We all talk about it. How many times have we heard someone say, 

‘In our school, it’s not just about what they learn. In our school we teach children how to learn’. 

But do we? 

Research shows that metacognition and other elements of learner agency and self-regulation have a major impact on success in learning and in life. Our experience shows that intentional teaching of "Learning to Learn" is absent from most curriculum design. We have addressed this critical omission by designing a Pre-K through 12 Learning Map for this critical meta-discipline. We have backed this up with practical toolkits for all 10 strands of our Learning to Learn map. We specialise in supporting schools and universities in the necesary work of equipping students and teachers with these tools. Many of our schools make Learning to Learn the focus of their annual Collective Impact Goal.  

LEARNER AGENCY: A tools-based approach 

In CGC, we always think like practitioners. We build learner agency by including Learners in the whole learning process in innovative and practical ways. We suggest sharing our Learner-Facing Modules with Learners in advance and then providing a simple set of tools for use in every classroom. These include: 

• Notetaking Guides backed up by Processing Pauses
• Specified Wait Time eg. 30 seconds, before asking big questions.
• STAR Feedback focusing on “What worked well, Even better if..” with peer to peer feedback sessions built into our plans.
• Consistent rubrics shared with Learners

We find that even a limited set of strategies like these have a major impact on building learner agency and school culture. They represent a small shift for teachers but a major shift for Learners.