Strategic Learning in the Middle Years

Stewart Forrester, Kevin Leschyshyn, Joann Simon, Connie Tenaski, Peter Nicholson, Brian Noonan, Bev Hanson and Randy Randhawa

This project has been designated the Dorothy Christie Memorial Project in memory of Dorothy Christie, a middle years teacher from Prince Albert who was an active supporter of the McDowell Foundation in its formative years.

A group of teachers working together at a Saskatoon elementary school were interested in the challenges involved in implementing the province's new language arts and mathematics curricula for Grades 6-9. They recognized that a basic principle of the implementation plan was the use of general learning strategies that could be integrated across curricula. Influenced by developments in cognitive psychology, the new curricula being produced for Saskatchewan assumed that student learning would be enhanced if students were taught cognitive and meta-cognitive learning strategies in a child-centred, integrated approach to curriculum implementation.

In 1995-96, the teachers, who included among their number a school-based administrator, two classroom teachers, a special education teacher and a reading specialist, began a research study related to the development of learning strategies in students. Their study had five objectives:

1. to assist teachers in developing an understanding of cognitive and constructivist learning,
2. to determine the learning strategies that underlie language arts and mathematics in the middle years,
3. to examine the best way of teaching these learning strategies,
4. to develop and test classroom techniques and instruments for assessing students' strategic learning, and
5. to evaluate the effectiveness of a learning strategies approach to curriculum implementation.

The teachers benefitted from active support for their research efforts from their school board, which included the participation of superintendent Brian Noonan and the advice of consultants Ron Muench and Bev Hanson. They also had the support of psychologist, researcher, and university professor, Randy Randhawa, who acted as external collaborator and conducted the empirical research related to the project with the assistance of doctoral student, Thelma Gunn.

The project was constructed as a two-year study so that the teachers would have ample time to develop an in-depth understanding of learning strategies, an awareness of the multicultural context of their classrooms, and an appreciation of the role of teachers and other adults in determining whether or not students use the strategies they are taught. The first year was devoted primarily to developing and documenting changes in the teachers' approach to teaching and learning. The teachers worked on their understanding of cognitive learning through numerous resources and professional memberships. Meanwhile, a structured interview was conducted of each teacher at the beginning of the project, and again a year later. Teachers also kept weekly reflective journals that were analysed and interpreted as part of the research project. A third source of data on changes in the teachers' approach to teaching and learning was the minutes of periodic meetings of the research team, which included 18 school-based seminars with the external collaborator, in which professional readings were shared, reaction was given to professional development opportunities and journal entries, classroom strategies were discussed, and action plans and goals from the previous seminar were reviewed.

Through such action research, the teachers acquired a number of insights into their own acquisition of knowledge about teaching and learning. For example, they began to differentiate between learning strategies and teaching strategies. While they had found a wealth of information on teaching strategies, there was a lack of literature on learning strategies. Through their reading and discussions, the members of the research team were able to identify a number of learning strategies that applied to both language arts and mathematics in the middle years.

In the project's first year, the team also addressed the question of how students' strategic learning might be measured. An inventory of assessment instruments was made, and with the assistance of the external collaborator, the teacher-researchers developed valid instruments that they could use to measure student learning strategies. The next year, a metacognitive questionnaire comprised of eleven direct, open-ended questions was administered to 114 children in Grades 6-8 at the teachers' school and a control school of similar size and character in the same school division. The findings from this initial questionnaire were summarized as follows:

[T]he responses to the questionnaire demonstrate that understandings and perceptions of learning change as students advance from grade 6 to grade 8. The senior students in this study were more knowledgeable regarding the definition of a learning strategy as well as the types of strategies which facilitate successful performances in language arts. Furthermore, they were more aware of the similarities and differences between the domain strategies [for language arts and mathematics], even though in both grades there was a predominance of perceived differences as opposed to similarities. As suggested by the student responses, this may reflect a developing awareness of contextually-bound knowledge, skills, and strategies, not an awareness of transferability.

Below are some strategies that were explored and taught to the students:

• Visualization
• Quadrants of Thought
• Loci Strategy
• Mind Maps
• Team Huddles
• Mnemonics
• Pegword Strategy
• K-W-L Strategy for Organizing Information
  (What We Know/Wonder/Learned)
• Compare/Contrast
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Graphic Note Taking
• SQR4 Reading Strategy
  (Survey/Question/Read/Recite/Review/Reflect)
• Problem Solving Strategies

Interestingly, perceptions of learning difficulties in language arts increased with grade level. No significant differences concerning mathematics efficacy were detected between the grade 6 and grade 8students sampled. What did change, however, were the methods by which the students claimed to overcome difficulties or misunderstandings. Typically, the grade 8 students accessed their parents, teachers, or peers when experiencing difficulties while the grade 6 students were more inclined to solve the problem(s) on their own.

The second year of the study focussed on students' strategic learning and how it affected curriculum implementation in language arts and mathematics in Grades 6-9. The teachers implemented the learning strategies and tactics that they had identified and developed, and data were collected on student learning at their school and the control school. Among the data-gathering instruments used were tests of student achievement in language arts and mathematics, pre- and post-tests of student motivation to learn, pre- and post-tests of student academic self-concept, portfolio analysis, and such observational instruments as rating scales and anecdotal records. The wealth of qualitative and quantitative data collected with these instruments and from other sources is being analysed and interpreted by the external collaborator following the end of the project, and will likely generate additional reports and articles on the research findings. However, the teachers have drawn from their action research experiences the following observations about strategic learning in the middle years:

• a number of learning strategies underlie both language arts and mathematics,
• learning strategies are most effectively implemented through instruction that is explicit, embedded in curriculum and instruction,
• strategies need to be applied in a meaningful context with frequent opportunities for practice over time,
• it is necessary to collect data with respect to academic achievement and students' knowledge of learning strategies,
• key to the implementation of the new language arts and mathematics curricula is a philosophy that views learning strategies as a thinking process rather than a set of skills.

Describing the effect on students who were explicitly taught learning strategies, the teachers noted that their students began to expand their definition of school success to relate more to doing one's best than achieving high marks. Students approached tests with less apprehension, and they appreciated the emphasis on which strategy would best prepare them for the test. They demonstrated an increased motivation to receive the explicit teaching of learning strategies, and found that a variety of learning strategies allowed them to explore which ones best fit particular situations and their own learning styles. The teachers concluded that the assumptions about student learning implicit in Saskatchewan's new curricula, i.e., that cognitive learning strategies and tactics-explicit instruction are important, was borne out in their project, which "allowed the students to learn about and begin to internalize the importance and process of learning strategies.

Above: Kevin Leschyshyn talks about the research project at the 1996 Learning from Practice Seminar.