Welcome! Time to own your learning!

This Growth & Goals module is designed to help you take greater control of your learning process and guide you through essential components of becoming an efficient and effective learner.

We will achieve these aims by:

  1. Helping you learn metacognition skills so you may monitor and decide what to do for your learning.
  2. Guiding you through the process of self-regulated learning (SRL) and goal-setting, which will help you make your goals more attainable.
  3. Exploring the differences that your mindset can have and teaching you to develop a growth mindset.
  4. Explore and develop the concepts of mindfulness and resilience.

 

This video explains the purpose behind the module in more detail, including a bit about how learning works (transcript).

 

Learning can be difficult and that’s okay! Success takes effort and requires dedication and at times it can be very frustrating. Research has shown that the best learning is happening when it feels the most difficult so don’t worry if you’re feeling this way; it means you’re on the right track!1 Even your professors have struggled (and failed!) too! The goal of this module is to help you develop learning skills and strategies to help you gain success — not only in university but also in your career and even your personal life.

In the past, students found some aspects of the module challenging because it took them out of their comfort zone but they found it was well worth the effort.

 

“I’ve never met a successful person who had an easy path.” —Robyne Hanley-Dafoe

 

See what actual students have to say about this module Transcript (.pdf, 55kb):

What is self-regulated learning (SRL) and why should I use it?

Self-Regulated Learning means taking strategic control of how you approach your goals and being prepared and willing to face any challenges and seize any opportunities that might arise as you work to make your goals your reality.2

The self-regulated learning cycle

The SRL cycle has three phases: reflect, plan, and act.

  • The REFLECT phase involves looking back on past performances to identify your strengths and the areas you think you need to focus on. You’ll also identify your learning beliefs, your mindset when faced with challenges and your existing knowledge. Finally, you will set and refine the goals you want to achieve.
  • During the PLAN phase, you will identify strategies and develop a plan and schedule to achieve your goals from the reflect phase.
  • Now that you have goals and a plan it’s time to enter the ACT phase. Here you will carry out your plan, continually monitoring your progress and making adjustments as you feel necessary.

The SRL cycle will repeat multiple times this semester – How did your plan come together? What would you change? What goals did you realize?  What goals need more work?

Once the course is finished, you can keep using the SRL cycle in other courses or aspects of your life.

REFERENCES

  1. Brown, P.C.; Roediger III, H.L.; McDaniel, M.A. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 2014.
  2. Zimmerman, B. J. Am. Educ. Res. J. 2008, 45, 166–183.
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Growth & Goals: a course-integrated module to better equip students with learning skills Copyright © by Alison Flynn; Elizabeth Campbell Brown; Emily O'Connor; Ellyssa Walsh; Fergal O'Hagan; Gisèle Richard; and Kevin Roy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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