Autumn week 1

Induction tutor materials

Training session - teacher expectations, challenging tasks, and the language and culture of challenge and aspiration

Duration: 90 minutes

Session objectives

Learn that:

1.3. Teacher expectations can affect pupil outcomes; setting goals that challenge and stretch pupils is essential.

Learn how to:

Communicate a belief in the academic potential of all pupils, by:

1a. Using intentional and consistent language that promotes challenge and aspiration.
1c. Creating a positive environment where making mistakes and learning from them and the need for effort and perseverance are part of the daily routine.

How to prepare for the session

The ECT doesn’t have a self-study element this week. Instead, you should use the materials below to help you plan a session with them about this topic.

Session structure:

Introduction to the session (10 minutes)

Welcome participants to the session.

Think, pair, share activity: Ask ECTs to consider and discuss the following statement.

The teacher makes the weather in their classroom.

Discussion points include:

the climate for learning can be managed and developed by the teacher
if the teacher is positive and enthusiastic, the climate will be positive
the teacher can take specific actions to create a positive climate for learning through routines, expectations and relationships
teacher expectations help create good weather

Explain that this session will focus on the creation of good conditions for learning, specifically through teacher expectations.

What do we know about teacher expectations? (25 minutes)

Ask the ECTs to consider the following example on their own, or in pairs or groups.

Mr White teaches maths to a group of Year 7 pupils. Ahmed begins the year with a low target grade. He struggled in primary school, especially in Year 6. He believes he cannot do maths. He regularly fails to give in homework. He does not appear to try, and is making little progress.

Discuss:

what should Mr White do?
how could Mr White motivate Ahmed through displaying high expectations?

Suggestions may include:

taking specific steps to change Ahmed’s perception of his own ability
using positive reinforcement
talking to Ahmed individually and asking him to share his concerns
telling Ahmed that he believes in him
showing Ahmed how he can succeed
talking to Ahmed’s parents or carers to get their support and asking for their suggestions
providing scaffolding to support Ahmed, or to the whole group so that he does not feel singled out

Ask ECTs to suggest and discuss specific examples of how they think expectations are conveyed in classroom situations. Highlight that the mechanisms might be quite subtle.

Share the four-factor model proposed by Harris and Rosenthal (1985):

The positive or negative climate generated by the teacher.
Feedback or lack of feedback provided to pupils.
Time and curriculum quality afforded to each student.
Performance and response opportunities afforded to each student.

Ask the ECTs to allocate their previous responses, and any new ones, to the 4 categories above. Ask what they notice and take feedback.

Discuss the following points as a group:

when you believe your pupils are able to achieve, they’re more likely to meet your expectations
teacher beliefs influence pupil outcomes
what you think of your pupils’ abilities and how you plan to meet their needs matters
the more able you believe your pupils to be, the more questions you’ll ask, the more thinking time you’ll give them, and you’ll also provide more feedback (Murdock-Perriera & Sedlacek, 2018)
we must ask ourselves regularly whether our expectations of pupils mean that they’re being challenged enough

Ask ECTs to work in pairs or groups to answer this question: How do we show pupils what our expectations are?

Examples may include:

rewards and consequences
modelling behaviour expectations
enthusiasm
modelling passion for learning and subject
the quantity and quality of questions we ask
how well we listen to pupils
eye contact
body language
feedback
setting challenging tasks
the language we use

Ask the group to divide the list you make into words and actions.

Emphasise that being aware of the possible ways that expectations are communicated enables teachers to make conscious decisions about their words and actions.

Setting goals that stretch and challenge (15 minutes)

Ask:

what are challenging goals?
why should we set challenging goals?
what do we need to know to be able to set challenging goals?

Confirm that challenging goals are those that stretch pupils, meaning they need to work hard and struggle to achieve success in the task.

Planning for challenge is dependent on how well the teacher knows their pupils. This knowledge is built on effective assessment tools which give accurate evidence of what pupils can and cannot do.

Share the following example of how a specific learning goal (taken from the National Curriculum Programme of Study for Science) could be achieved at different levels of challenge or sophistication. All pupils are learning about how living things can be grouped. Some will be able to proceed to the more challenging tasks faster than others. Some pupils will be able to start at the harder levels.

Example:

Learning goal

Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways (Year 4 science).

Relevant task with increasing degrees of challenge

Sort photographs of recognisable animals (for example, vertebrates) into some simple or self-selected categories.
Sort photographs of recognisable animals (for example, vertebrates) into scientifically accepted categories, using a key.
Sort photographs of unfamiliar animals (for example, invertebrates) into scientifically accepted categories, using a key.
Categorise photographs of familiar animals correctly without access to a key.
Categorise photographs of unfamiliar animals correctly without access to a key.

Explain that each level requires pupils to do something that’s a bit harder than the previous level. Each level still addresses the same learning goal however.

Ask the ECTs: What makes each successive step harder than the previous one?

Answers may include:

the development of the context from familiar animals to unfamiliar ones
development from simple categorisation using self-selected categories to the use of a tool (a key)
the final level has the added challenge of recalling the categories without access to the key
once the pupils have mastered one step, they can move on to the next
each step builds on the next one
the level of challenge increases
the tasks build from more scaffolded support to the pupil working independently

Ask ECTs to think about a learning goal of their own, relevant to something they’ll be teaching soon.

Ask them to write some increasingly challenging tasks which would represent achievement of the goal.

ECTs should share their ideas with a partner and provide feedback.

Prompts include:

does each task clearly build on each other?
does the pupil have to master one task before they can move on to the next?
do the tasks build up to the pupil working independently?

Using intentional and consistent language that promotes challenge and aspiration (15 minutes)

Explain that teachers can learn to use intentional and consistent language to promote a culture of challenge and aspiration.

‘Intentional’ means choosing one’s words carefully. With practice this will become easier and ‘automatic’.

‘Consistent’ means that words need to be backed up by teacher behaviours which should match the messages conveyed by the language.

New teachers may use lavish praise when pupils give unremarkable verbal responses. Although giving positive praise might seem like the right thing to do, it can create a climate of low expectations if used for easy tasks.

Ask the ECTs to consider and discuss what ‘challenge’ and ‘aspiration’ mean.

Make sure that the group are clear that:

challenge means tasks have a level of difficulty that makes them achievable only with sustained effort
aspiration means a desire to keep improving and overcoming challenge

Ask: Why do we consider challenge and aspiration together?

Answers may include:

unless pupils are guided to embrace difficult things and believe they’re capable of tackling them, they may shy away from challenge
pupils might always choose easy tasks that they know they’ll succeed at
the provision of challenging tasks has to be accompanied by the development of appropriate attitudes to challenge

Ask ECTs to consider the following examples of language:

Poppy did not do very well on the higher tier mock exam, she should set her sights a little lower.
OK, well I did not get this one first time either. Why don’t you have a go at the next one and come back to this one?
Jamal, I want you to have a go at the ‘gold’ task, Aisha, you too. The rest of you try the ‘silver’ task.
We had some problems last lesson, and we need to make sure we’ve learned from our mistakes. Let’s just think first about how we’ll be successful today.
That’s a great question, can I share it with the class?
Remember, if you’re finding this hard, that’s good! We do not learn by doing easy things all the time!
I think you could probably work faster, what do you think?
Right, we’re going to be learning about some serious grown-up things this lesson. I do not want you being silly like last lesson.
Decide which are helpful and which are unhelpful to the promotion of challenge and aspiration.

Discuss what they perceive the characteristics of the helpful and unhelpful language are.

Depending on what emerges from the discussion, the following principles could be shared with the ECTs:

avoid statements phrased in negative terms: ‘do’ instead of ‘do not’, ‘can’ instead of ‘cannot’
state the outcomes you want, rather than those you do not want
use explicit and implicit language that shows you believe in the pupils’ ability
pupils will base their beliefs about their abilities on cues from other people, especially teachers
consistently communicate that pupils are improving and are capable of improving
one of the barriers to progress is often that pupils have beliefs about fixed abilities and intelligence
avoid words such as ‘fail’, ‘failure’ and ‘wrong’
mistakes need to be understood as steps towards success
praise effort, even when mistakes have been made
pupils need to recognise that we value effort, as this is how success will be attained
discuss what pupils found hard and how they overcame difficulties to encourage an openness about sharing these challenges
encourage pupils’ questions, so that their understanding can be clarified

Ask ECTs to script 2 sentences that promote challenge and aspiration to use in an upcoming lesson.

Embracing mistakes and persevering (20 minutes)

Reiterate that many of the pre-requisites for creating a positive learning environment can be achieved through the measures explore in the previous activities. These include:

being mindful of the impact our expectations can have
providing suitable challenge

Ask ECTs: When we provide challenging tasks, how do we make sure pupils do not give up?

It’s important that we consider how we’re going to ensure that pupils do not give up easily, even when they make mistakes and struggle.

This section explores how we can ask pupils to:

learn from mistakes
persevere, or keeping trying even when mistakes are made

Ask the ECTs to work in pairs or groups to discuss examples of:

mistakes they’ve had to learn from
when they’ve had to persevere

Ask the ECTs to look at the following examples and discuss what they show:

Teacher: Whoops I can see that I’ve written the wrong answer for this sum. Can anyone help me out here, where did I go wrong? Yes good, I forgot to add this number in first. I’m glad I caught that now because I can go back and correct my answer.

Discussion could include:

everyone can make mistakes
teachers should not attempt to hide this from pupils, but rather draw attention to it so that pupils become comfortable with making their own mistakes

Teacher: I really struggled to learn my times tables when I was your age. I found it incredibly hard. I had posters up everywhere, and my mum would test me constantly. But they just wouldn’t stick! I kept practising and they did go in eventually.

Discussion could include:

telling pupils that learning requires effort
sharing personal learning challenges and how they were overcome can help inspire confidence in pupils

In summary, emphasise that:

we need to show pupils that failing is an important part of learning
failing is a necessary part of learning how to succeed
when pupils get things wrong, they should be encouraged to think what the mistake can teach them about how to improve and get things right next time

Ask ECTs to consider the following verbal responses, then decide:

do the responses encourage pupils when they give the wrong answer?
what do the responses suggest to the pupil?
how could they use this in their own lessons?

"I can see what you’re thinking. That would be the case if…"

"Ah, that’s interesting! I had not thought of that. You’re suggesting X, but I want to know…"

"Well, before I tell you whether that’s right or wrong, have a think about this one.

Teacher asks a related question to prompt further thinking.

"I’ll give you a moment to think about it. In the meantime, Josh, what do you think?"

Teacher passes the question to another pupil and comes back to first pupil afterwards to see if they now think differently.

Ask ECTs to write an example of their own.

Next steps (5 minutes)

Ask ECTs to identify one thing they’ll now try in their teaching:

during the next few days
over the next few weeks

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