Focus on Learning

Today's conference call made me think: What is the purpose of schooling? Is it teaching or is it learning?

Of course, its learning, we would be quick to say. Yet, as education leaders who do not directly work with students, we sometimes tend to forget that. This is the point I was trying to make- when we do instructional rounds or classroom observations, what are we in there for? To observe how well a teacher is teaching? Or to find out whether students in my school are really learning!

Let us think about ourselves. How do we learn?  How do you learn best? The answer will vary for each one of us. We learn when we read. We often need to "talk it out" with a peer to clarify doubts we may have. How often have you approached someone to simply be a sounding board? We learn when we DO something- like build a model or sit on a bicycle for the first time. Sometimes when we do something new, we learn what not to do. We learn when we write a blog or a diary and reflect on our own thoughts. We learn when we connect a new experience to an old one. We learn when we observe someone else. And of course, we learn when someone explains something to us. 

Thus, if you were observing a classroom to find out whether children are learning, isn't this what you should be looking for? Are children allowed to be playful, to make errors, to try new things, to talk, to think, to question, to reflect, to make connections, to read... 

So instead on focusing on what the teacher is doing, lets shift our focus on what the children are doing. Is the teacher providing opportunities in her class for EVERY child to learn? And to learn in a deep, meaningful and joyful manner? Does the classroom culture respect student choice and ideas? Is EVERY kid engaged and thinking? 

In fact, even the checklist we sent you focuses on the teacher. What do you think about modifying it to talk about students. Because if students are not learning, then it is quite irrelevant what the teacher is doing, isn't it? Think about how many classrooms you may have seen with the most beautiful word walls that are never used! A checklist that looks for whether teachers ask open ended questions may miss the quality of these questions. How often do teachers in your school probe students, "why did you say that?"can you support what you just said with some evidence? does anyone disagree? could you please explain what you mean?" A teacher with a great bag of tricks could plan a wonderful lesson but if it isn't linked to a learning outcome, what would you conclude? That the LESSON was great or that the LEARNING was poor?

Just some food for thought as I chew on this as well. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.