Engaging Learners - Brossura

Books in education tend to be dry academic tomes or full of anecdotes usually premised on `do what I did`. Outstanding Teaching is neither it is based on a rich analysis of thousands of videos of successful teachers, is imbued with a sense of fun, but has some very serious messages. What a treat Outstanding Teaching an engaging book emphasising the core qualities of teaching while making it sound fun. Griffith and Burns emphasise the Big Four; Challenge, Autonomy (but they mean students having the space in classrooms to learn), feedback (to teachers), and engagement (full absorption in learning). To link these, they use the notion of flow, which requires that the tasks are appropriately challenging, teacher input is minimal, the class have the necessary learning skills, success criteria or goals are clear and worthwhile, feedback is immediate, and tasks are intrinsically motivating. These are among the top influences that I also found in my synthesis of meta-analyses. Many have become upset with my own comments about the power of teacher quality, so if only they read this book to see what quality looks and feels like. They spare no punches about what is in the power of teachers: not only the choice of curricula but the management of classrooms, the skill of listening not speaking, the placing of student learning at the centre, receiving feedback about their impact, and taking responsibility for triggering engagement by students in learning whilst enjoying it all. They emphasise rapport, imagination, competence, choice, curiosity, relevance, challenge, and fun. [With two exceptions I agree (I see little evidence supporting student choice teachers need to lead in progressing students upwards in their learning and not leave it to students otherwise the rich can get richer and the poor stay poor) and would argue that some of these triggers come from being successful engaged (not as precursors to successful engagement).] I understand Outstanding Teaching is the first book in the planned Outstanding Teaching series bring `em on. --John Hattie, Director, Melbourne Education Research Institute

There are many outstanding teachers ... and some of them are recognised. Most teachers would seek to be the best they can in order to help the pupils that they teach become the learners we would want them to be. This book will help teachers to bring together the art, the science and the craft of teaching. Andy and Mark have managed to distil the work they do alongside teachers on their course programmes into print in a way that is readable and practical: no mean achievement! It is a book full of suggestions, ideas and techniques which are grounded in a coherent outlook on what makes outstanding teaching. It will help with inspection ... and it is much more. Reading this book will shed light on the work we do in classrooms and the way we engage with youngsters and will also make us think about the very purpose of teaching. --Mick Waters, Professor of Education at Wolverhampton University

Outstanding Teaching reflects Andy and Mark`s views that all teachers can be enabled to improve with the right support and guidance that is tied to clear criteria that allows them to see how to move forward. The strength of the book comes from the number of strategies that are included, alongside real-life examples that can support classroom teachers in engaging students. To learn, students have to be engaged this book gives a route map of what engagement is, what it looks like and the strategies needed to achieve it. Teachers need to do this before anything else, such as learning and progress, can happen in classrooms this is what makes this book a valuable tool to classroom teachers. --Ian Young, Principal, Rainford High Technology College

There are many outstanding teachers ... and some of them are recognised. Most teachers would seek to be the best they can in order to help the pupils that they teach become the learners we would want them to be. This book will help teachers to bring together the art, the science and the craft of teaching. Andy and Mark have managed to distil the work they do alongside teachers on their course programmes into print in a way that is readable and practical: no mean achievement! It is a book full of suggestions, ideas and techniques which are grounded in a coherent outlook on what makes outstanding teaching. It will help with inspection ... and it is much more. Reading this book will shed light on the work we do in classrooms and the way we engage with youngsters and will also make us think about the very purpose of teaching. --Mick Waters, Professor of Education at Wolverhampton University

Outstanding Teaching reflects Andy and Mark`s views that all teachers can be enabled to improve with the right support and guidance that is tied to clear criteria that allows them to see how to move forward. The strength of the book comes from the number of strategies that are included, alongside real-life examples that can support classroom teachers in engaging students. To learn, students have to be engaged this book gives a route map of what engagement is, what it looks like and the strategies needed to achieve it. Teachers need to do this before anything else, such as learning and progress, can happen in classrooms this is what makes this book a valuable tool to classroom teachers. --Ian Young, Principal, Rainford High Technology College

Andy Griffith is the co-creator of the Outstanding Teaching Training Intervention (OTTI) and director of MALIT a Merseyside based training company. He has helped teachers and whole schools move up to Ofsted s Outstanding grade by offering practical advice and getting teachers to try new ways of working with their students. His one day courses, which all run through Osiris Educational, include Outstanding Teaching, Embedding Outstanding Teaching, Games for Learning, How to be an Outstanding Trainer and Project Based Learning. He was Osiris Trainer of the Year in 2011 and has previously had education packs and resources published by Folens, Framework Press and Comic Relief. Mark Burns, Director of MALIT Limited brings a wealth of experience from his twelve years of teaching as well as working in the field of gifted and talented education. His keen appreciation about what motivates people to learn and engage lies at the core of his training. He has worked extensively delivering and coaching on the TES Training Award shortlisted Outstanding Teaching Training Intervention (OTTI) in schools nationwide. Through this work, observing literally hundreds of lessons in both primary and secondary schools, he has gained a keen understanding of the key ingredients required to transform learning in the classroom so that it is active, high in challenge, collaborative and student-led. This work has been commended in Ofsted reports. Mark was shortlisted for the TES Training Award 2010 for his work with a school confronting major organisational change. He works extensively with school leaders developing the quality of teaching.