For our latest View from the Top, we've handed over to Sian May, head of school at The Alice Smith School, the oldest British school in Malaysia and one of the top choices in the region. Below, Ms May explains why helping pupils develop their own purpose is so key for their future success...
It is always a pleasure to engage with our students. As such, I enjoy my routine of having lunch with our primary and secondary students every half-term to see how they are enjoying their learning. This is in line with our belief that every child should be able to develop their own sense of purpose.
At Alice Smith School, our bold purpose is to ‘Spark courageous exploration to inspire a better world’.
This vision hinges on us promoting a meaningful partnership with our students to become authentically purpose-driven and lifelong learners who can positively impact the world. Our aim is for students to be able to provide in-depth articulation of their purpose and how they utilise their learning to achieve this. This type of engagement with our students provokes the question: how do we nurture and prioritise this huge capacity for self-determination amongst our students? Purpose must underpin all aspects of school culture with a clear focus on self-knowledge and wellbeing, learning in all its forms, and student leadership.
Our starting point for the culture we wish to nurture has involved asking questions such as:
- Who owns the learning?
- Why are you learning this?
- How do you feel about your learning?
- What does your learning allow you to do?
Finding purpose occurs when children are known, can exercise choice, enjoy responsibility and are able to contribute to the progression of their learning. Research on motivation, outlined in the
Self-Driven Child by William Stixrud and Ned Johnson, has suggested that a strong sense of autonomy and self-knowledge is the key to developing the purposeful self-motivation that allows children and teens to pursue their purpose with passion and to enjoy their achievements.
It can be challenging to measure purpose itself, but we can begin by measuring how we are progressing in fostering agency and purpose in our classrooms. Simple indicators can provide us with the insight needed to release purpose in our students. The beginnings of purpose are emerging when our students can state:
- I can choose my own resources
- I can explain the question I am investigating
- I can describe what my finished product or performance will look like when it is a successI can explain what I do not understand about _____ yet
- I can voice my opinion
This type of purposeful learning is essential in future proofing skills and developing durable resilience in a world of a fourth industrial revolution, with maybe even a fifth on the way.