Mentor materials
Supporting pupils to master challenging content
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to:
Learn that:
- Teacher expectations can affect pupil outcomes; setting goals that challenge and stretch pupils is essential<br
Learn how to:
Communicate a belief in the academic potential of all pupils, by:
- Setting tasks that stretch pupils, but which are achievable, within a challenging curriculum
Motivate pupils, by:
- Supporting pupils to master challenging content, which builds towards long-term goals
- Helping pupils to journey from needing extrinsic motivation to being motivated to work intrinsically.
Activities
Reflecting on learning (5 minutes)
Ask the ECT to give two examples of how they have used rewards since the last topic.
Ask them:
- Did they follow the principles of being used to reward desired behaviour, was it infrequent and unexpected?
- What was the impact on the learning? How do you know?
- Would you use it again?
Introducing challenging content (15 minutes)
Read through the following together:
You need to support pupils to master challenging content, which builds towards long-term goals. Foundational knowledge needs to be mastered and this will help build intrinsic motivation. Pupils’ goals should be focused on gaining this knowledge and utilising it to build further knowledge.
Building on these ideas, while providing a high-level of challenge, we must also ensure that pupils experience high levels of success. We can achieve this by offering scaffolding to pupils to give them the support they need to succeed.
Discuss the following statement:
The key idea behind mastering foundational knowledge is that pupils gain a deep, thorough understanding of the skills and knowledge being taught so that they can apply it to new situations and contexts.
Ask the ECT what they currently do to ensure pupils master content they are being taught.
Ideas might include:
- Use direct instruction
- Teach concepts that gradually get more challenging
- Teach one thing at a time and make sure pupils fully grasp it before moving on
- Plan lots of opportunities to check learning
- Make links to prior knowledge.
Together, watch the video from this week’s ECT self-study materials.
Supporting pupils to master challenging content (10 minutes)
Pose the question: How can you avoid superficial learning and focus on mastering challenging content?
Use the following follow-up questions as stimulus for the discussion. Mentors may wish to refer back to module 5’s focus on feedback, classroom talk and questioning.
- How often do you use ‘how’, ‘why’ and ‘what if…’ questions?
- When and how do you encourage pupils to make connections between prior knowledge and new learning?
- How do you demonstrate that thinking hard is a positive part of the learning process?
- How often do you praise the process rather than the outcome?
Together, identify an occasion when it would be helpful to provide feedback that supports mastery of challenging content, and script and practise a verbal response to a pupil’s work that praises the process of engaging in the task, rather than the outcome they achieve.
Motivating pupils through lesson content (20 minutes)
Together read the extract below:
“I once observed a history lesson in which the teacher had as her stated aim that her class should learn what life was like for Irish peasants during the Potato Famine. She decided to do this by hiding potatoes around the classroom. The kids absolutely loved it! They were highly engaged from the word go... They then wrote about the experience of life as an Irish peasant. They had enormous fun working out the likely hiding places for potatoes. They learned an awful lot about where it was possible to hide a potato in a classroom. But because the activity had taught them nothing about the life of an Irish peasant, their responses were poor. The other teacher that I observed the lesson with had covered their pro forma with enthusiastic scrawl and was convinced they’d seen something outstanding. “Hang on, what did they actually learn?” I asked. The only response was “But they absolutely loved it!”” - David Didau, learningspy.co.uk
Together answer the following questions:
- What was the teacher’s intention for pupil learning?
- What did pupils need to be thinking about in order to learn?
- What were the pupils thinking about in this lesson?
- What is the pupil motivation in this lesson?
- Has the task been designed with pupil enjoyment or learning in mind?
- What advice would you give to this teacher to improve pupils’ learning?
Now apply the same questions to the last lesson the ECT taught.
Ask the ECT: What do your reflections tell you?
- How can you be sure that pupils were thinking hard about the right things?
- Did the learning goals match the content?
Read the table below together and discuss the suggestions.
- How to motivate pupils through lesson content
- Match tasks clearly to learning intentions
- Ask yourself: how is this task developing pupils’ knowledge?
- Ask yourself: how is this task developing pupils’ skills?
- Make links between the skills pupils have used previously that they can draw on for a new task
- Support pupils to master skills and key knowledge before moving on to the next task
- Ensure pupils have a deep understanding of the key content.
The ECT should apply these to an upcoming lesson and talk these through with their mentor.
Planning for action
Ask the ECT:
- How are you going to help pupils master challenging content?
- How are you going to motivate pupils through lesson content?