Self-regulation part 2: Linking Metacognition and Self-regulation

Executive Functioning
This blog follows on from an earlier blog that I wrote after Christmas where we looked at the idea that children, when they are very young, develop self-regulation when faced with the situation of having to deny immediate self gratification in order to achieve a greater goal over time. It was obvious that children develop different degrees of self-control and the lack of self-regulation can lead to a diminished ability to learn independently. In school many children with literacy-related learning difficulties are at a disadvantage because the delay in development of adequate self-regulation becomes an executive functioning problem.

Metacognition is a type of executive functioning that enables learners to control their own learning behaviours and develop more effective self-regulated strategies. Matt Bromley has written a very good summary  of the "Educational Endowment Foundation's" (EEF) Teaching and Learning Tool kit report which outlines much of the recent work on metacognition and parallels my own  research since 2006.  In "Reading Comprehension: Assisting children with learning difficulties "(2011) I used similar ideas to help children who were struggling with reading comprehension and self-regulation.  Around this time I developed an intervention comprehension program that utilised a conceptual framework that could be applied in multiple learning contexts. The program became known as the "COR Literacy Framework"  and was implemented in many schools in Queensland with Independent Schools Queensland in partnership with Griffith University.

Literacy framework incorporating metacognition & self-regulation 
At first it was envisaged to be used to train teachers and teacher aids during 2008 but it was such a huge success that it was extended for another three years. During this time the framework was improved through a number of iterations, due, impart to the feedback I received from many teachers that took part in the research. Initially it began as an intervention program for children with reading comprehension difficulties for upper primary students but it was found to include a much wider application for children in lower primary and also in some high school settings. This was because the framework is not content specific but was built upon a metacognitive and self-regulation structure. I have a 12 part series of blogs, called "COR Literacy Framework Part#", where I discuss a number of teaching and learning principles and strategies that have contributed to the success of the program.

Product OR process ?
Many of the ideas that resulted from this research were applied in my first book (above) and also in "Developing literacy in the primary school" and "Developing literacy in the secondary school". I consider that metacognition, self-regulation and comprehension strategies should be taught explicitly in all school contexts from lower primary to secondary classrooms. However, often teachers are so focussed on teaching content (or product) that they neglect to concentrate on the process as well. The links above may help teachers have a more informed understanding of executive functioning in learning and when to apply the skills appropriately.

Woolley, G. E. (2011). Reading comprehension: Assisting children with learning difficulties. Dordrecht: Springer.

Woolley, G. E. (2014). Developing literacy in the primary classroom. London: Sage.

Barton, G. & Woolley, G. E. (2017). Developing literacy in the secondary classroom. London: Sage.

                     

                                                       

Jumping through hoops and barking at print.

Sometimes you just feel like pulling your hair out in complete bewilderment. This morning I was reading an article: "Pyne takes swipe at educators 'weird' attitude to spelling" (Weekend Australian, March 7-8, 2015). However, it is not surprising that the Australian (a prominent Murdock Press news paper with a national circulation) should promote the views in this article by Natasha Bita. In the past  the views of Kevin Donnelly, with his emphasis on direct teaching and synthetic phonics as the be-all and end-all of expert teaching, have been vigorously promoted. This equates to teaching a dog to jump through hoops. You can teach a dog to jump through hoops and measure the success of jumping through hoops but how meaningful is this?

Bita quotes Pyne as saying "For decades the advocates of phonics have been pushed to the back of the stage and in some cases treated as slightly eccentric." This is simply not true. Over the last few decades phonics has made a decisive comeback but has NOT had an impact on our literacy standards. Our declining world rankings in literacy as measured by the international PISA test results demonstrate this.

Another quote by Pyne on spelling is even more bewildering, "The view that children should be able to spell however they want to, and that requiring them to spell a certain way was oppressive."  In my 40 years of teaching I have never heard teachers expressing this type of view. There may be the odd one here or their but this is certainly not typical of the teaching profession. It would appear that some people are pushing a particular agenda but the outcome is that these unfounded assumptions merely add to the low esteem that teachers have to endure in our society and muddy the waters. In countries such as Finland teachers are more highly esteemed and the children do well on literacy tests in the international arena.

The only light at the end of the tunnel in the article is Brita's quote from Professor Ewing, "if children learn to decode words but do not know what these words mean, they will be merely 'barking at print' and... (not) comprehending the meaning of the text."

Motivation and Literacy

This morning I read a fascinating story in the Weekend Australian Magazine entitled "Magic is probably the most honest art form in the world" (27th-28th September) about a young magician in the tradition of David Copperfield by the name of Paul Consentino.


He is an Australian super star on the rise. Recently he performed at the Singapore Grad Prix alongside big names like Jennifer Lopez and Robbie Williams. However, this success wasn't indicative of his formative years as a young person at school. He struggled to read, in fact it wasn't until year three that he read his first word.  In the article Paul recounts the embarrassment he experienced as a 12 year old being chosen to read aloud  in front of his year 7 class at a prestigious school in Melbourne. He recalls the secret inner voice that said, "Please don't pick me, please don't pick me." After reading aloud and laboriously stumbling over the words he sat down to nurse his deflated self-esteem.

In our society it is perceived as a shameful and humiliating thing to be unable to read. Paul's embarrassment echoes the experiences of thousands of our young people today, who struggle with reading. Fortunately, Paul's fortunes changed, he was interested in magic and came across a book about this topic in the library. He was fascinated by the pictures of magic tricks but was reluctant to read. His mother helped him to analyse the words. He reported, "It was a very different approach to the rote learning at school... but I had to do the learning my way."

 At this point Paul believed that his motivation to read changed. It wasn't that Paul had not been motivated in the past. All behaviour is motivated and goal oriented. Children generally are not unmotivated. It would seem that Paul was motivated to avoid reading until he found something he was passionate about.

According to Ryan and Deci there are three vital elements to motivation: competence, autonomy and relationship. It is evident that this third element linked to his interest and passion was the basis for building Paul's reading competence and reading autonomy. It would seem evident that the relationship of reading to his interests was the key element while the support of a significant person prepared to invest time and believe in him was also important.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1991). A motivational approach to self: Integration in personality. In R. A. Dienstbier (Ed.), Perspectives in motivation. Nebraska symposium on motivation (pp. 237-288). Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.

Visualisation and Imagery - Reading Comprehension

"This book explores the many dialogues that exist between the arts and literacy. It shows how the arts are inherently multimodal and therefore interface regularly with literate practice in learning and teaching contexts. It asks the questions: What does literacy look like in the arts? And what does it mean to be arts literate? It explores what is important to know and do in the arts and also what literacies are engaged in, through the journey to becoming an artist. The arts for the purpose of this volume include five art forms: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. The book provides a more productive exploration of the arts-literacy relationship. It acknowledges that both the arts and literacy are open-textured concepts and notes how they accommodate each other, learn about, and from each other and can potentially make education ‘better’. It is when the two stretch each other that we see an educationally productive dialogic relationship emerge." Georgina Barton PhD

Chapter 13: Using Visualisation and Imagery to Enhance Reading Comprehension

"Reading comprehension is a dynamic process that requires readers to construct meaning while they are decoding text. During the reading process readers do not normally retain verbatim text information but develop other, more flexible knowledge structures. Skilled readers do this by constructing a mental model incorporating both visual and verbal information in the form of a cohesive representation of the meaning. The construction of a mental model is formed by the integration of the reader’s prior knowledge with the text structure or story content. For example, good readers tend to make bridging inferences by incorporating their own relevant background knowledge to fill in the gaps when important information is not given in the text. When readers are taught to visualise story events they are able to make appropriate inferences because visualising enables them to draw on their own prior knowledge and life experiences. As readers visualise while reading they become more engaged with the text, enjoy what they are reading, and often imagine themselves as if they are actually in the story. Imagining story ideas during reading links information in working memory and makes the encoding and recall of information more efficient. This chapter discusses how visual imagery techniques such as drawing, manipulating objects, forming mental imagery, developing characterisations, and using story structure can improve reading comprehension performance." Dr Gary Woolley PhD

Developing Literacy in the Primary Classroom

'Primary literacy involves many different learning processes, which can make it challenging to teach, particularly in diverse classroom environments.
 
Combining an examination of theory and research with practical case studies and real examples of teaching practice, this book shows trainee and early career teachers how to engage and motivate children to develop a range of primary English skills.
 
Chapters incorporate broader aspects of primary teaching such as active learning, self-regulation and assessment, and activities and discussion points explore how to apply important principles to your own teaching. 
 
Drawing from international research and aware of policy developments in different countries, the book covers key topics on primary teacher education courses, including:

• The foundations of reading, writing and oracy skills

• Planning, assessment and classroom organisation

• Using new technologies and social media as tools for learning
• Engaging with the literacy needs of diverse learners.' 

Sage Publications Ltd 

Publication date late June 2014

'Gary Woolley’s new book gives us a comprehensive overview of what we mean by both literacy and literacies in our modern world. It is thoroughly researched and offers student and practising teachers, and those working in Higher Education, a balanced and informed overview of the theory behind our present teaching practices.'

Howard Cotton

Lecturer in Language and Literacy, Plymouth University, UK

'Highly recommended. The author has left no stone unturned in this extremely comprehensive exploration of how best to develop students’ literacy skills. Beginning teachers, and those with experience, will find much here to influence their positive thinking and their classroom practices. A truly 21^st century perspective.'

Peter Westwood

Education Consultant and Author, Australia

'Developing Literacy in the Primary Classroom is a comprehensive overview of the critical topics all teachers need to understand and apply to be effective literacy educators.  Teachers need to know and understand what literacy is, how students learn and advance in their literacy skills, and how to direct, structure, monitor and adapt their literacy instructions and practices, as required for different purposes. This book is strongly focussed on developing teachers’ pedagogical knowledge across the different elements of literacy and across the changing demands of students’ literacy enhancement across the school years.'

Professor Ian Hay

Past Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania

Visualization and Reading Comprehension Pt 7

Visualizing strategies can be used by readers at three strategic phases of story reading.

When used at the before reading phase it can activate background knowledge and enable the reader to predict and select a schema or knowledge framework to provide a flexible structure on which to scaffold their imagination as the story events unfold. 

The during reading phase should be characterised by an active imagination that creates images from a combination of the reader's past experiences and the new story ideas. Good readers will often visualise the story as if it was a movie. This visualising activity helps the reader organise and make sense of the text information while, at the same time, enables their working memory to function more efficiently. 

The after reading phase is a  re-organization phase that helps children re-imagine and re-create according to their own view of their world.  Trevor Cairney's blog, 'Literacy,  families and learning' recently had an excellent post that is quite relevant to this third phase. 
He says, "Imaginative recreation is an essential part of learning, probably even life. It sits alongside 'story' as an essential way to relive or enrich narrative experiences. Story in its own right is critical to learning, communication and well-being. Imaginative recreation is one of its essential foundations. For many children, the re-creation of story is a critical part of their growing knowledge of narrative."

Trevor goes on to say that this re-creation phase not only enhances children's enjoyment but also deepens their understanding and appreciation of literature. On his Blog there is an extensive list of visualizing activities from using manipulatives to role play.