| A classroom example |
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As with any learning episode, the teacher needs to be clear about the learning objectives and outcomes they are aiming to support their students in achieving, and make these explicit, so if they are new to LVT it is worthwhile trying this out with a smaller group or with colleagues in advance. Focus We might start by making the outcomes, and the timeframe explicit, and providing a list of useful sources of information, research and interactive media relevant to the topic. We might then have a class discussion about what we know about the carbon emissions topic. Table groups could then formulate their own, open ended learning questions if time permits, or the teacher might pose a question to the whole class, such as “what can we do personally, and as a school, to reduce carbon emissions?” Guidance as to the process of exploring this question, how to use the resources, why, and what we will do with the outcomes will be necessary. An idea of what the boards might look like at its various stages will also help students to understand what is expected of them. References to the earlier discussion, and example responses to the question by the teacher, will help students get the feel of the kinds of things they might think of and capture in the gather phase. Gather Working in table groups of 5-6, each with a board and a set of hexagons, students would begin by working individually to capture down as many responses as they can to the question. At first this will be difficult, as many students will feel inhibited. As soon as ideas are written they should be displayed at random on the board, and not judged or commented upon, which will help build confidence. The teachers role is to discourage conversation, and prompt students to think about the question from different angles – Think about all the different ways in which you use energy… Who else can you influence?.. What about in school? Etc. Push the students to come up with more.
Organise This is a very different phase in the process, in which the teacher should stress and actively encourage explanation, reasoning and discussion. The students need to make sense, in response to the question, of the gathered material. They do this by explaining the connections they make between ideas, initially looking for pairs of ideas that belong together, explaining the connection they see, and putting the ideas next to one another. This enables others to challenge or support their perspective, and add further ideas to the grouping, or start a new grouping. This goes on until sense is made, but the teacher needs to watch that groupings are kept distinct – evidently all the material was generated form the same question so is already therefore in one meta-group. There is nothing to be gained by clumping the whole lot together rather we are looking for the insights and patterns ‘within’ the gathered material. Understand This is again a very distinct and very challenging phase of the process. Students articulate the sense they have made from each of the clusters of ideas. These titles need to be more than single word headings, rather statements that are themselves responses to the question, and do justice to all the ideas in the cluster.
By way of example, a cluster may contain the following ideas: Educate my parents about carbon emissions ..the cluster title might be: Become an anti carbon-emission radical! Apply The different table groups then cross present what they have come up with by holding up the board for all to see and reading out the cluster titles and any ideas they found most interesting. Students may be asked to do some individual follow-on work based on the topic specific outcomes. The remaining time of the lesson should be dedicated to class discussion on what was easy, difficult or interesting about the process, drawing out observations about the contrasting nature and challenges of each distinct stage of the process. In this instance, the ‘application’ is in the sharing of outcomes and the reviewing of process –meta-cognitive reflection. It is important that all contributions are acknowledged, and the students are pushed to articulate something about their experience in the lesson. What do I do next? |
Let’s say that the purpose of the learning episode might be to develop creative and collaborative thinking and problem solving skills in a learning module on carbon emissions. An LVT session may be condensed into a standard lesson or bridged over a couple of lessons or a less formally structured period of the timetable.
