Helping Students Learn to Learn: Easy Methods for Teaching & Assessment Angela Ho, EDC Wincy Lee, Learning to Learn Project Kenneth Tam, Learning to Learn Project

Helping Students Learn to Learn: Simple Things that Teachers Can Do 3 handbooks (students' & teachers' use) cognitive For the Success of Your Study Help in the cognitive domain For the Success of Your Study motivational Getting the Most out of Your University: Becoming a Successful Learner and a Preferred Graduate Help in the motivational domain Getting the Most out of Your University: Becoming a Successful Learner and a Preferred Graduate interpersonal Working Your Way through a Group Project Help in the interpersonal domain Working Your Way through a Group Project

Helping students learn to learn: Easy methods for teaching and assessment 1. Developing Thinking Abilities Asking Questions 1. Developing Thinking Abilities by: Engaging Students in Asking Questions 2. Enhancing Understanding Building Knowledge for Themselves 2. Enhancing Understanding by: Engaging Students in Building Knowledge for Themselves 3. Fostering Problem Solving Abilities Thinking ‘Behind’ the Steps 3. Fostering Problem Solving Abilities by: Engaging Students in Thinking ‘Behind’ the Steps 4. Cultivating Lifelong Learners Reflecting in & on their Learning Process 4. Cultivating Lifelong Learners by: Engaging Students in Reflecting in & on their Learning Process They are all related !

Objectives of this workshop series cognitive development needs 1.Identify the cognitive development needs of students educational theories 2.Introduce some educational theories which can help us address the developmental needs easy methods for teaching / assessment 3.Propose easy methods for teaching / assessment for helping with these cognitive development needs adopting / adapting 4.Explore ways for adopting / adapting some of the methods in your course

Adopting / adapting the methods in your specific context The facilitators provide generic ideas The participants adopt / adapt the ideas in specific subjects Designed generic worksheets Directly use / modify the worksheets for specific subjects Suggested ways for implementing the ideas in teaching and assessment Brain storm how to adopt / adapt the ideas in your own courses

Helping Students Learn to Learn Helping Students Learn to Learn Developing Thinking Abilities by: Asking Questions Engaging Students in Asking Questions

Listen to our students – their cognitive development needs Development in thinking skills 'We are completely lacking thinking skills…' 'We can’t understand…, so we just memorise them…' Development in questioning skills 'We don’t know the concepts very well, that is why it is so difficult to ask questions.' 'I dare not ask even at time when I don’t understand.'

Thinking Skills & Questioning Skills Which one works better?? Why?? Engaging people in thinking PresentationQuestioning Developing thinking skills Teacher-asked questions Student-asked questions

2 levels Developing students' learning abilities at 2 levels Developing thinking skills at 2 levels Method using 'teacher-asked questions' using 'student-asked questions' Outcome Specific thinking strategies as guided by teacher, e.g.: elaborate, paraphrase, analyse Independent, self-directed thinker 2 levels of development Cognitive abilities development Metacognitive abilities development

Metacognition What is metacognition? A.Awareness / knowledge of what cognition (learning) is B.Abilities to control cognition (learning), i.e., the attitude & habits that support and drives learning Key operations in metacognition (control of learning) 1.Planning 1.Planning your learning 2.Monitoring 2.Monitoring your learning 3.Assessing 3.Assessing your learning

Thinking Abilities Asking Questions Developing Thinking Abilities by: Engaging Students in Asking Questions Question Asking Guide 3-Column Table for Reflective Questioning Both methods aim at developing thinking skills at the cognitive and metacognitive levels

Question-asking Guide What is Question-asking Guide? A tool for generating questions that involve more than info-seeking but also a fair amount of thinking Rationale The process involved parallel that of metacognition, i.e. beneficial to metacognitive ability Concrete suggestions for better questions

Using the Question-asking Guide How-to-use in 3 words Write – evaluate – rewrite Examples Review exercise Regular questioning Reading supplement

What is a 3-column Table for Reflective Questioning? A tool to sharpen students’ awareness of what they understand and what they don’t Components of the worksheet: Instructions Questions Stems The 3-column

Using the 3-column Table in Teaching and Assessment Teaching: 1. As a tool for preparation 2. As a highly flexible in-class activity Assessment: 1. Continuous assessment and its

3-Column Table for Reflective Questioning Feedback from students Column 3 stimulates me to think more about the subject It can encourage us to ask ourselves questions and we will try to answer the questions. When we cannot give an answer we know what do not understand, and can discuss with our classmates. In the process when we think about the questions, we need to get ourselves really understand, otherwise the questions will not be in-depth. It helped me learn more systematically. Without this, I am not aware that there are so many things that I do not know

3-Column Table for Reflective Questioning Feedback from students It is really useful in the sense that we are forced to think about what we know and what we do not understand, instead of asking us to rote learn all materials without digesting them. This will be particularly useful for those who do not like to analyze what s/he learns during studying.

One thing I would like to try is