Refining the Learning Power Approach: Defining the difference between

What could a version of this look like in our school?

One of the key aspects of my professional learning last academic year was asking myself the questions - 

• What could this look like in my school? Or 
• What could our version of this look like? 

So easily, as educators, we can think we need to adopt, letter for letter, an amazing strategy, process or policy from another setting or a lead thinker and there is certainly no lack of such gems and takeaways in Learning Pioneers. 

But coming to terms with the fact that thinking, structure and practice will and should look different in my setting has been both freeing and enriching.

From inspiration to perspiration - embedding learning from inspiration in Learning Pioneers

As a school, The Learning Power Approach has been growing and blossoming from the Early Years to Year 8 for a number of years now. As a team we have been embedding a living model of LPA attributes with new cohorts and teachers through all subjects but this is always growing and evolving. It was time to take our understanding to a deeper level. 

To inspire thinking in our team, I used the example of a brilliant two part Learning Pioneer’s Masterclass on An Introduction to Team Teaching led by Andrew Honigsfeld to illustrate the power and impact of such thinking.

Learning from Andrea's Masterclass

As well as sharing ideas and practice around Team Teaching to support, in particular multilingual learners, Andrea spent time unpicking and inviting us to think and consider the value and place of collaboration and cooperation in the classroom. 

When we wanted to explore collaboration, one of our school’s focus learning attributes, further as a team, I drew on Andrea’s thinking to piece together some invitations for my staff team to consider. 

This was a mix of video links, questions, and a way of recording our thinking through the means of an answer garden (also shared by Andrea as a tool to gather thinking - check it out here).

Not the final garden but where we got to after a few sessions of revisiting the ideas.

Our school setup is not that we could and should not have replicated the examples Andrea shared but instead these provided a powerful scaffold for us to explore the ideas for our set of circumstances. For example, we don't have language support teachers that team teach in the classroom but we do have a number of 1:1 assistants across the school that support individuals in close partnership with the class teacher. Where we could have easily dismissed this part of the Masterclass as not relevant, we considered the ideas and thinking, and applied them to our needs. Meetings with the 1:1 assistants, communication and use of lesson time were all reconsidered off the back of this.

The result: Positive tweaks to our practice which in turn benefits the learners. 

So my invitation to you all is, stay open and curious about the content on offer. 

• How do you unpick Learner Attributes with your teams and students?
• Have you explored the differences between "collaboration" and "co-operation" with your teams?
• How could this look in your own setting, what version could it be?

Try it and note the impact, it might just surprise you! 

If you want to find out more about our Masterclasses and how they might impact on your team’s professional learning, check out Andrea’s and our 9 other Masterclasses here.