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Thinking, Learning, Teaching by @vanweringh

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bookmark_borderThat uncertain feeling in the valley of despair: The joys of the research and writing process

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Contents

Every teacher is a writer. We write texts of all lengths and in all styles. I find myself writing so much too, and in so many different contexts. As an Extended Essay supervisor (See my website here about the IB EE) I help students develop their research and academic writing craft. For quite a while now, I have explained the process to them with a graph which is based on my own feelings towards research and writing. Mind you, I love/hate it, but I will keep on doing it because the satisfaction, challenge and joy is greater than the hatred. I have finally committed this graph to the computer, rather than just whiteboards. So here it is:

bookmark_borderMy notes on Collective Teacher Efficacy

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Contents

This is an overview of my research and thinking around Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE).

CTE refers to “the perceptions of teachers in a school that the faculty as a whole can execute the courses of  action necessary to have positive effects on students” a. It was identified by Professor John Hattie as having a very high effect size of 1.57 b. CTE is of interest to school leaders because it is an indicator of the willingness by teacher “to invest the time and  energy required to attain educational goals and results in greater effort.” CTE is a broad and systemic intervention which leads to “improved student outcomes” c. Jenni Donohoo identifies the following six enabling conditions for fostering collective teacher efficacy: Continue reading →

  1. Goddard, R. (2001). Collective efficacy: A neglected construct in the study of schools and student
    achievement. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 93(3), 467-476. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-
    0663.93.3.467  (back)
  2. Hattie, J. (2016). Third Visible Learning Annual Conference: Mindframes and Maximizers,
    Washington, DC, July 11, 2016  (back)
  3. Donohoo, J., O’Leary, T., & Hattie, J. (2020). The design and validation of the enabling conditions for collective teacher efficacy scale (EC-CTES). Journal of Professional Capital And Community, 5(2), 147-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpcc-08-2019-0020  (back)

bookmark_borderChange & Complexity: Two Elephant Analogies

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Changing behaviour >> Elephant Analogy 1: The Rider, the elephant, and the path

There’s nothing like a good analogy to explain things clearly. I found this analogy for change management in Dylan Wiliam’s book ” Leadership for Teacher Learning”. He summarises an analogy which was based on Plato’s ‘Chariot Analogy‘, which formed the basis Haidt’s (2005) analogy of the rider and the elephant, and was then added to by Heath and Heath (2010) in the book ‘Switch’. Wiliam summarises the analogy as follows: Continue reading →

bookmark_borderWhat would this look like if it were simple?

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Contents

The notion of “complexity bias” seems to be around a lot in blogs, pinterest posts and Twitter, but I have not been able to find a lot of academic research into it. In fact, the only common definition seems to be this one: “Complexity bias is a logical fallacy that leads us to give undue credence to complex concepts.” It a ubiquitous definition, and could perhaps come from Farnham Street blog, but it probably doesn’t.

“Complexity bias” is such an engaging idea though because feels like it make sense. So while I have not found anything beyond blogs to back it up, I do think it is useful to me because it is something that I do in certain situations and contexts: I overthink things, I want everything I do to be amazing, well thought through, complete, wonderful and the best. But sometimes that stops me from just doing things quickly. Perfection is the enemy of good.

I made the little poster below in Adobe Spark, and I often look at it when I indulge myself again in the fog of complexity thinking. It was inspired the article: “The 1 Question That Helps Me Beat My Procrastination” , by Haley Goldberg.  The one question you ask yourself is: “What would this look like if it were simple/fun/easy?” Continue reading →

bookmark_borderLinks between classroom behaviour self-regulation, concepts of self, positive intent, and AtLs

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There are as many ways to approach ‘classroom management’ as there are teachers. Fostering a good working relationship with your students is one of the most effective ways for them to learn from you, with you and with each other. Robert Marzano, in ‘Classroom Management that Works’, analysed 100 studies on classroom management and found that the quality of the teacher-student relationship was the most important factor in all aspects of classroom management. In 2009, John Hattie ranked strong teacher-student relationships with an average effect size of 0.4.
My view of classroom management corresponds with Karen Peel’s study below. Rather than saying “How well did I manage the students’ behaviour in the classroom?”, the focus should be on understanding  why students make proactive decisions about their behaviour and learning in the absence of external constraints. Creating strong relationships, designing clear and organised lessons which draw on common sense and effective teaching approaches like HITS and Rosenshine’s Principles and designing for students’ self-efficacy all help creating an effective classroom for learning.

What follows is a collection of readings and resources that I pulled together as we investigate  new behavioural frameworks at my school. Continue reading “Links between classroom behaviour self-regulation, concepts of self, positive intent, and AtLs”

bookmark_borderWhat would this look like if it were simple?

Posted on by admin

The notion of “complexity bias” seems to be around a lot in blogs, pinterest posts and Twitter, but I have not been able to find a lot of academic research into it. In fact, the only common definition seems to be this one: “Complexity bias is a logical fallacy that leads us to give undue credence to complex concepts.” It a ubiquitous definition, and could perhaps come from Farnham Street blog, but it probably doesn’t.

“Complexity bias” is such an engaging idea though because feels like it make sense. So while I have not found anything beyond blogs to back it up, I do think it is useful to me because it is something that I do in certain situations and contexts: I overthink things, I want everything I do to be amazing, well thought through, complete, wonderful and the best. But sometimes that stops me from just doing things quickly. Perfection is the enemy of good.

I made the little poster below in Adobe Spark, and I often look at it when I indulge myself again in the fog of complexity thinking. It was inspired the article: “The 1 Question That Helps Me Beat My Procrastination” , by Haley Goldberg.  The one question you ask yourself is: “What would this look like if it were simple/fun/easy?” Continue reading “What would this look like if it were simple?”

bookmark_borderChange & Complexity: Two Elephant Analogies

Posted on by admin

Changing behaviour >> Elephant Analogy 1: The Rider, the elephant, and the path

There’s nothing like a good analogy to explain things clearly. I found this analogy for change management in Dylan Wiliam’s book ” Leadership for Teacher Learning”. He summarises an analogy which was based on Plato’s ‘Chariot Analogy‘, which formed the basis Haidt’s (2005) analogy of the rider and the elephant, and was then added to by Heath and Heath (2010) in the book ‘Switch’. Wiliam summarises the analogy as follows: Continue reading “Change & Complexity: Two Elephant Analogies”

bookmark_borderMy notes on Collective Teacher Efficacy

Posted on by admin

This is an overview of my research and thinking around Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE).

CTE refers to “the perceptions of teachers in a school that the faculty as a whole can execute the courses of  action necessary to have positive effects on students” a. It was identified by Professor John Hattie as having a very high effect size of 1.57 b. CTE is of interest to school leaders because it is an indicator of the willingness by teacher “to invest the time and  energy required to attain educational goals and results in greater effort.” CTE is a broad and systemic intervention which leads to “improved student outcomes” c. Jenni Donohoo identifies the following six enabling conditions for fostering collective teacher efficacy: Continue reading “My notes on Collective Teacher Efficacy”

  1. Goddard, R. (2001). Collective efficacy: A neglected construct in the study of schools and student
    achievement. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 93(3), 467-476. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-
    0663.93.3.467  (back)
  2. Hattie, J. (2016). Third Visible Learning Annual Conference: Mindframes and Maximizers,
    Washington, DC, July 11, 2016  (back)
  3. Donohoo, J., O’Leary, T., & Hattie, J. (2020). The design and validation of the enabling conditions for collective teacher efficacy scale (EC-CTES). Journal of Professional Capital And Community, 5(2), 147-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpcc-08-2019-0020  (back)

bookmark_borderThat uncertain feeling in the valley of despair: The joys of the research and writing process

Posted on by admin

Every teacher is a writer. We write texts of all lengths and in all styles. I find myself writing so much too, and in so many different contexts. As an Extended Essay supervisor (See my website here about the IB EE) I help students develop their research and academic writing craft. For quite a while now, I have explained the process to them with a graph which is based on my own feelings towards research and writing. Mind you, I love/hate it, but I will keep on doing it because the satisfaction, challenge and joy is greater than the hatred. I have finally committed this graph to the computer, rather than just whiteboards. So here it is: Continue reading “That uncertain feeling in the valley of despair: The joys of the research and writing process”

bookmark_borderTom Sherrington, Barack Rosenshine and ‘CPD’

Posted on by admin

Tom Sherrington (@teacherhead) is a good ‘education guru’. I like his straight talking and common sense approach, informed by a realistic approach to teaching and education research that really connects with what I think is important in education.

Since 2018, Tom has been focussing on Barack Rosenshine’s seminal “10 principles”. Here is all Tom’s writing on that: https://teacherhead.com//?s=rosenshine

He recently wrote this post about the PD needs of teachers (Teachers’ CPD needs are massive: it needs more time and more flexibility) which contained a great overview of what we are asking teachers to ‘develop’ in. I am copying the list here so that I remember to return to this, because that is the purpose of this blog for me, a personal and professional notebook about teaching and learning. So here is Tom’s list:

Continue reading “Tom Sherrington, Barack Rosenshine and ‘CPD’”

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