The following strategies are useful in helping pupils to develop as independent learners.

Modelling the learning process and learning habits:

Modelling is a powerful teaching strategy for making explicit your expectations:

· What should the class do, and in what order?

· How should they do it and deal with issues and difficulties?

Planning teaching sequences that lead towards independence:

· Provide 'scaffolding' which you remove when pupils are ready.

· Encourage learning skills to become learning habits.

· Gradually increase expectations, for example modelling more difficult problem solving or introducing collaborative group work.

(See case study 2.)

Helping pupils develop self-assessment skills:

Getting pupils to evaluate their own work helps them to make links, gain a sense of purpose and develop independent judgement. For example, in the plenary you could try the following:

· invite pupils to tell the class what they have done and evaluate it together;

· identify errors, difficulties and misconceptions and begin to deal with them;

· pose a fresh problem to test whether pupils can apply their learning.

(See case study 5.)

Case study 3

Video sequence 17a shows a mathematics teacher with a Year 8 class, teaching a lesson on the interpretation of data, presented in the form of bar charts and pie charts.

Interpretation of data is recognised as a weak area for many pupils. In this case there was an additional challenge because, at the beginning of the school year, it was agreed that this particular class needed to develop their speaking and listening skills. By the time this lesson was recorded, they had made significant progress in this area as a result of the teacher focusing on these skills over a period of several months, using very specific teaching strategies.

Whole-class discussion in this lesson was based on comparing two data charts, using a 'hide and reveal' strategy. The teacher covered the labels and scales and then asked pupils to conjecture what the charts might be about, gradually revealing more information. This is a particularly effective strategy for provoking exploratory talk: pupils feel free to come up with ideas and to comment on each other's suggestions.

Reflection

From pupils' responses in the video sequence, what evidence do you see that the mathematics teacher's strategies are improving their learning habits?

Consider:

· the use of key words, expecting pupils to say them aloud;

· working with a partner on a problem;

· sharing different views; explaining other views 'in your own words';

· the use of positive teacher language;

· giving teacher summaries of pupils' views, showing how they agree with each other;

· encouraging extended thinking by asking: 'What else?', 'Who can add to that?'

Developing exploratory talk

Exploratory talk is a way of communicating which enables pupils to think together effectively. But it does not happen by chance: you have to establish ground rules. Everyone should:

· be encouraged to contribute opinions and ideas and to give reasons;

· share all relevant information and ask other people for information and reasons;

· feel free to disagree if they have a good reason, but be willing to change their minds if they are persuaded by someone else's good reasoning;

· treat other people's ideas with respect and try to come to an agreement.

Case study 4

A history teacher identifies opportunities for talk and explains his strategies for encouraging group discussion:

'The class are asked to choose the people they want to work with, forming groups of up to five. These friendship groups help motivation. The less able are supported by their friends and teaching assistants are advised which group to work with. If someone doesn't want to join a group, I let them work alone for one session and this helps them to see the disadvantage of having no one to discuss things with. Sometimes I work with a child who has elected to work alone - I think it's important to bring them in by experience and example. This way I respect their wishes and avoid conflict. At the start of the year many of them are rather quiet, but by the end of the year they are all buzzing - the activities and groups give them confidence to speak out. The less able do especially well; they learn, for example, that they can read aloud without anxiety.

The topic is the Black Death in 1348. Each group is provided with a separate set of information about the plague. All the pupils have a clipboard and a structured worksheet. The groups talk about their information and create a bulleted list of key points. Then members of the group go off to collect other information from other groups. They must keep one person at their table, or 'learning station', to teach the 'visitors' who arrive from other groups what they know. Finally, each group makes up a song, using any tune they like, about the topic. One group, for example, used "Wild Thing". I record the songs with the digital video camera - always in my desk drawer - and we all watch the results on the TV, here in the room. As well as being very motivating, the approach involves multiple intelligences.'

Reflection

From the case study above, identify one or two strategies you could employ in your teaching to improve the value of talk in groups.

Reflection

Reflection is important if pupils are to understand more fully what and how they have learned. It is one way in which pupils can develop a language about learning. With this awareness they are more likely to become independent learners, better equipped for lifelong learning.

The experience of teachers suggests that, where pupils have had no chance to reflect on their learning and thought processes, their accounts of learning outcomes are dominated by describing lesson content. Where teachers have made learning more explicit, for example by using collaborative groups and conducting whole-class plenaries which focus on processes, the pupils' accounts of learning outcomes are broader and include greater awareness of how learning has been achieved.

Case study 5

A geography class had been studying tensions and problems in inner-city areas. In one lesson they were given a 'mystery' - an activity where they had to answer an open question (in this case, Who smashed a car windscreen?) by using information on 15 to 30 small slips of paper, some of which may have been irrelevant or misleading. In the plenary they were asked to identify the assumptions they had made in trying to reach a decision on the basis of incomplete evidence.

Teacher

What do you think you learned during that lesson?

Male pupil 1

We learned about assumptions, like you shouldn't just rush into deciding something without thinking carefully.

Male pupil 2

Yeah, you thought you were right and then you had to think about it and you weren't so sure, especially when you listened to other groups.

Interviewer

How did the teacher help you?

Female pupil

The teacher kept saying, 'Do you really know that? Is it a fact?' Usually we were wrong, well, sort of.

Male pupil 2

You had to have evidence to back it up, like in a court ... like a trial.

Female pupil

At the end you could see how lots of fights start. People think they are right, but they don't think, not really. It was funny when the teacher talked about fights he used to have with his brother, just like me and my sister.

Reflection

What benefits would you say that these pupils got from the awareness they are expressing?

In what ways do you provide your pupils with opportunities to develop awareness of strategies and learning?

Reading skills

The focus of this unit is not that pupils have to work purposefully for long periods on their own. However, if they are to achieve a degree of independence in their learning, they need reading skills developed to a certain level in order to be able to retrieve and handle information effectively.

The National Strategy Literacy progress units are provided to contribute to and complement the teaching of English, specifically for teachers of pupils who need help to progress. The unit on information retrieval identifies the skills that pupils need to acquire in their non­ fiction reading. They need to be able to:

· scan text to pick out specific information;

· skim text for an overall impression and the main points;

· recognise the impact of page layout and organisation;

· select relevant information;

· summarise accurately;

· make notes effectively.

These reading skills are vital to accessing other subjects of the curriculum.

Task 5

Developing reading skills 20 minutes

Consider each of the information retrieval skills in turn and think about the needs of pupils learning the subject (or subjects) that you teach. To what extent do they need to use that particular reading skill: often, sometimes or rarely?

Next, decide which of the skills is needed most often and think about how you can help pupils develop and practise this skill.

Reflection

Think of the best class you have ever known. (You may have been a member of it!) How would you describe the characteristics of their learning?

What you are aiming for with your current class is to begin to develop just some of those characteristics. It is important to hold on to the fact that small changes in your teaching can make a significant difference over time.

Task 6

Classroom assignment: developing independence 90 minutes

Developing more learning skills

Plan a lesson to further develop pupils as independent learners.

Select one or more strategies from these pages to incorporate into your planning for a lesson for your class. Think creatively about how to adapt the idea to your subject.

Do not introduce too many strategies at once. Your expectations of the class need to be made explicit and they will not cope with too much. However, do reinforce any learning skills that you developed in the first classroom assignment (task 4) and subsequent lessons.

If at all possible, invite another teacher to observe this lesson. Make sure you brief beforehand on the teaching strategies you intend to employ and the pupil outcomes you are seeking.

Reviewing the lesson

Reflect on the lesson, using the following questions.

· Did you carry out the lesson plan as intended? If not, what modifications did you make and why?

· Was the response of the class what you had hoped for? If not, then why not?

· What can you learn to carry forward in future lessons?

If your lesson was successful, you will probably feel confident about continuing. If you are a little dissatisfied, then try to decide on the reasons for this, talking it through with someone else if you can. It may simply be that you expected too much from one lesson and need to persist with the strategies over a series of lessons.