Building Learning Power at Auchenblae
‘Since we cannot know what knowledge will be needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, our job must be to turn out young people who love learning so much, and who learn so well, that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.’ -John Holt
What is Learning Power?
Building Learning Power (BLP) is an approach to learning that we are implementing at Auchenblae School as part of our Visible Learning Journey. This approach was created by Professor Guy Claxton and has been advocated by John Hattie as one of the 5 Pillars of Visible Learning. It is based on the idea that we are all capable of becoming better learners. BLP applies this idea directly to the work of teachers in the classrooms, to provide a practical framework for fostering lifelong learning in all young people.
Key Principles
- It is a learning culture that encourages children and teachers to become better learners
- It allows children to approach difficulties in learning without fear of failure
- It allows the children to take small steps within learning
- It develops confidence
- It is not additional to teaching but should be grounded within everyday teaching and learning and indeed the ethos of the school
- It gives clear labels for the children to use to develop understanding of learning processes.
Why are we Building Learning Powers?
We want to develop a common language for learning across the school. In order to do this we have developed our values in to learning powers. The language is used in all classrooms, with all children. This helps everyone talk about both our values and understanding learning to learn. We hope that this understanding will begin to spill over into life outside school, where you will be able to reinforce the ideas by encouraging the children to use their learning language in their everyday lives. The idea is that our 7 values are like a group of “learning muscles”. Just as we can build our physical muscles with the right kind of exercise, learning muscles can also be developed and can grow in strength and stamina. It is these we are aiming to develop in the children.