Mark’s class seem unwilling to begin the lesson’s first task. He wants them to begin learning independently, without nagging or reminders…
We can use behavioural psychology to nudge students in the right direction by making desired actions EAST: Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely. I posed Mark’s classroom challenge in a previous post; this post shares ways Mark can make getting started easier. This post relies on the suggestions of Paul James, Niki Kaiser, Alice Lane, Steve Lawley, Ollie Lovell, Amanda Melton, Adam Robbins, Ellie Russell, Julian Selman and Dom Shibli: thank you.
1) Evaluate the situation: who else has solved this?
Mark might start by seeking to understand students’ behaviour better; Ellie Russell suggested considering:
- What makes this class different from other classes?
- Are there dynamics in the room you need to find out more about?
- What works for other colleagues who teach key individuals?
- Are they getting away with being quiet but lazy elsewhere?
- Would they respond to the behaviour policy consistently implemented ‘C2 for insufficient work done’?
Paul James suggested Mark investigate students’ literacy levels.
2) Break the task into impossibly easy segments
If students are reticent or lack confidence, Niki Kaiser wondered whether the task is really easy enough for them. Mark could simplify further, Ellie Russell suggested, creating a task so easy “it is almost impossible” for students to claim they can’t do it. This could mean:
- Key words with missing vowels
- Cloze tasks with missing words
- Completing tasks step-by-step as a class, like annotating a diagram, then answering a question about it.
Paul James suggested that if students were struggling to read a text, Mark might need to present it differently, perhaps adding visual support. Ollie Lovell’s suggestion made the task both easier and more attractive:
Start with questions that are obviously opinion questions, or even a bit quirky… I’m thinking here, for example, if you’re trying to teach coordinate systems he could graph fruit and make the x-axis ‘tasty’ and the y-axis ‘squishy’, and get them to place fruit on these axes and give reasoning.”
3) ‘Break the jam’ to take the first step
Paul James emphasised the importance of removing barriers to involvement, and several teachers suggested ways to make the first step less intimidating. Amanda Melton finds students “can’t wait to get started” if they are writing on mini-whiteboards; Ollie Lovell concurred, noting that students are “more willing to have a go if they know they can alter their work with the stroke of a sleeve”. Amanda suggested emphasising the merits of uncertainty and mistakes: instead of asking “What is the first step?” Mark could ask “What could a possible first step be?” for example. Similarly, Adam Robbins asks “Why not try?” and “If you did know the answer, what would you write?”: “I know they both sound strange, but they work.” Alice Lane suggested expressing a love for crossing things out: “Get them to write a really rubbish sentence, then cross it out. Suddenly, no blank pages, and they’re off!”
Mark could encourage students to share and test potential answers before writing individually. Amanda gives students thirty seconds to agree the first step with a partner: “This is often enough to break the jam”. Alice Lane suggested that students could agree a joint answer, then both write it. Ollie advocated asking students to choose a corner of the room representing an answer to a multiple choice question and explain their answers aloud before writing.
Ellie Russell suggested offering models and scaffolding tasks to ensure no one is ‘stuck’. Dom Shibli noted the importance of filling knowledge gaps, while Julian Selman scaffolds tasks, involving students in modelling to provide a “foothold” and create the sense that “we can do this” and Steve Lawley suggested an initial model which students replicate precisely, with different numbers. Julian noted the value of students understanding the answer – even if they cannot initially formulate it themselves.
4) Build on the first step
Several teachers suggested Mark cut the first step short and build upon the foundations it provides. Amanda Melton noted that students can be reluctant to try if they may be incorrect: she suggested offering one minute to complete the first step, then stopping to ensure students had got it right; Mark could then offer further discrete tasks, with slightly more time, until the first question is complete. Niki Kaiser offers silent thinking time and, for longer answers, reads a selection of students’ initial sentences. Likewise, Ollie Lovell suggested caching students’ work as a ‘first draft’, “getting them to have a crack when they know they can refine later on.”
“Students need to experience success” – Dom Shibli emphasised – “and Mark needs to make these successes visible”, showing students they are doing well through immediate feedback and low-stakes tests which both reinforce learning and signal success. Steve Lawley suggested that success in small, guided steps, growing in difficulty, keeps each task within the bounds of students’ working memory and “should help build independence and self-belief over time.” Dom also emphasised the importance of correcting wrong answers and normalising failure, rather than being so pleased students have participated they accept an incorrect response. Steve Lawley noted that small sequences of tasks could be coupled with extension activities for students who were doing well.
5) Make it social, make it timely
Some responses went beyond making it easy, and suggested offering social encouragement or a sense of time pressure. Amanda Melton suggested circulating to help or correct as many students as possible in the first few minutes of the task, to reinforce what students should be doing and support those who might be reluctant to ask for help. Ellie Russell suggested alerting the class when half of students have reached a given point, setting a norm for how fast they might want to move. Alternatively, Mark could set out how much he wants students to achieve, offer regular reminders of progress against it, and ensure students complete tasks outside the lesson if necessary.
Others wondered about incentives for completion: Ellie tentatively suggested a reward for rapid completion – although she noted the potential disadvantages. Julian Selman suggested celebrating students’ answers as ‘work in progress’ by reading them out and stimulating discussion about their merits and ways to improve them: “In my experience the pupils are really chuffed when you do this, even when you are pointing out areas for improvement and not just praising a successful start to the answer.”
Conclusion: be patient
Julian Selman noted that every teacher faces a situation like this at some point, while Dom Shibli suggested accepting that unpicking negative associations students have with the subject will take time, but pay dividends. These ten teachers’ advice for Mark boiled down to this:
- Find someone who has already solved your problem
- Break the task down into chunks so it’s ‘impossible’ for students to claim they can’t do it
- Give students enough support to ‘break the jam’ and put pen to paper
- Build on the first step: ‘students need to experience success’
- Remind students of your expectations and create a sense of urgency
This is a draft excerpt from Habits of success: getting every student learning. It’s available from Amazon & Routledge.
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The previous post, which reviewed how to make a desired behaviour easy and includes the full comments used in this post.
Our attempts to identify the ‘necessary and sufficient conditions under which students will enter a classroom and most speedily engage in productive problem-solving’ as part of the Touchpaper Problems day, here.