Bitesize Research: Strategies To Support Independent Learning And Metacognition

 By Jaya Carrier

Welcome back - hope everyone had a great half term! This week, I was interested to see a Harvard study that took place in 2019 which looked at strategies to encourage independent learning and metacognition. This study focused on how these strategies were used in a problem-based learning STEM curriculum in the US for high school students. Objectives:

To examine the effectiveness of strategies to support independent learning and metacognition Summary:

The research concluded that the strategies included in this project supported better and more effective independent learning. They also made problem-based learning more accessible. The scaffolds used were:

• Encouraging students to consider context: Students should actively question what they do and don’t know in an ongoing way
• Use open-ended questions: Teachers should look to question this way, rather than correcting students outright. For example ‘Can you tell me more about that?’ or ‘Can you explain that?’
• Activate prior knowledge: Students should be encouraged to consider regularly what they already know about problems both with respect to their academic knowledge, as well as their wider general understanding of the world around them and lived-experience.
• Student choice: Students should be encouraged to make their own choices, and should be questioned in an open-ended way about these choices. For example ‘What’s next?’
• Cultivate and celebrate risk-taking: This is a culture created by praising risks and learning from taking them. It can also be created by way of not immediately correcting mistakes for students and instead allowing them to come back to the right path by way of exploration. For example, using phrases such as ‘That’s interesting, let’s explore it.’
• Time for reflection: Students should be encouraged to see themselves as active learners, rather than just participants. This should be done by way of regular check-ins, asking questions such as ‘How do you think your group is doing?’ or ‘How are you managing your learning’

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• How independent are my students? How do I know?
• How am I using these strategies already? How could I employ these strategies further in my lessons?
• What do I know about problem-based learning? What do I want to find out about problem-based learning?

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations. Thanks, Jaya