Building Learning Capacity

Expanding the capacity to learn:
A new end for education?
Guy Claxton

University of Bristol
Graduate School of Education

Opening Keynote Address

British Educational Research Association
Annual Conference,
September 6 2006,
Warwick University.

(paraphrased)

There is a widespread feeling that 21st century life presents everyone, as they grow up, with
high levels of challenge, complexity and individual responsibility. It is commonly said that
we are in a century of choice, problem-solving and learning. And if young people are lacking
the personal resources to thrive in such a context, then it is the job of education to strengthen
their ability to be good choosers, skilful problem-solvers and powerful learners. ICT skills
have increasingly short shelf-lives: some of them are out of date within 6 months. But the
generic ability to learn has no use-by date at all.

The capacity to learn depends, in part, on being willing to run that risk, and to do
so you need a sense of entitlement: the belief that you have a right to be curious, to ask
questions, to discuss, to imagine how things could be different. Some students don’t feel that
they do have that right. Some schools encourage students to develop a feeling of being
disenfranchised from the process of making and critiquing knowledge.

So expanding the capacity to learn means creating a climate in which that feeling of
enfranchisement and entitlement is systematically broadened and strengthened – not
weakened, undermined or simply ignored. In such a climate, students’ questions are
welcomed, discussed and refined, so the disposition to question becomes more and more
robust; more and more evident across different domains; and more and more sophisticated.

Their guiding question is: what would it mean to organise your classroom and your pedagogy
in such a way that every day, little by little, in the midst of the Literacy Hour, the Romans or
an experiment on magnets, your students were learning to learn more robustly, more broadly
and more flexibly and skilfully?

The language will need to change, to support a shift of attention to the process of
learning, and the ways in which people’s learning dispositions are growing and changing.
Activities will need to be selected, designed and framed so that they deliberately focus on
stretching each aspect of learning capacity, and this goal is not eclipsed by a more familiar
focus on the acquisition of knowledge and the completion of tasks

The teacher challenges students to think and talk about their own
learning process with questions such as:
o How did you do that?
o How else could you have done that?
o Who did that a different way?
o What was hard about doing that?
o What could you do when you are stuck on that?
o How could you help someone else do that?
o What would have made that easier for you?
o How could I have taught that better?
o How could you make that harder for yourself?

Helping them learn better is not the same as helping them become better learners.

Expanding learning capacity requires being stretched, and being willing ‘to boldly go’ where learning itself is difficult. Fun activities that engage students without stretching them are not, in these terms, worthwhile. So-called ‘bright’, ‘able’ or ‘gifted’ students who coast through school are wasting their time.

Wild topics. The intention to expand students’ learning capacity does not exclude content, but
it does influence the kinds of topics that are selected. They have to be engaging enough for
students to want to put in the effort to pursue them. There are suggestions from many sources
that the following features of a project or activity increase the likelihood that students will
want to take it seriously.
o Rich: there is much to be explored
o Challenging: the topic contains real difficulty
o Extended: there is time and opportunity to go into it in depth
o Relevant: the topic connects with students’ own interests and concerns
o Responsibility: students have some genuine control over what, why, how and when
they organise their learning
o Real: solving the problem or making progress genuinely matters to someone
o Unknown: the teacher does not already know the ‘answer’.
o Collaborative: most students enjoy the opportunity to work together with others on
such tasks

So it is not enough that schools expand young people’s capacity to learn. We have to get buyin.
We have to explain to young people that school isn’t really about the Tudors and the
Periodic table. It is about becoming a brave and skilled explorer; a cunning detective; an
imaginative creator; a tough competitor – in whatever field of life they want to work and play
in. We have to talk to them seriously about what we are up to; what they can expect to gain;
and what they will have to put in. We have to tell a story about the end of education that is
inspiring.

It is not knowledge, but character; not certificates
but courage and confidence to face whatever life throws at them. That is what they have a
right to expect. That, many of them, is what they lack. That lack is what is reflected in their
escapism and desperation. Trying to find a form of schooling that enables all young people to
get better at learning – to come at life venturesome, imaginative and questioning – is the most
important task that faces educational research. And trying to find a way of presenting and
explaining this, so that youngsters see the point, and are willing, in much greater numbers, to
put in some effort and give it a go, is the most urgent bit of PR that our society faces.

Learning Beliefs vs Teaching Beliefs

Trevor Bond - Targeting Effective Learning and Teaching

Learning to learn model

Forget about Inquiry - It's all about Learning to Learn - Trevor Bond

In these videos, Michael Absolum and Guy Claxton share their ideas about the importance of learning to learn. They provide advice to teachers and some starting points for discussions about this curriculum principle.

Guy Claxton - Michael Absolum - Learning to Learn

The NZC Update 21 provides resources to help schools explore the learning to learn principle. It also makes links to key research papers.

Curriculum Update 21

“The curriculum encourages all students to reflect on their own learning processes and to learn how to learn.” 
The New Zealand Curriculum

Cross Competency Approach

Single Competency Focus: A Flawed Approach to Delivering the Competencies - Trevor Bond

The New Zealand National Curriculum (NZC) is very clear that a central plank of the process to build “confident, connected, actively involved, life long learners” (NZC, P8.) is to “develop the key compentencies” (NZC, P44). The curriculum document goes as far as saying that the competencies are “the end and the means” (NZC, P12 & P38). The New Zealand Curriculum document however includes a crucial statement about the competencies that states, “In practice, the competencies are most often used in combination”(NZC. P38). 

This is a statement many schools seem to have overlooked or ignored as they establish how the competencies are to be addressed. I would contend that the curriculum document actually understates the linkages between the competencies. The competencies are, in practice, inseparable.

Single Competency Focus



There are 4 key attitudes that we see empowering our students across the competencies, for
life and learning.

• Curiosity: Actively seeking, using and creating knowledge, asking questions and challenging ideas and information. This is the driving force of learning.

• Open-mindedness. Willingness to review their own opinions, beliefs, thoughts and attitudes based on further information, and experiences.

• Persistance: Pursuing questions, goals, ideas and learning towards a conclusion despite
barriers and challenges.

• Empathy: Willingness and ability to consider the needs, views, beliefs and situations of
others

Change - addressing the problem of sustainability

file:///C:/Users/Educator/Downloads/Change%20for%20improvement%20(1).pdf

 Why “change for improvement”? 

 Technical versus Adaptive Change 

Technical change involves people putting in place solutions to problems for which they know the answers. While this can be difficult, it is not as difficult as adaptive change, which involves addressing problems for which they don’t yet know the solutions.

Adaptive change involves changing more than routine behaviours or preferences; it involves changes in people’s hearts and minds

 According to Fullan (2005), “Addressing the problem of sustainability is the ultimate adaptive challenge” (page 14). Because it conflicts with their deepest beliefs, adaptive change is a deeply unsettling process that can threaten people’s sense of identity and lead to resistance. Adaptive change stimulates resistance because it challenges people’s habits, beliefs, and values.

 “Espoused theories” and “theories-in-use”

“Espoused theories” represent what someone says they would do in a certain situation.

“Theories-in-use” represent what they actually do.

 If educators are to increase their knowledge of teaching and of themselves as learners, they first need to make explicit their espoused theories and theories-in-use and discover any inconsistencies between the two. In other words, professional learning must include opportunities for people to surface what they “say they do and their explanations for their actions” and “what they actually do and the real reasons for their actions” (Robinson and Lai, 2006, page 99).

Leadership often involves challenging people to live up to their words, to close the gap between their espoused values and their actual behavior. It may mean pointing out the elephant sitting on the table at a meeting — the unspoken issue that everyone sees but no one wants to mention. Heifetz and Linsky, 2004, page 33

Impetus

Rosemary Hipkins talks about the impact the NZC had on schools and the rate of change.

The 'growth phase' - high level curriculum change, energised school professionals, ongoing inquiries into shared practice, awareness of culture and diversity, strength based approach to learning. This initial growth stage took schools at least two years.

Followed by the maturation phase - a slowing down of the energy.

From here, two options. Decline or new growth phase.

Sustainability … is not linear. It is cyclical, for two fundamental reasons. One has to do with energy, and the other periodic plateaus, where additional time and ingenuity are required for the next adaptive breakthrough. (Fullan, 2004, p. 14) 

So, how to ensure that school's keep moving forward...impetus!. What is that motivates, inspires, engages us to look for new ways of doing things better?
Change

Rose-Hipkins-Breakfast.pdf

Learning beliefs/Effective practice

Who would have thought that formulating learning beliefs could take so much time?  This we debated until we were blue in the face.

Our first challenge was to distinguish between a 'learning belief' and a 'teaching belief'.

We wrote, rewrote, took to staff meetings...but we couldn't write them any better than they were already written in the blue bible.

It is one thing to have a set of beliefs about learning, but what does this mean for teaching practice.  We then set about writing what we believed it would look like in action.

Learning beliefs and expected practice

We believe effective learning happens when…..

LEARNNG BELIEFS	EXPECTED PRACTICE
Learning involves thinking Learning is not just acquiring new knowledge – it is the ability to think about the knowledge. Learners need knowledge to think with and to think about knowledge to remember it.	·       The principles of Te Ara Tika model are used throughout all learning areas ·       Students improve their development of questioning skills through the use of the questioning waka ·       The development of the students Cross Competency Skills progressions are monitored and supported ·       The values (RISE) are encouraged and modeled ·       The teacher works with the students to gauge the frequency and duration of the attitudes (COPE) through observations and evidence ·       Real life experiences are provided that are relevant to the students interests, talents and needs ·       The learning purpose and needs are identified and shared with the students ·       Experiences and learning with the students are co-constructed ·       Cohesion between learning areas occurs ·       A wide range of resources are used ·       Risk taking is encouraged and celebrated ·       Time is given to learning so learning can be revisited and built upon ·       Students are using the language of Te Ara Tika, Cross Competency Skills and attitudes ·       The learning journey is celebrated not the outcome ·       The students are supported by involving all the stake holders in their learning ·       ‘There is a short term and long term relevance to the learning ·       ‘Students take increasing ownership of their learning so they become less reliant on the teacher ·       Student voice is evident in learning practices and programmes ·       Students ideas and opinions are validated ·       A number of ways to identify and grow the interests needs and talents of the students are utilised ·       The learning fits the students needs, interests and talents and not making the students fit predetermined topics/lesson ·       The class culture promotes the students as questioners ·       Acknowledgement is made that students attention span is individual dependent ·       The class curriculum is personalized to meet the students needs, inetests and talents ·       Students actively question, record and validate information ·       Deliberate scaffolds are used to improve students capacity to self assess, identify next steps and monitor progress, including using the Learning Map ·       Blended e learning opportunities and tools, at the modification and redefinition stage of SAMR model, are used to enhance students learning ·       There are opportunities for collaborative and independent learning ·       Opportunities are given to ensure individuals can seek out other individuals and can co –learn ·       Teachers track the Key Understandings so that students experience a depth of understanding through all curriculum areas within a 3 year period ·       The learning journey and products are negotiated with the students ·       Teachers will recognize that the learning process is not static but dynamic. Therefore they regularly engage in professional reading and discussion to understand the learning process
Experiences are critical to learning Just as learners need knowledge to think with, they also need experiences to think with. Children’s thinking and learning processes are similar to those of adults, but their learning and knowledge has less depth because they have fewer experiences to draw on when processing new ideas or situations.
Learners must develop an in depth knowledge Experts in a particular knowledge area think in terms of the deep structures or underlying principles of that knowledge, whereas novices tend to focus on the surface features. Seeing the deep structures allows experts to transfer what they know to new situations more easily than novices. They are also able to appreciate how a knowledge system works and what it can do, whereas novices are likely to think it just “is”. Learners need to be encouraged to search not for the “right” answer (this produces a focus on surface features), but for the right approach to solving a problem.
Learners need to be actively involved need to be doing something, thinking something and/or saying something that requires them to actively process, interpret and adapt an experience to a new context or use. This sometimes involves finding a way to integrate existing knowledge with new knowledge, but sometimes it involves jettisoning existing knowledge.
Learners have to want to learn and see the purpose They have to be able to see a purpose to learning it—both in the short term, and in the longer term sense of seeing how learning this material will allow them to contribute to something beyond themselves.
Learning has to be personalized not a standardized experience Learners have to feel in charge of their own learning. They need to feel that they know what they are doing, and that they can control the pace of their learning. They need to “get into it” enough to get a sense of flow and progress; they need the right amount of challenge (not so much that it is beyond them, but not so little that it is boring); and they need feedback along the way (not just at the end of the course). Young children need help to do this, but to learn more (and become better learners), they need to be able to regulate their own learning and become less and less reliant on the teacher to regulate the pace and goals of learning.
Learning needs structure Adults play an important role in young children’s development by structuring their experiences and directing their attention to certain aspects of those experiences. Older children and adults need some sort of map to orient themselves and find out where they are up to. In educational contexts the subject areas usually provide this map.
Learning involves interaction Trying out and testing ideas with others. Some or all of it takes place in the context of relationships with other human beings. Sometimes these are people who know more than the learner, sometimes they know less and sometimes they are learning together. A precondition for learning, then, is that the learner feels acknowledged and valued by their co-learners, that they feel they belong to, or are part of, the culture of the learning context.
Learning needs to take place in a wide variety of thinking Learning should not just occur at school, in a classroom. Learners should be able to transfer and use their learning in new contexts.

The Blue Bible

Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching

Supporting future-oriented 

learning & teaching — 

a New Zealand perspective 

Report to the Ministry of Education 

R Bolstad & J Gilbert 

with S McDowall, A Bull, S Boyd & R Hipkins 

New Zealand Council for Educational Research 

If you haven't already, then I strongly recommend you download a full copy of this report and read it cover to cover. This publication has been our 'go to' book and reflects the vision we have for all our students. It challenges traditional teaching practice and calls for new initiatives that better reflect the ever-changing world our students are moving into.

 Why change is needed. For much of the last century, there was a good fit between the education we provided and the education that was needed—by individuals, society and the economy. We used the best means possible (modern schools, professional teachers and formal exams) to deliver the kind of education needed for a relatively stable economy made up of large hierarchical organisations. However, it is widely argued that some key developments in the world have changed things so much that there is no longer a good fit between the education we are currently providing and the education we need. p 11

 We now know so much more about the way people learn. Knowledge is acquired and used in different ways. We are facing a world full of 'wicked' problems (climatisation, pollution etc). We are so easily connected and jobs are becoming more global. Jobs our children will be applying for, haven't yet been invented. Technology is becoming an extension of us. Surely, we need to be doing something different in the classroom?

 The 'blue bible' covers the following 6 themes:

 3. Personalising learning Why does personalising learning matter for the 21st century? The idea of “personalising learning” is simple and familiar “in the sense that it is about trying to build learning around the needs of individual pupils, something that has been practised by many good teachers for years”.36 However, it is much more complex when interpreted from a 21st century perspective. Here, the emphasis is on a major systems-level shift. It calls for reversing the “logic” of education systems so that the system is built around the learner, rather than the learner conforming to the system

 4. New views of equity, diversity and inclusivity Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Discussions of equity, diversity and inclusivity and “21st century learning” tend to draw on two quite different sets of ideas. First is the idea that producing educational engagement and success for all learners is an important priority for 21st century schools. Underpinning this is the recognition that certain major social groups have not been well served by the education system in the past; that this has contributed to current social inequities; and that this is a problem that—if it is not solved—has major implications for New Zealand’s social, political and economic future.
The second idea that commonly comes up in discussions of equity/diversity and 21st century learning is that 21st century citizens need to be educated for diversity—in both the people sense and the knowledge/ideas sense. The changing global environment requires people to engage—and be able to work—with people from cultural, religious and/or linguistic backgrounds or world views that are very different from their own.

 5. A curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? One of the biggest challenges for education in the 21st century is that our current ideas about curriculum are underpinned by two concurrent, but quite different, epistemologies, or models of what counts as knowledge: the “20th century” idea of knowledge as content or “stuff”, and the 21st century view of it as something that does stuff.

 6. “Changing the script”: Rethinking learners’ and teachers’ roles Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Just as curriculum needs to be reconceived in ways that reflect 21st century ideas about knowledge and learning, there also needs to be shifts in the “traditional” roles or “scripts” followed by learners and teachers. If we believe that the main role of education is not just to transmit knowledge but also to cultivate people’s ability to engage with and generate knowledge, then teachers’ roles need to be reconsidered

7. A culture of continuous learning for teachers and educational leaders Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Most adults today have been socialised into various educational ideas and practices that were implicit to the 20th century education systems that they experienced. It is argued that educators (not to mention the wider public) will need to re-examine many implicit and taken-for-granted assumptions about teaching and learning, since future-focused practice will require teachers to work in ways that are very different from the models they experienced during their own years of school.

8. New kinds of partnerships and relationships: Schools no longer siloed from the community Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Greater “connectedness” between schools and other organisations, groups and individuals in the wider community is a key part of 21st century education.

 Supported by:

9. The role of new technologies In many people’s minds, new technologies are synonymous with future-oriented education. Rapidly evolving technologies open many exciting opportunities for learning in the 21st century. However, research in schools suggests new technologies only enable transformation when they are supported by ideas and social contexts that enable transformative practice.

10. Supporting and sustaining innovation Charles Leadbeater157 argues that there is a need “for a wave of more systematic and radical innovation in education and learning”. Such innovation, he argues, “should take place simultaneously, at different levels and in different settings, from the daily practice of teachers and learners, through organisations, systems and platforms, to the social movements and ideologies that inspire them”. He further suggests that a key task for an educational innovation strategy is “to create the demand for innovation and the conditions in which it can thrive”.

NZC Update 26

The beginning of the journey

I guess we have always been on this journey...of growth mindset...always seeking ways to improve our practice and be the best we can for the children in our care.

Active in our search for new knowledge, new ideas and new resources. Reflective. Confident to trial initiatives, different ways of doing things. Knowing there must be a better way to open the curriculum to the kids in our charge.

The '21st' century calls for a new approach. The ever changing environment our kids are moving into calls for a different skill set. As parents/teachers, what do we want for our kids as they move into teenage-hood and adult-hood? What will the world look like when they finally get there? What will they need to know to be successful, positive, effective citizens?

This journey started with PD - unpacking our vision (again) with the desire to become a 'vision driven' school, designing visuals full of symbolism, a new model of learning, a cross-competency approach to the key competencies...re-writing our curriculum to fit our new ideas of learning and teaching.

From this came the 'learning to learn' team - passionate volunteers who were prepared to research, read, debate - and grow their own pedagogical knowledge.