Why should I be a brave learner?

After speaking to the children at assembly for several weeks about bravery, I was delighted to have a return match from a class who shared their own stories of bravery with us all, and were clearly pleased with their courage and success. Much overdue, I thought this was worth considering in a little more detail.

Being brave is something which was, in all likelihood, introduced to us as toddlers as a negative concept. We were expected to be brave about things that seemed frightening, painful or unknown, like spiders, grazes or vaccinations, and the fearful feelings that being brave gave us will have been difficult to shake ever since. It is therefore human nature to protect ourselves from activities that go beyond our confidence, comfort or enjoyment. It is trained into us from very young that being brave should always to be considered in the light of possible harmful outcome, pain or failure.

However, we also know that our own success is likely to be limited if we don’t shake ourselves from our comfort zone, embrace things we are not certain about and make ourselves have a go. Very few people have the ability to take risks comfortably. Some do however, and I must say, it is with great admiration that I watch people undertaking extreme sports, pressurised challenges or developing inventive or even crazy ideas. For most of us, bravery means having a go at something small, measured and slightly unfamiliar. We live in a world of due diligence, calculated risk and critical evaluation. It is no wonder that our children would expect to be provided with solid answers and proven paths rather than have to think for themselves, or be challenged to create new knowledge, and that we, in our own insecurity, urge them to follow our paths and not their own. 

In fact, giving praise only for producing correct and accurate work has become so endemic in our education process that we have effectively side-lined real creative thinking and getting things right by getting them wrong. We no longer prize working concepts through, or having mad ideas. We have eschewed inspiration, wild imagining and unlikely connections made in lightning flashes, for more prosaic standard ‘correct’ answers, with the onus on the teacher to cover and inculcate every possibility rather than allowing the child to explore. I fear for children who cannot see past the need to be taught the right answer, who choose not to be brave in their learning, who are afraid to have a go or to face the possibility of short term failure up as one of the options for what might happen – and cope with that. I worry that we, as teachers and parents, reinforce these fears (perhaps because of our own training), despite the fact that we probably know that real independence, valuable learning and true entrepreneurship comes from being brave, striking out independently and doing something, or even thinking something, that might be seen as different. Bravery allows that leap of faith into the unknown, into the world of potential success and into that essential place where we can, as human learners, really come to know ourselves and  our strengths and see what needs to be overcome. Only by being brave and by experiencing the consequences with courage, can we develop into whole and incredible people. 

I’m not speaking here of foolhardiness, of wanton danger, or of misplaced confidence, I’m simply talking about opening the mind to something new, rather than closing it due to inexperience, or by placing too much store on outward success by only attempting what can easily be achieved. In terms of learning behaviour it is sadly all too common to see children hang back, to say they are not sure when asked a question, or to be coy when expected to express an opinion, rather than having the courage to have a go. often a teacher knows full well that a child has the ability and intellect to do more, and it is a real sadness when that child is waiting for one of her peers to answer instead. 

So for the future, it is worth considering doing something that requires brave learning behaviour. Make or find some opportunities to do something which you wouldn’t usually do, or accept a learning challenge that feels a little bit mad. You could embark on this experience with your child, or just quietly on your own. I spoke to a mum this week who is attempting her first marathon, to a teacher who has agreed to prepare and lead the staff prayers although she has never done such a thing before, to members of staff who have signed up to the staff choir to learn to sing together for a public performance with no previous music reading ability, and to a child about to go to her first ski school with a great fear of heights. In the classroom I listened to six year olds trying to reply to their teacher in Spanish amid much hilarity and some fabulous accents - real bravery in action, especially from a new girl who had only attended one lesson and wanted to take her turn. I was shamed from my position as wallflower and had a go - and although my accent was not as good as the children's, they applauded me, and I was delighted that I had left my anxiety on the side to show my nerve. What these people have in common isn’t just wilful bravery; it is the anticipation of great enjoyment, satisfaction and confidence in themselves, and a fantastic learning experience.

Good luck to you all in your next courageous learning step – remember that failure is a helpful learning option, that it will be a challenge, that success is often better if it is surprising - and who knows, you might even enjoy yourself!

Why Teach Life Skills?

Teaching life skills to children is obviously one of the key points of family life! Every child benefits not only from ‘nuts and bolts’ skills such as learning to dress, using cutlery and organising belongings, but also from fundamental interpersonal skills that will enable them to get on with others, develop a sense of place in the world and a sense of proportion, to be able to handle conflicts and to be resilient and robust in the face of unexpected (or even expected) challenges.

Schools obviously help with these types of skills, as children are likely to face other children and complexities at school, away from parental guidance far more, and it is important for them to have these skills supported, modelled and scaffolded as they develop in judgement and confidence. However, there are some skills that need to be explicitly addressed in order to develop children who are equipped to manage how to become incredible people in society. This may be academic, or they may be skills of judgement and discernment – either way they need to be identified, taught and practised.

One of my own ‘hobby horses’ is the teaching of basic first aid, allowing children to develop skills to act in a crisis. I believe this allows them to consider others with compassion, to have a sense of their responsibility towards others, to feel confidence by having useable knowledge, and along the way to have a really meaningful education about the essential organs of the body so that they can understand good health and how their body works. The St John Ambulance runs a course for this to use with ‘Young Carers’ and at Notre Dame Preparatory School this is followed by all Year 6 pupils, culminating with certification, and teams put forward to the national competition.

Swimming is another essential life skill, not only for saving lives, but allowing for the pleasure of free movement underwater, something of lifelong benefit to those who become less fit over time for a host of reasons.

One of the other, often overlooked life skills is the ability to view your own self objectively, and without too much seriousness. From this comes the ability to apologise meaningfully and to offer and accept forgiveness with light-heartedness. These are just a few examples.

If you had to seek out a friend in a crisis of your own, a physical or an emotional one, what capital would you look for in terms of skills? Who could you turn to? How can you equip your child to be the person who can help? Real education, both at home and at school, needs to address these questions very carefully.

Independence is about learning self-regulation

This week, in preparation for heading back to what we used to call ‘the chalk face’, I read a series of blogs on education. One that struck me particularly, by Shelley Wright focussed on Self-Regulated Learning. There is a growing amount of educational research that shows that pupils who can control and regulate their own learning do best of all in the classroom. This requires reflection, but reflection in a young child needs careful direction so that it becomes purposeful. Typically thinking about their work falls into the attainment model:  how good or bad was the result, how much higher or lower than a previous mark, or how the grades compare with another child. However these are not improving strategies, and to make progress, at hopefully an accelerating rate, children need to understand what can make the learning experience more effective or more positive next time.

So teachers need to try to focus marking on constructive supportive points for the future, and to find aspects that can be praised.  They should also ask children to consider what went well in the work and what might have needed more attention. Pupils typically start by being able to point to simple ideas such as ‘I didn’t learn it enough’ or ‘I didn’t read the question carefully’ allowing them to realise what will lead to success another time, but for the older pupils allows them to pinpoint in a more sophisticated way how to manage exam technique, when to ask for help and how to manage longer term projects in terms of time and resource management. All of these, with thoughtful facilitation by a teacher, will lead to real improvement in the learning process over time, and can be implemented even with the very young. Correcting every spelling or slashing red pen across written assignments is not a very effective way to make a child enthusiastic about her own performance, so over-marking is no longer encouraged, and draft work, note taking, considering the audience for the task and other skills that can be employed to make future assignments better are taught rather than the constant practice of ‘best writing’ that we all endured in the past. As a messy and reluctant young writer my books were covered in stern corrections (and ink blots), but my spelling has never improved – all I learned was a fear of wielding a pen in public (fervent thanks for computers and spell-checker!).

To help with developing self-regulated learning we can all ask very simple questions of our children to help them to become reflective, such as: ‘What did you find easiest about that task? How did you choose to record the information? What would have helped you to manage better? Would you do this activity the same way next time? How would you change this piece to make it better? Could you think of another way of presenting this? What do you think your audience will understand? What did you find difficult? Was there a better question?

Focus on the learning process rather than the results and allow the child to reflect for herself what works and what doesn’t, and what she needs to focus on, and her work can only get better..!

Why do our children need to read?

I wonder where all of us learnt the things we know…? Was it by listening to parents or grandparents? Perhaps the television or radio furnished us with facts or ideas? For me reading was the foundation of much of my understanding of the world, from a love of poetry, well written prose and exciting ideas beyond my small experience of the world, to how to replace my own windows, cook, and understand aspects of science for my teaching career. Every day, once the alarm has gone off, before I even jump out of bed, I start by opening the ‘newspaper’ on my ipad or smart phone, and reading the headlines, the comment section, the culture highlights and any education news. This sets me up for the day and connects me to the world of understanding.

I firmly believe that without real exposure to reading, deep immersed daily reading, it simply isn’t possible for our children to develop a sufficient understanding of life.

It is common in schools to teach comprehension (let us not forget that comprehension means understanding) in bite sized chunks. We give children a few moments to read a small passage of text, and then expect them, through that small medium, to have sufficient understanding to answer literal and inferential questions, and by year six to give opinions, discuss vocabulary, recognise some parts of speech and make predictions. It is as if we believe that this disjointed approach will enable them to learn and to demonstrate their learning. But the evidence before us suggests otherwise: today a  class of ten year olds could not identify Scotland from a piece that mentioned highland games, tartan and kilts. A whole group of nine year olds did not know what ‘milking a cow’ meant. Nobody in one of my upper junior science groups could tell me which tree a conker came from… This type of understanding is essential if children are able to make connections and understand the work they are faced with.

How can we make a difference to this woeful state of affairs? Easy – open the world by opening a few books; the more and the more varied, the better, and as often as possible. So take note: reading to accelerate through a reading scheme, reading to digest a set number of classics, reading to improve speed or skimming and scanning techniques, all of these strategies count for nothing if the general development of vocabulary, basic understanding, love of reading and knowledge are not part of the foundation of learning.

Happy reading.