This has been sent to me by a dear colleague, Marie Sobers. Marie is the George Mason University Supervisor, Division of Special Education and Disability Research. Marie raises an interesting point. We do not know how students learn to learn.
Each year we enter classrooms armed with curriculum, pacing guides and other tools that are designed to drive instruction. These tools are designed to assure that students learn what is deemed important in each content area. To greatly increase the likelihood that students meet these goals and be better equipped to face learning needs in their future, we must teach them HOW to learn. If we take the time to teach students HOW to approach learning by purposefully teaching the thinking and action processes necessary to fully achieve both the letter and spirit of the goals, the WHAT of the learning will quickly follow. Arguably, the HOW is more important than the WHAT. Once students learn HOW to learn, they will be able to transfer those skills to new learning opportunities that greet them each day.