Controlling My Learning
How many times have you found yourself in discussions with other teachers, wishing that students were more independent? Wishing students would set themselves their own goals? Would reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses to gain some understanding of their own learning? In science, we have discussed these issues many times and the truth is rather harsh. Since we have students from such a young age, if they lack these characteristics then we as an institution can only blame ourselves. If our students are not independent enough, what have we put in place that runs across departments and runs vertically up and down the school to achieve it? If they don’t set their own goals, how have they learned that they should be following teachers goals and not their own? If they don’t naturally self-assess to identify where on the learning path they are, is that because they are deliberately ignoring what we have been trying to encourage them to do?
Firstly, we had better see whether our gut instincts seem to be supported by evidence and research.
Here is one sample of the findings of multiple bits of research:
Here too, we can find some suggestions of how independence can be encouraged:
Of course different teachers will find their evidence from studies shared through the diligent CPD team here at Markham or newsletters and web pages of their own preference. There seems to be a weight of evidence, suggesting that encouraging these objectives brings multiple positive benefits. If we want these ways of working, how can it be done?
No individual teacher or department can be held to blame for students being passive or not pushing themselves towards goals they have designed themselves. In fact, major benefits will only come when it is an issue across departments and throughout the school but if course, you have to start somewhere. In science this year, we set students to Control their Own Learning and for a first try, we aimed it at S2 to S4 groups. So, look at the descriptors below and you should find things that could easily be adapted to other areas.
Approach to learning
I will show the desire and drive to learn and use all the resources available in an imaginative and positive way to help my learning:
I will show consistent effort and focus to involve myself in ideas arising from a range of sources. These can include the teacher, other students, lesson materials (Notebook files, simulations, videos, documents, books etc), any aspect of practical work and things that come from outside lesson time (Research I do at home, stories in the news, videos etc).
Show initiative and perseverance when presented with challenging situations.
I am able to assess what I have learned and what areas I have not yet mastered.
I will takes action to improve and make progress. This could be through getting help from the teacher, partner or other groups, coming back outside lesson time to get better data from experiments, doing research independently etc.
I am always honest on all activities.
Group working
I will contribute positively when working with other students:
I am always prepared to share an idea, even when I’m not sure if it’s correct.
I’m a good listener when other students present their ideas. I always comment constructively on what is being said, so that the ideas can be developed.
I always agree to a role in our group and we rotate the roles over time so that everyone gains experience. This can be in practical situations, research situations or in discussion situations.
Everyone in the group is able to explain what the group is doing from beginning to the end of any activity
After developing these instructions, we found it was very alien to the students and so we had to build in short but frequent sessions for them to think about these things. In the early stages we had discussions where students themselves were talking about the reasons for doing this and what could the benefits be. Initially, some thought we would give them a higher grade but more self-reflective things were talked about. We got them at the end of each week to reflect on how far they were towards achieving their targets and what targets they would set for the following week. This was recorded into a Google Doc that we designed but it is not the easiest way of keeping the record and for the future this should probably go to an intranet based record.
Another issue after the students had been doing this a short while, which again shows how difficult it is to achieve these things, were the records were really description and not self-reflection. Metacognition and learning about your own learning are incredibly difficult skills to develop. Whilst we are positive about how students are trying to approach this, there are many questions to continue to ask ourselves. Are the above descriptors clear enough? Are all relevant descriptors there or are some of the descriptors not relevant. How long will it take for students to naturally use these techniques without being asked to set themselves targets from the teachers?
We suspect that if done from an early age and long enough with students hearing these things from all of their learning environments, then very significant improvements could be brought about. One of the things about research and for obvious reasons, is that it tends to be research done in narrow areas and for short periods of time. There is not a mountain of data on using the strategy from 4 to 18 years old or an approach from all learning areas and at all times. In our short current experience we have seen positive signs and we ask for any other departments and sections interested to come and speak with us.