Disobedient Teacher

Ability to Learn

This book should be arriving in my letter box this week and I'm looking forward to having the time over the Term 1 holidays (aka 'non-contact time') to read and understand why Ings feels so strongly about why schools need to make a shift away from the assessment and box ticking that school has become.  

During Ings' interview with the New Zealand Herald, he talks about "putting children in the tractor seat and allowing them to drive their learning".   This idea is not unfamiliar to me and it's something that I've been working on with greater intensity for at least the past five years.  The one wall that I keep facing, however, is the wall of assessment and reporting.   I find it difficult to have the time and energy to be innovative and/or let the learner's interests drive their learning when we are constrained to assessment and reporting against assessment within the areas of English and Mathematics - not Science, Technology The Arts or P.E.

Watch this NewsHub interview with Ings to help understand a little more about his views on why education needs to change:

Click here to view

Ings believes that learning is both emotional and cognitive.  He also believers that if a child loses belief in their ability to learn, then we (educators) have lost them.   I know that it's going to take more than just reading a book, but if it becomes a stepping stone for helping me to enable at least one child to believe that they have the ability to learn, then spending my holiday time to read 'Disobedient Teacher' will have been worth it.

NRich Maths Learning

Low Threshold High Ceiling

Nrich Maths

Over the past 3-4 years, I have been referring to Nrich Maths for ideas to include in my learning programme.   Nrich offer rich tasks which develop deep understanding of mathematical concepts and this is why I like them so much.   It's not just about knowledge of number, but it's about how to use our knowledge.

Nrich liken their LTHC tasks to entering a room.   Everyone goes through the same door, but the activity that you do inside the room is not restricted to one.  Some activities are "unproblematic, while others are more challenging".  There's an opportunity for the less confident learners to move through the activity within their comfort zone, whereas the more confident are able to explore and challenge themselves.   However, which ever way the learner wishes to go, we are all in the same 'room' so each learner has an opportunity to see and hear what others are doing.

Another reason for using LTHC activities is the element of surprise.  No longer am I controlling the outcome with only one possible answer.  Instead, the learners can go as high as they like because I am no longer putting them into a preconceived box of what I think they are able to do.  

It's a 'room' where the learners can feel safe.  Safe to be curious - to explore and be challenged.