The second 50% - thoughts about moving to the next level of deep learning and understanding.

If the first 50% of excellent learning is engagement, what makes up the next 50% to make learning excellent?

When training ECTs recently we were asked to delve into Rosenshine’s principles and unpick the following quotes:

“Engagement is a poor proxy for learning” – Professor Rob Coe

“Learning happens when people have to think hard” - Professor Rob Coe    

“If nothing in the long-term memory has altered, nothing has been learned” – Sweller et al.

I wanted to take a minute to consider what this all means for the D&T teacher and for myself as a classroom teacher.

It is evident in many early career teachers that the first challenge is that of surviving the classroom and gaining the respect of the students in order to deliver the content of the lesson effectively. I have often heard teachers describe a lesson as a success when all students were on task throughout, the atmosphere was pleasant and the content was delivered in an interesting, varied way.  I don’t want to belittle these achievements at all as they are essential to excellent learning. However, I believe this to only be the first 50% of the story.

To really make sure students are retaining information learnt in the room with the view to applying that learning to their own work takes the ‘second 50%’.

I should say at this point that the foundations of the first 50% must already be secure for the second to make a significant difference to learning, and often teachers get stuck with battles within the first 50% and never reach the ‘deep learning’ level of the second 50%.

Challenges that prevent this include behaviour issues, both in the classroom but also in some cases across a school with infrastructure issues for challenging behaviour. (In these schools teachers can get stuck battling, due to no fault of their own and become disillusioned and never deepen the learning to the second 50%).  Also SEND students who have not been properly catered for within the environment can cause teachers to get stuck keeping afloat of the learning rather than digging deeper.

So what does the second 50% look like?

In D&T students should have the opportunity to employ design thinking, problem solve and think critically. In a practical KS3 environment students should not simply be working to step by step instructions for a whole unit. They may start off this way but then scaffolds should be removed to enable independent learning and critically the opportunity for failure. Learning through failure or mistake making is one of the best ways to learn when the learning in question is skills based.

Are we encouraging students to be problem solvers and innovators or crafters who can follow instruction?

Often in Design & Technology, teachers, students (and parents) can become fixated on the outcome and forget the importance of the learning journey. Having a class set of finished products that are carbon copies of each other can make for a lovely photograph and for much-loved Christmas presents but it sometimes leaves me with the question; how much did the student learn and retain along the way? Sometimes students should be given tasks that require all students to follow step by step instructions. These tasks will inevitably be introducing a new skill or practical technique that requires practise. It is what happens next that can encompass the second 50% of excellent learning. If the teacher is to quiz the students on a superficial level then retention is checked for. Even better if the teacher quizzes the students at the start of the following lesson. If the teacher employs higher order questioning, then students are led to ‘think deeper’ and critically analyse their work/journey. Simple evaluative open questions give students the opportunity to problem solve and most importantly, think like designers.

For example a teacher could ask questions such as:

‘If you had to do this again, what one thing would you change…and why?’

‘How would you redesign this with sustainability in mind?’

‘What other tools/equipment could you have used to produce this outcome?’

Etc.

Another consideration when working on the second 50% is when and how to remove the scaffolds and give students opportunities to think for themselves; make creative decisions, make choices and most importantly make mistakes.

This depends on the length of the project or scheme and the overall learning arc. There are ways to consider the second 50% of excellent learning both lesson by lesson and over a longer time. The latter enables students to really show progression over time as they gain confidence alongside gaining knowledge and skill.

It is essential that we recognise that design is central to our subject. Not just in the way that students design a product but to enable students to employ design thinking at every step of their learning. For the D&T teacher this is fundamental to the second 50% of excellent learning.