Avoiding "Learned Helplessness"

[LWolf]

2. The system of high stakes tests,

and the parents who were part of that system set students up for learned helplessness.

It takes time, support, and many steps to get students to the place that they are academic risk takers, that they are self-reflective, that they take ownership.

How can we empower our students to be self-directed learners? Here are a few ways that work for me:

In discussions, whether whole-class or small group, ask open-ended questions and accept responses neutrally. I usually respond with "Okay." Then I turn to someone else and say, "What do you think?" I ask questions to shape the direction they are going, or to get them to expand on their thinking. They know that I'll be asking them to explain their thinking, to provide reason and evidence, and it becomes part of the conversation. They know that they can disagree with each other, as long as they bring evidence and do so respectfully. It's encouraged. Sometimes, if they ask, "Well, what do YOU think," I'll respond by referring to their thinking, talking about the different ideas I've heard, and synthesizing them.

They don't get grades for talking about their thinking; it's the way we process what we are doing.

As a class, we re-write official writing rubrics, using student-friendly language. This gives me a chance to see if they really understand how their writing is scored, and to fill gaps when needed. Once we have agreed on the rubrics, students use them to score themselves before they turn in their papers. Then they compare my scores to theirs; this lets them know if they are really "getting" the expectations.

We spend a great deal of time working on how to ask good questions; on how to recognize low-level and higher-level questions, on how to ask questions for different levels of Bloom's and other taxonomies. They bring those questioning skills to discussions.

They also use those questioning skills to format their own tests. It's a formative assessment just to see if they know what questions to ask, let alone whether or not they can construct well-thought out answers.

They keep portfolios of work that they've self-assessed.

Those are just a few things that grow active, rather than passive, learners. I'm going to go read your article now and what it says.