Do you think that lessons should have a greater emphasis on broad skills? Does learning dates, facts and figures by rote kill children's creativity? What would be the effect of reverting back to teaching methods from the past? How do you teach basic skills and also teach the skill that employers and colleges want?

Much is now known about how people learn, and educators at all levels are tapping into new insights from cognitive science, educational research, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. But teachers are not the only ones who need to understand the learning process. Research shows that students are more likely to succeed if they understand and can monitor their own learning. This capacity is arguably more important now than ever, as the world becomes more complicated, as boundaries of all kinds shift, and as change becomes a constant expectation. It is a capacity especially important for basic skills learners. 

In turn, teachers have a special responsibility to help students understand themselves as learners. This might mean teaching skills of note taking and outlining. It means helping students monitor their progress to understand how grades are calculated, for instance, and what will happen if they receive, say, a D rather than a B on an assigned paper. It means being explicit with students about what is expected and why, and making visible the strategies and processes that have, perhaps, become second nature to more experienced learners. Most of all, it means creating an environment, inside the classroom and beyond, where students can talk openly about their learning, their challenges, and what allows them to succeed. 


More generally, basic skills students often do not think of themselves as "college material." They bring powerful life experiences to their educational work, but they may need help seeing those experiences as assets to academic learning. And while all students need encouragement, inspiration, and motivation, these qualities are especially important for students who have not succeeded in the past, or who have been away from formal education for a number of years.