Working in a learning hub is a great way to get to know students individually – to know their strengths, passions, aspirations, their learning, their whanau.
However, the challenge is how to get them to build learning focused relationships with each other. Teenagers tend to have some difficulty in providing peer feedback which is deep, honest and useful. In order to keep social relationships strong, they may not be truthful or as truthful as necessary when supporting each other in learning.
In Orakei hub, I tried (unsuccessfully) to set up the concept of tuakana-teina within my hub. Some struggled to articulate where they could support others; interestingly, they were all able to state where others in the hub could help them.
So back into a new term, I have a new plan. Rather than pushing some students towards a tuakana-teina model (this may be on the cards for the future), we are using a critical friendship model.
I introduced the concept on Monday and asked them to select (via google form) some students that they would like to work with and a justification why, as well as any student that they would prefer not to work with. Not surprisingly, many of the students picked their close friends. I looked at their selections and paired them up with their second or third choices.
Today we started off our extended hub class with:
- listing characteristics that they wanted to see in their (yet unnamed) critical friend
- listing characteristics that they individually would bring to the critical friendship – strengths. Then they followed up with areas where they felt that they may struggle being a critical friend
- Then they found out who their critical friends were
- Next step was to compare their lists to establish their agreed ‘rules of engagement’
Students sharing their expectations of the critical friendship
- Then review their critical friend’s “learner story” and give feedback on the quality of their reflections (we had already co-constructed the success criteria for this).
Orakei hub students: Working with critical friends
“Collaboration is important not just because it’s a better way to learn. The spirit of collaboration is penetrating every institution and all of our lives. So learning to collaborate is part of equipping yourself for effectiveness, problem solving, innovation and life-long learning in an ever-changing networked economy.” – Don Tapscott
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dontapscot564023.html#0IYxafpIQOGSAvsj.99
mrsmeganpeterson 
This is really interesting & inspiring Megan – Pete has been trying something similar this year in his hub. I like the way you’ve used the same process staff go through to be matched with their critical friends and some similar strategies to define the roles. It would be really interesting to hear your learners’ thoughts initially and then in a few weeks’ time. Did you share about your own critical friendship with Tracey? I bet they’d love to hear about how we do the same for each other as teachers. And the ways we support and critique each other. You’ve just given me a thought! What if we each had a student as a ‘critical friend’ too?! Thanks for sharing what you’re doing with your learning hub.
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