Train your teachers

These are short pieces of CPD aimed at teachers in HPL schools. They focus on a specific aspect of HPL, for example, deliberate practice, metathinking etc.

7 Pillars of High Performance which are essential for creating the best possible climate for success. Whilst the ACPs and VAAs form the language and basis for High Performance Learning each Pillar needs to be in place and understood. 

Mindset Shift – Everyone must believe that ability is flexible and can be developed. 

Enquiry based learning -  Academic performance is not just a question of what is taught but how it is taught. Not just ‘knowledge’ but also ‘pedagogy’. Enquiry based learning encourages independent thought and builds intellectual confidence. 

Expertise development – advanced cognitive performance is not just about passing tests and exams.  Expertise is about developing the habits and behaviours associated with expertise i.e. thinking and approaching tasks like a mathematician or a historian. 

Practice and Training – Extended deliberate practice i.e. high concentration practice beyond one’s comfort zone, has been found to play a significant role in helping students to persevere. Deliberate practice is not the same as mere practice – think about how a musician learns a new piece of music. 

Feedback – Nothing new here but in High Performance Learning feedback must be combined with high expectations of what students can achieve. It should seek to not only comment on cognitive ability but also confidence and well-being.  Feedback comments on current performance and optimal performance – what does the student need to do to close that gap. 

Engagement with parents – schools need to be proactive in promoting how parents can help and support their child. 

With learners, not to them – It is critical that schools position High Performance Learning as an activity in which students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, are actively involved and make decisions. 

The Pygmalion effect is the phenomenon whereby others' expectations of a target person affect the target person's performance.

‘The Pygmalion Effect’ video should set the scene and recalibrate thinking around expectations and performance in advance of the following discussions and activities. As the workshop proceeds teachers will notice the ‘Pygmalion Effect’ echoing in their consciousness. 

A High Performance Classroom requires: 

• That changes take place in the classroom culture 
• That students are introduced to the High Performance learning language and become familiar and able to articulate that language  
• Teachers rethink some tasks/activities in order to provide more opportunities to practice regularly the HPL advanced cognitive skills 
• Teachers plan for and encourage more classroom dialogue – this is linked to the previous point as activities and tasks become more imaginative, requiring greater use of  paired/group conversations 
• Teachers build in additional time for students to reflect on their learning during lessons and at the conclusion of units of work 

From the temple-lined side streets of Chiang Mai, Thailand to the triple-deckers of Charlestown, Massachusetts, writer and teacher Jessica Lander finds that children who are written off as unlikely to succeed frequently defy our expectations.  

The secret is setting high expectations for all students and giving them the support they need. When students surprise themselves by discovering their own potential, it can transform their lives. 

Avid writer and teacher, Jessica Lander has lived and taught as far away as Thailand and Cambodia and as close as Boston — teaching students from sixth grade to university. She is a journalist and author of the recently published non-fiction book "Driving Backwards" 

 There are 4 component parts to this ACP:

• Meta-cognition – knowingly using a wide range of thinking approaches  
• Self-Regulation – the ability to monitor, evaluate and self-correct 
• Strategy Planning – thinking ahead about an appropriate way to tackle a task 
• Intellectual confidence – the ability to express a personal view based on knowledge  

This is a significant area of HPL and encompasses four discreet areas but very much interlinked with self-regulation and intellectual confidence dependent on well-developed meta-cognition and strategy planning skills.  

Throughout our teaching, we need to construct activities that require students to think and come up with a range of strategies for tackling the task.  

Making these strategies explicit (provide opportunities for students to explain their strategies) and building short reflection time into all lessons for students to evaluate which strategy they are employing helps develop and embed this important aspect of Meta-thinking.

To build intellectual confidence students need to have multiple opportunities to give individual opinions and be asked to defend them.

• Oracy in the classroom is the first step to intellectual confidence.
• All students engage with activities not just those who present as more generally confident.
• Students need to share ideas in small groups, whole class and with larger audiences.
• Students need to be come accustomed to having their ideas challenged without becoming defensive.
• Students need to be confident enough to abandon or adapt their ideas as a result of discussion or persuade and negotiate their opinions.
• Intellect confidence is promoted through enrichment/co-curricular activities.

 There are 4 component parts to this ACP:

• Meta-cognition – knowingly using a wide range of thinking approaches  
• Self-Regulation – the ability to monitor, evaluate and self-correct 
• Strategy Planning – thinking ahead about an appropriate way to tackle a task 
• Intellectual confidence – the ability to express a personal view based on knowledge  

This is a significant area of HPL and encompasses four discreet areas but very much interlinked with self-regulation and intellectual confidence dependent on well-developed meta-cognition and strategy planning skills.  

 These Youtube videos summarise self-regulation and executive functioning.

Nutshells: Practice

Nutshell 1: Retrieval Practice

Retrieval practice is an important skill and is promoted through the current Ofsted framework. However, we are trying to create enterprising learners so should expect to move beyond this to more sophisticated forms of practice aimed at improving performance – culminating in effective metathinking techniques.

Nutshell 2: Deliberate Practice

Deliberate Practice is about going beyond practising what you can already do (or retrieving what you already know) to identify, and work on, areas which will take your performance forward.

The Arnold Palmer quotation is relevant because, like most high performers, he recognised that his skill (or luck) was the result of hard work and the right sort of practice over time.