What providers have said about this case study:

"The resources that you directed me to are fabulous, really well written, user-friendly, and your filmed examples make a world of difference. It’s such a different experience being able to see parts of a lesson and why it was good and how the students responded to it rather than just be told that it was good."(Gale Barker, ACL tutor, Kirklees College)

Overview

Outstanding Teaching: Frankie Goldsmith“I was once asked at a good practice conference ‘What do teachers need to do to get a grade 1 for their teaching?’. Faced with seconds rather than hours for my reply I answered that an outstanding lesson is ‘one that simply couldn’t be missed’. If you’ve been lucky enough to experience a lesson given by an outstanding teacher then you’ll be clear about what this means. But if not, this good practice example aims to give a greater insight into how you might make your lesson unmissable.

Arts teachers, as judged by Ofsted inspectors, are amongst the best in the post-16 sector – but why? Two years ago, we set out to answer this in the film ArtsWork which showed how outstanding teaching changed the lives of five learners – all from very different backgrounds and all with unique and significant personal challenges. The 60 minute documentary film is available free on request from info@goodpracticedatabase.org.uk. This case study features one of the three lessons that we filmed as part of this project.”

Tony Davis, Ofsted Good Practice Database Manager

The good practice in detail

HoT Learning

This is the first of three good practice examples on outstanding teaching. The other two examples can be found here:

Outstanding Teaching 2/3 – Eddie Chinn
Outstanding Teaching 3/3 – Paul Tarling

Thinking about how to portray an outstanding lesson on film was a very interesting and focusing experience. The conundrum was: how do you show all of the key outstanding elements of a lesson in no more than a few minutes? Not an easy question to answer as you will see if you download this blank Elements of Outstanding Teaching form and try the exercise for yourself. Simply list what you consider to be the elements of outstanding teaching followed by the 10-second film clip you would need to show it.

To help gain a clearer insight into these key elements, you may wish to consider the following HoT Learning model – Hierarchy of Teaching and Learning – arrived at after much consideration of the above and analysis of the three lessons we filmed. This is not meant to be a definitive blueprint for outstanding teaching, but does present a useful model for debate.

Is an outstanding lesson one where: appropriate resources are used by a teacher who is enthusiastic about their subject to deliver a learning experience that takes into account the unique needs of each learner and inspires them to take risks, make connections and learn, whilst constantly checking that they are meeting high expectations and becoming independent learners? If so, then, as with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs all of the above components could be considered in a similar hierarchical structure (read from the bottom up):

HoT Learning Model


This is not intended to be the chronology of how a lesson should progress, so does not include such essentials as: a clear introduction to the lesson; use of group activities; the final evaluation of learning; etc. It is more to provoke a debate about the skills and attributes a teacher would need to acquire to move them from delivering merely satisfactory lessons to learning experiences that could not be missed.

You may find it useful to download the following HoT Learning Form to write your own commentary under each of the above headings as you watch the lesson. This also includes a high resolution version of the above HoT Learning model.

Click the link below to download a self-contained film of Frankie Goldspink and Chris Slann’s taster session on making carnival costumes. Remember that it is the key elements of teaching here that are important and not the subject matter. Frankie and Chris work for the arts unit of the Isle of Wight’s local education authority's adult and community learning service.

You can watch the lesson on-line or right click the link and download it to your own computer.

Carnival Workshop Lesson - 8min 17sec (14.9Mb) - Windows Media

Why not also download the Q-box Action Plan for this example and make notes as you read.

Q-BOXHow does your staff’s or your own teaching compare to the HoT Learning model? How could you use the ideas to improve the learning experiences you provide? Frankie and Chris’ lesson was a one-off taster session for learners who had not met before. Consider the lessons you give to new groups of learners – how high are your aspirations for their achievements on day one? How would you describe the development of their personal confidence? How do you ensure that no one coasts through the lesson? How do you plan to meet individuals’ needs when you have never met them before? How do you determine that all learners have achieved your high expectations?

The following lesson evaluation was written by full-time inspector Lynda Cole, who observed the whole of the original two hour lesson.

Q-BOXHave you lost the teaching from ‘teaching and learning’?

Uploaded - April 2008

What could you do next to improve your provision?

Answering all of the italicised questions in the Q boxes above will help you begin to health-check your current practice. Download all of the linked documents, compare them with your own or adapt them for your own use. Write a short action plan to get you from where you are now (what is good and what needs improving) to where you want to be.

The Building Better Practice (BBP) web resource is a great place to start if you want to benchmark yourself against other providers. It will show you the most common inspection strengths and weaknesses for each issue or topic, an analysis of the good practice found on inspection and a series of health-check questions to help you establish how you compare to others. Look specifically at how you could use BBP to improve your staff development, off-the-job training and sharing good practice.

Actions for Quality Improvement (AQI) is a set of activities with resources around which you can run staff development sessions with your teams. The activities cover all aspects of the learner's journey and will help your staff embed quality improvement in the heart of your provision. Look specifically at how you could use AQI to improve your teaching and learning.

If you need more help, ideas and resources for the process of self assessment then look at the Learner-Centred Self Assessment (LCSA) materials. This is a web-based or hard-copy resource to help you generate a rich source of evidence for your self-assessment report through professional discussion rather than the completion of lengthy forms.

9 Data Projects to Improve Your Provision is a set of projects which help you use data to explore all aspects of the learner’s journey for improvement themes.

The Self-Assessment Surgery Projects have proved very popular at the Preparing for Inspection events. They will help you determine whether or not your SAR is fit for purpose.

Interpreting the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) is essential guidance on how to interpret the CIF for your remit and is now contained in the appendices of the Ofsted inspection handbook for work-related and adult and community learning.

The Inspection Toolkit contains step-by-step guidance on how to prepare for inspection and covers such topics as choosing the right person to be nominee, using data and self assessment.