Learner ownership
“Children learn best when we treat them as human beings, with social and emotional as well as academic needs. As one teacher put it, ‘I don’t teach math; I teach kids math.’ To reach a child’s mind, we must be concerned for the whole person.”
—From a nation at risk to a nation at hope by The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development
The goal of student-centered learning is to lead to deeper learning, which The Hewlett Foundation describes as an "umbrella term for the skills and knowledge that learners must have to succeed in 21st century jobs and civic life." While many of these skills and much of this knowledge centers around specific disciplines and within the academic domain, schools are increasing efforts to teach skills that may help foster social and emotional learning in addition to academic content. In this unit, we explore how schools support learners in becoming more self-aware, empowered learners, who take ownership over their learning.
Schools that are shifting towards student-centered learning can fully foster, and should include, competencies that support learners socially and emotionally—in addition to academically. In a summary of 30 years of cognitive science research, Emory University Professor of Psychology Lawrence Barsalou shares that “continuing to study cognition as an independent isolated module is on the fast track to obsolescence.” In reality, these competencies work together and collectively lead to greater learning outcomes.
Studies show that noncognitive attributes are shown to have a direct positive relationship to learners’ concurrent school performance as well as future academic outcomes. Noncognitive attributes include self-advocacy, self-management, growth mindset, and social awareness and other strategies, behaviors, and attitudes. Additionally, many studies show that aspects of social-emotional learning contribute to greater outcomes for learners in school and life. Social-emotional learning (SEL), as defined by The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), is “the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” This definition, inclusive of children and adults, indicates that creating and fostering a culture of SEL may require a school-wide commitment.
A specific skill that bridges the social, emotional, and academic reals of learner ownership is metacognition. Metacognitive reflection—thinking and talking about how we learn in addition to what we learned—is a critical element of each of the tenets of student-centered learning and can be seamlessly incorporated into educator practice. There are many resources available for building and maintaining cultures of learning that prioritize social-emotional learning, as well. Getting Smart highlighted these five strategies as a place to start:
- Relationships: Build and maintain supportive relationships.
- Think aloud: Provide time and space to talk with learnings about what and how they’re learning.
- Share ideas: Discuss learning strategies with learners and help them to reflect on their own.
- Resources: Continue to learn from what others are doing and what new research is revealing.
- Visible thinking: Equip learners with ways to make their thinking visible—through note taking, sketching, and more.
Continue to practice metacognition and focus on social-emotional learning habits, strategies, and behaviors to further develop the culture within a school and empower learners to take ownership of their learning.
Application
Identify a 5-10 min period once a week where learners can pause and either silently or in conversation reflect metacognitively about what and how they learned. Potential prompts:
- What do I know? What do I need to know? What are my next steps?
- What was my most successful learning strategy this week? What was something I tried that didn’t go well?
- What’s something I did this week that helped me learn that might help a peer?
- What’s something that I may need help with? How might I get the help that I need?
Reflection
Many of these efforts to promote SEL in schools take a school-wide approach, beginning with and including adults throughout the process. What are some ways that adults could model this kind of learning for learners? How might you model this for your staff?