Learner Agency is an outcome, not a pedagogy
There’s a lot of talk in education at the moment about Learner Agency (aka student agency). In the name of agency we are supposed to give students “voice and choice” in their learning. But there’s…
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Never Work Harder Than Your Students
#learnership education Probably the best piece of advice I ever got as a teacher was “never work harder than your students.” One of my former mentors, Joanne Roberts, told me that. A fantastic principal, with…
Your Whole School Approach To Habits of Mind
Plus a bonus interview with Art Costa and Bena Kallick It’s been more than 25 years since Art Costa and Bena Kallick introduced the world to the Habits of Mind. In that time, the Habits…
Why we need Agile Learners?
Agile Learners thrive in the most challenging and unpredictable environments. Whether it’s academic success in schools, increasing the bottom line in business, improving parenting skills or triumphing in any other challenging task, the Agile Learner…
Why is a Growth Mindset so important to motivation?
I love this quote by George Bernard Shaw. It so neatly captures one of the key differences between someone with a Growth Mindset and someone with a Fixed Mindset. Someone with a Fixed Mindset believes…
Introducing the Mindset Continuum
Why are we still talking fixed v’s growth mindsets in schools? In her landmark book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck introduced the concept of Fixed and Growth Mindsets to the world. She…
Where do the Habits of Mind fit?
Last week, I discussed how staff at my school were able to “find” the Habits of Mind in the curriculum, as well as in their big-picture visions of student learning. By doing so, they realised…
Focus. Feedback. Fix it! … and the role of mistakes
On its own, a mistake has no value. The value and learning potential come not from the mistake itself, but from the way we act on it. To achieve learning and extract value from a…
You’re not born with a Mindset. You catch it!
I met a mother recently who told me she had read Mindsets. The New Psychology of Success, 5 years ago when she was pregnant with her first child. The book had a profound impact on…
Why students need to get better at making mistakes
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve written about how real growth only happens when we stretch ourselves beyond our current best. We grow when we seek to raise the bar by working in our…