Loving Learning
The ongoing, voluntary and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge, understanding and skills development for either personal or professional reasons – enhancing personal development, competitiveness and employability (ACARA, 2019).
Lifelong learning is a form of self-initiated education that is focused on personal development.
Our modern world is changing rapidly and it can feel difficult to keep up. More and more adults are turning to additional sources of education to try and keep up with the demand from employers or customers. For adults to do this, they require a lifelong learning mindset.
It is now more relevant than ever for our students and children to also develop this belief. They require a strong mindset to keep pushing through their school work, develop healthy relationships and know where to turn to for support.
The philosophy of the Eye Level programme is to understand your child’s perspective to allow them to learn at their own pace. We help children achieve a level of proficiency to move on to the next stage of learning.This is how Eye Level can support your child to achieve the pillars of the lifelong learning mindset.
We decided to turn this into an Instagram series!
Check out our Loving Learning introduction.
1. Focus on their interests
Children have hopes, dreams, desires and aspirations and these can influence how they learn. During the Diagnostic Test, understanding your child is a key factor to aligning a study plan to their interests.
Instagram: Loving Learning – Pt 1
2. Model good questioning behaviour
Children are inherently curious about the world and this needs to be encouraged. This isn’t the only place questions come from, as they grow-up questions can arise when they are struggling. Throughout the Eye Level programme we encourage children to ask questions if they are stuck on a concept. There is always someone there to assist. If they find a topic interesting, they can ask more questions and we can lead them to the materials to expand their knowledge.
Find our how to develop confidence in your child, and how a tutor can help.
3. Use real world connections
Sometimes just learning the fundamentals of maths and English can be boring. Throughout both of our programmes we connect these fundamental concepts to real world examples. Critical Thinking Maths uses people, places and objects to engage the problem solving brain and connect it to arithmetic they also learn in Basic Thinking Maths. Whilst in English, students listen, read, comprehend and write to develop these individual skills but to also learn to communicate effectively. Good quality communication is key to our ever connected world and developing the foundational literacy skills will only improve that.
Instagram: Loving Learning – Pt 2&3
4. Embrace proactive failure
Many children fear failure, so why don’t we turn it into something proactive? The Eye Level programme and Instructors support your child if they fail to understand or struggle. We turn it into a useful experience about learning the concept and how to overcome difficulties. However, to limit their chances of failure and with the help of the Diagnostic Test, we start them at a point in the programme where they are most comfortable and achieve success quickly and easily. Remembrance of this feeling will assist them later when “the going gets tough”.
5. Let them take the lead
Lifelong learning, as described in the definition needs to be voluntary and self-motivated. When your child enters class they are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning by finding their folder, removing their classwork and homework and seeking the Instructor’s advice for completing their work for the day. When your child takes the lead, even with something seemingly small, they feel the ownership completely for their own success. Taking the lead also means they will attempt to problem solve first and narrow down to what they are unsure of, increasing their speed of learning.
6. Celebrate success
Celebrating success links to encouraging the proactive failure mindset. What might seem little, might be a big deal for your child. It is important to find a way to celebrate successes, big or small. Therefore, we celebrate when a child reaches the next level, when they complete a book and even when they understand a question they have been stuck on.
Here are some ways to celebrate your child’s wins.
Instagram: Loving Learning – Pts 4, 5 & 6
7. Focus on the journey, not the destination
The destination is our goal, what we and our children want to achieve. But any goal is only ever a stepping stone to the next one. What matters is the journey in between these goals. To be able to reach each stepping stone can be profound and you learn a whole lot more than expected. Through the Eye Level programme, the journey through workbooks, through levels, through weeks of practice is what matters and the support that comes with it from the Eye Level Instructors, family and friends.
Being part of the journey is the culmination of the other qualities of lifelong learning. Here at the Eye Level, we want to work closely with parents to help their child achieve their goals and desires. We will be with you on the journey to lifelong learning by developing strong foundational mathematical, critical thinking, literacy and communication skills.