Learning and Assessment: Written assignment part 2

I am going to reflect on various aspects covered in this session and discuss how I will use them in my teaching practice. I will explain why we assess and the potential barriers to effective assessment. I will evaluate the different types of assessment and consider the different roles they have in our educational contexts. I will work collaboratively in researching and creating an effective assessment, with clear success criteria that takes into account different starting points and addresses multiple intelligences.

Three rules to spark learning

The three rules that encourage learning include curiosity, trial and error and reflection. These three rules were taken from Ramsey Musallam who produced a video discussing these on TED. He specifically emphasises the importance of rule number one which is curiousity in which he states the importance of students asking questions on the topic of discussion and that it is important to that as an educator to cultivate curiosity in perplexing and confusing students into thinking about a proposed scenario relevant to the topic and get them questioning as to why certain things happen this way in order to 'spark their imagination' and encourage passion to the subject as Albert Einstein quotes, 'I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious'. However not all students are as curious as others. Rule number two is trial and error. A particular good example to demonstrate the use of trial and error in science would be to gather a range of partcicular equipment and place them onto tables that have been specifically allocated to groups and get the students on each table to solve the proposed problem using the equipment given through a process of trial and error. These could be differentiated scenarios with different equipment based on student capability. An important part of trial and error is building student resilience as referenced by the quote by Samuel Beckett (1989) 'Ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better'. However, some students are better at this than others which relates to the fight or flight principle. Those who fight are resilient and will try to overcome their failure by improving. There are others which present an obstacle in that they fear failure and don't necessarily know how to be resilient and its therefore teaching students to be resilient. The third rule would be reflection in which students reflect on areas that they are not so confident on based on class content discussion or assessment feedback in order to improve on next time whether it be in class discussion or assessment. Again I would say some students are better at reflecting and being self critical on their work more than others.  There is an evident link to Claxton's four R's within these three rules in building resilient learners as discussed in rule number two. Resourcefulness and reflective news would be evident in rule number three and reciprocity would be evident in all three rules.

Why we assess

It's important that we don't fall into the trap of  putting too much of the weighting on assessment as a measure of student progress. As some students may have made more progress than others, so what we assess and how we assess is very important. This is evident in that David Boud states 'Students can, with difficulty, escape from the effects of poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they want to graduate) escape the effects of poor assessment. So it is important that we as an educational system know what to assess and how to assess correctly.

From the Ken Robinson video, 'Changing Education Paradigms', he states that assessment procedures in schools are wrong, this is important to acknowledge as stated by Derek Rowntree 'if we wish to discover the truth about an educational system, we must look to its assessment procedures' and 'assessment is important because students cannot avoid it.' All students must complete a set of exam papers for subjects in which they are given a grade, however, not all agree that this is the correct way to assess students progress. Some students are academic and some are more suited to work based apprenticeships. Students are judged and put into tiers. Some agree that this is stifling creativity in students and producing factory batch students based on how well they know the curriculum.

So why do we assess? There are many reasons. We assess to match learning experiences to the learner's needs i.e. in the form of questionnaires to ensure that we are assessing students based on what they have been taught, to seek to measure progress i.e how well they are performing using grades, to generate effective feedback to learners so that the student can reflect and improve, to enable relative and absolute judgements, to build in a competitive dimension into the learning environment for students which can improve motivation for some students, to measure competencies across a wide range of skills-sets, to rank student performance and to discover the future potential of the learner.

However,  there are difficulties with assessment, such as, assessment without purpose, so for example within schools is a academic calendar of assessment dates when assessments must be completed and recorded on the school system, However, the assessment date may fall on a date in which you as a teacher have not completed the teaching for and so when the student comes to complete the paper they have not been taught all the relevant material so it becomes an informative assessment. Sometimes the assessment objectives in lesson are unclear so students are not sure on what they will be assessed on in the exam. In schools students sometimes have too many assessments which can actually encroach on their learning within lessons and the learning becomes very staggered because teaching has to stop in order for an assessment to be performed and then the student needs to reflect on their feedback. Some students are assessed with methods that are inappropriate and unreliable for example linking to Ken Robinsons video in that some students are not academic and are more 'hands on skills based' for work in the trade industry so by academically assessing them is inappropriate and produces an unreliable picture of the potential of that student and peer assessment can prove unreliable as the student doesn't really understand what the student has written in response to the question. The form of assessment does not always assess all the multiple intelligences of an individual. Sometimes assessment can be demotivating for less successful students which can lead to problems with engagement and attendance to lessons which can lead to unhealthy forms of competition within the learning environment.  As Long (2000) states, 'assessment is.....a major part of the educational process, and without it, teaching would be a rather unfocused activity. The fact remains, however, that a great deal of testing is implemented with limited justification'. So are we assessing too much??

Types of Assessment

There are many different methods we use to assess students, these can be diagnostic, formative and summative. But as stated previously there are difficulties with these are they can sometimes be inappropriate and unreliable.

Diagnostic assessments are used to diagnose the level of learning that has been achieved by students i.e entry level tests/learning style assessments. Generally used at the start of the academic year to determine what level of teaching or support may be required. These can be used at the end of a lecture of series of lectures for example plenaries to see if students have understood the lesson. However, in order for this type of assessment to be an effective student learning tool there needs to be an element of feedback.

Formative assessments are given throughout the course and provide feedback to students to help them improve their performance. The feedback can be from the teacher, their peers or external agents. There are pros and cons to peer assessment. The pros being that peer assessment can benefit students in their understanding and in using the assessment criteria, however, not all peers understand the mark scheme and correlate it correctly to what the student has written based on their lack of knowledge and comprehension of the question. Hattie (2003) tabulated the most effective influence to student learning was feedback.

Summative assessments may or may not include feedback. The main difference between this form of assessment compared to the others is that grades are awarded. The grade will indicate performance against the standards set for the assessment task. This form of assessment can be given throughout the academic year or at the end of a course or module.

So what can we assess?? The areas we assess are knowledge, which deals with factual information , skills which deals with 'how' we do things and understanding which is the ability to use information. However, not all assessments have an equal proportion of these areas. Fleming and Chambers (1963) found that nearly 80% of all questions in school tests dealt only with factual information. The reasoning for this was that 'the ease of using simple knowledge-based assessments, since tests which incorporate children's use of skills and understanding tend to be too time consuming to design and implement (Long, 2000). An area that is missing that should be assessed is aptitude which assesses the potential for future attainment i.e. How are you clever? Not how clever are you?. However, aptitude is difficult to teach and difficult to give feedback on.

If I was an Ofsted inspector I would expect a schools approach to outstanding assessment to be outstanding in teaching and learning in terms of assessment meeting all student needs and incorporating all levels of assessment, outstanding management and leadership in terms of setting the assessments and setting intervention and support for underperforming students and outstanding behavioural outcomes in that all students are making progress and are engaged in lessons. In terms of approach to a school that requires improvement assessment methodologies in terms of teaching and learning and assessment feedback are lacking, poor leadership and management in terms of organising assessments and intervention and support for underperforming student, and poor behavioural outcomes i.e poor attendance and lack of engagement within lessons.

References

Attfied., R . National College for School Leadership. Improving the quality of teaching. Thinkpiece Improving the quality of teaching Level 2. Pg 8.

Taylor., M. Learning and Assessment. Presentation notes. Date 27 February 2017.

Learning and Assessment: Written Assignment Part 1.

Surface and Deep Learning

Surface learning is termed ‘fast thinking’ and deep learning is termed ‘slow thinking’. With surface learning it generally associated with a reaction to an immediate problem in which the student uses association to try and solve the problem, however, without deeper understanding this method of learning can be open to mistakes and the student may not understand the proposed concept correctly. Whereas with deep learning the student takes time to solve the problem and comprehend what the question is asking them about. With deep learning students try to make sense of abstract meaning and relate it to the real world. They have a much more deeper understanding of the concept. Whereas with surface learning its more of a quantitative increase in knowledge where the learning os acquiring knowledge, it ‘knowing a lot’ but not necessarily understanding it and being able to relate it to the real world. Surface learning is more about memorising facts, skills and methods and being able to use them when necessary. I do think with the time constraints and the content of the course that lessons are fast paced and sometimes I feel that the students do not have the chance in lesson to pursue deep learning. However, outside the class they can but students need to develop their self-discipline in order to do this.

Learning Theorists-which of these resonate with your own practice?

I believe that may role as the educator is to structure the content of the learning activities within the lesson as the view of the learning process that I tend to mainly focus on in class is that of the cognitivist where the learning is an internal mental process focussing on cognitive development, intelligence and learning how to learn. The theorists Koffka, Kohler, Lewin, Piaget, Ausubel, Bruner and Gagne proposed that learning requires cognitive structuring in which students must be able to learn new material in order to understand the concepts and with A level Biology there is a high content level in which the students must be able to learn and apply so students therefore develop a capacity and skills to learn better. They are older students so the behavioural learning process is not needed to be developed as much in the class as they are students who want to be there and are there to learn, however, that is not to say that behaviour is not an issue in the class. As the educator I have had to arrange the environment within the classroom to elicit the desired response to the topic we are discussing for example a seating plan, working is specific allocated groups etc in order to prevent disruptive behaviour. The humanist approach has also needed to be employed in order to motivate students in what they can aspire to be in terms of career. Social and situational learning has also been utilized in class as students can learn a lot from other members of the class through conversation and participation in class activities and questioning as well as from outside speakers from the community coming into class to discuss careers and topics studied.  Sutton Trust data (2011) states that a student taught by an effective teacher gains 40% more in their learning than a child who is taught by a poor teacher with insufficient skills. Developing good practice with regards to teaching and learning is available in the Ofsted framework (2011) and Lorin Anderson’s modified version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, however Claxton warns of flow diagrams and checklists as “a very good place to start thinking about learning-but they are an awful place to stop”.

Fight vs Flight-why is this relevant to our classrooms?

All students are different, they have different personalities, capabilities, intelligences, learning styles, social and economic backgrounds and when given an activity to do, some students react to it better than others. For some students it may not be clear what it is that they need to do. They can then go into the ‘fight or flight’ mode in which they start to become overwhelmed, feel pressured and start to panic which results in them avoiding the activity, copying off someone who does or being disruptive. This is important as a teacher in that I need to be able to understand all my students abilities and be able to produce differentiated resources in order for my students to progress.

Gardner-Multiple intelligences

From conducting the Multiple Intelligences Test based on Howard Gardner’s MI model which states that you are happiest and most successful when you learn, develop and work in ways that make best use of your natural intelligences. This acts as an indicator to help you to focus on the sort of learning and work that will be most fulfilling and rewarding to you. I tended to score highest in musical and intrapersonal intelligence types. These indicate my natural strengths and potential (my natural intelligences). From the description for intelligence type ‘Musical’ it states that I have a musical ability, awareness and appreciation and use of sound; recognition of tonal and rhythmic patterns and understands the relationship between sound and feeling. Typical roles that I would excel in include becoming a musician or acoustic engineer and a plethora of others. Related tasks I would perform well at include performing a musical piece, playing a musical instrument or coaching someone to play a musical instrument. My preferred learning style is though rhythm. This intelligence type could originate from the fact that I have a deep passion for music and have been since a young age because I have come from a musical background which has always inspired me. My second intelligence type was that of ‘Intrapersonal’. The intelligence description that accompanies this is that of self-awareness and the ability to understand oneself and one’s own relationships to others and the world. Related activities would be to consider and decide one’s own aims and personal changes required to achieve them. I would say I prefer to do a lot of self-reflection and self-discovery in order to become a better person and to succeed to the best potential that I can. This tool could be employed in class to students for them to find out what career that would be best able to excel at based on their natural intelligence types.  There are various methods that students can use that utilize their learning styles which also encourage creativity, these include: ImageSmart, BodySmart, LogicSmart, NatureSmart, SoundSmart, WordSmart, PeopleSmart and SelfSmart. For example, SoundSmart requires the student to make up a song about the information, thinking of background sounds that they associate with the learning, match the concepts with appropriate background music, imagine different rhythms or beats for the information and experiment with different ways of speaking to explain the information (loud, soft, fast and slow).

Claxton-the 4Rs-how we get students to learn

Professor Guy Claxton (1947-) is a British cognitive scientist and education theorist who has conducted influential work on the learning skills of children and young people. Claxton is renowned for his work on the ‘Building Learning Power’ project. Claxton believes that too much emphasis has been put onto importance of literacy and numeracy and schools have neglected the more general learning skills. Claxton suggests that the four R’s are involved when the brain is exercised and are important in the learning process. These include resilience (never giving up), resourcefulness (learning in a variety of ways), reflectiveness (being able to review one’s own learning) and reciprocity (being able to work alone and with others). I believe that these are important in learning successfully and effectively. Claxton has also identified eight ‘building blocks of learning power’ which teachers are encouraged to use in their work in order for students to learn best. They include curiosity (to develop a healthy scepticism), exploration (to look for solutions to problems), courage (when taking risks in learning), experimentation (trial and error to find appropriate answers), imagination (find creative breakthroughs), discipline (rigorous framework for learning), sociability (sharing ideas with others and listening to their views) and thoughtfulness (time and space for more creative learning). Claxton has also carried out work on ‘slow ways of knowing’. This very much reflects deep learning as opposed to surface learning. In Claxton’s publication, ‘Hare Brain Tortoise Mind’, he suggests that modern day thinking is fast and unreflective ‘hare brain’ and at the expense of slow more reflective ways of thinking ‘tortoise mind’ this can affect deeper understanding and perception. A further area of Claxton’s work involved looking at creativity and how it can be supported in the classroom. Claxton has suggested eight ‘I’s to creativity, they include immersion (being knowledgeable about the area to be developed), inquisitiveness (being curious and accepting there are no easy answers), investigation (knowing what to do when you get stuck), interaction (sharing relevant ideas with others), imagination (to find creative breakthroughs), intuition (what your gut feeling tells you), intellect (recognising that creativity requires careful thought and determination) and imitation (acknowledging the need to teachers to model creativity). I do believe that there is a massive emphasis on numeracy and literacy in class and this has stifled the ability of students to be creative and its trying to encourage students to become creative in lessons. Students are encouraged to use different methods of learning in class, students I have found generally prefer the teacher to stand at the front of the class and for students to take notes. However, I have tried to get away from this as there are other ways in which students can learn relating to the four R’s proposed by Claxton. Resilience in that students have had to get themselves back up again after poor performance in assessment, reflectiveness in that students are to assess their weaknesses and strengths in assessments to improve, resourcefulness in that students have to use a range of methods to acquire their knowledge be it online, textbooks, practice papers and reciprocity in that students should converse with others to seek out the knowledge that they need.

(1672 words)

References

Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-2011.pdf (Date seen 2/12/17)

A Chapman and V Chislett MSc 2005, based on Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Model. From www.businessballs.com

Guy Claxton. http://www.guyclaxton.com/ (Date seen 16/2/17)

Robin Attfield. National College for School Leadership. Schools and Academies. Improving the quality of teaching Level 2.

Leading Teacher and Learning

The objectives of this session were to:

• gain a knowledge of leadership strategies which can be used to influence and improve the quality of teaching
• understand the principles, models and practice of effective teaching and learning
• know how to identify outstanding teaching and learning and be able to lead on this through example

It is important as a leader to prepare students for jobs that are not available yet but by teaching the students the necessary knowledge in order for jobs to be created for them, especially in the technology industry as it is vastly expanding with opportunities potentially becoming available.

The myths and facts about schools gave me an interesting insight into some of the common misconceptions about the activities schools are required to carry out within the academic year for 2015-2016. With regards to the curriculum, it was a common myth that schools would stop offering vocational courses to make time for the EBacc. In actual fact, there is time for pupils to follow technical and practical courses alongside their EBacc subjects. Each year Dfe identifies high-quality technical awards that can contribute to performance measures alongside GCSEs. Another myth was that technical qualifications at key stage 4 are too specialist and will narrow pupils' options post 16. In actual fact technical awards are not specialist. They develop useful and relevant skills and knowledge, while enabling students to gain practical abilities that would not normally be developed through GCSEs. Another myth is that the government is ignoring arts. In fact broadening access and opportunities to the arts is priority for this government. Since 2012 the government invested £460 million in cultural education projects that complement what's happening in the classroom. E.g. the 123 music education hubs and the British Film Institute's "Film Academy". The government are making changes to ensure that GCSEs in arts subjects are more rigorous, in line with their reforms to other academic subjects so they sufficiently prepare students for careers in the arts and so they develop an appreciation and understanding. The Secretary of State in her recent speech at the Creative Industries Federation, highlighted the importance of the arts to this country and stated that there is an increasing breakdown in the divide between arts and science. Another myth is that Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education is not important. In fact high quality PSHE teaching helps pupils to develop their resilience and ability to learn across the whole curriculum. It can provide pupils with the knowledge and skills they need to manage risks and stay safe. Schools can also teach skills that prepare students for the workplace through PSHE, such as team working and communication. The Government has made it clear in the introduction to the National Curriculum Framework Document that all schools should teach PSHE, drawing on examples of good practice. Ofsted has identified that outstanding schools generally have outstanding PSHE education, and that PSHE education contributes to a number of key judgements in the new inspection framework, especially in relation to personal development, behaviour and welfare, SMSC and safeguarding. They have in order to help schools published a review of impact and effective practice in PSHE so that schools can develop their own PSHE and curriculum based on the best available evidence.  Schools can also use the PSHE Association's non-statutory Programme of Study. The government are considering what further action to take to improve the quality of  PSHE and will make further announcements later in the year.

With regards to exams and qualifications it is a myth that UCAS have reduced the value of the AS level from 50% to 40% of an A level because the new reformed AS level will be less challenging. In actual fact UCAS have amended the amount of tariff points awarded for an AS level certificate to better reflect the current value of that qualification. There will be no overall change in the level of challenge at AS level.

With regards to assessment and performance it was a myth that schools would lose out in the performance tables if students enter for AS levels. In fact AS levels will continue to count for performance measurement. An AS level can count towards a school's measure in either key stage 4 performance tables or the 16-18 performance table. However, this does depend on the student's age at the time they achieve their qualification. However, the grade that is recorded for the qualification in the schools performance measurement tables is the one at A level not the AS level in a single subject between the ages of 16-18. Another myth is that the government's changes to the way they record first entry results means that pupils cannot progress to further education if they achieve a poor grade the first time they sit their exam. In fact, students are able to use their best result when applying for progression to post-16 education or employment, irrespective of the number of resits. Pupils do not need to cite the grade reported in the school performance measures which records first entry outcomes. Another myth is that Ofsted will limit themselves to consideration of first entry results when assessing schools. Actually, Ofsted will not look solely at first entry outcomes when judging achievement. An additional 'reporting and analysis for improvement through self-evaluation' (RAISE) online report will allow schools to compare their first entry results with the best overall results. However, they believe its only right that students are entered for qualifications when they are ready, which is why they introduced the early entry policy.



With regards to pupils another myth is that the Prevent duty will limit debate difficult subjects in schools by criminalising pupils and staff who make controversial comments. Actually, the department's published advice on the Prevent duty makes it explicitly clear that the Prevent duty is not intended to stop children debating controversial issues, it encourages schools to provide safe spaces in which children, young people and staff can understand the risks associated with terrorism and develop the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge extremist arguments. Another myth is that the Prevent duty requires schools to spy on pupils and undermines relationships between staff and pupils. Actually the Prevent duty is about keeping children safe from harm and should be seen in the context of the schools' wider safeguarding work. Another myth is that when Ofsted, DfE and others recommended that schools commission pupil premium reviews, it was unclear as to what was expected. In fact there is information on the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) webpages about pupil premium reviews. This includes information on who should carry out the review; advice on where to go to find a reviewer and what it might cost and a link to a review quote. Another myth is that the government has forced schools to promote views that are not consistent with their philosophy. In fact, local-authority-maintained schools, academies and independent schools now actively promote fundamental British values. These are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values have been part of the Ofsted framework since 2013 for independent schools and 2014 for maintained schools and academies. Schools have embedded these values as a central part of their curriculum and teaching practices. Their aim is to encourage schools to promote pupils to respect other people, whatever their personal circumstances, background or beliefs in order to prepare them for life in modern Britain. The Equality Act 2010 applies to all schools.


With regards to vocational education reform. It is a myth that technical and vocational qualifications categorised as tech levels in the performance tables are for further education (FE) colleges and those categorised as applied general qualifications apply to schools and sixth form colleges. Actually tech levels and applied general qualifications are both categories of level 3 qualification that can count in the school and college performance tables from 2016. Another myth is that 16-19 year old students taking academic courses don't need to do work experience. In fact both academic and vocational students are covered by the 16-19 study programme requirements, an important part of which is the opportunity to do work experience. Another myth is that 16-19 year old students without an A to C grade in GCSE English and/or maths have to retake them. In fact only full time 16-19 year old students with grade D in English and/or maths enrolling on a 16-19 study programme must retake the GCSE examination. For those with a GCSE of grade E o below, there is a range of 'stepping stone' qualifications that can be studied, such as Functional skills. Further information is found in the published guidance providing information on the 16-19 maths and English conditions of funding.

With regards to Governance it is a myth that individuals are not allowed to serve on the governing body or board or more than 2 schools or academies. In fact there is no rule to prevent an individual from serving an as a governor or trustee at more than 2 schools or academies. They recognise that there are a number of people who have unique skills and the time to serve effectively on a number of governing bodies, and they don't want to restrict their ability to do so. The governance handbook and statutory guidance for local-authority-maintained schools state that boards and other appointing bodies should interview and take references to ensure that the people they appoint are appropriate and they have the necessary skills and time to serve effectively. This is important if they are already serving on the governing board of other schools. This decision is made by the body making the appointment.

With regards to teachers pay, it is a myth that all teachers on the maximum of the main pay range should receive an increase of 2%. In fact the maximum of the national main pay ranges was increased by 2% from 1st September 2015. However, it is up to the schools to determine whether and in what circumstances the salaries of individual teachers should be increased by 2%. There is no statutory requirement for all teachers at the top of the main pay range to receive the full 2%.

There are many different leadership styles that a leader needs to demonstrate in order to be an effective leader in order to be able to adapt to change. These consist of coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching styles. I carried out a leadership style assessment and found out I demonstrate more of a democratic leadership style in that I like to reach a consensus through others participating in the discussion by asking them what they think. This style involves collaboration and team leadership and generally has a positive impact as it takes other members contributions into consideration to build a consensus. Democratic leadership encourages people to have a say in the decisions that affect their goals and how they do their work. By doing this a leader builds trust, respect and commitment as well as increasing flexibility and responsibility and improving morale. This style works best when a leader, who is clear about the overall objectives still needs guidance from experienced employees as to how it might be best attained. A downfall of this style is that crucial decisions are put off, relying on solutions which emerge from democratic discussions which can leave people confused and lacking leadership, especially in times of crisis and change. So as a leader I need to be clear as to what it is I want the team to do.

As I leader I need to be consistent and focus relentlessly on improving teaching and learning and provide focused professional development for all my staff, especially those who are newly qualified and at an early stage of their career. This means I need to search performance management that encourages and supports teachers' improvement in order to improve the overall quality of teaching. I found out that as a teacher in order to demonstrate a good to outstanding lesson you are required to achieve a number of 'tick boxes' that have been incorporated into your lesson. So sometimes a teachers view of what makes and effective teaching and learning in lesson may be somewhat different to a child's view of effective teaching and learning in lesson. Overall, I found that it is important to set your expectations in terms of behaviour in lessons so students know where they stand. Lessons should be fun, follow a routine, issue praise where requires, involve variety, have a good pace and students can demonstrate their understanding to show what they have learned and that the more able students have been challenged in the form of a variety of tasks in lessons. Factors that make a good lesson include personalised plans, the didactic approach, teacher direction, teacher scaffolding, teacher as a facilitator, teacher guidance, group based learning.

Some questions I need to ask myself in becoming a leader include what is the biggest variable that explains in-school variation and how as a middle leader would I go about eliminating this variation in order to provide good to outstanding teaching. I would also need to consider what would be the non-negotiables to ensure the highest levels of consistently outstanding practice.  It has been stated that the biggest variable that causes in-school variation is the teachers and their standards. From the Sutton Trust (2011) report on 'improving the impact of teachers on pupil achievement in the UK; interim findings' the biggest single variable (30%) that explains in-school variation was the teachers themselves with regards to teaching strategies, professional characteristics and classroom climate. As a middle leader to achieve consistency would mean eliminating this variation and that would involve identifying the non-negotiables, ie aspects of teaching and learning that have been identified as being essential to raising performance and achievement. As a rule, high performing schools are schools with the lowest levels of in-school variation, ie the highest levels of consistently outstanding practice.

Effective Teaching as taken from the report from the Sutton Trust (2011) stated that the difference between a very effective teacher and a poorly performing teacher is vast. E.g during one year with a very effective maths teacher, pupils gained 40% more in their learning than they would with a poorly performing maths teacher. The effects of high quality teaching are especially significant for pupils with disadvantaged backgrounds; over a school year, these pupils gain 1.5 years' worth of learning with very effective teachers' as opposed to 0.5 years with poorly performing teachers. I.e. for poor pupils the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher is a whole year's learning.

Ofsted describe outstanding leadership and management

• through pursuing excellence in all of the school's activities to improve and maintain the highest levels of achievement and personal development for all pupils over a sustained period of time.  
• being ambitious for the pupils and lead by example. Leaders and managers base their actions on a deep and accurate understanding of the school's performance and of staff and pupils' skills and attributes. 
• holding senior leaders accountable for school's performance.
• excellent policies that ensures that pupils have high levels of literacy, or are making excellent progress in literacy. 
• Leaders focus relentlessly on improving teaching and learning and provide focused professional development for all staff, especially those who are newly qualified and at an early stage of their careers. This involves searching performance management that challenges and supports teachers' improvement. This would lead to the overall quality of teaching to be consistently good or improving. 
• the school's curriculum promotes and sustains a thirst for knowledge and understanding and a love of learning. It covers a wide range of subjects and provides opportunities for academic, technical and sporting excellence. It has a very positive impact on pupils' behaviour and safety and contributes well to pupil's academic achievement, their physical well-being, and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  
• the schools actions have secured improvement in achievement for disadvantaged pupils, which is rising rapidly, including English and Maths. 
• The school has highly successful strategies for engaging with parents to the benefit of pupils, including those who find working with the school difficult.
• promote improvement across the wider system including, where applicable, with early years providers to raise the proportion of children who are well prepared to start school.
• The school is adept at identifying any child at risk of harm and engaging with partners to respond appropriately. Staff model professional standards in all of their work and demonstrate high levels of respect and courtesy for pupils and others.
• through effective, rigorous planning and controls, governors ensure financial stability including effective and efficient management of financial resources such as the pupil premium funding. This leads to excellent deployment of staff and resources to benefit all groups of pupils
• leaders have ensured that early years and or sixth form provision is highly effective.

Middle leaders and senior leaders are pivotal to enhance the quality of learning and teaching. There are three main areas that do this, they include: modelling, dialogue and monitoring. As a leader I need to become more confident in leading professional conversations and listening and talking to colleagues within whole school briefing, departmental meeting and school/university liaison meetings, in order to do this takes practice and I need to share my teaching practice and ideas through these meetings and ask for feedback in order to improve. As a leader I need to model practice by leading by example, I have done some of this by acting as a BTEC Lead IV in sharing the protocol with other members of the team and stated how I would the documentation to be completed by providing example material. I need to be confident in monitoring and evaluating teaching and learning in knowing what is going on in the classroom to ensure students are focused on task and any poor behaviour is challenged along with poor punctuality and attendance. I also need to be aware of students with any SEN/G&T. I also need to be confident in knowing how to develop peoples skills and team effectiveness by understanding my leadership style and attributes as a person within a team in order for it to be effective. This involves mentoring and supporting the personal development of colleagues long term so as to improve the overall standard of teaching. I have demonstrated my mentoring skills as a BTEC Lead IV in mentoring staff in delivering the specified units with necessary documents and guidance. 

Effective teams


From this workshop I had to understand what the definition of team work. Team work i s working together and collaborating with each other to share knowledge and ideas. In order for a team to work effectively everyone needs to contribute and everyone needs to be able to voice their opinions, ideas and concerns. By working as a team, as a leader, you are able to achieve more jobs than just one in a shorter time which creates less pressure on yourself as a leader.

This is an area I need to focus on if I am to become an effective leader, in building a rapport with the people I work with in order to become a good leader, I think this is important as if I don't try to build a relationship with the team then they may choose not to follow my suggestions and this can create a tense atmosphere within the group.

I particularly liked the phrase, 'teams are like ecosystems' which I believe is very true. All members of the group have their particular niche within the ecosystem and its utilising these different skills as a leader to obtain the best outcome for the team. Also as a good leader you have to hold people accountable for their particular roles within the group and if they are not 'pulling their weight' as a leader you have to discuss with them firmly and fairly individually as to the reasons why and what it is you expect of them.

As a leader you need to relax and be able to have a more 'friendly' approach to your team and try to build a rapport with them. This is something I need to improve on and be able to communicate with other members of the team better to build relationships.

When doing the Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) this showed me what my behaviour was like as a team member. I concluded that my team roles were the Implementer and the Completer Finisher. The contribution of the Implementer consisted of being practical, reliable and efficient and turns ideas into actions and organises the work that needs to be done. However, the weaknesses with this role included being inflexible and slow to respond to new possibilities. So perhaps, I need to be less rigid in my action planning and be more open-minded to changes that can occur within the action planning. The contribution of the Completer and Finisher consisted of be painstakingly meticulous, conscientious and anxious, searches for errors and polishes and perfects their work. However, the weaknesses with this role included being inclined to worry unduly and being reluctant to delegate. So perhaps I need to delegate the workload to people more effectively and not take on the full responsibility of the whole job itself. The 'Do's' and 'Don'ts' of these roles I shall discuss now. For the Implementer the 'Do's' include being able to organise systems, ensure I and my team follow the laid out procedures. Get down to practical issues and try and turn ideas into action. I must also be loyal to the organisation and the people within it. From this I need to be able to delegate effectively and ensure members are held accountable for their roles within the organisation and be able to support one another within the team. The 'Don'ts with this role include being obstructive to change, being resistant to new ideas of the team and being seen to be 'stuck in the mud'. I need to therefore be more flexible and open-minded and respect others contributions to the problem. The 'Do's with the role of the Completer/Finisher include trying to raise the standards in all that I do and concern myself with the detail and use my ability to help other members of the team who may not be as strong or accurate and to promote excellence. The 'Don'ts' of this role include allowing perfectionism to turn into a possessive behaviour. I need to be more understanding of individuals strengths and weaknesses and be more empathetic towards others in the team in order for it to work effectively.

I have learned that in order to improve I need to start implementing a more of a co-ordinator type of behaviour in that I need to embrace a more mature, confident approach and be able to delegate effectively and also do my own fair share of the work too. I also need to establish an air of authority over the team with a mature approach and bring others into discussions when they have things to contribute. I need to support the group and hold the group together and praise and encourage others without taking credit for the effort of the team. I need to stop the negative behaviour of the shaper i.e holding grudges and losing my sense of humour when things get tough. I need to display less of a worrying type of behaviour associated with the completer/finisher attribute and be able to delegate effectively and not allow perfectionism to turn into a possessive behaviour and to discourage the weaknesses associated with the implementer in being resistant to new ideas and being obstructive to change. I need to encourage more of the Team Worker attribute in that I need to be more co-operative, perceptive and diplomatic and listen to others and avert friction within the team but not become indecisive in crunch situations and avoid confrontation.  I need to promote a good team atmosphere by reacting to the needs of others and supporting members of the group where necessary. I need to be able to diffuse arguments and any hostility within the team.However, I need to avoid any situations that may entail pressure and not side with the most dominant in a desire to please. I also need to acquire the abilities of a monitor/evaluator type of behaviour in that I tend to rush into decisions quickly and I need to take more time over my decisions. I need to adopt a more strategic behaviour and be able to see all options and judge accurately but not lack drive and ability to inspire others or be over critical. I need to be able to provide a more balanced opinion on all ideas and options and to be ready to explain what actions I prefer and why. I need to stop ill thought out courses of action and take time over my decisions. However, I need to remain positive and not give a negative reaction to everything I hear as this would come across as being cynical and negative.

In order to be a good leader I need to demonstrate an Educational Excellence i.e model excellence in the leadership of teaching and learning. In order to do this I need to lead pupils and colleagues by example. I need to show a commitment to high quality teaching and be able to relay the importance of this and its impact on learning with students and fellow colleagues. This would lead to teachers being able to design a curriculum, appropriate to the context, that is better suited to meet the needs of children and young people. I need to be someone who has a strong learning focus and is able to keep learning and revise pedagogies and use these to improve effective teaching and learning. I need to do this in order to have a clear sense of any changes in the culture, skills and practice in order to achieve best practice and to ensure high quality teaching and consistent learning across college. I need to be able to inspire others and be able to motivate and energise students, colleagues and other educational staff and be able to bring everyone together in order to develop and implement shared goals or objectives. This is important in creating a positive environment for students and colleagues and also important in building self-confidence as a leader. I need to be able to develop strategic leadership in that I need to be self-aware of my personal strengths and areas for future growth and be able to understand how my behaviour impacts on others (i.e. not to come across stressed as this has a negative impact on the team). I need to be able to delegate and share out work and responsibilities when others are better placed to accomplish particular tasks/objectives instead of trying to do it myself as this is not good for my well-being and therefore I can not perform as a good leader  in making good decisions and behaving appropriately. I really need to improve on my operational management in relating to others and building relationships by being able to acknowledge and understand the thoughts, emotions and feelings of students, colleagues, parents and stakeholders and in identifying reasons why others behave the way that they do in order to build long lasting relationships and work effectively.  I need to be able to develop and support others and empower colleagues so that they experience real, significant personal growth and be more proactive in seeking out opportunities to develop colleagues through activities such as mentoring, supporting, praising and guiding in order to bring out the best in them and reach their full potential. I need to improve on my ability to hold others to account . I need to clarify expectations and set high standards for others and ensure goals/objectives are achieved and be able to hold people to account for  their performance in line with these expectations. I will need to use my own position or authority to get others to do what is asked of them and at times this will involve making tough or unpopular decisions. However, I must bear in mind that these choices/actions will be made with the best interests of students and schools in mind. As a leader I need to be clear what needs to be done, who needs to do it, by when and what the outcome should look like. I need to keep an eye on progress and ensure educational standards do not drop in order for the college to succeed.

From the session on 'Narrowing the Gap' I had discovered how valuable this is but yet incredibly difficult to achieve as there are many outside factors sometimes beyond your control. For I had learned that differences in literacy skill ability varies across all classes and if one of your targets is high grades within a particular class of varying literacy ability this can be difficult to achieve. However, by incorporating literacy skill workshops and comprehension exercises in class can help improve student outcome.

As a leader I had learned that society's perception was very different to what an actual good leader does. Society's perception of leadership is an individual that portrays very confident body language who barks orders to their team members whereas in reality a good leader has that careful balance in that they are firm but fair and portray an encouraging behaviour towards other members of the team rather than being perceived as nagging. They are seen as being able to support others and to step back at times in order to let others take the lead as some members of the team will have strengths that you will need to utilise.

I had found particularly interesting the research that was conducted by 'Sutton Trust' in improving learning which showed methods impacted on students the most with time scales. Some methods which improved learning included meta-cognition, feedback, oral language interventions in order to raise literacy skills, homework, one-to-one tuition, mastery learning, early years intervention and collaborative learning.

It was also interesting to find out that there are many underlying conditions students suffer from that can contribute to their behaviours in class such as ADHD and the treatment that they are given for these disorders.

When reviewing the leadership competencies the characteristics I have are delivering continuous improvement, learning focus, serving others, inspiring others, information seeking, self-awareness, personal drive, integrity resilience and emotional maturity. The main area I need to focus on is operational management in my analytical thinking, relating to others, holding others to account, and developing others. I also need to develop my strategic leadership skills in conceptual thinking, future focus and impact and influence. In my educational excellence I need to develop my modelling excellence in leadership of teaching and learning, broad organisational understanding and partnership working.

When reviewing the document on 'the importance of teaching' the main issue that came across was in order to address the issue of consistency would be to reduce variation within classes which is difficult to achieve as students all have varying abilities. Also the importance of having a high-quality teacher can have a huge impact on student progress particularly students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

What I understand about closing the gap is trying to reduce the variation in class. Why you would need to do this is to improve consistency and student outcome. How we do this is by identifying the groups which are least successful, reflecting on the causes and taking action in order to bring attainment levels closer to the national norm.  In some instances this may involve improving their wellbeing in order for them to achieve. The three main groups that prove to be unsuccessful are those from a poorer socio-economic background and of those pupils with SEN, behavioural, emotional and social difficulties eligible for free school meals. Gender is the second with boys more likely to underachieve than girls. Thirdly is ethnicity with the lowest performing as being black Caribbean.

Other gaps included in-school variation, between school variation and between other vulnerable groups such as mobile pupils, pupils with SEN and looked-after children. Closing the gap is a core leadership responsibility involving vision and ambition for your pupils and school, analysis of evidence, strategic thinking, tactical planning, operational drive, capacity building and partnership building

Use of internal data is not always reliable as there are issues that affect the validity of the data such as the student may be having a bad day that day of the assessment and the result is not a true reflection of their ability. Also issues like attendance and punctuality can mean students have missed that particular topic so don't understand how to answer the question on it but may have been able to answer the other questions correctly in which they attended the lessons for.

In my leadership challenge I need to formulate an action plan to discuss the issue of students achieving value added and in turn address the issue of closing ethnicity gap in A2 Biology.

After the first session...

From the first session it surprised me how everyone in the room was at different starting points in developing their leadership skills. Some were at the beginning of the ladder, some were in the middle and some had a lot of insight and experience in demonstrating leadership skills and were almost at the top.

Firstly, I expected to gain from this session a knowledge from others as all the individuals in the room had a range of experiences with regards to leadership. Secondly, I expected to capture an understanding of what exactly leadership skills were and how to improve on these and thirdly, to motivate and support others in acquiring leadership skills.

I concluded that some of the characteristics a good leader needs to have are that they are a good team player, problem solver, strategy thinker, confident and that they use encouraging words in order to build an individual's self esteem. They need to be empathetic of others and know the members of their team and their strengths and weaknesses. They need to be approachable and assertive but fair, inspiring and be able to lead by example.

In order to become an efficient leader you need to display an emotional intelligence and consider the wellbeing of your team and be supportive. You need to be able to motivate people to develop new ideas and open opportunities for others in order for them develop new skills. You should conduct learning walks on members of staff and be able to put strategies in place in order for the individual to build on weaknesses that you encountered.

When reflecting on my learning style I found that I am balanced with accommodating and converging styles but need to improve on diverging and assimilating styles of learning. Therefore, with regards to a diverging style I need to be more in tune with people's feelings, be sensitive to values, listen with an open mind, gather information and imagine the implications of ambiguous situations. With respect to the assimilating style I need to organise information, test theories and ideas with others, analyse data and design experiments. I also concluded that I tend to learn by doing which is an  'Active Experimentation' style and I need to strengthen my concrete, reflection and abstract conceptualization styles and need to improve on my planning, taking in consideration other alternatives and to incorporate others peoples feelings into solving problems.

A potential idea for my project would be to raise high grade attainment in A2 Biology. In order to do this I have started to encourage students who did not acquire their MEG of a B or an A to attend a resit session and support sessions in order to gain a B or an A in their summative assessments. I have also been rigorous with use of exam style questions in lessons and as homework. I have encouraged students to work on a set of targets from their assessment and submit as evidence.

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