A common language for learning

I first created this website as a project in my Master’s of Education program, as I explored digital platforms for learning and communications for leading learning. Today I decided to resurrect the project and begin cultivating my thoughts about design thinking in education. Having spent over a decade working in an International Baccalaureate context, I have come to value the systems and structures that the IB provides to schools, emulating national systems from around the world that organise around a common set of principles and practices, as well as a common language for learning.

Students need a vocabulary for which to talk about their learning experience, and so do teachers. There are many books and resources about professional learning communities, often referred to as PLC’s, and yet so few focus on culture and vocabulary. How can we express ourselves without a kind of language, even if it is sign language? For those of us who are mono-lingual (one of my most embarrassing attributes), we realise the challenge it can be to dig into deep communication with others who do not speak our language proficiently. For both communicators, it is easiest to stick to small talk and general conversation, rather than progress into topics requiring meta-language.

This has been my observation and experience in contexts that lack a framework that elevates a sense of common understanding. What do we practice? How do we approach? These are not always simple areas of agreement. Rather, they can be questions that go unaddressed and we can focus more on the activity and the delivery, than we do on the strategy.

So today is a new day. I will attempt to share my thoughts and connect readers with great resources from innovators in education. Particularly those with a design sensibility, a ‘method to their madness’.