When children come to school to learn there is a implicit expectation that their is an effective learning environment for them, that the learning opportunities are relevant, appropriate, provide a suitable challenge and that the children will know when they have succeeded or otherwise. The message will be "What are you learning at the moment?, Make the most of the learning time, Do you need assistance with your learning?" etc. At home the "learning" they do should support what was learnt at school- it should not be work or a chore- homework very often leads to family stress and turns children off learning. School (the 8:30-3:15 place of learning) should be an exciting journey of learning not a daily grind of going to work! Likewise Home Learning should be an enjoyable experience for parent and child (yes this is possible!!)
When children come to school to do schoolwork the message is often "get on with your work", "Let me see your work". There is also plenty of room for "busy work" that is, activities that do not challenge the learner and in fact do not encourage learning at all.
We do not have time at school for busy work, or time filling work (worksheets another example) we only have time for powerful, meaningful, exciting learning!
Do semantics count? Most definitely- I challenge teachers, parents and school leaders to try switching to "learning" in place of "work" you will quickly see a difference in yourself as well as the opportunities you provide the learner
1 comment:
If I use the phrase "What are you working on at the moment?' does that have such an adverse affect!
What are you learning about , what are you working on?
Sounds sort of the same.
In a sports area I know a little bit about, they talk of Work ons, as the areas to improve. Does this hinder the impact of the skill development?
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