Having worked for many years in different roles including classroom teacher, learning support teacher, educational psychologist and teacher educator, the most common recurring question I have been asked over the years is how to help learners. ‘Learner Identity’ is a unique new publication which has been designed in partnership with teachers and parents to help children help themselves in becoming learners.

The series was also purposefully designed to track the voice of the learner over the school years on the process of becoming and being a learner. Too often in decision-making contexts, the voice of the learner is missing and an understanding of the learning process over time is overlooked. The series specifically aims to create and maintain a chronicle or repository of the school experience from the perspective of the learner from preschool across the school years.

‘My Learner Identity’ is also about balance and alignment – balancing ‘hard data’ and a ‘one size fits all curriculum’ with an awareness of the ‘who’ and ‘how’ of learning and aligning classroom practice to reflect the centrality of the learner. For decades, educators and policy makers have focused on teachers teaching effectively. This series is designed specifically to promote awareness of how children learn, self-recognition of learner strengths and the realisation and development of learner dispositions.