‘The Wonders of Back Seat Teaching’
Imagine the scene. You approach a classroom. The noise levels seem to point towards the fact that mayhem has broken out inside the room. When you reach for the door handle you take a breath expecting the worst and open the door. Your eyes behold an incredible sight, so much so it takes your breath away. The pupils are in charge of the classroom and learning is taking place all over.
This is obviously a dramatic view but not far from the truth in classes I have taught over the past 12 months. These classes have been given the opportunity to create their own learning journeys and assessments in order to learn 'how to learn’ whilst obviously improving their own knowledge and understanding of the topics they were studying. This release of control allows pupils to think through their own learning issues and builds in the whole idea of student voice. The idea of student voice is a big ‘buzz word’ right now but is that due to pupils not being able to put forward their ideas well? Or is it that many teachers can't even comprehend the idea of taking their hands off the wheel and getting into the back of the car whilst the kids drive for a while.
So what caused me to step into a world where pupils are allowed to design their own journey through my lessons? Well, I had a long meeting with my advisor because I felt I was losing the spark of being in the classroom. This was due to the high level of paperwork and politics cutting in on my initial reason for teaching, interesting and motivating the pupils. My advisor carried out a couple of lesson observations and we talked about when I feel most ‘alive’ in the classroom and came to the conclusion that I loved the element of the unknown and unexpected.
As a result of this I decided to try out the TASC Model of teaching with some of my classes. To give you some background: first TASC stands for ‘Thinking Actively in a Social Context’ (designed by Belle Wallace at NACE). This aide to the processes of learning and teaching gives learners greater ownership of their learning and causes the pupils to ‘brake’ their learning in order to think more about the work they are producing. Instead of pupils being told they would be carrying out a project on, say, Africa and immediately rushing for the nearest book and copying everything down they can (whilst changing two words here and there to make sure its in their 'own words') they are encouraged to think through a series of questions which act as ‘stops’ on the way to creating a more meaningful, accurate and individual piece of work.
I wanted to allow pupils to have the chance to ‘teach’ themselves and to appreciate what goes into designing and creating a series of lessons. As a result this method allowed them to create high quality presentations in consultation with other pupils and a very detailed final piece of work which not only put forward the relevant factual information but also led them to use their own experiences and opinion a lot more than in previous work.
The classes were given an initial lesson in what makes a good lesson and how to create SMART learning objectives which would guide their learning. During this lesson there was a lot of opportunity for pupils to put forward their own thoughts and ideas as to what makes a good lesson. They also had a chance to work with peers in creating success criteria for elements of the coming lessons in order to guide their learning and open opportunities to peer and self assess work.
Once the initial lesson was out the way pupils were given an enquiry question and let loose! Immediately they set about designing their own learning objectives for this lesson and before long were sharing prior knowledge and collating what they already knew about the topic area. From this they sifted out what they felt was irrelevant and then organized themselves into mini groups within their tables in order to focus on aspects of the topic. Before the end of that first lesson they all had a plan of action in place and had set themselves homework for next lesson.
The following 5 lessons saw a mixture of pupil led and teacher input lessons. As I observed from my ‘back seat’ pupils developed in the groups and rose in confidence. I became purely a facilitator as they came to me for resources and to check things were on track. Timekeepers rose up barking out how long was left in the lesson before they needed to set homework or change task. Groups leaders evolved into the position as others in the groups looked to them for
guidance and listened to instruction. Pupils reprimanded their peers for not bringing in homework and praised others for working outside the class to complete work.
For about 3 weeks I became a bystander watching as this machine ground its way relentlessly and tirelessly through information in order to achieve its initial goal.
I have to admit to some nervous feelings on the day of the presentations. Pupils had in the previous lesson created a mark sheet for peer assessing all the groups presentations and a ranking system of Red, Yellow of Green depending on how well they delivered the various aspects of the project. They now sat there ready to present their own info but also ready to mark the others. This is where it could all fall apart.
I need not have worried. The pupils were amazing at both presenting and assessing the information. Their feedback to groups was concise, focused and very constructive with positives being given to all groups and issues highlighted sensitively. I have to admit to having a lump in my throat watching it all take place and also a feeling of slight redundancy and awkwardness. I felt like I had gate crashed a party and hadn’t read the dress code. I wouldn’t say it couldn’t have happened without me being there but I also felt that I was purely there in case of trouble.
The final proving ground for this work was the written piece each of the pupils had to create based on their findings and experiences within the lessons. This was a real eye opener for me, the pupils and other staff (including my advisor). In comparison with 3 previous assessments over 80% (40pupils) of pupils achieved a higher grade. Of these 50% (20 pupils) were 2 levels above their previous assessment. Finally, 40% (20 pupils) of pupils beat there target grades for the end of Key Stage 3. These figures were so incredible that a number of pupils were interviewed, along with me, for a presentation at the national TASC conference in
Before all this began the thought of letting the class run itself to this extent was pretty terrifying and something I wouldn’t have eagerly set myself up for. However, this was an amazing experience and one I am looking forward to using again. To see and hear the pupils in class devising their own objectives, working and sharing ideas and building each other up whilst constructively criticising their peers work was incredible to behold and a very humbling experience.
I think the final word in this should be with some of the pupils so I have collated some of their comments to end with.
“I like the idea of being able to decide what we are doing”
“We talked a lot about what we were going to do and decided on our learning objectives without
much disagreement”
“I did struggle to begin with because some other people in my group are cleverer than me but they made me feel like I was part of what was going on and now I know what we are doing”
“This has been a fun lesson and its been good to finally share what we had collected”
“I was nervous before the presentation but it went well and I felt good at the end”
“I didn’t know how people would react but everyone was really encouraging and said nice things
about us”
“Great fun! Shame its over”
In conclusion to take your hands off the wheel may be terrifying but when you sit back and let others drive they may just surprise you.
(Many thanks goes to Belle Wallace from NACE who created the TASC way of learning and Zoe Elder my LA Advisor who introduced me to it)
"The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself"
Alan Alda
