Curiosity and Powerful Learning
Curiosity and Powerful Learning
By: David Hopkins, Wayne Craig, Oli Knight
Lifting student learning is a collaborative endeavor and relies on an implicit agreement that students, teachers, and school leaders will work together toward a common goal. However, a school’s culture greatly influences our ability to collaborate.
Our shared practices, language and beliefs, mutually reinforced values and expectations, and accountability and responsibilities all play a part, and are all at stake. This manual introduces four Whole School Theories of Action that create and maintain the conditions in which teachers can flourish and six Teacher Theories of Action that link specific teaching strategies with curiosity-driven learning.
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Title information
Curiosity drives the impulse to learn—and our Curiosity and Powerful Learning model shows school teams how to systemically develop and support curious learners and create an effective, sustainable learning system supported by students, staff, and school leaders. Based on a successful school improvement effort in Melbourne, Australia, these manuals are designed to help teachers, instructional coaches, school leaders, and system administrators embark on a professional journey to lift student literacy, numeracy, and curiosity. Written originally for Australian educators, the theories of action and recommended activities outline practices that have been tested and refined in schools over time and can be adapted and used by schools and districts around the world, including the U.S.
The four manuals at the core of the series—The System and Powerful Learning, Curiosity and Powerful Learning, Leadership for Powerful Learning, and Curiouser and Curiouser—together explain how powerful learning is made real for our students through purposeful, specific changes in whole school culture, classroom culture, leadership, and teaching practice. The manuals advance the notion of “precision without prescription”–helping educators increase their knowledge and abilities regarding effective teaching strategies and allowing them to thoughtfully apply these skills as professionals, rather than prescribing a specific instructional model and mandating that it be followed step-by-step in every classroom.
The series also includes three sequential Models of Practice manuals, which explore in depth six instructional strategies that get to the heart of the learning experience.
Based on the fundamental understanding that schools differ—and must differ—when responding to their communities, the Curiosity and Powerful Learning series supports the idea that diversity among schools is as much a cause for celebration as is consistently high student learning outcomes in all schools. Each manual emphasizes the collective endeavor essential to achieving curiosity-driven powerful learning: teachers working together; students becoming more adept at using curiosity as a learning resource; and leaders communicating purpose and direction. Working together on this journey, everyone monitors outcomes and adapts. Everyone becomes a professional learner.
David Hopkins
David Hopkins is an emeritus professor at London’s Institute of Education, and founded the Adventure Learning Schools Charity. Among many educational roles, David served as Chief Adviser to the U.K. Secretary of State on School Standards and was also Dean of Education at the University of Nottingham. He has also been an Outward Bound instructor and an international mountain guide. With Wayne Craig, David led a school improvement initiative in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, an effort that led to the creation of the Curiosity & Powerful Learning approach to school improvement.
Wayne Craig
A renowned education-systems improvement expert and author, Wayne Craig was a regional director at the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in Victoria, Australia, where he led a large-scale effort across the Northern Metropolitan Region to raise achievement and produce better outcomes for students. Integrating research and best practices drawn from local schools and others across the globe, the initiative created a systems-wide approach to developing curious, engaged, and successful learners and educators. This knowledge base led to the creation of the Curiosity & Powerful Learning approach to school improvement.
Oli Knight
Education author Oli Knight seeks practical ways of breaking the link between student background and achievement. He has worked with David Hopkins as director of teaching and learning for Bright Tribe, a Multi-Academy Trust with schools across England. Before joining Bright Tribe, Oli worked as a teacher, advanced skills teacher, and vice principal in London. He is currently head teacher of Greenwich Free School, which serves a disadvantaged population in South London.
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Curiosity drives the impulse to learn—and our Curiosity and Powerful Learning model shows school teams how to systemically develop and support curious learners and create an effective, sustainable learning system supported by students, staff, and school leaders. Based on a successful school improvement effort in Melbourne, Australia, these manuals are designed to help teachers, instructional coaches, school leaders, and system administrators embark on a professional journey to lift student literacy, numeracy, and curiosity. Written originally for Australian educators, the theories of action and recommended activities outline practices that have been tested and refined in schools over time and can be adapted and used by schools and districts around the world, including the U.S.