FEATURE FOCUS: SEND
acquisition and application of learning leading to greater independence and autonomy in the learner, in all aspects of his or her life - academic, emotional, spiritual, and behavioural.
Generalisation
An area where distinguishing application from acquisition is important is in the concept of generalisation. Generalisation occurs when learning in one setting (acquisition) transfers easily to another (application) without the need of further teaching. The construct applies to people, places, materials, and time of day. It also describes the extent to which learning is maintained over time.
Some learners struggle to generalise their learning. A learner may, for example, be able to label items coloured red in the classroom with her teacher, but not with dad while at home or when out and about in the neighbourhood. Here we see acquisition with only limited use or application. Prospects for generalisation improve when the teacher systematically varies learning opportunities (using lots of examples and contexts during learning) and ensures fluency, so that the application of learning comes easily to the learner in everyday life. Generalisation, or the spreading of learning into novel situations, is a category of learning in its own right that can itself be learned from lots of exposure and practice.
Motivation
Pre-requisites for learning are attendance, engagement, and motivation. A related purpose of education, therefore, must be to create conditions under which learning can occur - to get students into the learning environment with minimal effort from families each school day, to stimulate and maintain interest, to promote participation and engagement in school-based learning, and to establish and sustain learner
appetites into adult life.
There are many ways to do this that are well known to the skilled and motivated teacher. He or she will create learning opportunities that are intrinsically interesting and rewarding for the learner, ensure task difficulty stretches the learner without jeopardising learner success, and make at least five positive comments for every error correction. Learners may also be involved in selecting learning outcomes.
The BAGS framework
Ensuring that learning outcomes are functional and meaningful requires effort. Moreover, the majority of learning opportunities for students will occur outside of formally programmed teaching sessions. Student learning in this context will be determined by the social climate of the learning environment. Students are likely to do better when values are clear, where they translate into clearly articulated expectations, and where there is a clear and consistent relationship between behaviour and behaviour strengthening reward. Because teaching and other related staff make so many decisions out with formally programmed teaching, we developed a simple and easy to remember framework for sense-checking those decisions.
BAGS is how we sense-check the value and meaning of teacher decisions. It works equally well for curriculum, lesson plans, learning outcomes, and learning opportunities. Essentially, outcomes that move a learner closer to BAGS are likely to have more function and meaning than anything moving the person the other way. BAGS is an acronym. It is not especially attractive, but it is very easy to remember, and it translates into ‘BAGS of news’, ‘BAGS of support’, ‘BAGS of reward’, ‘BAGS of progress’ and so on. The idea is very simple. Ask “Does what I am about to do move the learner closer to or away from BAGS?”
October 2023
Here is what BAGS stands for: • B = Belonging and connection. Belonging is the feeling we have of being part of a community. There are communities of interest, association, and place. Connection is having a valued position within a network of social relationships.
• A = Autonomy and control. Autonomy is the sense we have of being able to act independently. Control is influencing the big things in life, and the small everyday things that happen daily.
• G = Gifts and talents. Gifts are the things we do with or without assistance. Talents are the things we learn, refine, and develop. These are the product of opportunity and focused teaching.
• S = Speaking and listening and sense of self. Speaking and listening refers to the many ways we communicate with one another, both expressively and receptively, using words, symbols, signs, and gestures. Sense of self is how we see ourselves, and how we think others see us.
Purpose in practise
In summary, the purpose of education is the bringing of benefits to the individual and to society, by promoting autonomy through the acquisition and application of learning that promotes development and growth. Students with special educational needs require more assistance than their typical peers. They are helped when their teachers adjust curricula, timetable, and lesson plans, making them functional and meaningful, and when they ensure broadly based learning spreads to novel situations and maintains over time. BAGS is a simple idea for sense-checking a multitude of decisions teachers and others make every day, including those that outside of formal teaching plans.
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