Learning to learn

Hello again,

Do you remember anything about school? Do you remember the teacher standing at the front telling you what to do, what to learn, what page in the textbook to turn to and generally controlling your learning. All this followed by stressful assessments, report cards home and competition on scores. Well things are going to change with a Learning Manager in charge. Handing over the learning to the student so they can choose their outcomes and even their own assessment. All sounds too good? How can it work? The only student centred experience I remember was the geography field trip. Funny, because I do not remember much else, so it must have had an impact!

Formative assessment can be done throughout the year in an informal way so not even the students know it's happening. This allows the Learning Manager to understand where the student is in their learning and what they need. In fact this statement itself is question 2 of a framework developed by Lynch. This holistic framework asks eight questions to guide lesson or unit planning for the learning manager. Questions 1-3 profiles the student, questions 4-6 develops strategies for learning and questions 7-8 ascertain. Here are the eight questions:

1)What do the learner already know?

2)Where does the learner need/want to be? This includes the curriculum and the learner's personal educational needs.

3)How does the learner best learn? Here we can include all the learning styles and personality diffferences.

4)What resources do I have at my disposal?

5)What will constitute the Learning Journey? This is where we engage the learners.

6)Who will do what?

7)How will I check to see if my learner has succeeded? Integrate formative and summative assessment.

8)How will I inform the learner of their progress?

Before we develop our own lesson plans we must consider how to engage learners, understand the differences in learning styles, personalities, intelligences and gain an overview of learning theory (how we learn) and ways of measuring learning outcomes.

After taking numerous tests to discover how I learn best and my personality, I feel worn out. I can see reflections of how I had considered myself as a learner before taking these tests, so I wonder if this swayed my answers?


What do you think!

Warm regards
Johanna

References

Smith, R., Lynch, D. & Mienczakowski, J. (2003). "The bachelor of learning management (BLM) and education capability", Change: Transformations in Education, (6)(2): 23--37