What Is A Good Learner

Shared Understanding of Learning

We've all been there - sitting in the first week of a new school year looking over the class list/photo's thinking about those 30 odd students we've just met.

The honeymoon is a nice stage pretty much students are working on those first impressions.  Teachers are working on the 'don't smile until Easter'.  The students will be weighing up what sort of teacher they've got and teachers are thinking what kind of learners they've been timetabled.  What specifically is it that students are trying to project?  What characteristics are the teachers looking/hoping for?  

An interesting exercise has been to see if there is a shared understanding of whether students and teachers have the same ideas about what makes a good learner. 

An early staff meeting this term I presented the following presentation.

What does it mean to be a good learner? from WaihiCollege

Part of this professional development programme was to survey staff on the characteristics of good learners.  I've also interviewed fifty students and asked them the same question.  

What was very interesting was that although there was much middle ground between what teachers and students viewed as good teaching there was very significant differences. 

Perhaps the most obvious difference was that the students view 'good learning' as physical actions; like 'listening' and 'neat books' or 'good test results'.  For teachers the most common view was the dispositions of mind 'collaborative' or 'determination'.  

I think that this is a valuable observation.  That our young people haven't yet thought deeper about education and their larger role in the learning.  I think that there are good messages that can move our students to a more empowered space as learners.  

This post relates to RTC #8. "Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn - iii. encourage ākonga to take responsibility for their own learning and behaviour 
iv. assist ākonga to think critically about information and ideas and to reflect on their learning." 

And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 4 "Responsive Curriculum, Effective Teaching and Opportunity to Learn - students develop learning to learn capabilities."