Taking off the stabilisers in teacher development will yield results, says this assistant headteacher, giving us more confident and effective teachers
So far, I’ve successfully taught two of my three daughters to ride a two-wheeled pedal bike. While I learned to cycle the traditional way, by using stabilisers and then ditching them once I was a bit more confident, I’ve eschewed that for my own children and instead followed the current trend for balance bikes.
It really does work, reducing the complexity of the learning process. And it made me think: when we develop teachers’ skills, either during initial training or as part of ongoing professional development, should we use a balance bike approach, or should we bolt on stabilisers?
By putting stabilisers on a child’s bike, we remove the need for the most difficult skills to be used – we make the task easier. But then we take the stabilisers away and send the rider almost back to square one, making them learn new and difficult skills without the support they once had, and in a potentially more dangerous way.
So, when training teachers, should we give them stabilisers: easy ways of doing things that remove the difficulty of the job?
Take differentiation as an example. Should we advise teachers to differentiate three ways in order to cater for three different ability groups? Is this a good way into learning how to cater to the needs of the individuals in the class?
Once teachers are settled in the job, will it then be easy for them to switch from this way of working to being a more responsive teacher, one who understands there is very rarely a situation where three different worksheets can adequately meet the needs of the learners in their class?
Similar examples of stabilisers might be heavily-scaffolded planning formats, pre-planned lessons, whole-school behaviour policies that remove teacher autonomy, greater numbers of in-class adult support and so on.
Could stabilisers such as this give teachers the confidence they need in order to begin their mastery of the craft of teaching?
By giving a child a balance bike, we require them to master some difficult skills, but ones that they continue to use once on a proper bike, at which point they hone another, simpler skill in order to master riding (pedalling).
Providing teachers with a balance-bike approach to development might mean expecting them to work on mastering the important basics, perhaps for a longer time than if stabilising support had been provided, but with fewer scaffolds.
How might this look? Take differentiation again so that we have a comparable example.
In this model of teacher development, a coach or mentor might work alongside a teacher showing them how to develop assessment that feeds into planning for future lessons. Here we see that there is someone there to help with the difficult tasks instead of taking those tasks away and replacing them with simpler, yet potentially ineffective, ones that masquerade as a job well done.
In this model, there are no beginner or intermediate expectations for teachers, just the understanding that everyone might be at a different point in their development of a particular teaching skill.
By giving teachers a balance-bike approach, they should be being equipped with skills that they continue to use throughout their career. Then, just as the art of pedalling is learnt once on a pedal bike, so too can the art of teaching be developed once the more difficult, foundational skills have been mastered.
Balance bikes are a great starting point for kids when they’re learning to ride. They get the hang of balancing while moving without relying on stabilisers, so the transition to a pedal bike is often much quicker.
Our guide to teaching a child to cycle in 30 minutes is a good starting point for a first pedal bike, but if your child has just got a balance bike, or is used to riding one and is ready to move on to a bike with pedals, the followings tips will help.
The Steps
We’ve also got a guide to the best kids’ bikes, with recommendations for children of all ages, and advice for cycling with kids.
- Striding
Let your child stride along aboard the balance bike. Let them enjoy the feeling of movement under their own power.
Pretty soon they understand that with a little more striding they can lift their feet and glide a few feet.
- Gliding
Striding will lead to gliding
As children get stronger and more confident, the gliding gets longer and faster. Once they reach this point, they’re already past stabilisers.
Once you start to become concerned that they can glide longer and faster than you can run, it’s time to think about a bicycle with pedals. These first two steps can last months or years.
You can get balance bikes for toddlers, so they can start to become familiar with the feeling of striding and gliding from early on. This will help them develop their sense of balance.
Then, when your child (and you!) are ready, you can move on to a bike with pedals…
- From balance bike to pedal bike
When choosing your child’s first pedal bike, look for something with proper brakes front and rear.
Remove the pedals from the new bike. Take the child, the balance bike and the new pedal version to a park with a shallow grass slope.
Let the child stride and glide down the slope on their balance bike. As experienced gliders, they’ll nail it first time with big smiles.
- Onto the new bike
Once your kid has the hang of ‘gliding’, adding pedals, brakes and gears becomes much easier
Swap them onto the new bike. Tell them to stride and glide this one down the slope in the same way, and to ignore the pedal-less cranks.
Chances are, they’ll achieve this first time, and in a few goes will probably get a little blasé about it.
- Using pedals
Now explain that you’re going to fit the pedals, but that they’re not going to pedal.
It’s just another stride and glide, only this time as they lift their feet off the grass, instead of holding them in the air, they need place them on the pedals without trying to turn them. Get them to let the glide peter out as usual.
- First cycling steps
After a few goes gliding with pedals as footrests, tell them that next time they can turn the pedals forward.
It will keep their speed up and let them add power to the glide when the slope stops doing it for them.
Give lots of positive encouragement
- Keep practicing
Most kids nail this first time. Let them keep practicing these steps: stride a few paces, use the slope to instigate the glide phase, feet to pedals, feel the glide begin to fade, turn the pedals forward.
- Picture time
Have a camera handy — your child is now cycling without stabilisers. Now all you need to do is facilitate regular sessions so they can continue practicing and build confidence.
Remember to give lots of praise. Stuff will go wrong, kids will fall off, just make sure you’re ready to make them feel better with calmness, patience and love.
And sweets just in case the last three things aren’t enough…
Children who learn to ride bikes with stabilisers learn to pedal but not how to balance – the extra wheels do all the hard work for them.
Not only this but we all know how independent children crave to be and stabilisers scream ‘I need help’. They can be clunky, they are hard to manoeuvre and they add weight to already quite heavy bike frames making them difficult for children to handle. When the time comes to take them off, they have to start from scratch to build up the stability they need.
On a balance bike, children are focused on that core poise rather than pedalling, they are more prepared for a sudden loss of balance and are less likely to fall as a result. Once they’ve mastered balancing they can completely skip the stabilisers stage. No running alongside them, no holding their seat, no painful tumbles…. It really is that easy!
https://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/sites/www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/files/vla-resource-bike-law.pdf
