Future Learning Now

As teachers we carry a vast accumulation of professional concepts, understandings, ideas and assumptions about learning. The foundations of some of these were formed by our own childhood learning experiences. Others were formed during our formal teacher training period. Some have been formed over years of practical experience while others have come from professional reading, discussion and in-service training. Some of this knowledge and understanding we are likely to hold as fairly rigid and fixed while other aspects we hold in a more flexible manner and are open to change as we encounter new ideas, concepts, information and challenges. Reading this book by Graham Nutthal, based on years of evidence gathered from working classrooms, has been a challenging experience. The book has informed, provoked, and challenged me to reconsider a number of aspects of my professional understanding and has provoked reflection on the implications for classroom practice. In the areas of inquiry learning and implementation of curriculum this material also requires me to ponder on some reflective questions. From my initial reading of the book I have a number of issues that challenge me. 

• “Students learn what they do” (P36, 104).
• The role of prior knowledge versus ability in learning (P98).
• The impact of self generated experiences on learning (P156)
• The natural “shift from social talk to … thinking” (P74).

 Today I will cover the first of these challenges.

 “Students learn what they do” (P36)On page 36 Nuthall makes the statement “ What they are learning … is what you see them doing”. My initial reaction was that this was such a basic concept as to be almost inane, however as I began to understand the underlying principal this has crystalised a challenge for me and gives me the basis to query aspects of how I have taught, how I teach and some of the ways we expect students to learn in our classrooms.

The concept, as I understand it, requires us to think beyond the context and content of any learning experience we provide for our pupils and to critically examine the methodology involved because the most powerful, and long lasting learning comes from what the students do.

For example we may be considering a science lesson where our goal is to increase the student’s understanding of a range of scientific concepts. If we set a learning activity that requires the students to copy and write notes from an overhead, or slide show, then we need to realise that what the students are doing is ‘writing notes’ and the most powerful learning that will occur is to do with writing notes rather than the scientific concepts.

This understanding is like switching on a light in a darkened corner of a room and causes me to take a whole new look at many aspects of the learning experiences we provide for our students.

I have to ask these questions:

What is the learning we want to take place?

The first aspect of this challenge requires us to have absolute clarity of the learning objectives, because we can’t create high quality learning experiences for vague learning intentions. The learning intentions may be contextual knowledge, process understanding or skill development, but whatever they are clarity is needed.

 What do the students need to do?

This second aspect is where the major challenge lies. Too often I believe we follow the learning objective question with “How will I teach it?” and this leads us to choose a range of learning experiences or, perhaps more truthfully, teaching practices. Now I realise that I have often posed the wrong question. Instead of asking myself how I will teach to achieve the learning goal, I need to establish what the learner will need to do to achieve the learning.

If for instance the learning goal is to gain an understanding of the scientific concept of ‘fair test’, then I need to establish what a learner will have to do to gain that understanding.

The most obvious answer would be that the learner needs to engage in developing, implementing and evaluating a range of fair tests. On the basis of this answer I can construct a powerful learning experience to support the learning goal.

It now becomes obvious why “How will I teach this?” can lead to a range of learning experiences and teaching practices that have little benefit for the learner in terms of the original learning goal. If my answer to this question, for instance, focuses on the students carrying out research on fair tests then the major learning will most likely be in the area of research skills because that is what the students are doing.

For me this deceptively simple, yet deep insight, is going to have many implications as I work with schools around the aspects of inquiry learning, thinking skills, questioning, curriculum development and implementation, as well as effective classroom practice.

I am going to need to remember that ‘students learn what they do’ and use this as a critical criteria in the development of powerful learning experiences.  

The last month has flown by aided by a great visit to California, LA, Fountain Valley, San Francisco and a road trip down the Pacific Highway.

Since being back in New Zealand I have been involved in a Literacy conference in Napier where I contributed a keynote on 21st Century Learning and 21st Century Literacies. This was supported with workshops on Inquiry learning and Questioning.

The last two weeks have been spent in Wellington where I have had the privelege of becoming involved with PDPC (Principals’ Development Planning Centre). This has already been a huge learning experience that has challenged me in many ways, and I look forward to the ongoing learning and challenges it will provide for me. For any principals thinking of being involved I can offer nothing but support and praise for the centre and would highly recommend this professional development opportunity.

This week I am working with Waltham School in Christchurch, and then Saturday takes me to the BEST conference in Rotorua.

I have been doing some reading over the last month and will submit a post shortly outlining some of the aspects that have challenged or impacted on my thinking.