Spread the load!

Some interesting thoughts on learning growth and how to get more

Last week I introduced Stanislas Dehaene’s How We Learn.  He proposes four pillars of learning: attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation.

A friend was describing (he has the students’ attention and active engagement – through the relationships he has built) how he has been using peer feedback and formative and summative feedback (in a very sophisticated way) to increase the error feedback that students receive.  At the same time, he has put measures in place to gain a detailed understanding of how his students’ learning (in English composition) is developing.  His measures cover level achieved plus rate of growth over time.

He was initially surprised at how much growth there was and that there was a clear correlation between level of learning achieved and rate of growth.  The students with the highest levels of achievement also have the highest rates of growth and the reverse is also true – those with the lowest levels of learning have the lowest rates of growth.

He explained this by, first, increasing error feedback really does lead to more growth and second, from a neuroscience point of view, we grow fastest where we are already strongest, thus the correlation between level and rate also made sense.

The students are in years 5 and 6 and are nowhere near the upper limits of their learning so these differential rates of growth will likely continue unless he can change something and increasing the level of error feedback to the students with the lower rates of growth seems most promising.

My friend is considering using the students who consistently perform highly as ‘peer tutors’ allowing them to skip the summative assessments and, instead, help teach the other students using the skills that the class has developed for providing peer feedback.

He sees the advantages being that it increases the ‘error feedback’ component for students with a lower rate of growth and, he thinks, will increase the level of consolidation for the high achievers (on the basis that we learn best when we teach). This should increase learning across the board.

In addition, this approach will change the class dynamics and the life learning that comes both from taking responsibility and having meaningful collaboration between peers.

All very cool but it needs effective teacher-student relationships to take things this far.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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