Key points captured in slides

Discussion points

• What do we know about learning?
• Is it possible to get better at learning?
• If we spend time on learning to learn will results suffer?
• Students become better learners as they mature.
• If we develop growth mindsets the problem is sorted.

Further information 

• Book page. A brief description of learning power and its component parts. Taken from Building Learning Power in Action
• Book chapter. FAQs about a variety of doubts, challenges and misapprehensions about teaching for learning power. Taken from The Learning Powered school. Building a Learning Powered school 

Key points captured in slides

Downloads

• Resource book for staff. Useful if the school is using the presentation as a basis for a whole staff training session to introduce Building Learning Power. The Supple Learning Mind
• Notes relating to slides 9, 12, 15, 18 (The Supple Learning Mind…deeper presentation notes.)
• Copy of the Tin Tin activity cards for use in a staff training session. Chase in the Crypt

Online units for staff 

• Online unit Which constellation of learning habits could we develop?
  A short section of an online resource exploring the learning power framework of high value learning characteristics, their language and how they translate into the classroom.

• An online unit about learning habits. Understanding learning behaviours… a short online module to help consolidate information about the supple learning mind. The unit has 4 sections. These could be used to structure team meetings or for individual to consolidate understanding of the basic ideas after being introduced to them on a training day.  

Further information

• Book chapter Building Learning Power ( 2002) Part of Chapter 1. The descriptions of the learning behaviours of the supple learning mind
• Book pages. Building Learning Power in Action. Putting learning power back together. A short read on how the learning behaviours weave together; the warp and the weft.

Key points captured in slides

Downloads

• Resource book for staff. Useful if the school is using the presentation as a basis for a whole staff training session to introduce Building Learning Power.

Online units 

• Online unit. What does a learning friendly classroom look like? A short online unit to help consolidate information about learning friendly classroom cultures. The unit has 4 sections. This could be used to structure team meetings or for staff to consolidate the ideas after they have been introduced on a school training day.

Further information

• Book section. A quick read about the learning culture models. Extract from Building Learning Power with elli.

Topic D. Growing learning habits

Key points captured on slides

Downloads

• Resource book for staff . Useful if the school is using the presentation as a basis for a whole staff training session to introduce Building Learning Power (see also above). Growing Learning Habits
• Activity: Perseverance activity cards

Further information

• Online unit. How do pupils grow and develop as learners? A short online unit to help consolidate information about learning friendly classroom cultures. There is just one section that explores how learners’ behaviours might progress, build and become stronger: what ‘betterness’ might look like.
• This resource could be used to structure team meetings or for staff to consolidate the ideas after being introduced at a school training day. 

Key points captured in slides

Discussion points

• What’s our view of the purpose of education?
• How might we better prepare students for an unknown future?
• How do we want students to be as learners?
• How will building students’ learning power impact on the school?

Downloads

• Notes to help understanding of slide 11 (Breadth of change) Unpicking the pieces of a Learning Powered school taken from the handbook Building Learning Power with elli. 

Further information

• Article from BLP website. Why does education need to change 
• Blog What’s Building Learning Power all about..really  
• Handbook section What is learning power? from the handbook Building Learning Power with elli.
• Book chapter For anyone who is interested in where the ideas behind Learning Power hail from across a wide spectrum of psychology. Chapter 2 The Learning Powered School.

Key points captured in slides

Downloads

Copy of slide 4: The learning power framework

Copy of slide 5: Learning Poles apart

 Further information 

• Book chapter Extract from Building Learning Power. The descriptions of the learning behaviours of the supple learning mind. Building Learning Power (extract chapter 1)

• Online unit Which constellation of learning habits could we develop? A short section of an online resource exploring the learning power framework of high value learning characteristics, their language and how they translate into the classroom.

Key points captured in slides 

Downloads

Copy of slide 4: Classroom cultures (Culture tool 1)

Copy of slide 6: Four shifts in classroom culture (Culture tool 2)

Copy of slide 9: The teaching framework to make it work (The teachers’ palette)

Further information

• Online unit. What is a learning friendly culture? A short section of an online unit giving an overview about shifting the classroom culture to learning friendly.

• Blog. Creating meta-cognitive cultures, offering an explanation of the basis of a learning friendly culture.
• Handbook section. A quick read about the learning culture models. Taken from the handbook Building Learning Power with elli. offering an  overview of the learning culture model. 

Key point captured in slides

Downloads

Copy of slide 5: What does progression in perseverance look like?

Further information

• Blog How might perseverance grow when we nurture it?

The pack has three working sections each taking a different perspective;

• Section 1 Strategic:  The strategic issues, the big ideas

  • This section covers the level of detail that will be vital for senior leaders and school governors.

• Section 2 Chalkface:  The implications of those issues for classroom practice

  • This section covers the level of detail that will be essential for classroom practitioners.

• Section 3 Management: The implications for managing and supporting change 

  • This section covers the level of detail necessary for managing the big ideas into action.

The structure recognises that establishing a learning powered school is a collaborative endeavour. So often ideas like learning power start off with a big enthusiastic bang, get as far as the early stages and then shrivel and disappear. These resources aim to guard against such shrivelling by paying attention to all three layers of practice and giving particular emphasis to managing and supporting change.  

Each of the three sections deal with four topics of Building Learning Power:

• Topic A  Learning Power.The What and Why…the need for change and the sort of changes needed.
• Topic B  The supple learning mind...the framework of learning behaviours of successful learners.
• Topic C  Learning friendly cultures… the classroom culture that best supports the development of learning habits
• Topic D  Growing learning habits…  how learning behaviours strengthen into habits through learning powered teaching. 

In the Strategic section, for each of the four topics, you will find  the big strategic issues, the principles and models, the must dos and the ‘be good ifs’ of Building Learning Power. boiled down to their essence. The aim is to help senior leaders get to grips quickly with the main ideas and how to make them work.

Key points captured in slides

4 Strategic presentations covering; the what and the why; the supple learning mind; learning friendly cultures; growing learning habits  

These slide decks could be used:

• just as they are to introduce the ideas to governors; 
• to help structure a learning conversation amongst senior leaders;
• added to an introductory presentation for teachers ( see Section 2 below).

The slide format conveys the big issues succinctly. Brief explanatory notes can be found under each slide. Fuller  supporting information is offered under headings below.

Discussion points

In this spot we offer questions worthy of consideration in relation to the the big ideas.

They are given simply as examples, not as must do’s.

Further information

Here we offer links to further information to deepen or extend the key issues raised in the slides. These are offered to quench your critical curiosity, not as must read/view items. Here there may be;

•  a link to an appropriate blog;
•  a link to specific deeper information in our extensive bank of resources;
• a link to a page/chapter/idea in one of our BLP books;
•  suggestions for further/wider reading elsewhere.

In the Chalkface section, for each of the four topics, you will find the implications of the strategic issues unpacked for classroom practitioners: what they may mean at classroom level; the how to’s. The decks of slides also include activities designed to tease out issues – learning by experiencing and doing.

Key ideas and illustrations slides.

4 Chalkface presentations covering; the what and the why; the supple learning mind; learning friendly cultures; growing learning habits

These resources could be used:

• just as they are to introduce the ideas to staff;
• to structure learning conversations in teams;
• added to the strategic slides to ensure staff gain a holistic picture.  

Brief explanatory notes can be found under each slide. Fuller supporting information is offered under headings below.

Downloads

For some of the topics we offer materials to download for use with the slides. e.g. a resource booklet for a training day that you can deliver for your school.

Links to Online units 

For some topics we offer links to short online units that serve to enhance the information covered in the slides. Staff can view and reflect on these at their own pace, in their own time. 

• Online unit about the supple learning mind
• Online unit exploring classroom culture

Further information

Here we offer links to further information. Offered to quench critical curiosity not as must dos. Here there may be:

•  a link to an appropriate blog;
•  a link to specific information from our extensive banks of resources;
• a link to a book chapter offering deeper understanding;
•  suggestions for further reading.

In the management section we raise the management implications of supporting the strategic and classroom practice issues raised above. Without strong and sustained management support the development of learning powered learners is unlikely to take hold.  

Issues and discussion points captured in slides

4 Management presentations covering: the what and the why; the supple learning mind; learning friendly cultures; growing learning habits.

These slide decks could be used to:

•  structure learning conversations with and for managers;
•  inform managers of what has worked elsewhere; 
• act as a checklist of what needs ongoing attention.

Brief explanatory notes can be found under each slide. Fuller supporting information is offered under headings below.

Data gathering materials

Monitoring the developments across the school is a key management role in making the development of learning power successful. To this end we offer useful, downloadable questionnaires and other review materials for the first year of the journey.

Further information

Here we offer links to further relevant information. Offered as curiosity quenchers not the answers to everything. Here there may be:

•  a link to an appropriate blog;
• a link to an online unit to do with managing the development of learning power;
•  a link to specific information from our extensive banks of resources;
•  suggestions for further reading.

‘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

• Employment requires being able to enhance and transfer knowledge and to operate collaboratively
• The capacity to learn and adapt needs to be lifelong because change is a permanent state.

The job of schools is to prepare all youngsters for their future lives. However, there’s a disconnect between education systems and the increasingly complex needs of the 21^st Century. Students need the exam results AND a set of generic skills and attitudes to deal with complexity; learning dispositions such as curiosity, inquisitiveness, experimentation, reflectiveness and sociability.

• Vast amounts of information is available and learners, young and old, need to know how to find and select relevant information, to process it, connect it, to understand it and use it.
• Learning is increasingly taking place in different settings and with different relationships.
• Learning is a way of life.

Schools approach getting Good Results in one of two ways:

Building Better Learners is about the PLUS of the learning-centred model; how to deliver it, build it, sustain it and track it such that students are prepared as lifelong learners: able to deal with the new and complex with confident uncertainty.

Doing this involves teachers getting more precise and forensic about learning behaviours and attitudes, and shifting school cultures to becoming more learning friendly.

Given that we know how, why would we not?

In learning-friendly cultures students gradually grow their learning attitudes and behaviour.

Perseverance, self-control, attentiveness, resilience to adversity, openness to experience, empathy, tolerance to diverse options. A wealth of high-value learning habits.

Where would you like your learners to be on these trajectories – towards the left, or the right? Where are they now?

And in case you are wondering why such habits matter, recent research has shown:

• Achievement tests predict only a small fraction of the variance in later life success
• Achievement tests don’t adequately capture such qualities
• Learning habits have strong effects on educational attainment but have additional effects on important life outcomes beyond their effects on schooling

Culture – all those little habits, routines and practices that implicitly convey ‘what we believe and value around here’. Classrooms are the places where, hour by hour, students experience the values and practices that are embodied in the school, rather than just the ones that are espoused.

Culture is about the micro-climate: what teachers do and say; what they notice and commend, or don’t; what kind of role model of learning they offer; how they design and present activities to build learning behaviours. Some classroom cultures are just more learning friendly than others.

Research by Chris Watkins back in 2004 suggested three types of classroom learning cultures, some more learning friendly than others.

• Teacher centred; overriding emphasis on what the teacher is doing or saying.
  • Learning = being taught.
  • Students are passengers
  • Students have an impoverished view of their learning ability.
• Learner centred; students take a more active role in deciding what to do.
  • The learning is making meaning.
  • Students are crew
  • Students collaborate and discuss learning
• Learning centred; students learn about learning itself.
  • Students use a language of learning.
  • Become conscious of the learning process and the learning habits they command.
  • Students are pilots of their learning

Learning shift

Watkins argues that the shift from teacher-centred to learner-centred culture needs to be tackled before it is possible to move to a learning-centred culture. The shift from teacher-centred to learner-centred involves creating a classroom where:

• learners are increasingly active participators rather than passive observers;
• responsibility is increasingly shared rather than residing with the teacher;
• dialogue about learning and collaboration with peers increases as teacher monologue decreases.

Hence there are often two strategic shifts to make in the journey from Teacher centred to Learning-centred cultures. Teacher centred cultures may well achieve good results but only Learning-centred cultures achieve good results PLUS curious, creative, self-regulating, independent learners. 

Putting flesh on these bones:

The Culture Tool gives more detail about each of the classroom cultures.

Take a look at the resource and think about your school’s learning culture against the indicators in each panel.

• Reflect on the culture of each classroom
• Highlight all aspects of culture that are a regular feature in each classroom
• What are the similarities and differences between phases, year groups, individual classes?

Once there is sufficient secure practice in panel 2 of the model above, the school can turn its attention to creating a learning-centred culture, the one to the right of the diagram.

In broad terms the teachers’ role becomes one of surfacing the learning; making it public; making it visible to the learner; making students aware of their learning behaviours, thoughts and feelings. In so doing the strategic emphasis of the classroom shifts;

• from performance ⟹ learning.
• from content ⟹ process.
• from teaching ⟹ coaching

And in order to make these strategic shifts there are four inter-related aspects of teacher behaviour to work on:

The 4 Shifts in classroom culture – Relating, Talking, Constructing and Celebrating:

1. Relating for learning is about:

• Learning becoming a shared responsibility
• Students being given more responsibility for their own learning
• The teacher becoming the learning coach; enabling students to find their own ways to improve
• Collaborative activity that helps students to see each other as resources for learning
• Students being given choices about what and how to learn
• Students talking more, adults talking less
• Teachers modelling being a learner
• Processes promoting, enabling and supporting the best of what we know about learning.

2. Talking for learning is about:

• Learning, rather than performance, becoming the object of conversation
• The gradual introduction of a learning language helping students to become conscious of using their learning behaviours
• Using and extending the language; adding breadth and depth to how teachers and learners talk about, understand and improve learning.
• Students being encouraged to notice things about how they are learning, talking about the learning process and becoming a meta-learner.

The language of learning revolves around a set of high value psychological characteristics to develop a supple learning mind. These include emotional, cognitive, social and strategic characteristics. These characteristics are unpacked in Section 2.

3. Constructing learning is about:

• Learning, rather than performance, being made the object of learning.
• Reflecting on learning and reviewing learning being built into the learning model used in the classroom
• Learning activities being designed to stretch and challenge – by having a dual focus to explore content and stretch students’ ability to use their learning behaviours.
• Teachers making conscious choices about which habits/learning behaviours to introduce and stretch and how best to couple these with content so that lessons become more interesting and challenging.
• A third dimension being added to teaching: 1. Subject matter, 2. Assessment 3. The learning behaviours being used in order to learn.

4. Celebrating learning is about:

• Learning, rather than performance, being made the object of attention
• The underlying values about learning becoming visible through what is recognised, praised, displayed. For example:-
  • Being stuck being recognised as an interesting – not shameful – place to be.
  • Mistakes being recognised as invaluable in learning.
  • Effort being unpacked to show how it is channelled.
  • Good questions being as important as good answers.
• Using learning behaviours more often and more skilfully being nudged and recognised
• So the growth of learning habits is being attended to closely.

The model above shows the 4 shifts necessary to create the learning-centred classroom, on the the left-hand side the 12 ‘Means’ of creating this culture, and on the right-hand side the ‘Ends’, the outcomes for learners.

Clarity about ‘moral purpose’ is really important in leading a learning-powered school since it’s not merely about creating more efficient learning and improved exam results. The goal here is to broaden the scope of education.

Think about why you want to work on building better learners: is it about a wider scope for education and/or is it driven, in the first place, by a concern about student dependency and/or lack of resilience?

Take time to develop your own vision of building powerful real-world learners. Turn your vision into a narrative that will engage and inspire staff, who are after all, going to make that vision a reality.

You may find Chapter 1, Vision, in ‘The Learning Powered School’ useful in forming your narrative.

The key difference between schools where developing the learning process has been successful and those where it has fizzled out is understanding it as:

• whole-school culture change
• something that will take several years to implement and sustain
• not a quick fix to raise results
• a struggle for some teachers

Sharing your commitment to a long-term cultural change with staff will be vital for success. Make sure throughout that you frequently, visibly and genuinely express this commitment. Give a clear message – this is not just another initiative.

And as it goes along the big lessons are:

1. Keep close to the developments.
2. Keep it high profile in school, visit classrooms regularly.
3. Talk with teachers about how they are weaving the ideas into their lessons.
4. Focus on the kinds of learning processes teachers were routinely asking students to use.
5. Identify where this ‘mental exercise regime’ is really taking hold or is faltering.

Schools where Building Better Learners has been successful focus professional development on growing staff confidence and expertise to develop learning behaviours; usually by creating Professional Learning Communities. This serves to deepen and sustain the dialogue and empower staff to experiment and create their own solutions. A spirit of openness and enquiry increasingly pervades the school.

In the spirit of Building Better Learners teachers don’t just ‘learn how to do the approach’ they learn about it, critique it, customise and develop it through this radical rethink in Professional Development practice. This leads to regular opportunities to share experiments, successes, failures, doubts and ideas, and then go back to the classroom and have another go.

It’s the development of staff through professional learning communities that will be the engine of change.

As you move further into the innovation you will need to:

• keep talking about a vision for learning
• maintain interest and development of this vision of learning through in-school enquiry-led professional development

Working in this culture of trust and openness, teachers and teaching assistants will become increasingly confident to experiment and take risks. But this is no free-for-all: the quality of learning in classrooms and around the school needs to be kept under regular review.

As a result: Teachers get used to being observed regularly, and come to trust that the spirit of this is a learning support for them, and not a process of judgement or appraisal. Staff don’t see this as being checked up on but as part of a dynamic, reflective process across all levels of the school. As this culture consolidates, people get used to watching out for and recording changes in their practice and changes in students’ learning behaviour, motivation and achievement.

There are several reasons why schools find it useful to start documenting progression in students’ learning behaviours. They find that it:

• motivates and encourages students to put in the effort to continue improving their learning behaviours
• gives students feedback on their learning behaviour progress so that they can decide which ‘learning muscles’ they are going to put effort into next
• encourages teachers to realise that their efforts to improve learning behaviours are being effective
• gives teachers information about individual students or classes that will enable them, the teachers, to discuss and guide learning development more precisely and helpfully
• validates the progress made by students in terms of conventional attainment measures.

All of these purposes are legitimate and useful but they suggest different kinds of information gathered over different timescales. In devising a policy for tracking the development of learning power, schools are therefore beginning to create a multifaceted portfolio of indicators rather than a single metric.

The holistic model below shows aspects of student learning, teacher practice and school processes fitting together and influencing each other to make learning at the heart of the school a reality. We would be kidding ourselves if we thought that “doing learning power” meant little more than a few tweaks in classroom practice. Doing it ‘right’ rather than ‘lite’ takes us deep into how supple learning minds grow, how teachers’ everyday practice needs to be developed, what it means to ‘lead learning’ and how parents can be brought into the action.

• Do our students have a sufficiently subtle language for explaining the learning process ?
• Do they have an understanding of progression that enables them to understand how they are growing as learners ?

• Are our classrooms designed for teaching or for learning ?
• Is there a good balance between how we learn and what we learn ?
• To what extent is coaching the prevailing classroom culture ?

• Does leadership build in teachers the very habits we seek to instil in students ?
• Do teachers take risks in developing their own practice ?
• What evidence do we have that learning habits are being developed in classrooms ?
• How have we engaged parents as partners in the process of building students’ learning habits ?

If a parent were to ask whether their child was more perseverant 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? What evidence might you use and where would this come from? 

A school that is interested in growing student learning behaviours will want to know the effectiveness of its strategies and the extent to which its students are growing as learners. This is not rooted in a need to label students as ‘level 3 at turn taking’ or ‘A* at conflict resolution’, but rather out of a desire to understand the small, incremental steps that will take a child from ‘can’t share’ to ‘great team worker’, so that subtle intervention can support and even speed the child’s growth as a ‘collaborator’. The same is true, obviously, for all of the other learning behaviours of a Supple Learning Mind.

There are three key facets to the progression of learning behaviours – firstly the frequency/strength with which the behaviour is used, secondly the range of contexts in which it is deployed, and thirdly the skilfulness with which it is employed. The focus of this Bitesize unit is on the third aspect, that of skilfulness.

The skilfulness of the habit:

While we may start by encouraging students to ask questions, for example, more frequently or in a wider range of contexts, once this confidence is achieved we rapidly turn our attention to the quality of the questions that are being asked. It is not too difficult to describe the attributes of a high level, sophisticated questioner who is skilled at asking incisive, generative questions, but it is very difficult to map out and sequence the steps between the natural curiosity of a three year-old and the sophisticated skill-set of the consummate question-asker/enquirer. This is the challenge, and why skilfulness is the most complex of the three dimensions. However, once mapped, the impact on mentoring, target-setting, self and peer assessment, assessment, recording, reporting, task design, and curriculum planning etc is immense.

There are many reasons why schools find it useful to start documenting progression in students, far beyond being able to reassure a parent about progress. They find that it:

• motivates and encourages students to put in the effort to continue improving their learning behaviours;
• gives students feedback on their learning behaviour progress so that they can decide which learning; behaviours they are going to target in the next period;
• encourages teachers to realise that their efforts to improve learning behaviours are being effective;
• gives teachers information about individual students or classes that will enable them, the teachers, to discuss and guide learning development more precisely and helpfully;
• validates the progress made by students in terms of conventional attainment measures.

All of these purposes are legitimate and useful but they suggest different kinds of information gathered over different timescales. In devising a policy for tracking the development of learning power, schools create a multifaceted portfolio of indicators rather than a single metric.

Getting students ‘doing it’ is one thing, but getting them doing it more frequently, more skilfully, in a wider range of contexts, is why you are involved. What types of evidence can teachers collect in order to make these kinds of judgements? We think of these in three broad categories: what students think of themselves as learners; what teachers observe of students as learners; what other people perceive of students as learners.

What students think about themselves as learners

Given the opportunity, students are often happy to reflect on, talk about or write about themselves as learners. Learners’ own self-reports offer a rich and legitimate source of evidence through, for example:

• extracts from students’ learning logs;
• digital records of personal best moments taken by students themselves;
• student responses to self-report questionnaires;
• evidence from self and peer assessments;
• testimony recorded in their school planner.

What teachers observe of students as learners

Taking on the role of a learning coach offers teachers more time to observe students developing their learning habits. As they mark students’ work they will also be noticing and commentating on their use of various learning muscles. They may be rewarding / praising the determined use of learning muscles or undertaking dynamic observations of students as they grapple with a new challenge.

Such evidence might include:

• students’ products or performances;
• photographic records of ‘personal best’ moments;
• dynamic assessment—observations and records made of students in the process of learning. When and how they ask for help. The kinds of questions they ask. The sort of  self talk they venture out loud;
• a record of to whom, when and why rewards / praise were given;
• recognition comments that echo the progression chart statements.

What other people perceive of students as learners

Evidence of using their learning behaviours more widely can be drawn not only from other teachers but from people who see the students outside school. It might include:

• unsolicited comments from parents;
• digital records from home or school clubs or out-of-school activities;
• testimony from employers regarding a student’s attitude to work during work experience;
• testimony from piano teachers, sports coaches, youth club leaders, and the like.

You may have noticed that ‘students’ achievement levels’ do not feature as a source of evidence for their developing learning power. This is not because we don’t think it is important, but because it does not necessarily correlate with learning power. Students’ achievement might have improved because the school has got better at spoon-feeding, for example. Nevertheless, research tells us that greater confidence and skill at learning results in better performance.

Naturally, as you gain a clearer record of your students’ growth as learners (as opposed to knowers), you have a rich evidence base from which to report more extensively to parents about both their attainment levels and how they are developing as a learner.

Consider our Progression Chart for perseverance, which offers a way to understand and plot the complex journey from the ready giver-upper to the highly tenacious in pursuit of goals.

Currently such charts are written for teachers; the language too sophisticated to be useful for students and the statements often too broad to be individually tracked.

But, take a broad look at your school’s learners through the lens of this map of perseverance:

• Outliers aside, where are the majority of your youngest learners?
• Outliers aside, where are the majority of your oldest learners?
• Do your students become increasingly perseverant as they pass through your school?
• Can you speculate on why this happens?
• Have you ever looked at your students in this way before?
• Would plotting this progression be useful?
  • to teachers
  • to students
  • to parents
• Do you think the school could help students get a better hold on their perseverance?
• Do you think it would be realistic to have most of your oldest 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?