LEARNING TO LEARN
Methodology
In their first geography lesson of the academic year
2018-19, all Year 8 geography students undertook
a ‘Learning and Study Strategies Inventory’ (LASSI)
questionnaire (H & H Publishing, 2018) to test their
baseline study skills. LASSI is noted as a ‘statistically
valid and reliable tool for the diagnosis of study skills’
and is a useful tool for evaluating intervention strategies
(Weinstein et al., 2018). The LASSI questionnaire consists
of questions testing: anxiety, attitude, concentration,
information processing, motivation, selecting main ideas,
self-testing, test strategies, time management, and using
academic resources. A t-test established that there was
no significant difference at baseline testing (LASSI-1)
between the intervention and control groups in any of
the LASSI component variables.
Elen Harris’ 8X class was used as the intervention set,
whilst her 8F class was used as a control with a ‘business
as usual’ approach to feedback. ‘Control’ group feedback
on assessed work included comments written on student
work, with an overall comment and grade. Intervention
students were provided with feedback on a standardised
template, designed after reviewing existing literature.
Key features included: a marking criteria grid, and space
for teacher comment and student feedforward targets.
Importantly, no grades were provided. The template
works by the teacher highlighting the relevant marking
criteria met by the student and adding coded feedback
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to their work. Six intervention group students were part
of a focus group to gain their opinions on feedback
strategies.
The LASSI questionnaire was repeated (LASSI-2) after
the last assignment of the year. Maths Teacher, Paul
Parham, then completed statistical analysis of both the
baseline and post-intervention LASSI data to ascertain if
the DIRT feedback techniques had a quantifiable impact
upon student metacognition.
Findings and discussion
Method of feedback
The feedback grid is easy to use and quick for the
teacher to mark and add a comment. Comments
occasionally repeat the grid so must be meaningful.
Marking codes are time efficient, though need to be
adapted for each assessment, and a bank of codes can
be accumulated over time. Focus group students liked
the method of feedback, though it took a couple of
reflections to get used to this style. As a consequence,
the intervention class fell slightly behind other classes
in terms of content delivery. This could be rectified by
re-planning lesson content and students would become
quicker at completing as familiarity increased.
In the focus groups, interestingly, male students stated
they would prefer to receive a grade as they believe it
demonstrates where they are in their learning and how