Culture Impacts Learning — And Not Just For Students

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Culture impacts learning — and not just for students

By Corinne Brion

Categories: Continuous improvement, Fundamentals, Implementation, International perspectives, Learning designs

The events of 2020 highlighted many longstanding truths about teaching and learning, truths that can help us move toward a more just and equitable future if we act on them. One such truth is that culture matters for learning, especially for transfer of learning from abstract knowledge into practical application. Because this holds for adults’ learning as well as students’, it can and should have an impact on professional learning. Learning leaders should consider culture in their planning, implementation, and follow-up with educators. Making professional learning more culturally relevant could help ensure effectiveness and decrease the trend of school systems spending money on professional learning that yields few results (Hess, 2013). In turn, this would contribute to better academic, social, and emotional outcomes for all

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