Movin' on up, out of the darkness, into the four dimensions that help learning matter
Autumn Season, Part 5 - Festivals
When I laid out the plan for the Autumn Season, I said that one of the characteristics of autumn - festivals - was akin to celebrations of learning, which has a lot to do with the places we learn in.
What do festivals do? Well, they bring people together. They create an emotional and relational space that is open, creative, accepting and celebratory.
To get us in the right frame of mind for thinking about why this is important when seeking to create learning that matters, here’s Primal Scream (this’ll work best with the volume up ‘,-0 !!!! )
And now, a hard fact: there is so much disruption of place at the moment that festivals as a concept are hard to bring into learning.
Let’s think about classrooms, the primary place of school-based learning.
Classrooms give us a lot of scope to shape the learning. Classrooms put learners in close proximity to those who can help them. Classrooms make it possible for a teacher to attend and respond to small clues. Classrooms allow for acts of care to occur.
These are four dimensions of the classroom that work together to create learning that matters. We can define these dimensions a bit more by saying that
‘Shape the learning’ is about the provision of resources and content, and the development of the relational culture. As a learner, if the classroom is shaped well it allows me to access what I need to learn when I need it (resources, content) and helps me feel like it is ok for me to engage, take risks, do my best (relational culture).
If it’s humming, Primal Scream might say, ‘I'm moving on up now, getting out of the darkness’.
‘Close proximity’ is about having access to people. As a learner, this means I can engage with teachers, fellow students and other experts when I need to, and the opportunity to ask them questions is frequent and easy.
If it’s humming, Primal Scream might say, ‘I've got no bounds’.