At Eequ we're pretty serious about education. Our platform is dedicated to providing educational experiences, and so we ask mentors to think carefully about what they want their learners to have gained by the end of the day. We think this is a good system for two reasons. It helps mentors to prepare their experience in the best frame of mind, and it helps adult learners or parents find a good match for themselves or their child.

Learning aims are descriptions of what a learner should know, understand and / or be able to do at the end of your experience.

It can help to think about three aspects of learning. Skills to develop, knowledge to take away and perhaps most importantly, learning behaviours and characteristics.

Here are some examples:

Skills:

To be able to throw and shape a pot on a wheel.

To be able to groom and tack up a nervous horse.

To be able to control and time a serve.

Knowledge:

To know the difference between the queen, the worker and the drone honey bees.

To know a range of opening moves in chess.

To know the creation of the world according to Norse mythology.

Behaviours:

Develop focus and concentration.

Practice seeking helpful feedback.

Work persistently through challenges.

This is completely up to you. We suggest a minimum of four aims. You can write a maximum of twelve.

There may be some specific knowledge or skills you want teach, that's great! But also think about the core behaviours and processes that you would like the learners to develop during the course of your experience. These are often referred to as a growth mindset.

It’s really valuable for children to learn in mixed age groups. Age mixing allows younger children to engage in and learn from activities that they could not do alone or just with playmates of the same age. They observe and emulate models of activities more advanced than their own; and receive emotional support and care beyond that which age-mates could provide.

Age mixing allows older children to develop their capacities to nurture and lead and allows older children to expand their understanding through teaching. Studies have shown that age-mixed play and learning is generally less competitive and more creative.

In choosing your learning aims you can try to be aware of the optimal age range that might be suitable for your particular learning experience. It’s not necessary to expect every child to become competent in every learning aim by the end of the experience. The outcomes will depend greatly on age and individual differences. Exactly the same principles apply for mixed ability groups.

Not necessarily, it depends on the age of the learner and the learning experience.

To learn means firstly to become aware of something you do not yet understand (Caleb Gattegno), and to work in such a way as to build your understanding. This could not be further from the ‘here’s a statement, now learn it’ approach, and puts the responsibility to learn firmly where it belongs – with the learner.

You can edit your learning aims at any time. In fact, we very much encourage you to do so! It's important to adapt them based on your experiences and the development of your activities.

Bear in mind that the best time to change your learning aims is at the end of a block. If you change your learning aims significantly, we encourage you to message learners that have already booked the experience to draw their attention to the changes.

As always, if you need some help contact us at hello@eequ.org - we're friendly and very happy to lend a hand.