Learning to Manage Ourselves from the Bottom Up

School: Island Bay

Year Level: 5/6

Teacher: Dianne Lee

Focus area: Managing Self - Student awareness of and ability to use key learning tools for their achievement level - organisational tools and thinking tools

Context: Managing self & Thinking
Related to work being done using Habit of MInd THINKING ABOUT OUR THINKING and strengthening weaknesses identified when tested with Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences as part of their Inquiry Learning understandings

HoM: THINKING ABOUT OUR THINKING (METACOGNITION):
To investigate our ability to plan a strategy for producing what information is needed, to be conscious of our own steps and strategies during the act of problem solving, and to reflect on and evaluate the productiveness of our own thinking. Develop a plan of action, maintaining that plan in mind over time, then reflecting back on and evaluating the plan upon its completion.

Research Questions:

Inquiry Learning Deep Understandings:

By managing myself effectively I can develop my personal integrity to respect, contribute and adapt to the many environments I’m part of.

Question 1. Implementation:

Can students ...

A. Show improvements in their ability to self manage & plan a learning experience over time
B. Be conscious of their own steps and strategies used during the act of problem solving, &
C. Reflect on and evaluate the productiveness of their own thinking in an area of personal weakness?

Question 2. Engagement:

What growth in personal responsibility can be expected of students when they are involved in planning their own learning experiences around weakness identified from testing of Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences in conjunction with the use of HoM – Thinking about our Thinking?

Question 3. Knowledge:

What applied competencies (ability/effort) and self knowledge can be expected of students facing learning challenges, and coming to terms with and understanding self more as a learner?

Success Criteria for Knowledge

Expert: Shows genuine love of learning even in areas not so interested or competent in. Is aware of own strengths and weaknesses in their research and adjusts planning to improve/redirect learning as need arises. Can select own thinking tools independently and use them correctly. Reflects on and sets new goals as required

Practitioner: Shows interest in carrying out research of topics not so interested in. Plans topic with some degree of complexity and carries through plans according to direction set. Is aware of own strengths and weaknesses in research work and can alter planning if required. Uses a small range of thinking tools. Reflect on their goals.

Apprentice: Has some idea of the things that are of interest to them in areas they are weaker at. Is able to construct simple goals independently & decide on an activity to do. Can write a few sentences about what they did in a diary entry.

Novice: Shows interest in learning things that appeal to them. Can set simple goals, and carry out an activity with help as required.

Learning Story:

This research unit grew out of the topic we developed with Trudy (Inquiry consultant) at the beginning of the year. A further rubric was constructed initially by me for my guidance in this research, then a second one co-constructed by the children a week or two into our learning round. The rubric was constructed around the new curriculum & key competency - Managing Self, inconjunction with the HoM outlined above.

The children here at IBS have reasonable familiarity with using rubrics, but need to be reminded to refer back to them to assess their progress and to think about moving to a different level of performance. The rubric was primarily designed to assess themselves in terms of the degree of engagement and personal responsibility in performance shown around self selected learning goals.

The children worked on their goals both in class and at home over a period of 5 weeks. They had about half to three quarters of an and hour – once a week at school and the rest they did sometimes at home. During discussions on progress to date and areas of concern, a reasonably large number of children expressed the fact that they realised they were a little lost or their learning lacked real depth, and did not really have a clear pathway to follow beyond their goals and success criteria. A lot of them were not using any sort of thinking tool, and were merely writing in diary entries around progress to date and what they did that day. Most were just reacting to what took their fancy and their learning was really going nowhere.

We decided at this point it was time to assess what tools we needed if we were to really be successful self managing learners. We brainstormed this issue and found a number of things were absent for the greater majority – including a well thought out plan to follow. A point of interest was that most children indicated that they were competent, confident planners – see SWELL checklists, and thought that they would be able to cope with the goals and learning easily, but reality did not match. This did not prove to be the case because as we got further into the learning sessions, issues started to emerge. We set about co-constructing a planning format that would map their way forward more positively in order to meet their success criteria and expected outcomes. We decided that we would trial this planner and adjust it if and when we found it wanting.

Many children adjusted their thinking once they realised they needed to plan more thoroughly and attempted to develop a planning schedule of their own to trial. The knowledge and experience they gained from this exposure helped when we created the class planning model.
Throughout the learning journey, their ideas, thoughts, understandings, pictures, thinking tools and the like were written up in their learning journals. By this stage we were close to assessing the progress they had made on their learning journeys, so held the planning off until the next learning round.

Results:

At the end of the term the children looked at the work they had done during this five week period, and the way they managed themselves, their learning and what they had done & written up in their learning journals. They assessed their progress with a buddy against the rubric criteria. A few children found it hard to be subjective and honest about where they fitted in against the rubric objectives, (either over or under) so we decided peer review was perhaps the best way to approach this.

Conclusions:

Implementation:

Can students ...

A. Show improvements in their ability to self manage & plan a learning experience over time
B. Be conscious of their own steps and strategies used during the act of problem solving, &
C. Reflect on and evaluate the productiveness of their own thinking in an area of personal weakness?

It took time for the children to connect completely with what was expected of them around undertaking, managing & developing their learning, as related to the rubric requirements and their individual SMART goals. We needed to talk about, connect and reconnect these foci frequently in small groups, pairs and class to embed what was required. The use of learning journals enabled me to gain insight into individual thinking, issues and track changes in progress. It provided me with the means to redirect my time, resources and attention and provide new learning cycles designed towards improving their understanding & engagement with the deep understandings. It also enabled me to improve my knowledge of the child's learning capability and specific learning needs at an individual level. Reviewing and assessing their progress on the matrix (as an indicator of progress), it clearly showed an increase in the children's complex performance as related to the three key deep understandings.

Engagement: 2. What growth in personal responsibility can be expected of students when they are involved in planning their own learning experiences around weakness identified from testing of Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences in conjunction with the use of HoM – Thinking about our Thinking?

It would be expected that most children would show growth in personal responsibility for their learning, when involved in planning and undertaking learning tasks of personal choice - "Independent Learning is that learning in which the learner, in conjunction with relevant others, can make the decisions necessary to meet the learner's own learning needs." (Kesten, 1987, p. 3). In this process, independent learners develop the values, attitudes, knowledge and skills needed to make responsible decisions and take actions dealing with their own learning. Independent learning is fostered by creating the opportunities and experiences which encourage student motivation, curiosity, self-confidence, self-reliance and positive self-concept; it is based on student understanding of their own interests and a valuing of learning for its own sake.

The use of learning journals together with the matrix provided a basis through which to show improvement and engagement. Over the weeks the children developed an awareness of their own strengths and needs, thought about what they needed to do to progress further, and took on individual responsibility to overcome perceived/identified weaknesses in their learning styles, habits and journeys. Because the children were expected to justify their position on the matrix, it tended to galvanise and increase engagement with their goals of the majority. Regular referrals to the matrix, and deep understanding of the self-set goals kept their interest and understanding of moving forward to the fore front.

Knowledge: 3. What applied competencies (ability/effort) and self knowledge can be expected of students facing learning challenges, and coming to terms with and understanding self more as a learner?

It was not easy for me to predict the ‘expected’ growth patterns per se of each child, but it was hoped that all children would move a stage on the matrix and most did. However, all children gained some idea of their individual strengths and weaknesses and where they need to apply themselves in the future, to become better self-managing learners. As this is part of an ongoing theme for the year, the class will be re-engaged in the same foci over the next two terms as part of their SMART goal requirement for profiles. I will be interested to see how we grow as a learning community and how they progress as self –aware, self-managing, independent learners over time.