Resources on Independent Learning

How to Promote Independent Learning in the Primary Classroom

Dana Tuffelmire

Allowing students to take ownership and initiative in their learning gives them the confidence needed to succeed as lifelong learners. Creating independent learners requires a structured classroom with clear expectations, routines and procedures. The teacher must create an atmosphere where children feel confident as learners, secure enough in their environment to take risks and comfortable enough with routines to work independently and help others. Children in the primary classroom can actually handle a lot of responsibility if they are explicitly taught what to do and when to do it.

Read full article here:

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7865483_promote-independent-learning-primary-classroom.html

 

Teachers TV: Independent Learners: Primary by Teachers TV – Teaching Resources – TES 

Watch video here:

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/teachers-tv-independent-learners-primary-6084061

What is independent learning and what are the benefits for students? – paper

Bill Meyer, Naomi Haywood, Darshan Sachdev and Sally Faraday (2008)  London: Department for Children, Schools and Families Research Report 051.

How is independent learning viewed by teachers?

‘Independent Learning’ is often linked with other approaches to learning such as ‘personalisation’, ‘student-centred learning’ and ‘ownership’ of learning. Discussion of independent learning frequently arises in the context of important issues such as student-teacher roles and relationships, and the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in learning.

The aim of this literature review was to identify reliable, robust and relevant research to provide a detailed picture of independent learning and its possible impact on students. The review found a number of different terms to describe independent learning, the most common reflecting the idea of ‘self-regulated learning’. The review highlighted some evidence of benefits to students particularly in the form of improved motivation and better management of their learning. The authors of the review emphasised that independent learning does not merely involve students working alone and stressed the important role teachers can play in enabling and supporting independent learning.

Read in full here:

Click to access Whatisindependentlearningandwhatarethebenefits.pdf

Promoting Independent Learning In The Primary Classroom 

Wiliams, J. (2003) Buckingham: Open University Press.

From birth, human beings are striving to make sense of the world. They learn through interaction, modelling first hand experience and independent action. Most children arrive at school with the notion that being independent and having the desire to take responsibility has been seen, in their homes, as a good thing. However, what often happens is that responsibility may be denied them in school and further bids for independence are viewed as negative behaviour. This book argues that independence in the classroom should be seen as beneficial for learners and also for teachers. Jill Williams makes a compelling case for a climate in which decision making is valued, where children are enabled to solve problems and where children and adults respect each others point of view, arguing that this will be a climate in which independence flourishes. In turn the benefits in terms of teaching and learning will be apparent for both the children and the teachers.
Advertisement

Flipped Classroom Resources

See the following links for information on flipped classroom intervention strategies:

Noora Hamdan, Patrick McKnight, Katherine McKnight, and
Kari M. Arfstrom, (2013) The flipped learning model: a white paper. Flipped Learning Network, Pearson & George Mason University.

http://flippedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/LitReview_FlippedLearning.pdf

Jacob Lowell Bishop and Dr. Matthew A Verleger (2013) The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the Research, 120th ASEE Annual Conferene & Exposition

http://www.studiesuccesho.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/flipped-classroom-artikel.pdf

Various articles on flipped classroom here:

http://www.flippedclassroomworkshop.com/results-studies-supporting-benefits-of-flipped-classroom/

http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom

Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?

Paul Tough in www.nytimes.com

25th September 2009

“Come on, Abigail.”

“No, wait!” Abigail said. “I’m not finished!” She was bent low over her clipboard, a stubby pencil in her hand, slowly scratching out the letters in the book’s title, one by one: T H E. . . .

“Abigail, we’re waiting!” Jocelyn said, staring forcefully at her classmate. Henry, sitting next to her, sighed dramatically.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Abigail said, looking harried. She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and plowed ahead: V E R Y. . . .

The three children were seated at their classroom’s listening center, where their assignment was to leaf through a book together while listening on headphones to a CD with the voice of a teacher reading it aloud. The book in question was lying on the table in front of Jocelyn, and every few seconds, Abigail would jump up and lean over Jocelyn to peer at the cover, checking what came next in the title. Then she would dive back to the paper on her clipboard, and her pencil would carefully shape yet another letter: H U N. . .

Read full article here

Peer/Collaborative Learning Resources

EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit 

A summary of research on collaborative learning.

Collaborative or cooperative learning can be defined as learning tasks or activities where students work together in a group small enough for everyone to participate on a collective task that has been clearly assigned. This can be either a joint task where group members do different aspects of the task but contribute to a common overall outcome, or a shared task where group members work together throughout the activity.

Read more here:

Education Endowment Foundation Collaborative Learning

 

A summary of research on peer tutoring.

Peer tutoring includes a range of approaches in which learners work in pairs or small groups to provide each other with explicit teaching support. In cross-age tutoring, an older learner takes the tutoring role and is paired with a younger tutee or tutees.

Education Endowment Foundation – Peer Tutoring

 

The Journey to Excellence

‘Cooperative learning is the use of small groups through which students work together to accomplish shared goals and to maximise their own and others’ potential.’ Johnson, Johnson and Holubec (ASCD 1994)

Read full article here:

http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/summaries/rscollaborativelearning.asp

 

What if the further education and skills sector realised the full potential of vocational pedagogy?

By Bill Lucas

In all the recent government documents about vocational education my
favourite quotation is: “Learners must demand high quality pedagogy which
will necessitate that stronger links are built between employers, teachers and
teaching”.1 I imagine thousands of apprentices rising up from their labours
to march on the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills in London
shouting “Pedagogy! We want better pedagogy!”

In your dreams! For in the UK, despite my and my colleagues’ best
endeavours,2 ‘pedagogy’3 is a word that is rarely used by those working in
further education (FE) and skills. Instead conversation all too easily turns to
funding formulae, new kinds of institutions, reformed qualification systems,
different apprenticeship specifications and the like. All of these have value but
none is as essential as the high quality teaching and learning methods which
sit at the heart of all excellent vocational education. For it is pedagogy which
is the beating heart of the vocational body politic.

 

Read full article here:

lucas-2016-what-if-vocational-pedagogy

 

A Five-Dimensional Model of Creativity and its Assessment in Schools

Bill Lucas (2016) A Five-Dimensional Model of Creativity and its
Assessment in Schools, Applied Measurement in Education.

Abstract
Creativity is increasingly valued as an important outcome of schooling,
frequently as part of so-called “21st century skills.” This article offers a
model of creativity based on five Creative Habits of Mind (CHoM) and
trialed with teachers in England by the Centre for Real-World Learning
(CRL) at the University of Winchester. It explores the defining and tracking
of creativity’s development in school students from a perspective of formative
assessment. Two benefits are identified: (a) When teachers understand
creativity they are, consequently, more effective in cultivating it in
learners; (b) When students have a better understanding of what creativity
is, they are better able to develop and to track the development of their
own CHoM. Consequently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development has initiated a multicountry study stimulated by CRL’s
approach. In Australia work to apply CRL’s thinking on the educational
assessment of creative and critical thinking is underway.

 

Full article below:

lucas-2016-a-five-dimensional-model-of-creativity-and-its-assessment-in-schools