Is it worth doing practical work? Evaluating whether it helps students to learn’ Mark Winterbottom Senior Lecturer in Education May 2017 1 1

Who am I? Senior Lecturer in Science Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Initial teacher education MEd for teachers CPD for teachers Senior Examiner for OCR (like CIE but in the UK) Head of Biology in a UK Upper School (GCSE, A level) PGCE (QTS), Homerton College (Cambridge) PhD in Evolutionary Ecology (Sheffield) BA in Zoology (Oxford) 2 2 2 2

1. Make sure you have a pen and your writing pad. 2. Sit in one of the seats which are in pairs, facing each other. 3. On your own, write down a description of a piece of hands-on / practical work you ask students to do, and why you like it.

Speed sharing! Why is hand-on work good? Tell your partner about your activity for 45 seconds. While you are talking and listening, think about what you and your partners value in hands-on work At the very end of the speed share, with your final partner, answer the question below as a list of bullet points…make sure you both have a copy of your answer Why is hand-on work good?

Stay still when the bell goes!

Evaluating hands on work Return to the main tables. Using what you wrote down with your final partner, in pairs… take a piece of paper, and write a list of questions for teachers to ask themselves when deciding whether to use a particular hands-on activity in the classroom. It should have questions such as… ‘How does the activity students to learn?’. ‘How does the activity enable students to work together?’ Etc.

Task In pairs, look back at the activities you wrote about at the start. Complete the ‘evaluation form’ you have just invented to evaluate each of your hands-on activities.

What questions did you write down?

Evaluating Hands-On Work

Would students learn more if they spent less time doing hands-on work?

Popular With Students? They may be popular with students because they are less demanding than theory lessons

Popular With Students? Teachers often say that students are motivated or enthused by hands-on work But when asked which approaches are "most useful and effective in helping them to understand the top approach was "having a discussion/debate in class“.

Popular With Teachers? It's easier to check that a child has done something correctly, than it is to check that he or she has fully understood. It's easier to teach a child how to do something, than it is to teach for understanding.

objects and observables Why? The purpose of hands-on work is to help pupils make links between two domains of knowledge: Hands on minds on 'We need to increase the 'minds on' aspects of [hands-on] work, if we want to make it more effective.‘ (Miller and Abrahams 2009) objects and observables ideas Hands-on work

What we ask them to do What they actually do Did pupils do what they were intended to do (and see the things they were meant to see)?

Why did we ask them to do that? What we ask them to do Why did we ask them to do that? What they actually do Did it help?

Effectiveness at Level 1 Effectiveness at Level 2 Developer's objectives what the pupils are intended to learn 2 Effectiveness at Level 1 Did pupils do what they were intended to do (and see the things they were meant to see)? B. Task specification what the pupils are intended to do 1 Effectiveness at Level 2 Did pupils learn (and can later show understanding of) what they were intended to learn? C. Classroom events what the pupils actually do D. Learning outcomes what the pupils actually learn

Domain of objects and observables Domain of ideas Effective 1 Students do what was intended with the objects and materials , and observe what they were meant to observe Effective 2

Domain of objects and observables Domain of ideas Effective 1 Effective 2

Domain of objects and observables Domain of ideas Effective 1 Students do what was intended with the objects and materials , and observe what they were meant to observe Effective 2 Students can later recall and describe what they did in the activity and what they observed

Domain of objects and observables Domain of ideas Effective 1 Students do what was intended with the objects and materials , and observe what they were meant to observe During the activity, students think about what they are doing and observing, using the ideas intended, or implicit in the activity Effective 2 Students can later recall and describe what they did in the activity and what they observed

Domain of objects and observables Domain of ideas Effective 1 Students do what was intended with the objects and materials , and observe what they were meant to observe During the activity, students think about what they are doing and observing, using the ideas intended, or implicit in the activity Effective 2 Students can later recall and describe what they did in the activity and what they observed Students can later discuss the activity, using the ideas that it was aiming to develop, or which were implicit in it (and can perhaps show understanding of these ideas in other contexts

Your task In pairs, think about your activities from earlier. For each one: write down the learning objectives at the top of the page, and then write down what success 'looks like' in each of the boxes To finish, focus on teachers' answers to the final bullet point. Bring out the idea that practical in itself is not active learning, but work needs to be done to 'scaffold' that learning which can be drawn from the practical work.

Write about what the students will do Write about what the students will see during the task, that is related to their eventual learning. Write about what the students will learn how to do. Write about what the students will be able to explain about what they do and see (i.e. what conceptual ideas they learn)

On the back: To secure success, what additional input is required, over and above simply completing the activity? This may need you to write down the questions you would ask (for example)

Finally In pairs, think about another activity which you think may benefit from being evaluated like this. Work through this new evaluation framework. For your chosen activity, identify what success 'looks like' in each of the boxes. Underneath, write down the questions that students would need to answer to help them achieve that success.

Why bother? Improvement is not a matter of doing more activities, but of thinking about how they help learning, and refining them to make them even more effective. Using hands-on work to enable students to build ideas themselves is essential to good teaching and learning.

Questionnaires Your own lesson evaluations Observations by colleagues Interviews with students Video and audio to review later

Any questions?? 31 31 31 31

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