Explain this
ASK How to Teach Learning to Learn in the Secondary School
How the publisher describes it:
“Why do teachers get frustrated by their efforts to teach students new ideas and new skills? Because students lack the ability to learn for themselves and so end up being dependent on their teachers. Villiers High is one of the first secondary schools in the country to have sought to tackle this by introducing a fully developed curriculum designed so that students can learn how to learn. The results have been remarkable, with year on year improvements in public examination results and an increased hunger to learn on the part of students. The result is ASK: How to teach learning to Learn, a serious exploration of the new science of learning.”
Review by Julie Gibbon
In brief:
This is a thought provoking and practical book on learning to learn that is essential for any teacher keen, not only to do their best for their students, but also to work smarter not harder.
“A firm rooting in the real world of the classroom with fellow professionals”
Don’t work harder...Just ASK!
You are a teacher. You work hard. Your lessons are well planned, carefully prepared and delivered with passion and enthusiasm...but how much are your students actually learning? probably no where near a decent payback for the effort you have put into it and why? probably because they need to learn how to learn.
‘ASK How to teach Learning to Learn in the Secondary School’ is a practical handbook that not only introduces you to what learning to learn is all about but tells you how to implement it in both your classroom and across the whole school.
The book is in three parts and starts with a section on the Why? What? and How? of learning to learn. It sets the scene, it details the 5 attitudes and 7 skills that students need to develop and it articulates the experiences of teachers in a typical secondary school involved in implementing learning to learn throughout the curriculum.
Part 2 then takes each of the 7 skills (understanding self as learner, learning with and from others, planning, investigating, developing memory, thinking, adapting) and tells you how to teach them. There is an introduction, a skills and knowledge breakdown, learning episodes, a progression statement (where they are now and where are they going), feedback from teachers and a section on taking it further.
As someone who is always interested in what is of direct relevance to me in my classroom, the learning episodes sections offer versatile ideas that can, given imagination and creativity, be easily adapted to any subject matter. For example to develop the skill of planning, imagination is a key component and part of the suggested starter activity is to show part of a picture for students to use their imaginations to determine what it is. This gives an ideal opportunity to link with pictures that are specific to your subject and could even consolidate prior learning.
The ‘What Teachers say’ section gives the skills a firm rooting in the real world of the classroom with fellow professionals giving you a snippet of how it is in their subject.
Since part 2 tells you how to teach the 7 skills you wonder what part 3 will have to offer. It is entitled ‘Putting it all into Practice’ and details ways of involving students in creating a learning to learn ethos and gives ideas for staff development including outline plans for whole staff INSET. The final chapter answers ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ in a section on the leadership issue related to developing learning to learn across a whole school.
Julie Gibbon • The Gillford Centre (PRU), Carlisle
Paperback: 186 pages
Publisher: Crown House Publishing; illustrated edition edition (1 Dec 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1845900243
ISBN-13: 978-1845900243
Product Dimensions: 29.4 x 21 x 1.4 cm
