Curriculum, learning and teaching
Building powerful learners Tim Unsworth and Maryl Chambers on turning rhetoric into reality
A changing world
‘Students throughout the world need now to reach higher levels of achievement, not only to find fulfilling work but also to empower themselves to thrive in an increasingly complex world’ (Wiliam, 2016) Of course the job of any school is to prepare youngsters for their future lives, but perhaps especially so for international schools that aim to educate global citizens. Students need exam results AND a set of generic skills and attitudes to deal with complexity; learning dispositions such as curiosity,
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inquisitiveness, experimentation, reflectiveness and sociability. For years now research in the learning sciences has shown that learning is itself a learnable craft; that we can all get better at learning. This means that schools, teachers and indeed parents can enable young people to develop as better, more effective learners. More recently, research (Heckman et al, 2014) has shown that this is not only possible but also desirable, that such habits matter more than examination results in life beyond school. What is Building Learning Power? To build learning power is to enable students to gain good results AND to become learners who are consciously aware of developing learning behaviours such as perseverance, self-control, attentiveness, resilience to adversity, openness to experience, empathy, and tolerance of diverse options: a wealth of high-value learning habits. Getting this to happen is about creating a culture in classrooms – and the school more widely – that systematically cultivates Autumn |
Spring
If parents were to enquire whether their child had become more imaginative, or independent, or more able to persevere, over their time in school, what would you as a teacher be able to say? How would you respond beyond, hopefully, “yes”, or some bland statement about “sticking at things for longer”? How would you know? What would you know?
| 2017
