LEARNING SKILLS

These are delivered throughout the school from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 5 and underpin learning connections and constructions in order to develop the 21st century skills needed for our students to be successful throughout their lives. At Arcadia we focus on the development of the 4 C’s of:

1. communicating

Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas and solutions. Examples include:

• Analyzing the situation means thinking about the subject, purpose, sender, receiver, medium, and context of a message
• Choosing a medium involves deciding the most appropriate way to deliver a message, ranging from a face-to-face chat to a 400-page report
• Evaluating messages means deciding whether they are correct, complete, reliable, authoritative, and up-to-date
• Following conventions means communicating using the expected norms for the medium chosen
• Listening actively requires carefully paying attention, taking notes, asking questions, and otherwise engaging in the ideas being communicated
• Reading is decoding written words and images in order to understand what their originator is trying to communicate
• Speaking involves using spoken words, tone of voice, body language, gestures, facial expressions, and visual aids in order to convey ideas
• Turn-taking means effectively switching from receiving ideas to providing ideas, back and forth between those in the communication situation
• Using technology requires understanding the abilities and limitations of any technological communication, from phone calls to e-mails to instant messages
• Writing involves encoding messages into words, sentences, and paragraphs for the purpose of communicating to a person who is removed by distance, time, or both

2. Collaborating

Working together to reach a goal and putting enterprise into action. Examples include:

• Allocating resources and responsibilities ensures that all members of a team can work optimally
• Brainstorming ideas in a group involves rapidly suggesting and writing down ideas without pausing to critique them
• Decision-making requires sorting through the many options provided to the group and arriving at a single option to move forward
• Delegating means assigning duties to members of the group and expecting them to fulfill their parts of the task
• Evaluating the products, processes, and members of the group provides a clear sense of what is working well and what improvements could be made
• Goal setting requires the group to analyze the situation, decide what outcome is desired, and clearly state an achievable objective
• Leading a group means creating an environment in which all members can contribute according to their abilities
• Managing time involves matching up a list of tasks to a schedule and tracking the progress toward goals
• Resolving conflicts occurs from using one of the following strategies: asserting, cooperating, compromising, competing, or deferring
• Team building means cooperatively working over time to achieve a common goal

3. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is focused, careful analysis of something to better understand it. When people speak of "left brain" activity, they are usually referring to critical thinking. Examples of some of the main critical-thinking abilities are:

• Analyzing is breaking something down into its parts, examining each part, and noting how the parts fit together
• Arguing is using a series of statements connected logically together, backed by evidence, to reach a conclusion
• Classifying is identifying the types or groups of something, showing how each category is distinct from the others
• Comparing and contrasting is pointing out the similarities and differences between two or more subjects
• Defining is explaining the meaning of a term using denotation, connotation, example, etymology, synonyms, and antonyms
• Describing is explaining the traits of something, such as size, shape, weight, color, use, origin, value, condition, location, and so on
• Evaluating is deciding on the worth of something by comparing it against an accepted standard of value
• Explaining is telling what something is or how it works so that others can understand it
• Problem solving is analyzing the causes and effects of a problem and finding a way to stop the causes or the effects
• Tracking cause and effect is determining why something is happening and what results from it

4. Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is expansive, open-ended invention and discovery of possibilities. When people speak of "right brain" activity, they most often mean creative thinking. Some common creative thinking abilities are:

• Brainstorming ideas involves asking a question and rapidly listing all answers, even those that are far-fetched, impractical, or impossible
• Creating something requires forming it by combining materials, perhaps according to a plan or perhaps based the impulse of the moment
• Designing something means finding the conjunction between form and function and shaping materials for a specific purpose
• Entertaining others involves telling stories, making jokes, singing songs, playing games, acting out parts, and making conversation
• Imagining ideas involves reaching into the unknown and impossible, perhaps idly or with great focus, as Einstein did with his thought experiments
• Improvising a solution involves using something in a novel way to solve a problem
• Innovating is creating something that hasn’t existed before, whether an object, a procedure, or an idea
• Overturning something means flipping it to get a new perspective, perhaps by redefining givens, reversing cause and effect, or looking at something in a brand new way
• Problem solving requires using many of the creative abilities listed here to figure out possible solutions and putting one or more of them into action
• Questioning actively reaches into what is unknown to make it known, seeking information or a new way to do something

The development of learning skills within the curriculum is also accentuated by a number of programmes which support their progression. Examples include:

Oracy

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. In school, oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. Inspired by the work of the Voice 21 organisation in the UK, students across Key Stages 2 and 3 are encouraged to develop their ideas through a high quality oracy-style education. They develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn the skills needed to talk effectively.

Harkness

During the transition through Key Stage 3 students will be exposed to a strand of learning through the Harkness Method. Our aim is to equip every student with the knowledge, learning power and character necessary for success at university and beyond. Learning is an active and exciting process in which everyone participates and at times leads and where teachers are facilitators of learning. We believe that excellent teaching is more about helping students to find information and figure things out, rather than telling them things. Harkness teaching and learning is central to this. The Harkness teaching method is an intrinsic part of our approach to teaching and learning. It links closely to our focus on developing learning power and character through our ‘Arcadia Values’ programme and is delivered across a range of subject areas and disciplines.

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Developed in partnership with the Sands Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership in the United States, the Entrepreneurial Leadership programme priorities the development of four key traits that comprise the entrepreneurial mindset:

• Opportunity-seeking
• Creative problem solving
• Resiliency
• Resourcefulness

Equipped with this mindset, students take on interesting challenges that connect with their passions and graduate with a competitive advantage. To instil this mindset in every student, the Entrepreneurial Leadership programme is integrated into the Key Stage 3 experience. Project-based challenges in the classroom provide an opportunity for students to build this way of thinking while practising entrepreneurial skills in the areas of business, design, and technology.