Classroom Focus: Managing the Self

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10 points about what research tells us about self-managing learning


  1. Learning is much more than acquiring new knowledge and concepts. It involves thinking, but learners need knowledge and experiences to think with.

  2. Learners need to be actively engaged in ways that allow them to process, interpret, and adapt an experience.

  3. Learners have to want to learn. They have to see a purpose to learning and how it will allow them to contribute to something beyond themselves.

  4. Learners have to feel in charge of their own learning and to get a sense of flow and progress, with the right amount of challenge and feedback along the way.

  5. Learners need to develop in-depth knowledge in some areas to help them keep learning.

  6. Learners need to be encouraged to search, not for the right answer (focusing on surface features) but for the right approach to solving a problem (deep structures).

  7. Learning involves interaction – trying out and testing ideas with others.

  8. Learning usually needs structure. For example, adults play an important role in young children's development by structuring their experiences and directing their attention to certain aspects of those experiences.

  9. Learning needs to take place in a wide variety of settings so that learners can transfer their learning and use it in new contexts.

  10. Intelligence is not fixed but is expandable through learning experiences. Expanding people's intellectual capacity – and ability to keep learning – should be the key function of a future-oriented education system.

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