Manchester: 01/07/09 John Buswell University of Gloucestershire

1. HE Academy Annual ConferenceLearning about me as well as the subject through the use of learning inventories Manchester: 01/07/09 John Buswell University of Gloucestershire

2. Outline of session • Student-centred learning- the why and wherefore • Metalearning and self-awareness • A structured, progressive and supported process • The learning inventories • Their impact

3. Introduction • The role of learning inventories in encouraging and supporting students to achieve deep reflective learning and to take more responsibility for their learning- through: • Assessing strengths and weaknesses; • Understanding the concepts and processes of learning; and • Acquiring a language with which to articulate the learning which has taken place.

4. Their contribution to a student-centred learning approach • Can learning inventories assist students to develop a capacity for metalearning- the ability to understand and manage one’s own learning? • Why is this important?

5. Changing HE context • Numbers, diversity, AWP • Outcomes based approaches • Dearing vision • The opportunities provided by experiential leaning and reflective thinking • The centrality of reflective learning to PDP • “Potential to transform the HE curriculum by placing the student at the centre and moving away from content-based models” (Broadfoot 2006) • Links between PDP and employability • The Leitch Report

6. A changing world • We are preparing students for a world of increasing uncertainty and change; • Increasingly electronic • Learning in the 21st century requires active, autonomous, flexible and lifelong learners; • Increased emphasis on transdisciplinary knowledge and competences?;

7. Consequent importance of developing self-reliant, independent and collaborative learners who know and understand themselves; and are prepared for • Employability and citizenship; • Transferability “In our rapidly changing world, the ability to learn quickly, to be flexible, to be comfortable with newness, is a core skill. It might even be the most important” (Parker and Stone 2003:19) • This helps in presenting a clear and positive image to employers and others

8. “at the end of the day, it is the graduates of our universities and colleges who will need to have the clearest idea of their skills, capabilities and achievements, both in order to ‘sell themselves’ to employers and academic selectors and to manage their own careers in increasingly less supported working environments”(Burgess 2005) • The key lies in self-awareness and empowerment

9. Enhanced self-awareness through: • Feedback on performance and on approach to learning; and • Formative and active learning • “Learning engagement in context” (Meyer & Shanahan 2004:44) • Contextual knowledge (Baxter-Magolda 1996)- her fourth and final stage in the development of critical thinking

10. Metalearning • PDP puts the learner in charge of their learning • Self-empowerment and autonomy • Metalearning – self-awareness and strategic awareness • Ownership – self-regulated learning • The notion of the reflective practitioner • The role of PDP

11. “PDP is, I believe, helping to transform the higher education programme from one that is still primarily geared to the transmission of knowledge to one where self-identity is also important. When the specialist knowledge we acquire through a higher education becomes redundant, all we are left with is our capacity to keep learning. This has to be the key skill for life which higher education equips us with and it is the one that PDP serves” (Jackson 2005)

12. Such an approach suggests that: • Students need to know and understand how they learn; • Through this, they are more likely to take control and begin to regulate their learning; • This requires more than simply experiences or opportunities for reflective learning

13. Reflective thinking and self-awareness • It is changed behaviour. The experiential learning cycle can be used and developed to achieve greater self-awareness, changed conceptual practices (Hinett 2002, Moon 2000, Schon 1983) • “experience is not quite the same thing as learning from experience” (Moon 2004:105) • “Reflective learning is not what happens to a student; it is what the student does with what has happened” (Bourner 2003:4) • It needs a structured, supported and progressive approach because many students do not find the process easy

14. “metalearning capacity requires a skill in learning that is quite different from, and superordinate to, the acquisition of complementary skills (such as how to takes notes, use the library and so on” (Meyer and Shanahan 2004:444) • i.e. skills in learning as well as skills for learning

15. University of Gloucestershire case study SELF-AWARENESS (Metacognition) Metalearning Emphasis on transdisciplinary learning Which depends on Level Self-management 1 SKILL OF TRANSFERABILITY 2 THROUGH Self-identity • Making sense of experiences • Tools/techniques of reflective writing • Self-assessment of capabilities • Language and theory to describe and • explain learning • 5. Structured, supported and progressive process 3 Self-authorship Drawing on • Values and beliefs • Skills and capabilities • Emotional intelligence

16. Through • Constructivist and socio-constructivist approaches to learning; and • An integrated and progressive approach to PDP, incorporating: • A model of progression in metalearning; • The tools and techniques of reflective writing (including recording and planning); • Methods of peer support and mentoring; • Learning inventories/self-assessment tools • ELLI (Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory) • ECI-U (Emotional and Social Competence Inventory-University Edition

17. The use of learning inventories • Self-assessment • Concepts of learning • Provides language with which to understand, evaluate and articulate learning and capabilities • They are also an important element of learning to learn- the capacity to learn

18. 1. ELLI (Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory) • Based on learning power • Learners are: • All different • Constantly learning • Able to change to become better learners • Able to reflect on their learning • Motivated to be better learners

19. ELLI contains seven dimensions of learning power

20. ELLI measures ‘learning power’ • The qualities and dispositions that enable students to learn and go on learning throughout life • A research project in schools in 2002 led by Professors Patricia Broadfoot and Guy Claxton (University of Bristol) • Contains an online questionnaire (ELOISE)

21. ELLI contains an online survey that: • Takes approximately 20 minutes for each student to fill in • Comprises 97 statements • Produces individual profiles about each student’s learning power • Produces class profiles to show how groups of students view themselves as learners

22. ELLI can : • Identify dimensions of learning to work on with students • Focus students’ attention on learning • Give them am immediate profile and supportive material • Help students think about how to improve learning • Help to provide students with a language with which to understand and articulate their learning • Be a learning experience in itself

23. Individual Profiles can show: • how each student feels about learning • who are the fragile learners • which students could achieve much better if they worked on one or two aspects of learning

24. Example 1

25. Example 2

26. 2. ESCI-U (Emotional and Social Competency Inventory-University Edition • Applied to learning from 12 month placement and other experiences; • Focuses on self-awareness; self-management; managing relationships; • 70 statements in paper-based questionnaire plus opportunity for feedback questionnaire from someone who knows the student well • Supported by a work book explaining each competency and containing sections for reflective writing

27. Student feedback (see handout for further details of evaluation) • A little mixed on ELLI but overwhelmingly positive on the ESCI-U • Perhaps influenced by the stage of the student’s progression in their degree • However, there was a correlation between the perception of ELLI and the academic attainment of students in one group

28. Student feedback and student assessments suggested that their ability to learn from reflecting critically on their experiences was enhanced by the use of learning inventories, particularly in the following ways: • Identifying and analysing strengths and weaknesses; • Seeing themselves in a different light; • Increased self-identity; • Greater awareness of how others viewed them; • A trigger for critical reflection (rather than simply descriptive reflection) and strategic awareness; • How to learn better.

29. Conclusions • Learning about me as well as the subject (particularly when it is ‘contextual knowledge’ and involves applying subject theory) can be effective and critical (including the highest order cognitive skills and metacognition) • ‘Learning to learn’ is the educational paradigm for the twenty-first century (Ruth Deakin Crick 2004) • Learning inventories can be an important trigger for learning to learn

30. References • Baxter Magolda, M (1996) Epistemological developments in graduate and professional education, Review of Higher Education, 19 (3), 283-304 • Broadfoot, P (2006) ‘Empowering the learner: theories, tools and techniques’. Keynote address to Researching and evaluating PDP and e-Portfolios, International Seminar, Oxford, October 2006 • Bourner, T (2003) Assessing reflective thinking, Education and Training, Vol.45, Issue 5, pp 256-272 • Burgess, R (2005) Measuring and recording student achievement: Report of the Scoping Group at http://bookshop.universities.ac.uk/downloads/measuringachievement.pdf

31. Deakin Crick, R (2004) in (Tew, M Deakin Crick, R Broadfoot, P & Claxton, G (2004) ELLI, Learning Power: A Practitioner’s Guide, Lifelong Learning Foundation, Manchester • Hinett, K (2003) Improving learning through refection, parts I and II, ILTHE members’ site, now www.hea.ac.uk/resources • Jackson, N (2005) Towards the tipping point: an intensely personal view of Progress Files and PDP www.recordingachievement.org/downloads?/ISSUE6PDPUKDEC05.pdf • Meyer, J & Shanahan, M (2004) Developing metalearning capacity in students: actionable theory and practical lessons learned in first-year economics, Innovation in Education and Teaching International, Vol.41, N.4 4, November 2004, 443-455

32. Moon, J (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning, RoutledgeFalmer, Abingdon • Parker, C & Stone, B (2003) Developing Management Skills for Leadership, Pearson Education, Harlow • Schon, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: how professionals think in action, Arena Publishing, Boston