Approaches+to+Learning

How do I learn best? How do I know? How do I communicate my understanding?
 * Key questions **

Approaches to Learning (ATL) is the key area of interaction for the personal project. Through ATL, schools provide students with the tools to enable them to take responsibility for their own learning. This involves articulating, organizing and teaching the skills, attitudes and practices that students require to become successful learners. As this area is concerned with the development of effective study skills, of critical, coherent and independent thought, and of the capacity for solving problems and making decisions, it prepares students for the completion of independent work in the last year of the programme, in the form of the personal project.
 * Description **

In their individual work, students should develop: · organizational skills, study practices and positive attitudes towards work · collaborative skills, that is, learning to take advantage of each others’ strengths and to consider different points of view · communication skills of essay, analytical and creative writing, as well as other appropriate forms of expression to suit various contexts · information literacy, that is, knowing how to access information and use it wisely, and understanding the research process (from finding and selecting information to judging it critically) · problem solving and thinking skills, building a higher thought process using convergent and divergent thinking, making a point of view coherent, creatively generating new ideas and considering issues from multiple viewpoints

 reflection and metacognition, developing the ability to appraise work and evaluate performance realistically, and using this evaluation to adapt behaviour and learning strategies.

The personal project provides many opportunities for students to demonstrate the skills and approaches developed in ATL over the five years of the programme, and to develop these further as part of the project. In addition, the opportunity to conduct inquiry into the areas of interaction can include ATL as an object of study in itself. For example, a personal project which involves organizing educational activities with young hearing impaired children would involve a study of how this disability affects learning.