Presentation

1. SOLEs
Self Organised Learning Environment

2. In April 2014 at the IATEFL
conference in Harrogate a man
called Sugata Mitra gave the
closing plenary called “The future
of learning.” This is what
happened after …

3. “Based on scanty evidence,
funded by parties who have a lot
to gain then shifted away from
hole-in-the-wall to computers-in-
schools. Like Slumdog
Millionaire, the movie inspired
by Mitra’s work, it beggars
belief. There’s no silver bullet
here and we shouldn’t be lulled
into thinking this is the answer.”
Donald Clark
“I am a paid-up technophile and love what technology allows me to do and
experience in our present reality. But as Gavin Dudeney has said (again!)
it’s not the issue, especially when it is being used to promote dodgy
pedagogic practices. I do not accuse Sugata Mitra of that. But I do accuse
him of oversimplifying complex issues of pedagogy to offer an over-
idealistic technology-fuelled solution to everything.” Jeremy Harmer
“I had the dubious pleasure of following Mitra into the
stage for my own talk, and as the room emptied out while I
waited to begin, I decided I had to start with some kind of
immediate response. This moment of raw anger can be
witnessed here. What I now hope to achieve in my own de
rigueur response is a clarification of my main concerns –
and to persuade you that Mitra is the neoliberal agenda of
a reduced state role usurped by big business incarnated
in cuddly and charismatic sheep’s clothes.” Hugh Dellar

4. What is SOLEs?
https://www.theschoolinthecloud.org

5. Why do English
sentences
begin with a
capital letter?

6. How it began at
International
House,
London...

7. The students
They could not be fee paying students who were already studying in the
school. We recruited students who were living in London but were not
attending any English lessons. We had 18 students who agreed
participate. It was a pre-intermediate level class and the learners were
from a variety of backgrounds and ages. They completed a placement
test at the start of the four weeks.
The school
It was really important that teachers and senior management felt involved
and comfortable with this research. We arranged a Q&A Skype meeting
with Sugata Mitra, who answered questions put to him by the Director
and teaching staff. There was a little resistance from some staff but most
were just curious to see how this would work.
The teachers
I choose two very different teachers to run the classes. Mike is DELTA
qualified, with several years of experience under his belt and has an MA in
TESOL. Gabriela had recently completed a CELTA with about six months
teaching experience behind her.

8. The lessons
•Twenty questions – one for each day
•Lead-in – to raise the students interest
•40-50 minutes for students to work on finding the
answer
•20 minutes for presentations and questions
Teacher’s role:
•Setting the question
•Leaving the room for 40-50 minutes
•Watching, giving praise and inviting questions
from other groups during presentation stage.

9. The classroom

10. The students

11. Some of the presentations

12. Some of the Questions that worked:
•How will we access the internet in 2065?
•What is the best way to learn a language?
•Can children learn languages more quickly than adults and if so,
why?
•Why does memory decline as we get older? Identify three
simple methods of improving memory when learning?
•Find the five top free apps for learning a language.
•What caused the financial crisis in 2008 and what can we do to
stop this happening again?
•Find three methods to improve pronunciation.

13. The Questions that didn’t work:
•What’s the best and the worst place to live in the world?
Was it just questions?
No. By the middle of the second week we decided to introduce a
reading text, which was four levels above the learners ability.
We also gave the students three CAE Use of English tests to
complete.
We reduced the number of laptops to one in some lessons.

14. What the students said....
“So..I'm writing you about the English course.. I
believe the course has been good for improve my
English.. Maybe I make the same mistake of
before, but I learned new words and I'm more
confident speaking.. I think my speaking is more
fluently than before and I'm happy about it!”
Matteo Mercuri

15. What the teachers said...
“On the whole, despite my misgivings about not being able to correct or guide,
this method of allowing independent, unsupervised study has a lot of validity
from my observations. As long as the question or task being set is engaging and
thought-provoking, the class will get involved. I have already started using this
approach in my General English lessons, and where I previously would have left
students to work together while remaining in the room to monitor, now I feel
comfortable leaving the room for lengthy spells at a time.” Mike
“As a teacher, it was difficult at times because I wanted to do more input on
language, and I couldn’t ignore direct requests for help on language. I also found
it difficult to hand over to them completely.
For me the experience served to highlight where I’m needed as a teacher but
also how much the students can learn for themselves if given the independence
to do so. I’ve experimented with doing the same things with my morning classes
too and the students seem to have really enjoyed it.” Gabriela

16. The findings…
The overall experience was a real rollercoaster ride for both teachers and the
students.
The biggest and most noticeable difference in the students was that their level of
confidence and fluency had improved. One particular student whose level of
English was noticeably lower than the rest of the group and his pronunciation was
very poor, seemed to flourish in this environment. By the end of the four weeks,
he was able to stand up in front of the class and give a two-three minute
presentation without difficulty.
SOLEs encourages collaborative learning, with students helping and supporting
each other.
The negatives:
No error correction
No pronunciation work
No language input

17. What next?
The research continues:
1. To look at how we measure student progress
2. What happens in a SOLE classroom at different levels,
monolingual settings? Different types of classes eg exam.
3. Measure the impact of SOLE levels on confidence and
fluency over a period of time
4. What happens to reading, writing, grammar,
pronunciation?
5. What’s the role of the teacher and the learner?
•The report will be completed and published in various journals
•We are running classes for fee paying students from January 2016 at
International House, London

18. varinder.unlu@ihlondon.com
Questions
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