...how do you know what learning is taking place?
Recently, our school has been focusing on becoming more learning aware. How? Well, we’ve started in three ways.
First, we discussed what learning is – a harder question that it might seem. But without a clear idea of this, or at least an engagement with it in our own minds, how can teachers know what they are trying to do on a daily basis? We also thought about the benefits of making children more aware of what they were learning and, more importantly, why. These included improved levels of engagement, enhanced metacognitive skills, developing a sense of responsibility and independence and helping them find purpose, without which, let’s face it, why would any of us do anything.
Next we developed 6 essential questions which we could use in the classrooms to engage children in the process of thinking about their learning (actually we came up with over 20, but agreed on 6 that would be used in ALL classrooms so that they became second nature to the children). And we brainstormed ideas for how these questions could become part of our daily practice...plenary balls; posters; lucky dips; conversation etc.
Our second step for making learning more explicit was to look at our displays. Displays matter. Why? For students, they are a visible recognition of their learning – their work is worthy of a larger audience. For the wider school community, displays in and out the classroom send a powerful message about school culture and the value it places on learning. Finally, learning displays can drive on the learning process, by providing learners with reminders of what they’ve already learnt and by getting them to engage with it, which provide different ways of challenging students.
Successful and meaningful display reflects the ethos of a school, and an exciting, learning-focused environment makes for excited learners. An environment that mirrors respect and care makes learners feel cared for and respected by the place in which they learn. This positively impacts on how well students learn, how happy they are as they learn and the respect and care with which they treat their school; the same applies to staff. . If we care about our school environment and our classrooms, it shows we care about our students, our colleagues and our schools.
While there are many lovely displays in our school and this is something that has improved a lot in the last year, when we reflected on how well they highlight learning, we realised we could make some improvements, like using more learner-centred that draws attention to the learning that has taken place; including questions to the displays that help engage the learners in prior or further learning; to make an effort to refer to displays in teaching; and to keep changing them (even in small ways) so that students keep noticing them.
Finally, we decided to trial learning journals. This is a fledgling idea right now. While a common practise in many schools, our school has not used them before and neither have most of our teachers. The goals are to build in dedicated time to the timetable, during which children have the opportunity to reflect, share, question and evaluate their learning, in order to make encourage a sense of responsibility, independence and motivation around their learning, while also encouraging creativity and building clear communications skills.
While some teachers were concerned that such skills would be beyond the children we teach, especially as it is not Khmer culture to engage in this type of reflection at home, most teacher were excited. And if there’s one thing about me they know, it’s that I have the highest expectations of what our students (and our teachers) can achieve, and I will not give up on those until I have tried and tried and tried again.
Watch this space.
Recently, our school has been focusing on becoming more learning aware. How? Well, we’ve started in three ways.
First, we discussed what learning is – a harder question that it might seem. But without a clear idea of this, or at least an engagement with it in our own minds, how can teachers know what they are trying to do on a daily basis? We also thought about the benefits of making children more aware of what they were learning and, more importantly, why. These included improved levels of engagement, enhanced metacognitive skills, developing a sense of responsibility and independence and helping them find purpose, without which, let’s face it, why would any of us do anything.
Next we developed 6 essential questions which we could use in the classrooms to engage children in the process of thinking about their learning (actually we came up with over 20, but agreed on 6 that would be used in ALL classrooms so that they became second nature to the children). And we brainstormed ideas for how these questions could become part of our daily practice...plenary balls; posters; lucky dips; conversation etc.
Our second step for making learning more explicit was to look at our displays. Displays matter. Why? For students, they are a visible recognition of their learning – their work is worthy of a larger audience. For the wider school community, displays in and out the classroom send a powerful message about school culture and the value it places on learning. Finally, learning displays can drive on the learning process, by providing learners with reminders of what they’ve already learnt and by getting them to engage with it, which provide different ways of challenging students.
Successful and meaningful display reflects the ethos of a school, and an exciting, learning-focused environment makes for excited learners. An environment that mirrors respect and care makes learners feel cared for and respected by the place in which they learn. This positively impacts on how well students learn, how happy they are as they learn and the respect and care with which they treat their school; the same applies to staff. . If we care about our school environment and our classrooms, it shows we care about our students, our colleagues and our schools.
While there are many lovely displays in our school and this is something that has improved a lot in the last year, when we reflected on how well they highlight learning, we realised we could make some improvements, like using more learner-centred that draws attention to the learning that has taken place; including questions to the displays that help engage the learners in prior or further learning; to make an effort to refer to displays in teaching; and to keep changing them (even in small ways) so that students keep noticing them.
Finally, we decided to trial learning journals. This is a fledgling idea right now. While a common practise in many schools, our school has not used them before and neither have most of our teachers. The goals are to build in dedicated time to the timetable, during which children have the opportunity to reflect, share, question and evaluate their learning, in order to make encourage a sense of responsibility, independence and motivation around their learning, while also encouraging creativity and building clear communications skills.
While some teachers were concerned that such skills would be beyond the children we teach, especially as it is not Khmer culture to engage in this type of reflection at home, most teacher were excited. And if there’s one thing about me they know, it’s that I have the highest expectations of what our students (and our teachers) can achieve, and I will not give up on those until I have tried and tried and tried again.
Watch this space.