If we’re serious about curiosity and wonder, then we have to think, ‘What are the sub-habits that lead to that?’ This school recognizes that the path to curiosity and wonder is through openness to new ideas, comfort with complexity, ability to ask questions. For each of those sub-habits, there are different descriptions, so this is what a person looks like when they’re a novice, when they’re a beginner, when they reach expert stage. This is not something that only teachers look at. Those rubrics are used by students and parents all the time. That’s what I mean by assessment as learning. Young people at that school are constantly reflecting on where they’re at on the continuum. As a result, I’ve never met young people who are better able to articulate their strengths and weaknesses and what they want to do with their lives and why.

The Learning Record was originally developed in London and grew out of the need to identify the progress of students for whom standard assessments weren’t working.

If we’re serious about curiosity and wonder, then we have to think, ‘What are the sub-habits that lead to that?

They would find out that this was a kid that loved science but doesn’t like reading. Then the teacher would start thinking of creative solutions, like, “How about science fiction?”