Engaging Students

Promoting Self-Directed, Reflective Learning for All Students

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PTS Name: Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning

Element: Promoting self-directed, reflective learning for all students

Indicators

As teachers develop, they may ask, “How do I…” or “Why do I…”
  • Motivate students to initiate their own learning and to strive for challenging learning goals?
  • Encourage all students to describe their own learning processes and progress?
  • Explain clear learning goals for all students of each activity or lesson?
  • Engage all students in opportunities to examine and evaluate their own work and to learn from the work of their peers?
  • Help all students to develop and use strategies for knowing about, reflecting on, and monitoring their own learning?
  • Help all students to develop and use strategies for accessing knowledge and information?

Descriptions

Examples may include, but are not limited to:
  • Providing students with rubrics to compare the quality of their work against standards, and to determine next steps for improvement
  • Providing students with regular opportunities to carefully review collected work and to analyze what that work indicates about their strengths and challenges as learners
  • Helping students create individualized plans for how to best learn content
  • Embedding within lessons opportunities to self-assess students’ via journals, blogs, and other
    reflective writings
  • Providing students with regular opportunities to process new learning with classmates through the use of peer review/coaching, etc.

Problems of Practice

Challenges with this element frequently include:
  • Lessons are dominated by the teacher talk and thought is always the one to gauge students’ progress
  • All decisions about student learning and student goals are made for them
  • The teacher is the sole individual to provide feedback on student work
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