From naming to showing

Last week, Ms Rivera tried something small. She didn’t redesign her lesson or introduce a new framework. She simply rewrote one task. Instead of asking her students to “complete a science experiment on insulation”, she described it a little differently:

Test different materials, observe results, and explain which worked best and why.

By the end of the lesson, Ms Rivera noticed that students were more engaged in what they were doing, but when she asked them what they had learned…

Most still talked about the task:

• “We did an experiment.”
• “We tested materials.”

The Next Step

• In the way students approach a task.
• In the decisions they make.
• In how they respond when something doesn’t work.

What Does It Mean to Show a Skill?

The next day, Ms Rivera tried something different. As students worked, she paused one group and asked, “Talk me through what you changed, and why.” At first, the response was simple. “We just tried a different material.”

So she prompted again, “What made you decide to change it?” This time, the answer went further. “Because the temperature dropped too quickly… so we thought it wasn’t insulating properly.” Now the students weren’t just doing the task, they were explaining their thinking and they were making their decisions visible.

From Description to Evidence

This is the shift we’re exploring this week. Moving from: “I used problem-solving skills” to: “I tested a different approach when the first one didn’t work, and adjusted based on the results.”

The first is a description, the second is evidence and that difference matters, because evidence shows how a skill is applied, not just that it exists.

Why This Matters for Learners

When students can articulate their skills:

• They understand their own learning more clearly
• They can explain what they’ve done and why
• They are better able to apply those skills in new situations

And importantly, others can understand it too. Teachers, peers. future educators, parents and employers.

A Small Shift, Not More Work

What’s important here is that Ms Rivera didn’t add more content. She didn’t create a new assessment. She simply asked slightly different questions that prompted students to explain their thinking and the processes behind how they were working. That’s often where visibility begins and you start to build skills literacy into how people learn.

Looking Ahead

In the next steps, we’ll explore practical ways to capture this kind of evidence more consistently. So that these moments don’t just happen occasionally, but become part of how learning is recognised and understood.

Points to consider

What changed for you last week when you began rewriting tasks in skills-focused language?