A TALENTED Worcester teacher has won a national award and £15,000 in funding to develop her innovative project which improves students’concentration during lessons.
The concept, which has been created by Penelope Melville, an English teacher at Christopher Whitehead Language College and Sixth Form, uses colour-coded cards to boost students’ listening, understanding, and debating skills.
Penelope has been using a prototype of the system in her classes for six years, and says the indications are it holds significant potential to aid disadvantaged students’ learning.
The grant from Let Teachers SHINE, a competition to find innovative new teaching ideas, will allow Penelope to assess the impact of the intervention, with the aim of scaling it, so many more children and young people benefit.
“It is important to recognise everyone mind-wanders – research indicates that adults spend 25 to 50 per cent of their waking hours mind-wandering – and everyone is subject to misunderstanding,” she said.
“So I designed a methodology whereby you check listening and understanding first and, in particular, mitigate the impact of mind wandering so the kids can be caught up and actually engage more effectively in a debate of the ideas
Her method provides a structured format for discussing an issue, beginning with listening, and understanding.
Students work collaboratively in small groups and after the first speaker explains their interpretation of a quotation, listeners use colour-coded cards to indicate whether they understand, partially understand, misunderstand, or have mind-wandered.
The listener(s) who think they understand then need to reword the original speaker’s idea until everyone has understood. Once this happens, they each choose a debate card (agree, disagree, or unsure) and must justify their response.
This encourages students to explore all aspects of an argument, enhance engagement in debate, and foster critical thinking.
It also slows the pace of the discussion, giving students more time to think and process information, helping them to better understand what is being discussed and to come up with thoughtful and considered responses. Furthermore, it discourages students from quietly opting out of the discussion.
Penelope found out she had won the funding during form time in class.
“I glanced at my computer, and I saw the e-mail there and I clicked on it and just I couldn’t believe what I was reading.” she said.
“The students could tell from my face that something was up. They were asking me lots of questions and I wouldn’t tell them. One of them said, have you won the lottery?
“In the context of the project, it was hilarious because my mind wandered all over the place, and I couldn’t think straight.
“I really wanted to scream, but of course, I couldn’t do that in the classroom!”
