HOW2Learn is a strategy focused on building students' capacity to learn.
This is achieved by explicitly teaching dispositions and habits within the existing programs and practices at Black Springs Public School to develop a learning culture that enables everyone to:
- Be self-aware in their learning
- Use the language and dispositions of successful learners
- Share a belief that intelligence is learnable and expandable
HOW2Learn complements the NSW Quality Teaching Model and draws on a respected body of research, including much of Guy Claxton's work on Building Learning Power which identifies the higher order ways that enable students to be successful lifelong learners.
The Guiding Tenets of the HOW2Learn Strategy
We know that young people need to build the emotional, social and mental resources to enjoy challenges and cope with uncertainty and it is obvious that things need to change in order for schools to be more in step with the needs of society. The following principles frame all further thinking:
Principle that underpin the strategy
- REAL LIFE LEARNING - education is about enabling young people to take their place in the world confidently, actively and successfully.
- SUCCESS AT SCHOOL - students can utilise powerful learning skills in order to embrace the specific content demands in various subject areas.
- LITERACY AND NUMERACY - all students deserve the right to access strategies that will enable them to become more literate and numerate citizens as they are the fundamental building blocks that predict life success.
- MENTAL WELLBEING - all students deserve the right to become more resourceful and resilient when faced with adversity.
- EXPANDABLE INTELLIGENCE - all learners can behave more intelligently through developing a repertoire of learning dispositions and habits.
- COMPLEX BUT VITAL - it will take consistent focus and collective will over time to develop a growth culture but it is a path we need to travel.
The HOW2Learn strategy empowers learners by developing 5 dispositions and 22 habits that improve all-round learning fitness.
These dispositions are:
Disposition and habits
Aspect of Learning
Definition
Reciprocity
Social
Learners are ready, willing and able to learn alone or share in learning with others.
Resilience
Emotional
Learners are ready, willing and able to work through difficulties when the pressure mounts.
Resourcefulness
Thinking/Cognitive
Learners are ready, willing and able to choose and use resources wisely. Know what to do when you don't know what to do.
Reflectiveness
Strategic
Learners are ready, willing and able to be critically self-aware and responsive to feedback.
Responsibility
Community
Learners are ready, willing and able to be accountable for their individual and community's actions towards themselves, others and the environment.
How we model lifelong learners!
At Black Springs Pubic School we are risk takers, we show children we are always willing to learn new things!