the learning school

By Marsha Elms

If a school’s philosophy accepts the following premises then it can call itself a Learning School:

• Teachers are reflective practitioners: they accept that they can always find new and more inspiring ways of teaching a subject.
  
• Pupils and teachers alike can always learn and improve. We are never too old to learn new methods and take on new ideas.
  
• There are a variety of teaching strategies and we have all sometimes got in a rut teaching in a safe, well-proven way.
  
• We all have different learning styles and some are much more helpful to us than others.
  

Everyone can improve
Not all teachers will be convinced that investigating new ways of teaching and learning will improve attainment or the ethos in their classrooms. Many will see it as additional work and will be insulted at the suggestion that they can improve, especially if they are already achieving excellent results. However, I believe that:

• Everyone can improve, however good they are.
  
• Investigating the learning process and being a reflective practitioner actually adds stimulation and interest to one’s work and makes teaching more fulfilling.
  
• The search for extra stimulation and inspiration and ways to exploit a pupil’s full potential will eventually make the teaching load easier.
  

The learning process
The view has been emerging that it is not what is learnt but how it is learnt and the part that teachers need to play to intervene in the process of learning is of greatest significance. Recent research on the brain and how we continue to learn and encourage our brains to stay alert and receptive have prompted new approaches in schools.

Some schools are setting up the equivalent of our Learning and Teaching group which: investigates different learning theories; shares ideas on good practice and supports ways in which these can be further disseminated; and actively searches out strategies to use in the classroom that will enhance the learning process. My school has set up such a group.

Some of the things we have started to do are listed. Some are only embryonic, some may not prove useful and some we intend to develop further. All are designed to encourage us to be reflective practitioners and therefore improve the quality of the learning and teaching process in our classrooms. They are not listed in any order of particular significance:

Different teaching styles

• Investigate the staff’s different teaching styles using Anthony Gregorc’s questionnaire. When completed, ask departments to compare individual results to see what variety of styles there are within the department. Schemes of work and current and future staffing decisions can be amended using the information this method gives you.
  
• Investigate V.A.K. (Visual, aural and kinaesthetic) learning. We all have preferred styles of learning and lessons can be planned to cover all styles.
  
• Develop pair and group work.
  

Whole brain learning

• Encourage exercises to use the whole brain or both sides of the brain. These may include brain gym – exercises at the beginning of lessons. Use relaxation or energising techniques to access a state of relaxed alertness.
  
• Connect left and right for whole brain learning. Monitor the type of experiences the learners in your classroom have. Are they predominantly left- or right-brain experiences? Can you introduce new material in ways that will access left and right?
  
• Establish the importance of seeing the whole picture, setting the objectives, breaking work into chunks and always including a review (remember 3 points). Start from the whole topic and break it down. The most items or chunks of information an individual readily and immediately remembers is seven. Seven plus or minus two is often quoted as the optimum. Remember that right-brain learners need to start from the whole before any sequencing.
  

Multiple intelligences

• Utilise the seven intelligences – Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. If we each learn in a preferred way then participation in a narrow range of learning experiences will disadvantage us. Establish what each learner’s balance of intelligences is by using the multiple intelligences questionnaire and then recording the results on the wheel. Then work across all seven intelligences as often as possible.
  
• Imagine you are preparing a series of lessons in which you have the following personalities. (This is an exciting exercise to carry out with staff.)

How would you cater for these pupils?

J K Rowling (linguistic intelligence)
Steve Redgrave (kinaesthetic intelligence)
Carol Vorderman (mathematical and logical)
Elvis Presley (musical intelligence)
Damian Hirst (visual/spatial)
Princess Diana (interpersonal intelligence)
Anthony Claire (intrapersonal intelligence)

Thinking of other examples is fun in itself.

Thinking skills

• Investigate the use of mind maps and memory techniques.
  
• Develop and create opportunities for all subjects to develop thinking skills within lessons (information gathering, review, evaluation, creative thinking, problem solving, research).
  

Questionnaires

• Write and use your own questionnaires for pupils and share the results with staff and pupils and use the insights they give you to develop areas of need and share good practice. We have used a variety of questionnaires in a number of ways. Examples include a questionnaire for a small group of identified high achievers to investigate their attitudes towards learning, homework and readiness to answer questions, a questionnaire to one class based on a speaker’s input on whole brain techniques, and an in-house questionnaire on preferred teaching methods.
  
• Look at the variety of classroom observation sheets that exist and produce your own one that suits your school, perhaps producing specific ones to target particular aspects of learning.
  

Working together

• Share good practice. Share novel approaches that have worked. Plan a way to teach a lesson that is not your subject area.
  
• Organize paired observation with a trusted colleague in order to pick up new ideas.
  
• Encourage all departments to have a slot at each departmental meeting to share good practice and a slot to feed back good ideas from INSET courses.
  
• Have a ‘learning and teaching’ notice board in a central area and update it regularly. Use it to pin up ideas from courses and examples of good practice, as well as minutes of the issues discussed at the learning and teaching group meetings.
  

Helpful organisations
Investigate using Socratic dialogue in lessons (Society for the Furtherance of Critical Philosophy).

Investigate the work of Geoff Hannan and invite him in to talk to staff and pupils (Geoff Hannan Training & Consultancy International, Bank Cottage, Bourton Rd, Much Wenlock, Shropshire TF136AJ)

Other ideas

• Find as many ways as possible to build fun into lessons.
  
• Drink lots of water and have it readily available in school. It helps your brain grow.
  

These ideas are far from exhaustive but are just some that we have started to investigate and use.

If you can explore the possibilities of trying just some of these ideas, techniques and strategies you will find that it will not only benefit your teaching but helps to remind us what education is all about – effective learning in the classroom which is also a pleasure for both teacher and taught.

Marsha Elms is headteacher at a girls school in Reading.