As parents, it is natural to want to support our children when we see them finding something difficult. Whether it is a challenging maths problem, a piece of writing or even navigating friendships, our instinct is often to try to ease the challenge they are facing. At The British International School Abu Dhabi (BIS Abu Dhabi) however, we purposefully and carefully design opportunities across our curriculum for children to think hard, persevere and develop resilience, because we know that productive struggle plays an important role in learning. When children are appropriately supported through moments of challenge, some of the most meaningful learning can take place.
A key part of our curriculum design is ensuring that children understand not only what they are learning, but how they learn best. Alongside subject knowledge, metacognition is deliberately planned for within our curriculum, through our 6 Cs, helping children to develop awareness of their own thinking and learning processes. Educational research from the Education Endowment Foundation highlights the importance of this approach, noting that metacognition and self-regulation strategies can have a significant impact on children’s progress when they are explicitly taught and embedded within everyday learning. In fact, evidence suggests that these approaches can support children to make approximately eight months of additional progress over the course of a year.
Research also shows that metacognitive approaches are most effective when they are taught within subject learning rather than as standalone skills. This is why these behaviours are consistently developed, reinforced and celebrated across all areas of our curriculum.
Some examples of how we do this every day in school include encouraging students to explain their thinking to a partner, reflect on why an answer may not have worked, ask thoughtful questions, or collaborate to solve a problem. Our teachers carefully scaffold learning, providing support when needed while encouraging children to take increasing ownership of their thinking. Our classrooms are designed to be safe environments where mistakes are viewed positively, and children feel confident taking risks in their learning.
At the heart of this is a simple but powerful belief: resilience and effective learning can be taught. When children are supported through challenge, while also being given the language and tools to reflect on their learning, they develop confidence, independence and a willingness to take on new challenges.
Parents play an incredibly important role in supporting this approach at home too. When children encounter difficulty, giving them time to pause and think can often lead to deeper learning and greater confidence in the long term. Simple prompts such as “What is this asking you to do?”, “What have you already tried?” or “Can you think of something similar you have done before?” help children draw on prior learning and develop independence. It can also be powerful to normalise challenge by sharing your own experiences of finding something difficult and showing how persistence can lead to improvement. Celebrating effort, strategies used and resilience, rather than just the outcome, helps children value the learning process itself.
We are incredibly proud of the reflective and determined learners we see across BIS Abu Dhabi every day. Through challenge, perseverance and a willingness to keep trying, our children are developing the confidence and learning behaviours that will support them not only throughout their education, but far beyond the classroom.
