The Learning Power Approach

Key Takeaways

1. The Learning Power Approach: Cultivating Confident, Capable Learners

The aim of the Learning Power Approach (LPA) is to develop all students as confident and capable learners––ready, willing, and able to choose, design, research, pursue, troubleshoot, and evaluate learning for themselves, alone and with others, in school and out.

Redefining education's purpose. The Learning Power Approach (LPA) aims to prepare students not just for exams, but for life's challenges. It focuses on developing learners who are confident, capable, and ready to tackle any learning situation they encounter.

Key components of the approach:

• Fostering curiosity and engagement
• Developing resilience and perseverance
• Encouraging critical thinking and problem-solving
• Promoting collaboration and communication skills
• Cultivating self-reflection and metacognition

By emphasizing these skills and dispositions, the LPA equips students to navigate an increasingly complex and uncertain world, preparing them for success beyond academic achievement.

2. Learning Power: A Blend of Attitudes, Skills, and Habits

Learning power is something that is itself always subject to learning.

Multifaceted concept. Learning power is not a single skill or trait, but a complex interplay of various attitudes, skills, and habits that can be developed over time.

Key elements of learning power include:

• Curiosity: The drive to explore and question
• Resilience: The ability to persist in the face of challenges
• Resourcefulness: The capacity to find and use various learning strategies
• Reflectiveness: The habit of thinking about one's own learning process
• Reciprocity: The skill of learning with and from others

These elements work together, forming a learner's overall capacity to engage effectively with new information and challenges. By recognizing learning power as a learnable set of dispositions, educators can design experiences that deliberately strengthen these capacities in students.

3. The Three Layers of Classroom Learning: Content, Expertise, and Dispositions

Every lesson, every day, affects the slow buildup of these attitudes—for good or ill.

The learning river metaphor. Classroom learning can be visualized as a river with three layers:

1. Surface: Visible content and knowledge acquisition
2. Middle: Subject-specific expertise and skills
3. Deep: Underlying learning dispositions and habits

Importance of the deep layer. While traditional education often focuses on the surface and middle layers, the LPA emphasizes the crucial role of the deep layer. This layer shapes students' long-term attitudes towards learning and their capacity to tackle new challenges.

Educators must be mindful of how their teaching practices impact all three layers, particularly the often-overlooked deep layer of learning dispositions. Every interaction, task, and classroom environment choice contributes to shaping students' learning power.

4. Designing a Learning-Powered Classroom Environment

To have a roomful of adventurous spirits, teachers need to understand this vulnerability and do their best to respect it.

Creating a safe learning space. The LPA recognizes that learning involves risk-taking and potential vulnerability. Teachers must design classroom environments that encourage students to take intellectual risks without fear of ridicule or failure.

Key elements of a learning-powered classroom:

• Encouraging a growth mindset
• Celebrating effort and progress, not just achievement
• Providing opportunities for collaborative learning
• Allowing time for reflection and metacognition
• Using displays and resources that promote learning strategies

By thoughtfully designing the physical and emotional environment of the classroom, teachers can create a space that nurtures curiosity, resilience, and a love for learning.

5. Evidence-Based Strategies for Developing Learning Power

We have found that teachers are hungry for "worked examples" of what LPA looks like in practice, but it doesn't work simply to try to replicate them in a different school with different kids.

Adaptable strategies. The LPA offers a range of evidence-based strategies that teachers can adapt to their specific contexts:

• Grapple problems: Challenging tasks that stretch students' current abilities
• Think-Pair-Share: Collaborative problem-solving and discussion
• Learning journals: Reflective writing to develop metacognition
• Chili challenges: Self-selected difficulty levels for tasks
• No hands up: Encouraging wider participation in class discussions

These strategies are not prescriptive but serve as starting points for teachers to experiment with and modify. The key is to understand the principles behind each strategy and adapt them to suit the unique needs of each classroom and student group.

6. Balancing Traditional and Progressive Education

Knowledge acquisition and skill development are not involved in a tug-of-war for time and attention; they are warp and weft of learners' everyday experience.

A new middle way. The LPA bridges the gap between traditional and progressive education approaches. It recognizes the importance of knowledge acquisition while also emphasizing the development of learning dispositions.

This balanced approach:

• Values both content mastery and the process of learning
• Combines direct instruction with inquiry-based learning
• Emphasizes both individual achievement and collaborative skills
• Balances academic rigor with personal growth and character development

By integrating these seemingly opposing educational philosophies, the LPA creates a more holistic and effective learning experience that prepares students for both academic success and life-long learning.

7. The Teacher's Role: From Instructor to Learning Coach

Teachers set the tone in their classrooms. Students quickly pick up on "what goes around here," and what doesn't.

Shifting teacher identity. In the LPA, teachers transition from being mere instructors to becoming learning coaches. This shift involves:

• Modeling learning behaviors and attitudes
• Designing learning experiences rather than just delivering content
• Facilitating student-led inquiry and problem-solving
• Providing targeted feedback on learning processes, not just outcomes
• Creating opportunities for students to develop metacognitive skills

This new role requires teachers to be more reflective about their own practice and to continuously develop their understanding of how learning happens. By embodying the qualities of a powerful learner themselves, teachers inspire and guide their students to develop their own learning power.

8. Whole-School Implementation of the Learning Power Approach

The LPA tries to knit together everything that goes on in a school.

Coherent school culture. Implementing the LPA effectively requires a whole-school approach. It's not just about individual classrooms but creating a coherent culture that reinforces learning power across all aspects of school life.

Key areas for whole-school implementation:

• Aligning school policies with LPA principles
• Professional development for all staff
• Consistent language and practices across grade levels and subjects
• Involving parents and the wider community
• Redesigning assessment and reporting to reflect learning power development

This comprehensive approach ensures that students experience a consistent message about the value of developing their learning power throughout their school journey.

9. Assessing and Evidencing Learning Power Development

It is better to talk about evidencing progress than measuring or evaluating it. It doesn't help to get locked in by language to only one kind of evidence.

Holistic assessment approach. Assessing the development of learning power requires a more nuanced and diverse approach than traditional academic assessments.

Methods for evidencing learning power development:

• Self-reflection tools and learning journals
• Peer and teacher observations
• Performance tasks that demonstrate learning dispositions
• Portfolios showcasing growth over time
• Qualitative feedback from teachers, parents, and students

The goal is not to reduce learning power to a single score but to gather rich, multifaceted evidence of students' growth as learners. This approach allows for a more comprehensive understanding of each student's development and helps inform targeted support and guidance.

Last updated: February 4, 2025

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