Leadership for learning

new wine or old bottle?

Guy Claxton
Professor of the Learning Sciences
University of Bristol
Associate Director (Learning) SSAT

guy.claxton@bristol.ac.uk
 The question…
‹ What would schools
be like if they were
doing everything in
their power to prepare
all young people for a
learning life?

‹ Effectively turning out

youngsters with the
appetite, confidence
and capability to cope
with what life throws
at them…
 The corollaries…
1. What would it take for a school to
evolve steadily and successfully in
that direction?
2. Can it be done whilst also
improving examination results,
keeping order, engaging students
and parents, enthusing staff and
satisfying Ofsted?
 It’s not a new ambition
‹ ‘The test of successful education is not the
amount of knowledge that pupils take away from
school, but their appetite to know and their
capacity to learn.’ Sir Richard Livingstone, 1941

‹ ‘All skills will become obsolete except one, the

skill of being able to make the right response to
situations that are outside the scope of what you
were taught in school. We need to produce
people who know how to act when they are faced
with situations for which they were not
specifically prepared.’ Seymour Papert, 1998

‹ ‘Pedagogy should at its best be about what

teachers do that not only helps students to learn
but actively strengthens their capacity to learn.’
David Hargreaves, 2004
 What doesn’t work
‹ Traditional good
teaching
‹ Examination success
because

‹ Success is scarce
‹ Successful students can be
brittle (Dweck)
‹ ‘I know I’m going to get
good grades, but I worry
that I’ve become a tape-
recorder; that once people
stop handing me
information with questions,
I’ll be lost’ Emily, 15
Fine words and good intentions (by
themselves) don’t do it
e.g. the new National Curriculum…

‹ Personal, learning and thinking skills

(PLaTS) are essential for success in
learning, life and work…It is these
qualities and skills that will enable young
people to enter work and adult life as
confident and capable individuals…These
should be the starting point of the
curriculum [and] inform all aspects of
curriculum planning and teaching and
learning at whole-school and subject
levels
 We should be creating…

‹ independent enquirers, creative

thinkers, reflective learners, team
workers, self-managers, effective
participators…

‹ But
HOW? What does that mean for
how we teach simultaneous
equations and the Tudors?
 Hints and tips don’t do it
‹ Techniques for
learning,
organising and
retrieving
information are
useful but fall
way short
‹ They can be used
mindlessly…
 Learning styles don’t do it
‹ They can fix and limit students’ growth, not
stimulate it

‹ ‘Styles, like abilities, are not etched in stone at

birth. They appear to be largely a function of a
person’s interactions with the environment, and
they can be developed and socialised. An
individual with one style in one task or situation
may have a different style in a different task or
situation. Moreover, some individuals may have
one preferred stylistic profile at one stage of life
and another at another stage.’
– Sternberg and Grigorenko, 1997, p708.
 Thinking skills courses don’t do it

‹ Youcan become knowledgeable

about thinking but not a better
thinker – like an armchair sports fan

‹ Skills
are not dispositions. You can
have the ability without the
perception and the inclination
‹ ‘What sets good learners apart is not simply
superior cognitive ability or particular skills;
rather it is their abiding tendencies to explore, to
inquire, to seek clarity, to take learning risks, to
think critically and imaginatively. These
tendencies can be called ‘learning dispositions’.
‹ [So] teaching learning means more than
inculcating…skills, it means teaching students to
be disposed to learn creatively and critically in
appropriate contexts.
‹ A conception of teaching appropriate to a
dispositional model of learning is an enculturation
model of teaching – a model that emphasises the
full educational surround.’
Tishman, Jay and Perkins 1993
‹ Learning to learn for life remains an
ambition
‹ We haven’t done it yet

‹ So
what’s the current thinking on
what does work?
 The enculturation model
‹ Adjusting every little thing about the
life of a school so that it signals
– ‘we welcome learners and learning
round here; not just knowing and
achievement’

‹ And creates inviting opportunities to

stretch and strengthen those
learning muscles
 Facets of a LEARN culture
– Language: chatting, marking, reporting,
planning
– Environment: displays, resources, spaces
– Activities: dual-focus teaching, flexible
timetables, extended inquiry
– Role modelling: transparency, openness,
collaboration
– Noticing: reviewing, monitoring,
published indicators
 The languages of learnacy
Curious: wondering, How did you do that?
questioning, critical How else could you have
Brave: bold, resilient, done that?
patient Who did that a different way?
Observant: attentive, What could you do when you
focused, imitative are stuck on that?
Experimental: tinkering, What would have made that
practising, redrafting easier for you?
Sociable: collaborative, Is there anything else you
receptive, independent know that might help?
Imaginative: rehearsing, How could you help someone
intuitive, empathic else do that?
Disciplined: logical, How could I have taught that
methodical, ‘crafty’ better?
Thoughtful: self-aware, Where else could you use
applying, adaptable that?
A ‘split screen lesson’: doing the
Tudors and doing empathy
 A learning review
‹ ‘Mention of learning habits sometimes tends to be
tokenistic and not related to the key purpose of the
lesson…’
‹ ‘Learning maps are well integrated into lessons by
many teachers…’
‹ ‘The use of repeated words and phrases [about
learning] is useful for raising awareness, but rapidly
becomes ignored through overuse…’
‹ ‘One lower-ability boy is keen to question and make
links, but easily becomes distracted when these
dispositions are not invited…’
‹ ‘Students still retain underlying dependence on the
teacher…’
‹ ‘Opportunities for students to stretch their
imagination were few and far between in Science’
 Does it work?
The Solihull evaluation

‹ Students’ confidence, attitudes and KS test results

improve
‹ Positive impact on students’ language development
‹ Teachers talk and planning shifts to learning
‹ Teacher engagement and enthusiasm increases
‹ Collaborative / coaching CPD increases
‹ Greater parental involvement
‹ Impact on governor induction
‹ SIP focus on ‘What kinds of learners do we want
our children to be?’
 Does it work?
‹ ‘Students with more elaborated
conceptions of learning perform better in
public examinations’ ISIN research bulletin

‹ ‘The results have been fantastic. We have

changed the ethos from a school that had
behaviour as its prime focus to a school
that focuses on learning’ Academy deputy

‹ ‘All the children who have been through

BLP attempted every question from all
sorts of angles…’ Year 6 teacher
 What are Head Learners?
‹ Magnets: holding Learning for Life as a key
priority
‹ Water-thinkers: focusing on opportunities
‹ Experimenters: continually initiating and
encouraging small experiments; ‘confident
uncertainty’; questioning
‹ Monitors: developing and trialling new
indicators of success
‹ Ventilators: fanning the breeze of change (peer
coaching; mentors; networks)
‹ Exemplars: being a visible explorer in all
aspects of life
 If we’re serious…
‹ The ‘bottle’ has to change
– Learning-to-learn can’t just be tinsel on the
same old tree
– Not eye-catching ‘set pieces’ but a gradual
evolution of the educational milieu
‹ We have to change our habits a little bit
(but it’s bearable)
– how we talk, how we design lessons, what we
record, what we model…
‹ We need to be powerful learners too
 And then it’s possible
‹ An ‘outstanding’ Ofsted…
– ‘Few schools in similar contexts do as well as
this school to prepare students so well for life’
‹ High FSM, 50% EAL
– ‘The attitudes and skills developed by
students will support them very well…in later
life’
– ‘The head teacher is a forward thinking leader
who has a clear vision’
Let’s take Emily’s worry seriously…

‹ There is one thing

stronger than all
the armies of the
world – and that is
an idea whose time
has come
– Victor Hugo

guy.claxton@bristol.ac.uk