What does quality learning mean to you?

The term 'quality learning' is often thrown around by regulators, public and private providers, academics and researchers.  We obviously want to ensure that our learners participate in quality learning experiences - yet, do we all mean the same thing when it comes to quality? Is there national consensus on what is meant by quality learning in terms of how it is implemented, measured and scaled?

I am fortunate enough to attend this year's LEGO IDEA Conference in Billund, Denmark and the common consensus is that quality in education looks like this:

1. Quality education is NOT rote learning.  With the amount of information in the world doubling every two years, we can never be as good as Mr Google or Ms Wikipedia.  Quality is about providing our learners with the skills to navigate knowledge.  We want them to be on the cusp of knowledge and not just the receiver of knowledge.

2. Quality learning has executive skills as the foundations of learning.  As Professor Jack Shonkoff, Director of the Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University puts it, "These are the so-called soft skills and it is a sin to call them that."  They are in fact the foundation of what we need to be successful adults and colleagues in the workplace and functioning members of our community.

3. Good learning is about active construction of learning and is not simply transferred by teachers and trainers.  This is nothing new - and yet, do we always allow our students to be at the centre of all we do so that they actively engage in their learning experience?

4. Great learning is cummulative.  We link back to previous learning.  We build on what learners already know.  Students are not simply empty vessels waiting to be filled.

5. Quality learning enables students to have control over their own learning.  They know how to self-regulate and reflect on their learning.  They know how our brains function and are able to understand the process of learning which is made explicit to them.  In fact several studies show that the ability to self-regulate predicts academic and social outcomes far more accurately than IQ tests!  (Whitebread, 2012)

6. Quality learning enables students to fail at things - and learn the lessons from those failures.  This is how we develop our critical thinking skills to ensure that we are part of a lifelong learning journey.

7. Collaboration and cooperation are key parts of quality learning.  We learn best in different interactions with other learners.  And this is certainly challenging in the on-line environment....

Once we have clarified our vision of what quality in learning is, it becomes easier to work on a process to ensure that we make quality learning a reality!  Some tips:

• Include play as part of quality learning.  Play builds lasting skills.  Play promotes internal motivation and sparks curiosity for more learning as we prepare for the formal testing.  It helps learners remain creative - and that is a skill, that if lost, is not easy to retrieve in later life.
• The attitude of trainers, teachers and lecturers is critically important to promote innovation and flexibility.  If they don't believe in the changes that are needed to drive quality systems, they will not become real facilitators of learning.
• Find ways in which learners can self-reflect and monitor their own mental processing.  Encourage them to think about the mental strategies that they use to solve problems and do mental tasks.

Children should be our role models because they are natural learners!