Learning to Learn Conversations

In many schools, conversations with learners aren’t about learning or they don’t happen at all. More often, teachers give orders about what to do and how to do it–redirecting behaviors when learners stray from their directives. Learning to learn conversations, on the contrary, empower learners with tools to become autonomous, lifelong learners. It’s a simple method: ask learners about their learning. However, if you’ve been socialized in the control paradigm, it’s difficult to abstain from having an agenda. Learners can sense if you are being genuinely curious about their process and helping them to reflect, and when you are trying to steer them back to what you want them to do and how to do it. Let’s consider two examples:

EXAMPLE #1: The manager archetype

“Hi, C. How much progress have you made on your passion project?”

“I’m almost done.”

“The deadline’s tomorrow. Will you finish by then?”

“Yup.”

“Have you remembered to cite your sources?”

“Yup.”

“If you were to give yourself feedback about your project, what would you say?”

“I dunno. Maybe I need to explain why I’m passionate about cars?”

“Great. Make sure to include that.”

EXAMPLE #2: A successful learning to learn conversation

“Hi, C. What are you working on?”

“My passion project.”

“How’s that going?”

“Good.”

“Can you tell me a little bit about why you chose this project?”

“I like race cars, so I thought I’d research the types of cars.”

“That’s cool. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your learning process, or would you prefer I come back a bit later when you aren’t in the zone?”

“Now’s fine.”

“Great. Can you tell me a bit about how you are doing the research?”

“I Googled ‘types of racecars’ and I have a book about race cars.”

“Of the information you found, what was the most useful?”

“Probably what’s in the book.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it’s all about race cars, and it’s easier to find what I need.”

“That’s great. I’ll have to take a look. If you were to give advice to someone on how to do good research, what would you recommend?”

“Hmm. I’d probably tell them that books are better than the internet because they go into more depth about a topic.”

“And if they don’t have a book? What makes good internet research? During your research, could you tell when some websites were better than others?”

“Yeah, websites with lots of ads tend to be trash. Since I know all the names of the car companies, I’d go straight to their sites.”

“Do you think this is true for other types of research or only cars?”

In the first example, the learning guide might walk away feeling like they touched on all the important bases: deadlines, expectations, and iteration. However, they acted as a manager. A gentle one, but a manager nonetheless. The learner might meet the deadline, but what learning transpired in the conversation, if any??

When answers are monosyllabic, it’s a clear warning sign that the conversation is one-sided. The question, “If you were to give yourself feedback…” is a good one, but followed by the other managerial questions, it receives a lackluster response that aims to placate the guide.

In the second example, the learning guide notices that the project is primarily research-based, and sees an opportunity to help the learner reflect on quality research and asks them to transfer this knowledge to other types of research. The questions were open and not closed, and while the LG was focused on research, it did not seem like they were expecting specific answers.?

Let’s look at two different examples that highlight the difference between a learning to learn conversation and a conversation about the content of a project.

EXAMPLE #3: Focus on content, but not on metacognition.

“Hey, D. Whatcha working on?”

“My sustainable development goal project.”?

“Very cool. Which goal are you covering?”

“Poverty.”

“Interesting. And what are you learning about poverty?”

“That the gap between rich and poor has dramatically increased over the last 20 years.”

“And why is that?”

“The minimum wage has not increased, workers rights have decreased, most countries don’t have legislation that redistributes wealth, and through wealth hoarding, tax avoidance and capital flight, the wealthy effectively take their money out of circulation of the world economy. This means that money is concentrated in the hands of the rich, and doesn’t ever make it to the hands of the poor.”

“In your research, have you read about trickle-down economics?”

“Yes.”

“And what do you think?”

“If it were true, then we wouldn’t see so much income disparity.”

“Fair enough. What would you recommend as a first step to bridge the gap between rich and poor?”

EXAMPLE #4: Focus on metacognition, not content.

“Hey, D. Whatcha working on?”

“My sustainable development goal project on poverty.”

“Very cool. Is it okay if I ask you some questions about your learning process?”

“Sure.”

“How did you choose poverty from the 17 SDGs”

“It’s the one that interests me the most.”

“Why is that?”

“Hmmm. I guess because I’ve grown up middle class, but I have friends who don’t have any money, and I didn’t understand why some people have more than others until this project.”

“Okay, so if I understood correctly, you started with what we’d call a ‘guiding question’ that genuinely interests you and to which you don’t know the answer?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s right.”

“How motivated do you feel by this question?”

“Pretty motivated.”

“That’s great. Now, if you were to have to give guidelines to yourself about what makes a motivating guiding question, what would you say?”

There’s nothing wrong with the conversation happening in the third example. Content-focused conversations are important for helping learners digest and reflect upon what they're learning, it’s just not a metacognition conversation, which would help learners reflect on the why and how of their learning.