Getting better at Revising Copy

Getting better at learning

This unit is one of a set of self-help resources which aim to help you, as a learner, to understand more about yourself as a learner. Each unit aims to help you to:

• become interested in the process of how you learn
• learn about one of your learning habits and how it can grow
• plot where you think you are now on this learning journey
• learn about some ways to improve
• and make a plan of action to develop how you learn

About learning habits

Learning involves all sorts of feelings and strategies – it’s not just about the end result. We want you to understand that learning is full of ups and downs, trial and error, feelings of frustration and confusion, as well as moments of pride or delight at having mastered a tricky skill or understood a difficult idea.

You already have some learning habits and you might think of them as the raw ‘building blocks’ of your learning. There’s a small set of learning behaviours that are thought to be the most valuable in helping students to learn and thrive in a complex world. The good news is that these learning behaviours are inherent in us all, they are not fixed at birth, or when we leave school: they can be developed by everyone regardless of ‘ability’, social background, or age. There are no limits to extending your learning power habits.

Section 1 What does Revising mean?

Section 1 will help you to understand what the learning habit called Revising is really all about. There you will find explanations of how the learning habit works, a quiz to help you spot yourself doing it in lessons and some ideas about what your teachers do to help you become better at Revising.

Section 2 Where do my strengths lie?

Section 2 will help you to understand how the learning behaviour of Revising grows. There you will find a chart which shows how this learning behaviour can grow, given the right circumstances. You are asked to look carefully at the chart, note down which colour shows where you think your Revising behaviours are now and where they could develop.

Section 3 Some ideas to practise

This section invites you to think harder about what, when and where you use your learning behaviours. It then offers some ideas you might try at school or in your life generally that will help you improve how you learn. There are two sorts of things you could try:

• Activities you might try at school or at home
• Positive self-talk phrases you could practise.

Section 4 Planning and reviewing how I learn

This section helps you move forward and offers materials to help you to;

• plan the changes you want to make
• monitor what happens, and
• reflect on the impact of those changes before making another plan.