Approaches to Learning
Skills or Content? When considering this question in relation to Teaching and Learning at Scotch College, we need to consider the breakdown of the role of our teachers. Are we teachers of skills, or are we teachers of content?
A quick answer is that obviously we are teachers of both. Yet, within many educational settings the emphasis on content is starting to diminish to be replaced with a refocused approach to teaching students the skills that they will need in order to process any content. As content becomes more readily available and shared, is it the skills used to deliver the content knowledge that has been acquired that will become more desirable?
As an International Baccalaureate World School we are developing our community's knowledge around the Approaches to Learning or the ATL.
The Approaches To Learning are recognised in the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (DP). These cognitive, metacognitive and affective skills are grouped into the same five ATL categories.
We feel that if we can focus students across Primary-Year 12 to develop these skills by explicitly referring to them and teaching boys how to develop them, whilst maintaining the crucial level of content knowledge, we will be providing them with a repertoire of attributes that will set them up for life beyond the College.
Within the school strategic direction we have set the overarching goal as follows; Through contemporary teaching and learning, all boys will be empowered to achieve their potential and become engaged in the global community. As part of this goal we will work to implement the Approaches to Learning as a framework to develop a common language to use with boys across the College so that they have a consistent approach to learning the skills that fall under the five categories above.
By taking this approach we aim to simplify the language used within teaching and learning so that our community has common reference points to discuss with the boys in relation to their development of these skills.
Mr Peter Allen
Director of Teaching and Learning
