 Supporting Effective Learning by Academy of Learning Career College Supporting learners to be effective in their approach to learning means empowering learners to take responsibility for their learning. As such, much of the support we can provide to learners will be in the form of questions. Asking the learner to consider what has been effective and not so effective as well as how to move forward helps learners to develop metacognitive skills. Metacognitive skills are those related to thinking about your own thinking, that is, learners' awareness of their own learning skills and approaches and their deliberate creation of plans and evaluations for learning. Research has illustrated that the most effective learners tend to have highly developed metacognitive skills, and thus we want to ask questions to guide learners in thinking in ways that would help them to be deliberate in how they approach and monitor their learning. We can ask questions that focus on four different but interrelated areas. Guiding Thoughtful Reflection The goal is to have learners think critically about the approach to learning for a task or topic that they have already started or completed. Although it is ideal for learners to think through the approach before they start the task, reflection can be a very powerful starting point for more effective learning. One critical thing to remember when coaching learners is that reflection is valuable both in the face of disappointment, for example a poor test grade, and in the face of success. Some questions you might ask for good or poor results include What worked well? Why do you think that was helpful? What didn't work well? Why not? What's one thing you can do differently? Guiding Thoughtful Planning Reflection happens after a task and planning occurs beforehand, but planning can also emerge from reflection. The goal is to have learners think critically about their approach to learning. Effective planning focuses on what will be accomplished and how. What are you being asked to learn here? What does success look like for this task? What strategies might you use? What strategy do you think will be most effective? Why? Is there anything you can try differently from how you normally approach this kind of work? When are you going to complete this work? Guiding Deliberate and Accurate Self Monitoring Questions here focus on asking learners to define how they know something based on more objective criteria than simply based on how they feel. This can be done for past performances and to prepare for future tasks. Were you well prepared? How do you know? How did you check in to see if you were ready for the test? How will you know if you are on track before you take the exam? How will you know if you are doing a good job when you are studying or practicing? What can you use to judge if you have done well? Encouraging the Use of Effective Strategies Learners may struggle with using effective strategies, either because they do not know what strategies are and how to use them, or because they do not know when to use strategies effectively. This is part of the learner's metacognitive knowledge that can be developed by encouraging an awareness of strategies, why they work, and when they work. Particularly when reflecting on past performances, we aim to understand what strategies learners did use and whether there was a lack of work to encode information or a lack of practice retrieving information. That can help us guide you in thinking about what strategies to discuss with the learner. What strategies did you use and or can you use to study? Why did you choose these? Have you thought about using X strategy? Did you and or can you do anything active to put the content into your own words or chart the visual representation? Did you and or can you do anything active to practice? Many learners find and or research finds X strategy to be effective. Do you think that might work for you? Can you modify a strategy to make it more effective for you or for this task?