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.

                     

                                                       

Teacher Talk Enhances Learning

The 9th Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Conference (November 20th & 22nd), the University of Waikato.

When quantitative and qualitative research methods are used quite often it can result in better insights. In this case dual analysis appears to reinforce the COR Literacy Framework notion that teacher talk contributes to student learning at three levels.

I recently had the privilege of presenting at this conference held in Hamilton, New Zealand. Hamilton is a beautiful city situated along the Waikato River (see the river walk in the picture). The city's Hamilton Gardens, which won the International Garden of the Year - 2014 award for their internationally unique concept of telling 'The Story of Gardens' (in picture), is well worth a visit. Although New Zealand and Australia are close, I noticed many contrasting details. In Kiwiland the grass and the gum trees are greener and more uniform. The farms are neater with huge hedges instead of barbed wire fences enclosing them.

Associate Professor Rod Gardner (an accomplished author and researcher in the field of conversational analysis) and I presented some preliminary findings from our continuing research centred around the COR Literacy Framework. In the research project we video taped six small group lessons using three camcorders and two voice recorders. There were two teachers trained in using the COR Literacy Framework who consented to teach three small group lessons each. Some of the recordings have been transcribed and coded according to conversational analysis conventions. This methodology is quite a contrast to my previous research where my perspective has been from a cognitive psychology approach. The cognitive psychology methodology is primarily a top-down approach based on theoretical assumptions whereas the CA methodology is a bottom-up approach that attempts to make no prior assumptions but is more concerned with close observation of meaningful conversations.

The presentation of our ongoing research project was in two parts: I presented the background to the COR Literacy Framework and the research findings to date from a cognitive psychology perspective and Assoc. Prof. Gardner presented the preliminary findings using  the Conversational Analysis methodology.  One of the research questions was: Do good teachers focus their questions on the three COR levels: perception (factual), cognitive, and metacognitive? At this stage we are beginning to see that this is the case and that this happens in various ways and over relatively short segments of time and sometimes this can be over more extended segments.

Spelling - Organisation Pt. 3

Tim is has selected the word, 'appeared' for word building.

This series looks at spelling issues as they relate to human information processing and working memory. How we learn to spell is dependent on how the brain processes information by encoding, storing and  retrieving stored information. The first post looked at the encoding of spelling information while the second post dealt with the retrieval of that information from long-term memory. This is the third posting in this series and discusses the notion of storage and organisation of that information. 

To begin this discussion it must be understood that spellers are active constructors and processors of information. In the past many teachers and others have assumed that learners merely identify and store spellings in there heads by systematically spelling or sounding out each word over and over again until the word is encoded or printed on a sort of mental chalk board. However, we now know that various elements of the encoded words are stored in different locations of the brain. For example, some graphic letter patterns may be stored in one area while the sounds and meanings may be stored in other areas. Dual Coding theory is particularly relevant in our overall understanding of this process. According to this theory the orthographic elements of words are stored in the visual memory while the sound elements are stored in the phonological store of working memory. What this essentially means is that good spellers have good organisation strategies and efficient linking mechanisms to enable them to reconstruct the target word.

Created from Visuwords

There are lots of ways to help children organise and develop these linking processes. We will discuss two methods that can be used together to link the semantic, orthographic and phonological aspects of words. Visuwords is an excellent application on the Internet to enable people to explore the meaning and relationships of a targeted word. How words are related to each other is shown with the use of colour coding and line style. For example, the red coloured link shows the antonyms for the word 'appear' while the coloured spots indicate the grammatical relationships. In conjunction with this activity a table or feature analysis chart could be made up to explore word building by using 'appear' as the root word and showing how other morphemes such as 're', 'dis', 'ed', 'ing' or 'ance' can be added to change the meaning.

Many children with spelling difficulties are often passive learners who exhibit a limited set of spelling skills. They typically lack confidence and it is important for teachers to help them set appropriate and specific goals that are not only challenging but achievable. This, lack of confidence and disengagement can be partially overcome by giving them a choice of words to learn. In this way they will develop more effective and longer-lasting word learning than they will for words chosen by the teacher. Spelling also improves when children are expected to generate word meanings by giving them the opportunity to experiment independently using the techniques mentioned above.   

This is the final part in the three part series on spelling from a working memory perspective. I would suggest that you visit Trevor Cairney's Blog, Literacy, families and learning, for an excellent overview of the teaching of spelling called "Spelling, caught and taught."