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STUDENT LEARNING SKILLS COURSES

• Maths & Memory - for Years 6-8 (PYP)

- establishing the patterning base of maths and memory

• Metacognitive Awareness – for Years 7-10 (MYP)

- noticing and improving learning strategies and techniques, developing personal learning style for success at school

• Digital Learning – for all students, all ages

- effective use of web-based resources for schoolwork

• Exam Confidence – for Years 10-13 (DP)

- practical study and self-motivation skills for high achievement in all tests and exams

• Learning Resilience – for Years 12 & 13 (TOK & GATE)

- developing flexible thinking, understanding intelligence, becoming a resilient learner

Purpose of school based education?

To help students:

• gain good qualifications?

• get into a good university?

• get a good job?

• become great learners

- self-directed

- self-managed

- autonomous

- independent

- lifelong learners?

Self-regulated – today’s buzz word

Characteristics of successful self-

regulated learners?

• able to focus and concentrate

• self motivated

• good planners, organised

• hard working, persevering

• independent researchers

• creative, forward thinking

• responsible for their own actions

• self evaluating, reflective

• self correcting

So do you ever…..

• get them out of bed

• make their breakfast – and see that they eat it

• check their school bag – make sure they haven’t

forgotten anything

• take them to school

• pick up and clean after them at home

• pick them up from school

• take them to after-school activities

• provide extra tutors for them

• provide motivation, rewards and planning for them

• help them with homework

• find resources for them

• make sure they go to bed on time

• organise their sports, social and academic events

and do you also…

…provide them with all the necessities of teenage life:

• money

• cell phone

• TV

• computer

• access to broadband

• iPod

• personal transport

in return for……….?

Effective self-regulated learning requires:

Efficacy + Agency + Action

Efficacy – belief that success in learning is possible

Agency – the skills, strategies and techniques of

effective learning

Action – taking action, making mistakes and failing

well

Efficacy – belief in the possibility of successful learning

• role models – biographies, own stories

• self confidence – measuring self against self

• self esteem – valuing children for who they are

• reaction to challenges

– helping them move from

“I can’t” “I haven’t so far”

Agency – the skills, techniques and strategies of effective learning

Cognitive skills - information processing, understanding,

remembering, communicating - study skills

Affective skills – mindfulness, self-motivation, emotional

management, resilience - enabling the student to gain

some control over mood, motivation and attitude

Metacognitive skills – stepping outside own learning and

monitoring the processes used, constantly improving

strategies and skills used to learn

Action – having a go, making mistakes and failing well

The most significant difference between the high

achievers and the underachievers was that

all the high achievers had learned how to

fail well

- whereas all the underachievers were

failing badly

Reactions to Failure

Failing Well

• Acknowledging your failures

- taking responsibility for your

own actions

- working out what you did

wrong

- making changes, and

- having another go

Failing Badly

• Blaming the school or the

‘system’

• Blaming other people

• Pretending you never get or do

anything wrong

• Adding drama to failures to

avoid dealing with them

• Avoiding any activity that could

possibly result in failure

Growing Resilient Children

• Encourage them to take on new challenges

and to use failure as feedback

• Help them to notice their own strategies for

recovery from adversity

Parent as Teacher

If they have any problems understanding or learning

any schoolwork...

• Focus them on what they can control – effort and

strategy use

• Help them learn to use internet resources well

Great Websites for Your Children

• www.taolearn.com/students.php - my site with links to all the best free sites to help your study, including:

• topmarks.co.uk

- educational search engine for good school-subject based websites

• khanacademy.org

- really clear clips explaining every part of most subjects

• brightstorm.com

- great videos and much more in Maths, Science and English (American English anyway)

• getrevising.co.uk/resources

- all subjects at all levels, great new shared resources arriving from other students daily – contribute

your own

• studyblue.com/notes/high-schools/

- make and share online flashcards, quizzes and notes, study on-line and on your phone, you need to

join up first but its free

• johndclare.net and spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

- good sites for history, all countries, all ages

More great sites • s-cool.co.uk and bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/

- good resources for all subjects for GCSE

• mrbartonmaths.com/goodsites.htm

- a collection of free Maths sites for all levels

• rod.beavon.clara.net/chemistry_contents.htm#Physical

- great site for Chemistry at all levels

• languagesonline.org.uk/

- many languages at every level

• swipestudy.com

- self-tests in most subjects – sent to your phone!

• languageperfect.com/worldchamps/SiteShell.html - simply the best way to learn

any language (it is a school subscription site though)

• quizlet.com and easynotecards.com/index

- flash card makers for most subjects

Organisation

• High speed internet is necessary – look into

gateways, access restrictions, parental tools

• Make sure they have an place to do school

work which suits them physically

• Help build good habits of study - give your

child’s learning the highest priority in the

home for a period of time every evening

• Help them learn to build in intrinsic rewards,

develop delayed gratification

• To remember what they learn at school, each

night they need to read over what they did

that day

• Allow them to form study groups with friends

as long as they use time together to get work

done

Parent as Role Model

• The idea of success through learning is picked

up best by imitation - make the culture of

your family a learning culture

• Strive to be worthy of imitation

To get to where you are today

how many of you…..

• had to work hard?

• had to suffer physically, mentally, emotionally?

• had to forgo pleasures in your life?

• have suffered personal or business set-backs?

And how many want to give your children

the benefits of your struggles without them

having to go through the distress?

…but how many of you think that the difficulties you

have faced, the problems you have overcome, the

suffering you have endured have helped you to

develop the resilience you need to create the success

for your self and your family that you enjoy today?

So why protect your children

from responsibility and the

possibility of failure?

Our children all need to learn how to:

• earn what they get

• organise their own lives

• take responsibility for their own actions

• fight their own battles

• make their own decisions and take all the consequences

• succeed

• fail well

“Too many parents make life hard for their children

by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

On the net...

My web page - www.taolearn.com

- Tips for Parents – through the year

- Tips for Students – multi-sensory resources

- articles

- links

- videos

- blog – www.lancegking.wordpress.com

The book of the student course