How can schools embrace variability in learning?
From a podcast by Bold Science
In what ways do students differ from each other in their learning? How does one student vary in their own learning from day to day? How can schools embrace these types of learning variability?
"Learning variability is both 'my learning might be different than your learning' and 'my learning one day might be different from the other day'. It is also that 'my learning in one class might be different than another class'." Julia Leonard, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University
Julia continues:
The learning context (both home and school) around children is not static and this affects learners and the whole learning ecosystem. Early schoolers struggle to adjust to the school environment because a lot of these children have a very different context at home. They have to learn a new set of rules and they have to learn how to learn. Children are constantly adapting to different environments and figuring out how to behave in these different environments which affects their learning. They might not be in environments that allow them to reach their full potential so how can educators create contexts that bring children to the top of their potential so that they can be the best version of themselves?
A study on motivational variability in three-year-olds learning to brush their teeth every night showed that some nights they brushed longer than others. Why? We found most kids are very sensitive to what their parent says in the moment. So the more that their parent praised them, the longer they brushed. One lesson learned from this is that, we can all do experiments on ourselves, our classes all the time including a focus on learning variability.
It's really hard to be a teacher with a classroom of students who are all at different levels, who all have different sensitivities to their context and in what they are most motivated by. So the challenge of being an educator is figuring out what works for most children and what works for each individual one and that requires really getting to know the children that you're with. Have some curiosity about this in the classroom when observing the children that you're working with.
Educational technology has really been helpful in some situations because you can give adaptive learning platforms to a large classroom and every child can use at their own level. That individualizes the learning really well. However, learning also happens best when it's social. We really need to elevate the teaching profession - this is such an amazing job. You're dealing with a challenging job where there's obstacles every day. You need to be supported well.
Guyot Betoto, a secondary school teacher from Madagascar teaches large groups of students and is always looking for ways to adapt to student variability. He tries to identify the children who have the same personalities - speakers, those that need to touch real things, actors, etc. At the start of the lesson, he has ice breakers, making them repeat what they learned last time so that they remember the all of the important points before tackling a new topic of the day. Then they brainstorm what they know already about it and then he has something prepared to share. It is not just a lecture with the teacher - the children feel they have pride in learning the lesson. He gives them the chance to lead others in group work - empowering students to lead and motivate others in their group. The children find the most practical ways of telling and showing things and do it with pleasure. This gives time for the teacher to observe the children and, during break time, talk to any child.
At LearnLife in Barcelona, students’ interests and passions are at the centre of their learning. The LearnLife approach is a truly personal model that helps learners focus on and find their own personal passion. Amazing projects come out of this because they give learners a space to reconnect with learning how they like to do it.
There is a need for the world of learning to catch up to the way the world around us is changing so quickly. So rather than take an industrial model, take a truly personal model that helps learners find and focus on their own personal passion. So at the heart of the approach is learner well-being, learner autonomy and passion-based learning where they can find their own path and develop skills and competencies for themselves.
LearnLife has learning spaces and learning hubs. There are Learning Guides instead of teachers because they focus on children learning how to learn and in developing the learner's autonomy. When you walk into a hub, it does not look like a traditional classroom - teacher at the front, giving instruction to children sitting in desks facing them. What you see is a hive of activity. Learners working on different projects in a same space either in groups or individually. It might be that they're working towards the same theme but each one will probably be doing something slightly different.
They also have studio environments where learners get to interact, develop, tinker, make, iterate, prototype in professional level studios where we have materials and equipment. Many partners source this. There is a carpentry studio with CNC machines as well as manual tools. There are also studios for electronics and 3D printing, cooking, music with state-of-the-art kind of recording equipment. Learners get to actually put into practice the real world skills that they're learning in real world environments. For younger learners, they use outdoor areas as a nature-based studio and learn the connection with nature, culture, different environments. They learn mathematics through doing a market, an exchange, learning about currency.
The biggest difference from a more traditional context is no focus on subject based learning but rather building skills and competencies ready for the real world context.
A lot of learners find that they want to develop their own projects. There's a very entrepreneurial vibe about what they're doing because they're actually creating, tinkering, learning by doing, learning through experimenting, learning to fail and try again and iterate.
Instead of exams to give a snapshot of the students learning at a particular moment in time, they frequently review the learner's own personal learning plan together with them and this is adapted as necessary in terms of the areas that they want to explore and grow in. First of all, they want to help them have that autonomy and agency over ' What do I want to learn?', 'What's my plan going forward?', 'Where are the areas I want to grow in?'.
Learners having a sense of autonomy, voice and choice is embedded into the actual learning. The building blocks that LearnLife have - essentially learning experiences - allow space for learners to flex and have choice. It maybe is more structured and guided at first but as they grow and get older, the idea is that they develop into lifelong learners. Each step brings greater and greater autonomy.
The Learning Guides have developed stages of autonomy which helps learners understand how autonomous they are, how they are growing and where they are on autonomy. To know where they are excelling and where there are areas where they still need to grow and and develop into being more autonomous as a learner. At the end of each trimester, learners are presenting back their learning to the Guide from the previous three months - 'What have I learned?', 'Where have I grown?', 'Where do I want to take my learning further?', 'Where do I want to stretch myself further?', 'Where are the areas where I feel like I could do more?', 'What are the skills I want to develop?', 'What are the projects I want to explore?', 'What are my passions?'. This reflection every 3 months is very profound.
The above are some abridged excerpts from the podcast. Listen to the 34 minute podcast here.
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From a podcast by Bold Science, 22/10/2025