Introduction to ‘Playing the Learning Power Game’

Why a learning power ‘game’?

Games can be used as a metaphor for learning anything and you tend to get better at anything if you treat it as a game. This programme is about learning to play the familiar game of learning but with an additional ingredient; that of learning dispositions or powers. This subtle addition changes the game of education to one of building learning character at the same time as building knowledge. So the programme explores certain guidelines and conventions that help to frame learning in ways that allow positive learning dispositions to flourish…how you might set up the game, get to grips with some new rules and tactics and learn to appreciate how you score it’s all important new endgame…that of the self-managed learner.

As with any game, it helps if you’re enabled to play the whole game from the start. If you were learning to play Scrabble you wouldn’t get far if all you were given to learn were lists of three, four and five letter words. Far better to start straight away by playing ‘Junior Scrabble’, so you get the feel for the whole game, and then build up your sophistication as you play.

So you might look on the programme you’re about to follow as the junior game of learning power. It has all the elements you will need to introduce the values and activities of building your students’ learning power. This junior game lays the foundation for greater sophistication in further programmes.