Video

Video transcript

Presenter intro: Harry Fletcher-Wood

Showing pupils what an example of good looks like gives them a clear goal to aim for, but just showing it on its own is not enough. Teachers need to identify the precise features that make the example effective. We need to break it down for our pupils. Academic expectations need to be clear, concrete, and specific if we want our pupils to meet them.

Presenter main

Knowing what success looks like helps pupils to achieve, particularly when the teachers point out the details within a successful piece of work. Concrete examples help to covey complicated concepts to pupils. They also help pupils to see what good looks like. Knowing what good looks like can in turn help pupils to monitor their work more effectively, leading to improved learning.

There are several ways that teachers can share academic expectations. Constructing models that show pupils what good looks like makes abstract goals concrete. Hearing that they need to argue more systematically doesn’t mean anything unless they already know what arguing systematically means and looks like. Showing examples can help. For example, a teacher might present pupils with a neatly formed letter, an accurate labeling of a diagram, or a good introduction to an essay.

When teachers present models, they need to direct pupils’ attention to the important features within them. Without doing this, pupils often skip over them entirely or miss key details. Also, novice learners tend to focus on surface-level features that are specific to one particular model. Showing a range of different examples can help pupils to see the underlying principles that are present in each of them. For example, seeing a range of different ways to write the introduction to an essay question can show pupils that whereas they may have different ideas to share, introductory paragraphs should always respond to the question and present the main ideas that the essay will discuss. They can compare their work to the example, helping them to make improvements.

If you know what a good example looks like, you’re more likely to carry out a task well.

Presenter exemplification framing

In the next example, you’ll see a model of how to share academic expectations. As you watch, pay attention to the following key ideas:

• Sets tasks that stretch pupils, but which are achievable, within a challenging curriculum
• Narrates thought processes when modelling to make explicit how experts think

Exemplification: Ambition Institute Coach

Imagine I’m teaching a year seven Geography lesson. we’ve been looking at the impact of transnational corporations on Nigeria’s development and I want them to answer a question that summarizes their learning through a case study of the fast food chain KFC.

“In a moment, you’re going to answer a question. I’m going to show you one way of responding to it so that you can see how I do it well. Here’s the question:

Explain whether you think the presence of KFC is a positive or a negative development for Nigeria.

Firstly, I’m looking at the words within the question. It’s asking us to explain what we think. So I need to decide if I think the presence of KFC is a positive or a negative development for Nigeria. And then I need to justify my answer using evidence from the text.

And secondly, I need to come up with some ideas. So I’ll be thinking about what we’ve learned this lesson. And we’ve seen from the text that there are both positives and negatives to the presence of KFC in Nigeria. On balance, I think the presence of KFC in Nigeria would be a negative development.

So that’s going to be my first sentence. You might think the opposite, and that’s fine, because this question is asking for your opinion. I’m going to be using some of the words from the question to help get me started. So in my head I’ll be thinking, "I believe the presence of KFC is a negative development for Nigeria." And then I will write.

[Teacher writes on whiteboard] I believe the presence of KFC is a negative development for Nigeria. And notice that I’ve used the words taken from the question. So presence, presence, negative development, negative development.

Then I need to justify my answer using evidence from the text. And I’m going to use three statements from within the text, but there are more than three statements within this piece of text. Some of them positive and some of them negative. So I need to choose the three pieces of information that best support my opening sentence, and I need to choose the strongest.”

This is just the opening of the model, but it is enough to demonstrate some of the key ideas about sharing good examples with pupils. First, the task itself is challenging. Pupils have to pull together a range of different pieces of evidence into a coherent argument. They have to recall what they know about developments in Nigeria and apply it to the question. Pupils are supported to achieve this task because I know that they have a good understanding of the content. The model that I am providing here is another form of support.

Second, I narrated my thought process out loud to show pupils how experts think. For example, I’m going to use some of the words from the question to get me started. This might seem like an obvious thing to do, but pupils often struggle to get started and so it is worth pointing it out. How can we be sure that pupils will know to do this if nobody has ever told them?

Finally, I drew attention to some of the features of the example that made it good. In particular, I stressed that the evidence that I select needs to match with my overall point. Again, this is something that experts who know how to construct a good argument would do instinctively, but in order to develop expertise, it helps if we identify the specific knowledge and skills that it is made up of. Providing a model of an excellent response does not remove all of the cognitive effort required. This isn’t about getting pupils to copy. Pupils will still have to think about the content carefully when writing their own response. The purpose of the model is to help to guide their thinking and, in doing this, it increases the likelihood of success.

Presenter key ideas

In this video, we’ve explored the importance of showing pupils what a model of success looks like, ensuring that we set our expectation high. Before we finish, take a moment to read over the key ideas in the video. Which of the following ideas do you think the example illustrated the best?

• Setting tasks that stretch pupils, but which are achievable, within a challenging curriculum
• Using modelling, explanations and scaffolds, acknowledging that novices need more structure early in a domain
• Narrating thought processes when modelling to make explicit how experts think (e.g. asking questions aloud that pupils should consider when working independently and drawing pupils’ attention to links with prior knowledge)

Presenter summary

We all want our pupils to do well, both in school and future life. In order to achieve academic success, we need to show them what success looks like. Sharing academic expectations through strong examples can transform their understanding and achievement.