Research School Network: One way to share the EEF Guidance Reports Following the ​‘Study Group’ collaborative learning process

Last year, I shared the Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning Guidance Report with over 70 teachers and teaching assistants on our school training day.

To ensure that the hour session ran smoothly I followed the ​‘Study Group’ collaborative learning process which I was shown by Diane Heritage, who has experience as a lead facilitator and programme designer for NCSL. Diane guided all the Aspirer Evidence Leads in Education (ELEs) through this structure on our first training day. As a participant, I found that the tasks set were manageable, achievable and helped me to get a good overview of a guidance report in under an hour. When I was asked to share the metacognition guidance, I knew that I wanted to try this approach myself.

Here is the outline of the ​‘Study Group’ process:

1) Sharing the key vocabulary

It is important that everyone understands the key vocabulary in the guidance reports so there is a shared understanding in the room. For this reason, I asked everyone to read pages 8 and 9​‘What are metacognition and self-regulated learning?’

2) Choose a recommendation

The next stage is sharing out the recommendations around the table. This obviously depends on how many people you are training. We had about 12 people on a table, so some chose a recommendation on their own whilst others partnered up – I suggested that recommendations 2 and 6 be shared as they are quite lengthy.

3) Read, interpret and share the key messages

Each table identifies a facilitator to keep time and ensure follows the process. Everyone reads their recommendation and takes notes to enable them to feedback the key messages to their table. Allow plenty of time here – do not rush this as the language is very academic and people need time to unpick it and summarise it.

When everyone is ready, go down the recommendation in order and the facilitator invites each group member to share their understanding of it and the key messages. Do not discuss or ask questions at this point. You may also want someone to be a scribe and write down this information.

4) Discussions linked to key questions

When all 7 recommendations have been shared with the table, the table facilitator invites a discussion about the key findings to begin. You might have some key questions you would like your staff to focus on. We simply asked, ​‘What does this mean for our school?’ A scribe noted down the group responses to this for feedback later.

5) Feedback

• Finally, as a whole group we went through the 7 recommendations and shared our findings. I found that after 40 minutes of intense concentration, this was a step too far and everyone was ready for a break. I wrapped this up quickly and used the information the scribe had written to help me gain a better understanding of their discussions.
  
  These are the main steps of the process and in total it took just under an hour. I shared the whole structure at the beginning with my colleagues and allowed them the time they needed to work through each step. I walked around the room listening to conversations and facilitating further discussions where I could.
  
  I feel that the ​‘Study Group’ approach enabled everyone to leave the training session with a better understanding of the 7 recommendations within the report and a very good understanding of one in particular. The structure also encouraged high-quality conversations and ensured everyone was engaged and involved the whole time.
  
  Things to consider
  
  After the meeting, I asked for some feedback and here are some things you might want to consider if you use this approach -
  
  
• The language used in the guidance reports is very academic and can be quite daunting to some. Think carefully about the table groupings and place more confident colleagues strategically to support those who may be less confident in understanding the key messages. 
• Try to spread around colleagues from different year groups, as the key messages, especially within metacognition, could be interpreted differently by each year group and this knowledge needs to be shared across the school in order for us to learn from each other.
  
• A lot of the guidance reports cover the theory so I would definitely recommend that you spend some time demonstrating how theory translates into practice. For instance, I talked about how I used a metacognitive approach when I planned for the meeting. Feedback showed that this helped colleagues to understand how this could be used to enable them when demonstrating it to the children.
  
  There are a number of different ways to share the key messages from the EEF Guidance Reports. I found this method very useful and I would use it again. However, I would adapt it to ensure that I took the key points from the feedback into consideration. Next time, I would definitely include more demonstrations of how the theory translates into practice.
  
  If you have tried a different approach, I would love to hear about it. You can find me on Twitter as @sjizon.
  
  Sarah Izon
  
  ELE for Aspirer Research School
  
  @AspirerRS @Aspirer_MancHub