Developing effective behaviour for learning: an example from practice

Chloe Wardle teaches in a primary school in North London. In this project she demonstrates how she encouraged her Year 6 class to develop thinking skills by using interactive classroom displays.

Chloe was concerned that not enough lesson time was given to thinking skills and wanted to know if creating the right classroom conditions could address this.

She was interested in this issue because she was looking for ideas to challenge and motivate bright, high-attaining children in her class.

What did Chloe do?

Chloe displayed a number of unusual photographic images by Canadian photographer Jeff Wall as she felt they would help to stimulate open-ended enquiry. The five images she used over the course of her enquiry were called:

• A ventriloquist at a birthday party in October
• The Destroyed Room
• Insomnia
• The Doorpusher
• The Invisible Man

You can see these images on the Tate Modern website.

How did Chloe introduce the images to her class?

Pupils were grouped in threes, with one in each group taking the role of writer, spokesperson or organiser. In the first session children were asked to say what they believed ‘thinking skills’ meant. This prepared them for the thinking they would do over the next few weeks.

She then challenged the children to make sense of the images. They posted their questions and comments on a ‘thinking wall’ and Chloe took photographs of this as it developed. In this way the children were encouraged to take ownership of the project.

Chloe used these photographs as part of her presentation for the Teacher Learning Academy (TLA).

What did Chloe learn?

• Children responded better when there was a small reward such as a sweet.
• Grouping them in threes helped to develop pupils’ thoughts and were effective for lower-attaining pupils.
• Variations in feedback to children positively affected their future responses.
• Responses and thoughts from children became longer and deeper over the course of the project.
• Using ‘because’ was a significant breakthrough for some pupils when developing their thinking.
• Projects like this need to be well-managed including a consideration of  how to motivate pupils to participate on a long-term basis.
• Children need help to name different types of thinking, eg imaginative thinking and reasoning.

What did Chloe’s pupils learn?

• That they can help each other develop their skills in thinking.
• That thinking about thinking is important.

Want to find out more?

The Behaviour for Learning research anthology contains links to more research about developing pupils’ thinking skills.

To support the development of high-attaining children the school has been using the concept of ‘thinking together’: see Dawes, Mercer and Wegerif, Thinking Together, Birmingham 2000.