Creating the Conditions of Learning To Foster Engagement & Growth In Times of Disruption

Phenomenal Teaching with PEBC

The “Conditions of Learning” work synergistically to support student engagement and understanding. But what happens when systems are stressed? What happens when deficit based language and practices start to creep into our work with children? What happens when teachers are not able to be responsive to the students before them? In this episode of the Phenomenal Teaching Podcast, Michelle Morris Jones reconnects with Dr. Brian Cambourne and author Debra Crouch to unpack the ways the “Conditions Of Learning” are more relevant today than ever before.

First and foremost learners must be the “doers” of what they are learning. Today’s students must have ample time to read, write, talk, problem solve, and apply their learning. Being a doer is supported by engagement, immersion, demonstrations, employment, expectation, approximation, responsibility and response ~ these conditions are commonly known as the “Conditions of Learning” or “Cambourne’s Conditions” and are an essential component of “Cambourne’s Model of Learning.” Our expectations for students and our responses to them are more important now than ever before, we must believe they are capable and they must know that we believe in them. By honoring approximations we are able to see our students’ strengths and plan our instruction to support those strengths and address any needs. Immersion, Demonstration, Responsibility and Employment (or use) come together to create opportunities for authentic application and practice. Engagement is critical as we must strive to create environments where each and every student is able to create a bond so that learning can occur. To learn more you can examine Dr. Cambourne and Debra’s book Made for Learning: How the Conditions of Learning Guide Teaching Decisions.

Brian Cambourne is presently a Principal Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He began teaching in 1956 at the age of 19 and spent nine years teaching in a mix of one-room schools and primary classrooms K-6 for the New South Wales Department of Education. In his tenth year of service for this department he entered the groves of Academe as a teacher educator at Wagga Wagga Teachers College. He completed his Ph.D at James Cook University in North Queensland, and was subsequently a Fullbright Scholar and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Universities of Illinois and Arizona. Since completing his doctoral studies (1972), Brian has been researching how learning, especially literacy learning, occurs. He has conducted this research in the naturalistic mode he prefers by sitting in classrooms for many hundreds of hours.

Debra Crouch works nationally as an independent literacy consultant, collaborating with districts and schools in designing professional learning opportunities to empower teachers, principals, and coaches as they envision instruction over time, across texts, and among practices. She has been involved in education for the past 32 years as a classroom teacher, coach, consultant, and author. She actively shares her thinking and practices through long-term professional learning opportunities with districts across the country serving children from diverse language and socioeconomic backgrounds.