Learning-centred classrooms and schools and colleges

Fact or fiction? Will yours be a learning-centred classroom?

For some people, the idea of a learning-centred classroom is far-fetched, and given the trends of recent decades in UK classrooms (more whole-class teaching, more copying from the board), that may be understandable. But such classrooms do exist here and now in the UK. 

For others, the idea of a learning-centred classroom is not an attractive proposition, because they view it as an extreme scenario ('pupils doing what they want') and this triggers their fears of 'losing control' which are based on old conceptions of the teacher's role.

Running a learning-centred classroom does not mean throwing everything out: it means shifting some of the focus from teaching to learning: it means addressing the same curriculum, but with a focus on learners and learning; it means giving attention to how the pupils are covering' the content, rather than the teacher. And it means helping pupils learn about their learning and thus be better prepared for the future.

Teachers who run learning-enriched classrooms have made a shift from the dominant model  instruction. They have resolved the tensions of the classroom in a new way, and have often made changes in the: 

• balance of power ­- it has become more shared 
• function of content ­- there is more focus on understanding 
• role of the teacher -­ is more of an orchestrator 
• responsibility for learning -­ is more with the pupils 
• purpose and process of evaluation -­ is more to improve the classroom.

Teachers who operate learning-centred classrooms are those who know that things can be better

But learning-centred classrooms get better results, so we have to challenge the idea that the tests make us behave this way. Performance testing on its own does not create teacher-centred classrooms. Add the extra ingredient of judgement and fear, and this shifts the responsibility for learning - it is this ingredient which leads teachers to act in a more controlling way. In a context of pressure and compliance, this leads to a narrowed teacher repertoire and to teachers being described as 'risk-aversive'.

Teachers who operate learning-centred classrooms are those who know that things can be better, and are prepared to act according to their principles rather than according to their fears. They take what might seem to others to be risks, knowing that in education the biggest risk is not to take one!

Recognising that running a learning-centred classroom is a shift of emphasis and role, it is still possible to outline some of the practices. If we view learning as an individual making sense, they could include:

• an explicit focus on learning, for example in goals and products
• tasks framed in cognitive terms ('classify', 'analyse', predict')
• encouraging learners to plan and reflect before proceeding
• an explicit model of learning, for example 'Do-Review-Learn-Apply'
• learners generating their own questions and then attempting to answer them
• learners being asked to make sense (to themselves and to others) of what they
  meet
• promoting dialogue and collaboration
• reviewing learning, as opposed to performance
• a building-up of narrative about learning.   

If we view learning as creating knowledge through doing things with others, practices could be:

• creating action together on shared tasks
• developing a classroom community goal, such as improving knowledge
• getting to know community members and the story each brings
• eliciting the questions brought to the theme
• jigsaw tasks which first separate and then re-combine a larger domain of study
• reciprocal teaching, class members teaching each other
• developing dialogue, to exchange ideas and understand others' thinking
• learning about learning and how the community best creates knowledge
• creating group goals for assessment
• building community governance, classroom reviews
• focusing on pro-social behaviour, development of trust, helping each other to learn.

Learning-centred schools and colleges share certain characteristics: staff relations are more collaborative, staff discussions often focus on learning, and pupil performance is higher. In current times such schools and colleges are fiercely independent: they are clear about their purposes and stick to them.

They need to be strategic in the environment which has been created for schools and colleges, for example in having plenty of data available to justify their decisions to those who would challenge them.

Even through a device which was not designed for this purpose - the Ofsted framework for inspection - learning-enriched schools and colleges stand out. In one primary school the word  'learn' was used 23 times in its inspection report, which concluded that in the under-privileged school, 'Pupils are highly motivated, independent learners'.

Learning-enriched schools and colleges are not compliant places: the variety of learners and learning is welcomed and teaching has not been made routine. Indeed in learning-enriched schools and colleges when teachers are asked. 'Do you ever have to break the rules in order to do what's best for pupils?' The great majority say 'Yes'. In many cases such schools and colleges are the ones who have gone beyond the routine prescriptions they are offered, and do so on the basis of their own evidence.