Is 'capturing progress' the key to motivating lorry driver apprentices in Maths ?

Sean teaches apprentice lorry drivers foundation level Maths and English. Look at the screenshot above. He gets great results. He has also taught in Further Education colleges and Prisons. Carole Kane (our HOW2 professional learning lead) has a special relationship with Sean — she is his Mum. Sean taps into Mum’s expertise and support and he has 24/7 access to traininghow2s.com. Carole would argue that all our customers get the same level of support as Sean. We don’t charge Sean for access to HOW2s. I heard about Sean was using specific techniques to transform apprentice lorry drivers’ attitudes and relationship to Maths. And their results. I went to see Sean. The transcript is below.

Did you use HOW2s when you were in FE and working in prisons? Yes

Looking at your current job, what impact has using HOW2s had on helping you achieve your results? I think is has had a huge impact and to really understand that I wouldn’t mind talking about the types of students I teach at the moment. So, I’m teaching people to become lorry drivers, or predominantly that is what they are coming in to do – to drive LGVs. As part of their apprenticeship, they are quite unhappy to discover that they’ve got English and Maths to complete up to Level 1 and attempt Level 2. The ages can range from 18 and upwards and a lot of the students I have are students who say that they have had a horrendous time at school and just can’t get on with it. One of the HOW2s I get them to use is “Capturing Progress” and what I do is get them to talk about how they feel in certain areas and how they can improve upon it. They tend to get quite a low score to begin with, but as soon as we’ve done about 10 minutes into it and they understand that area in say maths and they originally put down a low score and now they’ve put down a high score, they’ve already bought into the lesson and it is as quickly as that I can turn round students with that one HOW2. I can turn them round very quickly and get them interested in the class. So HOW2s have actually been quite vital for my results.

Brilliant. So, the impact you are saying is initially in motivation and engagement. Absolutely.

What improvement do you see on the student’s engagement and motivation? You’ve covered it previously, but could you go into some more detail about that? Well it’s the buy-in. The buy-in is a huge part because they are all quite surprised that they have to do the English and Maths. I normally get the quote “I’m here to drive a lorry mate, not do English and Maths!”. And, of course, I have a talk with them to try to win them over to see the benefits of doing it. But using the HOW2s I can get the buy-in to it really quickly.

Are you saying that using these techniques that it is very different from the experience that they’ve had at school? I’ve never been a school teacher, so I’d struggle to comment on that, but the comments that I get suggest that they feel more included. So, with the “Capturing Progress” once again we adapt it and So, when they see quite high scores against all the main areas, they know that they’ve covered everything they need to pass the test. I also use “Negotiated Learning Goals” to work out with the students what order our lessons are going to be in as well because it highlights all the main areas that we are going to cover. 

So, when you are choosing the HOW2s, was the decision based on the analysis of some barriers to learning you’d identified in the students? Yes absolutely. I’ve always seen the HOW2s as just a tool, to be honest. I tend to think of one student in particular that it will help with and I will try to sort out that one situation. But as you are diving into it and trying to sort that one situation you will see that the HOW2s can be applicable to lots of other situations; so even looking for that one solution I end up coming away with several other ideas for my classes.

So, you’ve kind of answered the next question which was going to be “were you guided in your selection by your students?” But clearly you were.

Could you give me some examples of other techniques that you’ve found useful? Yes, of course. One of my favourite ways to end the session is something called “Reverse Snowball”. It is really creating an opportunity for the whole class to have discussions, which I find is absolutely fantastic and, as well as getting the main points from every single group and person onto one sheet, I’ve used it in such a way that I then go on to photocopy these sheets that the whole class have come up with and they use it for their coursework.

So, that is “Capturing Progress”, "Negotiated Learning Goals", “Reverse Snowball”; what others have you used? What techniques do you use the most? I use “Mini whiteboards” an awful lot. I use them to check for understanding , to make sure that everyone is involved and to recapping on previous sessions , to preview understanding of forthcoming content for really detailed things in functional skills — like checking spellings. I also use “Clarifying Objectives” and “Smooth Transitions” to make sure students know and understand what to do and how to do it before moving to independent learning tasks.

Looking at the features now: When you are using the HOW2s do you find the three formats useful? Which do you use the infographic, presentation or book?I use all three. I tend to look at the infographics first for a quick view into it. Then I tend to read up afterwards to ensure that I’ve got the full picture. But what I would like to say about the infographics is that they are pretty spot on. I tend to pick up 99% if not all of it from just that, but what is nice is just getting the information afterwards to clarify everything.

So, you find understanding the HOW2 infographic explanations of teaching techniques easy Absolutely, yes!

Did you find that you were imagining yourself as the teacher when you use the HOW2s to learn new techniques? Yes, I assume that is what everyone does. I tend to picture not only myself, but also my students. I tend to picture the students that I have had in the past that I found most challenging and then plan the activity as if they were in my session. If it works for these situations it will work for all of my students.

How many times did you need to go back to learn a new technique before you felt confident teaching it in front of a class? To be honest, with the infographics, I tend to pick the techniques up fairly quickly. I have on occasions gone back to clarify that I was doing it correctly, but the first time round I tend to pick up a lot of the information.

So, did you feel fairly confident when you were looking at the visuals that you were able to commit it to memory? Yes, absolutely. The only one that I needed to spend more time on was “Coded Feedback” and that was because we were just making one up for a computer-based system.

What about adapting the HOW2s? Did you ever look at a HOW2 and think yes, I could use that but I would need to change step 2 for example? Yes, I have adapted a few things, especially in terms of making up resources. Going back to “Capturing Progress” and “Reverse Snowball”, I’ve made up my own resources so I can use them in a way that suits my students , my context.

Can you think of a time when it didn’t go according to plan? What did you do? Absolutely. That was more to do with my inexperience with using the HOW2s. The resource is the resource and it is up to you to be able to train yourself to use it effectively. It is the same thing with any resource. You aren’t going to be perfect the first time around and you are picking it up to gain these experiences to change notes to your lessons as you go along next time.

So, when you are using the HOW2 techniques, how do you find your students? Are they, for example, relaxed, interested in what you are proposing to do? What was their experience of your new teaching technique? Interested, of course, but wary at the same time. They were a little bit unsure and didn’t see the point of it to be perfectly honest; particularly with “Capturing Progress”. But once you’ve explained to them what the purpose of this is, you get the buy-in very, very quickly. So, I feel that they do work well and pick it up as long as you take the time to explain what you hope to gain from each activity.

Sean, thank you so much. Thank you very much for taking this time.

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