Essential Reading For the End of August!

Intellectual Character – R. Ritchhart, 2002

This book, in many ways, unpacks the way in which the quality of learning is relevant for all schools, but Catholic schools in particular, where each child is viewed as having infinite dignity and worth. Even when exam success is high and ‘value-added’ is significant this book obviously embraces the principle that ‘outstanding progress’ requires more than this and a truly broad education must do more than enable children to ‘jump through arbitrary hoops’. From the outset Ritchhart insists that ‘We will need to look beyond schools as training grounds for the memory and focus more on schooling as an enculturative process that cultivates dispositions of thinking’.

In his forward Ritchhart makes the point that a shift has happened and is still required from viewing educational failure in terms of ‘lack of ability’ to a focus on the development of intellectual character. Twelve years on from when he first said this, I would still not disagree. As with Claxton’s What’s the Point of School? this book was vital reading for the context I inherited as headteacher. My role was to help my colleague educators to radically ‘rethink what it means to be a good or effective teacher and question some of our cherished and ingrained teaching habits’. For example, looking at page 5, I realised the classrooms were places where children often ‘completed work rather than learned’. Similar to any other understanding of character, intellectual character is not about ability but commitment. This commitment can be understood in terms of ‘thinking dispositions, which refer to how people are disposed to invest the intellectual resources that they have’. This is easily cross-referenced to Carol Dweck’s point that effort is to be praised rather that talent (regarding Mindsets see my article Mindfulness & The Health of Those In Schools).

Chapter 1 – Failing Smart

This chapter really sets the context for the rest of the book and, for those leading failing schools, the issues will come into even sharper, dramatic and shocking focus. It certainly did for me. In old-fashioned, neglected and obsolete visions for education obeying rules is prized above learning. At best, teachers teach for children to ‘do the work, get the grade, and move on’. Teachers in these circumstances, consciously or subconsciously, want a behaviour policy to support ‘teaching for complacency, for orderliness, for dependence, and for superficiality’ (page 6). Memory skills are taught solely to pass exams (page 7) without any regard to the wider purposes of education.

When we recall education of the 1970s and 1980s can we even remember the short-term memory information necessary to pass exams? Was our education for attitudes, beliefs, relationships, patterns of thinking and dispositions more valuable (page 9)? Did the latter happen at school at all? More frighteningly, I realised 1970s education was staring me in the face when I fully established what was required of me as headteacher from 2009.

Chapter 2 – Rethinking Smart

In practice we don’t rely on educational qualifications as the sole criterion for judging someone’s potential. For an excellent example, think of how candidates are selected for teaching posts. However, the commonly accepted benchmark is qualifications for demonstrating ability and speed at acquiring new knowledge. However, is being smart or acting smart more important (page 13)?

IQ is only one measure of intelligence but hardly the measure for success in career or life. Many / Most successful people were not considered gifted at school (page 15). Therefore … consider your own education in the wider sense. Were you a born teacher or did you have to acquire the skills, overcome hurdles, etc? How did that happen and what did it have to do with IQ?

Passing exams is a temporary benchmark of ability. Intellectual character e.g. intellectual habits and dispositions are qualities to be possessed for life. An example in the workplace there might be a perceived criticism of one’s character. How does the professional respond? Petulance or secure self-evaluation? (Certainly, the former was the predominant trait in those who most resisted change requiring huge dollops of TLC for the most damaged egos. Despite this care and attention, some of these egos exited the newly transformed territory where they had previously reigned and recovered by persistently propelling gossip which led, in the end, to my resignation.)

Ritchhart surveyed philosophical and educational definitions of dispositions and integrated them into three broad categories: creative, reflective and critical (page 27).

Chapter 3 – Acting Smart

Ritchhart tackles the ‘ability-driven’ approach to education by advocating teaching ‘dispositions’. The implication of this is profound as it means viewing a child in terms of what he or she can be rather than where he or she is now. Rather than what he or she has got, what will he or she become? (page 34). In any school, the child must be viewed in terms of what he or she can become rather than focusing on their behaviour as it presents itself in the present. (In Catholic terms the process of human living is a journey from being dislocated from unity with God suffering the effects

of original sin to being drawn back to the Father through being likened to Christ and ‘adopted’. This view is supported by the philosophy of Aquinas who viewed human life as a process of reaching our potential – to know and love God.)

The development of dispositions requires training and a shared commitment to developing ‘open-mindedness’ by the whole school community (pages 36-37).

Ritchhart progresses by reviewing relevant theories of the twentieth century around dispositions and concludes by saying four major requirements emerge:

Salient Models Consistency of Expectations Explicit Instructions Opportunities for Meaningful Practice

Chapter 4 – First Days, First Steps

This chapter marks a turning point in the book towards recommendations for good practice in the classroom. Ritchhart largely organises the chapter around four rules (broad headings) for establishing the dispositions. It is worth reading this section bearing in mind how staff might team up to plan lessons or write SoWs. In any case, the teaching of a topic will be more effective if it is taught in the contexts of:

The history and power of ideas Big subject matter issues Laying a foundation for dialogue Setting an agenda for understanding (page 57)

Page 75 onwards is particularly interesting for reflecting on how teachers create classrooms and lessons to support the development of the desired learning dispositions. An interesting quote is Marshall’s observation that classrooms can be categorised as those which are specifically orientated towards learning, work or work avoidance! (page 76) In any case Ritchhart repeats his conclusion that, each new year, the first days in the school or classroom are key to creating these routines and, therefore, especially important for what the school does to plan for this in the first INSET days of the year.

Chapter 5 – Thinking Routines

The chapter begins with an analysis of routines in terms of: Housekeeping Management Discourse Learning

The implication is that the first three are familiar and, to a greater or lesser extent, established. The fourth category differs from the others since ‘most routines direct overt behaviour, thinking routines direct and guide mental action’ (page 89). Further to this Ritchhart argues that routines for the classroom (e.g. hands up in discussion) are of less value than routines for thinking as the former

have their relevance for school compared with the latter which have their relevance for life (page 93).

Again, the relevance and importance of using thinking routines in the planning of SoWs and lessons is vital here if the desired learning culture is to be created.

Ritchhart makes an interesting point about ‘cognitive overload’ (page 100) as he argues this is avoided by thinking routines which provide a framework for pacing thinking demands. How often, in a learning culture which demands too much attention, listening and passivity, are children required to do too much cognitive work and then penalised for it when they experience overload? And how often is this overload something they can’t articulate and, if they do, are they confirmed in a narrow definition of intellectual character which prizes ability rather than effort and commitment? Does this contribute to children’s lack of self-esteem and feeling disenfranchised from the education they are supposed to value? This is unpacked further pages 106-7 where one might conclude that the prevailing routine in most classes is that the teacher has the knowledge, the student must adopt it and then return at the appointed time to prove this process actually happened! By contrast, a distinction is made later between ‘getting answers’ and ‘finding answers’ (page 110).

In conclusion,‘Although these housekeeping, management and discourse routines contribute a great deal to the overall

feel and decorum of a classroom, it is the thinking routines, or their absence that give a classroom its intellectual life.’ (110)

Chapter 6 – Language & Thinking

The overall message of this chapter is that teachers can capitalise on opportunities to promote thinking by using language to promote meta-cognition. Major ways of doing this include:

Define with the students how language works Set out standards for use of language Allow students time to talk Identify with, and for, the students how their contributions meet, fail to meet or exceed the

standards defined at the beginning of the lesson

Ritchhart’s thinking is clearly compatible with Dweck’s identification of the ‘open mindset’. On page 139 Ritchhart uses the example of art to show how a person’s mind must be trained to notice with sufficient depth and be opened to experience the meaning and impact of the work. Language can be key to opening or locking the mind to new learning:

‘Language often has this effect of producing or forestalling closure. When something is labelled, decided and listed, or given in an absolute fashion, one’s mind often takes it in without question. In contrast, when even a small bit of ambiguity is introduced, allowing for the possibility of interpretation and change based on context and conditions, the mind is more likely to remain open. This open, flexible state in which new

categories are created can be termed mindfulness’ (139).

Chapter 7 – Thought-Full Environments

In this chapter Ritchhart promotes opportunities for thinking, some of which I have recorded below.

‘Big Ideas’ – Teaching a topic in the wider context of its meaning and purpose. The question could be shared with children: ‘What is the class setting out to achieve in the topic?’ This could be explored on personal, community, national, international or spiritual levels.

‘Engagement’ – How are topics started? How are students enabled to ask the questions necessary to engage them in the process of learning? How are students encouraged to be strategic (see pages 155 – 157) about their learning?

An interesting distinction is made between scaffolding and structuring in that the former sets out to promote thinking and the latter is a set of prescriptions or directed next steps (160).

The theme of capitalising on opportunities for thinking is clear on page 162 where thinking time and the teacher modelling learning are excellent ways of promoting learning. The lack of these elements may be the result of a teacher’s perception that good teaching means a quiet class listening to a knowledgeable teacher. In the latter case opportunities are missed for the perceived benefit of exerting control.

And it is not as if control is not important as good learning can only occur where there are high quality relationships. This is summarised as follows:

‘These emotions are a crucial basis for intrinsic motivation, that is, motivation that is based on enjoyment and engagement in the task itself rather than on the prospect of external reward and punishment’ (166).

Chapters 8 - 10

This brings us to the third and final section of the book which demands closer attention.

The three last chapters of the book get down to the practical business of all the preceding theory. Ritchhart presents lessons, challenges teacher training, transforms lesson observation and teacher selection procedures. Above all, however, he leaves the reader with a succinct and easily digested set of practical hints and tips that really enthuse the teacher for returning the classroom once recovered and having enjoyed a long break.

In terms of my own experience of transforming a defunct educational model and coaxing it into the twenty-first century I knew the key thing was to recruit the very best teachers (a task that would involve things getting worse before they began to get better). When I look back on the all the self-pitying and unionised resistance of change to the ‘old school’ I love Ritchhart’s description of the kind of teacher that I sought and began to find …

‘While many of their colleagues bemoan what they can’t do or the policies hindering their teaching, these creative teachers manage to look beyond the constraints to see what is possible. These individuals are not Pollyannas, always looking on the bright side of things; it is that they focus and invest energy in what can do and what they can control. These individuals constantly develop their own dispositions toward thinking and demonstrate, through their approach to the obstacles they face, that just as good thinking is partly a matter of awareness, inclination and motivation, and so is good teaching. These teachers tend to know what they are teaching for and are willing to challenge assumptions of conventional effective teaching models. Finally, these individuals see that pursuing

an agenda of understanding and thinking is likely to serve many of the other goals and objectives that are thrown their way; they recognise that such an agenda prepares students well for whatever eventuality or test they may face in the future.’ (Page 226)

An excellent read that deserves perennial attention!