How to teach students to take ownership of their learning
“Getting students to think and to notice their own thinking is vital if students are going to gain a sense of where they’re going.” - John Hattie
How often have you thought to yourself, “I’ve finally gotten through to them?” How many parent-teacher conferences have you sat through after school hours hoping this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back and your student would come to class ready to work? If you’re struggling to get through to students who have accepted a failing grade as an inevitability, you’re not alone.
Work refusal is becoming an increasingly common classroom phenomenon. A rising number of students–despite interventions, conversations with parents, and rapidly declining GPAs–refuse to complete work, or they turn in a ghost of an assignment that hardly fulfills any learning requirements.
There are many theories about why this is, including that students are burned out and exceedingly anxious.
Whatever the theory, one thing remains foundationally true: A student’s sense of self-efficacy plays a crucial role in their willingness to take part in their academic growth. If they feel that the odds are stacked against them or that they’ll never be able to succeed–then why even try?
In this article, we’re going to talk about how you can:
- Foster self-efficacy to improve metacognitive skills
- Teach metacognitive skills to improve self-efficacy
- Increase student ownership through a whole-student approach
- Empower students through data availability and metacognitive tools
At Eduphoria, we have all the tools you need to foster student ownership through data, so we hope this resource will fill in the rest of the gaps.
Jump ahead
Fostering self-efficacy through individualized teaching and metacognition strategies
How to build a classroom environment that produces confident students
Teach students how to know themselves
Student ownership is impossible without self-efficacy
The whole student approach to self-efficacy
Eduphoria tools build a growth mindset and encourage student ownership
Allow students to access timely, accurate assessment scores
Reinforce metacognition with the student confidence tool
Self-reflection and metacognition through Reflection Questions
Build in opportunities for success through Retest
Give students ownership of their data to empower them to take the lead
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Metacognition is an awareness of one’s own thoughts and thought processes. Essentially, it’s thinking about your own thinking. If you’ve reflected on how you got to where you are or found yourself pausing to adjust during a routine task, you’ve engaged in metacognition.
Metacognition allows students to know themselves as learners. It allows them to better identify their strengths and weaknesses. Like any learning skill, metacognition is a process that improves with practice and feedback. Some students naturally engage in metacognition, and others require prompting.
Although they come pretty close, teachers aren’t mind readers. They only know as much as the data shows and their gut tells them. Imagine a student who can describe their learning in exact terms using phrases like these:
- “These are my strengths.”
- “These are the areas where I struggle.”
- “This is why I’m struggling.”
- “This is what I don’t understand.”
- “These are my goals for improvement.”
When students use phrases like this, teachers can provide targeted intervention and enrichment. Metacognitive statements are also central to the development of student ownership.
However, metacognition is a skill that must be learned and may be dependent on other foundational classroom behaviors.
According to a study from the National Institute of Health (NIH), students who believe they are capable (or have greater self-efficacy) are more effective metacognitive thinkers. However, many students don’t believe that they’re capable, so they are less engaged in the learning process.
So, how do students begin to feel more capable, so they can adopt these metacognitive skills?
As you may expect, increasing a student’s self-efficacy raises their abilities in metacognition and learning, which, in turn, raises that student’s confidence! This feedback loop compounds student achievement, which can be an extremely rewarding cycle to witness as an educator.
However, to increase a student’s self-efficacy and abilities, teachers need to spend one-on-one time with them, individualizing their teaching approach to help the student reach their goals.
The Center for Teaching, Learning and Mentoring (CTLM) posted an excellent resource on self-efficacy. The author discusses several classroom features that could foster a student's self-efficacy.
They mention effective communication, honest positive feedback, and a healthy (stress-free learning environment).
These features of a classroom do not come naturally. Teachers have to carefully cultivate them through responsive, inclusive teaching practices.
Dr. Allison Ross is part of our Professional Learning and Coaching team at Eduphoria. She is a Doctor of Education, having spent nearly 20 years in various teaching and administrative positions. She is also our culturally responsive teaching expert. Here’s what she had to say about building relationships with students to improve their buy-in:
“When a child feels excluded from their own learning, everything is at risk. Disengagement is just the beginning. Education should nurture a child's passions and goals by providing a strong foundation of knowledge, skills, and social-emotional strategies. To foster a child's openness to learning, strong and positive relationships between teachers and students are essential. These relationships are crucial for achieving any district or campus goal, but most importantly, they are essential for nurturing the whole child and creating transformative learning experiences.”
Teaching is more than the lesson plan, assessment, and reteaching and enrichment cycle. It is about building trust with young people so they can learn valuable skills that extend outside of the curriculum.
Building up a student’s sense of self-efficacy and empowering them to seek out new knowledge is one of those gifts that teachers can give their students. It’s also a highly translatable skill that students can use over and over again.
Building a classroom environment that makes students feel safe, welcome, and accepted requires a lot of work and conscientiousness.
You, as the teacher, must do the work to understand them and meet their needs on a personal level. Still, there are several things you can do in your teaching and curriculum practice that can help.
The CTLM resource from above includes several helpful tips we’d like to expound upon:
- Have students set short-term goals
- Help students achieve their goals one-by-one
- Allow them to talk out their problems and how they plan to deal with them
- Don’t compare one student’s pace and progress with the other students
- Set goals for that student according to their individual abilities
These tactics are so individualized for that student. How important and uplifted they must feel when a teacher knows them well enough to adapt the curriculum for their benefit.
So, what would each of these bullet points look like in practice?
Let’s get into the details.
Not all goals are created equal. If you ask your student to set a goal, and they write that they’d like to have an A by the end of the semester, that puts you both in a vulnerable position. As the facilitator of your student’s goals, you may feel like your student’s goal achievement lies in your hands rather than theirs. Plus, a student who sets a goal that’s out of reach or not in alignment with their values won’t buy into the process.
So, here are some tips to help your students write achievable SMART goals:
- Make sure it’s something that’s not just possible but probable.
Part of the mentality behind short-term goals is that students will experience success. If they’ve set a goal that’s too far out of reach, they’ll experience far fewer instances of success. They may also get discouraged and lose motivation if they don’t reach their goal.
- Help them identify an area of strength AND an area that could use improvement.
This is a key step in fostering metacognitive skills and self-efficacy. When they identify what they’re good at, they feel more confident. That confidence will help them think more critically (and less emotionally) about areas they could improve.
- Ask your student what is important to them and what they care about in relation to their learning.
Students who don’t care about their grades (or care too much) may not benefit from goals such as percentage increases or high test scores. Help them personalize their goals by learning what has the highest impact on their well-being and achievement.
Does your student want to get better at turning homework in on time? Great!
Maybe they want to get better at forming effective arguments in their composition class. Can do!
Help them write their goals in a way that’s measurable, time-oriented, and catered to their personal desires.
Have you ever mentioned a personal hurdle or struggle to someone you trust, and the next time you meet, they don’t ask you how you’re doing? They don’t even reference the problem you talked about previously?
It can feel like they’re uninvested in your well-being.
You know how important it is for people to check in with you. So, now that your student has confided in you about their goals and desires, show your investment in their progress.
Check in regularly.
Praise them when they achieve a goal!
Help them redirect when they’re struggling to move past an obstacle.
Show them that you remember them, care about their progress, and will continue to help them succeed, no matter how long it takes.
Here’s how you can encourage your students to problem-solve when discussing their goals.
Ask them questions that can help them to think about their needs and identify strengths and weaknesses. Hello, metacognition!
Here are some questions you can ask to get the ball rolling:
- What’s something that’s been making you feel anxious about this class?
- Is there anything you’re not quite getting but have been scared to bring up in class?
- Which part of the lesson felt easy for you?
- What was your favorite part of this unit?
- Was there any day this week when you just felt lost and confused?
- How do you feel about your last test?
- Is there something we do in this class that you wish we didn’t?
- Did you discover any secret skills or passions in this last unit?
During your conversations with the student, you may notice that they’re stuck, struggling, or discouraged. Ask them about their stress level. Help them identify their emotions! Perhaps this can lead to the student self-identifying a learning gap.
Try questions like these:
- “Do you feel stuck?”
- “Does this make you feel like giving up?”
- “I’m sensing some frustration. Can you explain what’s frustrating you?”
- “It seems like you’re feeling upset about this assignment. Could you explain what’s going on in your head?”
Once you’ve identified a stressor or a hurdle for your student, you can start to narrow it down to a central problem.
Here are some questions that could help you find that specific hurdle:
- “So, you’re saying this concept has really stumped you. It seems to me that the basis of this question is the equation that we learned in Unit 3. Can you explain when you should use that equation?”
- “It sounds like you’re really struggling with the pace of the assignments. Does it feel like we’re going too fast?”
- “It seems like your life circumstances have really put you behind in class. Does it feel like you’re missing some key details about this unit?”
- “You seem confused about why this assignment is relevant. Could you explain to me why it doesn’t seem to relate to what we’re learning?”
Now that you’ve figured out the root problem, you can help the student develop an action plan and problem-solve.
Ask them:
- What do you need from me to make this easier?
- What are some ways that you could gather more information on this subject?
- What is the first and most important step you can take to get started on this project?
- Do you remember any information from previous lessons that we could revisit to help you fill in the gaps?
- What are some steps you could take to begin solving this problem?
- Who are some people you could reach out to for support who may be able to help?
By asking these questions, you’re teaching them valuable problem-solving skills, such as looking through available resources, asking for help, researching, creating to-do lists, and networking with peers.
We can’t rely only on the student to report progress. For a lot of reasons, many students won’t report on their progress or their difficulties.
You can create goals for each student to help them experience success, encouragement, and support.
Let’s say your student forms a goal: They’d like to achieve Mastery in a learning domain they’ve been struggling with. They want to show their Mastery through a multimedia project at the end of the six weeks.
From your perspective, this goal has many moving parts. You can encourage this student by forming goals for them.
- This student will achieve a 70 or higher on the unit assessment. This score will demonstrate that they understand the concept before they launch into a project.
- While planning their project, this student will be able to name at least three real-world applications of this concept.
- This student will demonstrate their effort and progress every week by talking about their discoveries. They may also demonstrate progress by showing me portions of the project they’ve completed.
Each of these goals helps you to assess their progress. It allows you to encourage them and affirm their growth. Plus, it gives the students tangible milestones that demonstrate their ability to fulfill their own goals.
Modeling for students is more than just showing a student how to do something. It’s also showing students something of value. Modeling is an implicit kind of teaching that students will remember much longer than any specific lesson you teach.
When you model confidence, competence, and self-efficacy, they have intrinsic value in the classroom (CTLM).
When you model goal-setting and growth, students can see that you never stop growing and learning. They can see no one is too good to set goals and self-congratulate.
When you model problem-solving behaviors, you teach a valuable skill. It also helps them understand the why behind your process because they see results.
As you’ll see later, when the teacher experiences success, students tend to believe that success is possible for them, too.
As you talk with your students to understand their individual needs, you will help them do the same for themselves.
When you advocate for your student’s needs, they will learn to advocate for themselves.
Sometimes, they just don’t know how to identify what they’re good at. Once they learn to see their strengths, their newfound confidence will enable them to be more objective when assessing their weaknesses.
Research shows that students with low confidence are less likely to ask for or incorporate feedback. They may even disregard feedback that damages their confidence.
They’re also less likely to receive feedback well if they don’t trust the person giving it, including themselves.
When you create a positive feedback system with your students, you’re teaching them skills that they need to self-evaluate. You’re also boosting their self-efficacy, so they can receive feedback and self-evaluate more regularly.
Thus, a student's trust in their abilities is vital to how active they are in their education.
If you’ve gone through higher education to become a teacher, you’ve heard the name Albert Bandura. Bandura is largely responsible for our understanding of self-efficacy and the many, many areas that overlap with education.
In his words, “People make causal contributions to their own psychosocial functioning through mechanisms of personal agency. Among the mechanisms of agency, none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy. Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act. Efficacy belief, therefore, is a major basis of action. People guide their lives by their beliefs of personal efficacy.”
It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you don’t believe that your actions will make a difference in your future or well-being, then why would you try?
While the creator of this concept, Albert Bandura doesn’t have the final word on self-efficacy. Ultimately, research supports the idea that students without self-efficacy cannot take ownership of their learning.
According to an article from the NIH, low self-efficacy may result in:
- Work avoidance
- Giving up more quickly
- Expending less effort
- Less resilience in the face of failure
A person who feels they have no control over their life will not even make the attempt.
As teachers, you can give them that sense of control by offering them small successes, guidance, and positive affirmation.
Per the NIH article, a student can improve their self-efficacy through various sources:
- Personal success and achievement
- Witnessing other people’s successes and achievement
- Affirmation and positive reinforcement
- Feeling good about their mental and physical state
Of these, achievement and personal success is the most powerful. While success can prove to the student that they are capable of directing their own future, repeated failures can have the opposite effect.
Importantly, students can also feel less capable of success if they (as stated in the last bullet point) feel the stress in their bodies or minds.
Now, we have double confirmation that a stress-free learning environment is essential to a student’s self-efficacy, as stated by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Mentoring (jump to this section).
So, research leads us to believe that a student’s self-efficacy is both foundationally important to student ownership and completely dependent on their relationship with learning and the classroom environment.
If a student needs to experience success to feel capable, then they must have a teacher invested in their success who creates goals, monitors them, and issues rewards for their progress.
If a student needs to see other people’s success to believe that it’s possible for them, then all students in the classroom should receive the same amount of support and attention. A classroom that succeeds together fosters future achievement.
If a student needs genuine positive affirmation to feel capable, then teachers must know their students on such an intimate level that they can provide it.
If a student needs to feel safe in their bodies and minds in the classroom, then the classroom environment must be mindful of each student’s stress, their lives outside the classroom, and their histories and insecurities. They must strive to create an environment conscious of all of these.
While this is the perfect lead-in to social-emotional learning, we’ll have to visit this complex and nuanced topic in another article. For now, let’s round out this blog with information about how our tools can help students and teachers participate in this metacognitive cycle of growth.
You can also watch this video where Dr. Allison Ross explains some of the small things teachers can do to be mindful of each student’s lives outside the classroom.
Our software supports the development of self-efficacy with a few student-centered features. Let’s get into how these tools can foster specific metacognitive skills in students so they can take the lead on their educational journey.
Educators know it’s best practice to use assessment data to guide instruction and plan targeted evidence-based activities. However, assessment data can also help your students reinforce skills and extend their thinking via metacognition.
Encouraging your students to actively analyze their assessment results helps them identify what they know and what they need to know to keep learning. This type of metacognition makes learning visible and helps students develop a growth mindset.
Building a growth mindset means students can persevere through challenges, teachers praise effort, and both acknowledge failures. A growth mindset can only be present in a student with self-efficacy and trust in their teachers.
Confident students become comfortable with failure on the path to Mastery, which increases their attention, engagement, and motivation–all skills necessary for students to take ownership of their learning.
Students can access their assessment scores through the Aware student portal and interact with assessments in several important ways.
In Aware, teachers can access nuanced metacognitive data that can help change student relationships with feedback and assessments.
Student Confidence Rating is designed to prompt a growth mindset. When using the tool, the student must reflect on their work and rate their confidence. Later, when they review whether they were correct, they can also see if their confidence level correctly aligns with their knowledge and skill.
If they were not aligned, the teacher should allow the student to show growth or extend their knowledge. When a skill they were not confident in becomes comfortable with additional practice and intervention, they can experience that burst of positivity that comes with self-improvement. This is where the student will find their “aha moment.”
These moments of success will help the student to build self-efficacy and buy into the learning process.
When teachers enable Confidence Rating for an online assessment, students see a smiling emoji at the bottom of the screen. After recording their response, they can click the emoji to see a pop-up block of three faces.
The reflection is optional, reducing the pressure some students may feel to provide a rating along with their test questions. The prompt helps them think metacognitively about their answer choice, while the expressions and response options are designed to help students understand that reflection is a process.
The learner-friendly language, “I got it,” “I’m almost there,” and “I’m still learning,” supports a growth mindset. It tells the student that being a little shaky on a subject is neutral. It’s just an objective statement to describe the student’s situation (and not in any way tied to their worth as students or people).
Allowing students to immediately reflect on their answer choice and identify their confidence level develops error detection skills. These skills raise student awareness and allow them to correct mistakes independently.
According to John Hattie and Shirley Clarke, in their book Visible Learning Feedback, developing effective error detection skills helps students close the learning gap.
Sometimes, students rush through assessments and make poor decisions based on limited information. When students pause and reflect, they use their confidence as a lens to measure their learning, which, in turn, helps students take responsibility for their learning.
If a student can self-identify an area of low confidence, they’ve already advocated for themselves to secure your help and intervention; plus, when they feel good and confident about their answers, they’ve improved their self-efficacy and can, consequently, take a more active role in their learning.
One of our newer features, Reflection, allows students to answer teacher-created questions after they receive their assessment scores.
Learning is not simply doing. Students must develop the cognitive awareness to reflect on their own performance to take ownership of their learning. When they do, this awareness becomes a powerful skill.
With cognitive awareness, students can evaluate why they had low or high confidence at the time of the assessment.
If they self-identified as having high confidence and performed well, then their sense of self-efficacy has been reinforced!
If they self-identified as having low confidence and performed well, then they can begin to see a future in which they continue to perform well. You can help to build that fledgling confidence with extension and enrichment activities.
With reflection questions, they can look back on the route they took to solve a problem and whether or not it was an effective solution.
They can speak to their areas of strength in the same assessment that they analyze their weaknesses.
They can even identify changes in their confidence after receiving reteaching, extension, or intervention.
Incorporating reflection in test corrections or intervention activities can help students envision the learning process as a journey, not as a singular goal or passing score.
Consequently, the student who sees failure as a means to future success will be more willing to try again and will feel empowered to move forward.
Having students interact with their previous assessments is a powerful way to improve metacognition and reflection skills; however, building that student’s self-efficacy needs to continue after they receive that score.
When students perform poorly on an assessment, you can give them another opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and experience success.
Retest allows teachers to use their available item banks to automatically assemble a retest that follows the blueprint of the original assessment. Consequently, the student can experience stable testing conditions, difficulty, and rigor.
Retesting offers students a great opportunity to build their self-efficacy, improve their problem-solving skills, and pursue their goals; however, it’s also an incredible tool for teachers to quickly and easily create an assessment that mirrors but does not directly copy the original assessment.
We know it’s not easy to create quality assessments. With Retest, it’s nearly instantaneous.
As educators, it’s important to communicate that students own their data, not teachers. Teachers can help students develop patience with the learning process as they learn to analyze, reflect, set goals, and use metacognitive strategies. It is important to remember that all students can learn, but the most common approaches and techniques to learning are never a “one-size-fits-all” solution.
If you’re curious about how other educators are teaching students to own and analyze their own data, take a look at our blog. See how a third-grade teacher’s approach to data ownership helped students shine on parent-teacher night.
As current and former educators, we like to stay in the loop about what teachers need the most. Connect with us on social media to stay up-to-date on Eduphoria resources like this one. We connect with teachers, administrators, and district leaders inside and outside of our customer base, so we can continue providing high-quality, researched information about topics important to educators.
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