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Units Archive

Helping your learners to… Make Links

Resourcefulness — Making Links

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • look for connections between experiences or ideas 
  • find pleasure in seeing how things fit together, make patterns
  • connect new ideas to how you think and feel already
  • look for analogies in your memory that will give you a handle on something complicated

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Me-Learn (Meta-learning)

Reflectiveness — Meta-learning

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • are interested in how you learn as an individual
  • can talk about what skills you need to make progress
  • can talk about how learning works for you
  • know your strengths and weaknesses as a learner
  • are interested in becoming a better learner

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Listen

Reciprocity — Listening

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • pay attention to other people
  • show you are listening by eye contact and body language
  • reflect back the main points that someone has said
  • stay quiet while the other person speaks

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Persevere

Resilience — Perseverance

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • are not put off by being stuck
  • tolerate feelings of apprehension, frustration or confusion without getting upset
  • recognise that learning can be a struggle
  • keep on going despite difficulties and find ways to overcome them

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Imagine

Resourcefulness — Imagining

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • picture how things might look, sound, feel, be
  • let your mind explore and play with possibilities and ideas
  • build up stories around objects, facts, theories or other stimuli
  • rehearse things in your mind before doing them for real

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Collaborate

Reciprocity — Collaboration

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • are aware how you respond to other people
  • manage your feelings when working with others
  • respect other people’s points of view
  • are able to work effectively as part of a pair or team
  • share information and ideas willingly
  • understand the ground rules of team work

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Plan

Reflectiveness — Planning

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • think about what you want to get out of learning
  • assess which resources you may need
  • estimate how long it will take you
  • plan the steps you might take
  • anticipate what might get in the way

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Question

Resourcefulness — Questioning

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • are not afraid of not knowing
  • are curious about things and people
  • like to get below the surface of things and come up with your own conclusion
  • often wonder why
  • play with ideas, asking “How come?” and “What if?”

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Resource Learning (Capitalise)

Resourcefulness — Capitalising

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • learn from many different sources — people, books, the Internet, music, the environment, experience …
  • make intelligent use of all kinds of strategies and things to aid learning
  • notice the approach and detail of how others do things
  • adopt and adapt the successful strategies of others

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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Helping your learners to… Notice

Resilience — Noticing

When you use this learning muscle, you …

  • notice how things look, what they are made of, or how they behave
  • are patient, knowing that details may take time to emerge
  • can identify significant detail
  • get a clear sense of what, before starting to think why or how

 

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.
You’re not currently enrolled in this unit and can’t access the sections of the unit below. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessing this unit.

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BLP Activity Bank Transition – Key stage 2-3

Introduction

The BLP Activity Bank (Foundation and Key Stage 1 Version) aims to assist teachers to:

  • Introduce pupils to their learning power
  • Help pupils to increase their use of effective learning habits
  • Infuse the development of learning habits into the curriculum
  • Recognise and plan for progression in learning power

The content is organised around the learning dispositions (sometimes known as the 4 R’s), and capacities described in Professor Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power. Teachers using the Activity Bank should have at least a basic knowledge and understanding of these BLP ideas.

Structure

The framework of materials has two dimensions

  1. The themes and topics of learning power
  2. The types/approaches of activities to explore the topics

Themes and topics

Connecting activities

Stretching activities

Transferring activities

Learning
2 topics

Engaging activities to:

Introduce the topic

Establish the concept
by making connections
to familiar ideas

Deepen understanding
through use of
metaphor and
illustrations

15-20 mins
Warm-up Activities
Linking Ideas

Intriguing activities to enable
students to experience using
their learning muscles

15-20 mins activity

15-20 mins debrief

Stretching Activities
Resources

Reflective activities to enable
students to:

Identify the use of the
concept in their own life

Extend the language of
the concept

Assess the extent to
which they use the
concept now

Track when and how
they use the concept

Reflective Activities

Learning Log

Resilience
5 topics

Resourcefulness
6 topics

Reciprocity
6 topics

Reflectiveness
5 topics

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Building Powerful Learners

Hello. We’ve prepared a few notes, think pieces, quizzes and questions to help you check on a few things and decide whether the Learning Power approach is what you’re looking for for your school.

Why do students need learning power?

How can schools develop powerful learners?

How do you make it work?

These materials offer a quick look at learning power. They encourage you to think about why students need learning powers in this day and age. They suggest that you ask yourself whether the curriculum might be delivered differently in order to grow students learning habits. They give examples of doing just that.

Taking on a learning powered approach isn’t insignificant. It’s gradual, sometimes tricky but hugely worthwhile for both students and teachers.

Look at these 2 sections and take advantage of the downloadable resources.

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Reviewing our progress – Stepping Stones phase 2

Welcome to the session 9 of the online programme: Stepping Stones Phase 2

This module is designed to help you to review your progress in developing a learning friendly culture and your pupils as better learners.

It invites you to use a rich variety of tools and techniques to help you estimate the effect and impact of changing your practice. This review will provide you with relevant information on which to base your approach in the next phase of building your students’ learning powers.

Work through sections 1 – 5 where you will consider:

  1. Reflecting on your changing practice Looking at what you have done and how your classroom culture has changed, and the extent to which student learning behaviours have developed. This section answers the question “How far have you come?”
  2. Giving students a voice Finding out how your students have benefited. This section answers the questions “To what extent have students discerned a culture shift in classrooms and to what extent to they perceive that they are becoming more effective learners ?”
  3. Learning with and from colleagues Learning from learning walks and observations. This section answers the question “Which learning behaviours / cultures are evident in classrooms?”
  4. Team session: Learning together Putting your heads together and thinking “what next?” This team session answers the questions “How are we doing, how are our students doing and where do we need to go next?”
Within the sections of this session we have offered a number of different ways in which you might reflect on your changing practice and collect evidence to support or question your views. We don’t expect you to use all of these tools – time would prohibit this. However, we suggest you look at all the ideas and consult with other members of your team before deciding which tools to select.

 

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Putting Noticing into Learning

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Noticing in your students.

It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.

Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Noticing and how it develops. Unpick the Noticing grid and plot where your students are now.
  2. Taking Noticing into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support Noticing.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building Noticing into learning activities/tasks and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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Putting Reasoning into Learning

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Reasoning in your students.

It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of  learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.

Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Reasoning and how it develops. Unpick the Reasoning grid and plot where your students are now
  2. Taking Reasoning into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support Reasoning.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building Reasoning into learning activities/tasks  and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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Putting Imagining into learning

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Imagining in your students.
It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of  learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.
Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Imagining and how it develops. Unpick the Imagining grid and plot where your students are now
  2. Taking Imagining into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support Imagining.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building Imagining into learning activities/tasks  and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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Putting Resourcing into learning (Capitalising)

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Resourcing Learning in your students.

It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of  learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.

Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Resourcing Learning and how it develops. Unpick the Resource Learning grid and plot where your students are now
  2. Taking Resourcing Learning into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support Resource Learning.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building Resource Learning into learning activities/tasks  and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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Putting Me into learning

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Me-Learning in your students.

It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of  learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.

Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Me-Learning and how it develops. Unpick the Me-Learning grid and plot where your students are now
  2. Taking Me-Learning into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support Me-Learning.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building Me-Learning into learning activities/tasks  and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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Putting Planning into learning

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Planning in your students.

It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of  learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.

Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Planning and how it develops. Unpick the Planning grid and plot where your students are now
  2. Taking Planning into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support Planning.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building Planning into learning activities/tasks  and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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Putting Making Links into learning

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Making Links in your students.

It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of  learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.

Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Making Links and how it develops. Unpick the Making Links grid and plot where your students are now
  2. Taking Making Links into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support link making.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building making links into learning activities/tasks  and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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Putting Listening into learning

This module is designed to guide you through a process of building the habit of Listening in your students.

It invites you to undertake some rich activities in the form of  learning experiments in your classrooms, helping  you to organise your own discoveries and extend your own understanding of the power of building students’ learning habits.

Work through sections 1 – 4 where you will consider:

  1. Listening and how it develops. Unpick the listening grid and plot where your students are now
  2. Taking listening into classroom culture. Think how to improve your classroom culture to better support listening.
  3. Teaching for learning; activities and talk. Look for ways of building listening into learning activities/tasks  and the learning language.
  4. Team reflection and planning.  Share the impact of your experiments with colleagues and plan what you need to do next.
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BLP Activity Bank Foundation – Key stage 1

Introduction

The BLP Activity Bank (Foundation and Key Stage 1 Version) aims to assist teachers to:

  • Introduce pupils to their learning power
  • Help pupils to increase their use of effective learning habits
  • Infuse the development of learning habits into the curriculum
  • Recognise and plan for progression in learning power

The content is organised around the learning dispositions (sometimes known as the 4 R’s), and capacities described in Professor Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power. Teachers using the Activity Bank should have at least a basic knowledge and understanding of these BLP ideas.

Structure

Each learning capacity is covered in three ways:

  • Starting – introducing the capacity through stories and discussion
  • Stretching – experiencing the use of the capacity through a range of activities
  • Progressing – looking for and recognising progression in the use of the capacity

As you become more familiar with the material you will be able to mix these ideas with you own and profitably expand the range of activities.

Starting

Made up of:

  • Explanations of the ideas that make up a learning power capacity.
  • Original Stories through which to introduce the capacities to pupils.
  • Questions to enable discussion of the story and its capacity.
  • Taster activities to introduce using the capacity.

Stretching

Made up of:

  • Stretching activities
    that give pupils further experience of using a capacity. Original resources for some capacities.
  • or Nurturing the capacity – a range of ideas to try in the classroom.
  • and More ideas – a rich range of suggestions to establish the use of the capacity.

Progressing

Made up of:

  • Statements that sum up what you are trying to achieve in building the learning power capacity.

Progression levels – statements about how the use of the capacity might look at these levels:

  • Unaware –  unconscious use,
  • Beginning – early awareness,
  • Developing –  conscious development.

Reward stickers to use when recognising the use of learning power behaviours.

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Reviewing our progress

Welcome to the final session of
Stepping Stones Phase 1

This session is a little different. It is designed to help you review your progress in developing a learning culture in your classrooms. Here you will reflect on how you have changed your learning culture, how your learners have grown in confidence as learners and ready you to engage with the deeper development in Nutshells Phase 2.

Work through sections 1 – 5 where you will:

  1. Reflect on your changing practice. Look at what you have done, how your classroom culture has changed, and the extent to which student learning behaviours have developed. This section answers the question “How far have I come?”
  2. Give pupils a voice. Find out how your students have benefited. This section answers the question “To what extent have students discerned a culture shift in classrooms”.
  3. Learn with and from colleagues Learn from learning walks and observations. This section answers the question “How have learning cultures been interpreted differently in classrooms?”
  4. Team session: Learning together. Put your heads together and think “what next?” This team session answers the questions “How are we doing, how are our pupils doing and where do we need to go next?”
Within the sections of this session we have offered at least six ways in which you might reflect on your changing practice and collect evidence to support or question your views. We don’t expect you to use all of these tools – time would prohibit this. However, we suggest you look at all the ideas and consult with other members of your team before deciding which tools to select. Using the Learning Amble in Section 3 will certainly involve a whole team or school decision.

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Reviewing our progress in Nutshells Phase 2

Welcome to the final session of
Nutshells Phase 2

This session is a little different. It is designed to help you review your progress in developing a learning culture in your classrooms. Here you will reflect on how you have changed your learning culture, how your learners have grown in confidence as learners and ready you to engage with the deeper development in Nutshells Phase 2.

Work through sections 1 – 5 where you will:

  1. Reflect on your changing practice. Look at what you have done, how your classroom culture has changed, and the extent to which student learning behaviours have developed. This section answers the question “How far have I come?”
  2. Give students a voice. Find out how your students have benefited. This section answers the question “To what extent have students discerned a culture shift in classrooms”.
  3. Learn with and from colleagues Learn from learning walks and observations. This section answers the question “How have learning cultures been interpreted differently in classrooms?”
  4. Reflect on students’ changing learning behaviours. Consider how your students have changed as learners. This section answers the question “How have the changes in classroom culture impacted on student learning behaviours?”
  5. Team session: Learning together. Put your heads together and think “what next?” This team session answers the questions “How are we doing, how are our students doing and where do we need to go next?”
Within the sections of this session we have offered at least six ways in which you might reflect on your changing practice and collect evidence to support or question your views. We don’t expect you to use all of these tools – time would prohibit this. However, we suggest you look at all the ideas and consult with other members of your team before deciding which tools to select. Using the Learning Amble in Section 3 will certainly involve a whole team or school decision.

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Introducing Nutshells Phase 1: A culture for building powerful learners

Welcome to Nutshells Phase 1.

This first session is designed to guide you through a process of understanding, assessing and improving your classroom learning culture; making it more learning friendly in order to build your students’ learning power.

Section 1. Learning cultures. A big shift? Unpick the meaning of classroom cultures, what they might consist of and the big shifts that may be needed to develop better learning. Use the culture tool to estimate where your classroom culture is now.

Section 2. Learning friendly cultures; Lots of little shifts. Find out about the four big dimensions of culture and use the culture tool 1 to estimate the sorts of shifts your classroom culture would benefit from.

Section 3. Your classroom culture. Some ideas to get you started. Look for ideas to strengthen your learner/learning classroom culture.

Section 4. Team reflection and planning. Share the results of your culture analysis with colleagues. Make plans for what everyone needs to do and what you will each do individually.

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Building shared responsibility

Key Question:

How might we counter learner dependency and share responsibility for learning?

This online session seeks to support teachers to explore and experiment with ideas that help to devolve more responsibility to learners. There are five sections to assist you to:

  1. Explore the meaning of sharing responsibility;
  2. Reflect on where you are now;
  3. Consider some ideas to practise in the classroom;

And either:

4. Plan to change and reflect on your practice as a team;

Or

5. Plan to change and reflect on your practice as an individual.

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Building dialogue and collaboration

Key Question:

How do we build the foundations of a community of learners?

This online session seeks to support teachers to explore and experiment with ideas that begin to build a community of learners.There are five sections:

  1. Explore what we mean by dialogue and collaboration;
  2. Reflect on where we are now;
  3. Consider some ideas to practise in the classroom;

And either:

4. Plan to change and reflect on your practice as a team;

Or

5. Plan to change and reflect on your practice as an individual.

 

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Building progression in Perseverance, Overview

Read about the basics of perseverance; what it is and how we behave when it’s working well.

The learning journey is wonderful – peaks and troughs, rollercoaster tickles in the tummy, and that sinking feeling when things don’t go to plan, the opportunity to bring out the tools in your learning kit –tools such as becoming absorbed, noticing detail, collaborating with others, imagining what could be. But Perseverance is key to this journey. Not only so that you can get to the end of the ride, but so that you can enjoy the views and sensations along the way.

It is vital that students are able to get to grips with the knotty emotions of learning, and can view and use them positively as aids to the journey, not as setbacks. Without perseverance little worthwhile learning would ever be achieved.

“Attention can be broken when learning gets blocked, but good learners have learnt the knack of maintaining or quickly re-establishing their concentration when they get stuck or frustrated. The quality of stickability or perseverance is essential if you are going to get to the bottom of something that doesn’t turn out as quickly or easily as you had thought, or hoped.

If you get upset and start to think there is something wrong with you as soon as you get stuck, you are not going to be able to maintain engagement.

Instead, all your energy will go into trying to avoid the uncomfortable feeling, and this may mean drifting off into a daydream, creating a distraction, or blaming somebody else. A great deal of classroom misbehaviour starts this way. If pupils were better equipped to cope emotionally with the inevitable difficulty of learning, they would mess about less. There is a range of things that teachers can do to strengthen pupils’ stickability.

Building Learning Power

Building Learning Power, Guy Claxton

Perseverance is often undermined by two common and erroneous beliefs. The first is that learning ought to be easy. If learners think that they will either understand something straight away, or not at all, then there is simply no point in persisting and struggling. The second is that bright people pick things up easily, so if you have to try it means you’re not very bright. Clearly the idea that effort must be symptomatic of a lack of ability makes persevering an unpleasant experience. Good learners develop perseverance when their parents and teachers avoid conveying these messages, even unwittingly.”

Extract from Building Learning Power, by Guy Claxton

Effective perseverers have a range of strategies that they use independently when stuck. They exhibit emotional toughness in the face of difficulty and relish learning that is challenging. They form and pursue their own goals with tenacity, and have a range of strategies for maintaining focus if distracted. A well-formed perseverance habit includes being ready willing and able to:

  • Enjoy working at the edge of their comfort zone
  • Recognise that being stuck is when learning begins, not when it finishes
  • Maintain optimism when the going gets tough
  • Relish working towards ever more challenging and demanding goals
  • Take risks in the pursuit of learning
  • Give it ‘one more go’, or come back to it later for another attempt

Find out more about Perseverance: At-a-glance Perseverance card

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