Life-Long Learning |
Multiple Perspectives |
Integrity |
Life-Long Learning
We are learners. We love learning. We love learning about learning. We aspire to be model learners.
Learning can be demanding, fun, challenging, fulfilling, frustrating, exciting and exhausting. Sometimes pleasurable and sometimes painful.
Learning should never be boring, pointless, meaningless or overwhelming.
Regardless of the age of learner, the required curriculum and the local circumstances, we have always sought ways of effectively engaging the learner with learning. We were fortunate enough to learn the value of reflective practice early on in our careers. We have also had the opportunity to work alongside some inspiring practitioners and leaders. However, we have learned most from our learners...and continue to do so.
Teachers and educators need to recognise themselves as the lead learner and be unafraid to model that role. They need to be curious; be creative; take risks; be prepared to make errors; reflect on their experiences and apply their learning. They need to have high expectations of themselves and constantly strive for quality - from themselves and their learners.
Learning can be demanding, fun, challenging, fulfilling, frustrating, exciting and exhausting. Sometimes pleasurable and sometimes painful.
Learning should never be boring, pointless, meaningless or overwhelming.
Regardless of the age of learner, the required curriculum and the local circumstances, we have always sought ways of effectively engaging the learner with learning. We were fortunate enough to learn the value of reflective practice early on in our careers. We have also had the opportunity to work alongside some inspiring practitioners and leaders. However, we have learned most from our learners...and continue to do so.
Teachers and educators need to recognise themselves as the lead learner and be unafraid to model that role. They need to be curious; be creative; take risks; be prepared to make errors; reflect on their experiences and apply their learning. They need to have high expectations of themselves and constantly strive for quality - from themselves and their learners.
Multiple Perspectives
The above image is a photograph we took of a piece of public artwork - ‘Three Ellipses for Three Locks’ by Felice Varini - and is located at the Cardiff Bay Barrage. The concentric yellow circles can only be seen from one viewing point...now read on...
Our personal and professional development is shaped by what we experience during our lifetime. We each have our unique perspectives, values and prejudices.
There are times when we make a ‘connection’ with other people only to find, at a later date, that while we ‘speak the same language’ we have different concepts for shared words. The reverse is also true. We may find ourselves antagonised by what we hear and subsequently discover kindred spirits who use different jargon for a shared concept. As Frank Luntz says,
‘It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.’
In all our events, we invite participants to share and explore multiple perspectives through purposeful, guided reflection. We encourage and challenge people to search beyond the jargon, dogma and tradition.
Education, like other endeavours, has its own trends, fads, saints, demons, factions and fundamentalists. We judge and categorise according to our perspective. In Steven Covey’s bestseller ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ he urges us to
‘Seek first to understand...then be understood.’
In terms of learning and teaching, perhaps this could be the ‘1st Law of Formative Assessment’? If you want high quality outcomes, if you want to raise or maintain standards...then understand your learners. Invest time in exploring their perspectives and reap the rewards.
If you are an educator or a leader in education it is not just the quality of the feedback you give but the quality of the feedback you receive that has an impact on learning. And, we might add, having the courage to ask for it.
Our personal and professional development is shaped by what we experience during our lifetime. We each have our unique perspectives, values and prejudices.
There are times when we make a ‘connection’ with other people only to find, at a later date, that while we ‘speak the same language’ we have different concepts for shared words. The reverse is also true. We may find ourselves antagonised by what we hear and subsequently discover kindred spirits who use different jargon for a shared concept. As Frank Luntz says,
‘It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.’
In all our events, we invite participants to share and explore multiple perspectives through purposeful, guided reflection. We encourage and challenge people to search beyond the jargon, dogma and tradition.
Education, like other endeavours, has its own trends, fads, saints, demons, factions and fundamentalists. We judge and categorise according to our perspective. In Steven Covey’s bestseller ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ he urges us to
‘Seek first to understand...then be understood.’
In terms of learning and teaching, perhaps this could be the ‘1st Law of Formative Assessment’? If you want high quality outcomes, if you want to raise or maintain standards...then understand your learners. Invest time in exploring their perspectives and reap the rewards.
If you are an educator or a leader in education it is not just the quality of the feedback you give but the quality of the feedback you receive that has an impact on learning. And, we might add, having the courage to ask for it.
Integrity
Our Mission
Our primary aim is to share what we have learned about effective learning and teaching with educators - the tools, processes and underpinning theories. By empowering fellow practitioners to facilitate the learning of others, it is our hope that they in turn will empower their learners, encouraging them to value learning, value others, and value themselves, to strive for excellence, achieve their goals and to be willing to explore multiple perspectives.
Whatever kind of event or project we are invited to design and facilitate, we infuse it with the same learning principles outlined in the Five Key Concepts of Designing for Learning. Whether we are directly engaging with learners in a setting-based project or facilitating a training event, it is important that we lead by example, that we ‘walk the walk’ as well as ‘talk the talk’.
Our primary aim is to share what we have learned about effective learning and teaching with educators - the tools, processes and underpinning theories. By empowering fellow practitioners to facilitate the learning of others, it is our hope that they in turn will empower their learners, encouraging them to value learning, value others, and value themselves, to strive for excellence, achieve their goals and to be willing to explore multiple perspectives.
Whatever kind of event or project we are invited to design and facilitate, we infuse it with the same learning principles outlined in the Five Key Concepts of Designing for Learning. Whether we are directly engaging with learners in a setting-based project or facilitating a training event, it is important that we lead by example, that we ‘walk the walk’ as well as ‘talk the talk’.
Life-Long Learning |
Multiple Perspectives |
Integrity |
