The Importance of Clarity

THE IMPORTANCE OF CLARITY

We will start by exploring why clear destinations are so critically important for teachers andlearners in terms of autonomy, motivation, and progress.

BUILDING LEARNER AUTONOMY

When teachers create real clarity for their learners around what success looks like, learner autonomy improves dramatically. Emma, and many other teachers like her, now ensurethat their learners know where they’re going and know what they have to do to get there. As it says in the Level 1a descriptor, ‘Learners are clear on their next steps to close their owngaps.’ As learners develop greater clarity about the journey ahead, their grades tend toimprove rapidly, and they become less and less likely to keep pestering their teacher withquestions for clarification. This enables the teacher to spend less time teaching the classas a whole and more time teaching individuals or groups, thereby addressing specificrather than general learning needs. Many teachers who have been through ourOutstanding Teaching Intervention are finding that they now have more time for workingwith small groups and individuals due to the increased autonomy of their classes.

Autonomous learners can lead themselves to success. They waste less time wonderingwhether what they’re doing is actually helping them to make progress, and invest moretime in getting on with the things that really advance them to where they want and needto be, such as planning next steps, redrafting their work, and incorporating feedback. Wecan’t get to Level 1a without clarity. In Leaders of their Own Learning, authors Ron Berger,Leah Rugen, and Libby Woodfin assert that teachers need to know exactly where they andthe class are headed. Unless this is the case, they ‘cannot effectively involve learners in theassessment process or coherently track learner progress themselves if they haven’t establishedclear learning targets before instruction begins’.1 When learners are certain aboutwhat they have to do, and the steps that are necessary to get there, the quality of classroomconversation tends to increase markedly. Questions such as, ‘What do I need to donow?’ and ‘Is this right? I’m not sure …’ get replaced with, ‘I’m pretty sure I’ve got that bitright, but do I need to ...?’ When learners have clarity they can plan better, ask themselvesand others better questions, and give more accurate feedback to themselves and otherstoo.

MOTIVATING LEARNERS

Many teachers face learners who lack motivation and this can be a major source of painfor both parties. There are all sorts of reasons for motivational deficits in learners. Wetouched on many of these in our book, Engaging Learners, and offered various strategiesto address them. Time and again, the research shows that motivation plummets whenlearners are in the dark about what they need to do. The feeling of incompetency canreally affect their motivation. On the other hand, when this situation is reversed and learnersare shown how to develop and build a felt sense of skill and achievement by workingstep-by-step towards clear and relevant goals, they can become very focused indeed. Inhis book, Flow, MihalyCsikszentmihalyi describes flow as an activity that completelyabsorbs a person. However, if the challenge seems too high, learners will often feel threatenedand withdraw from the task. Sometimes this task is well within the learner’s ability to

achieve. The important point is that the learner doesn’t think it is.

In his book, Visible Learning for Teachers, John Hattie shows that the biggest determinantof learner success at school is their own expectation of success.2 Most learners naturallyfeel insecure about their current levels of knowledge or skill, and this is significantly compoundedwhen they are unsure about what they have to do. Feelings of incompetencecan soon swamp them and lower their expectations. However, when learners are clearabout the journey, and clear about the key steps they need to take, and get constructivefeedback from their teacher and peers throughout that journey, they will be much lesslikely to give up. They will remain resilient and stay in flow.

We chose the Blue Peter versus Scooby-Doo anecdote because it helped Emma to realisethat she was making too many assumptions about her learners’ mind-reading skills (Surelythey think the same as me? Surely this is obvious?) and she was unaware of this blind spotin her own teaching. She discovered it was not at all obvious to her learners. As a result,they were getting increasingly demotivated and she was finding it harder and harder toteach them.

Poor motivation is a serious issue in schools and one that we’re passionate about addressing.Our experience of working with black belt teachers around the country has shown usthat they use great strategies to support their learners to achieve clarity. We’ve seen teachersrapidly become successful at showing each learner their destination, getting them toturn that into a personal goal, and then helping them to feel competent. The learnersachieve this sense of competence because they see the value of the destination and feelconfident that they can successfully manage the doable steps needed to get them there.Flow once again becomes possible. Poor motivation is replaced by high motivation aslearners begin to connect with a growing sense of mastery.

CLARITY MEANS PROGRESS!

It’s no accident that teachers who provide the greatest clarity about destinations get betterresults. The clarity that they hold about learners’ destinations, and ways of getting themthere, allows these teachers to instruct learners better and provide them with appropriateexamples to aspire to and model. It also enables them to quickly adjust their teaching toget learners back on track if challenges arise. We’ve worked with many teachers, in bothprimary and secondary settings, who have an excellent track record of getting greatresults year after year.

One of the key features of their success is the clarity that they have built up over theirteaching career. They know what they’re looking for from their learners, not just at the endof a topic but throughout. They’ve become black belts at demystifying success. First, they’ve learned this for themselves, and then they’re able to transfer this clarity to theirlearners. In his book, Embedded Formative Assessment, Dylan Wiliam quotes a number of researchstudies which demonstrate that learners make more progress when they have a clear‘understanding [of ] what they are meant to be doing’.3 These studies show how importantit is for teachers to be consciously deliberate about where they want their learners to go.The findings also suggest that teachers would do well to develop greater empathytowards their learners as they struggle to make sense of the journey ahead – a point we’lltake up later in the chapter.

Extract from Chapter 3 – Defining and De-mystifying the destination, Teaching Backwards

© Mark Burns and Andy Griffith