1. Why do we teach?
Teaching in a Christian
context and ‘What If?’
learning
John Keeley
Trinity School 2016
2. Do now:
What’s the point of teaching?
Two minutes to discuss and come
up with a sentence…
Trinity School 2016
What did you come up with?
3. The Wilshavian-Morgan dialectic?
Why do you teach?
To enable individual students and those from an identified
sub-group or sub-groups to make at least expected, and in
at least 70% of cases, more than expected progress from
their starting points as defined by end of KS2 SATS data,
thus ensuring rapid and sustained progress towards at least
good outcomes at the end of KS4 and KS5.
Trinity School 2016
4. How do we teach?
Trinity School 2016
Conditioned by our experiences…
5. Einstein and Da Vinci expressing
contentment at moving from Level 5b to 5a in
Genius Studies
Trinity School 2016
Can we sometimes subconsciously limit ourselves and our
students because we are institutionalised?
7. Trinity School 2016
Questioning
everything
Culturally and
historically aware
Socially engaged
Confident to go
my own way
Intellectually
questing and
restless
Capable of pity
and laughter
Humane
Forgiving of the
essential absurdity
of life
Which is all very well if you have social advantage,
are self-motivated and intelligent…
What do we want Trinity
students to be like?
8. Trinity School 2016
Stopping being a hippy and growing up a
bit…
How can we ‘do’ attainment and build a love
of learning that enriches lives?
Transformation
9. Squaring the circle: achievement and decent human
beings…
Confident in working with information and ideas – your
own and those of others
Responsible for yourself, responsive to and respectful of
others
Reflective as learners, developing your ability to learn
Innovative and equipped for new and future challenges
Engaged intellectually and socially, ready to make a
difference.
Trinity School 2016
11. ‘I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure it
is not in order to enjoy ourselves’
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Trinity School 2016
Ways of doing II…stimulating thought
13. ‘What If?’ learning
An approach to education which works
from Christian principals of faith, hope and
love.
Internationally based, led by Prof Trevor
Cooling of CCCU.
Trinity School 2016
‘It’s a matter of building a rich whole that is informed by
faith, not of whether each component part is
trademarked.’ - therefore NOT dogmatic
http://www.whatiflearning.co.uk/
14. Trinity School 2016
The key ‘What If?’ themes I:
FOCUS
On key ideas
To explore a fresh emphasis
EXPERIENCE AND EXPAND
Delight, reflection and wonder
God’s world in its fullness
Ways of participating
ENQUIRE AND CHANGE
To pursue big questions
To learn from as well as about
http://www.whatiflearning.co.uk/the-approach
15. Trinity School 2016
The key ‘What If?’ themes II:
REFLECT AND ACT:
To consider contrast and dissonance
RETHINK:
Critically engage with examples, activities and tasks
CONNECT:
Between faith, learning and life and the coherence of God’s world
RELATE:
Help learners approach learning in relatIonal terms
Help learners relate to the wider world
http://www.whatiflearning.co.uk/examples
16. Trinity School 2016
How could we develop our practice?
Later, you’ll be thinking of ways you could re-work a
current topic using some of the principles of What If?
17. Trinity School 2016
How could we develop our practice?
A worked example: using Bloom’s taxonomy to think in
an evaluative way
18. Do now
What is beauty?
Why are things beautiful?
Why do things need to be beautiful?
Trinity School 2016
19. A 20 minute guide to becoming an
original, evaluative thinker
Trinity School 2016
20. There are no learning
objectives. And the world
won’t end.
Trinity School 2016
21. The only bit of educational jargon I’ll
inflict on you…
Trinity School 2016
22. Individual task:
Choose a random topic. It must be either:
A: Deeply esoteric, or
B: Deeply banal
Write the topic in your books, then a sentence that
relates to it using each of the levels of Bloom’s
taxonomy
Trinity School 2016
23. Bloom’s Banality – subject: eggs
Knowledge: An egg consists of a shell,
a yolk and a white
Trinity School 2016
24. Bloom’s Banality – subject: eggs
Comprehension: If I chuck an egg at a
passing pensioner, it will shatter (egg,
pensioner or possibly both)
Trinity School 2016
25. Bloom’s Banality – subject: eggs
Application: I could use an egg to make
a delightful picnic snack by the
mysterious process of hard boiling
Trinity School 2016
26. Bloom’s Banality – subject: eggs
Analysis: Egg is to chicken as spawn is
to frog
Trinity School 2016
27. Bloom’s Banality – subject: eggs
Synthesis: In my underwater genetic
laboratory, I have created a square egg
with which to baffle foreigners and the
less academically able
Trinity School 2016
28. Bloom’s Banality – subject: eggs
Evaluation: My subtle deployment of
this counter-intuitively-shaped ovum has
caused me much hilarity by provoking
grunts of consternation from the gullible
and obtuse. Hahahaha (I cackled evilly)
Trinity School 2016
29. Bloom’s Esoterica – subject:
infamous 19th century gnome
assassins
Knowledge: Osbert the Magnificent was
King of the 19th century gnome
assassins
Trinity School 2016
30. Bloom’s Esoterica – subject:
infamous 19th century gnome
assassins
Comprehension: Osbert developed a
form of covert warfare based on Zen
Buddhism and mindless brutality.
Trinity School 2016
31. Bloom’s Esoterica – subject:
infamous 19th century gnome
assassins
Application: Had Osbert not been
anointed King of the gnome assassins,
gnomes would have been wiped out by
the vicious Ninja Trolls
Trinity School 2016
32. Bloom’s Esoterica – subject:
infamous 19th century gnome
assassins
Analysis: In a world without gnome
assassins, Ninja trolls would now be in
charge of Apple, and i-pads would be
made of twigs stuck together with spit.
Trinity School 2016
33. Bloom’s Esoterica – subject:
infamous 19th century gnome
assassins
Synthesis: On the eve of the decisive,
final battle between Osbert’s legions and
the Ninja trolls, Osbert was wracked with
a nagging, existential self-doubt. Had his
reign simply been a failure waiting to
unfold?
Trinity School 2016
34. Bloom’s Esoterica – subject:
infamous 19th century gnome
assassins
Evaluation: In the end, history is simply
a series of random tragedies that we
seek to make sense of by applying a
desperate logical framework after the
event to avoid the sense that we are all
doomed.
Trinity School 2016
35. Paired peer assessment:
Write two sentences, evaluating:
• Did your partner understand the Bloom’s levels?
• How well did they communicate and differentiate
them?
Now compare yours with theirs. Whose was most
successful? Why? How would you improve your
work?
Trinity School 2016
36. Being evaluative:
What do these two objects say about
their owners? Why?
Trinity School 2016
A 15th century illuminated Book of Hours
A home-knitted Barbie doll loo-roll hider
37. How can we judge the ‘beauty’ of abstract
art?
‘Beauty is that which gives pleasure when it is
contemplated’ – St Thomas Aquinas
‘Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there
was something tragic’ – Oscar Wilde
‘Art is not a study of reality, it is a seeking for
truth’ John Ruskin
Trinity School 2016
38. Trinity School 2016
Piet Mondrian – pioneer Abstract artist
Born in 1872
Began as a purely representational nature artist
Drew influences from the post-impressionism of Van Gogh
Moved in Cubism of Picasso and Braque
Finally became a leading Abstract artist
40. Trinity School 2016
Being an art critic…
Write an aesthetic response to the pictures on the next slide. Write
a paragraph using each of the following aesthetic absolutes
comparing and giving views on TWO of the pictures:
Expertise (the technical skill you can see: what level of skill is
involved? What sort of skill? How are they similar and different?)
Non-utilitarian pleasure (how, if, and why the pictures evoke a
positive or negative emotional response in you. Which do you
prefer? Why?)
41. Trinity School 2016
Non-utilitarian pleasure (how, if, and why the pictures evoke a positive or
negative emotional response in you. Which do you prefer? Why?)
42. Reinterpreting art: from Velazquez (1650) to Bacon (1953)
Evaluate in a paragraph what is happening here
Trinity School 2016
43. Your turn…
Think about a topic you are teaching at the moment.
How could you teach it differently to get students thinking
harder and in a more sophisticated way about it?
Work in subject groups.
Be brave,take a risk, and be happy to fail or be surprised.
There are no right and wrong ways of doing this.
Trinity School 2016
Try it in a lesson in the first week back and send me your
powerpoint and resources. We’ll return to this after Easter
