L@SL Term 4 Focus: Reflectiveness and Grace

Alma Loreaux | Dean of Learning | Grammar News | 8 October 2021

As we return to the last term for the year, we are looking to the past to inform our present, and we are reflecting on our students’ experience of Off-Campus Learning. This is our opportunity to recognise the small wins we experience each day and allow ourselves to experience a sense of joy and hope and consider how we have grown and been strengthened through what has certainly been a challenging Term 3.

To inform our understanding of students’ experiences of learning in Off-Campus mode, our teachers began the term joined by Associate Professor Sarah Prestridge from Griffith University who shared with us insights into evidence-based best practice. Sarah positioned us to reflect and think critically about the benefits and pitfalls of remote learning, and what we now need to consider as our students transition back to school.

One of the key takeaways from the research is that it takes time for students to develop competence and confidence to learn in an online environment, and through this, students’ learning characteristics and their capacity to self-regulate and get to know themselves as learners is of utmost importance.

What can you do at home to support your child’s self-regulation?

Here are some strategies:

• Encourage your child to reflect on the plans they have made for achieving certain goals.
• Ask your child to reflect on the process they went through in developing their plans to determine if they were able to think through all of the available alternatives.
• Encourage your child to review their learning more frequently, and be open to change and new ideas.
• Ask your child what the outcome of their most recent review of their learning was.
• Encourage your child to share their learning with you.
• Encourage your child to share their strategies for monitoring their learning, be that maintaining a learning log or discussing their ideas with you, their friends or family members.
• Talk with your child about where they are taking steps to improve and encourage them to maintain a sense of accountability to you, to themselves, or their friend, about their learning.

Our Learning Wheels, published in the School Diary, can be used at home, in addition to the classroom, as a reflective and evaluative, growth-mindset tool. The Meta-Learning Wheel is particularly helpful, and I encourage you to print it off and post it in a prominent place in your home to act as a conversation starter or a checkpoint.