Looking at Learning: Key Questions for Educators

My last few MY Classroom posts have concentrated on the topics of preparing for and teaching EAL lessons and on supporting reluctant learners. Today, I’d like to take the focus off teaching and place it on learning with a series of questions for you. These are intended to prompt reflection and evaluation.

Determining what learning is and what it encompasses can be controversial, and consensus as to a definition of learning is difficult to achieve. This is compounded by the fact learning is both a verb and a noun.

The practice in many schools of expecting demonstrable progress in every lesson has perhaps served to muddy the waters somewhat further, conflating learning with performance. 

As teachers, day-to-day classroom life can be so busy, we sometimes lose focus on the bigger picture. Let’s pause briefly to consider our beliefs about learning. In so doing, we can clarify our purpose and identify a clear rationale for our beliefs. 

• What is learning? How do you define it?
• When does learning happen?
• How do you establish what a student has already learned?
• What do students have to do to learn something?
• What is your role in facilitating this?
• How do you know when a student has learned something?
• How do you promote interest in learning in your classroom?
• What helps students to learn?
• How do you support students with their learning?
• How do you know what supports to provide?
• What hinders learning?
• How do you reduce/eliminate such hindrances?
• How do you measure learning?
• When do you measure learning?
• Is learning measurable?
• Once something is learned, what happens next? Why do we forget things?
• What are the most effective teaching-for-learning practices you know?
• What are the most effective learning habits you are aware of?
• Do you think it is important to talk about learning? 
• Do you think pupils should learn about the learning process?
• Is learning a passive or an active process?
• Who bears the greater responsibility for learning: the teacher or the student? 
• What role do parents / carers play in the learning process?

LOTS of questions but no answers today! Have a think, leave a comment, and we’ll return to this topic in forthcoming posts.