Helping Students Learn How to Learn

This paper discusses how to make students effective, lifelong learners. It describes several ways of learning: reading, listening, observing, talking, and writing. According to the author, five elements are needed to become a good learner: (1) motivation; (2) a knowledge base that provides a conceptual structure for further learning; (3) skills for further learning; (4) strategies for efficient learning; and (5) metacognitive strategies. For each of these elements, the author makes specific recommendations. For motivation, teachers can develop students ' intrinsic interest in learning and teach them to evaluate their own learning to assess their work and progress. Much of organized and conceptual knowledge is up to professors to construct, but students can be taught to construct outlines and graphic representations. Skills for learning, such as practice and increasing the meaningfulness of material, can be taught, along with strategies for learning, like paying attention and "clustering " things into groups or categories. Finally, metacognitive strategies, such as planning, self-mnnitnring, and calf- regulation, are highly impertant skills that can he taught to students. (CJW) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document