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What is Learning to Learn?

Learning to learn is a multidimensional ability to engage a learner consciously in a sustained process to become a more autonomous, effective and adaptive learner. The approach to learning to learn development at PolyU is underpinned by a model, which is developed with reference to multiple studies, particularly the meta study conducted by Cristina Stringher and her team in 2014 (Stringher, 2014).The learning to learn ability can be broken down into six interrelated dimensions and further into twelve components, like the diagram below:

PolyU L2Lmodel

 

As it shows, learning to learn is a broad concept. It covers many interrelated skills and attributes of the learner, and they are:

  1. Knowing why they want or need to learn and seeing learning as their own duty (sense of purpose)
  2. Making the learning content meaningful to themselves (meaning making)
  3. Believing they can improve through learning (self-beliefs about learning)
  4. Having an interest in and passion for learning new knowledge and ideas (curiosity)
  5. Being able to manage their learning and understand their learning process (self-regulated learning)
  6. Being able to review their learning experience and identify factors that can improve their learning process for better results (reflection on learning)
  7. Knowing what things affect their motivation for learning and taking control of them (motivation for learning)
  8. Being able to cope with their emotions and setbacks that affect their learning (emotion and resilience)
  9. Adopting higher-order thinking skills to learn for deep understanding (higher-order thinking)
  10. Having an interest in looking for theories and methods to improve their learning (understanding learning)
  11. Engaging themselves in learning and building knowledge with other people (learning with and from other people)
  12. Engaging themselves in different learning environments (augmented learning environment)

 

Reference

Stringher, C. (2014). What is learning to learn? A learning to learn process and output model. In R.D. Crick, C. Stringher & K. Ren (Eds.), Learning to Learn. International Perspectives from Theory and Practice (pp.9-40). London: Routledge.