The Friday Mindset - Issue #63

Happy Friday!

Let's jump straight in this week.

Something to try...

We recently stumbled across a new coaching question. Someone mentioned economist Tyler Cowen and we found five minutes at the end of the day to look up his latest work, a collaboration with journalist Daniel Gross on a book called Talent, which is now on our TBR.

Anyway, the coaching question was one we came across on a blog exploring the content of the book. It's about practice. In its original form it's “What is it you do to practice that is analogous to how a pianist practises scales?” but we're going to adjust a little and go for something like:

"Recall the repetitive/intense practice you did as a child. What practice are you doing in your studies at the moment that is similar?"

Of course, the first part of the question requires a little more digging - some students mention piano scales... but not many! Others have talked about learning another instrument, learning a sport or component of a sport (keepie-uppies in football for example), riding a bike, or getting good at a computer game.

All of this reminded us of a session we used to run about the intense practice we do in childhood. It's been a while since we've used it, so we're going to dig it out and re-deliver it. It's very simple - just some clips of kids practising, each of which triggers a remember-doing-this? type discussion, followed by the coaching question above.

So here's the simplest of powerpoints for you - kids practising things. Enjoy.

...plus coaching question

Something we've been reading...

We've been exploring the idea of productive failure. We sometimes wonder whether our own treatment of failure in the past has lacked sophistication - we'd often emphasise the importance of failure, tell stories of important failures, stress the idea of current failures building to future successes... basically reassure students, then tell them to crack on.

But even as we did this, we also knew that constant failure is obviously hugely demotivating, despite our up-and-at-'em messaging. So where's the success/failure balance? A one-for-one model, where every success is matched with a setback? That can't be right; there's no sense of progress, surely. So...one failure for every three successes? One per five?

It's a guessing game that feels like a dead end.

Then we came across this interview with Professor Manu Kapur (Chair of Learning Science, Zurich.) It's a transcript of a chat exploring the idea of productive failure. Despite the familiar title, it's more nuanced than the usual make-friends-with-failure stuff. Kapur suggests 3-5 productive failure sessions per semester. It's something we're going to continue thinking and reading about in the coming months.

Have a look:

The learning scientist Manu Kapur, architect of the theory of productive failure, on reframing our notion of failure, and letting kids stumble (but with purpose).

Our latest offer...

A book giveaway this week! We've already leafed through Laura Huang's Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage and lifted the bits we want. Maybe someone else can enjoy it now...

If it's around 3:30-4:30pm on the Friday this newsletter comes out, you could be in with a chance! Just email us at [email protected], say hello and leave a school address, and we'll post it to you sometime next week.

Do it now. Go! Good luck!

And that's it for this week, folks. Have a great weekend.

All the best to you and yours,

Steve and Martin

p.s.

Just stumbled across Manu Kapur's Ted Talk. It doesn't get going for a while. Check it out here, and skip to 12 min:30 - 14 min:30 for a quick 2 minute taster.

p.p.s.

Don't forget our Building Towards Exam Success course; it features 15 VESPA activities - some old, most new - as a curriculum of sessions to build up to exams. It’s great for years 11, 12 and 13 in particular. It’s an online, two-and-a-half hour session running on November 30th, and you can get all the details here.