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 ideas
Past, present and future are connected, although
a linear connection is not assumed: un-learning
and re-learning may be implied
The process is influenced by the use to which
learning is put: how the learning informs action in
future situations is vital
Lifelong Learning
Continuation of learning
beyond formal education
Not about
telling
Information
is not
enough
About
‘shifting’
human
beings
About skills,
process and
behaviour
L2L
A language to
discuss the
process of learning
Ditching
reliance on
short-term
memory
A model of
how we
learn
A set of
deep
learning
strategies
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
proving
converging
systems
more
non-sense
-
learning
improving
diverging
people
less
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Growth orientation v being stuck and static
Meaning making v data accumulation
Critical curiosity v passivity
Creativity v rule bound
Learning relationships v isolation
Strategic awareness v robotic
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 change
4) Becoming better learners
-beyond hints and tips
-seeing & thinking of self as learner
-Expanding self as learner
-Developing learning capacities
COACHING
2+3) Learning better
T - tips & techniques - mind
maps
L - learning styles - MI
1)Learning more: raising
C - conditions for learning attainment
S - study skills
- better results
GRAFTING
- 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
Explaining
Commentating
Orchestrating
Modelling
A Lecturer’s palette
Commentating: conveying
messages about LP through
informal talk, and formal and
informal evaluation
Explaining
Commentating
Orchestrating
Modelling
A Lecturer’s palette
Orchestrating: selecting activities
and arranging the environment
Explaining
Commentating
Orchestrating
Modelling
A Lecturer’s palette
Modelling: showing what it means
to be an effective learner
Explaining
Commentating
Orchestrating
Modelling
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