Product reviews for Clean Language in the Classroom

You can sometimes get the feeling of -˜banging your head against the wall' when trying to make sense with some students. You may have had that feeling when speaking to a couple of bickering children, but when you think the situation has been resolved, the argument continues as soon as you turn away. Does that sound familiar?

In fact, there are times when you are unable to shine a light through the fog and connect in a way that fosters deep understanding in students, but with a little fine-tuning of to the way you listen to your students and how to use clean questions, you can achieve surprising results. This is the overarching philosophy behind Julie McCracken-˜s book 'Clean Language in the Classroom', being relevant to those working in primary or secondary schools who are wanting to improve how adults communicate with students.

To be clear, Clean Language is a communication process developed by counselling psychologist David Grove in the 1980s and distilled into a Symbolic Modelling strategy by James Lawley and Penny Tompkins in the 1990s.

However, Julie has developed this to apply in an educational setting, including a seven-week guide to using Clean Language in your classroom, guiding the reader to subtle changes in communication that can have major impacts. Changes in questioning, the use of metaphors, and an exploration of mental models and misconceptions all build into a crucial resource in improving dialogue and learning.



Although obviously useful for English learning in the classroom, the book concludes with a great mix of examples of how Clean Language can be applied in other subjects, including Art, PE, and Science. Crucially, this approach can (and should) be seen as a whole-school strategy that improves the teaching and learning of important aspects of the curriculum.

Click here to read the review on UKEdChat.