Our Focus is on the Learner What is Best for the Learner? Our district’s motto is “Our focus is on the learner.” Wherever possible, our decisions and actions as a district have the learner in mind. • What program or classroom do we place a child in? • Which building project do we take on first? • How do we best support a child with special needs? • How and where do we assign our teacher support services? • What kinds of extracurricular activities do we offer? When we consider these questions, we ask ourselves – What is best for the learner? Some decisions affect the learner directly, others not so directly. But all the decisions we make have some impact on the learner’s experience in our schools. Focusing on the learner helps us to remain clear about our priorities, and to make choices that are in a child’s best interests. We try to adapt to the child, providing the challenge and support that he needs, rather than forcing our students to conform to a “system.” This is our commitment as a district. How do Children Learn? To understand what is best for the learner, we need to understand how learning takes place. In their early years, children form neural connections, or synapses, very quickly. These synapses, or learning pathways, define the brain’s organization and functioning throughout life. What causes brain cells to form learning pathways? Genes control some of the process, but experience plays a big role. Every time a parent or caregiver interacts with an infant or toddler, connections are formed. Positive interactions with nurturing caregivers profoundly stimulate young brains. This stimulation causes new learning pathways to form, and strengthens existing ones. In the first years of life, children form extra learning pathways. A three-year-old has twice as many synapses as an adult, which means that his brain is twice as active. After age 10, as children move toward adulthood, trillions of extra connections are eliminated. Those synapses that have been used repeatedly in the early years have become stronger and tend to remain. Those that have not been used often enough are shed. The result is a brain that is better organized and better suited for learning the more difficult concepts and skills that a young adult needs to master. Children whose neural pathways have been reinforced by positive early experiences will be better off when the brain’s pruning process begins. New technologies have allowed scientists the opportunity to look inside living, thinking, feeling adolescent brains, and their discoveries are startling, and have implications for parents and all who work with teens. Around puberty, the outer layer of the brain thickens and then thins dramatically, as the brain is preparing for adult life. Interestingly, scientists are reporting that the adolescent brain does not take on its inevitable form until its early twenties. This rapid growth and change in the brain has several implications; the brain is very receptive to new information and the acquisition of new skills, while it is very vulnerable to environmental and chemical influences, at a time when the reasoning centre of the brain is several years away from functioning as it will as an adult brain. Scientists have noted differences in the development of male and female brains that have implications for both parents and teachers, and have discovered that sleep and nutrition significantly impact the development of the adolescent brain. How to Stimulate Children’s Learning University of British Columbia professor Clyde Hertzman, MD, says the period from pre-conception to age five is the “investment phase” of a child’s life. Failure to provide the right conditions for a child’s development during this time makes the brain physically different from the brain of a child who has been well cared for. If the environment in which the child lives is safe, stimulating and nurturing, her brain development will be strong. If the environment is unsafe, under-stimulating or non-nurturing, her brain development will be weakened. These differences can have lifelong consequences. New brain research confirms that reading to a child, talking to her, telling her stories, singing to her, and other kinds of language activities encourage early development. They not only support intellectual growth, but promote healthy emotional and social development as well. Children are Active Learners Not only are children physically active, but they are active in seeking out new experiences. They learn from hands-on experience that involves all of their senses. They learn best in an environment where they can make decisions and choices appropriate to their age and level of development. Children Learn Through Physical Experience Through looking, listening, smelling, tasting, and touching, children find out what things are like, how they work, and how they relate to one another. They combine these observations with more complex thinking like identifying patterns, interpreting, and drawing conclusions about what happens. These conclusions either add to children’s existing ideas or cause them to adjust their thinking. Children’s Learning is Affected by their Surroundings Children learn best when they are safe and secure. You create this feeling when you treat them with warmth, respect, and caring. Parents can further enhance their child’s learning by creating a stimulating environment – one which provides a variety of opportunities and experiences, challenges the child at a level she is mature enough to handle, and establishes an expectation that she will learn. Children Learn Through Social Interaction Children are influenced by the people in their lives, especially the adults who are important to them, such as parents, other relatives, and teachers. They also learn through interaction with their peers. As children relate to others, they make decisions about themselves and their actions based on the reactions they receive. They decide if their thinking and actions are “right” or “wrong” and adjust them accordingly. Children Learn Through Reflection Children need to reflect on what they know. Caregivers can guide children to make connections between what they know now and what they want to know. This helps them to make connections between ideas and gives them clues for doing similar things in the future. Children Have Different Learning Styles Each child is unique with his own personality, likes, dislikes, and styles of learning. Some children watch for a long time before trying something new. Others jump right in. If you observe how your child likes to learn, you can give him chances to learn in those ways. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of school children remember best what they hear, 40 percent remember best what they see or read, and almost all children remember what they experience directly through touching, feeling and doing. Children are Intelligent in Different Ways In the past, intelligence was based on language and mathematical abilities, but current research reveals many other forms of intelligence. Psychologist Howard Gardner originated the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), and has identified eight different types of intelligence. He indicates that there may be more as well. Here are the ones Gardner has identified so far: • Logical-mathematical – the ability to see patterns and approach situations logically. These children tend to be precise and methodical and to excel at mathematics and science. • Linguistic – the ability to use words and language in many different forms. Reading and writing come easily to these children and they tend to do well at school. • Visual/spatial – the ability to form a mental model and to maneuver and operate using that model. These children think in images and pictures and often excel at representative drawings. • Musical – the ability to attune to rhythms, pitch and tonal patterns. These children easily remember melodies and are likely to hum and turn sounds into rhythms. • Bodily/kinesthetic – the ability to use the body or part of it to solve problems and communicate. These children are well coordinated, like to participate in sports, and enjoy touching things. • Naturalistic – the ability to attune to the natural environment and to use information gathered through the senses. These children enjoy outdoor activities, and tend to have a strong interest in animals, plants, stars, the weather, etc. • Interpersonal – the ability to understand the feelings and intentions of others. These children work well in groups and often play a leadership role. • Intrapersonal – the ability to understand their own feelings, motivations, strengths and weaknesses. These children often keep journals and enjoy solitude. Observing your children’s abilities and areas of interest can help you see what forms of intelligence are strongest. Then you can select activities to bring out their gifts and to gently encourage areas that are less developed. Knowing your child’s intelligences can help you identify the best ways to teach him. For example, a musical child may learn new information in the form of a song, a kinesthetic child in the form of a dance, and a spatial child in the form of a drawing. It is important to remember that most of us exhibit more than one form of intelligence and intelligence can change over time. MI categories are fluid and should be used as a guide not a prescription. We all need to avoid labeling a child (or anyone else!) as “spatial but not linguistic,” or “intrapersonal but not bodily/kinesthetic,” and so on. Including All Learners Learners differ not only in types of intelligence but in personality, culture, family background, and many other ways. In Richmond schools, we have a policy of inclusion which is our commitment to giving ALL learners an opportunity to fulfill their potential and reach their greatest success. This means that we modify our curriculum and/or adaptour programs and services so that our learners, regardless oflanguage, gender, learning style, culture, personality, intellectual ability, physical capability, fine arts ability, etc., have equitable access to learning, achievement, and pursuit of excellence. Children vary widely in their neurodevelopmental strengths and weaknesses and this variation has powerful implications for educating all kinds of minds.  No one can be good at everything.  Many students possess highly specialized minds and deserve to be recognized for their abilities, while not being declared deficient for their shortcomings.  Such an approach takes a positive view of neurodevelopmental diversity.  In this approach students are not labeled. Instead, the day-to day observable phenomena and behaviors are described and learning profiles are created. In managing a learning profile, a student's strengths and affinities are strengthened, accommodations and interventions are provided to address weaknesses or dysfunctions, and students are made aware of their specific breakdowns in learning as well as their strengths.  This awareness is called "demystification".   The Principles of Learning Given everything that we know about how young people learn, Richmond schools are guided by three basic principles of learning, established by our provincial system of public education: 1. Learning requires the active participation of the student. 2. People learn in a variety of ways and at different rates. 3. Learning is both an individual and a group process. These principles underlie everything we do and are also important for parents to keep in mind in supporting children’s learning.