Culture of Learning: Creating Trust

Semester One just ended and the paper recycling bin are brimming with discarded notes and projects from completed courses.  Well-intentioned students tab and organize binders for the new course line-up.  Well-meaning teachers reinforce these fledgling organization skills with clear expectations and periodic notebook checks.  Sugar coating.

The best definition of learning I have encountered:

There are three components to the definition of Learning:

1. “Learning is a process, not a product.”
   Exam scores and term papers are measures of learning, but they are not the process of learning itself.
2. “Learning is a change in knowledge, beliefs, behaviors or attitudes.”
   This change requires time, particularly when one is dealing with changes to core beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. Don’t interpret a lack of sea change in your students’ beliefs or attitudes immediately following a lesson as a lack of learning on their part, but instead, consider that such a change will take time – perhaps a few weeks, perhaps until the end of the term, or even longer.
3. “Learning is not something done to students, but something that students themselves do.”
   If you have ever carefully planned a lesson, only to find that your students just didn’t “get it,” consider that your lesson should be designed not just to impart knowledge but also to lead students through the process of their own learning (Ambrose 2010:3).

We assume that when we teach, students will try to learn.  This is not usually true.  When we teach, some students try to cooperate… regurgitate… trust us… compete… pass… and excel…  Most students do not actually try to learn. Thus the grade nine math student complacently says, "I don't get it, but I am passing."

Schools are trying (within their outdated model) to create an authentic culture of learning.  At the same time, these same schools are working to create an inclusive environment and feed students and provide emotional support and so on.  School are called upon to try to be all things to all students, as well as ensure students acquire knowledge and skills.

How can teachers and administrators create an environment in which sustained learning and growth are realized?  Research on the adolescent brain definitively states that teens learn when they personally engage (emotionally invested, physically interacting, and intellectual solving problems) while supported by clear behavioural expectation, feedback, and responsive explicit instruction. What does that look like in reality?

Individual Goal Setting: By Secondary School, students know where their weaknesses are.  Engaging in frequent, honest dialogues to ascertain curriculum related needs (prior knowledge, skill deficits, readiness, etc.) that will move the student forward requires trust. But with small steps and responsive instructive and feedback, students will start to believe that they can learn and that the classroom can support them. Goal setting dialogues can grow to long-term and life-long goals as trust builds.


Quality over Quantity: No longer a perpetual production line of tasks, students can focus on extended projects that allow time for investment, depth, feedback, revision, and re-teaching. There is a time for intensive practice, when this strategy will build confidence and competence for the student. Again, honest dialogue, trust, and student ownership are paramount.

Student Ownership:  Giving students a voice in what and how they learn content and acquire skills is crucial to create meaningful learning. This will be a gradual process because many students will not trust our commitment, and others will not know where to begin.  Students need to be guided as they learn to exercise choice.  They need to learn how to discover their interests, how to ask great questions, how to formulate a personal plan, how to identify their own learning needs, how to evaluate resources, and how to assess their own progress.  We need to teach teens how to own learning.

What Gets Celebrated, Gets Repeated: The annual student awards, the honour roll, scholarships all recognize marks.  It is time we start to reward the learning. Casual recognition of staff or student learning in conversations by unexpected teachers and administrators will shift school culture towards learning.  Celebrating student projects in progress will generate excitement. Actual plaques, trophies, and certificates for evidence of significant, innovative learning will place value on learning - not marks.

A subtle but significant culture shift is happening in pockets of education. We will start to regain the trust of students as we emphasize authentic learning over marks.  More and more teachers and administrators want to be a part of moving schools away from the production line model, and they will lead the way in restoring meaning into the education system.