A class act
Meaningful, not just measurable learning which transcended the learning objective for that day – to sing a song in two parts.
Ruth Wills (pictured) is an early childhood lecturer at Liverpool Hope University, and a part-time music subject lead at a primary school in Lancashire. She has recently published a new book, Learning Beyond the Objective in Primary Education. Emily Jenkins finds out what makes her a class act.
Scrutiny and measurable learning It is these moments that drive Ruth’s passion for education. But, over her 20 years of teaching, she feels there has been a shift in teacher training, from a previous focus on pedagogy to an emphasis on delivering the national curriculum and meeting objectives. She speculates that this is the result of more intense scrutiny on educators to meet set targets, and a determination by policy makers to make all student learning measurable. “So many of the important things children learn – such as teamwork, negotiation, communication, empathy and creativity – are immeasurable,” says Ruth. Focusing on the existential elements of teaching and learning is something she has explored in her book, which seeks to encourage policy makers and educational practitioners to consider the impact of education on children, over and above the meeting of set targets and objectives. She is keen to acknowledge that most are already struggling under intense workload pressures and accountability measures; meaning time to reflect on pedagogical practices can feel like a luxury.
“MORE than anything I feel passionate about pedagogy: how we teach and how we can get the best out of our children – not just academically but getting them to a place where they can develop and flourish as human beings,” says Ruth. As a primary teacher and early years lecturer, Ruth constantly reflects on her practice and feeds back to her university students: “Whether I’ve had a good or bad day, I come home and think: what can I use from this experience to help my students be critically reflective when they go into the workplace?” She says she is continually wrestling with her own pedagogical position and often finds herself frustrated by “a constant internal battle” between making sure she meets set learning objectives, and allowing space for, as she describes it, “the spiritual and existential” sides of learning and child development. ‘Our capacity to connect’ She explains: “For me it’s about identity and who we are at a deeper level. It’s about our capacity to connect with ourselves, with others, with the world around us, and with things that are beyond ourselves – whether, for the individual, that’s some higher power or simply a feeling of interconnectedness.” She uses one of her own recent lessons as an example. While she was working with year 6 students on singing songs from the civil rights movement, one of the students started to cry, and another boy stood up and said: “I know why she’s crying, she’s sad because people were treated badly. But it’s no different from today.” This opened up a long and meaningful conversation between her students. The boy ended the lesson by declaring that he would go home that night “and tell people to stop being racist”. For Ruth, this was a “transformational and emotional moment” for her students,
“So many of the important things children learn – such as teamwork, negotiation, communication, empathy and creativity – are immeasurable.” Do you know a class act? Email educate@neu.org.uk
Meaningful learning at the heart of it Ultimately, like most educators, encouraging meaningful learning in her students is at the heart of everything Ruth does and is the reason she has worked in education for so long. “That feeling I get when I hear the children in the playground either talking about the class or singing a song we’ve worked on – I love that. Because it means what we’ve done has been meaningful to them.” Learning Beyond the Objective in Primary Education: Philosophical Perspectives from Theory and Practice by Ruth Wills. Routledge. £16.99.
n See Educate, March/April, page 41
educate Your magazine from the National Education Union (NEU)
35
