D&T - Ownership of Learning

In this professional development resource from Teachers TV behaviour expert John Bayley works closely with design and technology teacher Sheila Vekria to improve her planning of theory lessons.

Sheila teaches a Year Nine class in mixed ability groupings. The students enjoy hands-on graphics lessons, but Sheila believes the students find the theory boring. John observes as Sheila and Sophie Halaka, an outstanding english teacher, engage in peer observations and mentoring.

Sophie observes Sheila’s lesson as the class begins a new topic involving the use of flow charts. After the lesson, she suggests a longer discussion of the objectives would give the students a greater ownership of their learning. They also discuss the idea that using a humorous example would enable students to understand how to draw a flow chart more clearly and would be more engaging for the students.

Sheila then observes Sophie, who chooses to group her class into similar abilities in order to boost the confidence of the less able students and encourage a greater contribution from all students. The two teachers then compare their lessons with guidance from John Bayley.