?

• Can become a “label” that creates a fixed

mindset

• Don’t deepen understanding – too general

• Accuracy of levels (especially sub levels) is

unreliable

• They do not always progress smoothly to

GCSE

• Successful schools and nations don’t use them

• Wording is often both confusing and limiting

• They no longer exist

What do we NEED from a new assessment system?

• Formative and summative

• Fits with new KS3 National Curriculum

• To measure progress accurately

• To benchmark against KS2 and KS4

• To allow meaningful & understandable parental

reporting

What do we WANT from a new assessment system?

• Smooth transition through key stages • To allow a “growth mindset” focused on effort

and progress• To provide real stretch and challenge at all levels• To develop our ‘habits’

Progress so far?

• Spoken to our primary feeder schools

• Lots of research in current thinking

• Curriculum working group

• Lots of meetings with curriculum leaders and departments

• Presented to governors

• Consultation with parents

• Consultation with students

New proposal

A dual system on :1. Effort towards Tallis Habits reported 3 times a year2. Progress in subject specific competencies reported twice

a year

Addresses the feedback points 1 and 2 from the previous slide

Habits of Mind

• Effort towards the Habits ‘ideal’ is reported using words• Students will self-assess their Habits• Parents will also assess their Habits• Differences between teacher, student and parent discussed

What have we chosen to do?

• Attainment for each year is judged using four thresholds –

Emerging, Developing, Securing and Excelling (scaffolding

towards excellence)

• Expectations change in each year

• Progress is judged at 3 levels –below, good and outstanding

• More importance given to effort towards each of our Habits

What does this mean?

Good progress

How do we define our ‘Thresholds’?

• Define what a learner/historian/mathematician/artist /etc should know and be able to do by the end of:

• Year 7• Year 8• Year 9How would this look for:• Learners who are excelling?• Learners who are secure?• Those who are developing their learning, but are not yet secure?• Emerging learners who are working towards expectations for

their year group?

And how do we scaffold progress in between?

Tracking progress and reporting to parents

In tracking progress and reporting to parents, we will look at performance relative to baseline threshold:• Working below baseline threshold – Below expected

progress.• Working within their baseline threshold – Good

progress.• Working above their baseline threshold or at the top

of or beyond the Excelling threshold – Outstanding progress.

The draft VMPA model

Assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has

been called the “hidden curriculum” as it is an important driver of students’ study habits. Unless we

rethink our approach to assessment, it will be very difficult to produce a meaningful change in

education.--Eric Mazur