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I am super keen to learn more about how you communicate with students and how you feel this may impact on building resilience

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Maths & English Department at West Suffolk College, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Maths and English can transform lives. This website aims to help you with a range of maths and English resources to help promote and teach these wonderful subjects in your college.

The change in funding policy has significantly increased the study of GCSE maths and English post 16 (Ian Ashman, President, AoC). The information on this website has been collated from the Leadership of maths and English Conference on Monday 13th February 2017.

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Maths & English Department at West Suffolk College, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Maths and English can transform lives. This website aims to help you with a range of maths and English resources to help promote and teach these wonderful subjects in your college.

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Special action research edition of the RaPAL Journal

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Special action research edition of the RaPAL Journal

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RaPAL - RaPAL Journal 101 - Page 56-57 - Created with Publitas.com

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Putting mindset theory into practice: promoting positive expectations in GCSE English Language resit classrooms at The Sheffield College Charlotte Bowling

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RaPAL - RaPAL Journal 101 - Page 56-57 - Created with Publitas.com

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Putting mindset theory into practice: promoting positive expectations in GCSE English Language resit classrooms at The Sheffield College Charlotte Bowling

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Changing mind-sets for learning and teaching

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Changing mind-sets for learning and teaching

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RaPAL - RaPAL Journal 101 - Page 64-65 - Created with Publitas.com

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References Akbari, R., (2008) Transforming lives: introducing critical pedagogy into ELT classrooms. ELT Journal, 62(3). 276-283. Dweck, C.S., (2006) Mindset:

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The Sheffield College

This project was designed to explore whether and how the explicit delivery of 'mindsets for learning' activities impacted on the confidence, resilience and achievements of learners on our GCSE English Language programmes.

You can download a PDF of this report on the Excellence Gateway.

Summary

Because of their intrinsic lack of self-belief and motivation, the struggle to engage students in the development of English skills is a major issue at The Sheffield College, just as it is at centres across the country.

A group of us working here recognised that although some teachers across our diverse college were employing different approaches towards developing resilience in learners, others were not addressing this fundamental underlying issue explicitly. We therefore decided to engage in research.

This involved first accessing literatures, some of which suggested that supporting students in the development of their confidence and self-belief, combined with a focus on their meta-cognition and self-regulation skills, might impact positively on students' progress. It also involved our designing a Scheme of Work and set of associated resources to embed within GCSE English Language and Functional Skills delivery.

Rationale

Our aim was to research the impact of explicitly tackling the complex issue of learners' attitudes towards learning, essentially their capacity for developing resilience. The situation was that, despite being highly skilled practitioners, many of our teachers struggled to engage students who exhibited disengaged behaviours within the classroom.

We also recognised that for many learners the Condition of Funding was also reinforcing their lack of self-belief and sense of self-worth in relation to learning: this condition requires 16-19 year olds to repeat GCSE examinations until they achieve the qualification or are no longer required to do so.

Similarly, for adult students returning to learning after failing at school, a lack of confidence often created a significant barrier to learning. And, whilst many of our teachers addressed learner resilience quite naturally in the classroom through their skilful use of the language of motivation, as a teaching team we were not necessarily exploring such engagement issues explicitly and systematically.

Consequently, we decided to collaborate in designing a Scheme of Work and a set of associated resources, with the intention of delivering them every week within a variety of English classes. Our aim was to assess the impact of such an approach on outcomes for the following people:

* 16-19 year old students studying GCSE English Language, across a diverse range of Study Programmes, and
* Adult students studying GCSE English Language, or Functional Skills English

Approach

The main focus of the project was to target any student who was working with a member of our core team of teachers whose main responsibilities included the delivery of GCSE English Language to Study Programme students.

The lead tutor had developed a Scheme of Work and an initial set of activities to be shared with teachers at a project training event before the start of the academic year. Teachers were encouraged to adapt these resources to suit the needs of their students and to accommodate their own different approaches to learning and teaching.

Teachers then delivered the activities to students whose programme of study included: Media and Performing Arts, Construction, Engineering, Plumbing and Motor Vehicle, Health and Social Care, Hair and Beauty, Sport and Uniformed Public Services. The activities were also used with adult students studying either GCSE English Language or Functional Skills English.

The students first engaged in an on-line assessment activity, which we used to gauge their levels of confidence and attitudes towards learning. It also provided teachers with a powerful basis to explore with individual students how their past experiences of, and attitudes towards learning influenced their current perspectives. Learners then engaged in mindset activities. Such activities were usually delivered weekly, before a break, and lasted between 5 and 10 minutes.

The main focus of the project was to target any student who was working with a member of our core team of teachers whose main responsibilities included the delivery of GCSE English Language to Study Programme students.

The lead tutor had developed a Scheme of Work and an initial set of activities to be shared with teachers at a project training event before the start of the academic year. Teachers were encouraged to adapt these resources to suit the needs of their students and to accommodate their own different approaches to learning and teaching.

Teachers then delivered the activities to students whose programme of study included: Media and Performing Arts, Construction, Engineering, Plumbing and Motor Vehicle, Health and Social Care, Hair and Beauty, Sport and Uniformed Public Services. The activities were also used with adult students studying either GCSE English Language or Functional Skills English.

The students first engaged in an on-line assessment activity, which we used to gauge their levels of confidence and attitudes towards learning. It also provided teachers with a powerful basis to explore with individual students how their past experiences of, and attitudes towards learning influenced their current perspectives. Learners then engaged in mindset activities. Such activities were usually delivered weekly, before a break, and lasted between 5 and 10 minutes.

Professional Learning: Evidence of changes in teaching, learning and assessment practices

Teachers involved with the project reported that their engagement with it has had a profound impact on their practice and their perceptions of themselves as teachers.

The current situation was that, although they were all highly skilled in employing a range of strategies to encourage students to engage in their work, no one in the team prior to joining the project had taken such a systematic and focused approach to encouraging students to challenge their self-perceptions and associated attitudes towards learning.

Through being involved in the project, teachers were now working together; the aim was to adapt and develop resources that would engage their learners in the development of positive attitudes towards themselves and learning.

It is important to note that involvement in the project initially had a negative impact on one teacher, inhibiting her exploration with students of their mindsets for learning. Project leads provided the tutor with support, and she was encouraged to adapt the resources to suit her delivery style.

For the rest of the team the impact upon their professional practice was very positive. It was not only productive in helping them to develop much more open relationships with students early in the academic year, but also enhanced their perceptions of themselves as practitioners.

Teachers reported a range of highly positive changes in themselves and their practice. They confirmed that the explicit addressing of learners' resilience in classroom-based activities has:

Encouraged them to consider their language, what they said and how they said it more carefully: the aim was to enable students to reframe their learning experiences much more positively;

Enabled a refocusing towards a more student-centred approach to learning, teaching and assessment;

Encouraged a more holistic view of students;

Put more focus on getting to know the students and their relationship to learning early in the academic year, which in turn has enabled students to perceive their teachers in a more realistic and constructive way

Encouraged teachers to identify very small steps in learning, helping both learner and teacher to frame progress in positive and meaningful ways;

Developed practitioners' sense of professional identity, so they perceived themselves from a pastoral as well as curriculum delivery perspective.

Importantly, involvement in the project has also given teachers the confidence to take an action research approach to other aspects of teaching, learning and assessment.

Evidence of improved collaboration and changes in organisation practices

The manager prioritised the project for discussion at weekly team meetings and CPD events. This ensured that teachers could frequently discuss and explore any emerging issues or challenges in the delivery of the activities. Involvement in the project has enabled teachers to:

Engage in Continuing Professional Development with colleagues from other institutions across the sector

Explore with colleagues, strategies to use with students which will develop their self-esteem, meta-cognition and self-regulation in learning skills

Collaborate in developing activities which are not necessarily explicitly linked to the curriculum

Share their practice with Functional Skills tutors in vocational areas

Adapt their delivery approach to ensure that a more holistic approach to the development of students' skills is embedded within their practice.

Evidence of improvement in learners' achievements, retention and progression

Due to the short time scale of the project, it is too early to provide attendance and achievement data; however, it has become clear that the explicit addressing in class of mindsets for learning has enabled some students to:

develop confidence in their learning earlier in the academic year than is usually expected

experience an increased belief in their ability to make the next steps in their career pathway

increase the value they place in progress and education

develop a better ability to overcome significant barriers to learning, such as exam anxiety

increase younger learners' self-esteem, particularly in relation to perceptions of their own intelligence

decrease their engagement in negative self-talk in relation to their ability to learn and make progress in English

It has also enabled them to:
o be more positive in ways of talking about their work and themselves in relation to it
o visualise their future lives and careers and the steps they need to take in order to reach them
o open up an early and meaningful dialogue with their teachers in relation to the way they perceive themselves in learning.

Importantly, involvement in the project has also demonstrated:
o An increased confidence in adult learners in their potential to succeed, despite having very low self-esteem in relation to learning

Adult students, as expected, engaged more fully with the activities because of their intrinsic motivation. As well as helping adult learners develop their confidence and self-belief, mindset activities have also helped individuals to address and identify strategies to deal with obstacles which they might encounter throughout their learning journey.

A significant development has been:
o Increased engagement and confidence in under 16 year olds, who often find joining college to be a daunting and difficult experience
o A development of some, rather than having no, resilience amongst the most disengaged of learners
o A significant decrease in the number of learners not returning to class after the break
o Greater progress in the development of English skills in a shorter amount of time amongst some students
o When the activities were conducted with smaller groups of students and in one-to-ones, they were very impactful.

Learning from this project

The embedding of a mindset for learning curriculum within GCSE English Language teaching, learning and assessment has proved to be a highly successful adaptation to the delivery of this subject for Study Programme and adult learners at The Sheffield College.

For many students there has been a noticeable improvement in their attitudes towards learning and themselves in relation to it, as well as a significant decrease in behavioural interventions.

Teachers' practice has improved, particularly in relation to their use of language in the classroom, when challenging students' negative attitudes towards learning and their ability to make progress in English. Significantly, practitioners have developed an even greater depth of understanding of the emotional challenges and barriers to learning faced by young people who have experienced repeated 'failure' in examinations.

Our aim was to research the impact of explicitly tackling the complex issue of learners' attitudes towards learning, mainly their capacity for developing resilience in relation to our GCSE English Language programmes. We have found ways of doing this for the benefit of our learners; and in so doing, they have learned to build resilience and now enjoy a renewed confidence in their ability to learn.

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The Sheffield College This project was designed to explore whether and how the explicit delivery of 'mindsets for learning' activities impacted on the confidence, resilience and achievements of learners on our GCSE English Language programmes. You can download a PDF of this report on the Excellence Gateway.

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Sheffield College

This project addressed the issue of student resilience in the learning and teaching of GCSE English Language and Functional Skills English. Teachers focused on employing and refining a range of techniques to enable students to explore their thoughts, feelings and perceptions of themselves as learners.

You can download a PDF of this report on the Excellence Gateway ( link will be added soon).

Summary

The Sheffield College is a General Further Education college serving the socio-economically and ethnically diverse Sheffield City Region. The college has a large student population of over 14,700 studying a range of full and part-time academic, vocational, technical and apprenticeship programmes. The overarching aim of our project was to address the issue of student resilience in the learning and teaching of English at The Sheffield College. Due to an intrinsic lack of self-confidence, many of our students struggle to believe they can achieve in this subject area. For younger students studying GCSE English Language, such perceptions are often reinforced by a repeated 'failure' to achieve a grade 4 in this gateway qualification. The project involved both full-time and part-time students and was facilitated by a large team of English teachers, some of whom were new to the project this academic year.

Rationale

Prior to our involvement in OTLA Phase 6 in 2020 some teachers across our diverse college employeddifferent approaches towards developing resilience in students, whereas others did not address this fundamental and underlying issue explicitly. Our action research project, which involved developing a resilience scheme of work with associated resources, proved to be highly effective in developing many students' confidence in their abilities. Importantly, involvement in the project was beginning to have a profoundly positive impact on tutors, their relationships with students and their perceptions of themselves as practitioners. This follow-up OTLA Phase 7 project has enabled us to refine and develop our approaches to enhancing student engagement and resilience. Importantly, it provided an opportunity for teachers to explore their individual areas of interest in this key aspect of learning and build on their excellent development work in OTLA Phase 6. Involvement in the project has also enabled us to disseminate our findings to wider audiences, both within and external to our organisation.

Approach

Working to the collective aim of developing students' self-efficacy and resilience in learning, teachers were encouraged to develop their own action research pathway according to their interests. Before the start of the academic year, teachers discussed, explored and refined their ideas with the Project Lead.

To summarise:

Most teachers worked with the resilience scheme of work (OTLA, 6, 2020) and activities created at the inception of Phase 6, adjusting them to suit the needs of their students. Some teachers delivered the activities as a session starter, others at the end of the session or before the break. Activities were used to stimulate open discussions regarding attitudes towards learning.

One teacher focused on enabling journaling within her sessions. She embedded reflective activities which encouraged exploration of the students' changing relationship to learning (See Appendix 2.4).

In addition to enabling resilience activities most teachers focused on experimenting with their use of language when setting up tasks and giving both written and verbal feedback. They explored its power in developing students' confidence and self-belief.

Some teachers focused on developing and delivering tasks which tackled the issue of resilience whilst also being closely aligned to the subjects' assessment objectives.

One teacher focused on her questioning technique in drawing her students' attention to their thought processes regarding learning and self-belief.

A significant emphasis was placed upon the value and importance of open dialogue and sharing of experience.

Student voice activities were conducted to evaluate the impact of the work on their attitudes towards themselves and learning.

Students' classwork, attendance and achievement data, in addition to observations of secondary behaviours, were also used to inform the evaluation of the impact of the project on their learning in English (See Appendix 2).

For further details about teacher approaches see Appendix 2.

Professional Learning: Evidence of changes in teaching, learning and assessment practices

Engaging in the project has had a significant impact on teachers' practice, most notably in their use of language in the classroom. A continued focus on developing students' self-efficacy and resilience in learning has encouraged teachers to consider carefully the connotations of their word choices. They have experimented with different language choices whilst setting up tasks and providing verbal and written feedback, observing the impact of their lexical choices on their students.

Teachers have found that adjusting their language to challenge students' negative perceptions of themselves as learners significantly enhances their teaching practice. They have discovered how subtle adjustments to the words and phrases they use when interacting with students both verbally and in writing can enable students to continue to engage in learning when they encounter difficulties and be particularly powerful in encouraging them to stretch themselves in learning (Appendix 2).

Involvement in the project raised teachers' self-awareness of habits they had fallen into when interacting with resit students, such as apologising for the potential difficulty within a task or over emphasising the compulsion for 16-19-year-olds to study the subject. They recognised such discourses were reinforcing some students' negative perceptions of learning English and of themselves in relation to it.

Teachers found that making a conscious and deliberate effort to change their idiolect to the language of challenge and motivation to be extremely beneficial to their students. For example, one teacher was sceptical of the impact of the project upon younger students compelled to re-sit GCSE English; however, involvement in the project has enabled him to recognise the inherent value in routinely using the language of positive instruction. He has discovered that it gives students, who cannot see how the qualification is relevant to them and their future career pathway, 'encouragement' and enables them to 'be confident' in their preparations for assessment. Furthermore, he now perceives such a relentless focus on helping learners develop a tenacious and confident attitude to be an essential part of a teacher's practice. (Appendix 2.3)

Involvement in the project has had a significant impact on another experienced teacher's perception of the psychological dimension of learning. Working with students on activities and discussions which explore the attitude towards the self and learning has compelled her to carefully consider the potential impact of her teaching and learning strategies on students' confidence and resilience (See Appendix 2.1). For most of the teachers working on the project, engagement in action research has enabled them to engage more purposefully in self-reflection. It has also acted as a catalyst for the updating of educational research knowledge. They have valued the opportunity to develop their skills in evidence-based practice and are likely to develop further action research projects.

Evidence of improved collaboration and changes in organisation practices

Our work on the project has stimulated some change to practices within our organisation. For example:

Within the Academy of English at The Sheffield College we now ensure that any new members of staff receive discrete training on techniques to foster self-belief in learning. This training has been delivered not only to teachers but to individuals whose role is to support students in catching up on their skills in English and maths due to the impact of Covid-19.

In the summer months we will be training colleagues in ESOL and Inclusion to embed a similar approach within their curriculum from September 2021.

We have shared our practice with colleagues who teach maths. English and maths teachers met to discuss key techniques and strategies to develop students' confidence and self-belief. During the session, English teachers shared their approaches and the findings of action research. Whilst we are aware of the importance of not replicating activities in maths, as many students study both subjects, there is a commitment to ongoing sharing of learning from the project and experimentation with approaches.

The project has enabled a foregrounding of professional discussions relating to the underlying issues of students' lack of confidence and self-belief in learning.

Additionally,

Learning from the project has been shared with representatives from other colleges who experience similar challenges with their students.

Evidence of improvement in learners' achievements, retention and progression

Our focus on developing students' self-efficacy and resilience in learning continues to have a positive impact upon students' experiences of studying English and their achievements at The Sheffield College.
Students report and demonstrate:

An increased confidence in themselves in relation to learning, including engaging in stretch and challenge activities.

A greater ability to learn from mistakes and to overcome challenges.

Engagement in mindset for learning activities has helped to engage them in the subject matter and better enjoy learning with their peers and teachers.

Adjustments to teachers' language in the classroom has enabled them to make improvements in their learning, in addition to instilling a greater confidence in themselves as learners.

A greater investment in their own achievements and progress.

Whilst we cannot isolate the impact of the above from the other improvements The Sheffield College is implementing in teaching, learning and assessment, it is difficult not to correlate the foregrounding of this approach to an:

Upturn in attendance. This increase in engagement has been particularly marked for Study Programme students. Since this project began, their attendance is now consistently good in GCSE English Language classes.

Upturn in retention of our adult students.

Increase in first time passes for adults studying Functional Skills English at Level 1 and Level 2. Teachers' emphasis on not giving up, on developing strategies to deal with the challenge of examination questions, is encouraging students to see the exams in a more positive light.

Increase in GCSE English Language high grade predictions for both adult and Study Programme students.

Learning from this project

The adoption of a whole team curriculum-based approach to the development of students' self-belief and resilience in learning supports the college's wider improvements in teaching, learning and assessment. Importantly, it encourages teachers to:

Foster better relationships with students and develop a more cohesive learning community earlier in the academic year.

Focus on the critical importance of the language choices they make when interacting with students. They now consider in a much more consciously and careful way the impact of their language on their students.

Develop a greater depth of understanding of students' psychological barriers to learning and in turn consider ways to challenge and break down such obstacles.

Evaluate critically the impact of their Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA) choices on students' perceptions of themselves as learners.

Re-engage with educational theory.

Engage and become an integral part of a culture of action research and critical reflection.

Crucially, working in this way, teachers enable students to:

Gain greater insight and understanding of their relationship to learning and the steps they need to undertake to make progress.

Acquire a more constructive relationship to learning, understanding that mistakes are a necessary and enabling part of the journey. One student, for example, reported that she has a 'more positive mindset' than at the beginning of her studies when she believed she 'could not' learn. Following work on her attitudes towards herself and learning she now feels 'happy and excited' when engaging in the development of her English skills (See Appendix 2.5).

Another student commented:

''I do believe that learning depends on accepting your mistakes as positive experiences because I feel like I have learnt from my mistakes by looking through feedback and correcting myself which also improved my English skills".

Develop confidence and self-belief in their abilities which in turn enables them to develop strategies to face challenges in learning.

Articulate more fully their needs and wants in relation to life and learning.

Foster better relationships with their peers and teachers.

We have also learned:

Teachers need to commit fully to the process, adjusting materials and approaches to suit the needs of their students and their teaching styles. The approach needs to be embedded within all aspects of their TLA, not limited to the delivery of the activities.

It is not the resilience activities the students engage in that stimulate change; it is the ongoing discussions that arise from them throughout the student's learning journey.

Of crucial importance to the success of such an approach is the deep critical reflection of teachers upon their practice, with a particular focus upon their use of language. To positively encourage and enable changes in students' attitudes, teachers need to scrutinise the language they use in all learning contexts, making subtle and ongoing adjustments where appropriate.

Adopting such an approach is not a 'silver bullet' for all students. Students need to be emotionally ready to relate discussions and debates on resilience to their life and learning.

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Sheffield College This project addressed the issue of student resilience in the learning and teaching of GCSE English Language and Functional Skills English. Teachers focused on employing and refining a range of techniques to enable students to explore their thoughts, feelings and perceptions of themselves as learners.

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Resilience Scheme of Work: linked to AQA GCSE English Language Assessment Objectives

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Resilience Scheme of Work: linked to AQA GCSE English Language Assessment Objectives

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Written SOW for Mindset and Resilience.docx

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Should you have any feedback or want to collaborate please call or email me

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Should you have any feedback or want to collaborate please call or email me

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mobile 07954 930 463
email THeducationservices@gmail.com

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Great way to collaborate

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Cheers