
Building learning competencies in the classroom
In the inquiry classroom, we aim to nurture learners who see themselves as capable, curious, resourceful individuals with a strong sense of agency. There is growing evidence of the importance of nurturing the kinds of dispositions and skills that competent, capable learners can apply across the curriculum and throughout their lives. Being curious, creative, courageous and critical combined with the skills of self-management, collaboration, thinking and communication are amongst what we can think of as ‘assets’ for learning.
These skills and dispositions do not grow by chance – they are best developed through an explicit, thoughtful, embedded approach that embodies an inquiry stance. The role of the educator is pivotal not only to what young people learn but to the image they have of themselves as learners. In this wonderfully interactive and motivating workshop, Kath will draw upon her vast experience of introducing her ‘learning assets’ to schools all over the world and sharing really practical ways to effectively embed skills and dispositions for learning into our work with children and their families. Teachers who participate in this workshop have the added advantage of examining and growing their own competencies as learners as well as designing learning engagements for their students.
This workshop will be very relevant to educators working with the IB Approaches to Learning and Profile Attributes but will also be designed to support any educators who have a framework for ‘learning to learn’. Those participants yet to develop such a framework, will walk away with a template for introducing one and a strong repertoire of strategies to support implementation.
Over the course of 2 days, participants will:
Be introduced to a variety of frameworks for competency-based teaching and learning and deepen their understanding of the kind of skills and dispositions for more independent learning
Take a deep dive into the skills and dispositions associated with self-management, collaboration, research, thinking, communication and contribution
Participate in and design learning tasks to explicitly develop skills associated with assets for learning
Explore ways to use the ‘language of learning’ in daily classroom discourse
Learn how to design ‘split screen’ learning intentions and build learning engagements that focus on the how of learning – not just the what
Explore a range of texts and resources we can use to promote skills and dispositions for learning
Consider how the micro skills associated with each learning asset can be scoped out and gradually strengthened over time
Consider approaches to assessment in relation to these assets for learning
Learn how to weave the teaching of these skills and dispositions into a unit of inquiry