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The sociocultural approach (learning embedded in our Learning stories encourage teachers
social actions) sees teachers and students:
■ share decisions and responsibility about learning; to ask questions about the way they
plan and teach for individual needs.
■ share their out-of-school lives and experiences with
each other;
Learning Stories (contributions from Susan
■ build on each other’s ideas in dialogue (thinking as Hills and Dianne Elgar)
one); Through learning stories, learning becomes visible and
explicit and is valued by the learning community as
■ share feelings and emotions;
a whole. The teaching and learning process is more
■ engage in genuine intellectual inquiry (Sewell, 2006). transparent, specific and fun. Learning stories encourage
teachers to ask questions about the way they plan and
Teachers and students in classrooms that operate as teach for individual needs. As such, learning stories are
communities of learners:
powerful tools for teachers as a point of reflection. The
■ relate collaboratively to each other; teacher is aware of personal, interpersonal and cultural
influences (Rogoff, 2003). Students can identify their
■ manage themselves; strengths and it affirms their belief in their ability to learn
■ participate and contribute to shared goals and and to develop appropriate strategies. They can also
activities; identify themselves as competent and capable learners
who are actively involved in their learning and their
■ think critically, creatively and reflectively about assessment.
learning and
Parents feel that the teacher is taking an interest in their
■ communicate ideas, feelings and emotions. child and it facilitates meaningful discussions at home.
The learning stories influence parents’ understanding of
Role of teacher in designing and using the the teacher’s role and how their child responds in a variety
Matrix of school contexts; it captures the learning moment.
The role of the teacher is to facilitate students’ levels of Comments from parents include: “We get a snapshot
ownership in relation to success criteria, and in doing of how well our child is adjusting to school and a more
so motivate students to set individual goals and self formal learning environment”. The students enjoy hearing
assessment (co-construction). When students can about themselves from the teacher and their parents.
articulate their strengths and preferences, teachers can Learning stories are something for the whole family to talk
provide appropriate opportunities to support students about and to share. Parents realise that school values
in their learning journey. This is another example of home: “If we can’t get in often we feel we are still included
teachers developing reciprocal connections. We are in our child’s school experiences”.
discovering that the matrix helps us to differentiate
instruction as we use students’ self-assessment as a When planning together we identify a Key Competency
guide. Setting dual learning intentions makes cogent and the Habit of Mind that naturally fits with our deep
links between dispositions and knowledge. Back- understanding and then develop it in our integrated
planning lesson design ensures that the disposition unit. We set up learning stories in a “snapshot format”
is being developed with increasing complexity and on the computer. Throughout the unit we are noticing,
facilitates application and transfer; it also allows teachers recognising and responding to students’ learning that
to pace learning in a responsive way. demonstrates the development of the Habit of Mind and
Key Competency, and recording it using photos and text.
Using the Sociocultural Teacher Capability Matrix and the
Habits of Mind Matrix (Handout notes) helps teachers Using photos in the learning story is motivating; students
to set personal goals and further develops teaching see this as a form of assessment (as soon as the camera
strategies that promote a community of learners within comes out it is like a spotlight on what a competency/
the classroom. disposition looks like). Students think: “What am I doing
that she might be looking for?” and “Oh, she is looking for
Table 4 (refer to Habits of Mind International Expo how well we are participating – how can I show her this?”
support material) describes how we backward plan
to develop success criteria that unpack the deep Sustaining the Habits of Mind
understanding, Key Competencies / Habits of Mind as Our Strategic and Annual Plans have Habits of Mind
well as use Rogoff’s (2003) lenses as filters to distinguish objectives, goals and key tasks that are responsive to
forms of participation. Analysis of wording is required the stage of the journey we are at. In the past we have
to ensure differentiation is based on understanding surveyed teachers to get their input prior to mandating
goals that have been defined using the six facets of the aforementioned plans. For example, with nine
understanding (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) instead of beginning teachers in our school this year we felt it was
using semantics e.g. beginning, sometimes & always. important to go back a bit in order to go forward – so we
have registered interested staff for a conference in 2008
featuring Art Costa. We believe they will have a good point
of reference in which to consider what they hear as they
have trialled ideas this year with the support of syndicate
leaders and the EHSAS Facilitator.
10 • Habits of Mind International Expo, Melbourne / Auckland October 2007