Modules
Preparation Module: Creating Your Baseline
This module will help you to:
- create a baseline to compare to when tracking the outcomes of this academy
- collect examples of student voice as a central focus for your baseline
- create an account and set up your academy portfolio
Module One: Introducing the Learning Pit the Learning Challenge to Your Students
This module will help you to:
- understand some of the ways the Learning Pit can be used to support student learning
- identify the ways in which the Learning Pit connects with educational theory and research
- understand the terminology associated with the Learning Pit and Learning Challenge
- introduce the Learning Pit to your students clearly and accurately
- use a prepared lesson to familiarise your students with the four stages of the Learning Challenge
Module Two: Creating a Culture of Challenge, Reasoning, and Respect
This module will help you to create a Learning Challenge culture in which your students:
- respond positively to tasks and ideas that are challenging
- demonstrate open-mindedness towards alternative explanations and viewpoints
- offer reasons and examples to support their thinking using a shared language for learning
- seek clarification and check assumptions so as to better understand others
- show an interest in other people by listening carefully and connecting to their ideas
Module Three: Learning How to Identify Important Concepts From Across the Curriculum
This module will help you and your students to:
- know what a concept is and how to recognise one
- identify the most important concepts from across the curriculum
- draw out concepts from images and texts
- create a wide range of thought-provoking questions that can be used as the starting point for questioning sequences that take everybody into the Learning Pit
- think about the criteria that can be used to select the ‘best’ questions
Module Four: Using Cognitive Conflict to Extend Your Students' Thinking
This module will help you to create cognitive conflict in the minds of your students so that they:
- go beyond their first answer by considering alternative factors and possibilities
- avoid snap judgements, preferring instead to offer more nuanced, carefully considered answers
- examine ambiguity so as to better understand complexity
- recognise when they are in a state of cognitive conflict and understand why this can be beneficial to their learning
Module Five: Developing Your Students' Repertoire of Problem-Solving Strategies
This module will help you teach your students to:
- use critical thinking to analyse ideas
- identify the key features and characteristics of important concepts
- create imaginative solutions and responses to problems
- compare, contrast and sequence information more effectively
- construct coherent lines of reasoning collaboratively as well as individually
Module Six: Extending Your Adaptation of the Learning Pit and the Learning Challenge
This module will help you to:
- make good use of the Learning Pit to encourage your students into a growth mindset
- connect the Learning Pit with the SOLO Taxonomy to deepen your understanding of both models
- adapt the use of the Learning Pit to better support the needs of all students
- lead the introduction and implementation of the Learning Pit & Learning Challenge across your school
- move from using the exemplar lessons in the Learning Challenge books to creating your own examples that are tailor-made for your students
Reflection Module: Identifying Impact and Next Steps
This module will help you to:
- compare current student learning to the baseline to determine impact
- reflect on student progress and contributing factors
- determine next steps
