The BLP classroom

Guy Claxton

RESILIENCE – emotional strength

• Inquisitive: has a questioning and positive attitude to learning

• Persistent: stays determined, positive and patient in the face of difficulty or mistakes

• Adventurous: willing to risk and ‘have a go’; up for a new challenge

• Focused: observant, concentrates well, ignores distractions, becomes engrossed

RESOURCEFULNESS – cognitive capability

• Imaginative: comes up with creative ideas and possibilities; visualises

• Connecting: looks for links and relationships; likes to ‘hook things up’; uses metaphor

• Crafting: keen to work on improving products; practising and developing skills

• Capitalising: makes good use of resources, tools and materials

REFLECTION – strategic awareness

• Methodical: well-organised; thinks things through carefully

• Self-evaluative: makes honest and accurate judgements about ‘how it’s going’

• Self-aware: knows their own strengths, styles and interests as a learner

• Transferring: looks for other applications and lessons for the future

RELATING – social sophistication

• Collaborative: a good team-player; helps groups to work well together

• Open-minded: asks for, listens to and makes good use of information, feedback and advice

• Independent: able to ‘stand their ground’; shows initiative

• Empathic: understands others; offers helpful feedback and suggestions; receptive and imitative

Use the language all the time e.g. how you write reports…

Juan is getting better at – bringing his own questions into class, asking when he

doesn’t understand, working with a range of others, thinking things through, seeing how he can improve what he’s done…

Qing is becoming more – resilient in the face of difficulty, imaginative in her

writing, thoughtful about her own work, sceptical about what she reads, careful in her checking, willing to push herself…

Describe a student’s learning power

• Think of a student you have known for a least a year (or your own child). Describe them to your neighbour in terms of any positive changes you have seen in their learning habits

• Inquisitive • Focused • Determined • Adventurous • Imaginative • Analytical • Making links • Craftsmanlike • Self-evaluative • Collaborative • Independent • Empathic • ……….. • ………..

Split-screen activities

• Teaching – Science and questioning

– History and empathy

– English and risk-taking

– Maths and self-evaluating

– PE and imitating

Remember…

• Getting students to use a learning habit is not the same as getting them to stretch it

Design a lesson to stretch a learning muscles

Questioning Imagining Planning Collaborating

English

Maths

Science

History

Design a lesson to stretch a learning muscles

Questioning Imagining Planning Collaborating

English 1

2

3

4

Maths 5

6

7

8

Science 9

10

11

12

History 13

14

15

16

Learnish: the language of learning process

classroom chat that foregrounds the ups and downs of learning

• How did you do that? • How else could you have done that? • Which are the tricky bits? What’s tricky about them? • What could you do when you are stuck on that? • How could you help someone else understand that? • How could I have taught that better? • Where else could you use that? • How could you make that harder for yourself?

Varied learning routines

• Try Three Before Me – Brain – Book – Buddy - Boss

• See – Think – Wonder

• Plus – Minus – Interesting

• Independent – Collaborative – Teacher

• Other People’s Shoes

• Two Stars and a Wish… – For the teacher

– Cutting out the stars

– About learning muscles

Use visual tools

Display students’ work-in-progress

Involve pupils in designing / evaluating / repairing their education

• Qualified student teachers

• Student lesson observers

• Give you ‘2 stars and a wish’

• ‘What’s the best group size?’

• ‘How well are we working?’

• Harris Student Commission

Reflective writing – myself as a learner…

• Today’s lesson was to be honest quite tough. It taught me to ask a lot more questions that I usually wouldn’t even think about. I don’t think I showed much sign of persevering though…Today I wasn’t a strong contributor to my group…but I thought one of my strengths was being able to listen…I don’t think I asked the right questions to intensify my learning. If I was able to question myself or others more, I think I would have gained a much better understanding of the topic… What I need to improve on for the next lesson is talking about roles and responsibilities in the group…and persevere through tough times. – Debbie Ngo, Year 9, Bankstown Girls’

School, Sydney

•

Develop extended inquiry

Give students responsibility

When do I use my learning habits?

• Boggles: when I feel confused or uncertain

• Snarks: things I’d like to (be able to) do but can’t yet

• Boojums: especially important, challenging or tricky things

Make links to and from life

• Find the real-world tap-root of every students’ learning passions

• “How could you use that learning power over here?”

• Home learning – looking for the transfer

Learner

What BLP teachers do

1. Notice and comment on childen’s developing learning muscles

2. Focus ‘feedback’ on aspects of learnable power

3. Get students talking and writing about the ‘how’ of learning

4. Model inquisitive and fallible learners

5. Display learning images and work in progress

6. Plan activities that deliberately stretch various learning muscles

7. Encourage extended, difficult learning projects

8. Involve learners as resources, teachers and co-designers

9. Look for links with the outside world

• www.buildinglearningpower.co.uk

• www.expansiveeducation.net

• guy.claxton@winchester.ac.uk