The Link Between Oracy, Voice21 and Thunks

There was a Guardian article many moons ago about how Peter Hyman, the co-founder of both of School 21 and Voice 21 (and a recently appointed advisor to Andy Burnham), was using my Thunks in his school.

The article picked on one of my favourites (and I still remember the look on the students’ faces when I thought of it and threw it at them just before the bell). It relates to the question of whether a computer becomes a vase if you put a bunch of flowers in it?

Nuggets

In the article, Hyman argued that,

“…children spend very little of their time in school thinking. There is almost an unspoken deal: we'll spoonfeed you the required nuggets of information to pass your exams if you behave and do your homework on time. Our education system is not designed to get children to think. Why?”

Having sat at the back of many lessons in recent years, I suggest his point is still valid.

I witness many students learning plenty of rich knowledge as the teacher takes them through what cognitive science dictates is needed to make the learning stick.

Results rise and the job’s a good ‘un.

Can You Learn Without Thinking?

I know that’s the game we’re in, but I do feel we’re not playing it as smartly as we could be, especially when we ask ourselves two questions that have bugged me ever since I started Independent Thinking, also many moons ago.

Can you learn without thinking?

Can you think without learning?

When it comes to being ‘spoonfed nuggets’ to pass exams, I suspect the answer to both is ‘Yes’.

For example, I could set up a recall exercise in a History lesson that asks students (probably through a cloze exercise on a slide in the first ten minutes of a lesson) to show they know the causes and dates of the outbreak of World War One.

Or I could put up the question,

Why did World War One not start in 1913?

The first involves recall.

The second involves recall plus thinking.

It’s a little tweak but a significant one.

Or set the task,

Write three French sentences using the simple past tense but – perhaps – make one of them wrong. Then swap with a friend to spot the right ones.

Recall plus thinking. 

Or pose the question,

Macbeth meets Lady Macbeth in the afterlife. What would be the first three things he would say to her?

Recall plus thinking.

You get the idea.

And not a cloze exercise insight.

The Benefits of Having No Right Answer

What working like this also does is move students away from seeking ‘the’ answer.

Something they either get right or wrong or simply don't know.

(Or, with a cloze exercise, copy it off the slide and leave it blank till the teacher goes though the answers then fill it in. I see you Kieran at the back of that Year Ten chemistry lesson…)

Having no right answer is one of the many benefits (depending on how you feel about such matters) of questions such as the flowers/vase/computer one.

Your thinking doesn’t hit the ‘right answer/wrong answer/I don’t know’ cul-de-sac, because there is no right answer.

There is just thinking.

Lots of it.

Where Oracy Comes In

And without the fear of getting it wrong, the pressure has lifted, the emotional dynamic has shifted and the academic hierarchy in the lesson is different now.

Even the academically low-achieving child joins in because their thoughts are as valid as the next person's, something I’ve seen time and time again.

Yes, you follow up with correcting any misconceptions with the necessary facts but, by that time, the student is invested and more open to learning.

They are even enjoying themselves.

Which brings us to where oracy come in.

With the fear of being wrong eliminated and a more level playing field created, that child who never normally speaks finally starts to find their voice.

Ask any teacher who has ever led Philosophy for Children sessions and they will say the same thing.

You’ve created the conditions not only for deeper thinking to take place but for more of the class to speak, almost despite themselves at times.

(A good Thunk does make even the most recalcitrant or retiring student angry enough to speak up.)

The Difference Between Speaking and Thinking

A word of warning here.

Speaking is important, but don’t take it as a proxy for thinking.

Sometimes, those who are speaking most are thinking least.

And the ones who remain quiet may be thinking hardest of all.

Finally, one other benefit of working in this way is the impact on the self-esteem and confidence of some of our hardest-to-reach young people.

You see them grow in stature as it suddenly dawns on them, ‘My thoughts count, therefore I count’.

School is For Thinking

‘School is for thinking,’ Hyman concludes in his Guardian article.

And when they’re thinking, they’re also addressing oracy, recall, engagement, confidence, and self-esteem, even with our hardest-to-reach students.

All from asking about what happens when you stick a bunch of flowers on a computer.

What do you think? [ITL]

If you would like me to visit your school and model this work with children and students during the day and then lead a debrief with staff after school, please give us a call on 01267 211432 or drop us an email.

It’s a really effective CPD model that I have delivered in all sorts of schools all around the world.

Ian Gilbert