Creating the Space for Real Learning

Teaching is only partly about content, and the teacher's mastery of the content - the poem or novel, the essay technique. But prior to and more crucial than any of this is the learning space — the tone, the trust, the sense that it’s safe to think aloud, to get things wrong. Only once this learning space has been established will real learning, characterised by joy, interest, creativity, take place. It is a space of safety, a space of listening, a space where attunement is more important than "supervision".

The tutor’s role isn’t just to explain, but to invite curiosity and to listen. The tutor does not simply impose his or her own thought, but elaborates the potential already contained in the thoughts of the child. We are not simply in the business of digesting facts but of responding creatively to language.

An example: Take Leo [not his real name!] an A-Level student who arrived at his first session with arms folded, convinced English “just isn’t my thing.” This was in part because he thought English was bout ticking boxes, or trying to fish for what the teacher was "getting at". As if there was a single ready-made meaning hidden in the poem, like the present inside the Kinder egg.

Instead of diving straight into analysis, I began with conversation: What did Leo actually enjoy reading? What did he think the writer was trying to do, what did he think about those same subjects? ? Leo realised that his ideas mattered, that there wasn't simply a right or wrong answer, as there might be in maths, but only more or less productive or interesting answers, that the poems we were studying actively invited his ideas and feelings and responses.

Over the weeks, his confidence grew, his essays gained personality, and his grades began to rise — not because I pushed harder on content, or indeed in grading, but because Leo was genuinely engaging with the texts.

For more of my own writing, see here: Mark Bowles | Substack