At Kloodle, we believe in broadening people’s definition of intelligence.
To do this, we have built software that helps learners identify, record and celebrate examples of the skills they are building through their various activities, be it academic, extra-curricular, pastoral or work experience related.
Each learner will possess skills that they can utilise to great effect in careers they choose to pursue post education. The key to helping learners to realise this is to: –
- Overtly identify these skills regularly
- Celebrate these skills
Too many learners leave education feeling like a failure. Every teacher we speak to wants to have an impact on the individual level, yet feel hamstrung by a system that seems overly concerned with the letters you leave school with.
Education is built from moments: A-ha moments, great lessons, difficulties, friendships, experiences etc. Each of these moments builds character, skills and understanding.
By creating a skills-based curriculum and approach to teaching, you’re foster a growth mindset and identifying small units of progress each day, as well as providing broader context and applicability to your teaching.
Why is this important?
In this day and age, careers and knowledge change faster than we can seemingly keep up with. The skills we build, as well as our approach and mindset become increasingly important. Whilst it is very difficult to predict what careers will be available to our current Year 7s when they finish education, we can safely say that these careers will need some form of teamwork, resilience, ability to solve problems, work ethic, adaptability and commitment. These skills are timeless, and will transcend changes in curriculum, technology and politics.
It is, therefore, very important to place emphasis upon and increase understanding of these skills.
How can this be done?
In short, activities that develop these skills are taking place every day within your school or college. The tweak that’s needed is to: –
- Identify the skills that are taking place
- Provide the opportunity for learners to either reflect upon or recognise that they’re developing these skills.
- Show context regarding how these skills are important – how is what you are learning relevant to the wider world?
Example
A great example is in History. One of the first lessons I can remember doing in high school history was to analyse the efficacy of sources. To do this, we looked at whether the source was primary or secondary, biased or unbiased, as well as any other contributing factors.
Learning about “sources” can seem domain-specific, yet the underlying skills are broadly applicable: critical analysis, empathising with peoples’ points of view, arguing coherently, balancing your opinion etc. All of these skills are crucial in multiple careers such as law and journalism, but also applicable to daily life, like identifying fake news and propaganda, for example.
Taking a Skills-Based approach can transform your lesson from a domain-specific activity to something that has greater context and meaning.
Kloodle helps to identify all of the areas your curriculum is growing skills.
We can help your school or college build a Skills-Based culture. Getting up and running is quick and easy. Here’s the perks: –
- Pay for engagement – if learners don’t use, you don’t pay
- We’ll do the “internal selling”. We know getting staff to buy in to ANOTHER piece of software can be resource-sapping. We’re experts in achieving this, so let us do the hard work.
- Setup can be tricky – not so with Kloodle. We’ll take care of account admin et al for you.
We’re incentivised to make Kloodle a success at your school or college. If you’re interested in how we can get your school or college up and running quickly, give us a call on 0161 468 2724 and we’ll get you started today.
