High Performance Learning (HPL) is a mission-driven organisation, working with schools and teachers to change the face of education and deliver student high performance for the many - whatever their background - not the few. HPL is a global movement for change, for any school, any age, in any country. It operates in conjunction with any subject or curriculum.
High Performance Learning theory suggests that most students are capable of achieving the high levels of academic performance once seen as the domain of the very few and that the role of a school is help students make this a reality.
Each month we will focus on one of the qualities of a first-class learner:
At Haileybury Almaty we are all on a journey towards High Performance Learning. Junior and Senior School Teachers are introducing the concept of High Performance Learning with their pupils and ensuring that they all play an active role in their own learning.
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Pupils will be introduced to the Values, Attitudes and Attributes of High performance Learners learning to recognise these in themselves and others. Teachers are also introducing the Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics as our pupils learn how to be effective learners.
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This month HPL Values, Attitudes and Attributes concentrate on Empathy
Essential Components of Empathy:
1. Collaborative
2. Concerned for society
3. Confident
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In this video we want to share with you more information about Empathy and its importance for a successful learner. Moreover, you will learn about Empathy VAAs meaning for you as a parent.
Hard-working - Practice, Perseverance and Resilience
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We are learning about the skills involved in being a High Performance Learner - something we all want to be better at in life. You can do this and over the next few terms we will be working out exactly how every pupil at Haileybury Almaty can do this. We are focusing in on our second Value, Attitude and Attribute or VAA and this is about being Hard Working.
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What does it mean to be Hard-working? This is a set of three behaviours which are needed not only to learn new things and get better at them but also to have a mindset that allows you to keep going when the going gets tough.
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There is a set of four attitudes in learning that relate to being intellectually agile. Being agile is about a desire to learn and an ability to use multiple approaches to achieve good outcomes. They are characteristics that enable a young person to become a more independent learner, and to contribute well in school and in life.
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They consist of being:
• enquiring
• creative and enterprising
• open-minded
• risk-taking
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Mr Mills talks more about agility in the video. Let’s watch it together!
Linking includes a set of six characteristics about linking what you learn together.
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The six characteristics are:
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• Generalisation
• Connection finding
• Big picture thinking
• Abstraction
• Imagination
• Seeing alternative perspectives.
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These linking characteristics help young people move forward securely and rapidly in their learning. They reduce the amount of time necessary for revision because learners are secure in their knowledge.
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Mr Simon Mills talks about each of those characteristics in the next series of High Performance Learning videos.
This is a set of three characteristics about thinking logically and carefully. The three characteristics are:
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• critical or logical thinking;
• precision;
• complex and multi step problem-solving;
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In summary, advanced performers tend to be careful and logical in their approach to work even when being creative. They know how to think for themselves–some young people founder at university because they’ve never actually learned how to do that.
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In this video we tried to explain what is analysing and how you can integrate it in the educational process.
This is a set of four characteristics that relate to thinking about thinking which consists of:
1 Meta-cognition–This means being aware of possible thinking approaches that might be useful in any given context and then knowingly using the one of your choice. It is at the heart of using and applying information and is a critical skill. It is using an idea or skill (or a range of them), to tackle doing something new. It means you are never at a loss in working out how to learn something new.
2 Self-regulation–This involves being able to monitor your own progress, to evaluate what you are doing and to correct yourself where necessary to keep on track. You are setting your own goals, planning how to achieve them and also working out strategies of your own to reach your goals as well as using recommended strategies. The ability is essential if you are to become an advanced learner. You are operating independently to plan, monitor and assess your own learning.
3 Strategy planning–This is the ability to approach new learning experiences by actively attempting to connect them with something you know how to do already which means that you know the right way to think about how to do the work.
4 Intellectual confidence–This is the ability to explain your personal views clearly, based on evidence you can articulate, and if necessary defend these views to people who disagree. Intellectual confidence is the ability to come to a conclusion on evidence yourself and then feel confident enough about it to defend your view.
In summary, this set of characteristics allows children to be aware that they have a repertoire of skills–an intellectual toolbox–to dip into and the self-awareness to know which tool is best to use for the job. This gives them confidence as a learner because no matter how difficult the job, they can think of a way or ways to tackle it.
Adapted from ‘’Great Minds and How to Grow Them: High Performance Learning’” by Wendy Berliner and Professor Deborah Eyre