Manage Learning
-
Set Goals and Define Problems. Students set goals and define problems related to their own learning
based on their knowledge of themselves and the ways they learn.
-
Oversee. Students manage their own learning, make and implement plans, manage data, manage and
monitor projects, and revise plans and products.
-
Reflect and Ask Questions. Students think about what they are learning and doing, and ask questions
based on their reflections to improve their learning.
-
Evaluate Self and Others, Get Evaluated by Others, and Make Judgments. Students assess themselves and
others; are assessed by teachers, other adults, and peers; and evaluate materials tasks, lessons, and
products.
Student Roles
Students are explorers, cognitive apprentices, teachers, producers of knowledge, and directors and managers
of their own learning.
Students are explorers.
The essence of exploring is collecting information and reflecting upon its meaning. Students discover
concepts and connections and apply skills by interacting with the physical world, materials at hand, technology,
and other people. Exploring can be purposeful, as when students decide ahead of time what kinds of information
they seek; or open-ended, as when they browse in a library, on a CD-ROM, or on Internet Web sites. Students
browse, search, and obtain information from numerous sources. With technology, these sources can be from anywhere
in the world.
Key to exploring are the abilities to organize, analyze, and reflect. With the wealth of information available
today, students need to manipulate and organize information into some logical form that suits their learning
goals and the tasks in which they are engaged. This activity may involve summarizing or transforming and
converting information to new forms, for example, from text to nontext and vice versa. Students may perform
analyses as complex as statistics or as straightforward as comparing one set of data to another on obvious but
important qualitative characteristics. They make connections to what they already know; look for inconsistencies
to reach conclusions; make decisions; solve problems; plan and execute experiments; judge the value of
information; and decide what concepts, ideas, strategies, and skills are worth retaining. Developing and using
oneÕs aesthetic sense and abilities is also an aspect of exploration.
©1997-99 North Central Regional Educational Laboratory
1-800-356-2735 NCRTEC
|
