Introducing Steplab Lens

At Steplab, we propose there are five important elements that need to be combined to support teachers to change their practice:

When a teacher is trying to make a specific change to their practice, if each element is present, that change will happen. If any element is missing, the change will not fully take hold.

At Steplab, we build tools and provide training to support teachers, coaches and leaders to run coaching and PD that combines each element. We think one of the most important and most commonly neglected elements of PD is awareness. In this article, we’ll share what it is, why it matters and what we’re doing about it at Steplab.

Awareness (also known as situation awareness and professional vision) means rapidly and accurately noticing and interpreting important classroom details.

1. 1.
   Noticing: to sense relevant aspects of the classroom - a student in the back right corner looks confused and is beginning to be distracted
2. 2.
   Interpreting: Understanding what the information means in relation to a teacher’s classroom goals and actions - I need to address this before the student begins to distract others from their independent practice. I’ll head over to them and offer some support and redirection.

Watching a great teacher feels miraculous. How can they deliver that precise explanation, spot and remove the glue stick that Sally is thinking of throwing, and monitor students for signs of confusion, all at the same time? It can feel as if great teachers have a wider focus than the rest of us, that they can somehow see more.

In truth, experienced teachers don’t see more, they just discriminate more effectively. Miller (2011) refers to this as cognitive tunnelling; narrowing our perceptive field to ignore information not immediately relevant to effective teaching at this moment, while intently focusing on what matters. More effective teachers are simply better at directing their cognitive tunnel towards what matters in the classroom. In other words, awareness isn’t some pseudo magic skill or ability, but instead simply another form of knowledge: knowledge about what matters in the classroom at different points in the lesson.

Classrooms are ‘noisy’ environments: there’s an almost limitless amount of sensory data that we could focus on. At any point in the lesson, there are aspects that we need to focus on and aspects that we can ignore. Sally has just called for attention: she needs to check whether 30 students have put their pens down, have stopped talking and are looking at her. At the same time, the projector has started to flicker, someone is knocking at the door and she can see that one of her students is in a bad mood that seems to be getting worse. What should she focus on? What can she ignore?

Teachers can easily become overloaded by the vast quantity of things that they might need to attend to, particularly when teaching in a novel or unfamiliar environment, like a new school or classroom. But, seeing the right things is a critical component of getting better at our jobs. If we can't see the relevant bits of the classroom in the moment when they matter most, we can't respond to them.

Even the best teacher education in the world just will not work.

Experts have vast mental models about what to focus on in the classroom. These drive the direction of their cognitive tunnel and mean that at every moment in the lesson they are focusing on the thing that matters most to student learning.

How can we help teachers to build these expert mental models? At Steplab, we’ve used key research to isolate two key components of supporting teachers to build powerful awareness:

1. 1.
   Label critical classroom cues

To enable teachers to improve, it’s vital that we deconstruct classroom practice and label the important elements, pointing out what to notice and what to ignore at key moments in the lesson.

1. 2.
   Analyse critical classroom cues

While pointing out these critical cues is vital, teachers need to process this information, ensuring that they use it to explain, understand and predict what’s happening in their classrooms.

At Steplab, we’ve been focused for years on capturing the best teachers in the UK (and now around the world!) on film.

We’ve recently turned our attention to developing tools that support teachers, coaches and leaders to develop strong awareness. We’re excited to release our new tool, Steplab Lens.

Steplab Lens enables teachers and coaches to mark up critical moments and cues in teaching videos. This enables teachers, coaches and PD leads to do three things:

Steplab Lens enables teachers and teacher educators to compare mental models. Before PD or coaching, they can create their own 'Lens' on a teaching video to compare notes. We think this is a powerful way to compare mental models.

Steplab Lens is currently in beta. We’d love to hear about how you are using it, so get in touch at [email protected]