Summary of Contents

MANAGING EFFECTIVE LEARNING

OVERVIEW

Gaining insights into how students learn is like striking gold for teachers – such knowledge is powerful, pointing the way to better teaching that will help your pupils become more effective learners. But the brain is a complex organ – there is so much we still do not know about how it works. Despite this, theories on learning and understanding of the brain have developed considerably in recent years. 

Managing Effective Learning, the third issue of Curriculum Briefing, will help you to tap into this knowledge and see how it can be applied to classroom practice to bring about real change in the learning that goes on at your school. Learners are all different, with their own ways of learning best – understanding how to provide for different learning styles is vital to help maximise learning. But it is also important to equip learners with an ability to use various styles, so they are as flexible as possible, and can have the means at their disposal to access learning in different ways. 

LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING

Hitting the jackpot: understanding influences on learning 
While learning is a complex process, it does not have to be a lottery. Mike Hughes uses a fruit machine analogy to identify key principles of learning and help you understand more about what learning involves, so you can help your students to hit the jackpot.

UNDERSTANDING THE THEORY

Learning is all a matter of style – understanding learning to improve teaching
To ensure that maximum learning goes on in their classrooms, teachers need to understand how students learn. Evidence points to the fact that effective teachers not only know about learning and how it happens, but they understand that their pupils learn in different ways. Professor Kathy Hall uncovers the main theories of learning to show how knowledge of different styles can help you ensure all your students become effective learners.

MANAGING THE LEARNING PROCESS

Going on a learning journey – providing a framework for learning
Seeing learning as a journey with recognised landmarks along the way can help you to structure your teaching so that effectively you are supplying students with a map to direct them along the best route for them. Mike Tilling sets out the stages of a journey that illustrate how learning happens over time, and then sets out what different elements you need to include in each lesson to help learners continue on their way.

DEVELOPING SOCIAL LEARNING

Using interaction as a learning tool
Social learning, involving students interacting with each other to enhance the learning experience, is not being given enough attention in most classrooms. With good planning, social learning not only brings many benefits to the students, it also gives teachers more time to focus on individuals – Research Consultant Dr John Beresford shares planning tools that will help ensure your teachers give students more opportunities to experience this invaluable style of learning.

LEARNING TO LEARN

In the know: learning how to learn Based on the premise that learning is learnable, the Campaign for Learning is investigating what approaches work best in schools to help students learn how to learn. Policy and Information Director Toby Greany shares some of the findings so far and helps you to identify how your pupils prefer to learn and what their learning strengths are, how pupils can motivate themselves and have self-confidence to succeed, and how to identify other factors that can have an effect on learning. 

TEACHING AND LEARNING POLICY

Making a difference in practice — achieving whole-school change
It is no good having the odd few enthusiastic teachers using learning theories to inform their teaching in isolated classrooms – to really benefit the students, the approach needs to be adopted consistently throughout the school. Daniela Sommefeldt shows how to develop a policy that will achieve just that.

POLICY CASE STUDY

Developing a policy that works in practice
An effective way to develop new policy is to set up a group charged with creating the approach and finding the best ways to put it into practice. St Mary’s Roman Catholic High School, Lugwardine, in Herefordshire, set up just such a committee to develop its teaching and learning policy. Head of the Committee Jill Jackson explains how the group set about the task, and why it decided that one of the best ways to get staff on side was to run an Inset day early on to raise awareness of learning styles.

PLANNING EFFECTIVE LESSONS

Creating a dynamic classroom environment
It is one thing knowing about different theories on learning – it is quite another being able to use that information to bring about greater learning in the classroom. Penny Sweasey, Susan Bermingham and Ben Steel from Manchester Metropolitan University share strategies you can use to bring about real change in learning by equipping teachers to provide for different learning preferences in the classroom.

CASE STUDY: USING KOLB

Making learning styles work in the classroom Taking action to ensure teachers are more aware of which of Kolb’s four learning styles each of their pupils most relates to can have a powerful effect on improving teaching and learning. Nigel Wickham, Assistant Headteacher of Failsworth School in Oldham, shows how his school has used its knowledge of pupil learning styles to change the curriculum and classroom practice for the better.

CASE STUDY: CHANGING PRACTICE

Using VAK to bring about whole-school classroom change
A close look at learning theory was the springboard for all staff at Summerhill School to change classroom practice to provide for different learning styles – in particular, the school wanted to see what difference a focus on kinaesthetic learning would have on student performance. The main aims of the project were to raise the quality of teaching and learning, and increase student involvement and responsibility for their own learning. Deputy Head Dennis Medway describes the route taken, from initial idea to embedding the approach in whole-school policy.

LEARNING FRAMEWORK

Being friendly to the mind – providing a framework for effective learning for all
John Hattersley outlines a framework for learning that takes account of how learners learn to provide a structure that accommodates different learning styles, with practical tips on how to apply it in the classroom. We guide you through the eight-stage process and detail the practical benefits of such a framework for your school. Share it with your staff so that lessons throughout your school are planned to be inclusive of all types of learner.

CASE STUDY: FRAMEWORK FOR LEARNING

Creating a community of effective learners
Cramlington Community High School has created a framework for learning to provide a coherent approach to applying the different learning theories in the classroom. Without a coherent structure or framework there is a danger of new ideas being adapted or grafted on to a traditional structure, therefore limiting the benefits. Headteacher Derek Wise outlines the structures his school has put in place to support teachers in planning lessons suitable for all their students.