A simple formula for success

Providing nurturing conditions makes it easier for students to find the joy in learning, writes Peter Hanlon.

The notion of nurturing students to become lifelong learners has the simplest of foundations. If from a young age we develop a yearning to grow and develop our minds, a fertile life beckons at school and beyond.

“A progressive education has always centred around learning to learn,” says Westbourne Grammar Associate Principal Adrian Camm, noting that like so much in education this fundamental has been revolutionised by technology’s ever-growing reach.

“The idea behind it is that schools are attempting to cultivate the right conditions for students to develop the attitudes, morals, ethics, dispositions and skills needed for a life of learning. If schools target this approach and get it right, students will develop a sense of agency, they’ll have the right character, and they’ll become critical and discerning thinkers, and both local and global leaders.

“That’s the vision of lifelong learning – that you’ll be able to learn anything you need to at any time.”

At Brighton Grammar the tangible aspect of this approach sits under an effective learner model that boasts four quadrants, each with a learning aspect: learning dispositions, learning architecture, learning processes and feedback. Headmaster Ross Featherston says these have a physical presence around the school, seen daily by students, staff, parents, every member of the school community.

Key to embedding a love of learning is exposing children from a young age to experiences that make them feel good about themselves. By reading a book, writing neatly, solving a simple maths equation, Ross says children “can understand and sense their own development, which makes them feel good, and they want to keep that idea of continuous improvement. It feeds upon itself.

“Then when they get older and things become more challenging, if they’ve got that love of learning early doors – and I’m not talking about getting 95 on a test, it’s personal development, learning to the best of your ability – then they’re more likely to carry it through beyond the school gates.”

At Toorak College, Head of the Early Learning Centre and Junior School Melissa Schoorman says walking into the ELC and seeing the various experiences before you – the painting station, building blocks, home corner, etc – is merely a step towards understanding what actually happens when you engage with each zone. Problem-solving is a learned skill – play with building blocks and you’re actually engaging in engineering and design, planning, construction, and the essential learning of how to react when someone else knocks it all down.

Working through the choppy waters of challenge is how lifelong learning occurs.

“I was saying to my Year 6 English class recently, if something is coming to you really easily, that’s actually not learning, that’s revision, making a connection with something you already know,” Melissa says. “Whereas the learning process as a whole is about feeling uncomfortable, feeling like you need multiple repetitions. Sitting in struggle is actually a really positive feeling.”

At Toorak this materialises through Project Shine, which segments the school into four and works on embedding skills such as critical thinking, collaboration and resilience from early learning through to VCE. Building relationships and trust from the get-go is vital to discovering what motivates and engages, and puts students in a learning mindset.

“The first time you went across the monkey bars it was hard, but you didn’t stop,” Melissa says. “You persisted, and your brain remembers that it became easier each time. We talk about the brain as a tool to help you learn, but it’s not going to give it to you the first time.”

How much of learning should be fun in order to engage, yet challenging enough to ensure growth and progress, is an age-old teaching conundrum. Adrian Camm likes to think of it as “hard fun” – how we react when we’re stretched in our thinking, when we’re not sure if we can do it. “That’s when the real deep learning takes place, when we can have those ‘a-ha’ moments and break through to the next level of performance.”

Melissa Schoorman sees examples of gender bias among Toorak’s girls at a very early age, voiced through statements like, “I don’t like maths, it’s too hard.” Providing early opportunities to succeed in those areas, so they are embraced when formal schooling starts, is key to embedding a love of learning.

At Westbourne this happens via the Reggio Emilia approach of listening to children’s interests and theories, and building on those so curiosity is maintained. Relative to generations past, learning is less siloed and more focused on skills that can be transferred between subjects; fundamentals like literacy and numeracy remain vital, but as students transition through education, growth comes from making connections between disciplines.

Ross Featherston tells his students and staff they should all be reading a book – it doesn’t really matter what, as long as they’re reading. He acknowledges that for some, learning can actually be quite hard. The job of educators is to create an environment of support, and the choices for young people that will lead to what intuitively engages them and brings out their best.

“What will being a lifelong learner do? It’s going to make them better people,” Ross says. “It will make them more understanding, more respectful.

“It will also provide them with a greater chance of finding success, whatever that looks like. Being a brain surgeon or rocket scientist, or a tradie with a plumbing business, that’s fine. It provides them with a greater chance of finding their success in life if they are a lifelong learner.”

 

This piece by Peter Hanlon was published in The Age under the headline: ‘A simple formula for success: schools set up the right environment and children thrive’