What do you believe each student can achieve?

Sunday 19 January 2020

All students can perform at high levels

"The most important development in education in the 21st century is our growing understanding of human capability and the lack of evidence for the heredity of intelligence." (Dr. Deborah Eyre, High Performance Learning)

Over the last century we have come a long way in our understanding of what each student can achieve. First we thought it was all in the genes (Terman, Genetic studies of genius, 1925). Then Vygotsky taught us about the zone of prozimal development and the importance of 'scaffolding' to help a student develop whatever they had in their genes (Mind and Society, 1978). Then Dweck introduced us to fixed versus flexible mindset (Dweck, Mindset, 2007). Ericsson (2007) took this further to say that all students can reach high performance through 'deliberate practice'.

This is a key breakthrough in our knowledge of the brain: brain structure and function is not fixed and unchangeable, and not the same irrespective of context or culture. It is, in fact, exquisitely plastic, mouldable by experience throughout life. It is also 'permeable', responding to social attidues and expectations. More pupils than we previously thought have the potential to perform at the highest levels. There really is 'room at the top' if we systematically nurture more children to get there. (Eyre, Room at the Top, London Policy Exchange 2010). We can systematically teach students how to 'be intelligent' and succeed both in school and life.

"Intelligence is one of the least inheritable traits as it has no obvious genetic link. Throughout a child's lifetime, as a result of their experiences, chnages to DNA occur and it is these that determine a child's skill development and intelligence levels." (Dr. Rebecca Glass, Even the best can be better: Could your staff attitudes towards students be holding you back?, 2019)

HOW?

The work of Anders Ericsson suggests that inate talent is grossly over-rated; deliberate practice can create results no matter what your starting point. It is through deliberate practice that people improve and become good. It is putting in the hours that makes the difference. Therefore, everyone can be trained to be a high performer. This is not to deny that it is a more difficult journey for some and takes longer, as we know from people taking the driving test. Some find it easy and get it the first time. Others retake the test numerous times. However, the result is the same - the ability to drive. Speed of getting there is no indication of mature performance. If it takes a person longer it doesn't mean that they won't be as good as the person who got there quickest.

As Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education & Skills OECD, says: "We need to move from some students learn at high levels to all students learn at high levels." To do this we need to change our habits (of mind): we need to change what we believe about students - we need to change what we believe is possible.

All great schools are ambitious of for their students, irrespective of their backgrounds. (See, for example, my blog on Michaela Community School). Now they are rejecting the whole idea of the Bell curve if used in a way that suggests that high achievement is only for a minority of students.

"In practice this means pitching lessons at a high level and helping everyone master the content and skills... This involves using minimum differentiation but rather increasing the level of support for some. Also using an intelligent approach to pupil grouping - only setting by performance where deemed necessary and scaffolding learning so lower performing groups are still aiming for the same high level outcomes." (Dr. Deborah Eyre, HPL and your school's curriculum design, 2019).

If you haven't seen the following video it is a useful tool to use with students to encourage them to see their potential if they dedicate themselves to deliberate practice.

Always check the labels

Does it make a difference if your teacher believes you are a high performer or a low performer | not a good student or a good student?

In 1963 experimental psychologist Robert Rosenthal from Harvard carried out an experiment on rats as part of his study on 'expectancy effects' - which became known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. He was actually carrying out the experiment on the handlers of the rats and not on the rats themselves. He wanted to find out if the expectations of the handlers themselves would affect how rats behaved. This experiment was then transferred to students in schools: seeing how the expectations teachers had of children would affect the children's academic performance.

Rosenthal titled his research paper "Pygmalion in the Classroom", named after the Greek legend of a sculptor who falls in love with one of his creations until his obsession brings the statue to life. Rosenthal's experiment demonstrated that children were transformed by the teachers' positive | negative expectations.

Reflect:

We all label students - whether we mean to or not - it is an inevitable social process: what labels do we give?
Once a label has been applied to a student it can be remarkably resistant to change: which labels do we need to change?
How do we change? What climate do you establishin the classroom - what expectations do you have? When the climate is pleasant for students it is much easier for them to enjoy and engage with the work? What is the quality of the feedback we provide - students expected to achieve more are often given more frequent and valuable feedback - so are we doing this for all students? What work do we expect students to do - if we expect students to be able to achieve we always provide challenging work - ensuring that appropriate support is given to those who may at first struggle? What output do we expect from students? Do we always encourage high levels of responsiveness from each student? Teachers often encourage greater responsiveness from those students they expect more from - they give them longer to think about a question before moving on to another student and demand longer and moe complex responses to homework assignments.
Labels, as Rosenthal demonstrated, can have important real-world effects.

Reflection

Think of a student who is struggling in your class:

What do we believe they are capable | not capable of?
Do we speak of their 'ability' or of their current and potential future performance?
How do we differentiate to meet their needs? Do we create easier tasks or set the same task as high performers but provide more support for them?
To what extent do we value 'getting it right' as opposed to 'taking risks and having a go'?
What implications does this have for messages we give to parents | students?