Developing Learning Agility 

This diagram was inspired by the blog post, The agile learner in a VUCA world, written by Aloha Lavina. VUCA is an acronym used to describe volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Put simply, we live in a fast-changing world and in such an unfamiliar environment, we face unpredictable changes, often are required to make decisions in complex systems, and take uncertain actions that are outside of our expertise. We need to rethink education and build students’ capacity for the VUCA world.

Developing approaches to learning skills becomes more important than ever through the schooling process. Learners must be equipped with skills and strategies that allow them to be thinkers, communicators, risk-takers, inquirers, reflective, caring, open-minded, balanced, principled, and knowledgable. If we can truly follow the framework of the IB curriculums and develop a continuum, I am hopeful that we can develop students who strive for understanding, nurture passion in self and others, as well as take actions ethically.        

Having this big picture in mind, we help students to develop these skills and stretch their learnability. One way to do this is to align the objective (learning target), skill indicator, and strategy. Most importantly, we also need to take an evidence-based approach to monitor their progress and provide cognitive coaching conversations. The process of practicing and developing skills must be deliberate in order for students to reach mastery. The use of the strategy must be practiced several times as repetition of learning is the key to mastery. We can relate this teaching approach to the concept of apprenticeship. When teaching approaches to learning skills, think about Mr. Miyagi in the movie, Karate Kid! 

Here are some strategies that can help to build the skills. The skill indicators are merely suggestions by the IB. These skills are not the definitive or exhaustive list of ATL skills. Schools are not required to cover them all. Instead, I think the important point is for schools to consider their own contexts, reflect on their school missions and develop their own continuum of approaches to learning skills that can prepare students for the future. 

Strategies must be used intentionally and practice deliberately. When choosing the strategy to explicitly teach specific skills, we need to consider our subject-specific objectives, the complexity of summative assessment, desired learning outcomes, and age appropriateness.

This document is named “ATL Smörgåsbord“. Just like you are going to a buffet, there is a wide variety of food, and you will take only what you need. 

Additional Resources

• ATL Toolkit by Excited Educator Lenny Dutton: Lenny has created many amazing resources to help teachers teach ATL skills. She inspired me to create the ATL Smörgåsbord and collect explicit teaching strategies. Check out her website for more ideas.  
• The Art of Learning by Lance King: Lance emphasized the importance of helping students develop approaches to learning skills way before the IB made it a required component. He has shared and collected many amazing resources to support teachers in explicitly teaching ATL skills.