Updated on
July 20, 2026
Building Learning Power: A Teacher's Guide to the Four Rs
Building Learning Power explained for teachers: the four Rs, split-screen teaching, links to metacognition, and how to start with your class.
Building Learning Power is an approach to teaching that aims to strengthen the habits and dispositions learners need to become better, more confident learners. Guy Claxton developed it in the early 2000s, drawing on research into how people learn (Claxton, 2002). The core idea is simple.
Intelligence is not fixed. The capacity to learn can be grown, like a muscle, through deliberate practice.
The programme organises these learnable habits into four groups, known as the four Rs: resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity. Teachers build them alongside the subject content, not instead of it. This guide explains what the four Rs mean, how split-screen teaching works, how the model connects to metacognition and Habits of Mind (Costa & Kallick, 2008), and how to introduce it sensibly across a school.
Key Takeaways
- Building Learning Power grows learning habits, not just knowledge. It treats the capacity to learn as something teachers can build over time.
- The four Rs organise the habits. Resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity each hold a cluster of learning capacities.
- Split-screen teaching runs two goals at once. Every lesson teaches the content and one named learning habit side by side.
- The model overlaps with metacognition and Habits of Mind. The better-evidenced work sits in the metacognition research, so borrow from both.
- The branded programme has a thin trial base. Treat it as a shared language and check its impact against your own evidence.
What Is Building Learning Power?
Building Learning Power is a framework, created by Guy Claxton, for teaching the dispositions that help learners learn well (Claxton, 2002). It names four families of habit, the four Rs, and asks teachers to build them alongside the curriculum. The aim is confident, capable learners who can handle difficulty.
The approach rests on one claim: learning is learnable. Claxton argues that the habits of an effective learner, such as sticking with hard problems or asking good questions, can be taught (Claxton, 2007). The model gives teachers a shared vocabulary for those habits, so learners can name and grow them.
It sits within the wider family of dispositions work in education. Rather than adding a new subject, it changes how existing subjects are taught. A maths lesson still teaches maths, but it also, out loud, builds one learning habit such as perseverance or careful checking.
Claxton describes the aim as building learning muscles. The metaphor is deliberate. Just as exercise strengthens the body, the right kind of mental effort strengthens a learner's capacity to cope, adapt and improve. The four Rs simply name the muscle groups that matter most in school.
Where Building Learning Power Came From
Building Learning Power grew out of Guy Claxton's research on learning to learn, published in 2002 (Claxton, 2002). It drew on work in cognitive science, the psychology of expertise, and studies of learning dispositions. Claxton wanted a practical model that ordinary schools could use, not just a theory.
The 2000s saw wide interest in learnable intelligence. Carol Dweck's work on mindset was spreading, and many schools wanted ways to build persistence and independence. Claxton's model spoke to that moment. Our guide to growth mindset covers the closely related idea that ability can grow with effort.
Claxton also drew on the idea of learning capacity as something you can measure. The ELLI project, which he helped lead, built an inventory to profile how learners approach learning (Deakin Crick et al., 2004). That research shaped the four Rs and the capacities beneath them.
The name matters too. Claxton wanted teachers to talk about building power, not fixing deficits. That framing puts learners in an active role. They are not broken and waiting to be repaired, but capable of growing stronger with the right practice and the right language.
The Four Rs of Building Learning Power
The four Rs are resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity. Each names a family of learning habits. Resilience is about staying in the game, resourcefulness about having the tools to learn, reflectiveness about planning and reviewing, and reciprocity about learning with and from others (Claxton, 2002).
Together the four Rs give teachers and learners a common language. Instead of a vague call to try harder, a teacher can name the exact habit a task needs. The table below sets out each R, the capacities inside it, and one classroom move that builds it.
| The R | Learning capacities | One classroom move |
|---|---|---|
| Resilience. | Absorption, managing distractions, noticing, perseverance. | Set a "stuck" protocol so learners try three strategies before asking for help. |
| Resourcefulness. | Questioning, making links, imagining, reasoning, capitalising on resources. | Model your thinking aloud, showing how you find a method when the answer is not obvious. |
| Reflectiveness. | Planning, revising, distilling, meta-learning. | End lessons with a short review of what worked and what to change next time. |
| Reciprocity. | Interdependence, collaboration, empathy and listening, imitation. | Use structured talk roles so every learner both contributes and listens. |
None of the four Rs works in isolation. A tough investigation might call on resilience to stay with the problem, resourcefulness to find a method, and reciprocity to test ideas with a partner. The labels are a planning aid, not rigid boxes.
Claxton chose four words that are easy to remember and hard to forget. The alliteration is intentional. A model that learners can recall and repeat has a better chance of shaping how they talk about their own learning, which is where the real work happens.
Split-Screen Teaching Explained
Split-screen teaching means running two learning goals in the same lesson: the subject content and a learning habit. Claxton uses the term to capture how a teacher keeps both in view at once (Claxton, 2007). The content fills one side of the screen, and the targeted R fills the other.
In practice this is light-touch. A history teacher might plan a lesson on the causes of a war and also decide the focus habit is making links, a resourcefulness capacity. The teacher names it, models it, and praises it when learners do it well.
The point is to make the learning habit visible. Learners often pick up content without ever noticing how they learned it. Split-screen teaching narrates the how, so the habit can transfer to the next task. Over time, the language of the four Rs becomes part of everyday classroom talk.
A short worked example shows the shape. In a Year 5 science lesson on materials, the content goal is to sort objects by property. The habit goal is perseverance, part of resilience. The teacher sets a deliberately tricky sorting task, praises learners who keep trying different criteria, and closes by asking what they did when they felt stuck.
The Learning Capacities Under Each R
Under each R sits a set of named learning capacities, the specific habits that make up the disposition. Resilience, for example, includes absorption, managing distractions, noticing and perseverance. Naming capacities lets teachers target something precise rather than a broad trait (Claxton, 2002).
Resourcefulness covers questioning, making links, imagining, reasoning and capitalising on resources. These are the tools learners reach for when they do not yet know what to do. Explicit strategy teaching helps here, and our guide to thinking strategies gives classroom routines that build them.
Reflectiveness gathers planning, revising, distilling and meta-learning, the habits of standing back and steering. Reciprocity gathers interdependence, collaboration, empathy, listening and imitation. Between them, the capacities turn four broad words into a menu of teachable behaviours.
Teachers do not need to cover every capacity. A term that builds two or three well beats one that mentions all of them in passing. Depth matters more than coverage here, and a narrow focus is easier for learners to notice and repeat.
Building Learning Power and Metacognition
Building Learning Power overlaps heavily with metacognition, the skill of planning, monitoring and evaluating your own learning. The reflectiveness R is metacognition by another name. This matters because metacognition has a strong evidence base, unlike the branded programme itself (EEF, 2021).
The Education Endowment Foundation rates metacognition and self-regulation as high-impact and low-cost (EEF, 2021). Much of what the model asks teachers to do, such as modelling strategies and prompting reflection, is exactly what that research recommends. Our guide on how to develop metacognition sets out the core moves.
So a sensible reading is this. Use the four Rs for their friendly language and whole-child framing, but lean on the metacognition evidence for the classroom detail. The related field of self-regulated learning adds the motivational side that keeps learners going.
Reflection prompts are the simplest bridge between the two ideas. A question such as, what would you do differently next time, sits at the heart of both metacognition and the reflectiveness R. Asked often, and in the same words, it becomes a habit rather than a one-off event.
Building Learning Power and Habits of Mind
Habits of Mind, developed by Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick, is a close cousin of Building Learning Power (Costa & Kallick, 2008). It lists sixteen dispositions that effective thinkers use, such as persisting, thinking flexibly and questioning. Both models treat learning behaviour as teachable, not fixed.
The two frameworks differ mainly in grain. Building Learning Power groups habits into four broad Rs, while Habits of Mind spreads them across sixteen named dispositions (Costa & Kallick, 2008). Some schools find the four Rs easier to hold in mind, while others prefer the fuller list.
Costa and Kallick built their list for a similar reason. They wanted to describe what intelligent people do when they do not know the answer (Costa & Kallick, 2008). That focus on behaviour under difficulty is the shared heart of both models.
You do not need both. Pick one shared language and use it consistently. What matters is that learners hear the same words for the same habits across classrooms, so the ideas stick rather than competing for space.
Rolling Building Learning Power Out Across a School
A whole-school roll-out works best when it is slow and shared. Start with one agreed vocabulary, train staff in split-screen teaching, and give the four Rs time to settle into everyday talk. Rushed launches tend to produce displays without changed practice.
A workable sequence has three phases. First, build shared understanding among staff through training and lesson study. Second, agree consistent language and visible prompts, so learners meet the same four Rs everywhere. Third, weave the habits into planning, feedback and assessment rather than bolting them on.
It also helps to involve learners directly. When a class helps define what resilience looks like in their subject, the words carry more weight than a poster handed down from above. Some schools build learner-friendly versions of the four Rs, use them in target-setting, and ask learners to point to moments when they used a habit well.
Leadership needs to protect the habits from drift. It is easy for the four Rs to shrink into wall posters that no one references. Linking them to how learners talk about their own progress keeps them alive, and our guide to developing student metacognition shows how to make that talk routine.
Getting Started with the Four Rs
You can trial Building Learning Power in a single class without any whole-school change. Pick one R, name it in your lessons, and model it out loud for a few weeks. Small, consistent narration beats a large launch that fades after a term.
- Choose one R to focus on. Resilience is often the easiest place to begin, because learners meet difficulty every day.
- Name the habit in the lesson. Tell learners which capacity today's task will stretch, and why it helps.
- Model it out loud. Think aloud when you get stuck, so learners see the habit in action rather than just hearing about it.
- Prompt reflection at the end. Ask one short question about how learners worked, not just what they produced.
Once the habit feels natural, add a second R and repeat. Keep a light record of what shifts in engagement and independence. Our guide to metacognition in the classroom offers reflection routines that fit neatly beside the four Rs.
The wider evidence base gives cautious support. A large review of thinking skills programmes found positive average effects on attainment, with wide variation depending on how well schools implemented them (Higgins et al., 2005).
Limitations and Critiques
Building Learning Power faces four honest criticisms. The branded programme has a thin independent trial base, its habits may not transfer across subjects, it overlaps with better-evidenced metacognition work, and its language can become decoration rather than practice. Each deserves a clear-eyed look.
First, the evidence. There are few strong independent randomised trials of the programme as a packaged whole, so bold impact claims should be treated with care. The wider thinking-skills field is more mixed than it first appears, and a large meta-analysis found real but variable effects across very different approaches (Higgins et al., 2005).
Second, transfer. Many researchers argue that learning dispositions are partly domain-specific, so a habit built in art may not carry into algebra. Generic-skills models can promise more transfer than the evidence supports. This is a general critique of dispositions work, not of one programme alone.
Third, overlap. Much of the model's value lives in its reflectiveness strand, which is metacognition under a friendlier name (EEF, 2021). Schools chasing impact may get more from the metacognition evidence directly, using the four Rs mainly for their shared language.
Fourth, the wallpaper risk. The four Rs can end up as posters and assembly slogans while lessons carry on unchanged. Without split-screen teaching in real lessons, the language changes but the practice does not. Treat the model as one map among several in our guide to thinking frameworks, and check it against your own results.
References
Claxton, G. (2002). Building learning power: Helping young people become better learners. TLO Limited.
Claxton, G. (2007). Expanding young people's capacity to learn. British Journal of Educational Studies, 55(2), 115-134.
Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2008). Learning and leading with habits of mind. ASCD.
Deakin Crick, R., Broadfoot, P., & Claxton, G. (2004). Developing an effective lifelong learning inventory: The ELLI project. Assessment in Education, 11(3), 247-272.
Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Metacognition and self-regulation: Teaching and learning toolkit. EEF.
Higgins, S., Hall, E., Baumfield, V., & Moseley, D. (2005). A meta-analysis of the impact of the implementation of thinking skills approaches on pupils. EPPI-Centre, University of London.
Further Reading
