Supporting Independent Learning
What does a successful independent learner look like?
Independent learning happens when pupils set goals, monitor and evaluate their own academic development, so they can manage their own motivation towards learning. The development of independent learners is the ultimate long-term goal of education, as it is this independence which will ensure the aim of the NI curriculum is met: 'to empower young people to achieve their potential and to make informed and responsible decisions throughout their lives'. Learning independently is ultimately the job of the learner but the teacher can support learners to develop the approaches and mindsets of successful independent learners.
Engagement means different things to different people. Many schools reported 'engagement' with remote learning at between 20 - 50%. When we talk about engagement with learning, what do we mean? During lockdown, some pupils didn't log in (no engagement), some pupils logged in (compliance); pupils did what they were told (engagement) and a small number of pupils drove their own learning (were agents of their own learning). Dr Noel Purdy and Alistair Hamill have presented ideas around engagement and learning like this:
Stop and process
Read this short piece and discuss the questions posed at the end of it with a colleague, your department/team or a wider staff grouping.
Also consider the following questions:
What are the measures we currently use to ascertain the levels of engagement with online learning? Are these different to the measures we use in the classroom?
Are we focused on compliance, engagement or agency when we are thinking about pupil learning?
If learning only happens when you are thinking, where do the opportunities for independent thinking arise in your classroom/virtual classroom?
How can a teacher help pupils to learn independently?
Whatisindependentlearningandwhatarethebenefits (1).pdfThis article highlights key aspects of practice to foster independent learning. This article was written in 2008. It is reassuring to note that the strategies recommended therein are consistent with the NI curriculum and that in this disrupted context, these are the elements that will continue to support pupils to learn deeply and engage fully in their own learning. Michael Fullan's 'Education Re-imagined' takes much of what we already know about deep learning and explores how it looks within the context of Covid-19. In Fullan's model, we have entered Phase 2: Transition. This phase requires deep thought about the skills and dispositions that pupils need to succeed in unfamiliar and less structured situations.
Stop and process:
Use this 'aspire/audit/adapt/action' framework with subject colleagues to evaluate part of a scheme or a unit of work.
What are your key findings about what is going well and what your focus might be going forward?
As Fullan explains, this phase is about growth, and should allow teachers and learners to explore the strengths of a hybrid model of education:
"The hybrid model combines the best of in-school and remote learning, with digital engagement. It is more than a quick fix. It is a way to enhance and accelerate learning by providing student centred approaches to meet diverse learners needs". (Education Reimagined: 9)
At its best, hybrid learning has highlighted:
wellbeing is a critical pre-condition for learning
technology can be a mechanism for collaboration, social connectedness and culture building
Self-regulation and learning to learn are key determinants of student motivation, engagement and success
Students responded well to having choices, often exceeding expectations and finding better ways of supporting their own and each other's learning
in the absence of high stakes testing, systems relied on teacher and leader professional judgements (9)
On top of all this, first and foremost, we need to remember that our community is made up of humans - teachers, support staff, school leaders, pupils and parents are all dealing with a highly complex range of variables and if we are to come out the other side of this intact, our priority must be to support each other to find our own way.
Guiding principles and supporting actions
Everything we do remotely or in the classroom is linked to the objective of creating independence, whether that is within academic progress, social development or emotional resilience. The work done remotely can only reflect the relationships built in the classroom, the corridors, the clubs and societies and everything else that contributes to a rich school experience.
All successful intervention strategies are built upon positive relationships, and positive relationships are built on successful intervention. This means that as teachers, we must prioritise relationships and connectedness in everything we do online and in our classrooms.
In many ways, while we are working in a very altered context, the key is to build on what we know works. The guiding principles and supporting actions listed below can be consistently applied in both the physical and virtual environments and have as their focus, the need to further promote equity and address potential variation in learning experiences and to support the development of pupils' self-management:
Use regular feedback as an opportunity to support the pupil’s social and emotional well-being, consciously empowering them by encouraging their image of themselves as a learner, with control over their own outcomes
Set clear expectations for the on-line work/activities set so the pupils know what success will look like; take time to explain success criteria, assessment rubrics etc
As far as possible, use a consistent approach to lesson planning across the school and plan with metacognition in mind
Think carefully about the questions you ask to ensure that they enable pupils to think about themselves as an agent of their own learning. (Use CCEA Thinking Cards to encourage reflection)
Provide appropriate levels of support and scaffolding for new learning to help pupils manage with greater autonomy, replacing instructions with questions to 'activate' the learning
Model thinking by asking yourself questions out loud, while you are teaching
Ensure on-line and remote feedback is focused on encouragement both in relation to what and how the pupil has demonstrated learning
Where possible, agree common language across year groups/subjects so that pupils can begin to make connections (e.g. plan, monitor and review)
Take time to consider how plan, monitor and review looks different in different contexts and plan accordingly
Create opportunities for pupils to engage in meaningful discussion with their peers about learning so that pupils from different backgrounds understand that learning isn't magic, but it happens after effort, focus and application
Encourage pupils to reflect on their learning and performance and follow-up on their teacher’s feedback and guidance
Be sure to allocate adequate time to the evaluation part of the self-regulation cycle (CCEA Thinking Cards provide examples of questions to support this)
Use an online form to allow pupils to evaluate their learning and use this to help plan the next learning cycle.
Over the course of the following modules, there are opportunities to explore how to transfer these classroom practices into a hybrid or remote learning environment. Teaching is a creative profession. There have been many solutions identified and invented for new problems that none of us ever anticipated we would face. The answers are in the room - if you are facing a difficulty, you are not alone. Through each of the modules offered here, it is intended that we build communities of practice, networks of teachers facing the same direction who can help each other to develop practical solutions to ensure that our children and young people can reap the best of both worlds and develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions they will need as citizens of the world.