Shirley Clarke’s Learning Powers – PowerPoint to support the development of meta-cognition
By kind permission of Shirley Clarke, author of ‘Outstanding Formative Assessment - Culture and Practice’, this PowerPoint has been developed using her breakdown of ‘ideal’ learning powers based on a synthesis of Guy Claxton’s learning dispositions, Art Costa’s ‘Habits of Mind’, and Chris Quigley’s ‘Secrets of Success’.
Successfully trialled for a year in an outstanding school, the PowerPoint has proven to be an invaluable tool to support the development of meta-cognition. As Professor John Hattie maintains: “When tasks are more complex for a pupil, the quality of meta-cognitive skills rather than intellectual ability is the main determinant of learning outcomes.”
The PowerPoint is particularly effective when used on the IWB. This supports the ‘split-screen’ approach advocated by Shirley Clarke, whereby the focused learning power for each lesson has equal status to the knowledge or skills learning objective of the lesson. The slides can be integrated into each and every lesson, yielding powerful opportunities to discuss and deepen understanding of successful learning.
The PowerPoint thus aims to impact positively on teaching and learning within any class, focusing on what really matters in enabling children to become lifelong learners.
About the PowerPoint: Learning powers are depicted on a circular-chevron motif - a ‘virtuous circle’ intrinsically linking all eight as mutually reinforcing and of equal importance. Clicking on each of the learning powers hyperlinks to the relevant slide on the presentation, which details Shirley Clarke’s skills breakdown, and each individual slide is hyperlinked back to the home page. Non-stereotypical, gender-free animated characters (credited to PresenterMedia) exemplify each learning power, whilst colour coding is used to further enhance the visual aspect.
