#130 Focus on the Learning

Hi Everyone

In last week’s newsletter I shared with you some of the content from a webinar I had just delivered on behalf of Parentkind for their members. The topic of ‘Helping Your Child Achieve in School’ seems to resonate with a lot of people which is why the session is still proving popular after 4 repetitions.

I wrote about some of the fears and frustrations that parents can face in trying to ensure the best educational experience for their children, and reassured everyone that we can have a greater influence than we might first realise. The secret is to focus on your child’s ability to learn, rather than on the education being provided.

We looked at how all children, barring serious health problems, are born with the ability to learn through natural and instinctive ‘cognition’. They create an enormous database of information in the first five years of life, most of it unconsciously stored as a result of how they’ve been interacting with the world around them.

The problem once they enter formal education is that cognition is no longer enough. Students are expected to sit still, be quiet, and listen to a teacher, which is a very different way of learning that doesn't come naturally to the human brain. That’s where ‘meta-cognition’ becomes a must for effective learning and yet, so many children and young people have not had the opportunity to develop the skill.

We’re talking about them being able to analyse their own thoughts, recognise when what they’ve been thinking so far isn’t working so well, and then change tack in order to improve the results they’re getting. You can see the difficulty for a child who has previously been unconsciously following their own curiosity, now needing to consciously engage with information that may seem irrelevant and yet on which they will be assessed.

So, how can we help our children and young people gain this vital skill for learning more effectively in school? There are three important pre-requisites that need to be in place before anyone can think in a more metacognitive way. They have to believe that they are capable of learning something, they have to understand how learning happens, and they have to appreciate their own role in the learning process.

You can therefore support the development of metacognition in your child by focusing on those three criteria for success. Most parents support their offspring by making sure that they have their book bag, lunch box, snack money, PE kit etc with them when they leave for school each day. But have you ever thought about what they’re carrying away with them inside their heads?

In the webinar, I provide details about why each of the following recommendations is helpful, but I’m sure if you take the time to think about them in bit more depth, it will become obvious. There are also more suggestions than can be included here, but just to give you a taster, here’s a few things to keep in mind whilst aiming to build a strong self-concept in your child.

1.??? Be very careful about what you say; ‘to’, and ‘about’ them, remembering that they may overhear you.

2.??? Never use negative self-talk yourself, rather, model sharing out loud a positive view of your own abilities.

3.??? Always verbalize a positive view of school, and demonstrate your belief in a child’s ability as a learner.

4.??? Don’t accept perceived ‘limitations’, and provide plenty of opportunities for a learner to develop the skills needed to overcome them.

What can you do to improve your child’s understanding of the learning process? Children cannot become more conscious about their learning if they have no idea about what is required to access formal education successfully. Check out the following recommendations for kickstarting a more metacognitive way of thinking.

1.??? Help them to appreciate the purpose of their comfort zone and the need to leave it in order to learn.

2.??? Model a ‘can do’ attitude towards ‘challenge’, and demonstrate excitement at the opportunity to learn from it.

3.??? View mistakes as an essential part of the process, explaining that the brain learns and adapts from those more memorable experiences.

4.??? Emphasize the importance of ‘practise’ to create stronger memory traces that make learning stick.

And finally, how can you help children and young people to appreciate their own role in the learning process when the education system itself expects learner to be ‘passive’ absorbers of information?

1.??? Give children the opportunity to shoulder some practical responsibility at home before relating that to doing the same with their learning.

2.??? Allow them to see you ‘change your mind’ sometimes, and always explain how new information has led you to have a different view.

3.??? The sub-conscious brain believes everything it’s told, so help your children remove the word ‘can’t’ from their vocabulary.

4.??? Help youngsters see that the vital ingredient to success, is the level of effort someone is prepared to put in, not a pre-destined ability.

Remember that you’re aiming to help your child become a more independent learner, whatever their personal barriers may be. You can do that by supporting the development of metacognition (without ever using that word with them), creating a mindset that’s more in tune with taking personal responsibility for making progress. At the same time, you’ll be improving children’s mental health as they come to feel more in control of their own destiny!

Take care till next time.

Warm regards

Liz