Approaches to Learning
Through approaches to learning, students develop skills that have relevance across the curriculum that help them “learn how to learn”. Approaches to learning skills can be learned and taught, improved with practice and developed incrementally. They provide a solid foundation for learning independently and with others. ATL skills help students prepare for, and demonstrate learning through, meaningful assessment. They provide a common language that students and teachers can use to reflect on and articulate on the process of learning.
Approaches to learning are most powerful when teachers plan and students engage with them in connection with significant and relevant content knowledge in order to develop transferable understanding. All teachers in IB schools are responsible for integrating and explicitly teaching ATL skills.
The most effective way to develop approaches to learning is through ongoing, process-focused disciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Teachers can use key and related concepts along with global contexts as vehicles for teaching effective learning strategies. Likewise, approaches to learning can be powerful tools for exploring significant content. This dual focus (content and process) promotes student engagement, deep understanding, transfer of skills and academic success.
Over time, students should develop clear and sophisticated understandings of how they learn best and how they can evaluate the effectiveness of their learning. This kind of self-regulated (independent and autonomous) learning helps students:
reflect purposefully on their learning (metacognition)
understand the diversity of human learning needs
evaluate and provide evidence of their learning
meet MYP subject group aims and objectives
share responsibility for creating productive, cooperative and safe learning environments
develop the confidence to try new strategies and explore new concepts and contexts for learning
prepare for further study and responsible participation in local and global communities.
ATL Skills and Learning Theory
Considered as a whole and at the highest proficiency, MYP approaches to learning represent the skills that students need in order to become self-regulated, intrinsically motivated learners. MYP ATL skills reflect “dynamic, internally controlled . . . processes that positively influence a student’s tendency to approach, engage with, expend effort on, and persist in learning tasks in an ongoing, self directed manner” (McCombs, 1984).
Using the vocabulary of learning theory, ATL skills can be described as
cognitive- learner-initiated use and practice of active information-processing and retrieval strategies
affective (social and emotional)- self-management of mood, motivation, interpersonal relationships and attitudes toward learning
metacognitive- awareness, understanding and control of personal learning processes.
ATL skills are informed by and support the development of the attributes of the IB learner profile.
ATL Skills Framework
The MYP extends IB ATL skills categories into ten developmentally-appropriate clusters. From this framework GMHS has developed its own framework based on MYP subjects and units.
ATL skills are interconnected. Individual skills and skills clusters frequently overlap and may be relevant to more than one skill category.
Developing Student Responsibility for ATL
Some of the key questions to be answered by students with respect to ATL skills include:
What are my present skills in this area and what evidence do I have of my development?
What skills can I improve?
What new skills can learn?
When specific ATL skills become an explicit focus for teaching and learning, students can begin to take responsibility for their own development. Over time, students can identify themselves and their competence in any learning strategy using terms like these:
Novice/ beginning – students are introduced to the skill and can watch others performing it (observation)
Learner/ developing – students copy others who use the skill and use the skill with scaffolding and guidance (emulation)
Practitioner/ using – students employ the skill confidently and effectively (demonstration)
Expert/ sharing – students can show others how to use the skill and accurately assess how effectively the skill is used (self-regulation)
A concept-based curriculum that uses ATL skills effectively enables all students to become stronger, more self-regulated learners.
Communication Skills
I Communication skills: Exchanging thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction
Inquiry focus: How can students communicate through interaction
Give and receive meaningful feedback
Use intercultural understanding to interpret communication
Use a variety of speaking techniques to communicate with a variety of audiences
Use appropriate forms of writing for different purposes and audiences
Use a variety of media to communicate with a range of audiences
Interpret and use effectively modes of non-verbal communication
Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers
Participate in, and contribute to, digital social media networks
Collaborate with peers and experts using a variety of digital environments and media
Share ideas with multiple audiences using a variety of digital environments and media
Inquiry focus: How can students demonstrate communication through language?
Reading, writing and using language to gather and communicate information
Read critically and for comprehension
Read a variety of sources for information and for pleasure
Make inferences and draw conclusions
Use and interpret a range of discipline-specific terms and symbols
Write and for different purposes
Understand and use mathematical notation
Paraphrase accurately and concisely
Preview and skim texts to build understanding
Take effective notes in class
Make effective summary notes for studying
Use a variety of organizers for academic writing tasks
Find information for disciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiries, using a variety of media
Organize and depict information logically
Structure information in summaries, essays and reports
Understand and implement intellectual property
Create references and citations, use footnotes/endnotes and construct a bibliography according to recognized conventions
Identify primary and secondary sources
Social Skills
II Collaboration skills: Working effectively with others
Inquiry focus: How can students collaborate?
Use social media networks appropriately to build and develop relationships
Practice empathy
Delegate and share responsibility for decision-making
Help others to succeed
Take responsibility for one’s own actions
Manage and resolve conflict and work collaboratively in teams
Build consensus
Make fair and equitable decisions
Listen actively to other perspectives and ideas
Negotiate effectively
Encourage others to contribute
Exercise leadership and take on a variety of roles within groups
Give and receive meaningful feedback
Advocate for your own rights and needs
Self-Management Skills
III Organization skills: Managing time and tasks effectively
Inquiry focus: How can students demonstrate organisation skills?
Plan short and long term assignments; meet deadlines
Create plans to prepare for summative assessments (examinations and performances)
Keep and use a weekly planner for assignments
Set goals that challenging and realistic
Plan strategies and take action to achieve personal and academic goals
Bring necessary equipment and supplies to class
Keep an organized and logical system of information files/notebooks
Use appropriate strategies for organizing complex information
Understand and use sensory learning preferences (learning styles)
Select and use technology effectively and productively
IV Affective skills: Managing state of mind
Inquiry focus: How can students manage their own state of mind?
Mindfulness
Practice focus and concentration
Practice strategies to develop mental quiet
Practice strategies to overcome distractions
Perseverance
Demonstrate persistence and perseverance
Practice delaying gratification
Emotional management
Practice strategies to overcome impulsiveness and anger
Practice strategies to prevent and eliminate bullying
Practice strategies to reduce anxiety
Practice being aware of body-mind connections
Self-motivation
Practice analyzing and attributing causes for failure
Practice managing self-talk
Practice positive thinking
Resilience
Practice ‘bouncing back’ after adversity, mistakes and failures
Practice ‘failing well’
Practice dealing with disappointment and unmet expectations
Practice dealing with change
V Reflection: (Re-)considering what has been learned; choosing and using ATL skills
Inquiry focus: How can students be reflective?
Develop new skills, techniques and strategies for effective learning
Identify strengths and weaknesses of personal learning strategies (self-assessment)
Demonstrate flexibility in the selection and use of learning strategies
Try new approaches to learning and evaluate their effectiveness
Consider content (What did I learn about today? What don’t I yet understand? What questions do I have now?)
Consider ATL skills development (What can already do? How can I share my skills to help peers who need more practice? What will I work on next?)
Consider personal learning strategies (How efficiently and effectively am I learning? What can I do to become a more efficient and effective learner? How can my understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses help me develop my own strategies for learning?)
Consider ethical, cultural and environmental implications
Keep a journal to record reflections
Research Skills
VI Information literacy: Finding, interpreting, judging and creating information
Inquiry focus: How can students demonstrate information literacy?
Collect, record and verify data
Access information to be informed and inform others
Make connections between various sources of information
Understand the benefits and limitations of personal sensory learning preferences when accessing, processing and recalling information
Use memory techniques to develop long term memory
Present information in a variety of formats and platforms
Collect and analyse data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
Process data and report results
Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on their appropriateness to specific tasks
Understand and use technology systems
Use critical literacy skills to analyze and interpret media communications
VII Media literacy: Interacting with media to use and create ideas and information
Inquiry focus: How can students demonstrate media literacy?
Locate, organize, analyse, evaluate, synthesize and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media [including digital social media and online networks]
Demonstrate awareness of media interpretations of events and ideas [including digital social media]
Make informed choices about personal viewing experiences
Understand the impact of media representations and modes of presentation
Seek a range of perspectives from multiple and varied sources
Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
Compare, contrast and draw connections among (multi)media resources
Thinking Skills
VIII Critical thinking: Analyzing and evaluating issues and ideas
Inquiry focus: How can students think critically?
Practice observing carefully in order to recognize problems
Gather and organize relevant information to formulate an argument
Recognize unstated assumptions and bias
Interpret data Evaluate evidence and arguments
Recognize and evaluate propositions
Draw reasonable conclusions and generalizations
Test generalizations and conclusions
Revise understanding based on new information and evidence
Evaluate and manage risk
Formulate factual, topical, conceptual and debateable questions
Consider ideas from multiple perspectives
Develop contrary or opposing arguments
Analyse complex concepts and projects into their constituent parts and synthesize them to create new understanding
Propose and evaluate a variety of solutions
Identify obstacles and challenges
Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues
Identify trends and forecast possibilities
Troubleshoot systems and applications
IX Creativity and innovation: The skills of invention – developing things and ideas that never existed before
Inquiry focus: How can students be creative?
Use brainstorming and mind mapping to generate new ideas and inquiries
Consider multiple alternatives, including those that might be unlikely or impossible
Create novel solutions to complex problems
Use lateral thinking to make unexpected connections
Design improvements to existing machines, media and technologies
Design new machines, media and technologies
Make guesses and generate testable hypotheses
Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes
Create original works and ideas
Practice flexible thinking – arguing both sides of an argument
Use visible thinking strategies and techniques
Propose metaphors and analogies
X Transfer Utilising skills and knowledge in multiple contexts
Inquiry focus: How can students transfer skills and knowledge among disciplines and subject groups?
Utilize effective learning strategies in subject groups and disciplines
Apply skills and knowledge in unfamiliar situations Inquire in different contexts to gain a different perspective
Compare conceptual understanding across multiple subject groups and disciplines
Make connections between subject groups and disciplines
Combine knowledge, understanding and skills to create products or solutions
Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies
Change the context of an inquiry to gain different perspectives