Leading view papers – Days 1 to 7

How can we grow learner autonomy through the curriculum?

 

At Glossopdale, we have introduced a competence-based curriculum. Instead of the emphasis being on subject content, it is on process and skills. It seems to us that evidence shows students will be enabled as learners if they are motivated and engaged enough to become confident in their own ability to direct their own learning. The traditional timetable structure hinders this, suggesting, as it does, that there is a body of knowledge that has to be delivered that individuals have no role in shaping.

Allowing students to follow particular interests as they are learning isn’t wishy-washy liberalism, it’s sound common sense. Personalisation of learning surely means addressing individual needs as far as is practically possible.

The key stage three dip in achievement currently experienced by too many students is evidence enough that the way things currently are isn’t good enough for many students, particularly boys. Students who are very skilful and resourceful outside school drop these attributes as they go through the gates and become disenchanted and lacking in enthusiasm and initiative. To address this, we have to value the learning that the students do outside school and blur the boundary between school and home, so that all their skill and ingenuity can be accessed in school. What is offered to students in school has to be challenging, interesting and relevant. This is where the competences help, because the students immediately understand the significance of the skills they are being asked to develop.

What types of experiences, lessons or extended tasks do we need to provide for the deep learner?

We decided that the congested, content-driven key stage three timetable, with learners moving from one one-hour lesson to the next, had a significant part to play in turning too many students off learning. So, to challenge this, we reorganised 40% of curriculum time into the Cross-Curricular-Connections (C3) Curriculum, by aggregating the time available from humanities, technology and the arts for students in years 7 and 8. Students now have their day organised in blocks of time – the whole of each year group has C3 for a day and then in chunks of time to make up the rest of the nine hours of curriculum time.

C3 consists of six projects, each of which is of a half term’s duration, begins with a launch and ends with a celebration. We chose this structure because research shows that this shape helps learners to make the learning they are being offered more coherent.

The new structure enables each student to pursue learning in a much more meaningful way. As one of our year 8 students said: ‘It’s easier to learn things quickly because you have all these hours of learning on one topic and your brain is really tuned in … If you only have one hour a week, you’re always thinking, “Oh no! What was I doing with this last week?”  Now there’s time to get on with stuff’.

The revision of the key stage three programmes of study should support this development because of the increased flexibility.

How can the new technologies be harnessed to provide meaningful learning experiences for students?

One of the big successes of C3 so far has been the use of digital media as an aid to learning. Computers have a significant role to play as learning tools, but actually the filming process has been hugely well received by students, whether it is used for individuals or groups to produce an account of an event, to record the event, to record a role play to share, to create a story or any of the other uses it has been put to. The learning taking place during this process is a joy to watch – the students are engaged and responsive, finding out how to do what they need to do, and making decisions for themselves. Independent learning.

If we are to provide students with meaningful learning experiences what are the implications for school organisation and design?

Our building is really tired: this curriculum reorganisation has made us look at it again and be far more creative with the space available. Learners are being consulted on their preferred learning spaces and social areas, so that we can create an environment that will encourage self-motivation, independent learning and cooperation. The traditional classroom that holds one teacher, plus one class, is increasingly outmoded, as it implies a teacher-dominated approach to learning, and a didactic approach that is very much at odds with our wish to see learning become enquiry-based, to encourage learner autonomy.

Of course, we know that, for students to learn effectively, they have to feel a sense of belonging to, and identity with, their learning environment. I guess there will always be a need for some kind of ‘home room’- a base from which the learner proceeds to find out the answers to his or her enquiries, and to which the answers can be brought and shared. Also, students need structure and organisation – some more than others – to allow them to feel safe enough to take steps along the road to autonomy. It would be daft to think that all students can benefit from an identical level of freedom. Students will work independently or collaboratively, as the task requires, as part of what we wish to achieve involves students being able to make responsible choices about what their learning needs are, and how they can best be met.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ms Marion Davies is Vice Principal at Glossopdale Community College, in Derbyshire, in the United Kingdom.

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