Partners in Learning
Although it often occurs in a social setting, learning is essentially a personal activity. Individuals have preferred learning styles and the more familiar they are with their unique ways of knowing, the more effective they will be when accomplishing a task.
This idea is particularly evident when approaching the learning of new material. Some prefer to read about a new concept, or discuss it with peers; others learn by doing or experiencing something new. Some want specific instructions on how to proceed with a process; others want to be left alone to work it out for themselves.
Teachers endeavour to do everything possible to assist students in their learning experience. They aim to meet student needs and provide comfort levels appropriate for ease of learning. Responsive classroom environments are created through teaching for a variety of learning styles, providing choice and flexibility, diagnosing student readiness and interest levels, devising various forms of collaborative experiences, discussing metacognition and effective study skills and encouraging students to challenge their own thinking and approaches to learning. Various forms of technology enable students to access a differentiated curriculum at their own pace and within their own time so that they can self-diagnose individual levels of understanding and determine appropriate action.
Within the classroom students take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. They follow the instructions that are given by the teachers, participate in activities as directed, join in discussions when requested and attempt to complete set homework tasks. However, when observing classroom participation, there would be a wide variation in terms of the levels of student involvement. This may also be the case when students are asked to transfer and apply the skills that they have been practising at school to homework activities. To become a truly effective learner, a student needs to do more than simply respond to the directions given in the classroom; they need to develop knowledge of themselves so that they become active participants in their own learning, building on strengths and compensating for and overcoming their weaknesses.
In 2009 Hattie completed a book that was the culmination of 15 years of research incorporating more than 50,000 studies and over 800 meta-analyses involving more than 200 million students of various ages in multiple countries. It is the largest collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in school. Atherton (2010) provides insight into Hattie’s thinking in 1992 when he wrote that
… the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement is feedback. The most simple prescription for improving education must be “dollops of feedback”… This does not mean using many tests and providing over-prescriptive directions, it means providing information on how and why the child understands and misunderstands, and what directions the students must take to improve.
By 2009 Hattie had rethought his view on feedback.
The mistake I was making was seeing feedback as something teachers provided to students … it was only when I discovered that feedback was most powerful when it is from the student to the teacher that I started to understand it better. When teachers seek, or at least are open to, feedback from students, to what students know, what they understand, where they make errors, when they have misconceptions, when they are engaged – then teaching and learning can be synchronized and powerful. Feedback to teachers helps make learning visible. ( Hattie, 2009, p. 173)
Much of what Hattie says reinforces what good teachers have always known but it also challenges them to consider learning through the eyes of their students — to consider how they can encourage students to be “assessment capable students”, students who can reflect on the level of their own understanding and take appropriate action to move forward. Teachers try to personalise learning and adjust the teaching to the needs of individual students within the classroom context but ultimately a successful partnership can only emerge when each student becomes self-aware and takes individual responsibility to make her learning visible to her teachers.
As part of developing this knowledge of self as learner, last term each Year 8 student completed a learning styles inventory. The results of the surveys provided class profiles that were discussed at the Year 8 team meetings where teachers were able to consider the combinations of learning preferences exhibited across class cohorts. Were the Year 8 classes predominantly visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners? It was not surprising to discover that all classes consisted of students who were predominantly visual/kinaesthetic learners. Although students access information through all three modalities to varying degrees, this emphasis on two modes provided additional information for the teachers when structuring classroom activities.
Through completing the learning styles inventory it was hoped that students would gain insight into themselves and come to an understanding of why they might find some educational experiences easier than others. If students develop their own personal learning theory, they will be better positioned to become responsible, confident students who, when faced with choices will manage their own learning in a partnership with their teachers.
Often students express concerns about studying for a test. They study for many days and feel that they are well prepared for an assessment only to find that they have “forgotten it all in the exam”. The question is raised: how well did they really know the material? How did they study for the test? Did they translate information from one form to another? Did they identify what they knew from what they did not know and discuss their concerns with their teacher or did they just keep reading the material over and over again hoping that it would make a magical transference from paper or screen to memory and become effective problem solving tools? Rief in Sprenger (2005) reminds us of the following statistics relating to retention. Students remember
- 10% of what they read
- 20% of what they hear
- 30% of what they see
- 50% of what they see and hear
- 70% of what they say
- 90% of what they say and do
Sometimes students seem to think that learning is a passive activity. It is not and the more actively involved the student, the more they feel in control. Stress and anxiety develop when students feel unprepared and lack strategies and choices for action. How well do they really know themselves as learners? When is their best time and location for learning? When do friends help and when do they distract? How do they reward themselves for work productively completed? They need to know the answers to these questions. Additionally, they need to see themselves in effective partnerships with their teachers? Do they communicate their concerns thoroughly when they are struggling to understand a concept? Do they ask for clarification at the right time? Do they try to anticipate and think ahead? Teachers need to “hear” how their students are thinking. They cannot read minds. The importance of visible thinking and learning cannot be emphasised enough. As Hattie (2009) explains powerful learning occurs “when teachers SEE learning through the eyes of the student and when students SEE themselves as their teachers”.
It is never too late to become an active learner. These are skills and attitudes that can be acquired but, if students fail to see the benefits of their own self-reflection and self-management, it may be that they will be left floundering now and in the future. It may be beneficial to be reminded of Toffler’s words:
The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
Dr A Farley
References
Atherton, J.S. (2010). What works best. Retrieved August 11, 2010, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/what_works.htm
Davis, S. (2007). Learning Styles and Memory, Institute for Learning Styles Journal Vol. 1, Fall p. 46-51.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge.
Hattie, J. (2009, September 8). Visible Learning, Tomorrow’s School, The Mindsets that make the difference in Education. Guest lecture presented at The Treasury, Wellington, New Zealand.
etrieved August 12, 2010 from http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/media-speeches/guestlectures/hattie-sept09
Sprenger, M. (2005). Differentiation through Learning Styles and Memory. Moorabbin, Victoria: Hawker Brownlow Education.
Toffler, A. Toffler Quotes. Retrieved August 14, 2010, from http://www.alvintoffler.net/?fa=galleryquotes