Learning is hard
Learning isn’t easy.To go from a state of not knowing something,to knowing it, can be hard.Remembering that piece of knowledge long enough for it to become useful is even harder and piecing together bits of knowledge so that they become understanding…well that’s really hard.
Somehow, students do it every day. And I say ‘somehow', because despite huge advances in our understanding of the brain, we still don’t really know how the whole thing works. Why does one piece of knowledge stay with us and another doesn’t? Why do some students have an aptitude for science and some don’t? Why are there concepts we can grasp and others that we can’t?
Part of a teacher’s role is to know that we don’t know exactly how the learning is going to happen. So, we create lots of different opportunities to help it along. It has been a delight this week to see our younger students (and their teachers!) dressed up as superheroes, partly because it looks like a whole load of fun, but also because we know that the teachers have really thought through how dressing up is going to help young children understand the role of the people in our community who help us. Our Year 12 and 13 Business Studies students have organised a charity event this week, which was a task set by teachers to encourage a type of ‘active’ learning – of taking risks in the real world and learning from them.
Throughout the school, learning happens in lots of different ways. As I wander the corridors each day, I also see plenty of what might be considered ‘old fashioned’ learning, students quietly reading and working through a text book. I see young mathematicians repeating their 8 times table and students in French classes creating conversations and role plays from the vocabulary and grammar that they have learnt. I watched as the Goal Attacks in our netball teams threw the ball through the hoop again and again to create muscle memory that will serve them so well in upcoming fixtures. Learning isn’t easy.
Learning is easier though, when you are doing it with someone you trust, which explains why the relationships that teachers have with students are so important. Building trust is an essential part of a teachers role because without it, the young people in our care won’t be willing to take a chance on learning in case they make a mistake. Learning is hard, it needs a helping hand, that’s what teachers offer.
Chris Lowe
Head of Secondary
The British International School Abu Dhabi
