BUILDING LEARNING POWER POLICY POLICY
HILL WEST PRIMARY SCHOOL BUILDING LEARNING POWER INTRODUCTION At Hill West we place learning at the heart of all that we do. We are keen to develop independent, reflective learners with the ability to assess their own learning potential and increase their capacity to learn as they develop in age and maturity. We want to equip children with the skills, techniques and vocabulary to talk about their learning more effectively. Building Learning Power is the mechanism through which we are enabling this.
WHAT IS BUILDING LEARNING POWER? Life- long learning is an essential part of human maturation. We can continually develop our capacity to learn in new and challenging circumstances throughout our life. In the developing field of learning to learn, research suggests that there are several broad dispositions that we need to develop in order to become successful life-long learners. Professor Guy Claxton suggests that there are four key learning dispositions and it is these four that underpin the Building Learning Power initiative: Resilience Reflectiveness Resourcefulness Reciprocity/social relationships We have adapted these at Hill West and we use them in our learning every day. These dispositions are inherent in all of us. They are not fixed at birth, or when we leave school. They can be developed in everyone regardless of current ability or age. There are no limits to extending our learning power.
HOW DO WE APPROACH THESE DISPOSITIONS? We introduce these dispositions to the children as groups of learning muscles. Just as we can build our physical muscles by the right kind of exercise, we can also exercise our learning muscles to develop strength and stamina. Developing the dispositions that make for success as a life-long learner equates to achieving a good level of all-round learning fitness. Each of the 4R’s is made up of a number of learning behaviours, which we call learning capacities. Because learning capacities are specific in nature, they can be individually trained, nurtured and exercised.
THE LEARNING DISPOSITIONS AND CAPACITIES Resilience is: Being ready, willing and able to lock into learning. Knowing how to work through difficulties when the pressure mounts or going gets tough.
Absorption – the pleasure of being engrossed in learning.
Managing Distractions – recognising and reducing interruptions.
Noticing – concentrating hard and really sensing what's out there in learning.
Perseverance – not giving up when learning is hard, understanding the feelings of learning when things are a challenge.
Resourcefulness is: Being willing and ready to learn in different ways – using both internal and external resources effectively, calling on different ways of as appropriate:
Questioning – asking questions of yourself and others. Being curious, playing with situations and delving beneath the surface of things.
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Making Links – making connections between consolidated and new learning – building patterns and weaving a web of understanding.
Imagining – using the mind’s eye as a learning tool – using your imagination – wondering ‘what if’
Reasoning – calling up your logical and rational skills to work things out methodically and rigorously. Constructing good arguments.
Capitalising – Making good use of and drawing on a full range of resources from school and the wider world.
Reflectiveness is: Being ready and willing to become more strategic about learning – taking a longer term view by planning, taking stock and drawing out your experiences as a learner to get the best out of yourself. Your reflectiveness is made up of:
Planning – working out learning in advance. Planning learning.
Revising – monitoring and adapting along the way. Being flexible, changing your plans, monitoring and reviewing your learning
Distilling – drawing out the lessons from experience. Looking at what has been learned – pulling out essential features – carrying them forward to aid future learning. Being your own learning coach.
Meta learning – knowing yourself as a learner – how you learn best. How to talk about the learning process.
Reciprocity is: social relationships. Learning with others but also choosing sometimes to learn individually. Being able to listen well to a talk partner or a group, trying to understand what other people are saying. Helping your own and others’ learning.
Interdependence – knowing when it’s appropriate to learn on your own or with others, and being able to put your view across in class discussions and circle times.
Collaboration – the skills of learning with others. Respecting and recognising other points of view. Adding to and drawing from the strength of teams.
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Empathy and Listening – contributing to others’ experiences by listening to them to understand what they are really saying, and putting yourself in their shoes
Imitation – constructively adopting methods of learning, picking up habits and values from other people whom you observe.
At Hill West we use our Learning Heroes to help our young learners understand the four R’s. They are:
Resilience – Determined Dolphin. I get absorbed in my learning I don’t give up when learning is hard. I concentrate really well and I notice everything.
Resourcefulness – Organised Octopus. I use pictures in my head to support my thinking. I am confident to ask great questions. I like to go exploring for the answers and love using the computer and books to increase my knowledge and understanding.
Reflectiveness – Wise Whale. I am a deep thinker. I learn from my mistakes. I enjoy it when I am fully engaged with a new task. Exerting effort to master something gives me a good feeling. I use my reflection skills to review and improve my learning. I am learning to become an effective learner – this takes lots of effort and skill
Reciprocity – Sociable Seahorses I’m a good listener. I like working in a team. I can work independently too.
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Staff at Hill West model these attributes in lessons and in our Learning Power Assemblies. Children are encouraged to flex their learning muscles in lessons and the key vocabulary is on display in classrooms to help them to do this.
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HOW CAN PARENTS AND CARERS HELP? Questions you could ask: Why not ask your child ‘how have you learned at school today’ or You might ask ‘which of the learning heroes were you today?’ or ‘what good questions did you ask in your learning today?’ or you might ask ‘which learning hero do you need to
develop inside of you?’
Sharing your experiences: Share how you learn, be your child’s learning hero. Talk about the 4R’s and encourage those attributes at home and in other out of school activities such as swimming, sports and learning to ride a bike, etc.
REWARDS At Hill West we are keen to reward children for Building their Learning Power. Apples are rewarded every week to celebrate achievement and these will include the capacity an individual child has been practising. The children are also very proud of their star cards and stamps are now awarded for learning powers.
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being ready, willing and able to LOCK ONTO LEARNING
being ready, willing and able to become MORE STRAGTEGIC ABOUT LEARNING
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being ready, willing and able to LEARN ALONE AND WITH OTHERS
being ready, willing and able to LEARN IN DIFFERENT WAYS
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Enjoying the learning so much that you are focused and really interested
Knowing when you are being distracted and doing something positively to stop it
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Concentrating hard and noticing things that can help you with your learning
Not giving up when learning is hard. Knowing that something that is challenging is helping you to learn
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Asking others questions but also questioning yourself. Being curious and finding things out
Making links between something you have already learned and something you are about to learn. Taking your learning in one subject and applying it to another subject
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Using what you can see in your mind as a learning tool. Wondering ‘what if’ and creating stories and solutions of your own
Working things out logically and systematically. Giving a good argument for your idea or answer
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Making good use of resources in school, at home and in the wider world
Planning your learning – how are you going to learn today and why are you going to learn in that way?
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Being flexible, changing your plans or amending your work to make it better. Drafting and redrafting your ideas and your work
Being your own learning coach by drawing on the lessons you have learnt from experience
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Knowing yourself as a learner. Knowing how to talk about your learning with others
Knowing when you should learn on your own or with others. Putting your views across in class discussions
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Learning with others, listening and respecting the opinions of everyone in the group. Using the different strengths of team members
Listening to what others have to say. Putting yourself in their shoes so you can imagine how it feels to be them in any given situation
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Picking up learning habits and copying others when the copying can help your learning
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