WELL-BEING LEARNING
Learning Power Pioneers: ‘Inspirational Doers’ Introduction by Becky Carlzon, Primary Teacher Bangkok Patana School 2018-2020
T
he very best teachers are lifelong learners. They are curious, hungry to find out more, driven to be the very best they can be, both in and out of the classroom. In a professional sense, this lifelong learning can take on many forms – completing a Masters, reading about the latest educational research, observing and learning from a colleague. Learning to improve and refine our practice is inspired by colleagues, school leadership and educational researchers – we could think of these researchers as “inspirational thinkers” – people who drive our learning forward through research and developing new forms of thinking. However, these theories, research and ideas have little impact without people to put these ideas into practice in real classrooms – cue the “inspirational doers”!
Teacher-led Action Research
Learning Power Pioneers is a teacher-led Action Research group, full of “inspirational doers” – teachers who are dedicated to deepening their understanding of the process of learning and transferring this understanding into classroom practice. Based on frameworks from leading educational approaches, teachers in this group have been exploring “Design Principles” of a learning-rich classroom; the idea being that teachers and mindfully and purposefully design their classrooms, amongst other things, to: • Make them safe places to make mistakes, • Tailor environments and learning opportunities that are rich in 14
• Bangkok Patana School
During the visit this very naturally moved towards the children becoming ‘Learning Friends’. They were happy and relaxed learning together.
collaboration and challenge, and • Structure language in a way that promotes deeper thinking and a positivity towards challenging learning.
How does it work?
Teachers have taken a “Design
Principle” to explore and study each term. Rich, shared discussions have deepened pedagogical understanding and created shared plans for how to translate these into classroom practice that will impact learning. The power is created through a combination of deep pedagogical
In plenty of classrooms children ‘do group work’. In fewer do teachers deliberately structure the classroom so that children’s skills as collaborators and conversationalists are systematically stretched and developed. Guy Claxton and Becky Carlzon, Powering Up Children
