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Theme Overview Activity Suggestion
Theme Overview Activity Suggestion
It is recommended that teams discuss the theme overview together prior to completing self-evaluations to ensure robustness of data. Use this activity to build a shared understanding of high-quality practice within Pace, Challenge and Differentiation with your team.
Pace
Pace
What does this look like in a high-quality experience?
"High quality learning, teaching and assessment determines the quality of pace of learning and is essential in ensuring breadth, depth and application. Pace should be considered within individual activities and over time."
Use pre-assessments to ensure pupils are starting at the appropriate level thus avoiding practising skills which have already been achieved.
Consider pace at both the planning stage and throughout the activity. Adjust pace or strategy based on what is assessed. Be aware of pace slowing or learners becoming disengaged.
Check for understanding throughout the lesson e.g. use a hinge question to judge pace and adapt accordingly.
Provide feedback throughout the activity to move learning forward.
Be clear about timings for the activity maximising learning, avoiding too much time on explanations, organising resources and transitions.
Use plenaries to evaluate against the success criteria. This should inform the starting point for next activity.
Updated Oct 2024
Real-life examples from different stages or sectors (click to expand)
Real-life examples from different stages or sectors (click to expand)
Highly effective practice may include:
Practitioners recording their lessons and watching back or timing themselves talking to monitor ‘teacher talk’ vs ‘learner talk’. This helps to highlight pace of learning and learner engagement
Pre and post assessments to check for understanding and to identify common misconceptions. These may take many forms including questioning, whiteboards, exit passes, voting cards to show their answers and digital solutions such as Kahoot, Plickers or Quizlet. Answers are used to decide the next steps and be clear about the pace of learning.
Use starters or plenaries (Secondary resource here) to engage learners from the outset and ensure pace of learning is appropriate
ELC & Primary examples:
Empowering learners to be independent and make choices within their own learning. This will encourage opportunities for making connections between and through learning experiences, so they can lead learning at a pace appropriate to individual developmental needs.
Primary & Secondary examples:
Careful use of timers can help learners and practitioners to know how the lesson is progressing, with verbal reminders throughout.
An overview of activity with approximate timings can be displayed for guidance. Practitioners are responsive and move the lesson on as required. Formative assessment strategies are embedded in the routine of the learning environment so that understanding is gauged quickly and clearly.
Collaborative learning in the classroom works when there are group goals, with learners working as a group rather than just working in a group, and individual accountability, so that every learner is individually accountable as well as collectively accountable. By establishing group goals with individual accountability then the research evidence suggests that can approximately double the speed of learning.
Challenge
Challenge
What does this look like in a high quality experience?
"At every stage, learners should experience an appropriate level of challenge to progress to the next stage in learning and enable each individual to achieve their potential. Learners should be active in their learning and have opportunities to develop, apply and demonstrate their creativity."
Practitioners understand prior learning and pupil ability; consider this information when planning next steps
Learners and practitioners share high expectations so that every learner is supported to achieve their full potential
Learners are appropriately challenged to apply, extend and acquire knowledge, understanding and skills
Practitioners take account of different rates of learning and use learner pathways and benchmarks to inform next steps
Application of skills in a wide range of more complex contexts in learning and life.
Skilled questioning and discussion stimulates interests and promotes critical thinking.
Decrease levels of support and scaffolds as learners move towards increased levels of responsibility and independence in learning
Learners respond to and produce increasingly complex pieces of work, information and concepts
Structures and routines support learners to evaluate their own and others’ learning.
Modelling and expecting precise subject specific language
Support learners to set goals for learning and build in regular opportunities for learners to reflect on their progress and next steps.
The learning culture and routines promote and support all learners to lead their own learning
Real-life examples from different stages or sectors (click to expand)
Real-life examples from different stages or sectors (click to expand)
Highly effective practice may include:
Learners across all stages are exposed to Bloom's Taxonomy, challenging them to use higher order questions where appropriate. Question starters/scaffolds/matrix used for practitioners and learners to generate questions beyond the literal.
Practitioners using language to probe such as, ‘Why do you think this is the case? What do you think would happen if? How did you determine? How did you conclude? What is the relationship between?’
Routines and structures embedded for learners to regularly talk about their learning progress and aspirations.
Learners engage with a range of different approaches and supports (including digital) to extend and deepen learning.
Wider partners supporting learners to ensure they are appropriately challenged and motivated so that every learner achieves their potential
ELC & Primary examples:
Through effective observations and knowing their learners well, practitioners are responsive and intentionally to children’s learning, individual interests and motivations. Careful planning of the environment linking to this knowledge of learners will ensure breadth, depth and challenge opportunities available in every area of the learning environment.
Consideration of the learning environment, both indoors and outdoors in its entirety; the physical spaces, the social environment of nurturing interactions and the wide range of experiences available.
High quality, open-ended resources support learners to make choices about the level of challenge. e.g. Learning Stations.
Incorporation of technologies to support and enhance learning experiences. Learning with and through digital technologies.
Through skilled interactions, practitioners sprinkle skills, add value to what children already know and can do, and extend opportunities to problem solve and test out thinking.
Case study around a framework to support students to design their own thinking in the early years. Case Study
Secondary example:
Learners demonstrate their progress through investigations, inquiries and challenges, and through how well they apply scientific skills in increasingly complex learning situations. For example, investigations and inquiries will become more evaluative, deal with an increasing range and complexity of variables, and involve collecting and analysing increasingly complex information.
Differentiation
Differentiation
What does this look like in a high-quality experience?
"Differentiated learning involves adapting learning, teaching and assessment to meet individual children’s needs. Information gathered through assessment supports teachers to make informed decisions about next steps and teaching strategies to meet the needs of all children whilst maintaining high expectations and recognising individual need."
Practitioners plan high quality learning activities, using the most appropriate teaching approaches, environment, resources and support (including digital) to ensure all learning experiences are appropriately motivating and challenging for all learners
An inclusive learning culture ensures all learners are valued and high expectations and aspirations are shared.
Practitioners make effective use of a range of assessment data to identify where learners are in their learning and use this to plan appropriately to meet their individual needs.
By differentiating learning, practitioners develop pathways which are tailored to learners’ individual learning needs. This can be achieved through modifying the following aspects of learning:
Content e.g. use of learning materials at different levels
Ownership- e.g. giving learners choice in how to express ideas or required learning
Learning environment e.g. wider learning spaces in class/school/setting
Encouraging enquiry, research and independent learning
Pace of learning -flexibility and being responsive to needs of each learner
Role of the teacher during activities- differentiation in the moment and engagement of support staff
Collaborative planning involving relevant agencies in place to meet learners’ needs. This is particularly important for learners with more complex needs
All learners are motivated to aim high and challenge themselves further.
All learners are involved in the process of creating their individual next steps from the learner conversations. Through guidance and practice, peer/self-assessment can be used also to identify next steps
Real-life examples from different stages or sectors (click to expand)
Real-life examples from different stages or sectors (click to expand)
Highly effective practice may include:
Building on prior learning
Learning that actively involves all learners
Engaging, enterprising learning which encourages learners to progress in a way that meets their needs
Ensuring a variety of contexts for learning
Involving learners in planning and responding to their needs and interests
Digital technology that adds value - pedagogy is the driver, technology to accelerate / enhance learning
Consider deployment of support staff to help all learners meet their individualised targets
ELC & Primary examples:
ELC settings and multi-composite primary classes can make effective use of high-quality learning stations through differentiation of outcome using approaches such as ‘continuous provision’.
Consideration is given to the unique needs of learners, the setting and the wider community to develop a delicate balance of child-initiated, adult-directed and adult-initiated experiences.
Skilled interactions link to the developmental stages of learners and support or challenge them accordingly. Knowing when to step in and when to step back, using questioning to extend conversations and work collaboratively through modelling to solve problems and deepen thinking.
Primary & Secondary examples:
Effective use of differentiated success criteria to support learners’ understanding of what they need to do to succeed in their learning e.g. Rubrics, Solo Taxonomy, Steps to Success
Access to a range of resources to support the differentiation of activities for example, writing frames, word banks, visuals, number lines, place value grids and counters, digital technology, to scaffold or provide additional challenge for the learners as appropriate.
Use of digital technology - e .g. apps and websites that meet a range of needs. They can offer progressive challenge and a motivating context.
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