Collaborative learning by Juliet Hayward

Why am I a teacher?

I am a teacher because when I was at school I was an average pupil. I worked hard and did okay. I did not feel engaged or challenged in my learning and I often felt that I was ignored by the teacher. I longed to be helped/encouraged/acknowledged by the teacher.

When I was about eight or nine years old, I decided that I could do a better job and began to study how I was taught and what I would do in the future to improve the situation for a future me.

My main inspiration came when a specific teacher recognised a piece of my work. During open evenings, when showing my parents my work and classroom, I was always embarrassed that there was nothing of mine ever displayed on the wall, I would cover the hurt with a smile and could point to large picture/collage and explain I had painted that bit, or glued that bit on. I remember when a class teacher recognised a piece of work, it was a piece of artwork, she asked me to paint it again, so that it would be larger and it was displayed on a wall, not in the main classroom, but in the cloakroom, I was so proud, it made me feel really good. I clearly remember that feeling. A couple of years later, she passed away and I have always thought that the teaching profession is poorer without her.

As I grew older, my determination continued through my secondary education, I mentally noted those subjects and teachers which led to success and those which led to boredom/failure. My mother was a secondary maths teacher and her style of teaching just scared me.

When I was fourteen years old I heard a song that summarised how I felt about teaching and learning, it is still the closest explanation of how I feel.

"I believe the children are our future,

teach them well and

let them lead the way,

show them all the beauty they possess inside,

give them a sense of pride,

to make it easier,

let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be..."

(From Greatest Love of All, written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed, sung by Whitney Houston, 1985.)

At about sixteen years old, I became increasingly interested in the deaf community. I began to learn British Sign Language and interact with the deaf community. Whilst my friends completed work experience in shops and offices, I travelled daily to the outskirts of London and visited a school for the deaf and became convinced that was challenging enough to hold my interest. I researched the best ways of becoming a teacher for the deaf and discovered that working in a main stream school was required for a minimum of two years.

Why am I still a teacher?

The song continues ...

" ...Everybody's searching for a hero,

people need someone to look up to,

I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs,

a lonely place to be and

so I learned to depend on me.

I decided long ago

never to walk in anyone's shadows,

if I fail,

if I succeed,

at least I live as I believe,

no matter what they take from me,

they can't take away my dignity...

...and if by chance that special place,

that you've been dreaming of,

leads you to a lonely place,

find your strength in love."

(From Greatest Love of All, written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed, sung by Whitney Houston, 1985.)

For me, it's about the inner strength of teaching children the way they deserve to be taught – not fighting the system but working with it, to give every child good quality learning opportunities which they are all entitled to. I strive to become that perfect teacher, in the knowledge that it can never be achieved, (if I ever think I've got there, it will be time to leave) but by moulding my teaching to the learning styles of individual children and classes, I might get closer. I constantly need to change and adapt, to leave my comfort zones of certain lessons and challenge the children by challenging myself – some gambles pay off, others do not. But that little nagging voice – "have you covered all the content you are supposed to?" is my main hindrance.

I have always found main stream teaching challenging enough to keep my attention/interest which is why I have never made the move into deaf education, also as time has passed many school have closed in favour of integration.

My philosophy of teaching is also echoed in my current school's mission statement.

"I am unique,

In the eyes of God,

All seeing, all knowing, all loving,

He embraces our family,

Parish, parent, child.

All one with you.

I am of the world,

With the seeds of excellence within me,

Encouraged to grow and flourish

To a spiritual fulfilment.

I am unique,

And with you beside me,

All is possible"

For me, it is about every child being unique and being given the opportunities to fulfil their potential, although, at primary school, many children have not yet discovered their individual talents, I think that helping them to identify them is an essential part of my job.

However, in the past year or so there have been specific times when I wanted it all to stop – to leave – my job, my profession. There have been times when it has taken all my strength just to walk through the door. But I dust myself off, remind myself why I am here. But inside I want to loose the constraints – break free. I don't. I toughen. I harden. But it's not me so I soften again, let myself enjoy teaching again, take the knocks as they come. Soon I no longer want to break free of the chains of constraint but give them a jolly good shake. And shake them I do. Sometimes I get stopped, other times thanked. I still want to make the difference I searched for when I was eight years old. I only need to look into the eyes of the children I teach – the joy of learning, of experiencing something new- and I'm back on track. They deserve me, they deserve me at my best. Without teaching who am I? What would I really do out there in the big, wide world?

Why am I interested in developing my own practice?

I work in an environment where every minute of every day is timetabled. There is no time/room for discussion or to repeat a lesson. If the learning has not taken place due to a badly taught lesson or hyperactive children due to e.g. snow, I feel pressurised by a content-based planning structure, to tick the 'covered it' box and move on to the next lesson, for failure not to get through the whole planning is frowned upon. Reflection of lessons has become like a swear word, taking up more of our precious time in our over-worked and pressurised lives. So we do it, but badly, because we are expected to not because we have reflected properly. We do not allow the time for quality reflection that the children deserve. My best reflections happen when they are not forced, but occur while driving or walking mainly in holiday time, when thoughts are allowed to drift in and out with no pressure to remember or to record them.

Over the past couple of years, I have become more aware of children's individual learning styles. This interest began when I had a class, in a hut isolated from the rest of the school, generally the children worked at a noisy level and became easily distracted by each other away from their learning. One day, on return to my classroom after a wet playtime, I was shocked to discover a peaceful setting, on closer inspection the children were totally engaged in their playing, they could therefore play much quieter than they worked. I considered my teaching strategies and over the next couple of months tried many different ways of engaging them with their learning. I discovered that I had a lot of aural learners who responded well to music being played. The moment I started to read a story they would stop talking/fussing/fidgeting and actively listen – almost as if they had been hypnotised.

The following year – having now entered the main body of the school building – my class worked best whilst chatting, the noise would frequently be at the top end of my own comfort zone. Surprisingly the children could be encouraged to work at an almost silent level but the quality of the work was significantly poorer and on observing the children, they looked like fish out of water – they didn't have the confidence to complete their work.

My current class consists of two age groups mixed together. The year 3 children were all new to me September, as they has had either joined from the Infant Department located two miles away or had joined from a different school. I knew of a handful having taught their siblings previously. One year 3 child has Italian as her first language, received schooling in Germany – her second language and is now embarking on her third language – English. Another year 3 child is from a travelling community and as a result has had many weeks away and has a poor history of attendance, resulting in her being very far behind academically. Last year, at the infant department she only played with her cousin in the year below, this has resulted in the children, in my current class, ignoring her in the playground not because they do it deliberately but because they just haven't noticed her. One day, on playground duty, she was wandering around and she told me that she didn't play with anyone. I discussed this with my class, and how disappointed and saddened I felt, they also felt sad knowing that a member of the class is possibly feeling lonely and isolated.

The majority of the year 4 children were in my class for the last academic year, some children joined the school during that year and one child joined from an adjoining class. I have an established relationship with these children. Last year they worked quietly and produced good quality work and individually they made pleasing progress.

I also teach a lower year 3/4 Maths set, I feel that the way I adapt to the individual needs of the children within the group in terms of activity, teaching style and adult support is good. This group is challenging to teach and therefore takes up a lot of my time and energy. I wanted to focus on my class. I teach them for the majority of the time and feel that I need to devote a block of time and energy solely on them.

What have I chosen to research?

One area of education which I feel the children in any of my classes have not mastered successfully is collaboration.

My current class find self organisation quite tricky. On entering the classroom they tend to wander and spend too long to settle to any activity. This has improved with time.

My first attempt this year at collaborative learning, was during a Literacy session in which the children were introduced to mindmapping. They worked in pairs recording powerful and interesting action verbs for walking – slowly and quickly. I has assumed that collaboration would automatically take place. I was wrong. Mostly one of the pair would dominate the writing whilst the other looked disinterested. Many children appeared to be off task and it was a very noisy session. There were mixed results in the written work, some were successful, others disappointing, but I had the overall feeling that the session could have gone better.

So, given the opportunity to work with a partner the noise level rockets, very little learning appears to be going on and all I end up doing is asking them to work quieter – constantly. This is going to be a challenge.

I have decided to start off with them working collaboratively in pairs, for the children will be more comfortable, have a better opportunity to contribute – not have to speak to far and therefore not too loudly. My aim is for the noise level to be a working buzz – where learning is taking place, the children are working collaboratively at a challenging level. I have explained to the children what working collaboratively means and that as a teacher I think it will help them in their learning but at the moment they spend too long off task and the noise level becomes unsuitable. The children agreed.

I set up a Literacy activity. The learning intention was to identify time connectives, followed by an activity, in a later session where they would use them in their own writing. Each had started with their reading book, which they had been in reading time. The main task was to look through them and write down, individually in their own exercise books, a collection of time connectives, they could choose other reading books from the reading book shelves as necessary. Firstly we discussed what a time connective was and gave some examples. The children started the activity. To my amazement the children got straight down to work, the noise was at a comforting hum and glancing around the groups, they all appeared to be engaging with their partners and seemed to be on task. I deliberately did not wander around monitoring discussions as I wanted to see how they did by themselves – did they stay on task? Did they discuss last night's Eastenders? Only time would tell. I sat with and helped a lower ability pair who I prompted, as their reading books were at a lower level than the rest of the class, they assumed they had no time connectives. After I pointed out a couple, they began to identify more – some correct, others incorrect and their confidence grew. During the plenary, a selection of children read out their findings and we discussed them as a class. One able pair, had many incorrect answers which the rest of the class were able to point out wrong answers and they explained why. The pair then edited their list and demonstrated that although they had started with a misconception, they now understood time connectives confidently. This in itself was a breakthrough.

At the end of the session I allowed time for a brief discussion about the collaborative nature of their work. I initially asked closed questions.

"Did you enjoy working in pairs?"

They nodded. One child said that they had got more work done than if they had been working by themselves. I asked the class for a show of hands if they also felt they had achieved more by working together, the majority of children put up their hands. I then asked for a show of hands if they had achieved more because, by working with a partner, they had been kept on task. Not one hand went up. I was surprised and puzzled. I asked them why did they achieve more? One child answered that by discussing the text with their partner that they had the confidence to write more answers down as they were more sure it was correct. I was surprised and pleased and we all decided that the session was a success and we would try something similar again soon.

A week later, I read them the story of Sleeping Beauty, they rewrote the sequence of events, using time connectives given. The children worked in the same pairs, this time, however, they only had one pencil and were required to take it in turns to do the writing, the child not writing needed to help with what was being written – content and spelling. This activity had mixed results and I felt that they needed more guidance with how to work collaboratively.

My planning folder is my guide, without it would I be lost? Or would I be free? Is it my security blanket in a world of chaos? I know if the planning is followed all the knowledge has been covered – I can tick all the right boxes. But has learning really taken place? Has learning been timetabled out? Where is the time to listen to the children? Where is the time to teach them new skills? There must be these amazing teachers out there, who manage everything. But my dilemma remains, do I miss some content in order to teach new skills? I must – but where do I take it from? Do I miss out a piece of learning or do I squeeze two lessons together to allow room? How can I ensure there is time, when in my mind the clock is ticking – must get on- boxes need ticking. Will this pressure result in failure of both; the new skill – collaboration and the missed knowledge? As Christmas nears, the pressure to decide which blocks of learning are sacrificed to make way for watching the infant play, having a class Christmas party, making Christmas cards etc. is enough. Have I left it too late? Is it too close to the end of term to try? Or is this a really good time? With only two full weeks of term left I will try. Only time will tell.

I split the first session into three blocks of time, the first takes place after assembly before Maths, the second during Literacy – it is a recap session on adverbs, so time out would be okay, the third during reading time, first thing in the afternoon, this is the test and can they really work together?

Before collaboration can take place creative listening needs to be established, according to Fran Jenkin, 1989. She suggests there are two stages of listening to be tried before creative listening can take place effectively.

Stage one is destructive listening, this is where one child is talking about a specific topic and the partner does not speak or engage in eye contact, but fidgets and fiddles.

As my class underwent this activity first thing on a Monday morning, I suggested they talked about their weekend. As before, I stayed in one position, so as not to disturb, distract or intervene asked the children to record how they felt when they were talking and their partner was fiddling. Here are some the comments.

"I felt frustrated and disappointed"

"It felt strange"

"It made me angry"

"I was getting used to them fiddling"

"I felt stressed"

"I felt angry"

"Extremely annoying, made me crosser and crosser"

"It was quite selfish because they were not listening"

Generally the children did not like not being listened to.

The second stage, according to Fran Jenkin, 1989, is interruptive listening, this activity takes place as before with one child speaking about their chosen subject and this time their partner interrupts them and talks about themselves. I kept the subject the same as before, this was incredibly noisy as all thirty children were speaking and as the children got more annoyed they became louder. We timed one minute each, as before. Here are some of the children's written comments.

" It felt disturbing"

"I thought it was rude"

"I felt annoyed with x because she kept on interrupting me"

"It made me feel mad that the person was not listening to me"

"I felt very annoyed"

"It felt irritating"

"It was really annoying because I had to speak louder"

Again, the children did not enjoy being interrupted.

The third session took place after playtime, during Literacy. In this session the children stayed with the same person, one of the pair would talk about their weekend again, but this time the partner would engage appropriate eye contact, not fiddle or fidget and ask the person speaking questions about what was being spoken about. First, the children practised with me, as I told them about my weekend and they asked me suitable questions. The children then took it in turns and we timed it one minute each to make it fair. This time the children recorded very different comments.

"It felt good for them to be listening"

"I felt happy"

"I like sharing each others ideas"

"I feel good"

"This is much better listening"

"It felt nice because she was listening"

"I felt relaxed and I liked it very much"

"I felt brilliant, it was much better than one and two"

"It felt very nice and I enjoyed asking questions and finding information with x"

A success, the children felt so much happier, and surprised themselves to discover how annoying fiddling and interruptions are, they all preferred engaging eye contact and feeling listened to.

That afternoon, during reading time, we tried creative listening again. As a whole school Literacy target, we are working to improve the children's comprehension skills. The children paired up as before, one child read a page of their reading book whilst their partner listened, at the end of the reading the listening partner asked questions about what had been read. The children found this quite noisy as there was quite of lot of reading aloud and questioning taking place. I gave the children no guidance as to which questions to ask, allowing assessment of questioning skills. Two days later, during reading time, the partners swapped, I suggested that they moved closer together if they found it hard to hear, this was more successful. They again recorded their thoughts.

How did it feel to read aloud?

"It felt quite good"

"I was a bit afraid, I did not like it"

"It felt quite embarrassing"

"Useful because I think she quite liked my story"

"It felt quite nice"

"It was nice that she was interested"

"Really fun"

"My reading was hard"

"It felt easier, and I sort of got carried away"

"Fantastic"

"It was fun and better than normal"

How did it improve your reading?

"It improved my reading a little bit."

"It improved my reading because we had enough time to do questions."

"It improved my reading because I sometimes get words wrong"

"It didn't really improve my reading"

"By helping me on tricky words like if I did not know a word it would help me work it out"

"It helped me to learn tricky words"

"She would help me if I got something wrong"

"It did improve my reading because I sounded out big words"

"My friend pointed out my mistakes"

"It helped me use more expression"

How did it feel to listen to your friend?

"It felt good"

"To listen to my partner felt quite slow"

"Interesting because she got some words wrong and that I can help her with them"

"It felt really nice ... she read very nicely"

"I liked the voices she made"

"It felt fun and enjoyable"

"It felt strange because I don't usually listen to people read"

"It felt fantastic"

"It felt fun, I pointed out his mistakes"

"Brilliant"

"It felt different"

How did it feel to ask the questions?

"It felt good to ask the questions"

"It felt interesting asking questions"

"It felt nice"

"Fine but a bit hard"

"Good, because you have to think of the answer"

"It felt ok"

"I felt great to ask questions because I could ask about the bits I missed"

"It felt hard to think of the questions"

"It was hard to think of them"

"It felt fine"

How did it feel to answer the questions?

"It felt quite embarrassing"

"It felt amusing"

"It felt good to answer the questions"

"Like you were in charge"

"It felt really nice answering questions"

"It made me feel good that she was interested"

"It was ok because every question she asked was easy"

"It felt quite fun"

"I didn't like answering"

"It felt different"

How did the questions improve your understanding of the text?

"Yes because I didn't understand some of it"

"It improved my understanding of words"

"It improved my understanding of the text"

"Good and it's helping me to learn new words"

"Because you understand what it meant"

"Well it made me understand the meaning of the sentence"

Was this session useful? Why?

"It helped me improve my work"

"Yes it was useful because it felt good to read to someone else"

"It was useful because I had someone to talk to"

"Yes it was useful"

"It was useful to help me read because I could learn more words and how they're spelt"

"Yes, it helped me to work well with others"

Would you like to do it again? Why?

"I would like to do it again because it's fun"

"No I would not because I did not enjoy it"

"I just like hearing stories and answering questions"

"I would like to do it again because it really helped me"

"Yes because it was fun"

"Yes I would like to do it again"

"I'd want to do it again because it was nice to share"

"Yes I would like to do it again because it was enjoyable"

"I would like to do it again because it helps"

"Yes, it would help my teamwork loads"

I think this was a success, I am really pleased that the children were completely honest in their comments – not trying to give the answer that thought I wanted to read. It demonstrates that I have a good relationship with the children. There are two steps I would like to take next. Firstly, I need to scaffold question asking, as many of the children found this quite hard. Secondly, I would like to experiment with the grouping of the children, negative comments came from children who are not especially friendly with their partner and I will experiment with making the groups gradually larger.

Since October, the children have been working collaboratively in Science, they have been working in different sized groups dictated by how many wires they required in the electricity investigations. This has occurred with mixed results, one session occurred in the afternoon of the first creative listening session, it was a little bit too noisy, but they were listening creatively and it was the best learning achievement all year.