Just wondering about the power of authentic purpose and routines.

At Rabat American School, we collaboratively developed our definition of High Quality Learning (HQL) and identified key HQL look-fors, which we have recently updated. And I have the privilege of visiting elementary and secondary learning spaces several times a week to highlight and celebrate HQL in action.

This week, as I entered the High School music room, I knew from downstairs that I was in for yet another musical treat: students were performing Respect by Aretha Franklin. As I walked through the open door and watched our students perform this powerful song, I looked around for our music teacher and quickly realised he was not there. Between pieces, I chatted with students who confirmed that their teacher was indeed absent (I had seen the cover teacher, who was having a great time listening to the students play). They explained that they were preparing for an upcoming concert and knew exactly which pieces to practise and in what order.

Throughout my visit, students demonstrated high levels of engagement and independence, staying focused and motivated despite the teacher’s absence. Collaboration and critical thinking were evident as students worked together to identify areas for improvement, questioned aspects of the performance (for example, requesting to redo a section due to confusion), and showed a clear desire to improve ahead of the concert. Strong problem-solving skills were also visible when some students collaboratively and independently resolved a technical issue involving a microphone and cable. Student leadership stood out as well, with one student confidently taking responsibility for starting each piece.

As I left the room and headed back to my office to prepare the HQL flyer (with photos and highlights from the lesson), I was reminded of what I learned more than twenty years ago during my PGCE and teaching placement in the London Borough of Sutton. As a language teacher, I learned that with authentic purpose and well-established routines, students should be able to run the class even if the teacher is late or absent. This music class was a powerful reminder of that principle.

In the twenty-plus years between my teacher training and today, much has changed in education - online learning, increased competition for university applications, ubiquitousness of technology, including AI, and more - but the essence of powerful learning has not. What I saw in that music room was not accidental; it was the result of deliberate design. The question is not whether students can take ownership of their learning. The question is whether we are consistently creating the conditions that allow them to.

For what it's worth…

Routines can be particularly useful for children and adolescents because the areas of the brain responsible for attention and self-regulation are still developing.

(Blakemore S (2018). Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain. London: Penguin Random House.

Routines help to direct learner attention.

Begeti F (2020). Why our brains like routine and how that’s disrupted in self-isolation. Instagram, 13 April, 20. Available at: @the_brain_doctor and Fuster J (2008). The Prefrontal Cortex, 4th ed. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

Routines also support teachers to have the mental ‘space’ to teach more responsively, focus more readily on building positive relationships with students, and work on any specific development areas

McCrea P (2020). Motivated Teaching. Brighton: Self-published.