LBU Research Voices – Applying PhD research to student learning as a Graduate Teaching Assistant

Hi Sheila, For those unfamiliar with it, can you briefly explain Kline’s Thinking Environment and how you are exploring this within school settings through your PhD research?

Nancy Kline’s Thinking Environment™ (TE) is a simple yet radical approach to communication where the purpose of listening is to encourage thinking without interruption or judgement.

Based on the belief that as human beings we have an extraordinary capacity to think independently, the TE is made up of a set of principles or behaviours known as the Ten Components™ (Attention, Equality, Ease, Appreciation, Encouragement, Feelings, Information, Difference, Incisive Questions and Place) and a range of strategies (e.g. Rounds, Thinking Pairs, Dialogue, Transforming Meetings) in which the behaviours can be practised.

My PhD research focuses on how various colleagues have been applying Kline’s work in their practice in an Egyptian international school in Cairo for example, in meetings, professional learning workshops, and with children and young people.

How are you bringing insights from your PhD into your teaching at LBU, and how has this shaped the way you create space for students to think and learn?

As a qualified Time to Think Facilitator, and having delved into a range of interdisciplinary literature around listening and thinking, I habitually plan all my teaching (to UK or international students, postgraduate researchers, practising educators, school leaders, coaches or consultants) as a thinking environment. That means, sessions begin and end routinely with an Opening Round (to generate connection and positivity) and a Closing Round (to reflect briefly on what we have valued and identify any actions).

The focus of the teaching session is phrased as a series of questions to provoke thinking such as What are common issues with feedback on writing? To enable us to consider the question, there may be some brief input from me, a Thinking Pair to give participants an opportunity to think aloud for themselves for say up to five minutes in pairs with the encouraging uninterrupted non-judgemental attention from their thinking partner, and then perhaps a freshest thinking round in which we all share a new thought that might have just bubbled up.

As well as Kline’s ideas, my teaching at LBU has been hugely informed by bell hooks’ concept of engaged pedagogy (see Teaching to Transgress) and Gemma Fiumara and Lisbeth Lipari’s scholarship on listening. My teaching has also been influenced by my plunge into critical feminist posthuman literature thanks to a former LBU supervisor and Time to Think facilitator, Kay Sidebottom. For example, although initially daunting, I have found Rosi Braidotti’s notion of ‘nomadic subjectivity’ really helpful – the idea that our selves are porous and in flux, and constantly in relation with our discursive, material and affective world.

I love the concept of the self not being fixed or rooted and that in seeking who we want to become, we can attempt to make sense of who we have been and are. Also helpful is Bronwyn Davies’ concept of ‘self-as-process’. So, as opposed to being fixed, our selves are constantly evolving and open to each other and to the unknown. These ideas resonate hope and connection which for me are at the heart of education.

Planning is vital for creating space for students to think and learn however, in reality none of us can ever know what is actually going to happen in a session, however well we have planned it because we can’t know what the participants are going to think! I am fascinated by how and what others think, how whatever content I have to share connects with pre-existing knowledge, lived experience and how all of our thinking can shape each other’s. As hooks says, we are all learners; there is no hierarchy or expert. I am so grateful to these wonderful scholars whose voices give me the courage to keep cultivating spaces in my teaching for us all, regardless of our background, status, age, experience or beliefs to think with each other in waves and pauses.

How does your wider experience in the education sector add depth to both your research and your teaching at LBU?

Having spent 30 years in schools, teaching, senior leadership, facilitating professional learning and enabling educators to lead change in the U.K. and internationally, I am very familiar with the intensity of day-to-day of school life, the rush rush as someone said to me recently. The ever-present weight of responsibility, making sure that the various checklists are being ticked, as well as being as human as possible in the face of moment by moment unpredictability can mean there is little space to catch your breath and think. No amount of planning can ever ensure the day will go smoothly, something always crops up, joyful as well as challenging!

Having lived and breathed that for 30 years means I am genuinely humbled when educators join online for a twilight session at the end of what may already be a 10 hour day not to mention caring responsibilities and other commitments.

I continue to be fascinated by experimenting with different ways of creating space for learners as well as collaborating with educators to research how to think differently about creating space for thinking.

Thanks to the encouragement of my former supervisor and director of CollectivEd, Professor Rachel Lofthouse, I was able to found the Flourish programme based on Kline’s TE. I am also grateful to the wonderful support of my current line manager, Rachel Bostwick, and Jaime Harrison and Kimberly Smyth in the Research and Enterprise team, who have enabled me to design and facilitate three more Flourish programmes supporting doctoral education for students and supervisors and school leaders of mental health and wellbeing.

What benefits or opportunities have your students experienced through your research so far, whether in how they engage, participate or develop confidence in the classroom?

The best evidence of the benefits or opportunities participants have experienced through my facilitation is the Flourish vignettes from the founding cohort in 2023-24. Anecdotal evidence from this year’s four Flourish programmes shows that participants appreciate the opportunities to hear each other’s thinking and lived experience as they gain different perspectives, learn new practical strategies to improve their practice or feel a sense of connection knowing that someone else feels similarly about something.

Some participants have commented how much they value the opportunities to appreciate each other and that this has made them aware of how the world of education can often feel like a negative space with the relentless focus on improvement. My thesis later this year and hopefully future research will offer further evidence!

What advice would you share with Graduate Teaching Assistants who are just starting to bring their research into their teaching, and are figuring out how the two can genuinely shape each other?

Firstly, I think it can be helpful to think about what drew you to your research in the first place. Hopefully your doctoral research is something you’re passionate about. It is such a privilege to be able to immerse oneself in that subject for five years (part-time). Without knowing this would happen, but because of the diverse doctoral activities and experiences, I have reached a much deeper understanding about what underpins the passion for my research. It is this passion that motivates my desire to share and draw on my research with others through my teaching and facilitation.

Secondly, drawing on the advice of one of my current supervisors, Professor Jill Dickinson: find your people. The PhD is a long journey with no certainty with regard to next steps. At LBU there are so many people who can help you think through your ideas whether that be other GTAs, supervisors, colleagues, doctoral students or others you might meet through training programmes or conferences. Make the most of the plethora of opportunities being offered through the Research and Enterprise Team and through Dr Mandy Peirlejewski, Postgraduate Researcher Lead in the Carnegie School of Education!

Finally, if your research is something you are passionate about, and there aren’t currently any opportunities to bring that into your teaching, then why not think about how you could design and facilitate a bespoke pilot programme centred around your research? It might be the very thing that people didn’t know they needed and could lead to more research …