Learning Policy

Why do we need a learning policy?
What are schools for? What is learning? How do we (teachers and other school staff) help students to learn best? Why is it important to learn?
As teachers we enter a career-long conversation about these questions with each other, our students, their parents and the many other groups and individuals with whom we work. Whatever actual grades our students leave us with, we must preserve and nurture (or perhaps attempt to resuscitate) the innate curiosity and love of learning that all young children have.
This policy should be an evolving, living document that reflects and stimulates that conversation. It is being written after a series of staff meetings at which learning was the focus. It will be regularly reviewed. It will be of use only if it makes a positive, observable contribution to learning at Westwood (our own as well as the students’).

What is learning?
It is important to attempt to define learning. What is it that the students do that we wish to facilitate? Here are some starting points. Learning is:
students making meaning from their experiences
students making their own connections;
active, not just the passive absorption of information;
reflective – students need to review what, how and why they have learned.

Metaphor
Perhaps the best thing we can do to promote learning is to create metaphors or ways of describing learning which communicate our values clearly to all the groups with which we work. For example is learning “when the penny drops”? Do we think of it more as walking together, asking questions as we go? Or do we visualise it as a web of interconnections, mirroring the way the brain seems to work?

What do learners need?
Westwood is a successful school; our students are great learners. This list is offered as a stimulus for discussion, and to help us with our own processes of self-review. Students learn best when:
they are engaged, interested, stimulated;
there is challenge without stress;
they are encouraged to develop their own questions;
high self-esteem is encouraged;
they see that opportunities for choice are being given them, within the constraints imposed on us from above;
they understand what the lesson is about and its relevance;
they are able to link new skills, understanding and knowledge to their own experience;
there is lots of real dialogue and interaction (pupil-pupil as well as pupil-teacher);
there is an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learnt.

What are we doing well?
We are very good at this. We regularly review what works well for our students and why. We are willing to try new things, but rightly suspicious of one-size-fits-all quick-fixes. Another list: this time of features of teacher behaviour that we believe promote learning:
we act as resources, guides;
we facilitate learning, helping students make sense of their experiences in school;
we are coaches – helping students learn how to learn;
we share our own learning experiences – we model the skills and attitudes we promote;
we emphasise the importance of students listening to each other;
we encourage “the courage to fail” – aiming high and tolerating setbacks;
we know that intelligence is not fixed;
we are helping the students to explore the curriculum;
assessment is always part of the learning process, helping students to set targets and improve;
we successfully “sell” learning to students – helping them see its importance, relevance and pleasures.

Development
This conversation about learning has a profound impact on our planning for self and school development. Here are some of the things we are doing:
our own reflection;
observation – supportive, focused on student learning and for our own development;
teaching for effective learning on departmental meeting agendas;
planning (eg. at a dept. level) which enshrines our values in practical strategies that work for us;
research;
use of teacher learning networks;
inset;
work with student learning committee;
exploring coaching.

Next Steps
We need to reflect upon how we will know what difference our thinking on learning has made in practice. Some of the outcomes will be anecdotal, but some must be measurable.





Appendix: Useful Frameworks

Guy Claxton “Learning Power”

Claxton’s approach is to talk about the four “R” s that he sees as central to what he calls “learning power”. Here are the key terms and some idea about the skills within those areas:
Resilience – absorption, managing distractions, noticing, perseverance;
Resourcefulness – questioning, making links, imagining, reasoning, capitalising;
Reflectiveness – planning, revising, distilling, learning about learning;
Reciprocity – interdependence, collaboration, empathy, listening, imitation.

Also Guy Claxton says that great learners are: tenacious, logical, collaborative, resourceful, self-disciplined, inquisitive, imaginative and self-aware.

The usefulness of this work for us is again as a tool for reflection. Do we foster these skills and qualities? Do we give students the opportunity to develop them? Do we model them in the way we share our own learning experiences?


Alistair Smith “Learning Cycle”

Smith outlines a 4 stage cycle as follows:
1. context-setting – prior learning, objectives, hook / stimulus;
2. new information – demonstration, exposition, investigation, instruction;
3. making sense – pupils absorb and process information, demonstrate learning, assessment;
4. reflection – what learned, how, preview future learning.