Cognitive and metacognitive strategies
Adult Literacy and Numeracy (ALN) Curriculum Framework for Scotland
Part Two: Practice
2.1 Cognitive and metacognitive strategies
In the first part of these guidelines we showed that effective learners actively make and interpret knowledge by integrating new information and experiences into what they already know. Everyone has some areas in their life where they are an expert but most ALN learners do not see themselves in that light, often due to their low self-esteem. This is why it is important to work with learners to find out what they already know and what strategies they use to learn. Many adult learners come with existing mental models of themselves as unable to learn and these form internal barriers that need to be overcome before new learning can take place. Tutors can help learners to change their mental models by connecting literacy and numeracy to successful learning strategies that learners use in other parts of their lives. This might be an ability to remember a shopping list or an ability to work out the numbers needed to win at darts. Both these examples involve learners in thinking about their successful learning strategies in one context and then being helped to transfer these strategies to the new context of literacy and numeracy.
Tutors should always encourage learners to think about how they learn. This can start in a small way with learners thinking about what works when they are trying to remember a spelling or how they go about doing a calculation. Once learners begin to talk about the methods they use they can see what works for them. In terms of spelling some will mention the visual importance of colour underlining, others talk about saying it a funny way as in feb-ru-ary. Others may find that simply discussing with others what their strategies are can lead to trying out new ways of learning. Tutors need to work with learners on finding out what their particular expertise is and then build on it so that learners can develop new knowledge. In developing cognitive and metacognitive strategies, tutors should be alert to the cultural cues and clues regarding the individual learner?s experience.
A group of learners, working on spelling, shared strategies for learning words and agreed to experiment using each others? ways of learning, with the purpose of identifying their own preferred learning styles. Paired, then group discussion of some of the myths surrounding spelling led the group to the conclusion that one of the essential factors contributing to success was that they had to be active in their learning rather than passive recipients of information.
Effective learning involves not only acquiring knowledge, skills and understanding but also their active application. Learners are not always able to easily identify what they are learning when it is applied to a particular context so tutors need to help them do this. For example, learners may demonstrate the core skill ?understand and apply numerical skills? through a simulation of a DIY store in the college setting but not realise that they have the ability to apply these skills in their family and community lives as well. So, after an activity, learners should discuss what they have learned and how they can apply it in the various roles they play. For example a group that was developing numeracy skills for work had been learning to measure in order to calculate the floor space required for a DIY shop. Learners were able to see how the underpinning knowledge of how to measure and calculate could be applied in their family life to work out the amount of paint required for a room to be redecorated. They could also use this knowledge to help children with their home-work and, for one learner, to help out with the refurbishment of his church hall.
Encouraging learners to think about what they need to know and be able to do is also important. For example if the task a learner wants to undertake is to write letters then the first step is to examine why, to whom and in what contexts they need to send letters. Once this is clear then the tutor can move on to decide on a learning activity that will allow learners to practise the basic skills associated with letter writing. Whilst people are learning they can reflect on and think about the skills they are gaining such as how to organise and tailor what is written for different kinds of audiences. Learners can also be encouraged to think about how the knowledge learned in one context can be transferred to a new context. For example they might brainstorm together how what they have learned about writing formal letters could be applied to writing personal letters or sending emails to friends.
Another aspect of cognitive and metacognitive strategies is encouraging learners to see themselves as people who construct knowledge themselves rather than relying on ?expert? teachers. Designing a learning environment that is knowledge-centred involves creating learning opportunities that focus on the development and practice of skills that learners want so they can carry out activities and gain their goals. It also involves learners working as a collaborative team to identify and solve problems together since this takes the focus from individual expertise to something that is shared. Communication and shared problem solving bridge the gap between old and new knowledge and between the different understandings of partners (tutor, learner, peers) as individuals search for the common ground of shared understanding.
A mixed ability group of learners decided that they would all like to try doing crosswords as the focus for group work for a term. Using a ?spider? diagram they identified that they already knew quite a lot about doing crosswords, and in the process also raised several questions which they wanted to answer, such as ?How do you know what the clue means?? and ?What does it mean when there?s a comma between two numbers after the clue?? For the next three weeks the group worked on crosswords together, exchanging ideas about the clues offered within clues, working with a dictionary and thesaurus (and discovering the difference between them) and helping each other to work out clues. Discussion also took place about what individuals look for in a dictionary and the wide range available. One learner decided to spend some time looking at dictionaries in a bookshop to find out what would suit her best, and another thought that working on dictionary skills would be useful for him as part of his reading goal.
At the end of term the learner who had originally introduced the topic felt ready to join in when a group of her café customers were doing their crossword. Another group member took the crosswords home to complete with his wife and son, and bought himself a book of crosswords for the family to while away the time on a transatlantic flight.
