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Ensuring that learners (and whānau) are able to access their learning anywhere, anytime

Supporting teachers to engage in making learning visible

Making learning visible must not be seen as ‘yet another thing for teachers to do’, but rather as a way of being, as a part of the organisational culture of a school or kura, and as ‘the way we do things around here’. For many it may represent a significant shift in pedagogy, as the teacher is genuinely no longer so much the ‘sage on the stage’ but also the ‘guide on the side’. This can be experienced as empowering, rather than threatening, by the teacher. The learning is accessible anywhere, any time, and learners have ‘agency’, the
power to determine to some degree their pathway into their learning, within the limits of ‘prior knowledge’.

Pedagogy

Begin with a kōrero on pedagogy: what are your agreed mechanisms for causing learning. What are your non-negotiables? This is the shared understanding of how you will cause learning in this hybrid environment. Visible learning is one such pedagogical approach. 

Watch the video below to hear kāhui ako Education Programme Lead, Angela Taylor, share about the connections between hybrid learning and visible learning.

Visible learning and hybrid learning connections

Angela Taylor, a primary teacher and Education Programme Leader for the Uru Mānuka kāhui ako

 When we make learning visible, what could this look like?

Content and learning activities are accessible to the learner, and to whānau, anywhere, any time. Interaction between the ākonga and kaiako, whānau, and a range of real world elements, is also enabled anywhere, any time. These are all enabled, and the impact amplified, using a range of digital devices and tools.

Watch the video below to see principal Gary Roberts share about the benefits of visible learning.

Why visible learning?

Interview with Gary Roberts, Hornby Primary School Principal

The right tools for the job

Choose the platform and tools you will use and ensure that these are used consistently by all staff across the whole kura. Do not accept the ‘oh no, this other tool works better for me’ response. Remember that schools are primarily for learners, not teachers. From a leadership perspective, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, 
to be directive. 

From the learner’s perspective, consistency is essential. In the hybrid environment, it is confusing for the learner to be expected to use different tools, to see the learning content and engagement tools laid out using different tools, different vehicles, different ‘portals’ of access, depending on ‘whose class’ they are ‘attending’. This gets in the way of the learning.

Watch below to see principal Gary Roberts share about the importance of leadership.

Leadership and visible learning

Interview with Gary Roberts, Principal of Hornby Primary School

Leveraging the benefits for all of your learners

Talk with those other kura in your kāhui ako: if you are an intermediate or secondary school, those schools from whom most of your intake come; or, as a primary school, those schools to whom most of your children progress. See if you can agree on common tools and pedagogies. There is much power to be gained in terms of impact on learning by offering the learner a coherent approach to learning, a consistent ‘portal’ to, and set of tools for, learning regardless of age and stage. 

Follow this link to hear Angela Taylor, kāhui ako Education Programme Leader talk about the benefits of visible learning.

Benefits of visible learning.

Angela Taylor, a primary teacher and Education Programme Leader for the Uru Mānuka kāhui ako

 

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