Good Learning starts with a Good Learner

What makes a good learner? I’ve been reading up on this lately. So that I can be a better learner and help others to bring out the best in their colleagues, customers and communities.

And I know I’m not the first to ask this question, and absolutely not the most qualified either. But what I have been seeking, as I do with all research is something tangible, enactable and conversational. here’s a heck of a lot of fluff out there… community engagement is an ace example… what the heck does that mean? A snag sizzle at Bunnings? Giant pieces of butchers paper on round tables with people scratching their chins? Time’s up on confusing rhetoric. What makes a good learner, so that we can be one and help others to be one too. Because learning is based in curiosity, and when we are curious, we are fully alive. So it matters.

Ages ago, those clever cats over at Bristol University set out to answer our big question on learners. The things they identified they labelled as “learning powers”.

I like where this is going already.

In the thirteen or so years since the Bristolians started thinking deeply, others have jumped on the iterative bandwagon, considering how these learning powers play out in practice, including what they mean for different learners and their significance in different contexts of learning. And school doesn’t do them any favours it seems; strength of these attributes is often diminished, rather than enhanced, by traditional schooling. But aligned with the current edu-narrative, the old metric issue pops up. The problem is, nowhere in the world are these attributes measured.

So what are the powers? Ruth Deakin Crick from UTS has done some ace work in making them clear and interpretable. So here are the 8 Super Powers of Learning.

1. Openness and readiness to learn: Actually being open & ready to invest time, energy and emotion into learning. Being flexible, resilient and a good sense of self-believe.
2. Mindful agency: Possibly the most ‘fluffy’, but still, it means taking responsibility for your own learning over time through defining my purposes, understanding and managing my feelings, knowing how I go about learning & planning my learning journey carefully. Owning it, basically.
3. Hope and optimism: Having a growth mindset; believing I can seek and find what I need and get better over time.
4. Collaboration: being able to work with others, to collaborate and co-generate new ideas and artefacts. Being able to listen and contribute productively to a team.
5. Belonging: Being part of one or more learning communities.
6. Curiosity: Wanting to know more. Always wondering why and how.
7. Creativity: using my intuition & imagination to generate new ideas & knowledge. Taking risks & playing with ideas and processes to arrive at new solutions.
8. Sense making: Making connections between what I already know & new information & experience. Making meaning by linking my story, my new learning & my purpose.

So I can’t learn in isolation? Whoa. That’s an ace thing. I need stimuli and even better, people. But what’s the best finding, for me, is that I need to be driving it in order for it to be powerful learning. It can’t be done TO me. This is excellent news for our learners young and old.

Even more excellent is how this brings even more of my learning design to life though working with countless organisations and teams to foster collaboration, wellbeing, innovation. It all comes down to great learning and great learners. Deakin Crick articulates it as a learning journey; Learner identity, through learning power, to knowledge structuring and competent performance.

I’m always seeing and designing excellent ways and resources to help build our capability as great learners. I like to share them on Twitter and I’d love to share yours too. Follow me at @Edusum and let’s build the hearts and smarts of communities through learning.