#Take5 #113 “Many hands make light work”

by Helena Beeson and Anne-Marie Langford from the University of Northampton

Introduction

How many workers does it take to change a light bulb?  This blog post is about a light bulb moment (pun literally intended). Helena Beeson and Anne-Marie Langford from the University of Northampton share a reflection on their learning development practice and how it can impact on others. 

The Challenge

On our way back from the fabulous and thought provoking ALDinHE conference on the Tuesday evening with time to spare on the long train journey from Glasgow to Northampton (with a refreshing mini break at Rugby!) two weary, but driven Learning Development Tutors found themselves in the midst of a challenge.  

On observing Helena doing a cryptic crossword puzzle Anne-Marie remarked, ‘I can’t do them. I know the rules because I went to see Dave Gorman’s show (2023) where he explains them. First, they involve word play and then they involve rearranging some of the letters in the clue. I think there are a bunch of others I can’t remember but I have no patience or idea how to actually put the rules into practice.’ 

Helena replied something along the lines of ‘Well we have plenty of time with nothing else to do’.  Thus, the opportunity for a collaboration and exploration ensued. Here’s how it went and what we discovered: 

Overcoming assumptions

Firstly, we worked through the personal assumption that Anne-Marie doesn’t know the rules well enough and is not patient enough. We challenged her perceived lack of cultural capital and self-confessed sense that she ‘didn’t think [she] had this type of cleverness’. These are often feelings and perceptions that students encounter when working with us. They feel like real, natural and tangible barriers. Brookfield (2018) talks about the value of putting yourself in the place of a student so that you can remind yourself of the disorientating impact of not knowing how to do something. This encounter was a useful practical application of this.

Theory vs Practice

Secondly, we found that there is a difference in the theory of knowing the rules of cryptic crosswords versus actually scrutinising the questions and taking time to apply the rules.  Learning Developers can find this when working with students; we might teach them a model or framework and students nod politely because they have understood it on one level. However, when it comes to using these approaches in their work at a later date, there could be a whole new set of challenges, perceptions and emotions.  

Modelling and Scaffolding

Helena did not to judge or comment, but began by modelling herself trying to solve the clues. There was some thinking time and dead ends in order to answer the ‘questions’ which normalised the sense of struggle, but also created a sense of achievement when Helena could solve a clue based on Anne-Marie’s suggestions. This led to growth in her sense of self-confidence and self-efficacy. Taking the lead, Helena, explained her thought processes with a couple of clues. We then implemented some good old-fashioned scaffolding and Helena asked a few faciliatory questions. Thanks to this questioning Anne-Marie went on to explore other questions with ease – Vygotsky (1938) would have been proud! 

Helena Beeson’s official train trek cryptic crosswords bingo: 

Generally ignore your first instinct, although you may come back to it later	Find the synonyms	Count the letters across words to find the acronyms
Identify any tenuous connections – question marks often suggest tenuous	Think of any possible related jokes	Expect a few groans
Don’t rely on general knowledge	The answer may be a word made up of multiple words	Could be a completely different premise altogether

The EUREKA! moment

Thanks to Helena guiding Anne-Marie through the process, she felt able to persist with the more elusive answers such as, ‘How many workers does it take to change a light bulb’ (4, 5, 4, 5, 4). This came like a EUREKA! moment. Thanks to the time and space for collaboration on this train journey a skill was gained previously felt unattainable. 

This is not the end of the story as Anne-Marie was able to solve the following clue using this experience by herself:

Fruit Noel brought back about the sixth of September (5).  After some consideration, I realised that the sixth letter of September is M. LEON is NOEL backwards.  Therefore, if the M goes in the middle that spells LEMON. This was another Eureka moment.

Using Cryptic Crosswords in Learning Development

We also entertained the idea of bringing some cryptic crosswords into the classroom as teaching resources – could they be critically analysed? Plus the social constructivist potential! Our key advice for anyone wishing to replicate this came as we trundled off the train after many hours: “Hysteria helps”

References

Brookfield, S. (2017) Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass. 

Gorman, D. (2023) Powerpoint to the People. Dave Gorman. Derngate Theatre, Northampton [23 November 2023].

Metro (2024) Cryptic crossword. Metro. 11 June, p.22.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1935/1978). Interaction between learning and development. In M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman (Eds.), Mind in society (pp. 79–91). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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