The ‘tools’ in this section are Partnership learning, Playing to strengths, CPD pathways and the some of the materials provided for secondary schools. Designed to provide a structure within which to reflect upon practice, prompt ideas and discuss a topic, the tools are intended for use with small groups, pairs or individuals. They are not recommended for use by a large group of people. They might be best used in small-scale meetings such as interviews, discussions, conversations and team meetings.

The ‘activities’ in this section are The process of change, Taking the lead as a TA/HLTA, Classroom partnerships, Effective HLTAs, and the Teamwork activity for secondary schools. These activities are designed to help a large group of people to interact, eg in discussion groups, meetings and staff development sessions, enabling them to reflect, discuss and plan for future action together.

Consider the aim of the activity. This might be to reflect upon, examine, explore or generate ideas on your chosen focus.

The process during an activity may vary depending on the number of people involved, but it would normally include the following elements:

• Introduction – Introduce the topic/aim. You could do this using a particular piece of support material, by asking questions or by starting with participants’ own experiences.
• Reflection on participants’ own experience – Give participants time to reflect, write notes or define ideas.
• Discussion – Ask participants to share their ideas in subgroups (eg pairs or threes).
• Feedback – Invite conclusions from the discussions. Ask each subgroup to suggest implications, summaries or ideas for action.
• Plenary – Summarise and evaluate the outcomes of the discussion.

If the activity is being conducted with a small group, it may not be necessary to divide it formally into the above five elements, but they should be there in essence.

At the end of the session, ask participants to reflect individually upon the implications for practice in their context – including the implications for personal/individual learning and for the classroom/school. You could help them to reflect by asking specific questions. A handout (called ‘Activity notes’) is provided in each activity to aid participants with this evaluation. It is designed to remind participants how they got to the point of discussion they should have now reached, and what stages they covered to get there.

How you select the participants for an activity or a tool depends upon the nature of your inquiry. When using the indicators as the basis of your inquiry, you should consider which people your chosen indicator suggests that you need to gather together. You may use or adapt the questions provided for your chosen indicator. These questions are addressed to six different groups of staff in school. When planning, you should decide which questions to ask and whom to ask within those groups. The people you have in mind may also be the people with whom you use the tools and activities in this section.

Alternatively, you may choose to use the tools and activities alone (without reference to the questions), with selected members of your team, department or school as necessary.

Some tools and activities are specifically intended for particular types of staff; where is this is the case, it is indicated in the title of the tool or activity.

Group work is the key to much of the learning in an inquiry. The activities can be used with a group of any size, ie two people or more. The size of the group for a particular activity depends on the scope of your inquiry – it may involve the whole school, or just selected members of staff.

Consider what kind of response you want to receive from participants. This may depend upon whom you have chosen to involve. For example, you may get the most useful response from some people if you arrange a conversation or discussion; for others, it may be best to set up a meeting; others may be asked to write an answer, complete and return a questionnaire or attend a CPD session, etc. If you want a:

• written response, you may decide to send questions to participants by email/letter, distribute the questions to participants in school to complete and return to you, or create a questionnaire for participants to fill in
• verbal response, you may decide to organise an interview, conversation or discussion with specific individuals, perhaps using one of the tools in this section, or asking them appropriate questions
• face-to-face gathering, you may decide to organise an activity session or meeting, or include it in a CPD session.

When you have decided which tools/activities/questions you need to use, which participants to invite to what kind of gathering, you then need to bear in mind the following:

• Leadership – Who is going to lead the session? If it is not you, does this person have the information they need? Do they have the resources they need (eg flip chart, projector, etc)?
• Environment – Is the chosen room/environment suitable for the session? Is it large enough (if there are many participants)? Are the seating arrangements appropriate?
• Resources – Do participants need access to computers during the session? Do they need any other materials (eg writing equipment), and should they be asked to bring these along?
• Timing – What would be the best time of day for the session to take place? How long should the session last?
• Advance warning – Do participants need any information in advance of the session?

Consider the combination of participants in the group. The participants may have been chosen because of the activity you want them to attempt, or because of its intended outcomes. You could create a group of participants which include those:

• with or without (much) experience
• from similar or different contexts
• with the same or different perspectives
• in management or classroom roles
• who are looking at similar or different action research and development issues.

A selection of people from each of the above categories might provide rich opportunities for discussion and valuable learning experiences for everyone.

During a session, participants could divide into subgroups, eg of pairs, threes, fours or more. For a good level of discussion, and to ensure that engagement and cohesion is not lost, it is best to avoid having subgroups of more than five people.

Early on in an activity session, participants should be given plenty of opportunities to meet and get to know other people in the group. It is recommended that everyone in the group should tell the rest of the group who they are, where they work in school and with whom they work.

If a group is going to meet more than once, it may not be necessary to organise specific activities at each meeting for getting to know other people in the group, but it is a good idea at an initial meeting, especially if your school is large.

An activity session often involves dividing the group into subgroups and then reconvening into a whole group for feedback. Whole group feedback should make sure that all participants understand what the subgroups have been discussing, deciding or prioritising.

However, it may not always be necessary to invite whole group feedback. Discussion in small groups is very important – as important as providing feedback to the whole group. If you have a large whole group, there may not be time for whole group feedback, or there may be a danger of it becoming repetitive and boring. Of course, inviting whole group feedback does make subgroups reach a consensus in order to define their key points to share, and so focuses discussion, but it is not always necessary or indeed advisable to make whole group feedback a target outcome. The key questions you need to ask when deciding what kind of feedback to organise are:

• Does the whole group need to hear everything that has been discussed?
• Do you need a record of outcomes for future use, eg later in the session, to revisit or build on a learning point?
• Is feedback needed for evaluation purposes?

Alternatives to whole group feedback include:

• ask for one point from each subgroup – Ask subgroups to decide upon one key/essential point to feed back, and a ‘reserve’ point, should another subgroup say something the same/similar first.
• nominate an envoy – Name an envoy/reporter to take a report to another subgroup, so that participants can test out their subgroup’s ideas/share their outcomes with a different subgroup, then report back to their own subgroup on what they learnt.
• set up a jigsaw – Give each subgroup member a number. When the subgroups have completed a particular task, ask all the ‘ones’, ‘twos’, etc to get together (forming new subgroups) to talk about the outcomes of the task undertaken in their previous subgroup.
• ask them to create posters – Ask each subgroup to write a record, summary or flip chart diagram on a large sheet of paper that summarises their conclusions. These posters can be displayed round the room. They should then nominate a representative to explain their poster. The other participants should tour the room to listen to the explanations of the posters.

Active listening is a technique that can be used to get the maximum benefit from a discussion, reporting or sharing activity. It should be encouraged in subgroup discussions. It can also be very effective in partnership learning.

Active listening involves listening carefully, inquiring further, and using positive body language and verbal expressions that encourage the speaker. It is important to avoid shifting the focus from the speaker’s topic. Responses such as ‘Oh yes, that happened to me, and...’ may inadvertently hijack the speaker’s agenda. It may be helpful to give the speaker a limit of two minutes in which to speak; in that two minutes, the listeners should focus on the speaker and simply listen. Two minutes is a good length of time to maintain listeners’ concentration, and to encourage the speaker to get their point across succinctly. It may even be useful for a third person to be a timekeeper, in order to make sure that speakers do not over-run, and to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak.