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Last week, on Thursday evening, I spoke out our school and program at our annual Meet the Teacher night. During my remarks, I noted the power and importance of relational learning. It has been written and researched by many that learning is critical to both prospering and sustaining.
A great school, like Matthews Hall, must maximize the likelihood that students engage in the learning process. For that to happen, two key criteria must be met:
- Learning and the information therein must have meaning.
- The learning process must cause an emotional response.
Students will see information as having meaning to them if it is clear that the information has meaning to the teacher. Teachers accomplish this by allowing themselves to have an emotional attachment to the information they wish to share or concept they wish to explore. If students see and feel their teacher’s emotional attachment then they have a far better chance of creating their own.
When a student finds meaning at school because of a resulting emotional attachment brought on by their teacher’s passion, and when the teacher and student share ideas and learn from each other, they have an increased chance of learning.
This is relational learning, and this is happening at Matthews Hall.
We do this in an inclusive community that fosters belonging, participation and discovery. We talk with one another, we share with one another, we participate in the learning journey with one another. We know that the learning is experienced uniquely by each student and that it will have its up’s and down’s. These ebbs and flows reveal brilliant learning moments and recognizing them as such ensures progress.
The challenge with relational learning lies in doing what Matthews Hall does so very well; we find teachers that can connect. A teacher who cannot connect to the information and learning process of their own classroom, or is unwilling or unable to also be a learner, cannot engage in relational learning.
Among our unique attributes is the connection of the Matthews Hall teachers to both the students and the learning, and an educators ability to do this remains the primary defining characteristic of a great school.
Christopher White, Head of School