Learning to recognise, understand and eventually embrace your learning zone is one of the foundation stones of Learnership.

In this section of the book, I take you on a deep dive into the five essential elements that make up Learnership. Like any area of expertise, learning has fundamental components that we need to understand and develop.

Next Steps

1. Read this section of the book to dive deeper into these ideas and explore the examples that will help you bring them to life in your school
2. Listen to the audio summary below for a quick overview of these key concepts
3. Use the activities provided to explore what this means for your school

How to Explore These Ideas With Your Team

1. Exploring The Learning Zone (45 minutes)

• Introduce the concept of comfort, performance, and learning zones
• Have teachers identify examples from their own experience
• Discuss what being in the learning zone feels like
• Consider how to help students become “comfortably uncomfortable”

2. Understanding Effective Effort (45 minutes)

• Examine the Effective Effort Matrix
• Have teachers analyze different types of student effort they observe
• Practice identifying when students are investing vs spending effort
• Develop strategies for helping students invest their effort more effectively

3. Designing Mistakes and Tailoring Feedback (60 minutes)

• Explore the six different types of mistakes
• Practice identifying each type in student work
• Develop strategies for helping students design productive mistakes
• Create approaches for helping students tailor feedback to their needs

4. Developing Habits of Mind (45 minutes)

• Introduce the Habits of Mind Learner Profile
• Practice using it to assess student learning behaviors
• Identify opportunities to develop specific habits
• Plan how to integrate habit development into daily teaching

Reflection Questions

• Which elements of Learnership are strongest in your school?
• Where do you see opportunities for development?
• How well do your students understand these elements?

Don’t have the book yet? Purchase Learnership here

Want to discuss how these ideas could transform your school community? Schedule a time with James

Ready to Continue Your Learnership Journey?

Now that you understand the essential elements of Learnership, it’s time to see how they come together as students develop increasing expertise in learning. In Part V, we’ll explore the six levels of Learnership and what they mean for student agency.