On the page below you can see the basic architecture of a learning friendly culture; one that is successful in building better learners. The text below the picture explains and expands these basic ideas.
What are the four cultural shifts that, taken together, move a traditional classroom culture to a learning-friendly culture?
Ron Ritchhart observes in Creating Cultures of Thinking:
“The culture of the classroom teaches. It not only sets the tone for learning but also determines what gets learned. The messages sent through the culture of the classroom communicate to students what it means to think and learn well. These messages are a curriculum in themselves, teaching students how to learn and ways of thinking.”
Moving to establish learning-friendly cultures entails four shifts. A shift in relationships, a shift in the language, a shift in how learning is constructed, and a shift in what is celebrated – what is seen to matter:
- Relating – How you relate to your students; gradually sharing and devolving more of the responsibility for learning with them
- Talking – How you talk about learning; the sort of learning language content and style you use to enhance and explain learning
- Constructing – How you construct learning activities; the tasks and classroom routines you use to build positive learning habits
- Celebrating – What you celebrate about learning; what you prize, recognise, display; the outward signs of beliefs about learning
What do such changes mean for the role of learners?
For learners it’s a place where their role changes from receptivity to activity:
- they collaborate and talk about how they understand things
- they accept responsibility for learning
- they do more of the thinking
- they develop curiosity, perseverance, attentiveness, and open-mindedness
- they monitor and assess what they do
- they talk fluently about their learning behaviours
- they value mistakes, challenge, feedback
- they develop their learning behaviours consciously
- they regard themselves as improving learners
How does the role of teachers change?
For teachers it’s a place where their role changes from delivering content to constructing situations from which students learn:
- the learning process is brought to the surface, given a language, discussed, looked for, celebrated
- learning processes are modelled
- teachers act as learning coaches
- few lessons are simply talk-and chalk
- lessons contain challenges and activities that get students thinking and learning for themselves
- teachers encourage students to explore a challenging question, problem or assertion
- teachers enable students to become observers and regulators of their own learning
- teachers keep thinking ‘What’s the least I can do to get productive learning happening (again)?’
This general philosophy is not new of course. There have long been many advocates for learning where students are more active and engaged. But because learning-centred teachers have a particularly rich conception of learning and the habits that underpin it, they are able to design nudges and activities that target quite specific aspects of learning behaviours. Teaching for learning becomes more detailed and forensic.
What do these changes in teachers’ practice amount to?
The Teachers’ Palette framework to build learning friendly cultures
Learning-friendly cultures systematically cultivate habits and attitudes that enable young people to face difficulty calmly, confidently and creatively. This means moving the focus from what teachers do to a focus on what learners do. Moving from a focus on product and performance to a focus on the process of learning.
The teachers’ palette diagram below distils the key teacher behaviours associated with a learning friendly culture.
What questions might you ask yourself at this point?
Something to think about
- Who is working hardest in your classrooms – teachers or students? What does this tell you about the extent to which students are being enabled to take responsibility for their own learning?
- What is talked about in classrooms – content, learning, or both? Who talks about it – teachers, students or both?
- Is reflection a regular feature in lessons? Who does the reflection – teachers for students, or students for themselves? What is reflected on – content acquisition or the learning process, or both?
- What is celebrated – high attainment or successful learning? What do students value most highly – learning from mistakes or getting it right first time?
- How much of a culture shift is needed.
You can find out more about learning cultures and how to achieve them from our online courses: Stepping Stones Phase 1 (primary) or Nutshells Phase 1 ( secondary)
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