Learning How To Learn
Like other teachers and learners all over the country, we are adjusting to the rhythms of a new school year at Long-View and finding our way in new iterations of our learning community. As discussed in many of our posts, including this one from last spring, the idea of “learning community” is integral to the way we do school at Long-View. A quick version of what we mean when we say “learning community” looks something like this:
A classroom that operates as a learning community is founded on the understanding that the growth of knowledge involves individual and social processes, and the aim is to enhance both individual learning and group learning. This occurs through supporting individual contributions to a communal effort. Disciplined discourse is key, and the point of learning is to share it with others.
These ideas may feel a bit foreign to many learners and even parents or teachers, since many of us (likely) were educated in classrooms that engaged in very traditional, behavioristic pedagogy. As adults who want to help children further contemplate these ideas, we might ask questions such as:
What are you realizing you might do differently to increase your own learning?
What is different about a class that functions as a “learning community”?
Learning is messy and hard work…what are you realizing is important to do in order to increase learning for yourself and others?
It is quite a journey for most kids to fully understand the ideas behind these questions. At Long-View, new learners get a lot of support from their peers who have been at our school for multiple years. Parents and teachers can further support children by encouraging them to remember that the transition to a new learning community is a process and that they will not feel like everything is clear on day one, or even in the first few days and weeks–in terms of how we learn, as well as what we are learning. We need to encourage children to stick with it, to stay in the hard work, and to just make a little progress each day.
Children may express concern about the transition or discomfort with not knowing how to do everything others are doing. These concerns may present as worry or anxiousness. At Long-View, we expect this initial reaction, and it is a normal part of the transition. We encourage parents to validate these feelings as they come up and then support their children in reframing this as a part of the learning process. Learning is challenging and true learning often feels hard; we can support children in brainstorming ways to seek support from a teacher or, even better, we can talk with children about ways to go back to their community and ask questions that will unlock learning. As parents and teachers, we can brainstorm with children to think back over what coaching the child has received at school, and we can always support a growth mindset. We can try to normalize the feelings of frustration as much as we can, especially if a child hasn’t had many experiences in school or had an experience in which learning was “hard.”
In our experience, the most important work for all of us, as parents and teachers, is helping children to learn how to learn, including how to advocate for their learning by asking questions (anytime!—during class, at break, before school, after school, etc). If we can support children in focusing on mindset and learning behaviors as we begin a new school year, these changes will positively impact academic content and skills learning for years to come.
