learntolearn

As a final post in this series of posts looking at general  frameworks about learning, I want to contrast the degree to which the frameworks specifically mention “metacognition,” “executive function” and/or “learning how to learn.” Subsequent posts will look at three other types of teaching/learning frameworks: individualizing learning, personal qualities of learners, and the “metacognition/executive function” literature which focus more singularly and specifically on ideas related to “executive function”.

Two of the “learning framework” sources—Understanding by Design and  Authentic Learning certainly suggest principle of learning/instruction relevant to “metacognition/executive function” when they address topics or issues of student choice or motivation, meaningful learning, paying attention to conceptual misunderstanding, reflecting on, reviewing or revising their work, engaging students in self-assessment and use of feedback, students comparing their ideas and work to others or to work at other times, and articulating and transferring their learning to other contexts. Considering this as “executive function” work may depend on how explicit teachers are in labeling these practices as “executive function.” In addition, whether or not these are “executive function” practices will depend on whether students make  their thinking about learning explicit.

The Cognitive Apprenticeship framework I believe is more explicit about the teaching/learning principles that are directly related to “metacognition/executive function” insofar as this framework focuses explicitly on Reflection, Articulation, and Strategies.

The two other frameworks–noted below– explicitly espouse at least one principle central to “metacognition,” “executive function,” or “learning how to learn.”

How People Learn by John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Cocking, editor

Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, 2000

http://www.nap.edu/read/9853/chapter/3

Summary Points

“Overall, the new science of learning is beginning to provide knowledge to improve significantly people’s abilities to become active learners who seek to understand complex subject matter and are better prepared to transfer what they have learned to new problems and settings. Making this happen is a major challenge (e.g., Elmore et al., 1996), but it is not impossible. The emerging science of learning underscores the importance of rethinking what is taught, how it is taught, and how learning is assessed” (p 13)

Key Findings

“This volume provides a broad overview of research on learners and learning and on teachers and teaching. Three findings are highlighted here because they have both a solid research base to support them and strong implications for how we teach” (pp. 14-18)

• “Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom

• To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

• A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.”

Implications for Teaching (p 19-21)

• Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their students bring with them. This requires that:…

• Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing many examples in which the same concept is at work and providing a firm foundation of factual knowledge. This requires that:…

3. The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the curriculum in a variety of subject areas.

Designing Classroom Environments:  (pp.23-25)

1. Schools and classrooms must be learner centered. …3. Formative assessments—ongoing assessments designed to make students’ thinking visible to both teachers and students—are essential…. 
2. 4. Learning is influenced in fundamental ways by the context in which it takes place…..
3. 2. To provide a knowledge-centered classroom environment, attention must be given to what is taught (information, subject matter), why it is taught (understanding), and what competence or mastery looks like.

Making Leaning Whole by David Perkins

Summary Points for “Learning the Game of Learning”—Passenger or Driver?

“Learning to learn has to do with many things: directing one’s attention, choosing time and place, relating new ideas and skills to what you already know.  Indeed, it has a lot to do with the previous six principles.  The self-managed learner makes a point of practicing the hard parts, even when no coach or teacher imposes a regimen.  The self-managed learner makes a point of playing out of town—connecting ideas and skills with other contexts—even when no coach or instructor sends the team out of town…..”

“I can hardly think of anything more worth learning than learning how to learn….”  (p. 14)

To review those principles:

1. Play the whole game…at least some “junior” or “threshold” version….some accessible version of the game. “You may not do it very well, but at least you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.” (p. 9)
2. Make the game worth playing. Rather than, “You’ll need it later,” learners need to see some application early on, to be able to “foster my own commitment and interest.” (p. 202)….by connecting the “game” to work they are interested in at an appropriate level of challenge.
3. Working on the hard parts. …with enough of this kind of work individually targeted (p. 10)…provided with enough of and the kind of feedback that allows revising the work; with learners being able to ask themselves questions about sticking points, confusion, poor skills, and time and place to work on those.
4. Playing out of town…to stretch and adapt skills and insights…to work on generalizing…to transfer the learning….(p. 12). To step into the messy real world, where the learners needs to take on different roles, approaches, questions, and tasks (p. 204)
5. Uncovering the hidden game…..learning to think like the “expert” in the particular field, who knows the unwritten and non-obvious rules of playing the game. “Any complicated and challenging activity always has multiple layers beneath the obvious.” (p. 13). Learners need to look for, and to know to look for, underlying strategies, approaches to problem solving in a particular domain, games of “evidence” and games of “pitfalls of evidence.” (p. 204)
6. Learn from the team…learning is not a solo game, not a one source game, not a one context game. “Still there is much to learn from others who have mastered the art.” (p. 205)