Teach Secondary 13.5

teachwire.net/secondary Thought experiments Martin Griffin looks at how students’ grasp of non-cognitive skills can go on to determine their level of academic success R ecently collected data fromThe Student Loan Company suggests that there’s been another rise in the number of UK undergraduates dropping out of university. Within the last academic year, over 41,000 students took out student loans, but then failed to finish their courses – a figure that’s been steadily rising, having stood at 29,630 four years ago (see bbc. in/3KFUv6u). Because only a proportion of tuition fees are refunded for partial course completion, leaving university early is an expensive mistake to make. Imagine returning home at the age of 18 or 19 with no degree and personal debts of up to, or in some cases even beyond £9,000. So why is it happening, and why are the numbers going up? Active improvers According to The Policy Institute at King’s College London and the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education, the primary reason students cite for dropping out is ‘mental health’ – a conceptual catch-all whichmay, according to separate analysis, cover areas such as difficulties with content, or incidents of stress, fear and exhaustion . So the big question, then, is what role we, as teachers, can play in arresting a further increase next year? I’m going to make a case here for focusing on developing learners’ non-cognitive skills. The evidence supports the impact of this approach – the EEF’s recently updated Teaching and Learning Evidence Review once again has metacognition topping its list of effective interventions, describing this as, “ Teaching students how to monitor, evaluate and subsequently improve their own learning strategies. ” (see bit.ly/ts126-EEFTK) Turning pupils from passive consumers of lessons into reflective and active improvers of their own learning? It sounds impossibly utopian, but it can be done. I co-created, and have written extensively about, the VESPAmodel – a conceptual model that outlines the kind of non- cognitive skills we might seek to develop in learners. Replicable behaviours Successful students have a vision. They display high levels of effort. They employ effective systems for organising their time and resources. They will practice in preparation for tests and exams, and exhibit purposeful, positive attitudes. Amodel like this can be hugely useful – it gives us a common language, aligns our thinking and codifies our aims – but it’s only a starting point. Vast amounts of researchmay demonstrate links between those five characteristics and academic success, but the words themselves remain abstract notions – until we translate them into replicable behaviours. Too often inmy early teaching career, I would get as far as identifying those non-cognitive skills I wanted to develop, before then resorting to fruitless exhortations. Seeing a student whose files and folders were in disarray, I might have urged them to ‘ Stay on top of your organisation! ’ or ‘ Tidy your resources! ’ “Turningpupils into reflective andactive improvers of their own learning sounds utopian, but it canbedone” 44