THAT STRETCH
ENTRY003-28/10/2015
This is a reflection. I am struggling to think of circumstances in which I, as a teacher, would "set goals that stretch and challenge pupils of all backgrounds, abilities and dispositions"
What concrete circumstances can come to mind?
Here are some ideas I have:
(1) A teacher has a one-to-one conversation with one pupil, in the week before an assessment. The teacher says "next week, in the assessment I want you to get 35/40 on the assessment. I know you're capable of it. I can tell from the way you're answering questions in class that this is something you can achieve. Revise hard, you can do it."
What kind of mindset would the teacher have to have, in order to think to do this with pupil X, in the week before the assessment?
(2) A teacher says to the class: "your goal is to have zero warnings given out by the teacher this lesson"
This is not a very positive goal, but a goal nevertheless.
(3) A teacher says to a pupil at Parents Evening: "Your goal is to get an 8 in the GCSE next year. This is well within you're grasp"
A number of questions come to mind: How does a a person give another person a goal convincingly? For when a person X gives another person Y a goal, X is asking Y to do something. Is this true? X is, perhaps, asking Y to form an intention, as in "I want you to intend to get an 8 in the GCSE". Perhaps the pupil previously had an intention to get a grade 5, or perhaps had no particular intention at all regarding their grade.
If Y, the recipient of the goal, is to actually adopt the new intention, then surely a number of conditions must hold. For example, they must believe themselves capable of achieving the goal. Second, the person Y must believe that X knows something about them which they do not. X can see a bigger picture—the distribution of grades amongst the class, say, or the way pupils tend to grow—and this bigger picture enables the teacher to authoritatively recommend the goal to Y.
(4) A teacher sets a task for pupils to complete in the lesson. It helps them to learn about how binary is used in the representation of images on a computer. The task involves filling in colours on grid squares, make a picture. Then, the "code" for each grid square must be added to one long list of digits.
The teacher says to some capable pupils: "Ahmed, Elena and Louise, I want you to aim to complete this task, with every pixel coloured it" (It is known that many pupils in the classroom will not bring the task to completion).
Are goals always set verbally? ("Abigail, I want you to aim to get 35/40 on this test") For a goal to be set non-verbally, the teacher would need to communicate to the pupil that they want them to aim to do something. This, in fact, is something seen often. For example, a teacher points to the bin in front of a pupil chewing gum and thereby communicates that the pupil should intend to put the gum into the bin. So, many of the circumstances in which teachers communicate to pupils that they want the pupils to do something, they set goals for the pupil. Not all these cases, however, may be goals that stretch and challenge the pupil.
If we are to include goals that are set for all pupils in the class, then we suddenly have far more examples to choose from...
(5) A teacher assigns a worksheet (blanks to be filled in on Google Slides or on Google sheets etc.) and the teacher knows that it will challenge the entire class.
So, in assigning the independent work for the lesson, the teacher has set a goal that stretches and challenges the pupils. The goal, of course, is to complete the worksheet.
It might be thought that because high-achieving pupils find most work easy to complete, it is only high-achieving pupils who demand being challenged by a goal set to them.
The assumption, of course, is that the only benefit of the teacher setting goals to pupils is to challenge the pupils.
This is not necessarily the case, however.
Having another person set a goal for you can indicate that the person has faith in your abilities. It can inform you that somebody else is paying close attention to your performance, in a way you were not previously aware.
It can provide reason to believe that future efforts will be more successful than previous efforts (since the goal is tailored to you and from someone with greater expertise in the knowledge domain).
Goals provide direction, and are not merely involved in changing the difficulty level. Goals can provide hope and solutions. A goal can be to perform a task in a different way, perhaps in a more relaxed way.
So, the effect of being given a goal is not merely that you are suddenly challenged. There are many effects, the most important relating to motivation.
Even the so-called goals that stretch, of the Teachers' Standards, do not merely have the effect of introducing challenge in the pupil.
They can, besides challenging the pupil, motivate them and provide direction to them to alter the confidence with which a task is performed.
Therefore, low-achieving pupils are in need of goals that stretch and challenge them.
What goes on in the mind of a teacher known to regularly provide goals that stretch low-ability pupils? Let me sketch a few necessary conditions for such a teacher to exist.
(1) The teacher knows which pupils in the class are low-ability.
(2) They have a tendency to come to know which pupils are lower-ability (whether plonked in a classroom in Birmingham or Lesotho)
(3) They pay attention to the capabilities of the pupil. The teacher has a picture of what they can do (for example, the pupil can write out numbers in binary, just not do binary addition). The resolution is higher than merely the categorisation "lower ability"
(4) The teacher believes that lower-ability pupils require goals.
(5) The teacher can readily parse tasks, so that goals appropriate to lower-ability pupils can be conceived.
Their ability to conceive of goals is nuanced and refined, beyond merely a person who says "aim to complete the task fastest" or "aim to answer this extension question".
(6) The teacher can set goals that stretch lower-ability pupils without embarrassing the pupils or disrespecting them.
For example, a teacher cannot publicly say: "John, I want you to aim to complete half the questions", implicitly communicating to the whole class that John is incapable of completing the entire set of questions.
I certainly think that there are indirect ways of setting goals to a person. You can plant ideas in someone else's mind, so that they intend to X.
You might explain the rewards that would come from achieving the goal, without ever explicitly suggesting to the pupil that they ought to adopt the goal.
A cunning teacher might recount a story of a previous pupil who achieved goal X, knowing what makes the current listening student tick.
Verbalisations such as "I want you to try to achieve goal G" are an arbitrary way of setting goals that stretch and challenge.
If a teacher knows what makes a pupil tick—the kinds of things the pupil admires and the kinds of things the pupil is motivated by—then it is possible that a teacher can deposite ideas about goals, with the intention of pupils adopting those goals. Perhaps the teacher never actually directly asks the pupil to adopt the goal.
ENTRY003-28/10/2015
This is a reflection. I am struggling to think of circumstances in which I, as a teacher, would "set goals that stretch and challenge pupils of all backgrounds, abilities and dispositions"
What concrete circumstances can come to mind?
Here are some ideas I have:
(1) A teacher has a one-to-one conversation with one pupil, in the week before an assessment. The teacher says "next week, in the assessment I want you to get 35/40 on the assessment. I know you're capable of it. I can tell from the way you're answering questions in class that this is something you can achieve. Revise hard, you can do it."
What kind of mindset would the teacher have to have, in order to think to do this with pupil X, in the week before the assessment?
(2) A teacher says to the class: "your goal is to have zero warnings given out by the teacher this lesson"
This is not a very positive goal, but a goal nevertheless.
(3) A teacher says to a pupil at Parents Evening: "Your goal is to get an 8 in the GCSE next year. This is well within you're grasp"
A number of questions come to mind: How does a a person give another person a goal convincingly? For when a person X gives another person Y a goal, X is asking Y to do something. Is this true? X is, perhaps, asking Y to form an intention, as in "I want you to intend to get an 8 in the GCSE". Perhaps the pupil previously had an intention to get a grade 5, or perhaps had no particular intention at all regarding their grade.
If Y, the recipient of the goal, is to actually adopt the new intention, then surely a number of conditions must hold. For example, they must believe themselves capable of achieving the goal. Second, the person Y must believe that X knows something about them which they do not. X can see a bigger picture—the distribution of grades amongst the class, say, or the way pupils tend to grow—and this bigger picture enables the teacher to authoritatively recommend the goal to Y.
(4) A teacher sets a task for pupils to complete in the lesson. It helps them to learn about how binary is used in the representation of images on a computer. The task involves filling in colours on grid squares, make a picture. Then, the "code" for each grid square must be added to one long list of digits.
The teacher says to some capable pupils: "Ahmed, Elena and Louise, I want you to aim to complete this task, with every pixel coloured it" (It is known that many pupils in the classroom will not bring the task to completion).
Are goals always set verbally? ("Abigail, I want you to aim to get 35/40 on this test") For a goal to be set non-verbally, the teacher would need to communicate to the pupil that they want them to aim to do something. This, in fact, is something seen often. For example, a teacher points to the bin in front of a pupil chewing gum and thereby communicates that the pupil should intend to put the gum into the bin. So, many of the circumstances in which teachers communicate to pupils that they want the pupils to do something, they set goals for the pupil. Not all these cases, however, may be goals that stretch and challenge the pupil.
If we are to include goals that are set for all pupils in the class, then we suddenly have far more examples to choose from...
(5) A teacher assigns a worksheet (blanks to be filled in on Google Slides or on Google sheets etc.) and the teacher knows that it will challenge the entire class.
So, in assigning the independent work for the lesson, the teacher has set a goal that stretches and challenges the pupils. The goal, of course, is to complete the worksheet.
It might be thought that because high-achieving pupils find most work easy to complete, it is only high-achieving pupils who demand being challenged by a goal set to them.
The assumption, of course, is that the only benefit of the teacher setting goals to pupils is to challenge the pupils.
This is not necessarily the case, however.
Having another person set a goal for you can indicate that the person has faith in your abilities. It can inform you that somebody else is paying close attention to your performance, in a way you were not previously aware.
It can provide reason to believe that future efforts will be more successful than previous efforts (since the goal is tailored to you and from someone with greater expertise in the knowledge domain).
Goals provide direction, and are not merely involved in changing the difficulty level. Goals can provide hope and solutions. A goal can be to perform a task in a different way, perhaps in a more relaxed way.
So, the effect of being given a goal is not merely that you are suddenly challenged. There are many effects, the most important relating to motivation.
Even the so-called goals that stretch, of the Teachers' Standards, do not merely have the effect of introducing challenge in the pupil.
They can, besides challenging the pupil, motivate them and provide direction to them to alter the confidence with which a task is performed.
Therefore, low-achieving pupils are in need of goals that stretch and challenge them.
What goes on in the mind of a teacher known to regularly provide goals that stretch low-ability pupils? Let me sketch a few necessary conditions for such a teacher to exist.
(1) The teacher knows which pupils in the class are low-ability.
(2) They have a tendency to come to know which pupils are lower-ability (whether plonked in a classroom in Birmingham or Lesotho)
(3) They pay attention to the capabilities of the pupil. The teacher has a picture of what they can do (for example, the pupil can write out numbers in binary, just not do binary addition). The resolution is higher than merely the categorisation "lower ability"
(4) The teacher believes that lower-ability pupils require goals.
(5) The teacher can readily parse tasks, so that goals appropriate to lower-ability pupils can be conceived.
Their ability to conceive of goals is nuanced and refined, beyond merely a person who says "aim to complete the task fastest" or "aim to answer this extension question".
(6) The teacher can set goals that stretch lower-ability pupils without embarrassing the pupils or disrespecting them.
For example, a teacher cannot publicly say: "John, I want you to aim to complete half the questions", implicitly communicating to the whole class that John is incapable of completing the entire set of questions.
I certainly think that there are indirect ways of setting goals to a person. You can plant ideas in someone else's mind, so that they intend to X.
You might explain the rewards that would come from achieving the goal, without ever explicitly suggesting to the pupil that they ought to adopt the goal.
A cunning teacher might recount a story of a previous pupil who achieved goal X, knowing what makes the current listening student tick.
Verbalisations such as "I want you to try to achieve goal G" are an arbitrary way of setting goals that stretch and challenge.
If a teacher knows what makes a pupil tick—the kinds of things the pupil admires and the kinds of things the pupil is motivated by—then it is possible that a teacher can deposite ideas about goals, with the intention of pupils adopting those goals. Perhaps the teacher never actually directly asks the pupil to adopt the goal.
ENTRY003-28/10/2015
This is a reflection. I am struggling to think of circumstances in which I, as a teacher, would "set goals that stretch and challenge pupils of all backgrounds, abilities and dispositions"
What concrete circumstances can come to mind?
Here are some ideas I have:
(1) A teacher has a one-to-one conversation with one pupil, in the week before an assessment. The teacher says "next week, in the assessment I want you to get 35/40 on the assessment. I know you're capable of it. I can tell from the way you're answering questions in class that this is something you can achieve. Revise hard, you can do it."
What kind of mindset would the teacher have to have, in order to think to do this with pupil X, in the week before the assessment?
(2) A teacher says to the class: "your goal is to have zero warnings given out by the teacher this lesson"
This is not a very positive goal, but a goal nevertheless.
(3) A teacher says to a pupil at Parents Evening: "Your goal is to get an 8 in the GCSE next year. This is well within you're grasp"
A number of questions come to mind: How does a a person give another person a goal convincingly? For when a person X gives another person Y a goal, X is asking Y to do something. Is this true? X is, perhaps, asking Y to form an intention, as in "I want you to intend to get an 8 in the GCSE". Perhaps the pupil previously had an intention to get a grade 5, or perhaps had no particular intention at all regarding their grade.
If Y, the recipient of the goal, is to actually adopt the new intention, then surely a number of conditions must hold. For example, they must believe themselves capable of achieving the goal. Second, the person Y must believe that X knows something about them which they do not. X can see a bigger picture—the distribution of grades amongst the class, say, or the way pupils tend to grow—and this bigger picture enables the teacher to authoritatively recommend the goal to Y.
(4) A teacher sets a task for pupils to complete in the lesson. It helps them to learn about how binary is used in the representation of images on a computer. The task involves filling in colours on grid squares, make a picture. Then, the "code" for each grid square must be added to one long list of digits.
The teacher says to some capable pupils: "Ahmed, Elena and Louise, I want you to aim to complete this task, with every pixel coloured it" (It is known that many pupils in the classroom will not bring the task to completion).
Are goals always set verbally? ("Abigail, I want you to aim to get 35/40 on this test") For a goal to be set non-verbally, the teacher would need to communicate to the pupil that they want them to aim to do something. This, in fact, is something seen often. For example, a teacher points to the bin in front of a pupil chewing gum and thereby communicates that the pupil should intend to put the gum into the bin. So, many of the circumstances in which teachers communicate to pupils that they want the pupils to do something, they set goals for the pupil. Not all these cases, however, may be goals that stretch and challenge the pupil.
If we are to include goals that are set for all pupils in the class, then we suddenly have far more examples to choose from...
(5) A teacher assigns a worksheet (blanks to be filled in on Google Slides or on Google sheets etc.) and the teacher knows that it will challenge the entire class.
So, in assigning the independent work for the lesson, the teacher has set a goal that stretches and challenges the pupils. The goal, of course, is to complete the worksheet.
It might be thought that because high-achieving pupils find most work easy to complete, it is only high-achieving pupils who demand being challenged by a goal set to them.
The assumption, of course, is that the only benefit of the teacher setting goals to pupils is to challenge the pupils.
This is not necessarily the case, however.
Having another person set a goal for you can indicate that the person has faith in your abilities. It can inform you that somebody else is paying close attention to your performance, in a way you were not previously aware.
It can provide reason to believe that future efforts will be more successful than previous efforts (since the goal is tailored to you and from someone with greater expertise in the knowledge domain).
Goals provide direction, and are not merely involved in changing the difficulty level. Goals can provide hope and solutions. A goal can be to perform a task in a different way, perhaps in a more relaxed way.
So, the effect of being given a goal is not merely that you are suddenly challenged. There are many effects, the most important relating to motivation.
Even the so-called goals that stretch, of the Teachers' Standards, do not merely have the effect of introducing challenge in the pupil.
They can, besides challenging the pupil, motivate them and provide direction to them to alter the confidence with which a task is performed.
Therefore, low-achieving pupils are in need of goals that stretch and challenge them.
What goes on in the mind of a teacher known to regularly provide goals that stretch low-ability pupils? Let me sketch a few necessary conditions for such a teacher to exist.
(1) The teacher knows which pupils in the class are low-ability.
(2) They have a tendency to come to know which pupils are lower-ability (whether plonked in a classroom in Birmingham or Lesotho)
(3) They pay attention to the capabilities of the pupil. The teacher has a picture of what they can do (for example, the pupil can write out numbers in binary, just not do binary addition). The resolution is higher than merely the categorisation "lower ability"
(4) The teacher believes that lower-ability pupils require goals.
(5) The teacher can readily parse tasks, so that goals appropriate to lower-ability pupils can be conceived.
Their ability to conceive of goals is nuanced and refined, beyond merely a person who says "aim to complete the task fastest" or "aim to answer this extension question".
(6) The teacher can set goals that stretch lower-ability pupils without embarrassing the pupils or disrespecting them.
For example, a teacher cannot publicly say: "John, I want you to aim to complete half the questions", implicitly communicating to the whole class that John is incapable of completing the entire set of questions.
I certainly think that there are indirect ways of setting goals to a person. You can plant ideas in someone else's mind, so that they intend to X.
You might explain the rewards that would come from achieving the goal, without ever explicitly suggesting to the pupil that they ought to adopt the goal.
A cunning teacher might recount a story of a previous pupil who achieved goal X, knowing what makes the current listening student tick.
Verbalisations such as "I want you to try to achieve goal G" are an arbitrary way of setting goals that stretch and challenge.
If a teacher knows what makes a pupil tick—the kinds of things the pupil admires and the kinds of things the pupil is motivated by—then it is possible that a teacher can deposite ideas about goals, with the intention of pupils adopting those goals. Perhaps the teacher never actually directly asks the pupil to adopt the goal.