Learnership - The Skill of Learning
You are a skilful teacher!
If you’re taking the time to read my blog, then you’re already committed to your professional growth.
You regularly reflect on your practice. You ask yourself, “What’s working? What’s not? How might I improve?”
You’re concerned about the students who are progressing. You constantly look for ways to engage them and help them achieve more. And you challenge your students to strive for greater growth and achievement.
Over the past few years, you’ve attended plenty of professional learning events: conferences, workshops, and in-school learning. You’ve read widely and engaged in reflective practice. You’ve learnt about the importance of setting challenging goals for students, providing formative feedback, and so much more.
But for all the work you put into becoming a skilful teacher, do you ever feel as though your students aren’t living up to their end of the bargain?
You set challenging tasks, but students take the easiest option.
You provide formative feedback, but they don’t bother to act on it (or, in some cases, even read it!).
You spend your time leading, and sometimes dragging, students through the learning process while they respond passively to the learning environment.
That’s why it’s time to shift the focus. We are skilful teachers. Now, we need our students to become skilful learners. And that’s what Learnership is all about.
Think of Learnership in the same way you think of craftsmanship. It denotes skilfulness, expertise, or mastery. Learnership, then, is the skill of learning.
Drawing on a broad research base and 20 years of learning leadership, I’ve created the Learnership Matrix. This matrix defines the skill of learning by looking at five essential components – specifically, how students:
• Respond to challenges
• Develop their learning behaviours or Habits of Mind
• Engage with mistakes
• Extract value from feedback
• Invest their time and energy in learning
Using these key learning characteristics, the Learnership Matrix defines six learner types. Each type engages in the learning process more skilfully than the last.
If you’re taking the time to read my blog, then you’re already committed to your professional growth.
You regularly reflect on your practice. You ask yourself, “What’s working? What’s not? How might I improve?”
You’re concerned about the students who are progressing. You constantly look for ways to engage them and help them achieve more. And you challenge your students to strive for greater growth and achievement.
Over the past few years, you’ve attended plenty of professional learning events: conferences, workshops, and in-school learning. You’ve read widely and engaged in reflective practice. You’ve learnt about the importance of setting challenging goals for students, providing formative feedback, and so much more.
But for all the work you put into becoming a skilful teacher, do you ever feel as though your students aren’t living up to their end of the bargain?
You set challenging tasks, but students take the easiest option.
You provide formative feedback, but they don’t bother to act on it (or, in some cases, even read it!).
You spend your time leading, and sometimes dragging, students through the learning process while they respond passively to the learning environment.
That’s why it’s time to shift the focus. We are skilful teachers. Now, we need our students to become skilful learners. And that’s what Learnership is all about.
Think of Learnership in the same way you think of craftsmanship. It denotes skilfulness, expertise, or mastery. Learnership, then, is the skill of learning.
Drawing on a broad research base and 20 years of learning leadership, I’ve created the Learnership Matrix. This matrix defines the skill of learning by looking at five essential components – specifically, how students:
• Respond to challenges
• Develop their learning behaviours or Habits of Mind
• Engage with mistakes
• Extract value from feedback
• Invest their time and energy in learning
Using these key learning characteristics, the Learnership Matrix defines six learner types. Each type engages in the learning process more skilfully than the last.
Would you like to know more about how you can help your students become skilful learners? To embrace challenges and develop Learnership?
To find out more about how I can help you develop Learnership, simply email me, visit my website or schedule a time in my calendar for a conversation.
Best Wishes,
James
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