Learning to learn is one of those terms which, having been used in various forms for over thirty years, now has become prevalent in common discourse about schools, education and employability. It is probably only because of its alliterative qualities that we use Learning to Learn rather than Learning to Think, Learning to Study, Thinking about Thinking, Thinking for Learning or many other possible variants which exist out in the world.
It is enough to say that it is a term that draws on ideas of metacognition, Thinking Skills, self-regulation, self-efficacy and self-esteem in relation to learning, all of which are key themes underpinning the research in this research centre. Learning to Learn’s current popularity could be because it is an idea which meshes well other key trends: with the development of more personalised approaches to learning; the growing movement towards a more flexible and creative curriculum and the strongly expressed belief that every individual should be supported to be a lifelong learner.
Yet, there is no general consensus about what a Learning to Learn approach might consist of. There are a diverse group of educational experts working in this field who have fundamental agreement about improving teaching and learning under the umbrella of learning (how) to learn but who cheerfully disagree about how to pursue these goals in different classrooms and contexts. Meanwhile, teachers are very aware of the need to talk about the ‘elephant in the classroom’ that is learning. Where can they go for a framework (or three) to work with?
Kate Wall, Elaine Hall and a team from Newcastle, Durham and Glasgow universities have been engaged since 2003 on two phases of a project funded by the Campaign for Learning:
• Learning to Learn Phase 3 Evaluation (2003-2007) - click here for a project brief.
• Learning to Learn Phase 4 (2007- 2011) - click here for a project brief.
These projects engage schools as communities of enquirers, producing yearly case studies (currently 85 available online) to explore and extend what Learning to Learn might mean from a starting definition of:
“it is a process of discovery about learning. It involves a set of principles and skills which, if understood and used, help learners learn more effectively and so become learners for life. At its heart is the belief that learning is learnable.”
The project is grounded in practitioner enquiry through action research, a process which foregrounds the teacher’s ideas, concerns and questions. The decision about which area of pedagogy, curriculum or relationship with students For each teacher and each school, learning to learn could be as little a strategy to support assessment and target-setting, through an explicit set of criteria and it could be as much as developing skills and dispositions for lifelong learning. The key lever for change, whichever ‘brand’ of learning to learn is subscribed to, is the clarity of intent that the teacher brings and shares with the learners.
This approach is based in the dispositions of the learner as described by five ‘R’s: Readiness, Responsibility, Reflectiveness, Resilience and Resourcefulness. We are co-researching with teachers in Learning to Learn schools and an emerging theme is that learning to learn is a social process: everyone involved has to talk openly about their experiences of learning, the purposes of learning activities, the advantages and disadvantages of learning and teaching approaches for different subjects, contexts and individuals. These are often hard conversations to start and harder ones to control: teachers have to be prepared to confront their own understanding of why they teach their classes in the way they do, learners must explore why they are less engaged in some lessons than others and schools must look beyond administrative reasons for organisational structures to reconnect with their pedagogic goals.
If you would like to commission such research, or find out more about our current projects in this area, please contact Elaine Hall.