Building Learning Power and
Challenge
What is Building Learning Power?
Building Learning Power (BLP) is an approach to helping
young people become more successful and reflective
learners, both in school and out. A key strategy for
promoting challenge is to encourage students to take
responsibility for their learning. BLP has the potential to
support learners in taking this responsibility and coping
with learning challenges. This ‘bite’ highlights the:
•core frameworks of BLP
•key evidence behind BLP
•links between BLP and other evidence-based resources
Core frameworks of BLP
BLP provides two frameworks to help teachers
implement the approach:
• the ‘supple learning mind’- a language for talking
about young people as learners
•The ‘teachers’ palette’- an overview of the school
and classroom activities that cultivate young people
as learners
These frameworks are not rigid straightjackets but
act as a springboard for schools to develop their
own approach
The Supple Learning Mind
• The BLP language is split into 4 domains of
learning known as the 4Rs
• These are:
– resourcefulness
– reciprocity
– reflectiveness
– resilience
Each R is subdivided into 4 or 5 capacities
Resourcefulness
• Resourcefulness involves the main cognitive skills and
dispositions of learning:
– Questioning: getting below the surface; playing with
situations (see cognitive challenge in Thinking Skills
Approaches)
– Making links: seeking coherence, relevance and meaning
(see bridging in Thinking Skills Approaches)
– Imagining: using the mind’s eye as a learning theatre
– Reasoning: thinking rigorously and methodically (see Using
the ‘Thinking Frames’ approach to improve Pupil
Engagement and Attainment in Science)
– Capitalising: making good use of resources (see LSIS
Promoting Independent Learning through the Use of
Podcasting)
Reciprocity
• Reciprocity involves the social and interpersonal side
of learning:
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interdependence: balancing self-reliance and sociability
collaboration: the skills of learning with others
listening/empathy: getting inside others’ minds
imitation: picking up others’ habits and values (see
Promoting Independent Learning through Modelling
Organisational Skills)
Reflectiveness
• Reflectiveness involves the strategic and selfmanaging aspects of learning:
– planning: working learning out in advance (see
Learning how to learn through AfL strategies)
– revising: monitoring and adapting along the way
– distilling: drawing out the lessons from experience
– meta-learning: understanding learning, and
yourself as a learner (see meta-cognition in
Thinking Skills Approaches)
Resilience
• Resilience involves the learners emotional and
experiential engagement with learning:
– Absorption: flow; the pleasure of being rapt in
learning
– Managing distraction: recognising and reducing
interruptions (see Multi-agency working and pupil
behaviour)
– Noticing: really sensing what’s out there
– Perseverance: stickability; tolerating the feelings
of learning (see Promoting Learner Persistence)
The Teachers’ Palette
• To help young people develop the 4Rs, BLP
proposes 4 aspects of school and classroom
culture that cultivate a learning mind. These
include:
– commentating
– orchestrating
– explaining
– modelling
Commentating
• Drawing individual students’ attention
towards their own learning
• Responding to students’ comments and
questions in ways that encourage learning-tolearn
• Commenting on difficulties and achievements
in learning-positive ways
• Recording the development of students’
learning power
Orchestrating
• Choosing activities that develop learning
habits
• Clarifying the learning intentions behind
specific activities
• Helping students set and monitor their own
learning power targets
• Making use of displays and physical
arrangements to encourage independence
Explaining
• Making clear the overall purpose of the
classroom
• Offering ongoing reminders and prompts
about learning power
• Inviting students’ own ideas and opinions
about learning
• Giving direct information and practice in
learning: tips and techniques
Modelling
• Responding to unforeseen events, questions
etc. in ways that model good learning
• Externalising the thinking, feeling and
decisions making of a learner-in-action
• Having learning projects that are visible in the
classroom
• Talking about teachers’ learning careers and
histories
The evidence
• BLP is underpinned and influenced by a range
of research and evidence, including:
– Dweck’s research on a growth mindset
– Gardners’ theory of multiple intelligences
– Hattie’s evidence about achievement
– Langer’s research on the power of language
– Lave and Wanger’s work on communities of
practice
– Perkin’s writing about learnable intelligence
Dweck’s Growth Mindset
• Dweck’s extensive research over the last 30 years has
shown that:
– People’s beliefs about intelligence influence how they go
about learning
– If someone believes intelligence is fixed they are more
likely to give up when they face difficulties than someone
who believes intelligence is expandable
• Dweck likens the brain to a muscle, capable of
growth through regular exercise.
• Read more about Dweck’s work at
http://www.tla.ac.uk/site/Pages/RfT.aspx
Multiple Intelligences
• Howard Gardner’s theory sees intelligence as wide-ranging
including 8 aspects:
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Spatial
Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Bodily-kinesthetic
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
• These multiple intelligences are ‘nurtured’ as much as
‘natured’
Effect Sizes and Achievement
• Hattie carried out extensive research looking at
the impact of different interventions on
achievement. From this he concluded:
– “The biggest effects on student learning occur when
teachers become learners of their own teaching, and
when students become their own teachers”
• This can be seen to support the BLP approach of
helping students become more independent,
reflective learners.
• Read more about Hattie’s research at
http://www.tla.ac.uk/site/Pages/RfT.aspx
What other ideas have influenced BLP?
•
Langer’s research into the power of language:
–
•
Lave and Wanger’s work on communities of
practice:
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•
saying something ‘could be’ rather than ‘is’
encourages learners to engage with learning
it is important to create a culture where young
people pick up helpful attitudes and habits about
knowing and learning
Perkin’s writing about learnable intelligence
–
intelligence can be learned, and is capable of being
helped to grow in timely and productive ways
What is the evidence for the impact of
BLP?
•
Although the point of BLP is not to raise
conventional results there is some evidence of a
positive impact in 9 secondary schools who have
adopted the approach:
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The percentages of students who achieved 5 or more
GCSE grades A*- C increased in 6 of the schools, was
maintained in 1 of the schools and decreased in 2
schools
Interestingly some of the schools experienced an initial
dip in the year that BLP was introduced.
There was a strong and immediate correlation between
the introduction of BLP and an increase in GCSE total
point scores
How can teachers use the evidence
in this study?
• BLP views absorption in learning (flow) as a key
element of Resilience. Could you observe a
group of students to see which kinds of learning
activities support this absorption? You may also
want to discuss with a group of students their
experiences of flow both in and out of school.
• Could you use your observation and discussion to
work with students to plan learning activities that
encourage flow even when the nature of the
learning is potentially challenging?
How can school leaders use the
evidence in this study?
• BLP views modelling as a key aspect of helping
students develop the 4Rs. You might want to
carry out a learning walk to sample the extent to
which all staff model resilience in their own
learning, and explicitly talk about this with
students.
• Would it be helpful for staff to carry out joint
planning to identify opportunities for
demonstrating to students how they persevere
through learning challenges?
Study reference
• Claxton, G et al (2011) The Learning Powered
School, Pioneering 21st Century Education
Bristol: TLO,