TLAB14

The Teaching, Learning and Assessment Conference Hosted by Berkhamsted School.

In March 2013 Berkhamsted School hosted the first TLAB Conference, whilst I was unable to attend, I was able to see the ripple effect as many educators tweeted links to useful ideas they had been introduced to. When tickets were launched for this year’s conference I was determined to be there!

 The theme for the conference was multipliers, with a keynote speech from Elise Foster, co-author of the book “The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools”. The concept of multipliers vs diminishers was easy to apply to life in school, in terms of our actions in the classroom and with colleagues. The most significant point in the keynote speech was the research conducted on how leaders can tap into the intelligence of their teams; those deemed as diminishers were only able to access an average of 41% of the capabilities within staff. These leaders diminished the potential in their colleagues in a range of ways such as doing too much of the thinking or communicating poorly, the result was a lower output, as colleagues found they were restrained or maybe unable to share all of their ideas and expertise. As one of the middle leaders in school I am aware that I have the potential to be a diminisher, and recognise some of those traits in the way I have acted or communicated in the past.

Those leaders deemed as multipliers accessed 86% of the intelligence of their teams. It is easy to relate this to both my position as a subject leader and in my lessons when interacting with pupils. In my more creative lessons, I often end them surprised by just how good the ideas and output of the pupils had been. I often feel this way when marking homework too. There is certainly some value in re-assessing the way we present tasks to pupils in order to offer them the chance to use their brains to the fullest and to possibly produce better quality work as a result.

 

Following the keynote speech I went to a variety of sessions that both affirmed the good practice I have already developed and challenged my understanding of the youngsters we work with. The session that was most insightful for me was run by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. Sarah-Jayne’s session was about the adolescent brain. The session synopsis summarises (below) this session more adeptly than I can!

The brain has evolved to understand and interact with other people. This workshop focuses on how the social brain, that is the network of brain regions involved in understanding others, develops during adolescence. Adolescence is a time characterised by change - hormonally, physically, psychologically and socially. In the past 15 years, neuroscience research has shown that the human brain develops both structurally and functionally during adolescence. This research might have implications for secondary school education.

Sarah-Jayne pointed out that some research was still ongoing and so the hypotheses currently being tested are as yet unproven. But research that was shared was fascinating. The most interesting part was about adolescents and their propensity to take risks. Once amongst peers this potential for risky behaviour increased. This lead to an interesting discussion about teenage perception of risk. As adolescents are still developing their personalities, an important part of socialising is to be accepted, I guess this feeling of acceptance may go some way to explain the appeal of social media as a platform to gauge others’ opinions and gain approval through “likes”, “retweets” and people sharing your comments. Teenagers are likely to perceive any behaviour that isn’t socially acceptable as more risky than other behaviours. For example, if answering a question in class might be seen as “too keen” they may prefer to say they don’t know than risk showing their knowledge and being ostracised by their social group. This linked really well with the research that was shared in the final talk I attended by Daniel Muijs.

Professor Muijs shared research about teacher effectiveness and factors that can affect the impact a teacher has on a group of youngsters. Interestingly, the teenager is most concerned about themselves and elements of their school life closest to them. This suggests that actions the teacher takes and the way they interact with pupils has the greatest impact on the progress made by pupils. How pupils felt about their lessons and teachers was more instrumental in affecting results than class size, environment or even the school they attended. According to the research if a pupil is taught by the most effective teacher the results can be 25% better than pupils taught by the least effective teacher. The effect of multiple years with effective teachers can have a significant impact over a number of years as pupils move to different classes. These factors are most important for the pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

To conclude, TLAB14 has opened my eyes to the value of educational research that is out there. In recent years I have possibly focussed on finding new teaching techniques and understanding how to use technology differently to engage learners. I now have a refreshed interest in reading research and considering the pupil in a broader sense than just how they perform in each of my lessons.

The TLAB website has lots of information and in the coming weeks I imagine many of the resources used will be shared and made available. I would recommend taking a look and considering attending the event next year.