A focus on learning: a story from London

Teachers at a school in London learnt about the ‘tuning protocol’ from the USA (West) schools at the project conference in Innsbruck. The protocol is a formal procedure that helps teachers to reflect on particular lessons or units of work. It ensures that discussion takes place in a non-threatening and professional environment. The teachers demonstrated the protocol to their colleagues back home in London.

They presented their own lessons first, then colleagues volunteered to present theirs. Soon the whole staff were involved in this review process. They adapted the procedure and used it in cross-curricular groups. Different combinations of subjects were tried. Such indepth discussion of lessons across departmental boundaries and ‘in public’ was a new departure for most staff. Some teachers felt uncomfortable in adopting the role of critic in the procedure but most teachers embraced this technique. Having learnt the technique, teachers were organised into groups that included teachers from several different subjects. They met four times during the year and all group members took their turn to present a lesson and receive critical feedback. The strategy was re-named ‘Collaborative Reflections’ and the groups each developed it to suit their own needs. 

 

                     

 

Imagine learning to dance when the dancers around you are all invisible. Imagine learning a sport when the players who already know the game can't be seen.... As educators, we can work to make thinking much more visible than it usually is in classrooms. When we do so, we are giving students more to build on and learn from. By making the dancers visible, we are making it much easier to learn to dance. (Perkins, D. (2004) Making Thinking Visible, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Education. p.1.)

The narrative

An important element of the focus on this learning principle is that everyone is a learner, including students, teachers, headteachers, or principals, the school as a community and the wider educational system.

Leadership for learning practice involves maintaining a focus on learning as an activity in which:

• everyone* is a learner

• learning relies on the effective interplay of social, emotional and cognitive processes

• the efficacy of learning is highly sensitive to context and to the differing ways in which people learn

• the capacity for leadership arises out of powerful learning experiences

• opportunities to exercise leadership enhance learning

* ‘everyone’ includes students, teachers, teaching assistants, headteachers, the school as an organisation

In the London example we see something of how this principle works as teachers learn from one another across national boundaries, reconstructing the means of learning for themselves. By taking initiative in reframing learning and engaging other members of staff so in turn leadership too took on a new dimension.

The teachers in London were able to spread the learning until the whole school was learning through the process of what they called ‘Collaborative Reflections.’