Eva Slapnik holds a Master's in Primary School Education and teaches at the primary school level. She also completed a module for early English teaching. She enjoys teaching pupils, preparing them to think outside the box, and passing on knowledge that will come in handy in their future. Email: eva.slapnik1@guest.arnes.si

 

Abstract

The independence and responsibility of a child is really important for his or her development, self-image and self-confidence. If we develop these two values, the child will be able to develop into an autonomous, independent, free and successful person. Parents have a great influence in the upbringing of children into independent and responsible persons. However, I notice, most often in self-directed learning, that these two values are less and less developed in children. Learning is a complex process that involves a variety of mental and physical activities. It enables the acquisition of knowledge that will be useful in new situations (Marentič Požarnik, 2000). In this article, we will present examples of good practice in 5th grade, how to teach pupils to learn and thus develop independence and responsibility in learning without parental help. With this contribution, we want to motivate pupils to become independent, responsible and, above all, nurture perseverance.

 

Introduction

Learning to learn is, according to knowledge professionals in the 21st century, one of life’s key skills. Some call it skill, competence, ability, as well as literacy (Ažman, 2008, 7). Successful development of the learning to learn competence in students enables the student to develop self-regulatory learning skills. This means that self-regulatory learning is the foundation of the learning to learn competence. Some authors call self-regulatory learning strategic learning. In self-regulatory learning, the student is familiar with different approaches to learning, these are the so-called learning strategies, he also knows what he wants to achieve with learning, and he knows how to learn in order to achieve the ultimate goal (Pečjak and Gradišar, 2015, 98).

The art of thinking and self-directed learning is strongly emphasized in discussions on education at the national level. Students need an independent attitude and skills that enable independence if they are to succeed in the long run (Ginnis, 2004, 296). Parents can be very helpful in this, but not by doing all the work and learning for them. They must be their support. Marko Juhant and Simona Levc say that it is the duty of parents to help organize the work for the school and then also supervise it (Juhant and Levc, 2011, 54).

Marko Juhant and Simona Levc wrote that many parents tell them that students study all afternoon and at night. That learning alone takes so long is due to the poor organization of the student's learning work. They find it difficult to start learning, take excessive breaks and too often deal with everything that is not learning (Juhant and Levc, 2011, 52).

I too came to similar insights during my teaching. In individual conversation hours, I often ask parents at the beginning of the school year how their children are learning, and I often get the answer that parents learn with them, write down the material, write additional exercises and ask them questions before oral and written assessments. When asked why pupils do not learn independently, I most often get the answer that they are not yet able and that they do not know how to learn. It is clear from this that parents either take on the duties of children and do not offer them opportunities to develop their independence and responsibility in learning, or they do not know how to help them learn to learn.

Here the question arises as to how students should learn independently if they do not need to, as they always have someone available to help and guide them. In addition, independent learning needs to be learned. How should they learn if their parents do not know how to help them learn to learn?

Therefore, at the beginning of the school year, I devoted several hours of lessons with fifth graders to the topics on learning environment, learning style and learning how to learn.

 

Learning environment and learning styles

People differ from each other. We learn in very different ways, and this greatly affects performance and self-esteem (Ginnis, 2004, 276). Therefore, I devoted five hours of class communities to the learning environment and learning how to learn. In the following, I presented a short course of all five hours of class communities.

In the first lesson, we talked about how they learn, when they learn, and what their learning space looks like. The most common responses of pupils were to learn with parents, to learn only before written and oral assessments of knowledge in some common space, behind a desk, with many distractions.

In the second class, pupils drew their own learning space. We talked about a suitable learning environment. Together, we came to the following conclusions. The place of learning is very important for learning, but peace is also needed. Every pupil has to find their own quiet corner in the living room, which they arrange according to their taste, in order to be as comfortable as possible in it. They should also have tables, sketches and formulas in this corner, which they need every day. The learning space should be bright, in soothing colors.

The space where the pupil learns must also be regularly ventilated. The most suitable temperature for learning is 18 °C – 24 °C. There should be enough light in the room during the day, and in the evening, pupils should have proper room lighting. We did a lamp experiment with the pupils. We darkened the classroom. For each pupil, I pointed the flashlight on his right and then on his left as he or she wrote. Pupils soon found that the light on the wrong side cast a shadow on their writing surface. They came to the conclusion that the lighting of the room is important and that quite a few pupils have the lamps in their learning space placed in an inappropriate place.

The pupils' desk must be tidy. It is a good idea for pupils to set a clock on the table so that they can schedule their learning. The desk should not be full of materials, as it can often demotivate them from learning itself. It is best to arrange the material for the subjects to be studied in small piles (taken from Kunaver, 2001). Once the pupils were given instructions on how to properly arrange the learning space, we were able to focus on the way of learning and determining the learning styles of the pupils.

In the introduction to the third community class, we talked about how pupils learn. Their most common answers were that they learn seated with their parents, who help them to write notes and revise the subject matter orally. However, not all pupils are the same, not everyone has the same way of learning. Different forms of learning suit them. So, I did a learning style test with the pupils. After the test, the pupils found out which study group they belong to.

We also agreed with the pupils to make a learning plan that suits them best. Some learn in the morning, others in the afternoon and some in the evening. It is important to start with short sections of learning first and then gradually extend the learning time. However, it is mandatory to take active breaks during learning so that pupils can relax mentally.

After passing the test of learning styles (visual, auditory and kinesthetic), pupils were given instructions on how to learn according to their learning style.

The visual type remembers the material best if he sees it written, using keyword writing, pictorial material, and text marking for better success. Important learning aids are pictures, books, sketches, videos, and text markers. The auditory type learns what he hears. In learning, it helps him to tell the story to someone else; he likes to see us ask him what he has learned. While learning, he is sensitive to sounds from the surroundings, he remembers things worse if he only saw and not also heard them. The kinesthetic type participates in learning with the whole body; it suits him best to learn by executing the learning material. He needs enough space to learn to maintain concentration; he needs enough movement (Kunaver, 2001).

With the newly acquired knowledge, I prepared activities in different learning styles for the pupils during the class community lesson. Auditory presentation was followed by conversation, then visual upgrading and kinesthetic consolidation (Ginnis, 2004).

None of the pupils were bored during the lesson, but the disadvantage of this activity was that the activities were short so none of the pupils perceived the learned style to which they were exposed as inappropriate. Therefore, I adjusted the activities in the next lessons of social studies and science and technology so that the pupils could actually find out which learning style suits them best.

Since there are several ways to determine learning styles, I prepared an additional questionnaire in the fourth community class with four categories based on the work of Kolb, McCarthy, Butler, and Gregorc in addition to the regular learning style test. The above questionnaire is based on the assumption that learning involves two thought processes - one related to acquisition and the other to the classification and storage of new data (Ginnis, 2004).

Pupils were classified into four learning modes following the test results.

• Yellow group pupils love to read and write. They look for information in books or through conversations and other sources and like to work on their own. They carefully consider different ideas. They plan their learning carefully.
• In the green group, pupils want precise instructions, work gradually, are extremely organized and accurate. They like to do things properly. Practical work is close to them.
• The blue group of pupils is extremely fond of talking to others; they use a lot of imagination and are empathetic. They love fun assignments, drama activities, music and dancing.
• The red group of pupils likes to solve problems and find answers on their own. They have many ideas that they like to try, despite the fact that they seem strange to others. They like to explore how things work. They present their work in tangible results (Ginnis, 2004).

Most of the pupils followed the suggestions and advice they received during the four hours of class communities and the first positive results were already shown. The newly acquired knowledge was also presented to parents, who helped them in arranging the learning space and merely encouraged and guided them in learning. Parents no longer studied for them and with them. In the fifth lesson, pupils presented their newly arranged learning spaces, presented their learning plans and proudly said that due to the newly acquired knowledge, they need their parents less and less to learn. Parents only offer them support, guidance and encouragement when needed.

 

Hands-free

After the lessons of class community, positive results began to show in learning. Pupils were more independent and took responsibility for their own learning, which they improved on all the advice and guidance they received during class community hours. So during class, I tried a Hands-Free approach (taken from Ginnis, 2004) that is really student-centered. The approach itself takes quite some time, but the end result leads to faster learning. In the subject of society, we discussed the learning set of the Dinaric Karst region of Slovenia. Pupils were divided into inhomogeneous groups at the beginning of the study of the subject matter, and later the subject matter was addressed individually.

Step 1: Prepare pupils for independent action

In the introduction, we agreed with the pupils exclusively on two rules. We will all listen carefully to the speaker and help each other develop self-confidence. These two rules often had to be repeated during the learning process, as pupils regularly forgot them. This task was often taken over by the pupils themselves. Towards the end of the learning process, most pupils adopted the above-mentioned rules and followed them in the remaining lessons.

Step 2: Have pupils reveal their feelings

First, I introduced the learning topic to the pupils and offered them the opportunity to express their opinion on the topic. All the answers were accepted, from those who were extremely negative about the topic, to those who were looking forward to reading the new subject matter.

The most common answer of the pupils, of course, was why it is necessary to learn this learning material at all, where they will need this knowledge in life at all. The answer to their question was given by those pupils who were looking forward to the discussion of the material and were interested in the topic.

Step 3: Unambiguously clarify the learning requirements

I introduced the pupils to what they will have to learn and how much time we will spend on this learning topic. Some of the terms used were unknown to the pupils, so I offered them various professional books, magazines and the web to find and explain them on their own.

Step 4: Have pupils show their prior knowledge

The pupils wrote what they already knew about the chosen topic on the posters in groups. I gave them enough time for this step so they could really think and write down all the knowledge they already have.

We hung the finished posters on billboards to help us advance our learning.

Pupils who already knew some of the material have thus been assured that they will not have to learn what they already know. At this stage, we thus prepared the ground for negotiating individual learning strategies in the eighth step.

Step 5: Creating opportunities

I asked the pupils what they remember that could help them learn what is needed. With the help of a brainstorm, we wrote down all the ideas of all the pupils on the board. I also contributed some ideas that the pupils did not remember.

Step 6: Evaluate resources and edit options

We talked to the pupils about the resources available to us at school. I agreed with the librarian in advance that the library was available during the course. The librarian also prepared some materials in advance to make it easier for the pupils to find the material.

We re-examined the ideas we got with the brainstorm and crossed out some because of the impossible implementation.

Step 7: Opt for a learning strategy

We discussed with the pupils and tried to agree on which learning strategy to choose. The purpose of this step is to give the pupil the opportunity to choose the most appropriate strategy that suits his or her learning style. At the end of this step, each pupil will have a strategy that they will turn into a personal learning plan.

Pupils learned about different learning strategies during their entire schooling. The learning strategies that pupils know so far are underlining, learning cards, thought patterns, Cornell learning method, SQ3R and KWL.

Step 8: Write personal learning plans

Each pupil wrote down a personal curriculum and defined his or her learning objectives and strategy, the necessary resources, the time frame and the method of assessment. The plan helped the pupils to stick to the given path of dealing with the material.

Step 9: Share responsibility for the learning process with pupils

After the written curriculum, the pupils started the learning activity. They were assigned their own learning spaces in the classroom. They had a variety of learning resources at their disposal. As a teacher, I was always available to them during their studies, but they had to agree on a schedule because I could not be available to everyone at the same time.

Step 10: Review

Every few hours, we all gathered together and checked the progress of the individuals. Each reported on how he or she was progressing, what he or she had learned so far, and highlighted the challenges he or she was facing.

 

Closing

After completing the course, we evaluated the results and looked at the entire learning process. I also prepared a short test for the pupils, whom I did not evaluate, with which the pupils checked if they had processed the whole subject matter or if they had to revisit or repeat a part of the material.

The procedure described above is time-consuming, but it is worth all the time, as pupils became faster, more independent and more responsible in learning and in further dealings with the subject matter. Parents reported that pupils were able to learn more independently and are also much more disciplined in their learning.

 

Conclusion

Learning to learn is a complex concept that cannot be sharply distinguished from others, such as intelligence, problem solving, learning strategies and learning styles. It is extremely abstract and difficult to reach for pupils. Learning is a complex process that needs to be learned. Parents need to know that they do not benefit the child if they learn and work for them. It is much better to offer pupils the best learning conditions and guide them as needed. During the execution of my lessons, I have experienced that it is worth devoting a few hours to learning how to learn, as this gives pupils the knowledge and experience that will benefit them during their lives. During the lessons, some pupils came to the realization that they can accurately estimate the time required for a particular topic of the learning material. They were able to learn and consolidate the material on their own without the help of their parents.

I am aware that not all pupils will at once be able to learn independently, however, if the newly acquired knowledge will make it at least a little easier for them to learn in the future, I have achieved my goal.

 

Sources and literature

Ažman, T. Učenje učenja – kako učiti in se naučiti spretnosti vseživljenjskega učenja. Ljubljana: Zavod za šolstvo. 2008.

Ginnins, D. Učitelj – sam svoj mojster. Ljubljana: Založba Rokus. 2004.

Juhant, M in Levc, S. Varuh otrokovih dolžnosti. Ljubljana: Čmrlj, komuniciranje in ustvarjalnost, Marko Juhant, s.p.

Kunaver, D. Učim se učiti. Ljubljana: Samozaložba D. Kunaver. 1992

Pečjak, S. in Gradišar, A. Bralne učne strategije. Ljubljana: Zavod Republike Slovenije za šolstvo. 2015.

 

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