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

self-motivated

interested

self-managed

adventurous

self-directed

courageous

self-regulated

good skills

autonomous

good learners?

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 SelfRegulated 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

The skills of invention developing things and ideas that never

existed before

innovation
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
Media literacy

The skills of finding, interpreting, judging and creating information

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?

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

Degree of Teacher Regulation of Learning

Degree of Student Self-regulation

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

Planning for teaching and learning through inquiry

Design inquiry learning lessons using good

quality internet resources
Subject Objectives questions Teaching/learning strategies to
I want them to answer are:
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:

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

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Novice

Learner

Practitioner

Expert

- observation

- emulation

- demonstration - self-regulation

Observes others Copies others

performing tasks performance of
and using the skill the skill

Can demonstrate Can teach others

the skill on
the skill
demand
No teacher
Minimal teacher scaffolding
scaffolding
required
required

High levels of
scaffolding from
teacher needed

Medium level of
scaffolding
needed

Metacognition 2 Reflection on ATL skills

Self -assess present level of learning skills proficiency
Key Cognitive and Affective Skills for
Effective Learning
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

Novice
- observation

Learner
- emulation

Practitioner
- demonstration

Expert
-self-regulation

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?

Metacognition 3: - Reflection on strategy use

Which strategies/methods were most effective in helping you
understand todays subject matter?
Teaching/Learning Strategies
Very effective for
I experienced today
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
...

OK for me

No good for me

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