Enriching students’ sense of being a learner… throughout the curriculum

Bringing learning out of the shadows 

Can you learn how to learn?

A valuable set of learning habits

A framework of valuable learning habits

Learning dispositions to underpin the four curriculum purposes

Some important questions

The headteacher of a Welsh medium school recently told us that:

‘If we do not look at the core purposes and wider skills of the new curriculum through the lens of a well-researched framework of learning dispositions, Successful Futures will fail in Wales. As a school, we are able to understand Successful Futures only because we already understand learning through our engagement with Building Learning Power.’

• Do you agree with the need for a well-researched framework of learning dispositions?
• If yes, which well-researched framework do you plan to use to support your implementation of Successful Futures and your understanding of the core purposes and wider skills in designing your curriculum?
• If no, how do you plan to make sense of, and align, all of the demands that Successful Futures places on schools, on leaders, on teachers, and on learners?

 

What Is Learning Power?

A person’s Learning Power determines, even dictates, their propensity for change and directs those behaviours that influence and underpin performance throughout life.
The power to learn is the essential ingredient in the implementation of strategies for change. Research undertaken at Bristol University as part of the ELLI project into lifelong learning identified 7 critical dimensions of Learning Power, and their supporting attributes that can create a step-change in individual, team, or organisational performance.
The power to learn changes over time and responds to the qualities of learning environments, be that in its sensitivity to classroom culture, or comfort in the home or workplace. As environmental circumstances change, they can have either a constructive or a destructive influence on Learning Power. Nonetheless, informed interventions can significantly enhance personal confidence and play a role in mitigating the negative impacts such as uncertainty and distress.

How we use learning power

When learners become aware of their learning power through structured opportunities to improve it, they become:

• More reflective and aware of themselves as learners
• More confident and motivated to learn
• More willing and able to take responsibility by ‘owning’ their learning for themselves
• More intentional in their learning
• Keener to carry on learning as they move beyond school
• More likely to realise their potential and gain grades that were previously regarded as beyond them
• More confident socially and intuitively able to learn with, and from, one another
• More able to manage transitions and take change in their stride throughout their lives.

Why we need learning power

“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”
– Dylan Wiliam
Furthermore, it has almost come upon us by stealth … but with unprecedented access to massive sources of knowledge distributed by the emergent digital, electronic and social technologies, all of us, whether student or employee, are having to develop and apply an enhanced Learning Power if we are to perform to the level that is expected of us.
Creativity, innovation and productivity have become the hallmarks of competitive advantage and a direct reflection of not just a student’s but also an organisation’s learning capacity. Students now need to harness their learning power and intelligence and to translate that learning into action so that they can capitalise on the changing opportunities of an information age.
In a globalised world characterised by rapid change and technological innovation, in which young people have few certainties about their futures; in which most people will have several careers; in which we are faced with some of the gravest international challenges ever to face mankind, it is vital that our young people are equipped with the values, the insights and the skills they will need to navigate their way through the jungle of opportunities and threats.
Helping learners to understand how they learn and how to improve their learning capacity and capability is one of the most important functions schools can offer.

A learning language

The idea of Learning Power has been a feature of education for more than 20 years and there are many ways of deconstructing it. The idea of Learning Power began its journey in research undertaken at the University of Bristol led by Professor Patricia Broadfoot.
Research into learning sought to capture the essence and meaning of Learning Power and identified 7 critical dimensions of Learning Power. These dimensions can be viewed more like attitudes or dispositions than capabilities or skills.

The 7 dimensions are:

• Changing and Learning – our disposition to grow as a learner
• Critical Curiosity – our disposition to ask questions to ‘get to the bottom of it’
• Meaning Making – our disposition to make connections between past information / experience and new knowledge
• Creativity – our disposition to think ‘outside the box’
• Resilience – our disposition to be robust when the going gets tough
• Strategic Awareness – our disposition to be aware of and in control of our learning
• Learning Relationships – our disposition to learn with and from others

Should you want a quick overview, click on the down arrow in the bottom grey bar and you can save or print the pdf.

Strategic Awareness is about intentionality and sense of purpose. It governs the way we set about planning and becoming conscious of our aims and objectives. It is about our conscious use of time and resources – and how we use our learning journey thus far – to project our future.

Strategic Awareness is the most frequently misinterpreted and misunderstood of Learning Power’s dimensions among adults. Forgetting that Strategic Awareness in this context is about the strength or weakness of one’s understanding of how one learns, they read this dimension as a reflection of their capacity to think strategically. Younger learners tend to confuse self-awareness with self-consciousness.

The more effective learners know more about their own learning than others. They are aware of how they approach new learning opportunities, their habits, their preferences and the particular strengths and weaknesses that they bring to a task. Strength in this dimension normally denotes an awareness of personal feelings towards learning, knowledge of how to manage them and therefore exercise control over the learning process to optimise performance.

These learners are interested in becoming more knowledgeable and more aware of themselves as learners, trying out different methods and approaches to see what works best. They are more reflective and better at self-evaluation, better at judging how much time and resource a learning task may require. They are able to talk about learning and themselves as learners. Interestingly, they usually know how to repair the negativity of their own emotional mood when they become frustrated or disappointed.

These are the learners who prefer to be given responsibility for planning and organising their own learning – self-regulating learners in the modern parlance.

Less effective learners in this dimension inevitably mean that the learner is less self-aware, they will also have a tendency to be robotic.

Resilience is about feeling secure and unafraid. When we are afraid we find it hard to make mistakes, since we fear being judged; either by peers, teachers, parents, or by our own internalised self-critic. When we are Resilient we can work through fear and can learn from our mistakes, being self-aware instead of self-conscious.

Where Resilience is scoring exceptionally strongly it will often dominate the profile and at the expense of a more balanced Learning Power. Creativity, in particular, is frequently compromised, together with Critical Curiosity and Meaning Making. Resilience is especially sensitive to upheaval and the challenges of personal circumstance and environment. These learners persevere in the development of their own learning power, tend to relish a challenge and are robust when the going is tough.

Low scorers are naturally much more fragile with an inability to use their skills and knowledge to overcome seemingly intractable situations.

An orientation towards perseverance in the development of one’s own Learning Power means you relish challenge, as well as being robust when the going gets tough; the opposite is fragility and dependence.

Meaning Making is about how we make sense of things. It is about connecting one thing to another, and seeing relationships between ideas, information and experience. It allows us to see the narrative in a set of events, rather than processing fragments of information in a disconnected and piecemeal fashion.

Meaning makers are intuitively on the lookout for links between what they are learning and what they already know. They get pleasure from, and are energised by, seeing how facts and features fit together. Making connections comes naturally and results both from a propensity for learning and the fact that learning really matters to them.

The pleasure comes from making sense of new knowledge in terms of personal experience and gaining new understanding of challenging concerns, concepts and contexts. Effective meaning makers will ask questions in pursuit of coherence, being interested in the big picture and how new learning fits within it and improves understanding. Learning is often directed towards what, in particular, matters to them as people.

In contrast, less effective learners are more likely to approach learning situations piecemeal and to respond to new information solely on its own individual merits.

Critical Curiosity is about asking questions. It is to wonder who, why, what, when, where, if and how. It is the refusal simply to accept information at face value, and the determination to look beneath the surface. It knows that asking questions might ultimately be more valuable than having all the answers.

Critical Curiosity is dynamic and an expression of ‘learning energy’.  It reflects a desire to drill down into information looking for further clues and related messaging. These learners are much less accepting of received wisdom, like to get below the surface of apparent truths to find out more than is being offered to them. They value ‘getting to the root cause’ and are more likely to adopt the more challenging learning strategies.

Learners with high levels of critical curiosity will be unlikely to accept what they are told uncritically, enjoy asking questions and are more likely to reveal their questions, doubts and uncertainties publicly.  They like to come to their own conclusions and are inclined to view new knowledge as an opportunity for investigation and enquiry. They are often the first to take responsibility for their own learning and enjoy the challenge. These learners may be something of a teacher’s nightmare, but a gift to the corporate learning and personal development executive.

Conversely, learners low in critical curiosity exhibit passivity, indicating a low level of ‘learning energy’ with the learner quick to accept what they are told uncritically, believing that ‘received wisdom’ is necessarily the truth. Laziness and detachment are often traits, not participating because they do not have the ability but because active speculation and exploratory debate requires an energy that is not currently part of their persona.

But, students do not acquire these skills by themselves. Rather, the evidence suggests that the innate curiosity of the infant often erodes rather than strengthens in the face of ‘schooling’. 

The promotion of critical curiosity requires a new role for teachers, which is based not on the traditional transmission of information but on process-oriented teaching, which ensures that students are actively involved in the learning process and become lifelong learners and where critical curiosity depends on productive interactions between student and teacher.

Critical thinking, therefore, is unlikely to develop within a classroom culture that is highly teacher-directed, where responsibility for asking questions sits firmly with the teacher and learner participation revolves around answering teacher’s questions.

Creativity is about the freedom to discover. It is about trying things out for oneself, in one’s own way, rather than learning by rote or repeating the status quo. In creating something new, we are taking a risk; challenging what already exists. We are also bringing something original and authentic from our own experience.

Creative learners enjoy a challenge and are willing to take risks. They are able to view situations in different ways and to imagine new possibilities. The younger people are, the more frequently they exhibit natural creative thinking, learning from their mistakes whether building a den, using paint or experimenting in the kitchen or the classroom. The older they become, the more creativity is perceived to be lost to those with strengths in the arts or professions in which there is a material outcome.

Nonetheless, creativity is an important dimension in the diagnosis, development and management of Learning Power.

Highly creative learners use their energy to play with ideas and take different perspectives, even when they don’t know where their trains of thought are leading. They are receptive to hunches and inklings that bubble randomly into their minds and they make more use of their imagination with visual imagery, pictures and diagrams playing an integral part in their learning adventure. Crucially, creative learners understand that learning often requires a playfulness, lack of seriousness, as well as purposeful and systematic thinking, to be at its most effective. Difficult situations viewed as a positive, an excuse to call on the imagination to offer new solutions to perennial problems.

In contrast to the creative learner, the less effective learner tends to be unimaginative, preferring tried and tested ways of looking at things where routines and rules enable them to feel safer and more secure.

Learning Relationships is about how we work with others. It is about knowing how to balance our interactions for the best possible outcome; at times sharing knowledge and experience, at times asking for help or guidance, and at times being able to work alone, drawing on our own resources.

The most effective learners are good at managing the balance between sociability and learning privately. They are not completely independent, nor are they dependent. They like to learn with and from others and to share their difficulties when it is appropriate. They are naturally versatile and able to adopt the most appropriate learning method, whether working alone or as part of a group.

Highly effective learners acknowledge that learning situations are many and varied and extend beyond the classrooms and organisations of which they may be a part. They know the value of learning by watching and emulating other people, including their peers. They make use of every encounter, using others as learning resources, as learning partners and as sources of emotional support. Nonetheless, despite being able to move easily from one set of learning environments to another with ease and confidence, these learners know that effective learning will also require studying or even dreaming͛ alone. They are self-reliant but have a willingness to compromise in the interests of both other enthusiastic learners and enhancing their own wider experience.

The contrast pole is isolation at one end of the spectrum or dependence at the other. Less effective learners are likely to be stuck by either an inability to engage easily with others, or an over-dependency on others for reassurance or guidance.

Changing and Learning is about self-awareness. It is about understanding that we are changing and adapting all of the time, and that everything we do is a lesson learnt. It means that we can make sense of our learning by viewing it in a wider context, as part of our life story, or ‘learning journey’.

This dimension illustrates how much the learner currently puts into practice their understanding that learning is itself learned and thus, the most effective learners view learning as learnable. They believe that, with concerted effort, their minds can become stronger and more productive and agile just as exercise, discipline and diet can release strength and energy to their bodies.

Highly effective learners view learning as a lifelong process, having understood that learning will lead to change because new experiences, knowledge and skills automatically ensure that the way they think and act will be different from the thoughts and actions that they had previously.

It is important that having to try͛ in order to learn is accepted and experienced positively because, as with conventional muscles, learning muscles also need to be exercised to create growth. Indeed, as the learner’s Learning Power profile records growth in this dimension, it will include the satisfaction of sensing improvement over time.

The realisation of aspiration and ambition, as well as competent strategic leadership, rely heavily on sustained strength in Changing and Learning. 

The less effective learner is stuck and static, less likely to see challenging situations as opportunities to improve their learning capacity. They tend to believe that Learning Power is fixed and that the difficulties they are confronted with do little other than to reveal their limitations.

B1. What will work on the Stepping Stones units achieve for staff and students?

Coaching staff through the implementation of Stepping Stones units should help  teachers to;

• become enthusiastic leaders of their students learning
• be committed to approaches that are relevant, worthwhile and manageable
• develop more and more creative ideas of their own
• share with each other the rapid impact this shift in perspective has on their students’ learning
• enjoy their teaching even more

Where teachers work differently students will;

• find classroom activities engaging and interesting
• secure a greater understanding of content and make progress
• understand how using learning behaviours helps them to learn better
• work towards becoming leaders of their own learning
• become less dependent on their teachers to provide them with answers and solutions

B2. How might we pace the content? What coaching climate will be most effective?

(i) Suggested pacing of content

Remember – each of the units may take half a term to work through.

In preparation.

Give the team access to the on-line units in advance of the session. Invite them to read it through, get the feel of it,  undertake the suggested activities for themselves, and  scan the suggested teaching ideas . Considering units in this way is essential pre-reading before the team meetings.

Team meeting

Team meeting agendas and support notes are part of every online unit.

Such meetings aim to:

• assess where teaching practices are now;
• explore the suggested teaching activities, routines and teacher talk that can/will support students;
• agree what type of teaching practices to change by undertaking a learning enquiry linked to the online materials.

ii) Building an effective coaching climate

Changing the habits of a professional lifetime is not simple. It involves un-learning and re-learning: unpicking, readjusting, trying things out and seeing what works. It’s about staff using their own learning power to affect changes in themselves. And the desired change is not just in what they think and believe; it is in how they spontaneously talk and act and plan. Even small shifts in the type of language a teacher uses take time to implement fluently. They have to stop using previous language, start using new language, hesitantly at first, then in different contexts, more frequently and with greater fluency.

Think Teacher Learning Community

Think of these team meetings as a Teacher Learning Community the essence of which is a small group of teachers who meet together regularly to deepen their understanding of an approach, trying out new things and reflecting on and sharing their experiments with each other.

iv) A ‘teacher learning community’ team session is usually arranged like this…

Introduction to agree aims for the meeting, and quickly offload irritations or frustrations about work that otherwise could hinder the progress of the meeting.

Sharing how things are going Each member gives a summary of what he or she has tried to achieve since the last meeting. Everyone is expected to report back to every meeting. The group question and probe their colleagues’ summaries to encourage analysis and deeper reflection. They use questions such as ‘What do you think is getting in the way? What would make this even better? How could this technique be modified to make it work for you? What do you think made that work so well?’

New learning The middle section of the meeting is where ideas form the Stepping Stones modules are introduced discussed and decided on. This changing middle section keeps the meetings fresh, but importantly aims to progress the breadth and depth of the approach.

Personal action planning Each member then plans what they intend to try over the next, say, month. This gives teachers time to think and plan in the session itself. 

This action planning is essential. It’s really about how teachers are intending to change their practice, try another way of doing something, inject a Visible Learning Routine into their lessons, talk about learning in a more focused way, and so forth. It is these plans, and how they are supported, that are the engines of change.

Review of the meeting

Finally the group reflect on the original objectives of the meeting to see if they have been achieved.

This tight format makes the purpose of the exercise clear and everyone knows what is expected of them.

Meetings such as these have been a prominent feature in many learning powered schools and have helped teachers to share both successes and tricky problems in an atmosphere of trust and commitment.

Operating ground rules. 

But apart from the structure it’s a good idea to have some ground rules for such meetings. It’s important in keeping groups both comfortable and purposeful.

Try these ground rules for size and amend at your first meeting to suit your team’s way of working.

Pre-session organisation

All team members to:

• Look through the Stepping Stones materials before a session
• bring their previous session’s Personal Action Plan to the meeting
• prepare a two-minute input about their lesson experiments to share with the group

In-session climate

• Everyone fully engaged in the group
• No group member can ‘pass’
• Active listening when not your turn
• Actively discuss everyone’s input
• What is said is confidential to the group
• Constructive criticism – developmental not judgemental
• No put-downs
• Open-mindedness
• Respect others’ views and encourage others’ ideas

Post-session activity:

• Everyone to undertake their small-scale learning enquiry with a view to feeding back at the next session;
• Everyone to undertake the required reading for the next session;
• It’s a good idea to review these ground rules occasionally to make sure the team is working well for all its members.

A1. What is the overall purpose and shape of the suite of the ten Stepping Stones 1 units?

Once a school has established a commitment to developing students’ learning habits, there is a pressing need to get going, maintain momentum and generate further ideas and enthusiasm.

These online resources answer that need.

The on-line material is designed to;

• help teachers explore issues of the what and why of changing their practice and offer practical ideas to try in their classrooms
• enable lead teachers to run teacher learning community sessions where staff plan and share their classroom experiments.

The programme kicks off with a key unit about learning friendly cultures. A Culture for Building Powerful Learner ‘ looks at what a learning friendly culture looks, feels and sounds like and how to achieve such a culture. – we recommend that schools start with this module;

There are then: 

• 5 units relating to the key learning behaviour of Perseverance and how classrooms need to be if we want perseverance to grow. The content is closely related to what might be described as growth mindset behaviours.
• 3 units looking at the key learning behaviours of Questioning, Collaboration and Revising.

The Stepping Stones Phase 1 programme winds down with an essential unit about reviewing progress, that of teachers’ practice and that of students’ learning behaviours.

Using these materials across all school teams will;

• develop team understanding of classroom cultures, learning habits and behaviours and, importantly, how they should develop over time
• establish team enthusiasm for refreshing student motivation and learning behaviours
• build expertise through guided sessions that stimulate teachers to use the materials and generate their own ideas.
• secure a common classroom culture for learning across the school

A2. How do we decide where to start in using the Stepping Stones Phase 1 units?

Firstly:

Begin by looking at the Culture unit. ( A culture to build powerful learners) This unit raises the issue of learning friendly classroom cultures which every teacher needs to be familiar with. Only if everyone is encouraged to consider this unit can the school work confidently towards a consistent learning friendly culture across the school. 

Secondly:

Work through the information unit 

• Building progression in Perseverance

for a full and rounded picture of this key learning behaving in action

This unit is very short and could be combined with one of the following;

• Engage students in unsticking their learning
• Engage students in rising to challenge
• Engage students in managing distractions
• Engage students in achieving goals

These can be tackled by the team in any order before . . . 

Thirdly:

Work through the three substantial units

• Putting Questioning into Learning
• Putting Collaboration into Learning
• Putting Revising into Learning

These are probably best tackled in this order.

Fourthly:

Spend time on the critical last unit in Stepping Stones Phase 1

•  ‘Reviewing our Progress’ unit.

Before continuing into Phase 2 it will be important to consider whether what you are doing is making a difference to the classroom cultures, to teachers’ practice and to the students themselves.

You can expect these units to take at least an academic year to fully engage with and derive the benefits of shifting classroom cultures and student expectations. Each unit could take a half term to work through and implement.

This is a bombshell section! It needs to come earlier but not sure where. Certainly before Moving my practice on. Maybe even instead of the talking section cos you could get the talk into a revised classroom practice section.

If a parent were to ask whether their child was becoming more independent, what would you be able to say? How would you respond beyond, hopefully, yes, or a bland statement about ‘working on their own’? How would you know? What evidence might you use and where would this come from? 

Ask yourself:

• Do our students become increasingly independent as they pass through our school?
• Can you speculate on why this happens?
• Would plotting this progression be useful?
  • to teachers
  • to students
  • to parents
• How realistic would it be to have most of your students reaching at least the Value/Green phase?
• How might you use the chart to help you sort out the evidence you need to collect to show such progression robustly?

• How could you use this progression chart to inform:
  • teaching?
  • learning?
  • mentoring?
  • target setting?
  • curriculum planning?
  • reporting to parents?

If a parent were to ask whether their child was becoming more confident, what would you be able to say? How would you respond beyond, hopefully, yes, or a bland statement about ‘being  more confident in class’? How would you know? What evidence might you use and where would this come from? 

Ask yourself:

• Do our students become increasingly confident as they pass through our school?
• Can you speculate on why this happens?
• Would plotting this progression be useful?
  • to teachers
  • to students
  • to parents
• How realistic would it be to have most of your students reaching at least the Value/Green phase?
• How might you use the chart to help you sort out the evidence you need to collect to show such progression robustly?

• How could you use this progression chart to inform:
  • teaching?
  • learning?
  • mentoring?
  • target setting?
  • curriculum planning?
  • reporting to parents?

If a parent were to ask whether their child was becoming more resilient, what would you be able to say? How would you respond beyond, hopefully, yes, or a bland statement about ‘sticking at things for longer’? How would you know? What evidence might you use and where would this come from? 

Ask yourself:

• Do our students become increasingly resilient as they pass through our school?
• Can you speculate on why this happens?
• Would plotting this progression be useful?
  • to teachers
  • to students
  • to parents
• How realistic would it be to have most of your students reaching at least the Value/Green phase?
• How might you use the chart to help you sort out the evidence you need to collect to show such progression robustly?

• How could you use this progression chart to inform:
  • teaching?
  • learning?
  • mentoring?
  • target setting?
  • curriculum planning?
  • reporting to parents?

If a parent were to ask whether their child was more resilient than when they arrived in the school, what would you be able to say? How would you respond beyond, hopefully, yes, or a bland statement about ‘sticking at things for longer’? How would you know? 

Consider:

• what are the advantages of tracking learning behaviours in this way?
• any disadvantages?
• how could you use the outcomes to inform:
  • teaching?
  • learning?
  • mentoring?
  • target setting?
  • curriculum planning?
  • reporting to parents?

This section offers a framework for supporting a productive Teacher Learning Community

If you are undertaking this unit alone and are not part of a Teacher Learning Community structure, please move on to Section 7.

Teacher learning communities have the potential to provide you, as teachers and support staff, with the information and support you need to develop your practice in deep and lasting ways. They provide a forum for supporting you in converting the information and ideas in the online learning sessions into “lived” practices within your specific subjects and classrooms. They provide a safe forum in which to;

• kick around ideas from the online content,
• unpack it’s meaning when it’s unclear,
• consider what’s do-able and appropriate for your pupils
• make plans for what and how you might incorporate the ideas into your practice
• share and unpack what you have tried in the classroom
• relate your triumphs and tribulations
• support colleagues through changes in practice
• reflect on what you hope you might do, or have done, differently

 The format of the agenda is based on research into teacher learning communities by Dylan Wiliam, of Assessment for Learning (AfL) fame. Teacher learning communities are the engines of teacher development.   

This section is for those teachers who are undertaking this unit alone and are not part of a Teacher Learning Community structure.

Cultivating learning habits ultimately involves:

• Providing rich and varied occasions for exercising learning habits;
• Infusing learning habits into lessons to enhance content understanding;
• Recognising and celebrating the use and growth of learning habits;
• Expecting students to take ownership of and responsibility for their own learning habits;
• Exploring the development of learning habits with students over time.

As a teacher you are an influential character builder and so need to be mindful of how you help students form, replace, re-form and strengthen their learning habits.

But don’t worry, you’re not there yet. It takes most teachers between 2 and 3 years to become really fluent with this way of teaching. So, go easy on yourself. Feel determined because small steps often prove to be big levers for change. Have a think about what you might do…

What to stop and start

Here are a few ideas you might want to try. Take it steady, this way of teaching can be a big but exciting shift so it’s worth doing it slowly and thoughtfully.

Look first at the Stop/avoid ideas. Some of these are far from trivial but it’s best to try to remove them before starting on the Start/do more of, Start slowly and Experiment with ideas.

This section offers a framework for supporting a productive Teacher Learning Community

If you are undertaking this unit alone and are not part of a Teacher Learning Community structure, please move on to Section 7.

Teacher learning communities have the potential to provide you, as teachers and support staff, with the information and support you need to develop your practice in deep and lasting ways. They provide a forum for supporting you in converting the information and ideas in the online learning sessions into “lived” practices within your specific subjects and classrooms. They provide a safe forum in which to;

• kick around ideas from the online content,
• unpack it’s meaning when it’s unclear,
• consider what’s do-able and appropriate for your pupils
• make plans for what and how you might incorporate the ideas into your practice
• share and unpack what you have tried in the classroom
• relate your triumphs and tribulations
• support colleagues through changes in practice
• reflect on what you hope you might do, or have done, differently

 The format of the agenda is based on research into teacher learning communities by Dylan Wiliam, of Assessment for Learning (AfL) fame. Teacher learning communities are the engines of teacher development. 

The purpose of Building Learning Power is to facilitate the growth of high value psychological characteristics in order to strengthen students’ learning characters. These skills, attitudes and values, when used with increasing competence and confidence across many learning opportunities, become learning habits; the characteristics of successful lifelong learners. 

‘A person’s Learning Power determines, even dictates, their propensity for change, and directs those behaviours that influence and underpin performance throughout life.

The power to learn is the essential ingredient in implementing strategies for change i.e. to learn.‘

The activities, think pieces and questions in this online unit aim to help teachers make a start on:

• introducing students to one of the key learning behaviours;
• using the language of learning effectively with students;
• designing the use of learning behaviours into the way they teach;
• developing the confidence and skill in helping students to grow their learning power.

The purpose of Building Learning Power is to facilitate the growth of high value psychological characteristics in order to strengthen students’ learning characters. These skills, attitudes and values, when used with increasing competence and confidence across many learning opportunities, become learning habits; the characteristics of successful lifelong learners. 

‘A person’s Learning Power determines, even dictates, their propensity for change, and directs those behaviours that influence and underpin performance throughout life.

The power to learn is the essential ingredient in implementing strategies for change i.e. to learn.‘

The activities, think pieces and questions in this online unit aim to help teachers make a start on:

• introducing students to one of the key learning behaviours;
• using the language of learning effectively with students;
• designing the use of learning behaviours into the way they teach;
• developing the confidence and skill in helping students to grow their learning power.