Teaching for Learning Power

Making it happen in higher education

Dr Linda Rush

Wider evidence• Chris Watkins’ National School

Improvement Network Bulletin No. 13, 2001

• ELLI (Bristol project)

• Guy Claxton

• Alistair Smith

• Campaign for Learning

Widening participation

Learning

A process of active engagement with experience. It is what people do when they want to make sense of the world. It may involve an increase in knowledge or understanding, a deepening of values or the capacity to reflect. Effective learning will lead to change, development and a desire to learn more.

(Campaign for Learning)

Learning

Abbott (1994) defines learning as:

…that reflective activity which enables the learner to draw upon previous experience to understand and evaluate the present, so as to shape future action and formulate new knowledge

Features highlighted by Abbott’s definition include:

An active process in which the learner relates new experience to existing meaning, and may accommodate and assimilate new ideasPast, present and future are connected, although a linear connection is not assumed: un-learning and re-learning may be impliedThe process is influenced by the use to which learning is put: how the learning informs action in future situations is vital

Lifelong LearningContinuation of learning

beyond formal education

L2L

Not about telling

Information is not enough

About ‘shifting’ human beings

About skills, process and behaviour

A model of how we learn

A set of deep learning strategies

A language to discuss the process of learning

Ditching reliance on short-term memory

Learning to Learn (L2L)A process of discovery about learning. It involves a set of principles and skills which, if understood and used, help learners learn more effectively and so become learners for life. At its heart is the belief that learning is learnable. (CfL)

Learning is learnable

• Old idea - intelligence is fixed• Research into the brain - mind is improvable• Intelligence is - ‘the sum total of habits of mind’

Resnick• Intelligence is - ‘knowing what to do when you don’t

know what to do’ Piaget• Getting stuck is the liberating point, when learning

begins• The key - know that learning is learnable

- live that possibility in all your interaction with students

L2L: A moment of promise…

• knowing - learning

• proving - improving

• converging - diverging

• systems - people

• more - less

• non-sense - common sense

Key points emerging

• Yesterday’s thinking doesn’t solve today’s problems

• Text based learning has a very limited shelf life

• Spoon feeding teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon (E.M.Foster)

ELLI’s seven ‘learning dimensions’

1. Growth orientation v being stuck and static

2. Meaning making v data accumulation

3. Critical curiosity v passivity

4. Creativity v rule bound

5. Learning relationships v isolation

6. Strategic awareness v robotic

7. Resilience v dependence

The 4Rs

• Resilience being ready, willing and able to lock on to learning

The 4Rs• Resourcefulness

being ready, willing and able to learn in different ways

The 4Rs• Reflectiveness

being ready, willing and able to become more strategic about learning

The 4Rs• Reciprocity

being ready, willing and able to learn alone and with others

BLP: Making a step change4) Becoming better learners-beyond hints and tips-seeing & thinking of self as learner-Expanding self as learner-Developing learning capacities

COACHING2+3) Learning betterT - tips & techniques - mind mapsL - learning styles - MIC - conditions for learningS - study skills

GRAFTING

1)Learning more: raising attainment- better results- chunking curriculum- booster classes

TOWING

Being a good learner

Being a good real-life learner means knowing what is worth learning; what you are good (and not so good) at learning; who can help; how to face confusion without getting upset; and what the best learning tool is for the job at hand. Just as being a reader involves much more than simply being able to read, so ‘being a learner’ means enjoying learning, and seeing yourself as a learner, seeking out learning as well a knowing how to go about it.

(Claxton, 2002)

A Lecturer’s palette Explaining: telling students directly and explicitly about learning power

Orchestrating

Commentating Modelling

Explaining

A Lecturer’s palette Commentating: conveying messages about LP through informal talk, and formal and informal evaluation

Orchestrating

Commentating Modelling

Explaining

A Lecturer’s palette Orchestrating: selecting activities and arranging the environment

Orchestrating

Commentating Modelling

Explaining

A Lecturer’s palette Modelling: showing what it means to be an effective learner

Orchestrating

Commentating Modelling

Explaining

Planned learning interventions

• Explicit talk about learning• Mind mapping and concept

development• Scaffolding meaning• Self-assessment• Explicit learning objectives

and review

Planned learning interventions

• Time for reflection

• Real life problems and learning

• Teamwork and learning relationship challenges

• Creating opportunities for problem solving

• Differentiated learning outcomes

Some key ideas

• Making the learning process explicit

• Using ‘stuckness’ as a site of interest

• Using twin focused tasks

- curriculum content

- learning capacities

Some key ideas

• Developing a language for learning

• Lecturer as coach

• Using ‘could be’ language

• Establishing a learner research partnership between

• Students and teachers

• Nurturing creativity