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Creating academic Bear Grylls’: Developing Independent Learning
Skills in the Year 8 Geographer
The Perse School Research Award 2016 Katie Banks
Creating academic Bear Grylls’: Developing Independent Learning Skills
in the Year 8 Geographer
Focus: to see if by incorporating a range of independent research tasks into the Year 8 Geography course, learners would become more selfsufficient.
Contents
Focus 1
Context 2 Definitions of Independent Learning 4 Research questions 6 Methodology 7 Findings 12 Have students developing in their ability to 13
research independently?
Have students improved in their ability to manage 14 their time on independent learning tasks?
Have students improved in their ability to present 15 their research?
Metacognitive skills 16
Conclusions and Evaluation 17 Bibliography 19
1
Context
To echo the sentiment of the ever updated ‘Shift Happens’ video , students need to be 1
prepared for jobs that don’t yet exist. Traditional employment routes are likely to
become more competitive in a global market: “The intensification of globalisation
presents many new opportunities as well as challenges for society today, compelling
individuals to attain different sets of skills and knowledge base that enables them to
land a secure job in an increasingly competitive labour market.” (Ceasar et al) 2
Combined with this, technological developments are shrinking the number and nature
of employees. Alec Ross in ‘The Industries of the Future’ concludes that students need to
‘learn how to think’, breaking down traditional barriers between subjects and cites Eric
Schmidt ‘the biggest issue is simply the development of analytical skills’.
Indeed research into graduate identity and employability conducted with employers 3
in East Anglia concluded that they value not just academic achievement, but a mix of
values, social engagement, intellect and performance. It is interesting to note the 4
emphasis that Universities are placing on Independent thinking: many are providing
resources particularly aimed at first year undergraduate explaining what Independent
Learning (IL) is and the skillset required for IL and undertaking research into 56
developing IL Clearly, being an academic sponge clearly will not cut it in many 789
spheres: adventurous thinking beyond the obvious, the ability to initiate, to show grit,
1 "Did You Know? Shift Happens, 2014 remix YouTube." 2014. 26 Jul. 2016 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZg51Il9no> 2 Caesar, MIM. "The Benefits of Adopting a ProblemBased Learning Approach on ..." 2016. P1 <http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ies/article/view/51208> 3 "The Industries of the Future | Book by Alec Ross | Official Publisher ..." 2015. 26 Jul. 2016, p246 <http://books.simonandschuster.com/TheIndustriesoftheFuture/AlecRoss/9781476753652> 4 Hinchliffe, Geoffrey William, and Adrienne Jolly. "Graduate identity and employability." British Educational Research Journal 37.4 (2011): 563584. 5 "Independent Learning University of Hull." 2014. 26 Jul. 2016 <http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/skillsteam/essentials/independentlearning.aspx> 6 "Top tips for independent learning — Brightside." 2010. 26 Jul. 2016 <http://www.brightknowledge.org/knowledgebank/studysupport/homeworkandstudyskills/toptipsforindependentlearning> 7 "Definitions of Independent Learning – Initial Overview." 2013. 26 Jul. 2016 <http://archive.learnhigher.ac.uk/resources/files/Independant%20Learning/Independent_Learning%5B1%5D.pdf> 8 "Independent Learning and Student Development." 2008. 26 Jul. 2016 <http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/7286688.PPT> 9 "Independent learning and student development. The University of ..." 2009. 26 Jul. 2016 <http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/resources/independence/independ114/>
2
take responsibility, to apply knowledge to real life situations thinking analytically and
synoptically and work within timeframes are all important skills to be focused upon in
21st Century education: they need to become academic Bear Grylls’ in the jungle of life
beyond school.
In my first term having moved from a school with a similar academic standing and
results, I was struck by two things: 1) Perse students demonstrate superb curiosity and
2) they appear to want a heavy level of instruction and scaffolding down to the
minutiae.
Whilst Geography lessons on their own won’t do everything to turn students into
budding academic Bear Grylls’, I wanted to try various strategies to develop their IL
through working on high level questioning, decision making activities, combining with
current affairs, confidence giving presentations, broader ‘fertile question’ projects and
generally beginning to create a culture of independence within lessons.
The aim was to develop skills in pupils to show initiative in their learning, think for
themselves and be confident in presenting their ideas to a group of others: in essence
independent learning skills.
The study of Geography naturally lends itself to IL: it sits in the interface between the
Arts and Sciences and is the study of the world around us,so the topics are broad and
allow for individualised learning and curiosity. I chose to focus on Year 8 as they are at
the stage where they have mastered the first year in senior school and the study skills
required at this level but are not yet embarking on public examination courses which
enables a little more flexibility to embed new activities into the year; the nature of the
scheme of learning leant itself especially to research and project work and developing
these skills would build a platform for the Year 9 ‘Geography in the News’ course in
which these are especially important. It also helped that I was teaching three sets of
Year 8 Geography.
3
Definitions of Independent Learning
Amongst the literature there are myriad ways of defining IL. W R Meyer et al (2008) 10
undertook a literature review on independent learning and concluded that:
“ the key ingredient in independent learning was the shift of responsibility for the
learning process from the teacher to the student. This involved students acquiring
an understanding of their learning, being motivated to learn and collaborating with
teachers to structure their learning environment. They found a consensus in the
literature that independent learning did not merely involve students working alone;
teachers have a key part to play in enabling and supporting independent learning
though, for example, structuring group work.
Whilst offering a number of models for selflearning the review authors conceptualised
independent learning in terms of processes of selfregulation. These were organised
around four or more phases for students to complete including: planning,
selfmonitoring, controlling the pace and direction of the work and evaluation.
Evaluation included students’ feelings of pleasure or otherwise. Selfmotivation was
also identified as necessary for successful independent learning.” (emphasis mine)
Meyer helpfully points to the distinction between a dependent learner (a passive 11
recipient of knowledge) in contrast to the independent learner who is active in directing
and regulating his or her own learning.
He also concludes from the literature, that there are three main skills required to be
developed for IL: cognitive (memory, attention and problem solving); metacognitive
(an understanding of how learning occurs so that pupils can self assess their own
10 Meyer, B. "What is independent learning and what are the benefits for ... CUREE." 2013. <http://www.curee.co.uk/files/publication/[sitetimestamp]/Whatisindependentlearningandwhatarethebenefits.pdf> 11 "Independent learning: a literature review and a ... University of Leeds." 2012. 26 Jul. 2016 <http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/193305.pdf>
4
learning) and affective skills (feelings and emotions leading to a value system, most
notably motivation). 12
On the topic of motivation, Meyer concludes from the literature that IL leads to:
“increased motivation and confidence;
greater student awareness of their limitations and their ability to manage them;
enabling teachers to provide differentiated tasks for students; and
fostering social inclusion by countering alienation.” 13
A finding echoed in a recent Geography specific study by Thursby in Year 9 students 14
I found it particularly interesting to note that Meyer (with a note of caution based on the
methodology of the studies) found that IL had specific impact on particular pupil
groups: “Boys seem to be more inclined towards performance goals and superficial or
surface learning strategies (such as rote learning) than girls (Niemivirta, 1997); and
gifted pupils seem to be more likely than other pupils to use self regulatory learning
strategies (Risemberg and Zimmerman, 1992). Independent learning may highlight the
progress of pupils with special educational needs and give them a sense of control over
their achievements (Schunk, 1989); or it might be effective in countering the alienation
of ‘socially excluded’ children (Weekes and Wright, 1998). “ Whilst this rings true with 15
a professional ‘gut feeling’ this is not something I will explore as part of my study, but
does add to the justification of the benefits of action research tasks undertaken.
For the purpose of this study I will borrow from Southampton University Study Skills
definition of IL:
12 Ibid. p15 13 ibid 14 "Geographical Association Manchester 2015 session downloads." 2014. 26 Jul. 2016 <http://www.geography.org.uk/cpdevents/annualconference/manchester2015/> 15 Ibid p22
5
‘If you are an independent learner you will (a) be motivated to learn; (b) manage
your own learning; and (c) reflect on your learning.’ with the key skills being 16
monitored being: curiosity, research skills and time management.
As already noted Perse students in general show excellent curiosity. Therefore to
monitor their IL I decided to focus on independent research skills as research allows
individuals and groups (independent doesn’t equate to individual) to be curious but
also manage their learning, including time management. Research (both the process and
the product) also provides tangible evidence for IL. In order to reflect on their learning,
opportunities were given after the first and last tasks at at each point during the course
when feedback was given. After the first benchmark task, I adapted the criteria to
include the ability to present in various formats as this was perceived to be a weakness
and links to research skills.
Research Questions
The research questions under consideration are therefore:
Have students developed in their ability to research independently?
Have students improved in their ability to manage their time on independent
learning tasks?
Have students improved in their ability to present their research?
16 "Being an Independent & Assertive Learner University of Southampton." 2004. 27 Jul. 2016 <http://www.studyskills.soton.ac.uk/studyguides/Being%20an%20Independent%20Learner.doc>p2
6
Methodology
The cohort under consideration was three Year 8 classes, taught by the same teacher. A
series of tasks were undertaken throughout the year, devised to enhance their skills.
Stage 1: Initial project in second half of Michaelmas term: a decision making exercise
(DME) in groups of 45. This was used as a benchmarking task on which to build on for the
rest of the year.
This task focussed on questioning and decision making, culminating with presentations.
As part of a plate tectonics course, students were familiar with looking at specific
earthquake events looking at their causes, effects and responses to mitigate the effects.
Indeed they had already completed a problem based learning activity similar to that
described in the Caesar study cited above. In this task, students were given a brief outline
of recent event (on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border) and given the task to brief the
Pakistan President on what he should do in response to the event. The four stages of the
task, the assessment criteria (see below) and the timeline were then explained.
The first part of the task was to individually write down as many questions as they could
think of that they would need to find answers to in order to brief the President. After 20
minutes doing this, they grouped their questions into categories and were put into their
groups (arranged roughly by houses). Once in their groups they had to decide who was
researching which area and were then given three lessons and two homeworks to
research and put together a presentation of no more than 5 minutes and 3 slides. They
then presented in groups to the rest of their class.
7
Disaster Response Task Mark Scheme
1. Criteria Poor 0 Satisfactory 1 Good 2 Very good
3
Outstanding 4
Quality of
research
(individual work)
Practicality and
innovativeness of
ideas
Solutions in the
short, medium
and long term
Quality of slides:
brief and clear
(groupwork)
Quality of verbal
presentation
Overall score: /20 Mrs Banks’ comment:
This task was designed to give them an extremely open ended task to see how they
would get on. It was interesting to note the differences in how students approached the
first task of writing questions – some thought that they were done after five minutes and
needed to be pushed to think deeper. It tested their ability to work as part of a group but
8
also on their own, to organise their time efficiently, to have an open ended research task,
to synthesize material and to present orally.
The results of this task were mixed. Inevitably there was considerable differentiation
across the groups, often determined by how well they had worked together. I was,
however, slightly disappointed at the quality of their research and ideas – they largely
regurgitated content they had been taught and hadn’t gone beyond that to look for
innovative ideas and solutions, hence not fully grasping either the task nor the concept of
independent research. The highest marks across three groups was 15/20. It also became
abundantly clear that students were not confident in presenting to the rest of the class
and had not had much experience of doing so. I therefore decided at this stage to add in
the third research question.
At the end of the task, students were asked to fill in a survey. 76 responded and the
results are shown below:
What new skills have you learnt from the task? (open text question grouped into
categories by answer)
Research – 36% Presentation – 22%
Working as a group – 16% Processing information – 13%
Other – 13%
9
What would help you in the future? (open text question grouped into categories by
answer)
Help with finding sources/how to research 42%
Clearer explanation of the task with more information 23%
More time 14%
Better teamwork 14% (Other 7%)
What would you do differently if you were to do it again? (open text question grouped
into categories by answer)
Areas covered:
Presentation 54% Research 23%
Teamwork 21% Managing time 1%
In summary, students struggled to understand the task – it was well beyond anything they
had experienced before. Some also found working as part of a group difficult. However,
they were generally positive about learning research skills and what they could do to
improve in the future, particularly around improving their research and presentation skills.
10
Stage 2: A range of activities embedded into the course to work on their independent
learning skills.
During the Lent term various tasks were undertaken, with a focus on:
reading skills, scaffolding the time (mix of pressured and more open ended), oral and
written presentation of their research (including peer marking), some team collaboration
and individual research.
Task Skill focus Comment
UN Water Hotspot funding challenge Groups to use information given to pitch for their area being given money.
Group work Oral presentation skills
Under more controlled time conditions, groupwork was more efficient. Pitches better without ppt to distract.
Water Wars research: sources given to groups but time pressure applied to lift information and present to class. Peer assessment
Reading skills under time pressure Group work Oral presentation Peer assessment (Metacognitive reflection)
The peer assessment worked really well – evident that they were learning what made a good presentation.
Energy Source research Independent work on a source of their choosing to be presented as an A4 poster or factfile. 3 lessons and a hw. The best were compiled into a booklet to ‘teach’ students the range of sources. A hw was given to read through and a quiz given at the end.
Independent Research Written presentation – synthesizing information
Students generally worked well and were pleased when their information was included in the booklet that ‘taught’ the others. Results of the quiz demonstrated that they had read each others’ research. Still some not going beyond the obvious.
Summer term: Oceans topic taught as a ‘fertile question’: ie an overarching question that ties together the different threads of the topic aimed at getting them to go beyond the obvious.
Synoptic thinking Curiosity
Not convinced I tackled and reinforced the fertile question element enough – wrong time of year to embark on this.
11
Stage 3:Final task: Independent research into a topic of their choice for ‘How is Britain
changing’ Second half of the summer term
This question was one set by the Royal Geographical Society as their Young Geographer
of the Year competition. Students had to work individually to complete an A3 poster on a
topic of their choice to answer the question. They were given six lessons and two
homeworks on this, structured as 12 to decide on their topic, 34 to research and then 2
to make the poster. It was intended that the best would present to the class but the end
of term prevented this – instead a brief round robin was done. The best posters were
then selected to be entered into the national competition, which gave added motivation
to most.
What was notable was the improved ability of the students at this stage in the year to
choose an area of research: most had come up with interesting, focused and plausible
areas of research after only one/one and half lessons with limited teacher input. They
were also more adept at internet research, knowing to look at a range of sources and
having a better idea of search terms. On the whole, they utilised their time much better
during the course of the project and there wasn’t too much of a mad scramble at the
end. One area for improvement was the referencing of sources, particularly when it came
to graphs and infographics.
Findings
At the end of the final task, students were asked to undertake another survey monkey
questionnaire to review their independent learning progress during the course of the
year in order to assess their progress with regards to the research questions and their
metacognitive skills. The results of 70 respondents are shown below in conjunction with
the teachers’ professional judgement.
12
1. Have students developed in their ability to research independently?
Most have grown in confidence and think that they have grown in their ability to research
independently during the course of the year it is also interesting to note that when
asked the same question after the benchmarking test, the average was 3.5 perhaps
suggesting that whilst their confidence has grown they also have a healthier sense of
what is required.
From my observation they have shown marked progress in knowing strategies for
accessing information, are better at extracting information and better at going beyond
the obvious. It was especially pleasing to see most in the final task quickly honing down a
sensible research question and needing very little help in accessing relevant but specific
13
and occasionally obscure information. Motivation for this task was definitely improved
through a) it being a competition and b) a wide rein on the content of the research.
However, it is difficult to attribute their progress solely to the tasks undertaken in
Geography lessons as it is highly likely that they may have undertaken research in other
subjects and some had completed the Perse Project Qualification.
2. Have students improved in their ability to manage their time on independent learning
tasks?
This shows that most thought they had improved in their ability to manage their time.
However, the results of this are nuanced by a) the type of task and whether it was a
group task or individual work and b) the level of motivation (affective skills) of the
student in undertaking the task. My observations (quantified by the combination of a
reduction in late handing in and an overall improvement in the quality of the work) is that
most did improve in their time management skills. I learnt that they did need gentle
scaffolding on this, both at the outset of the task and in each lesson to help them to keep
up to pace.
14
3. Have students improved in their ability to present their research?
Most students thought that they had improved in their ability to present information and
this is something that I would agree with: those that were initially underconfident
presenting to the class grew in confidence, those perhaps a little overconfident took on
feedback to improve on the content of their delivery. Peer assessment was particularly
effective on this aspect as they tended to be more critical of each other (and listen to) than
the teacher was. In general the level of detail in written presentations improved
significantly during the course of the year.
Metacognitive skills (learning how to learn)
15
This is interesting: If I were to fill in a general impression of their progress the
improvement in their oral presentation skills and their ability to research independently
would rank higher.
NB mistake made with survey monkey
so this question answered as what was
the HARDEST element
After the benchmark task, many commented that understanding the research task was
one of the hardest elements. Perhaps a combination of practice plus a little more structure
from the teacher led to an improved confidence in this, although still some struggled with
it to find it the hardest part. It is not a surprise that finding and presenting the information
ranked highest with most participants as this is probably universally the case.
16
What would help in the future to continue to progress your independent learning
skills? (Open text answer, grouped by area of response)
Practice 47%
More structure and guidance from the teacher 35%
More time 18%
In both the ranking and open text questions, completing similar tasks enabled students to
develop, followed by structure and guidance. Whilst it is tempting to want students to be
autonomous learners, it is perhaps a little unrealistic to expect this of them in Year 8
indeed with more practice they will need less and less intervention from teachers.
Conclusions and Evaluation
It was pleasing to see students making progress in all three criteria: independent research
skills, time management and presentation skills, with perhaps the greatest gains being
seen in the research and presentation skills. Not only did they make progress in these key
IL competencies, they were also able to reflect upon their progress and what they found
difficult, demonstrating excellent metacognitive skills. Motivation will have varied across
task, linked both to the interest in the task and external factors (busyness, group dynamics,
desire to get a good report etc). Each student will have had different strengths and
weaknesses at the outset (for example some naturally more confident to present to the
class or to organise their time) and whilst the markbook demonstrates progress in grades
for all, with anonymous surveys it is difficult to analyse in detail each individual’s progress
in each competency from their base score and this is perhaps something that could be
incorporated into a further study. Although IL for the purposes of this study was narrowed
to research it is a difficult concept to quantify: it is possible to be taking initiative for your
own learning without a corresponding jump in output on an individual task. It is also
difficult to quantify the impact these research tasks had on students’ abilities to rely lesson
17
on scaffolding in non research lessons. Nor is it possible to divorce progress students made
throughout the year from their other studies nor indeed would it be sensible to, as the
very aim was to develop a skillset that enables them to apply across all their learning. So
whilst it is not possible to conclude that the IL tasks have developed a cohort of budding
academic Bear Grylls, it is possible to tentatively say that most made good progress in key
IL competencies which will provide them with a good base for future studies. It will be
interesting to note how they fare as they embark upon the Geography in the News course
in Year 9.
Indeed it is the crosscurricular nature of these skills, recognising that each individual will
have different strengths and weaknesses and a propensity to be more or less motivated in
different subjects that suggest that a broader range of IL skillsets as outlined by the
universities should be increasingly embedded across subjects. The recently created 171819
Research Department and the opportunities to embark on individual research across
Year’s 713 in particular provide excellent opportunities for students to embark upon IL
which should enable them in class to take more responsibility for their learning during
prescribed curriculum lessons.
17 "Top tips for independent learning — Brightside." 2010. 28 Jul. 2016 <http://www.brightknowledge.org/knowledgebank/studysupport/homeworkandstudyskills/toptipsforindependentlearning> 18 "Independent learning skills FYE The University of Sydney." 2012. 28 Jul. 2016 <http://sydney.edu.au/staff/fye/during_semester/academic_skills_development/independent_learning.shtml> 19 "Independent Learning University of Hull." 2014. 28 Jul. 2016 <http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/skillsteam/essentials/independentlearning.aspx>
18
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