The Shape of Learning

Did you know that learning has a specific shape? Understanding that shape can unlock a new relationship between you, your students and their ability to learn?

The other morning I asked a class of four year olds, “What do you think the shape of learning is?” Their answers were profound: “A circle, because it never stops,” “A hexagon (they were learning those that week) because it has so many sides.”  

Those are wonderful answers, but do those images really help our kids understand the whole wonderful, messy, challenging process of learning from end-to-end? 

What if students are waiting for us to do the heavy lifting because nobody ever taught them what the actual work of learning looks like? Do we teach them how learning happens: how to push through when something's hard. How to ask for what you need. How to know yourself well enough to keep going.

I think we just assume they'll figure that out. Most of them don't. And no one’s to blame - we are all doing the best we can.

There’s a visual way I teach students about how to move through the experience of learning itself. It’s amazing how quickly the “OHHHH…that makes so much sense!” happens.

it has a shape. That's the part that matters.

 It's the silhouette of a mountain. The Learning Mountain.

We start at the ground level by reminding ourselves that we are a learner - that awareness bolsters the safety and bravery we need to even try. 

As we climb, we build confidence and resilience. We learn to read the terrain, to rest without quitting, to trust our own footing. And this part — the climb — is full of some of the most valuable and challenging work we will ever do. By the time we reach the top, we're a different kind of learner. We know how to climb on our own. 

But it doesn’t stop there. 

We can't live up on the top of the mountain. The air is thin, the altitude and elements aren't a place where we can just stay — or leave everyone. Yet somehow, we've decided that reaching the summit is the whole point. This is exactly what we do when we culminate "learning" with a product or performance. In fact, they may pass that test or write that paper, but did they LEARN? 

Think about it: why do we have so much remediation, review, and gaps in students’ understanding? Because they (or we) end the journey at the top rather than continue the climb and internalize their learning. 

So the Learning Mountain has a descent too. That’s the continued practice until it’s fluent and part of who we are.  That’s where we OWN the learning AND the climb.

Think about someone you consider an expert. I’ll tell you about Shohei Ohtani (he’s my favorite expert right now). His first baseball mountain started with how to throw and catch. When he completed that first mountain, he learned so deeply that he could move his focus to the next mountain - how to throw a curve ball.  Shohei no longer had to think about the previous work – he didn’t forget it - it was part of who he was. Now he could hone his next piece. 

And here's the thing. Once a student has made that climb — even once — they know the shape of it. They've been transformed each time they learn. The Learning Mountain is that map. For school. For life. For every climb still ahead.