Developing personalised learning and thinking skills using an interdisciplinary approach

Background

"Fundamentally it is the person who learns and it is the changed person who is the outcome of the learning."[1]

This study was undertaken at a Mixed Secondary Comprehensive school in Ipswich with approximately 650 students on the school roll. The researchers are teachers in the Humanities Faculty at the school which was created in September 2010 (at the beginning of this project) and constitutes the existing subject areas of Geography, History and Religious Education. One researcher is Curriculum Leader and the second is Learning Development Co-ordinator for the Humanities Faculty.

During 2009, a number of teachers at the school began to identify Personalised Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS)[2] as a potentially valuable way of developing students as learners, rather than receptive agents in the classroom. This is supported by the suggestions of the QCDA:

"The new secondary curriculum focuses on developing the skills and qualities that learners need to succeed in school and the broader community. The development of personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS) is essential to meeting the three national curriculum aims of becoming successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens... PLTS underpin the whole curriculum and can transform young people's engagement with learning. They support learners' understanding of themselves as well as their relationship with others and the world around them. Effective developments of PLTS can raise achievement and make a considerable impact on learners' ability to succeed, both now and in adult life."[3]

Middle leaders within the school therefore elected to promote PLTS through an attempt to share a common language about the learning process and to approach learning in new, ‘project’ or ‘enquiry’ driven ways; the aim of which was to ensure learners had the ability to succeed now and in later life. To this end two major adaptations to the existing curriculum were developed.

As part of the school’s programme and new focus, a revised Year 7 curriculum was organised to include a CORE aspect (combined studies in English, Humanities, Drama and ICT). This in itself had aims of improving the transition from Primary to Secondary but also incorporated a drive toward developing students’ understanding of learning through PLTS.

In order to meet the needs of other students in the school, particularly during Key Stage 3, the researchers elected to develop PLTS in the Humanities Faculty. To this end, and following the recommendation of the Humanities Advisor for Suffolk, the researchers trialled a ‘Humanities Enquiry’ which incorporated PLTS as a discreet learning approach.[4] This was then developed for 2009-2010, as detailed below.

Project Aims

The primary aim of the project was to develop students’ ability to become ‘better learners’ and to understand what this means. To this end, Personalised Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) were taken as a driving force behind the enquiry model developed in the initial trial.

Humanities Enquiries are designed to take place over 400 minutes of contact time, plus homework.[5] They are placed in the academic year in order to conclude a half term of conventional curriculum time in Humanities lessons, thus forming an ‘end of term enquiry’. Humanities Enquiries are based on the following model, as introduced by Dale Banham (Humanities Advisor for Suffolk):

Lesson 1
Study of the enquiry question or theme in respect of the present.
Lesson 2
Develop experiences in lesson 1 to compare and relate to enquiry of the past.
Lesson 3
Can students make informed, logical or creative predictions about the future?
Lesson 4
Synthesis of whole enquiry: What have we learnt that will inform our understanding of the world around us?

Implementation

Over the year, students in Years 8-9 have undertaken 4 Humanities Enquiries. The table below gives an overview of the themes covered:

Year 8
  • Sustainability
  • Fashion
  • Transport and Travel
  • Crime
  • Piracy
/ Year 9
  • What is a ‘just war’?
  • Holidays
  • India
  • What is your plan to save the world?

Each class were taught through a combination of their timetabled Geography and History teachers which related to a ‘handover’ during the Enquiry from one teacher to another. Enquiries were designed, however, in an attempt to make this handover feasible; each enquiry includes three discreet lesson plans and one final ‘synthesis’ lesson.

Most of the enquiries were planned by one of the two researchers while one other was produced by another teacher in the faculty. Outline lesson plans with suggested activities and resources were shared through the faculty so that colleagues were supported in their delivery.

As students had, at best, a limited understanding of PLTS in advance of undertaking the enquiries, we made the decision to introduce one PLTS as a central focus for each enquiry. This enabled teachers to focus on developing this skill, thus ensuring that students were able to build on and develop their own understanding of the necessary skills for learning. For example, Year 9’s first enquiry introduced the skill ‘Reflective Learners’.[6]

At specified points during the enquiry, students were asked to complete a reflection activity. This involved discussion of what it means to be a ‘reflective learner’ alongside students actively reflecting on their learning during each lesson and identifying whether they had demonstrated elements of each PLTS.[7]

Research

As action research, the project embodies constant reflection and problem solving as the researchers responded to student and teacher feedback, as well as remaining subject to their own experiences as teachers of the enquiries.

The diagram below provides an overview of the many and various forms of information which provided the researchers with pertinent information and feedback. In the paragraphs that follow, the researchers have attempted to give a synthesis of the main concerns that followed from our findings, rather than a detailed breakdown of the nature of each element of research.

Overview of information available to researchers

Research indicating strength

The enquiries were a very new approach in many ways for both students and teachers. In basic terms, some of the activities that students were asked to complete were new to some teachers in the faculty. Where teachers were successful, they had engaged in conversation with colleagues prior to the lesson, helping them ‘unpick’ the objective or nature of an activity. Successful teaching and learning also relied on communication between colleagues as they passed each enquiry on – one lesson to the next; where this took place, the enquiry had the greatest chance of success. Concerns over enquiries were raised at faculty meetings and addressed in planning for subsequent enquiries; teachers discussed ‘what went well’ and ‘even better if’, thus allowing the researchers, as main planners, to improve the enquiry model. For example, where some colleagues expressed concern over high volume of activities to be included in lessons, this was reduced in some instances in subsequent lesson plans.

Success was also apparent where students developed some understanding of PLTS and the skills necessary to become ‘better learners’. By highlighting PLTS through the enquiries, students and teachers alike became more comfortable in discussing the nature of their learning. This was evident through the willingness of students to discuss where and how they had used PLTS during ‘regular’ Humanities teaching (in this case, Geography and History lessons).

Research indicating weakness of the project and areas for improvement

Whilst the project had many successes, and students clearly reacted well to using the new language of learning within the classroom the researchers are still faced with many challenges.

It has been noted by Astington and Olson that “thinking does not have any behavioural indices”[8] which in turn makes it hard to monitor progression within thinking and learning. Whilst students were given a self-evaluation to aid reflection at the end of each session , this table encouraged students to turn thinking and learning into a tick box ideology rather than to expand their thoughts and take part in the metacognition which is required for true reflection to take place. In the next academic year, this will be replaced by a reflection journal with more open ended questions which encourage students to undertake their own reflections rather than trying to falsely suggest that they have fulfilled a wide range of criteria which will give us an inaccurate picture of progression.

From our early focus group discussion, the majority of students focused on the nature of activities rather than the learning processes or PLTS involved. Several students mentioned enquiry topics and freely linked the three subject areas. A few mentioned specific PLTS. One participant suggested the enquiries could be improved by “showing a bit more of how and what the independent learner and team worker etc. are". This student therefore demonstrated a clear notion that development of PLTS was an aim or objective of the enquiries and highlighted that further support would be beneficial to understanding progress in the PLTS.

In addition to the above, we need to consider how this learning is disseminated across the curriculum and the rest of the school. Whilst students were happy and confident with using the language of learning within the lesson taught by the researchers, we now need to go further and research what impact that this has had elsewhere. The timings of the projects also need to be considered, as do the way in which they are presented to students. At the moment they are undertaken at the end of every half-term and Humanities Enquiries are in danger of being ‘that other thing we do at the end of the half term’ rather than being a way to engage them in the Personalised, Learning and Thinking Skills. With this in mind, PLTS need to be built up during each term through the individual curriculums, so that the enquiries are a way of judging student progression as well as challenging them to see the humanities subjects as one whole rather than three separate parts. This has been undertaken by the subject areas when re-writing their schemes of work for the academic year 2010-2011.

Conclusions

As indicated above, the enquiries are being reviewed in an effort to improve on our practice this year. Significant changes to occur include:

  1. Improved integration with R.E. – this will involve using R.E. time to support the enquiries as well as a greater integration of R.E. themes, issues and processes within the enquiries.
  2. Change the Enquiries Booklet so that it migrates from the current ‘tick box’ activity and instead becomes a support for reflection and self/ teacher assessment of progress.
  3. Reduce the frequency of enquiries but give them a greater emphasis: Year 8 will begin with an enquiry to support their transition from year 7 and will have three further enquiries throughout the year; the year 9 curriculum will be punctuated with three enquiries at each half term interval.

Taking the enquiry project as a whole, students have enjoyed and participated in the given enquiry activities. This is, we believe, in part due to the social nature of their learning. For some students this is distinct from their regular learning in some lessons and enables them to engage with and become an active part of the process:

"...it is the whole person who learns and... the person learns in a social situation"[9]

Howard Gardner develops this further and it is in this element that the enquiries project has had most success and potential for further development:

“Many individuals learn more effectively, however, in a group setting, where they have the opportunity to assume different roles, to observe others' perspectives, to interact regularly, to complement one another. A group of students can be given a problem to solve..." (p109)[10]

Returning to our original aim, to change our students into learners, the researchers must ask themselves several key questions in relation to the issue below:

"Fundamentally it is the person who learns and it is the changed person who is the outcome of the learning."[11]

To this purpose, have our students changed into learners? Our response rests for the time being that, broadly speaking, our students are changing but they have not yet completed this process of change. It is tempting to argue that this process should continue for the rest of each learner’s life and this is, indeed, what we aim to achieve through the enquiries. We aim to enable students to become learners for life; encouraging them to reflect on their process of learning and understand where and how they do this successfully is enabled, in one way at least, through our PLTS led enquiries.

In more mundane yet critical terms, the project has enabled us, the researchers, to understand the implications of building interdisciplinary enquiries into an existing set up of three separate subject schemes of work. Have the Humanities Enquiries been a success in this respect? They have enabled us to begin the process of sharing approaches and views of learning in the faculty. We are now beginning to gain an improved and more open understanding of the different ways in which students learn and we openly discuss learning with our colleagues. Introducing a new element to the Humanities curriculum, over and above our existing concerns as three distinct subjects has, at times, been challenging. Its rewards for learning, however, as we foresee them to continue, outweigh the difficulties. Sharing the benefits for learning across the school as a whole remains our next challenge.

"That is why any consideration of education cannot remain merely instrumental. Not merely computers, we must ask - but computers for what? More broadly, education for what? ... education must ultimately justify itself in terms of enhancing human understanding."[12]

Appendix 1:

Useful online resources for developing interdisciplinary learning in Humanities subjects:

Personalised Learning and Thinking Skills

Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning

See the link below for the DCSF guidance booklet on SEAL – pages 6-7 outline the five broad aspects of the SEAL curriculum.

Citizenship

See the link below for details about the key concepts and processes underpinning Citizenship at KS3.

R.E.

The Edexcel R.E. specification can be downloaded from the link below. Knowledge, skills and understanding are detailed on p8 of the pdf.

Geography

Key concepts and processes in Geography at KS3:

History

Key concepts and processes in History at KS3:

Appendix 1

Seven Wonders of the World Humanities Enquiry – Lesson Plans
Overview of cross-curricular links
Personal Learning and Thinking Skills
Independent enquirers
Team workers
Self managers
Effective Participators
Creative thinkers
Reflective learners / Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning
Understanding other people’s views
Identifying what is important to themselves and others
Working cooperatively with others
Modelling social skills; active listening and interest in others / Citizenship
Engage with and reflect on different ideas, opinions, beliefs and values
Research, plan and undertake enquiries into issues and problems using a range of information and sources
Express opinions to others through discussion, communicate an argument, taking account of different viewpoints and draw on what has been learnt through research
R.E.
Investigate and explain the differing impacts of religious teachings on individuals and communities and societies
Evaluate the impact of religion in the contemporary world
Express their own beliefs and ideas using a variety of forms of expression / Geography
Ask geographical questions, think critically, constructively and creatively
Analyse and evaluate evidence, present findings to draw and justify conclusions
Appreciate how people’s values and attitudes differ and may influence social, environmental, economic and political issues / History
Identify and investigate, individually and as part of a team, specific historical questions or issues, making and testing hypotheses
Evaluate sources in order to reach conclusions
Communicate knowledge and understanding of history in a variety of ways

Appendix 1

Year 7 – Trial Humanities Enquiry
Seven Wonders of the World - Lesson 1 / Key Question: What makes something ‘wonderful?’ What are the seven wonders of the world today? (The Present) / 100 min.
Learning Objectives: / -To decide on a definition for a ‘wonder’.
-To research a selection of possible ‘wonders’ today.
-To assess and evaluate which wonders meet the criteria most successfully.
Resources:
Enquiry folders
PowerPoint presentation ‘Humanities Enquiry Seven Wonders’
Homework sheet
The modern wonders of the world – candidate sheets
Blank ‘checklist/ evaluation’ grids for research / Learning outcomes:
All pupils will complete research on today’s ‘wonders’.
Most pupils will evaluate a selection of wonders against given criteria.
Some pupils will question the criteria of a wonder today and adapt it if necessary.
Key terms:
Checklist, Seven Wonder

Appendix 1

Year 7 – Trial Humanities Enquiry
Seven Wonders of the World - Lesson 2 / Key Question: What were the seven wonders of the world? (The Past) / 100 min.
Learning Objectives: / -To know what the Seven wonders of the Ancient World were
-To understand what makes something significant
-To understand how significance changes over time
-To place the wonders into their geographical, religious and historical context.
Resources:
PowerPoint presentation ‘Seven Wonders of the Past’
Ancient World Seven Wonders Information Cards
Medieval World Seven Wonders Information Cards
Blank World Maps
World Atlas / Learning outcomes:
Pupils will be involved in decision making, what would be considered a wonder by people at the time, what criteria should be used, using research techniques and collecting information, and working together as a group.
All pupils will take different roles in the investigation process and contribute toward a shared conclusion.
Most pupils will question and adapt the criteria for a past wonder of the world.
Some pupils will understand that significance changes over time and place the wonders into their geographical, religious and historical context.
Key terms:
Context, Ancient World