Learning-to-Learn Skills
As the name indicates, learning-to-learn skills are the general skills that enable students to profit from instruction. These include the following:
Attention control. This set of skills involves the students' awareness of when they are and are not attending to a task. If learners develop conscious control of this process, learning improves.While you are reading this book, your attention may occasionally be diverted to something else. If you cannot catch yourself and get back on task, you are not likely to learn much from this book.
Goal setting. Successful students set goals that challenge their capabilities. Short-term goals are more likely to be completed than long-term goals. Students will learn more if they can set both long-term and short-term goals and know the difference between them.
If you see a way to gain something (either a natural consequence or an artificial benefit) from reading this chapter, you are going to learn more from it than if you see no point in this chapter.Weak students often read academic materials simply because they are told to do so; but good students see a purpose in their reading.
Cognitive restructuring. This set of skills involves verbal mediation and affirmation. When we talk to ourselves about a task (verbal mediation), our thoughts become more salient and more manageable. An affirmation is the statement of a positive self-belief regarding a task. Students who make positive affirmations and who talk to themselves clearly about tasks learn more effectively than students who do not do so.
Cognitive restructuring does not refer to the reorganization of information in the brain. The constant reorganization of knowledge is referred to by such terms as assimilation, accommodation, and construction of knowledge. These terms are discussed in Chapter 4. The term cognitive restructuring simply means that the learner uses cognitive (intellectual) processes to restructure (state in a different manner) the information that he or she is trying to process. In terms of the previous chapter, this intellectual restatement makes it more likely that the information will be the focus of attention in the working memory, that it will be transferred effectively from working memory to long-term memory, and that it will be retrieved when it is needed for subsequent use.
Cognitive restructuring can be a paraphrase, but it can also be any type of self-talk about the information: "Oh, this is like what we studied yesterday....", "This contradicts the principle of....", "If this is true, then...."
In the preceding discussion of attention control and goal setting, there were two paragraphs describing each skill. The first paragraph in each pair was actually a complete description of the topic under consideration. The second merely said the same thing in different words, while shifting the focus to you, the reader. When learners do that themselves, that's an example of cognitive restructuring.The previous paragraph doesn't simply restate my initial description of cognitive restructuring, but it elaborates on that concept and tries to make it clear to the reader. If this paragraph were not here but you invented it for yourself, that would be cognitive restructuring (verbal mediation). If you just said to yourself, "That's a good idea. I do that when I read, and it really works," your thought would also be an example of cognitive restructuring (in this case, an affirmation).
One of the difficulties of cognitive restructuring is that it may be done incorrectly. That is, the learner may restructure the information inaccurately, but not realize this error. When this happens, learning takes place - but it is incorrect learning! The really good learner finds a way to verify that the restatement is accurate. This is one of the reasons why individualized and peer tutoring is so effective. A student can try to understand a topic and restate it to the tutor or peer, who can verify the accuracy of the restatement.
Children need to develop the ability to talk to themselves constructively. Children with attention deficit disorders and learning disabilities (chapter 9) often talk to themselves inappropriately (Berk & Potts, 1991). The importance of cognitive restructuring is supported by the ideas of Vygotsky and by other researchers who have pursued his theories (e.g., Diaz & Berk, 1992; Berk, 1994).
Self-evaluation. This set of skills focuses on monitoring progress toward a goal. At this point we are verifying whether we are on track to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.
Weak students are often astonished when they perform inadequately on a test. Good students know where their strengths and weaknesses are. When they fail, extremely weak students often have no idea what their problem is. On the other hand, good students are able to use failure as a foundation for a plan to do better.
These learning-to-learn skills enable students to use their learning time effectively. It is possible to teach learners to improve these skills; and students who improve these skills often show dramatic improvements in academic performance. (See, for example, Doctorow, Wittrock, & Marks, 1978; Linden & Wittrock, 1981; Wittrock, 1986; Bransford, Sherwood, Vye, & Riser, 1986; Casey, 1990). Teachers should verify the extent to which students possess these skills and help them develop and apply these skills when appropriate. These skills can be applied across all subject areas.
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