In Constructing Learning you build in a reflective model for learning

Build in lesson review points – so that students reflect for themselves

The problem with lesson review points (or plenaries) is that they are often teacher-led. Too often they are a recap of what the teacher wanted students to learn – little more than a restating of the learning intentions and a quick check of student understanding. Necessary, maybe, but not the opportunity for students to reflect for themselves on what they are learning, have learned or how they are/ have learned it.

Try the simple method of students talking in pairs to distil:

• three things we have learned so far;
• three things we still need to find out;
• three things we hope to do next.

Select one or two pairs to feed their opinions back to the rest of the class. Steer students to explain what they think they have learned rather than to hear what you think you have taught them. Gradually add in questions about the learning behaviours they have been using;

• three ways we are learning
• the most useful learning behaviour so far
• a useful learning behaviour we might need to try

You are beginning to give students a richer language in which to couch their reflective thinking.

• Begin each lesson with ‘Tell me Three … things we learned last lesson; ways we learned last lesson; things we still need to find out; things you hope to achieve today’.
• End each lesson with ‘Tell me Three … things we learned today; learning skills we used today; things we need to do next lesson; ways you could become a more effective learner’ etc.
• Ensure that students tell you three. Do not lapse into doing it for them!

Teacher talk

• Have we remembered the 3 most important things?
• What else do you want to find out about this?
• So, what are you trying to achieve next?
• What learning behaviours did you use in achieving that?
• Which behaviour was most successful/useful/redundant?
• Have you made a habit of that behaviour yet?

Offer students the opportunity to reflect on how they use various aspects of the four key learning behaviours – perseverance; collaboration; questioning; revising.

Use the review to help students to:

• recall some of the aspects of the four key behaviours;
• reflect on the extent to which they employ these aspects;
• consider how they might need to change their learning behaviours.

Use their responses to gather feedback on their perceptions and to consider whether you need to adjust your teaching to emphasise / strengthen particular learning behaviours.

Teacher talk

• Of the 4 behaviours, which do you use most? Least?
• Which do you think you could/should use more frequently?
• Who do you know who does these things well?
• Which behaviours do you think are your learning strengths?
• Ditto relative weaknesses?

Getting to grips with metacognition

In the last few years teachers have come to know and understand much about meta-cognition and self-regulation.

Metacognition...is about monitoring and controlling your thought processes.

Self-regulation...is about monitoring and controlling your feelings and behaviours.

The two come together in Self-regulated learning...the application of metacognition and self-regulation to learning.

These approaches, which have always been at the heart of developing learning power, aim to help students think about their own learning more explicitly, often by teaching them specific strategies for planning, monitoring and evaluating their learning.

The resource alongside encourages students to become more self-aware of how they are using a learning habit. They are A3 or A4 laminated sheets that show various aspects of a learning habit. Keep on tables or as part of wall display. Students refer to them during lessons, using them as prompts about the finer aspects of a learning habit that is being stretched. They help students to be able to join in meta-cognitive talk.

The Meta-Learning Cycle, as illustrated opposite, contains the Active Learning Cycle to reflect on content, and (around the outside) enhances it to include reflection on the learning process itself. It helps learners to become aware of which learning behaviours they are employing / have employed.

Initially they might tend to simply name the behaviours – they might, for example, say they collaborated and persevered. Help them to expand their thinking to explain how they collaborated, or how they persevered.

As they develop understanding of the processes of learning, learners will become able to explain both how they collaborated, for example, and how effectively they collaborated. Conversation will move beyond ‘working together’ and ‘group work’ to include references to resolving disagreements, building consensus, building on the ideas of others, taking on roles etc.

Teacher talk

• How did you Reason / Imagine / Make Links . . . . ?
• How well did you Reason / Imagine / Make Links . . . . ?
• What did you do to make sure you were successful?

How might we tackle this?

A lack of confidence often stems from simply not knowing what to do or how to do it. The task appears overwhelming and otherwise confident individuals become paralysed by the prospect of the task ahead.

At the beginning of a session talk with students about the strategies and things they might use to help them with their learning. Steer talking about how they might tackle this, thinking about strategies that have worked in the past, or speculating on new approaches that might work. It is time spent thinking about tackling the task rather than actually starting to tackle it. It reminds students that they have a range of strategies available and gives confidence that they have the tools for the job in hand.

Teacher talk

• How might we tackle this?
• Which learning behaviours may be needed?
• Have we done something like this before?
• Which strategy is most likely to be successful?

The Rating Wheel enables students to reflect on and record the extent to which they are using their learning behaviours. They colour in each ‘spoke’ depending on how much they believe they have used the behaviour, and end up with something like this:

It can be used to review a particular activity, at the end of the learning day, or even to look back over a week. Alternatively, ask students to think about their learning lives beyond the classroom – where and when do they use these skills when they are not in school?

Teacher talk

• Which skills did you use?
• When did you use them?
• Why did you use them?
• Which behaviours do you think are your learning strengths?
• Ditto relative weaknesses?
• Which do you rarely use?

Use the Visible Thinking Routine:

I used to think . . . . ., Now I think . . . ,

This routine helps students to reflect on how and why their thinking/understanding is changing:

• Remind students of the topic you have been working on.
• Ask them to respond to each of the sentence stems: I used to think…, Now, I think…

Alternatively ask students to write down their views at the beginning of a topic. Invite them to revisit; update their answer during and at the end in light of what has been learned.

Or, at the beginning of a lesson ask students to write down what they understand by a particular term that will be explored in the coming lesson (e.g. Phrase (English); Proof (Maths); Power (Science) etc). At the end of the lesson ask them to write down what they now understand by the term.

Use it as a means of encouraging reflection on how new learning has led to a change in previous understandings.

Go to the Visible Thinking Websitefor more examples and information about visible thinking routines.

To download ‘I used to think’ from the Visible Thinking Website as a pdf:

Teacher talk

• It’s OK to change your mind.
• What made you change your mind about this?
• How has your understanding of xxx changed?

Think, Puzzle, Explore is a visible thinking routine that encourages students to connect to prior knowledge, to stimulate curiosity and to lay the groundwork for independent inquiry. The 3 questions are:

• What do you think you know about this topic?
• What questions or puzzles do you have?
• How can you explore this topic?

Use it at the beginning of a topic as a means of connecting with prior learning and setting the stage for deeper enquiry.

To download Think Puzzle Explore from the Visible Thinking Website as a pdf:

Teacher talk

• What do you know? What don’t you know? How might you find out?
• Develop questions that open up possibilities
  • Can you give me a bit more on that?
  • What do you think about . . .?
  • Can you expand on that?
  • What is your opinion?
  • What do you think might happen next?
  • What is your hypothesis?
  • So what do you expect will happen then?
  • What are the possibilities?
  • Are there any others?

This routine helps students make connections between new ideas and prior knowledge. It also encourages them to take stock of ongoing questions, puzzles and difficulties as they reflect on what they are learning.

• Connect:
  • How are the ideas and information presented connected to what you already know?
• Extend:
  • What new ideas did you get that extended or pushed your thinking in new directions?
• Challenge:
  • What is still challenging you or confusing for you to get your mind round? What questions, wondering or puzzles do you now have?

Use it after learning has already happened as a means of connecting new learning with prior learning.

For example: after exploring a work of art, a theory, a method, a piece of evidence. Try it as a reflection during a lesson, after a longer project, or when completing a unit of study.

The routine works just as well with the whole class, small groups or individually.

To download Connect Extend Challenge from the Visible Thinking Website as a pdf:

Teacher Talk

• When have you done / seen something like this before?
• What does it remind you of?
• It’s a bit like xxx isn’t it?
• What does … tell you about … ?
• How does knowing … help you to … ?
• How/where could you use this?
• How has this changed your ideas?
• Is there anything that’s still puzzling you?
• Can you see a link between what you did in . . and this ?

Use two types of reflection:

The two aspects to reflection –

• reflection In action (or monitoring) undertaken in the hurly-burly of the process of learning,
• reflection On action (or evaluating) a retrospective focusing on what happened, what worked and to how to do it better next time.

Being able to reflect on, refine and review your ideas is a key learning characteristic. Students need to be taught:

• not to wait till they’ve finished before checking how they are getting on;
• to keep making small checks and revisions all the time as they go along …am I on the right track? Is there something I’m missing? (Reflection In action)
• to check what they have done at the end…is this as good as I can make it? (A bit of both depending on whether it needs further adjustments or not)
• and at the end, to think about whether there’s a better way to do it? (Reflection On action)

Teacher talk to support Monitoring

• Are you checking whether this is OK?
• So, by checking all the steps/sections you have achieved a great outcome
• Can you think of other ways you might do it?
• Check your success criteria and that you are still on track
• Does this need fine-tuning?

Teacher talk to support Evaluating

• How did it go?
• Are you pleased with the outcome?
• Could it have been better? How?
• Tell me how you did that
• Think about how you did it and tell your friend about it
• Are there other ways you might have done it?

Try Jigsaw groups to scaffold content and build interdependence

• Jigsaw methodology is used in all phases of education and importantly builds a climate of interdependence in the classroom, as each person’s activity is necessary for their colleagues to be able to learn.
• The Jigsaw idea is to divide an area of enquiry into different sections, each one of which is allocated to a sub-group of the class (Aronson and Patnoe, 1997).
• There are two phases to jigsaw groups:
  • Phase I, the sub-groups become temporary experts in their section of the project by researching what is needed. i.e. Red group with students A,B,C,D, work on one subset of the project. Blue group with students A,B,C,D, work on another subset of the project and so on
  • Phase II a new set of groups is then put together, each new group made up from ‘experts’ from each subset of the project i.e. all the A’s in a group. All the B’s etc.
  • Now the big picture of the project focus is created – students begin to create a grasp of the whole picture through each of their own efforts and understandings.
• Invite students to reflect on their learning to:
  • compare intended with actual outcomes
  • evaluate their metacognitive strategies…what helped us to collaborate when? how did we handle disagreement?
  • analyse and draw causal relationships
  • pull together meanings
  • apply their learning to new situations
  • gain personal insights and learn from all their experiences.

A listening-based variation on jigsaw groups . . .

Form groups of students, each group tasked with listening for a different aspect of what is being said. (e.g. facts, opinions, emotions, false evidence, mixed messages etc.) After listening they agree as a group what they have heard. The groups then ‘jigsaw’ into new groupings each containing at least one member of the original groups, where they put together the different aspects that have been heard.

Teacher talk

• Form yourselves into four groups A, B, C, D.
• Group A are listening for… B for…
• It might be helpful if you note down the particular things you have been asked to listen for
• After the input each group checks out if, between the members, they have captured what they were asked to
• What did you miss? Which aspect (A,B,C,or D) proved the most difficult to capture
• Now jigsaw into new groups with an A,B,C,D member in each to put what you heard back together
• Paraphrase what you have and report back.
• What can you conclude from your discussions?

You could add in student self-evaluation of listening . . .

Have students use this or similar checklist to build greater awareness of their listening skills and their importance. Use the tool to focus discussion, to analyse any patterns of use, to isolate and prioritise things to work on.

Teacher talk

• Where are your listening strengths?
• Can you see any patterns in your listening behaviour?
• Are you aware of behaving differently in with different people/places?
• Where/who with do you do your best listening?
• Why might that be?

Have students analyse their own performance.

In order to reach the goals of progressing in their learning – be it content or process – students must be able to self-regulate their own learning. Providing feedback that enables students to do this includes;

• Share assessment criteria with students and ask them to assess/comment on the (imperfect) solutions you provide. Invite them to produce improvements based on their own feedback.(as a class exercise)
• Share assessment criteria with students and invite them to assess/comment on their own work, and amend it if necessary, before submitting it.
• Ensure that your written comments are framed as questions to which your students are required to respond. “What do you think you need to do to make this section more convincing?” is preferable to “This section needs more explanation”, as it moves responsibility to the learner to identify what more needs to be done.

Insist that when students respond to your feedback they indicate what they will do differently next time. Get students into the habit of acting on feedback rather than merely reading it. ‘What they will do differently next time’ is their self-generated target for development.

In order to reach the goals of progressing in their learning – be it content or process – students must be able to self-regulate their own learning. Teachers need to provide helpful feedback to enable students to do this.

• Share assessment criteria with students and ask them to assess/comment on the (imperfect) solutions you provide. Invite them to produce improvements based on their own feedback.
• Share assessment criteria with students and require them to assess/comment on their own work, and amend it if necessary, before submitting it.
• Ensure that your written comments are framed as questions to which your students are required to respond. “What do you think you need to do to make this section more convincing?” is preferable to “This section needs more explanation”, as it moves responsibility to the learner to identify what more needs to be done.

Teacher talk

• What feedback would you give on this short assignment . . . . ?
• Now use that feedback to help you improve it?
• Remember to check your own assignment against the criteria before handing them in.
• What might you do differently in this writing to make it more factual/vivid/joyful…

Select from the phrases below to nudge students to reflect on how they are learning, and to help them to better understand their own learning behaviours and its growth.

To maintain motivation

• What’s your secret of keeping going on this ?
• Is this working for you? Do you ever get downhearted? And then what do you do?
• Believe in yourself and what you are doing

To realise their own learning goals

• How do you know how best to solve this problem?
• What connections are making sense to you now?
• What might you need to do more of to figure this out?
• It’s interesting how you have put those two ideas together. What made you do that?
• What have you got in mind to improve this even more?

To learn purposefully with others

• Who will you choose to work / learn with on this?
• Do their skills complement yours?
• Who else might you need to involve?

To regulate their own learning

• When do you find it best to take a moment to review what you have done and how you have done it?
• Give yourself some ‘think time’ if you feel you need it
• Play to your strengths

To understand themselves as learners

• What sort of motivational things do you say to yourself to keep going?
• Do you use some sort of reward system to get you through the tedious bits?
• Which way of working is working best for you? Why?
• What sort of self-talk would be useful for other people to use/try?

To control their own learning growth

• What would you do differently in the future?
• What bits of your personal learning style are you having to rein in on this project? Why is that?
• How do you tackle it when things go too slowly/seem insurmountable/ are coming out wrong/are not as good as you want them to be?
• What didn’t work so well? Why do you think that is?

Try these If/Thens to help students to move forward:

• If I am near to finishing something, then I will stop and ask myself whether it will meet my expectations.
• If I complete a piece of work, then I will ask myself what I have learned from the way I chose to tackle it.
• If I am struggling, then I will seek out experts who can help me.