What are Learning Powers all about?

How do we learn? What do we need to teach our children so that they can be effective learners? 

As part of our learning at Kaipara Flats Primary, as well as learning in the curriculum areas, we also learn about learning dispositions. By studying the work of educational experts Kath Murdoch, Guy Claxton and Michael Absolum, exploring the 7 Principles of Learning and the work the school has been doing with PB4L,  we are now teaching the children the explicit skills of learning. Based on the New Zealand Curriculum’s Principles, Values and Key Competencies, our school has developed 4 Learning Powers which we have put into a learning pathway. 

Building students learning powers is about:

  • Helping our children to help themselves become better learners

  • Developing our children’s learning habits

  • Preparing our children for a lifetime of learning

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What is this idea based on?

  • An extensive body of research into learning and the brain

  • Recent research into the key dimensions of learning habits

  • Practical trials in schools across the world

  • The original pioneering work of Professor Guy Claxton, who acted as programme consultant, and chief inspiration, for Building Learning Power programmes

How does it work?

Building students as powerful learners:

  • is based on a coherent picture of what it takes to be a good learner

  • capitalises on previous learning-to-learn ideas

  • grows a child’s learning character and habits

  • develops the appetite and ability to learn in different ways

  • transforms the culture of the classroom and the climate of the school

  • shifts responsibility for learning to learn from the teacher to the learner

  • engages teachers and students creatively as researchers in learning

  • gives schools the opportunity to track students’ learning developmentWhat effect will developing students learning behaviours have?

  • raised achievement

  • improved behaviour

  • increased motivation

  • supple learning minds

  • increased enjoyment in learning

  • established habits of lifelong learning

  • enhanced creativity

This is a practical approach which:

  • shows short-term benefits very quickly

  • starts small and builds firmly

  • increases student and teacher motivation

  • takes time, thought, and a bit of ingenuity to perfect

  • re-energises teachers

  • works best as

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