High challenge, low threat

Well hello there and welcome to update #005

If we are serious about providing pupils with an ambitious curriculum, we need to consider how the ‘high challenge’ is balanced by ‘low threat’.

First, what do we mean by challenge? We might make the case that it is material that will

• make pupils think

• be above their current paygrade

• deepen their understanding of previous content

• prepare the ground for new understanding

Challenge does not mean drawing down content from later years, for example key stage 4 material into key stage 3. It means grappling with big ideas.

The risk in offering demanding material is that pupils might be overwhelmed, they might be worried that they won’t ‘get’ it. This is where ‘low threat’ comes in.

While there is plenty of evidence that we are a challenge seeking species, that we like doing things that are difficult, it’s also the case that no-one wants to be made to feel like a muppet. (Got to be careful here, as the muppets do good work on Sesame Street, but you get the drift). So we need to do work on making sure that our classrooms are characterised by ‘high challenge’ alongside ‘low threat’.

What does this look like in practice? It means that

• we signal that we are doing difficult work

• it is interesting

• that is is fine not to know

• that misconceptions are springboards for new learning

An example from Richard Kennett, providing homework for pupils in year 7 with extracts from Marc Morris’ Norman Conquest.

Their homework task is to read the extracts and answer the questions - signalling the high challenge. However, they are not to worry if they can’t answer them all, because this is difficult work - signalling the low threat.

What happens as a result of being given this demanding work? All the pupils, some with a reading age below ten, were able to access the work and offer answers. When asked why the class were being given demanding texts, Richard’s response was that in class they were reading and discussing extracts from Simon Schama’s account of the Norman Conquest. His intention was to show the class that while there might be historical events, historians disagree about the significance and impact of those events. Offering pupils this demanding material meant that they were being taken deep into the disciplinary discourse

Similarly, in primary, Ashley Booth, when reading Maya Angelou’s ‘The Caged Bird Sings’ finds that a low prior attaining child is able to make sophisticated connections between the captive bird and conditions for some communities during the time of segregation in the United States.

What is sitting behind these examples is scaffolding and support. Not scaffolding by dumbing down through offering pupils easier work, but in providing them with the means to reach into the material. This scaffolding is done primarily through talk.

Let’s lift the limits on what we offer pupils!

Until next time

Mary

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