Monitoring

Independent Learning
…to build
Resilience
ON E
PART
What does student
Resilience mean to you?

write it on a post it and stick on

the empty space in your notes

Have a look at what others have

written
 Resilience is

“An ability to recover from or adapt easily to misfortune, change or difficulties” (Merriam Webster).

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient,” (Dr. Steve Maraboli).

The American Psychological Association (APA) states

“Resilience is not a trait that people either have or do not have.

It involves behaviours, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in anyone,” 

The APA also stresses that building resilience takes time and intentionality.
Individual resilience involves:

•Positivity
•Motivation
•Self-belief
•Emotional ability
•Perseverance
•Self-reflection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iuPewWbp2U
Mental toughness is the secret to success
 It was my mum that
believed in me and for
that I believed in her

Does your belief in your students impact

on how resilient they are?

Is it possible to have belief in every single student?

Can you believe in students that don’t believe in

themselves?
 I was able to jog and
then run, but there
were loads of injuries
on the way!
Does resilience in your subject come naturally from the start
or do you see it being built over two years?

What ‘injuries’ do student’s face over their 2 year experience

in your classroom?

Building resilience takes time and intentionality

Little by little,
coming in to do the
rehab, step by step,
you started to see
improvement

Should they formulate their own path?

or can we help them devise a strategy to
follow in order to build resilience?
The only thing that stands
between success and
failure is mental
toughness, its about being
resilient
Some people train
brilliantly but in a race,
theystudents
Think of some hard working don’tthat still win!
get one or
two grades lower than what you would expect of them.
Do they lack mental toughness?
How can they build that in themselves?
 Being an athlete isn’t like another job, the
gym, the strengthening, the mind work, the
fitness.
For one shot… for 11 seconds.
If our students only get one shot in June, what qualities should they possess to be successful in that one shot?

Look, if you had one shot,

or one opportunity.
To seize everything
you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture it?
Or let it slip?
 You're on a start line with seven other women
You’re in an exam room with 24 other students

You have a man holding a gun

You have an invigilator standing by a clock

There’s so much going on, your family, everyone

screaming wanting you to do well
Cultural expectations, Family pressure to do well

How do you put that all aside and say, I have to

focus on myself… focus on my lane… focus on
me
If you train them to help themselves, they will focus on themselves,
on their lane because in the exam room, only they can help themselves
What does student Resilience
mean to you?

write it on a post it and stick next to

your first post it

Have a look at what others have

written

Has your definition improved?

That’s not just athletics
That’s life.
1 What is the difference
between Homework and
Independent Learning ?
2 How can you relate these
differences to resilience?
Positive
effects

HOM
Negative E
effects WOR
K
Homework is often a source of friction between home and school

Accounts of conflicts between parents and educators appear often in the popular press (e.g., Ratnesar,
1999; Coutts, 2004; Kralovec & Buell, 2000; Loveless, 2003).

Parents protest that assignments are too long or too short, too hard or too easy, or too ambiguous
(Baumgartner, Bryan, Donahue, & Nelson, 1993; Kralovec & Buell, 2000; Warton, 1998).

Teachers complain about a lack of support from parents, a lack of training in how to construct good
assignments, and a lack of time to prepare effective assignments (Farkas, Johnson, & Duffet, 1999).

Students protest about the time that homework takes away from leisure activities (Coutts, 2004;
Kralovec & Buell, 2000).

Many students consider homework the chief source of stress in their lives (Kouzma & Kennedy, 2002).

Findings of Marzano, Pickering and Pollock who spell out the detrimental impact of unmarked
homework. 
Independent learning is a method of learning where learners
have ownership and control of their learning – they learn by
their own actions and direct, regulate, and assess their own
learning. The independent learner is able to set goals, make
choices, and decisions about how to meet their learning needs,
take responsibility for constructing and carrying out his own
learning, monitor his progress toward achieving his learning
goals, and self-assess the learning outcomes.

(Meyer et al. 2008)
All students are expected to do
Equal amounts of time of
personal study as the time
they receive in the classroom
College students are neither adults nor
children. They hover in a sort of twilight
state and need some degree of adult care
 Monitoring Independent Learning Marking Homework
Question # Question #
Marks
 Homework / Independent Learning comparison task
The left table is data on the Independent Learning. Question number is shown in bold.
Students do questions and mark themselves using teacher worked answers
‘y’ means yes they have completed the question, marked it and corrected themselves fully. y is only given if there is
visual evidence of learning from mistakes.
‘n’ means no they have not done the question, or they did it but did not mark it and hence there is no evidence of
learning from mistakes.
Student marks and corrects their work in green pen making it easy for teacher to visually identify the extent of
learning that has taken place

The right table is data on the same topic but different questions for homework. Question number shown in bold.
Traditionally set and marked by teacher with homework marks given per question.

Notice the similarities between the arrows of the same colour, you only need to look at the overall percentages.
TASK:
1. Is it clearer to the teacher which three students have put hardly any effort in this topic. Would this have been
evident only with HW data?
2. What can be said about the effort and attitude of students marked with green arrows? Would this have been
evident only with HW data?
3. What can be said about the effort and attitude of students marked with orange arrows? Would this have been
evident only with HW data?
4. Which table of results provides better evidence of building student resilience in the topic and why?
 Can you think of other differences to add into this table
HOMEWORK INDEPENDENT LEARNING
Student has no choice Student gets a choice
Must complete all of it Can complete none, some, or all of it
Weekly By the topic (often monthly)
Can be meaningful Can only be meaningful
Can be a measure of effort Can only be a measure of effort
Teacher centric Student centric

Teacher must mark and assess Student must mark and assess
Teacher provides feedback Student provides their own feedback
PERSONAL
REFLECTION
TIME
What strategies could you use to migrate some of your homework
to monitored independent Learning for students in your subject.
Thank you!