www.taolearn.com

STUDENT LEARNING SKILLS COURSES

Maths & Memory - for Years 6-8 (PYP)

- establishing the patterning base of maths and memory

Metacognitive Awareness for Years 7-10 (MYP)

- noticing and improving learning strategies and techniques, developing personal learning style for success at school

Digital Learning for all students, all ages

- effective use of web-based resources for schoolwork

Exam Confidence for Years 10-13 (DP)

- practical study and self-motivation skills for high achievement in all tests and exams

Learning Resilience for Years 12 & 13 (TOK & GATE)

- developing flexible thinking, understanding intelligence, becoming a resilient learner

What are the characteristics of these children?

curious

interested

adventurous

courageous

good skills

good learners?

self-motivated

self-managed

self-directed

self-regulated

autonomous

independent

lifelong learners?

Are the children in your school like this?

Why do you think it is that the longer children stay in school

- the less curious they become?

- the less questions they ask?

The most motivating learning .....

..... is always self-regulated

SRL self-regulated learning

Teaching is the canny art of

intellectual temptation

- Jerome Bruner

Great teaching involves putting children into difficult

situations out of which they

can only get by thinking

John Heron

The self-regulated learner

1) Believes that learning is possible for them

2) Has the skills necessary to learn effectively

3) Learns by experience, from and with other students, at their own pace, following their own leads, in a well scaffolded environment where they feel safe to make mistakes

In an SRL Classroom what would children need to be able to do?

They would need to have all the skills of Self-Regulated Learning they would need excellent learning skills

Including the skills of how to .....

set learning goals

plan out their study

ask good questions

generate motivation and perseverance

process information effectively sift, sort, compare, verify, try out different ways to learn

work to deadlines

reflect on their achievement both process and content

make changes to their learning processes where necessary

These are all skills learning skills

Do your students have all these skills?

They know how to learn but do they know how to study?

73% of university students report difficulties preparing for an exam

most tertiary students have been found to have weak or ineffective strategies for processing information both in the classroom and in their own study

when making notes from lectures or from text most students miss 60 - 70% of the key points

- good note making is positively correlated with academic achievement

- material omitted from notes has only a 5 - 15% chance of being recalled

Even when they have good notes many students still have great difficulty organising the information they have collected.

52% admit that their notes are disorganised

61% report having trouble sequencing the ideas to make coherent sense

Even given well organised, well structured notes with summaries provided:

two thirds of students at the secondary level study for tests purely by rereading their notes

more than half of them do that reading the day before the test or exam

around 12% of students do nothing more than recopy their notes verbatim

50% use passive repetition of key points as their single study technique.

The direct teaching of learning skills is still an uncommon topic in most school programmes

Only 20% of teachers believe that teaching students how to learn is a priority

Only 17% of students report that teachers actively help them learn or improve their study skills

Learning Skills

Are a combination of

cognitive

metacognitive and

affective

- processes, skills, techniques and strategies

Cognitive skills - active information processing and retrieval strategies study skills

Organising, transforming and summarising information

Using structural writing planners

Timetabling and time management

Note making in class and for studying

Memory techniques

Idea generation, metaphorical thinking

Questioning

Understanding own learning preferences

Affective skills - enabling the student to gain some control over mood, motivation and attitude

Persistence and perseverance

Focus and concentration, overcoming distractions

Self-motivation

Mindfulness

Reducing anxiety

Delaying gratification

Managing impulsiveness and anger

Developing resilience

Metacognitive skills monitoring the deployment of cognitive and affective skills

Reflecting on the success of learning strategies used, skills practiced and the understanding and retention of content

Being prepared to change ineffective strategies, learn new skills

Learning Skills - in the USA

EIC - Elementary Integrated Curriculum Framework core curriculum adopted by 47 states (2011)

Academic Success Skills: Collaboration Effort/Motivation/Persistence Intellectual Risk Taking Metacognition

Creative Thinking Skills: Elaboration Flexibility Fluency Originality

Critical Thinking Skills: Analysis Evaluation Synthesis

Poland Belgium

Italy Korea

Singapore Mexico

The Slovak Republic Spain

and Turkey

have all developed curricula of essential learning skills for students

NZ Curriculum Five Key Competencies

Thinking

Using language, symbols and text

Managing self

Relating to others

Participating and contributing

Ontario Growing Success 2010

Learning Skills and Work Habits:

Responsibility

Organization

Independent Work

Collaboration

Initiative

Self-Regulation

Learning Skills - in the MYP

The Learner Profile all IB Learners strive to be:

Inquirers

Knowledgeable

Thinkers

Communicators

Principled

Open-minded

Caring

Risk-takers

Balanced

Reflective

Approaches To Learning - 10 Learning Skill Clusters

(provisional)

Communication Collaboration

Organisation

Affective Skills

Information Literacy

Media Literacy

Critical Thinking

Creativity

Reflection

Transfer

Critical thinking The skills of critique of text, media, ideas and issues

Creativity and

innovation

The skills of invention developing things and ideas that never existed before

Reflection The metacognitive skills of re-considering what has been taught and learned by reflection on content, ATL skills and learning strategy use

Transfer Utilising skills and knowledge in multiple contexts

Collaboration The skills of working cooperatively with others

Communication The skills of effectively exchanging thoughts, messages and information through interaction

The skills of reading, writing and using language to communicate information

Organization The skills of effectively managing time and tasks

Affective skills The skills of managing state of mind

Information literacy

The skills of finding, interpreting, judging and creating information

Media literacy The skills of interacting with different media to compare and contrast different representations of information

Some facts:

6 billion cell phones in the world

85% of new phones are web enabled

2 billion broadband subscriptions

255 million websites

150 million blogs

8 trillion text messages sent in 2011

107 trillion emails 89% of which were spam

Youtube 48 hours uploaded every minute

3 billion videos viewed every day

What if .....

every piece of subject matter was available to your students on the internet in a well organised, easily accessible, danger free way and

they all had access to internet linked tablets and

they all had access to high speed broadband all day....

What could teaching look like then?

POSBGIL developing self-regulated learners

Process Oriented

Skills Based

Guided Inquiry

Learning

A revolution in teaching and learning is now possible due to:

A focus on the teaching of learning skills in Growing

Success and ATL in the new MYP

The proliferation of high quality school subject based

websites

The ubiquity of internet accessible devices

The availability of high speed broadband

The high level of comfort your students all have with the

digital world

SRL Exercise 1

1) Divide into subject groups of 3 people per group

2) Organise one internet connected device per group

3) Connect to www.taolearn.com/students.php

4) Find a link to a website in your subject that none of you are

familiar with

5) Evaluate that site for:

breadth what range of topics are presented?

depth what levels of schooling are covered?

structure how is the information presented video, audio, games?

6) Move on to another site

http://www.taolearn.com/students.php

But of course:

Students differ in the degree of self-regulation they have the skills for

Teachers differ in the degree of self-regulation they allow in the classroom

Regulatory styles of Students

High self-regulation skills

- student manages all aspects of own learning

- student thinking at a maximum, teacher involvement at a minimum

Intermediate self-regulation skills

- student manages much of own learning, asks the teacher questions, gets

help occasionally

- students thinking engaged, teacher as guide and support

Low self-regulation skills

- student totally passive, needs to be taught everything, have all questions

answered, helped through every step of learning

- student thinking at a minimum, teacher totally involved in all phases of

student learning

Regulatory styles of Teachers

Strong teacher regulation

- teacher controls all information, answers all questions

- student thinking at a minimum, teacher as mental crutch

Shared regulation

- teacher provides skills training, problem statements, concepts

- students actively engage in finding information, solving problems

- students thinking engaged, teacher as guide and support

Loose teacher regulation

- teachers only functions are supplying the learning objectives and

assessing their achievement

- student thinking at a maximum, teacher engagement at a minimum

De

gre

e o

f St

ud

en

t Se

lf-r

egu

lati

on

Degree of Teacher Regulation of Learning

Strong

Shared

Loose

High Destructive friction

Constructive friction

Congruence

Intermediate Destructive friction

Congruence Constructive friction

Low Congruence Constructive friction

Destructive Friction

Shared Style - with provision

1) Assess for ability to self-regulate learning

2) Allow for 3 levels of self-regulation in every class

3) Groups of 3-4 with one computer + high speed internet

4) Work directly with the low SRL students teaching them the appropriate learning skills

5) Help the intermediate SRL students where required

6) Allow the high self-regulated learners to work independently

7) Pose problems, set challenges, give measurable objectives, help them to ask the right questions

Must have provision for the highly self-regulated learner at all levels for all students to aspire to

What percentage of your lessons are available to

students (right now) as well structured and supported,

fully independent learning experiences?

Are you aware of all the websites that have resources

for your subject?

1) Connect to www.taolearn.com/resources.php

2) Click on Best Digital Resources for Teachers

3) Explore

http://www.taolearn.com/resources.php

Design inquiry learning lessons using good quality internet resources

Subject Objectives questions I want them to answer are:

Teaching/learning strategies to achieve the objectives and practice the skills using the resources

Process Objectives - learning skills I want them to practice are:

Websites/resources I want them to access are:

Planning for teaching and learning through inquiry

The Key to SRL is Developing Metacognitive Awareness

Through regular reflection on:

Content understanding of subject matter

- what dont I understand yet?

- what questions do I have?

ATL Skills progress towards mastery of ATL skills

- what skills have I practiced today?

- how competent do I now feel in each skill?

Strategy use effectiveness of learning/teaching strategies

- what strategies have I been exposed to or used myself today?

- how effective was each one for me?

Ontario Growing Success 2010

Seven Fundamental Principles:

7) Develop students self assessment skills

Student Development Goal:

...develop the ability to understand how they learn, recognise areas that need improvement, set goals for improvement, monitor their own learning

Metacognition 1 - Reflection on Content

Content understanding of subject matter

What I dont understand is ..

How do I ?

What do I have to do to ..?

What I need to know is

The thing I just dont get is

What do you mean when you say ?

What questions do you have?

Metacognition 1 Reflection on Content

Evaluate understanding of subject matter, identify gaps

What I dont understand is .. How do I ? What do I have to do to ..? What I need to know is The thing I just dont get is What do you mean when you say ?

What questions do you have so far?

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Metacognition 2 - Reflection on ATL Skills

Level 1

Novice

- observation

Level 2

Learner

- emulation

Level 3

Practitioner

- demonstration

Level 4

Expert

- self-regulation Observes others performing tasks and using the skill High levels of scaffolding from teacher needed

Copies others performance of the skill Medium level of scaffolding needed

Can demonstrate the skill on demand Minimal teacher scaffolding required

Can teach others the skill No teacher scaffolding required

Key Cognitive and Affective Skills for

Effective Learning

Novice

- observation

Learner

- emulation

Practitioner

- demonstration

Expert

-self-regulation

Organising, transforming, summarising

information

Using structural writing planners

Timetabling and time management

Note making for different purposes

Memory techniques

Idea generation, metaphorical thinking

Questioning

Understanding own learning preferences

Persistence and perseverance

Focus and concentration, overcoming

distractions

Self-motivation

Mindfulness

Reducing anxiety

Delaying gratification

Managing impulsiveness and anger

Being resilient

Metacognition 2 Reflection on ATL skills

Self -assess present level of learning skills proficiency

Metacognition 3 - Reflection on Strategy Use

Evaluate effectiveness of teaching/learning

strategies employed:

which strategies helped you learn best?

which was most effective, efficient,

memorable?

Teaching/Learning Strategies

I experienced today

Very effective for

me

OK for me No good for me

Video plus reflection

Q & A

Listening

Watching

Group discussion

First internet research exercise

Second internet research exercise

Metacog 1 Reflection on

content

Metacog 2 Reflection on skills

...

Metacognition 3: - Reflection on strategy use

Which strategies/methods were most effective in helping you understand todays subject matter?

Learning Skills in the UK

2007 DfE research - Learning Skills And the Development

of Learning Capability concluded:

The results suggest that the development of learning

skills and capabilities should be embedded in the

curriculum, as well as being taught explicitly to pupils.

2008 QCA - A Framework of personal, learning and thinking skills that are essential to success in learning, life and work:

Independent inquirers

Creative thinkers

Reflective learners

Team workers

Self-managers

Effective participators

2011 - QCA was disbanded and its functions absorbed by DfE

How do you assess learning skills?

By the successful understanding, retention, transfer and recall of content?

But does the successful passing of content based tests give any indication of the breadth, depth, variety, effectiveness or efficiency of the learning skills employed?

ATL skills ...

..are skills groups of techniques and strategies unified to

a common purpose which improve with practice

..are a process of engagement which is going on all the

time in every lesson

..are not more content to be learned but a process to

be practiced and improved

Teaching and assessing ATL skills:

1. Make the ATL skills to be practiced explicit

2. Allow self-assessment of skill competency

3. Develop the metacognitive process

Making ATL skills explicit in each lesson

Help develop awareness of ATL skills and processes

Talk about the particular skills the students are going to be

using

Give examples of skill proficiency at different levels

Have them notice their own practice of these skills during

subject learning tasks

Encourage them to ask process focused questions, share

effective learning processes and seek out new and different

strategies/techniques/skills to use

The self-regulated learner

is aware of their own learning process

can describe how they are thinking

treats any failure to understand as a failure of the

process they are using not a failure of them self

is prepared to try different techniques, strategies until

they understand

has access to resources

learns cooperatively and collaboratively with others

If the aim is to develop lifelong learners this can now be achieved by:

Focus on teaching ATL skills rather than subject content

Allow students to find the required subject content

themselves, in groups, using good quality internet resources

Enable self-regulated learning to occur in the classroom

Use self-assessment of content, process and ATL skill

competency to develop full metacognitive awareness

1999 Netherlands Project - Implementation

Nationwide innovation in secondary education aimed

at developing self-regulated learners:

1) Students becoming owners of the learning process

2) Learning as the active construction of knowledge

3) Students learning in collaboration with other

students

2010 Netherlands Project - Review

Conclusions:

1) Teachers found it very difficult to stop teaching

2) Good PD not available to support teachers in developing self-regulated learners

3) Transmission teaching was still the norm

To Develop Self-Regulated Learners

Teachers must learn how to stop teaching and allow learning to take place

Only by being allowed to practice the skills of self-regulated learning will students become self-regulated learners.

Three Key Strands of PD for SRL

Teach the teachers:

how to teach ATL Skills within the context of

their subject based lessons

how to turn the classroom experience into

guided inquiry learning

how to help students to self-assess their

content, skills and strategy use through

reflection