Fight vs Flight

Professor Steve Peters, author of The Chimp Paradox (2012), explores the notion that we all have an ‘inner chimp’ which, if not controlled, will cause us to react emotionally rather than logically when put under stress. 

This is of relevance to the classroom because not effectively managing our students’ ‘chimps’ will lead to behaviour not conducive to learning. Peters suggests that in order to manage our ‘chimps’ effectively we should always try to establish facts before we make an assessment  about others. Examples in an educational setting might be not reprimanding a student for being late, not handing in homework or disengaging in lessons before we have taken the time to ask if there is a good reason for them not having done so. It is therefore important to take an active interest in our students, as getting them to achieve their best depends on how we approach them, and how we approach them should depend on what we know about them. Personally, I have found using a sponge ball for a brief question and answer session about their current interests outside of lessons has greatly improved my rapport with classes and has sometimes revealed information that has allowed me to better support them. For instance, such a conversation revealed a student lacked access to a computer for research, which was remedied by supplying them with revision guides.

Peters also expounds the importance of not letting our ‘chimps’ dominate us by having us accept only preconceived ideas about people, which in turn prejudices how we relate to them. This is of particular importance when teaching sets or students that have been moved for behaviour. One of the proudest moments in my career was when a student wrote to me the year after he finished school to thank me for not treating him as a ‘naughty boy’ but giving him a fresh start; he said this more than anything led to his success in English.

Black Box Thinking

Matthew Syed’s ‘Black Box Thinking’ (2016) posits that how we react to failure is key to success. He uses the analogy of black boxes used on aeroplanes to convey his idea as they record data to ensure that when mistakes happen, procedures can be changed so that the same error never happens again. This resonates particularly well with me as I believe this kind of reflection is key to the success of both teacher and student.

Syed explains a ‘closed loop’ is where failure doesn’t lead to progress because information on errors and weaknesses is misinterpreted or ignored; an ‘open loop’ does lead to progress because feedback is rationally acted upon. Closed loops occur for a variety of reasons; two of the most common are the stigmatism of mistakes and social hierarchies, both of which I believe negatively affect education.

Syed suggests we look again to the aviation industry for solutions. In aviation, “Mistakes are not stigmatised, but regarded as learning opportunities. The interested parties are given every reason to cooperate since the evidence compiled by the accident investigation is inadmissible in court proceedings. This increases the likelihood of full disclosure.” This suggests the importance of creating a classroom environment where students feel comfortable disclosing their mistakes, so we can all learn from them. For me, it reinforces for me the importance of praising students’ efforts, not their outcomes. A focus on outcomes will create a fear of failure and stop learning opportunities from mistakes.

The concept is also of relevance to professional development; an environment of ‘safe disclosure’ is equally as important for staff to learn from their peers. Arguably, part of what inhibits this is the strict hierarchy in schools. When staff speak to more senior colleagues, they do so in mitigated language and are often afraid to say they feel a mistake is being made because of the hierarchy. Syed states: “checklists have been established as a means of preventing over-sights in the face of complexity. But they also flatten hierarchy [and] open channels of communication.” This highlights the importance of success criteria in lessons and clear policies for staff.  

Claxton’s 4 Rs

In his 2002 text Building Learning Power, Professor Guy Claxton proposed the idea of ‘4 Rs’ that are essential for effective learning.

·         Resilience: 'being ready, willing and able to lock on to learning'.

·         Resourcefulness: 'being ready, willing and able to learn in different ways'.

·         Reflection: 'being ready, willing and able to become more strategic about learning'.

·         Reciprocity: 'being ready, willing and able to learn alone and with others'.

Personally, I believe that Resilience is the most important element of learning. This is reinforced by research such as that of ex-teacher and psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth. Lee Duckworth studied public schools in Chicago and found some of the strongest performers did not have stratospheric IQ scores and some of the smartest kids were not doing so well. It led her to conclude that doing well in school, and life, depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily. It depends on what she called ‘Grit’, or what Claxton called Resilience.

            Lee Duckworth asked thousands of high school students to take grit questionnaires, waited a year and then saw who graduated. She found ‘grittier’ kids were significantly more likely to graduate, even when matched on things like family income, standardised test scores and how safe they felt at school. This begs the question: So how do we build grit at Biddulph High School? How do we instill a solid work ethic in our students? And how do we keep them motivated for the long run?

            Lee Duckworth’s data shows natural talent doesn’t make you ‘gritty’. In fact, data shows ‘grit’ is usually unrelated or inversely related to measures of talent. The best way to build ‘grit’ in students is something called ‘growth mindset’. This is an idea developed at Stanford University by Dr Carol Dweck. This the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed; it can change with your effort. Dr Dweck has shown that when kids learn that the brain grows in response to challenge, they are much more likely to persevere when they fail because they don’t believe that failure is a permanent condition. I like this idea so much that I have a ‘Growth Mindset’ poster as my desktop background and take every opportunity I get to remind students that their potential isn’t limited by their natural talent.

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner in his work Frames of Minds (1983) proposed the concept of Multiple Intelligences. His theory is essentially that different people understand things in different ways; he lists eight different types of intelligence:

1.       Linguistic intelligence (‘word smart’)

2.       Logical-mathematical intelligence (‘number / reasoning smart’)

3.       Spatial intelligence (‘picture smart’)

4.       Kinaesthetic intelligence (‘body smart’)

5.       Musical intelligence (‘music smart’)

6.       Interpersonal intelligence (‘people smart’)

7.       Intrapersonal intelligence (‘self-smart’)

8.       Naturalistic intelligence (‘nature smart’)

From a planning perspective, lessons that have resources for all aspects of intelligence that Gardner proposed would be extremely difficult. However, Trevor Wright, author of How to be a Brilliant English Teacher, advises simply accepting Gardner’s principle of needing to account for different learning styles and being aware of what he calls ‘access possibilities’ rather than devising eight alternative approaches all of the time.   

This approach could be borne in mind when teaching iambic pentameter in poetry. Lines with iambic pentameter could be repeated with students asked to identify the pattern to appeal to those with a preference for Logical-mathematical and Linguistic intelligence. Others could tap the desks to the rhythm to account for Musical and Kinaesthetic intelligence. Others will understand it when a diagram, perhaps ./././././, is drawn on the board (Spatial intelligence) and finally some may like the heartbeat analogy (Naturalistic intelligence). Wright argues that “For each child, one or two approaches will be central, others will enrich and confirm.”

Gardner’s theory has also been useful as a self-diagnostic tool. Filling in various questionnaires has led me to the conclusion that I have a preference for work suited to Linguistic and Logical-mathematical intelligence.  It has allowed me to understand that I am biased in the way I design lessons, which in turn has led to me setting homework projects where students can submit homework in a format of their choice as long as they can demonstrate what they have learnt and that it has achieved the success criteria.