How to Improve
What do you need to improve?
The first step to improve both your working habits and your attainment in School is to identify where you need to improve. Is it your knowledge and understanding in lessons? Does your attitude sometimes hamper your progress? Is it skills you need to develop for effective learning? Or, do you need to cement in routines and habits which will help make learning easier?
Scroll down to what is most relevant to you
identify where the issue is!
1. Knowledge and Understanding?
2. Attitude?
3. Skills?
4. Working habits?
1.the importance of knowledge
competencies
In lessons, you may hear your teachers talk about competencies. These can be both knowledge and understanding and skills which, when developed, can help you to become more 'competent' in lessons and life. To become more competent in your knowledge and understanding, it helps to improve your metacognition. Reflecting upon what goes well and then using this later is useful to your learning.
Developing your metacognition is important as you will then appreciate what you should know and understand how to make improvements. For example, being more aware of the instructions your teacher gives and their importance is key. What are the key words which are explained to you and the success criteria for tasks? These give you the power to improve in your learning. Make sure you know what they are through active listening.
Feedback
feedforward
improve
Understanding feedback and the importance of feeding forward is the key to improvement. Feedback from your teacher is essential for improvements in your knowledge and understanding. Your teacher will seek to find out what you know and understand in every lesson. Whether it is verbal (often the best kind), written, peer or self-feedback; thinking about what you are trying to learn, reviewing it and identifying how to improve is crucial to ‘feed forward’ your learning. Reading and acting on your learning will make a difference. Just speak to your friends and family if you need convincing.
targets
Making SMART targets are an effective way to focus your attention upon what you need to improve. They will lose their effectiveness though if you don't revisit them and feed them forward to your next piece of work. In order to make this possible, ensure your targets are specific and actionable. Your teachers will give you M.A.D. (make a difference) time to do this.
when learning is difficult
Top Tip 1.
Healthy struggle
In order to improve, we actually need to struggle in our learning, but this struggle needs to be 'just right'. We like to call it ‘intelligent floundering’ or 'desirable difficulties.'
happiness
A psychologist called Csikszentmihalyi named this challenge in learning, ‘flow’. He even said that it was the ‘secret to happiness!' See if you agree with him ...
In lessons, we want you to have ‘flow’. We don’t want you to be anxious, we don’t want you to be bored, we want you to be focused and engrossed with your learning, to get that creativity going with the essential challenge which makes learning so exciting. When thinking about how to improve, it can help to think about times when you experienced ‘flow’ both in your lesson or during prep at home. When these times occur, what is happening? Can you replicate this and think of strategies you could use to develop this ‘flow’ further?
Top Tip 2
bx4
It can be difficult to know what to do when you are ‘stuck’. Sometimes it is because you were not actively listening and didn’t catch the initial explanation. However, you can use the 4Bs: Brain, Book, Buddy & Boss (which you will see around school) to help fix this problem.
Brain
Book
Buddy
Boss
Think first about what you do know; it will be more than you think. This is a crucial part of learning and is called retrieval.
Check / re-read carefully your textbook, exercise book, Schoology or Google Classroom. Reading is essential for learning.
A friend can sometimes explain things in a different way which you understand. However, don't simply copy answers from a friend - that does not help your learning!
Help your teacher by asking specific questions, not 'I don't understand'. This shows you are seeking to improve by thinking for yourself.
Top Tip 3
magnus carlsen
Magnus Carlsen, at age 13, took on the number one Chess player, Garry Kasparov in 2004. See what happened when they met ...
When we get stuck with our learning, we sometimes need to give the brain a break. Did you see the techniques that Magnus used? There is a theory called cognitive brain overload which suggests that having a break and giving your brain time to digest the information received is beneficial. This is why teachers will often ‘chunk’ their lessons to give you time and space to think, reflect and discuss your learning.
chunking
Chunking your knowledge is something that you should consider doing when you are seeking to revise. There are lots of ways you can do this, one example is graphic organisers and mindmaps.
summary: when learning is difficult
Feed forward feedback given.
Ensure you are always actively learning.
Remove any distractions.
Celebrate when learning is difficult.
Identify the specific area where you are ‘stuck’.
Use your 4Bs - you know more than you think.
Develop your metacognition.
Chunk your time and your learning.
Take breaks when they are needed.
Don’t give up! Develop your growth mindset.
2. Attitude
Changing your attitude can be a tricky one ...
Did you know that researchers have found that an area of the brain where we experience pain (insular cortex) begins to light up when we don’t want to do something? More importantly, once we start with a unpleasant task after 20 minutes the pain goes away! Why don’t you try it for yourself and see if this research works for you?
pomodoro technique
In the 1980s Francesco Cirillo came up with a way to help you with your learning. It is called the Pomodoro Technique and yes, he did invent the tomato-shaped timer! Could it be a way to change your habits and attitude when facing difficulties in making improvements?
Instructions:
1. Get a timer.
2. Get rid of distractions.
3. Set the timer for 25 minutes.
4. Focus and complete the task as best you can - it is only 25 minutes.
5. Reward yourself.
Alternatively, consider downloading a pomodoro app. There are a number available.
You have begun to start ‘eating your frog’. You could now have a break or carry on. If you know you need to get back to it, set the timer for your break too. The more you practise this technique you will be developing your growth mindset and your self-discipline. This could be the start of a change in attitude and lead to those marginal gains which could help you make improvements in your learning.
how to eat a frog
This famous saying by Mark Twain has inspired a number of books telling us how to ‘eat that frog’. An addition to this quote says, ‘and if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first’. This is a useful approach when you are trying to improve both your working habits and attainment. Start with the work that you are most anxious about and maybe after 25 minutes it may not be such an awful frog after all.
How do you eat an elephant?
You may have also heard the response to this question, “One bite at a time.” This is called chunking, a word you have met already. Can this video inspire you to change your attitude and to chunk your workload?
too hard?
Sometimes, you may feel that it is impossible to change your attitude and eat any frog or elephant. This is because your attitude and emotions can sometimes have a huge impact on you and they can be difficult to understand and manage.
Martin Seligman, a psychologist, introduced a term called ‘learned helplessness’ which is not what we want for any Waconian. You may also know that intrinsic motivation is considered by researchers as more valuable for life-long learning than external motivation. We want you all to develop your intrinsic motivations. You will need resilience and grit to do it. Yet, changing our attitudes can be more complicated than outlined here. So, we plan to continue to develop this site in the future to help you understand and find strategies to help you when at times the ‘elephant’ or ‘frog’ becomes too big.
3. Skills
It can become really hard to keep a positive attitude when you don’t see improvements in your attainment which is why grades can sometimes hamper your learning progress. When you feel that ‘learned helplessness’ coming over you, just remember ... your growth mindset, use your 4Bs and retrieve what you already know.
Anyone can continue to learn because the brain allows you to. Don’t believe it? Watch Jared Horveth’s YouthTED talk about how amazing your brain is.
We have standards and expectations at CHS and if you are to exceed these you need to know how to do it. Even with a positive attitude and the necessary knowledge and understanding, you need to understand ways to make those improvements. Here are some skills you can develop ...
If we are to keep making improvement in our learning, we need to to actively retrieve our learning at regular intervals. In lessons your teachers may talk about the importance of encoding, decoding, retrieving and deliberate practice. All of these things are skills which you can improve.
Jeffrey Karpick is just one of a number of psychologists who has helped teachers understand how important it is to retrieve your learning at regular intervals for you to make improvements in your learning.
Regular retrieval overcomes Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve
tests
Tests are a key opportunity for you to make improvements. To improve your attainment in tests, you need to work on your retrieval techniques. 'Planning backwards’ before any end-of-unit test is important as, by giving yourself plenty of time to prepare and revisit your learning, you have a better chance of moving your learning from your working memory to your long-term memory.
End-of-unit tests and also what we call low-level testing all provide inter-leaved opportunities for you to retrieve your learning. You may not even notice low-level testing in lessons as they are quick quizzes and questions which occur throughout the lesson. They are equally important though as, by revisiting current and previous learning, your teachers are helping you retrieve prior knowledge and understanding from other topics. This will help you embed and deepen your knowledge and understanding.
Deliberate Practice
Deliberate practice, corrections, redrafts all help you to make improvements in your learning - keep persevering with them and make reflection part of your learning routine. Regular practice of your learning can help you to develop the required skills and lead to the improvement you desire.
4. Habits & routines
If you want to continue making improvements, you have to make learning a habit i.e. part of your normal routine. Preps are an opportunity for you to focus and develop your learning whilst regular practice of your learning can help to make those crucial marginal gains.
Creating the right Learning Climate and planning are essential. Here is a summary of the habits and routines you could develop.
subject mastery
Once you are embedding these crucial learning habits and giving the necessary time to your learning, you could be ready for subject mastery. Don't get complacent though, often the more you know about something, your curiosity deepens and the more questions you have about it.
deepen the learning
The Feynman Technique (developed by Noble Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman) is an interesting idea which suggests that if we want to improve and develop our deeper understanding, we also need to keep things simple.
If you want to improve your learning and gain subject mastery ask yourself:
1. Am I giving enough time to improve my learning?
2. If so, is this quality time?
3. Am I using the most effective methods?
We believe in you, but only you can make all the above happen. Happy Learning.
movies to motivate you to improve
the Blind side
Certificate 12. Uplifting
patch adams
Certificate 15. Emotional
freedom writers
Certificate 15. Hard-hitting
motivational quotes
improvement books
HOw to learn
A Guide for Kids and Teens
Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski with Alistair McConville
eat that FROG
21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
Brian Tracy
DRive
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Dan Pink
top tips on how to improve (Y11 2019)
Have a go at it for about 5 minutes or so, and if I'm still struggling, ask for help either from the teacher or the people around me. See the teacher at another time to go over it if it's still difficult.
The textbooks are always a great place to start, but also research on top of that to make sure you have the best evidence and quotes. The more quotes and better evidence you have means your exam answers will be good from the start.
Use lots of resources, i.e. textbooks, asking friends, speaking to teachers and asking parents. Once I've improved the homework, I then make sure I fully understand it.
Listen
Read the comments and see where you went wrong and ask your teacher to explain where you can improve and how. Try your best and go over topics you find difficult.
Brain, Book, Buddy, Bing, Boss!
Focus and listen carefully, try not to get distracted by other people or things. Have my books out ready, as well as my pencil case and device if needed. Don't talk to my friends too much, so that I get as much work done as I can.
Complete corrections. It helps!
Useful websites
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