Teaching for learning - developing core learning skills

The Teaching for Learning strand of the Design comprises three elements that combine to provide a framework that  enables schools to challenge the effectiveness and relevance current teaching practices.  The Teaching for Learning strand helps schools to align teaching approaches to a more personalised approach to learning and provides a coherent framework for the development of Core Learning Skills, building each learner's self awareness and learning capacity.

The three elements that together make the Teaching for Learning strand are:

• A Core Learning Skills Framework

• An Integrated Primary Curriculum

• Guidance, strategies and support to raise the quality of teaching

A Core Learning Skills Framework

After 15 years of continued emphasis on the content of the curriculum, the teaching profession is seeking a more balanced approach in which the teaching of learning skills plays a greater part. Both the Primary Strategy and the Key Stage 3 Strategy are asking questions of teachers and schools such as:

• what makes a child into a learner?
  
• can we identify universal learning skills that equip learners for life?
  
• how can schools develop these skills in their pupils?
  
• how can learning skills mesh with the content of the curriculum?
  
• what skills can we expect a child to have mastered by the end of each Key Stage?
• how can these skills be effectively taught and assessed?

Evidence strongly supports a correlation between mastery of fundamental learning skills and advances in academic and social achievement for students at all levels of development.

The Edison Design integrates a set of core learning skills into the framework of the National Curriculum, and provides the means to weave them into the classroom experience.

The Core Learning Skills are:

• Thinking
  
• Communications
  
• Literacies
  
• Personal and Social Competencies
  

Edison's Core Learning Skills Framework helps schools deliver an improved learning experience by:

• Defining and describing skill mastery levels and aligning these to level descriptors
  
• Supporting teachers with a manageable structure for planning,  teaching, assessing and reporting progress
  
• Providing professional development support to ensure successful adoption and integration
  
• Engaging the student, the teacher the parent and the whole school in tracking progress and setting targets

Questions and Answers on the Core Learning Skills Framework >>

A New Primary Curriculum

Does your school provide a curriculum that is stimulating and develops the skills that your pupils must master to become excellent learners and successful adults?

Although Excellence and Enjoyment gave schools licence to be creative and innovative, many do not have the teacher time and capacity to plan or, create and deliver an entirely new curriculum that meets the Every Child Matters and Learning to Learn agendas.

Creative Teaching and Skills for Life

Edison's solution was to create a new curriculum that meets these requirements and those of the National Curriculum in a way that allows teachers and children to be imaginative and creative while learning.  The curriculum is designed to help children develop the skills they need for success in life.

The curriculum is in two parts, which can be used separately or together to form a cohesive whole:

• Our Core Learning Skills Curriculum provides a structured and systematic method of intentionally teaching learning to learn and life skills.

Questions and Answers on the Integrated Core Skills Primary Curriculum >>

Enhancing the Quality of Teaching and Learning

The challenges of personalised learning and a more intense focus on the development of learning-to-learn capabilities create a real need for change in the classroom, both in the primary and secondary sectors.  Edison's approach enables schools to implement change in the classroom by:

• delivering relevant on-site professional development for teachers and classroom assistants

• providing templates and frameworks to improve the use and utilisation of time and teams

• sharpening classroom protocols and practices to provide school-wide consistency of approach, expectation and practice

• providing all teachers and support staff with access to appropriate peer support to assist in planning, preparation and problem-solving.

Above all, Edison provide schools with the means to derive best value from their most valuable asset - their teachers.

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