Approaches to Learning Workshop
Approaches to Learning underpin the IB understanding of how students learn. This page provides you with a scaffold to deliver a workshop on Approaches to Learning to colleagues in your school.
The pedagogical approach of the workshop is based on inquiry based learning. Inquiry learning emphasizes constructivist ideas of learning, where knowledge is built from experience and process, especially socially based collaborative experience. In the workshop colleagues will develop their understanding of the IB Diploma Programme by reflecting on their own and others’ work, researching and carrying out individual and group activities.
An introductory note
In my experience of facilitating workshops teachers find it easier to understand the approaches to teaching than they do the approaches to learning. This may be because the approaches to teaching provide a clear rationale for how a teacher should teach (by framing inquiries, identifying key concepts, applying what is being taught to real-life contexts etc.). The approaches to learning are the result of how you teach - they are the skills that students develop as a result of how they are taught and how they learn.
My advice is for teachers to have a clear understanding of what these skills look like when they are being practiced, and then plan how they are going to develop these skills using learning scaffolds. Throughtout it is helpful if teachers apply a metacognitive approach, always making visible which skills are being practiced and developed.
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
Approaches to Learning - Introduction:
In groups assign the five approaches to learning to groups.
- As a group read about your learning skill.
- Select a sentence from the document that sums up what the skill is, a phrase that challenged your thinking, and a word this is powerful within the context of the skill.
- In plenary each group reads their sentence, phrase and word.
This collaborative activity enables the whole group to have a deeper understanding of this seminal IB document.
Extension:
- In groups choose an image to visually represent your skill. You could do this as a whole group or you could collect multiple images from individuals within the group on the skill you are inquiring into.
- Share using a collaborative online tool, such as padlet.
By asking people to communicate using an image we are encouraging the learning to be understood at a conceptual level. Images also allow for different understrandings and perpsectives, and thus encourage a richnes o discussion.
Aim: for transdisciplinary groups of teaching staff to create '3 minute reminders' for students on common skill development areas. By identifying some of the core skills that students need across a number of subjects staff can prepare their 'school way' of developing these skills in the form of 3 minute reminders that can be used where appropriate within their subject. These 3 minute reminders could be in the form of a Powerpoint or youtube video - whatever medium would work best for you and your students.
Three-minute reminders for cognitive skills such as:
- How to make an oral presentation
- A scaffold for how to take notes
- How to paraphrase
- Which roles to take in a group
- What is the methodology for my subject?
- How to cite and reference
Three-minute reminders for metacognitive skills such as reflection:
- What am I being asked to do? How to break down a rubric.
- Was there a process I can use again?
- How can I transfer this?
- What did I learn today? For example, using a routine such as 'I used to think ... now I think'
- How could I have done better? A selection of reflection strategies.
- Did I self-assess?
Three-minute reminders for affective skills such as:
- Resilience—What did I do well? What did I not do well? What can I learn for next time? Mistakes are a good opportunity to learn.
- Self-motivation—What do I want to achieve with this unit? What challenges will I face? How can I overcome them? What is my learning journey? What is my goal?
- Mindfulness—How do I feel today? How can I manage the demands of today? What will help me right now? I can’t control the past or the future but I can make a good choice right now.
I recognise that teachers do not necessarily like 'doing homework'. However, this is a good activity to ask them to do if you are running a workshop over two days. Some people need time to think about which resource they would like to provide.
Choose a film trailer (ideally on You Tube) in which a central character demonstrates one of the approaches to learning.
Now consider how you are going to introduces your approaches to learning skill using this video. You may find it useful to use the followng scaffold:
Activator: an introductory statement, quote or inquiry question which identifies the learning skill and its relevance.
Learning Engagement: structured reflections / questions around the video you have chosen.
Reflection: concluding quote or questions which helps staff take their learning further and apply it to their work. This could be in the form of top tips for implementing or embedding the learning skill.
