Helping Students Learn to Learn Simple Things that Teachers Can Do

Helping Students Learn to Learn: Simple Things that Teachers Can Do Angela Ho, EDC Chan Chi Hung, Learning to Learn Project Helping Students Learn to Learn: What Do Your Students Need? What Do You Need? Learning to Learn What do your students NEED? Learning to Learn: What do students say they need?         To know the aims of learning To set learning goals Improve our thinking process Skills to answer questions Learn to apply in daily life To know more about real world situations How to learn efficiently & effectively, i.e. less time to learn more, less effort to get more returns Learn the different ways for learning different subjects e.g. ICT, IT Learning to Learn: What do students say they need? (I)  My relatives ask me “What do you do with the subject you’re studying?”, I don’t know what to say, …… In fact, I am quite lost. (Lacking understanding of learning goals)  We are completely lacking thinking skills and don’t know how to transfer our learning.…I have no idea what has to be interpreted. … We learned a lot of things, but we don’t know how to apply these in work (Badly lacking thinking/cognitive skills) Learning to Learn: What do students say they need? (II)   The most difficult is the project. We have to take care of everything from the beginning…. We have to form groups with someone we are not familiar with The teaching of writing reports, we only know the heading, we do not know what should go under it. (Lacking skills for specific learning tasks) Helping students learn to learn What are the more efficient methods? Learning to Learn  Stand alone course on learning skills  Learning to learn in the context of teaching, learning & assessment Preference for learning to learn in-context of teaching, learning & assessment The following all suggest that in-context L2L is preferred    Empirical evidence in the literature PolyU experience Students’ opinions Empirical evidence in support of in-context learning-to-learn A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of 51 learning skills interventions … the typical study skills training package is indeed not so effective as metacognitive and contextualised intervention, but is significantly better than nothing -clearly so in the case of younger students, and only marginally so in the case of college students. (Hattie, Biggs and Purdie, 1996: 129) PolyU experience  Stand-alone L2L efforts  Workshops  One-off study of L2L handbooks  In-context L2L support  Detailed feedback on assignments   Students found materials very useful, BUT seldom refer to them afterwards  Students reported to have more impact on their learning Students’ words suggest that in-context L2L is more appropriate  Difficulties in learning perceived by students are mostly related to the programme or to the teaching / learning process Students prefer L2L help  To be given in relation to a task  To be given when they need to work on the task  Helping Students Learn to Learn What do your NEED? Learning to Learn in-context of teaching, learning & assessment  How can the learning of learning skills be integrated with the learning of content knowledge? What teaching & assessment methods foster the development of learning skills? How to appropriately provide students with guidance on learning skills? What knowledge and abilities do teachers require for the teaching of learning skills?    Learning to Learn Developing students’ Cognitive, Motivational & Interpersonal strategies for learning Participating departments 1. BSE 2. BUSS 3. COMP 6. ITC 7. LSGI 8. ME 4. ENGL 5. GEC 9. MFG 10. OR 3 handbooks for helping students learn to learn  Help in the cognitive domain For the Success of Your Study  Help in the motivational domain Getting the Most out of Your University: Becoming a Successful Learner and a Preferred Graduate  Help in the interpersonal domain Working Your Way through a Group Project What do students say about “For the success of your study”?  This is the first booklet I’ve come across which is so systematically written to tell me what to do in my learning. In the past, I tried my best to put in everything which I thought the teacher wanted. Now I realise that I need to select and organise.   Teachers asked me to elaborate but I didn’t know how to. Now the thinking tasks have inspired me what to do. I started to realise why those classmates who explained their steps in calculation got better results than me. I used to focus on calculating the answer only.  What do students say about “Becoming a successful learner and a preferred graduate”?  I know what I should do and learn in these coming 3 years. And the most important is that I have to learn in a correct way in different learning activities. I helps me understand deeply what I can do after my graduation and to realise what employers want employees to have.   University is a new life to me … This workshop can help us to cope with the new ways of learning. It helps me to set a goal and to understand the things I should learn besides textbook knowledge.  What do students say about “Working your way through a group project”?   This clarifies what it means by a project It is useful because I need the skills to handle our project. It really can help us solve the problems. It can help me to increase my responsibility in a group.    I find the the part on communication and leadership skills useful. I will try to have an evaluation for each section and make sure that each members can learn from each other and the process. What do students say about a 2-day L2L programme?  the workshop raise my awareness of my thinking method and help me to think about how I should work with my group members in the coming projects. I also enjoyed the Learning to learn workshop. Things I got in the workshop:    knew more friends from other groups. e.g. xxx had deeper thinking in some aspects. e.g.learning approach, communication with other, work and organise project-improvement!! And I still keep thinking them after the workshop. Helping Students Learn to Learn – Simple Things that Teachers Can Do 1. Helping students learn to learn: What do your students need? What do you need? 2. Motivating students to learn by helping them see their learning goals 3. Helping students to achieve higher level learning outcomes 4. Helping students to get the most out of group project work Approaches to Helping Students Learn     Study skills training approach Learning strategies teaching approach Student development approach Contextual approach Study skills training approach    mostly skills for “managing study to pass exam” -- peripheral to “understanding” out-of-context of the subject prescriptive skills Learning Strategies Teaching Teaching students about cognitive processes which underlie effective learning Learning strategies from Cognitive psychology      Rehearsal Elaboration Organisation Comprehension monitoring …... Methods for teaching learning strategies   courses/workshops integrating the teaching of learning strategies into regular teaching (Metacurriculum) Student-Development Approaches Developing self-awareness Changing conceptions of learning Rationales for Student-development approaches  Different techniques suit different people Research has shown that “peripheral” skills are NOT related to learning outcomes Many “study skills” advice are based on experiments absurdly unlike student learning   Developing self-awareness    stimulates thinking about own learning (the processes, decisions, purposes … that make up studying) encourages sharing of experiences facilitates development of an armoury of suitable approaches to be used in appropriate conditions Contextual Approach to Improving Student Learning Factors affecting student learning  Curriculum Teaching method Assessment method   Research findings on Effectiveness of different approaches Martin & Ramsden (1987)  Students’ comments Learning outcomes  Students comments study skills course at the beginning keen student development programme Did not get what I wanted Gained insight about learning at the end lost enthusiasm, cannot apply to real learning Learning outcomes comparing participants with non-participants study skills course exam essay student development programme no difference no difference no difference participants significantly better than non-participants Learning Outcomes Comparing participants in study skills programme with non-participants  Final exam -difference Essay assignment -difference No  No Learning Outcomes Comparing participants in student development programme with non-participants  Final exam -difference No  Essay assignment -Participants performed significantly better than nonparticipants Common topics in skills training courses  study      Time organisation Study management Using text-books or reference materials efficiently Revision techniques Note taking etc. Looking at Approaches to Helping Students Learn    characteristics of the approach examples research findings on effectiveness Helping students learn to learn  What What are their “learning to learn needs”? When? When is the best time to provide help? How? How best to help them?  