How do we teach learning?
A focus on Approaches to Learning at HKA BY JENNIFER SWINEHART
Believing that skill sets are an inherent part of your personality makes it very difficult to identify areas for future growth as a learner. How can you learn to be more organised if you believe you are simply a disorganised person? How can you improve your use of creative or problem- solving skills if you think you are not an artistic or mathematical thinker? And, most importantly, if you have been told you are either good or bad at something, why would you ever be motivated to try to change your ability to appropriately apply certain sets of skills in various contexts?
In the Hong Kong Academy mission statement, we articulate a commitment to fostering creativity, communication and problem-solving skills in our learners. This is not a challenge that we take lightly as we believe that these types of skills help students find ways to replicate success in a variety of learning contexts, both within and outside of school. The International Baccalaureate has identified a set of five skill sets, the Approaches to Learning skills, that run through the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programmes and provide us with an opportunity to align the ways in which we support a variety of skills in our learners.
Many of us grew up in environments in which our ability to do something was viewed as an inherent part of our personality. This meant that people around us believed that we were naturally good at some things and not so good at others. When you were young, you might have been identified by teachers, parents or even yourself as organised, creative or articulate. If you were not so lucky, you might have been told you were not good at learning languages, doing mathematics or playing sports. You might have seen these skills as innate traits within yourself that really were not something that could be altered, and you accepted them as a part of ‘who you were’.
At Hong Kong Academy, we embrace the idea that each person has the capacity to develop his or her skill sets in the areas of self-management, communication, collaboration, research and critical and creative thinking, the areas that comprise the International Baccalaureate Approaches to Learning skills. As teachers, it is essential that we are committed to exploring how we can create learning communities in which students are able to nurture these skill sets in a multitude of contexts and reflect on their successes and areas for development in future skill use.
Understanding how to grow and improve in each of these skill areas encourages students to learn how to learn and take responsibility for, and pride in, their learning. And as a common thread in the International Baccalaureate Programmes, the Approaches to Learning skills also provide a common language for students and teachers to use when deconstructing the learning process and create continuity for learners in our school. Ultimately, these skills empower our learners to feel adaptable and confident and help equip them for the future.
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