I know this sounds counterintuitive: why would a teacher, school leader or educational consultant want to make themselves redundant? Because the ultimate measure of great teaching is not how much students need us, it is how well they can learn without us.
We often talk about developing independent learners but independence isn't something we can simply ask students to demonstrate or demand as a given. We can't say: “You need to take more responsibility for your learning.”…and then leave them to work it out. Autonomy must be facilitated.
Students need secure knowledge before they can think deeply about it. They need explicit instruction, modelling and guided practice before they can perform independently. They need to be shown how to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning before we can expect them to regulate it effectively, and this dedication to learner autonomy has always characterised my practice.
We all know that metagonition improves progress, but it is rarely explicitly taught or integrated into our pedagogy. ‘I do…We do…You do…’ is commonplace in UK and international school alike, but how is the independence this is designed to create measured? What strategies do we use to bridge the gap between pedagogy and metagcognitive awareness in our learners?
Our role gradually changes. At first, we provide the structure, then we model the thinking, then we practise together, then effective practitioners step back and taper-off support. We then measure success through outcomes, but what about the cognitive architecture of the student, the thing they need most to take forward with them to the next stage of their education? We often leave this to fate, hope for the best and send them on their way, filing our results under ‘job done’ and move onto the next cohort.
Lemov has provided us with bountiful pedagogical approaches that allow educators to embody Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, and those strategies truly work. But I can’t help wondering about the extent to which students understand how they learn, even if they are learning successfully. This is why I have always advocated explicitly detailing why and how students are learning, making these mini scripts part of my everyday practice.
I recently left Dukhan English school to relocate to the UK and the thing that moved me most was the continual reference to cognitive science in the goodbye messages and cards I received from students. This is the legacy I wanted to leave and the thing I am most proud of: I have made myself redundant to those learners, and what better legacy can an educator have?
