Learning Resource Student learning skills passport The template pages that follow show what could be included in a student learning passport. They can be printed and used as they are, or customized for use in your school. For example, you may wish to add in different or additional learning skills that are especially relevant to your school or circumstances. 1 Prepare enough passports for every student in your target group and hand them out, emphasizing why learning skills are especially important. Bear in mind that this work will only be fully effective if you already have at least a basic dialogue around learning to learn with your students. 2 Students will enjoy making the passport their own by illustrating the cover with their own design. This could be a drawing, photo montage, mind-map or something else that allows them to show their creative spirit and develop a sense of ownership. 3 As students work through a unit of work, or over the course of a half-term, they should look out for ways in which they ve developed the skills included in the passport. Prompt sessions will be needed at regular intervals, especially if your students are not used to thinking about learning skills in this way. The beginning and end of lessons are good times for this. They should record progress in their passports, completing the relevant sections. 4 You should collect in the passports from time to time to review the progress made, make your own comments and add the stamps! Various stamps are available from educational suppliers, from smiley faces to stars and thumbs-up signs. After stamping you should record the date in the space provided to show progress. 5 When the main pages of the passport are complete, students should complete the overview. This will help them to develop synthesis and evaluation skills and will serve as a reminder of the key learning points of the passport. It will also help to illustrate the wide range of benefits of learning to learn skills. 6 A blank passport page is included here so that you can choose your own skill set.
STUDENT LEARNING SKILLS PASSPORT Name: KEY SKILL: KNOWING YOURSELF Being a good learner starts with understanding yourself better. This means knowing what you can do well and what you find difficult. It also means knowing what your personal preferences for learning are. Form: KEY SKILL: STAYING FOCUSED In order to learn you need to be able to concentrate on what you re doing. You also need to be aware of when your attention is drifting. Then you can do something about it to help you focus on learning again. KEY SKILL: SETTING TARGETS If you set targets for your learning you re more likely to be successful. The best kinds of targets are short-term ones especially if it s easy to judge if they ve been achieved.
KEY SKILL: THINKING SKILLS Thinking skills help you to understand ideas and work out problems. There are lots of different kinds of thinking skills, which can be used in many ways to help you to learn. KEY SKILL: LISTENING In order to learn you need to know how to listen properly. This is about more than just keeping quiet and looking at the person speaking. There are some specific listening skills that you can use. KEY SKILL: ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS Learning happens when you interact with people. This happens best when you ask a variety of questions. Questions are usually better if they cannot be answered with a yes or a no. KEY SKILL: STUDY SKILLS When you re working along there are a range of skills you need to help you find out information, make notes and understand facts and ideas. These are called study skills.
KEY SKILL: REMEMBERING If you re going to learn, you need to remember things! There are some practical ways to help you remember facts and ideas that you should use. KEY SKILL: MANAGING YOUR TIME There s never enough time to do everything you want to. In your studies you need to be good at managing your time so you can get through the course and the tasks you re set. This is a specific skill. KEY SKILL: EXAM SKILLS Passing exams is about much more than knowing the syllabus. It s also about knowing how to answer questions, what the examiner is looking for and how to avoid making silly mistakes. KEY SKILL: SELF-EVALUATION Self-evaluation is about being able to judge how well you ve done something. You learn best if you can judge this accurately, because you can then plan actions to take you to the next level.
KEY SKILL: OVERVIEW (1) Now that you ve completed your learning passport, think about the following questions. Record your answers in the spaces. 1 Which learning to learn skills are you especially pleased to have learnt? Why? 2 Now you understand better learning skills, how do you think they will help you At school? At home? OVERVIEW (2) 3 Write a list showing what you think the top five qualities are of someone who s really good at learning. Try to think in terms of skills. Put them in order with the most important first. Final teacher comment In your future career? Congratulations on completing this passport! You can now go forward in the knowledge that you have developed a powerful toolkit for learning. Remember as we get older we continue to develop these skills we are all lifelong learners.