Developing Learning Attitudes is the first of four blog posts about teaching and learning, focusing on A2RH - helping pupils develop the right learning Attitudes, Approaches, Routines and Habits that will give them the tools to be resilient and self-aware, both during their schooling and beyond.
Pupils’ attitudes towards learning determine their engagement with learning, so it is important that we focus on helping pupils to develop the right learning attitudes from the beginning of their time at LWC. Shaping, questioning and encouraging pupils’ attitudes is at the heart of A2RH, as everything follows from this important life skill.
An attitude is the way you choose to be; it governs the way you deal with a situation or a problem, or how you think about something. Believing that ‘you can and you will’, or that ’you can’t…yet’ are clearly positive learning attitudes.
The great thing about attitudes is that you can change them. You can shift them from negative to positive, from fearful to accepting uncertainty as part of the process. It may not be easy, but you can do it.
In learning terms, attitudes lie at the heart of how you respond to all of the learning opportunities in school. A positive attitude to learning means deciding that you want to be better than you are, recognising that every opportunity is an opportunity to learn, and encouraging and supporting others in their learning. Having a positive learning attitude is also known as having a ‘growth mindset’, in the phrase popularised by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset.
We believe that everyone can develop positive learning attitudes.
We encourage pupils to focus on learning goals rather than outcome goals.
This means that all assessments and grades have a value because they inform the way we set about our learning. How did you get that good mark? Why did you lose marks? Was it because of gaps in skills or in knowledge? What can you do to close the gaps?
We encourage pupils to value feedback.
Feedback helps inform the next step in learning. By listening and responding to feedback we can make specific changes to our processes.
We encourage pupils to be honest about their learning.
Being honest about the effort put in, or the time spent, or the focus of a piece of work enables teachers to give worthwhile feedback.
We encourage pupils to ‘fail forwards’.
This attitude encourages ownership of and responsibility for learning. It’s about avoiding excuses and recognising when pupils haven’t put in place the best conditions for learning or improving.
We encourage pupils to have a clear vision of what they want to achieve academically and of the purpose of studying.
Every attitude needs a purpose. We aim to help pupils understand the ‘bigger picture’ around learning that extends into life beyond school and university.
Parental perceptions can unwittingly put barriers in the way of their child building a positive learning attitude. Comments such as ‘I was never good at maths’, or ‘I always found French difficult’, or ‘We don’t know where it comes from…no-one in our family has ever been good at Physics’ imply that knowledge or academic success are genetically ‘hard-wired’ and thus ‘beyond our control’.
Similarly, outcome-based rewards can put pressure on children to perform rather than to learn. Promising a reward if your child achieves all 9s can lead to a negative learning attitude, with fear of failure dominating, whereas recognising your child’s excellent attitude towards learning during their revision time is a powerful tool. If the child has done all that they could, listened and responded to feedback, got up every time they fell, then these are important life skills that should be rewarded.