Dr Simon Camby, Chief Education Officer, recently spent some time in Thailand visiting our four schools in the St Andrew’s International family; Dusit, Sathorn, Green Valley and S107. In this short piece, Simon delves into the dynamics of student engagement and learning. Read on to discover a journey into the heart of holistic education and student-centred pedagogy.

Children learning. It sounds simple. My experience tells me that it is far from the case on two fronts:

  1. Creating the right conditions and focus for children to learn is the work of a skilled teacher.
  2. Evaluating whether learning is taking place is the work of a skilled school leader.

Combined, I would move the notion of learning from ‘simple’ to ‘complex’!

I was recently working with leaders in our schools in Thailand. I love being in classrooms talking to students and teachers. Above all, I like the puzzle of working out what is happening with learning. In doing this, I try to keep in my mind the difference between learning and performance.

“The primary goal of instruction should be to facilitate long-term learning—that is, to create relatively permanent changes in comprehension, understanding, and skills of the types that will support long-term retention and transfer. During the instruction or training process, however, what we can observe and measure is performance, which is often an unreliable index of whether the relatively long-term changes that constitute learning have taken place.”

“The distinction between learning and performance is crucial because there now exists overwhelming empirical evidence showing that considerable learning can occur in the absence of any performance gains and, conversely, that substantial changes in performance often fail to translate into corresponding changes in learning.” (Soderstrom and Bjork, 2015, p176)

Why is this important? Because so often people visit classrooms and talk about the teaching. That’s easy because you can see it happening. Or they talk about the performance. That’s also relatively easy because you can see it happening. The mistake people make is that they view performance as learning. My view is that learning is far more invisible, messy and evidenced over time.

When I am working alongside and talking to students, I often ask myself…

‘Does it seem like there is deep thinking taking place that will contribute to learning?’

 

At St Andrew’s International School Sathorn… 

Students in Year 3 were working on different levels of mathematical challenges. The teacher smartly provided ‘just enough’ structure alongside practical resources. This meant that the children were eager to explore. Children were using their previous maths learning and engaged with healthy struggle. Every question the teacher asked required not just a response but also for the children to give a rationale.

Students in Year 5 were deeply engaged with their partners on diagnosing the features of a text. They worked intently. Adults were engaged in quiet conversation, knowing when to intervene and when to step back, allowing time to think. Again, when the teacher invited a student response, it was followed up with a probing question (tell me more, why do you think that etc.)

At St Andrew’s International School Dusit… 

Students in Year 4 were making a ‘contraption’. This followed them having designed their invention. The task was to use the design to guide the making. Without exception, every child was engaged with their learning partner. Of the five children asked, each could articulately explain their learning. It was evident that the teacher had set up a strong learning activity. Children were working collaboratively together, true collaboration – turn taking, challenging each other etc. Children were following their plan and choosing appropriate materials to make it.

Students in Year 5 were deeply engaged with their learning linked to personification. Three adults were present with each adding value to the learning through targeted questioning (knowing when to intervene and when to stand back). Children were well able to explain their learning and keen to share their excellent examples of personification. The use of challenging vocabulary evidenced high expectations from the teacher.

At St Andrew’s International School S107… 

Students in Year 11 were engaged listening to a podcast as part of their GCSE Business Studies learning. The podcast focused on the junior doctor strike in UK. Students were working through answering relevant questions and were drawing on their previous learning. Individual conversations with students showed good understanding of concepts using subject specific vocabulary. They were able to explain potential consequences and differences of opinion by looking through the lens of the doctors and of the government.

Every student in Year 11 Economics was engrossed. The quality of teaching resulted in students being able to explain complex economic theory with precision. Two highlights in this lesson for me. Firstly, I spoke to one student who had been learning English for only six months whose showed such a strong grasp of the economics content but articulated to me in English (awe inspiring). Secondly, one student told me, “This is really useful because I run my own stock trading business” – I love that our students have this entrepreneurial spirit.

At St Andrew’s International School Green Valley… 

In Year 10 Design Technology, every student was actively engaged in their learning but at different stages of product assembly. Every student was clearly able to use their design to explain the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ of learning. The set up at Green Valley really allows students to have a high degree of choice in the design process. So brilliant as you can see genuine agency in the learning process. As you look around you see student using machinery, students evaluating each other’s work, the teacher intervening to stretch thinking.

In the room next door is Year 10 Art. You immediately feel to have walked into an art studio. Again, every student at an individual point in their learning journey. In this room I witnessed two explanations of learning that should outshine any examination criteria! These students used their portfolio boards to not only explain the artistic techniques used but the learning that sat behind and their own metacognitive reflection on the process.

Summary

I cannot confidently state that each isolated example ‘was learning’. But I am confident to be sure that students were engaged deeply and in the process of learning. I could see our students:

  • making choices;
  • using prior learning;
  • grappling with difficult concepts; and
  • using feedback from adults and peers.

It is such a privilege to see learning in progress as a result of teaching that is designed for the needs of students. This snapshot also shines a light on a genuinely holistic education that allows students to shine in so many ways.

Reference

Soderstrom, N. & Bjork, R. (2015) ‘Learning versus Performance: An integrative review’. Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol. 10(2) 176–199