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Teaching is the canny art of

intellectual temptation
- Jerome Bruner
Teaching involves putting children into
difficult situations out of which they can
only get by thinking
John Heron

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 are?
- the less questions they ask?

The most motivating learning .....

..... is always self-regulated

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 are 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, and
they all had access to internet linked tablets,
and
they all had access to high speed broadband
all day....
What would teaching look like then?

In an SRL classroom teachers would:

Teach learning skills not content
Pose questions, outline problems, set challenges,
give clear measurable objectives
Put students into small groups

Enable them to connect to the best subject based

internet resources
Get out of the way

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
Calibrating 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 processes used, skills
practiced and the understanding and retention of
content
Being prepared to change ineffective strategies,
learn new skills

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 enquirers

Creative thinkers

Reflective learners

Team workers

Self-managers

Effective participators

2011 - QCA is disbanded and its functions absorbed by DfE

1997 - Singapore MOE

Teach Less Learn More
Remember Why We Teach
more
for the learner
to excite passion
for understanding
for the test of life
and less
to rush through the syllabus
out of fear of failure
to dispense information only
for a life of tests

Learning Skills - in the USA

EIC - Elementary Integrated Curriculum Framework
core curriculum adopted by 46 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

NZ Curriculum Five Key Competencies

Thinking
Using language, symbols and text
Managing self
Relating to others
Participating and contributing
Poland, Belgium, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Slovak Republic,

Spain, and Turkey all have developed similar necessary

learning skill sets for students

Learning Skills - in the IB

The Learner
Profile all IB
learners strive to
be:
Inquirers
Knowledgeable
Thinkers
Communicators
Principled
Open-minded
Caring
Risk-takers
Balanced
Reflective

Approaches To Learning
- 7 Learning Skill clusters
(potential)
Communication &
Collaboration
Self Management
Information & Media
Literacies

Critical Thinking
Creativity & Innovation
Reflection
Transfer

If the aim is to develop lifelong learners this

can now be achieved by:
Focusing on teaching ATL skills rather than
subject content
Allowing students to find the required subject
content themselves using good quality
internet resources
Enabling self-regulated learning to occur in
the classroom
Using self-assessment of content, process and
ATL skill development to develop full
metacognitive awareness

SRL Exercise
1) Form subject groups
2) Form intra-subject groups of 3 people per
group with one internet connected device
per group
3) Connect to subject based websites
4) Evaluate each site for breadth, depth,
delivery styles and Year level suitability

How do you teach learning skills?

Two books developed this year:

IB Skills - A guide for Teaching ATL Skills
IB Skills A students guide for Learning ATL

Skills

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
effectiveness or efficiency of the learning skills
employed?

Framework of Skills Development

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 perform the

the skill on
skill without
demand
thinking

High levels of
scaffolding from
teacher needed

Can teach others

Minimal teacher the skill
scaffolding
required
No teacher
scaffolding
required

Medium level of
scaffolding
needed

Developing Metacognitive Awareness

Regular self-assessment by students of :

Content - understanding of subject matter

ATL skills - progress towards mastery

Learning/teaching strategies - effectiveness
and efficiency

In an SRL classroom teachers would:

Teach learning skills not content
Pose questions, outline problems, set challenges,
give clear measurable objectives
Put students into small groups

Enable them to connect to the best subject based

internet resources
Get out of the way

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

Destructive 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 selfregulated learner at all levels
for all students to aspire to
What percentage of your lessons are available

to students as well structured and supported,

fully independent learning experiences?

Are you aware of all the websites that have

resources for your subject?
http://www.taolearn.com/students.php

1999 Netherlands
nationwide innovation in secondary education
developing self-regulated learners

conclusions in 2010
good PD not available to support SRL
teachers found it difficult to stop teaching
transmission teaching still rules!

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

Developing Metacognitive Awareness

Self-assessment of :

Content understood/not understood

- what questions do you have?

ATL skills learnt/practiced

- progress towards mastery

Learning/teaching strategies experienced/employed

- effectiveness and efficiency