Learning from Yourself, Learning from Others - Part 1

This blog is Part 1 of 4.

You can access the other parts here:

To begin, I want to think about mistakes and how we can learn from them. Then, in Part 2, we’ll think about effective self-reflection. In Parts 3 and 4, we’ll look at how to make observations effective, focussing first on when you are being observed, and then on when you are observing others.

So, let’s begin.

Introduction

You will make mistakes during your teacher training.

This is inevitable.

It is also a good thing.

Mistakes are one of the main ways we learn.

Much learning is concerned with a process of trial and error through which we come to understand the extent of what is possible and the appropriateness of applying certain things in certain situations.

Without mistakes, and without trial and error, learning is heavily circumscribed.

This circumscription limits progress and prevents an individual from developing the same degree of insight and understanding as is possible when we fail, err and get things wrong.

Of course, making mistakes is not enough on its own.

We must also analyse and reflect on these.

If we make a mistake and then withdraw, refusing to engage with the information our mistake elicits, then we do not learn a great deal – perhaps even nothing at all.

Mistakes need to be embraced and seen in a positive light.

You need to examine what they give rise to, reflect on what this means, and adjust accordingly.

If you can do this, you will make more rapid progress.

Making Mistakes and Trial and Error

Mistakes come thick and fast in the classroom, especially when you are training.

It is worth noting, however, that experienced teachers make mistakes as well.

It’s simply part of the job.

Keep this in mind. Don’t forget it.

You’ll benefit in two ways.

First, it helps to normalise the process of mistake-making, allowing you to view your own errors in a more positive light.

Second, it illuminates the central fact that when working with children and young people, it is impossible to get everything right, all the time.

The only thing we can say for sure is that effective teachers learn from their mistakes, correct them swiftly, and, as a result, avoid repeating them.

During your training, you will have a lot to learn and a lot to think about.

This will lead to you making mistakes and doing things in ways you later decide were not effective.

In addition, you will spend much of the year trying things out.

Testing ideas and activities to see how they work, if they work and whether they suit your style of teaching.

Such testing will lead to errors.

And it is from these that you will learn.

They are a necessary, and important, part of the process.

A Mindset for Success

To excel as a trainee teacher, you need to adopt a mindset in which you allow yourself to make mistakes, in which you look at those mistakes as learning opportunities, and in which you do not become overly self-critical.

Many trainee teachers who struggle to progress as much as they would like, find themselves in this position because they feel uncomfortable with failure and therefore try to do everything possible to minimise the chance of making mistakes.

However, this seriously diminishes their scope for development.

The lessons they plan and teach tend to become mechanical and their repertoire of strategies, techniques and activities remains limited.

This has the knock-on effect of restricting learning in their classrooms, meaning they do not achieve their ultimate purpose of maximising achievement.

Throughout your training year, you should look to try things out.

Testing new ideas helps you develop the quality of your teaching.

It also broadens and deepens your skills base.

Taking risks will not always result in perfect lessons, but it will give you information about why something is or is not successful.

You can use this information to influence your future decision-making.

We can break down the process of making and analysing mistakes into three separate areas:

During lessons
After lessons
In conversation with your mentor

During lessons, you will see first-hand and immediately the effects of making mistakes.

For example, you may fail to explain something clearly, meaning learners struggle to understand what you are saying.

A raft of questions and quizzical looks will follow.

In these situations, two things are imperative.

The first is to analyse why things have turned out other than you expected.

This process of real-time reflection allows you to distinguish the key learning you can take away from the event.

It also points you in the direction of what you need to do to improve matters.

How you should respond to get the learning back on track.

This is the second thing you must do: respond.

If you do not, the results of the mistake will not be mitigated and, crucially, you will lose the opportunity to employ a corrective and observe what impact this has (bearing in mind that it could be the wrong corrective and fail to have any impact!).

In summary, when you make mistakes in lessons, assess why you think the mistake has occurred and then trial a means of correction.

As you do, assess whether this is effective.

If it is not, decide whether to try something else or whether to leave matters for the moment and reflect on them in more depth later.

After lessons you have another chance through which to learn from your mistakes.

The experience of this is rather difference.

Time will have passed since the mistake was made and the fraught intensity of the classroom will be far behind you.

Here, you can reflect with a greater sense of detachment on what happened, why it happened and the effect of any attempted correctives.

It is worth taking some time at the end of every day to sit down and run through any lessons you taught.

As you do this, focus on identifying what you can take away from those lessons and use in the future.

Train Yourself to Stay Positive

Your emphasis should be on the positive benefits of making mistakes, not on the development of a critical or negative commentary regarding what went wrong.

Such ways of thinking are an easy trap to fall into, but they represent a restraint on progress rather than a support.

Avoiding putting a negative spin on mistakes takes self-control.

You must remind yourself that the greatest benefit you can derive is to take away something positive, not to swamp yourself with critical thoughts.

We are not seeking to re-frame all errors through rose-tinted glasses.

Simply to see them in a detached matter and to take from them whatever benefits and insights we can draw.

You will also have an opportunity to discuss your mistakes with your mentor.

The efficacy of this depends to some extent on the relationship you have with them.

If it is a good one, discussing mistakes will be easy.

The openness that comes from a strong rapport will help the pair of you to debate errors in a spirit of positive reflection.

If your relationship with your mentor is other than you would like it to be, I would suggest taking control of the discussion, directing it down the path you want it to take.

So, for example, you might say something like this: ‘I noticed in the lesson that, on a couple of occasions, I failed to give enough support to some of the less-able learners. I’d like us to think about why this happened and what I can do next time to improve things.’

Here, we have defined the problem, demonstrated our awareness of it and set a clear and positive target for the discussion.

Thus, we are in control, ensuring the time we have with our mentor is used to further our own ends (improving the quality of our teaching) as much as possible.

Setting and Implementing Targets

By reflecting on your mistakes while teaching, after teaching and in discussion with your mentor, you will provide yourself with a great deal of useful information.

You will identify what is going wrong, what is causing this to happen and how you might rectify matters.

As we mentioned earlier, the key to swift development is to embrace mistakes and to seek to learn from them.

This learning involves the setting and implementation of targets.

A target is a desired end we have for ourselves or for somebody else (such as when we set a learner a target).

It is something towards which we can aim.

When we achieve our target, we know that we have made progress.

We then find ourselves in a position to set a new target upon which we can next focus our efforts.

This process is the basis of continuous improvement.

One Target at a Time

As a rule, it is best to set yourself one target at a time.

The reason for this is simple.

With one target to aim at, you can devote all your energies to its pursuit.

This increases the likelihood that you will achieve your target and achieve it quickly.

Multiple targets, while tempting, pull the mind in different directions and make it harder to achieve effective progression.

To illustrate the point, consider how you would feel if you were asked to simultaneously:

Improve your behaviour management
Better stretch the thinking of your more-able learners
And ask more thoughtful questions

Compare this to if you were asked to pursue only one of these targets at a time.

Your feelings, and the likelihood of success, would be far better in the second case.

The targets underpinning your progression as a trainee teacher can come from two places: your mentor or yourself (and sometimes a combination of the two, as when you and your mentor discuss and agree a target in collaboration).

Either way, you will find these targets easier to use if they follow a few simple rules.

First, they should be unambiguous and specific.

Second, they should be achievable.

Third, they should be tied to a clear sense of what success will look like.

If you are setting yourself a target, use information gathered from your mistakes to identify something you would like to improve.

Then, focus on precisely what you think you need to change to make this improvement.

Having done this, ask whether what you have identified is achievable.

If it is, great.

If not, break it down into a series of smaller steps.

Finally, work out what success will look like – in terms of outcomes, results, or something else appropriate to the target.

If your mentor sets you a target, ask them to keep to the rules outlined above and, if necessary, explain why this will be to your benefit.

In addition, ask them to provide you with one or more examples of what successful implementation of the target will look like.

Here, you are asking them to model success for you.

They may do this anyway but, if they don’t, you can always ask them to provide you with the requisite exemplar from which to work.

Should you have enough time available, and should your mentor be willing, a useful process to follow is this:

Discuss the mistakes you identified with your mentor.
Work together to agree a target that addresses these mistakes and that you will be able to implement.
Ask your mentor to give you examples of how to successfully implement the target. If possible, ask them to show you such an example – either in a general sense there and then, or in a specific sense as part of one of their lessons.

The great benefit of this process is that it closes the gap between the setting of the target and its successful implementation.

It does this by giving you a clear demonstration – a model – to which you can refer when trying to put the target into practice during your own teaching or planning.

This does not mean that you are copying the model or asking your mentor to do all the work for you.

Rather, it means you are asking your mentor to exemplify what success looks like as explicitly as possible.

This gives you a much higher chance of being successful – and of being able to make the changes you seek as quickly as possible.

With all this said, do not be disheartened if some targets require perseverance – if you find yourself struggling to implement them effectively, even with clear modelling and support.

Such is life.

Sometimes our goals are a little further away than we imagined.

Don’t worry about it.

The key is to keep applying effort in the direction specified and to keep reflecting on the results of that effort, making tweaks where necessary and asking for advice as and when appropriate.

Sometimes, it is even worth putting a target to one side for a few weeks, concentrating fully on something else, and then returning to it.

This process ensures your attention is still focussed on a single target and that making progress remains at the forefront of your mind, but it also helps to unblock a path that may have become more difficult to pass along than you would like.

In conclusion, we can say two things.

First, the targets you set for yourself, or which your mentor sets for you, should be based at least in part on the information you elicit through making mistakes and engaging in trial and error while teaching and planning.

Second, continually setting and then working towards these precise, specific targets will help you to make significant progress throughout the course of your training.