The document discusses the assessment of students' "learning power" or capacity to learn. It describes an assessment tool called the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) that measures seven dimensions of learning power, such as critical curiosity, creativity, and strategic awareness. Teachers found the ELLI profiles reflected their knowledge of individual students and helped them develop targeted strategies. Using ELLI increased students' self-awareness, ownership over their learning, and emphasis on learning to learn skills rather than just fact memorization.

1. Learning how to learn: the dynamic assessment of learning power Ruth Deakin Crick The Curriculum Journal 18 :135-153 (June 2007) Bioscience PedR Journal Club, November 2007 Reflections led by Chris Willmott (cjrw2@le.ac.uk)

3. Station 3 Publicly-required and Personally-values Skills e.g. managing situations, active citizenship, managing ambiguity Learning as a journey Station 1 The Learning Self identity, relationships, stories, aspirations Station 2 Personal Qualities values, attitudes, dispositions for learning Station 4 Publicly-assessed and Valued Knowledge

4. Station 3 Publicly-required and Personally-values Skills e.g. managing situations, active citizenship, managing ambiguity Learning as a journey Station 1 The Learning Self identity, relationships, stories, aspirations Station 2 Personal Qualities values, attitudes, dispositions for learning Station 4 Publicly-assessed and Valued Knowledge “ Learning power”

6. Changing and learning Learning ability is fixed, stuck and static Challenging situations expose limitations and ‘failure’ Learning as a lifelong process, can be learnt Challenging situations as opportunity to develop and grow Negative Positive

7. Critical curiosity Passive learners More likely to accept ‘received wisdom’ uncritically ‘ Surface’ strategies Unlikely to actively engage in speculation A desire to find out – ‘getting at the truth’ Willing to question ‘received wisdom’ ‘ Deep’ strategies Willing to reveal their questions and uncertainties in public Negative Positive

8. Meaning-making Respond to new learning on individual merits in piecemeal fashion Interested in criteria for successful performance Happy to live with fragmented knowledge Look for connections between new learning and prior knowledge Interested in the ‘big picture’, making sense of their experience Enjoy pursuing coherence Negative Positive

9. Dependence and fragility Easily disheartened Prefer less challenging situations Easily disheartened when make mistakes or get stuck Self-esteem (in learning) likely to depend on other people and external factors Resilient Like a challenge – willing to ‘give it a go’ Willing to make occasional mistakes but learn from them Accept learning is sometimes hard but ‘hang in’ - stickabililty Negative Positive

10. Creativity Rule bound Like to know exactly what’s expected of them May function well in familiar activities Less imaginative Understand learning needs playfulness as well as being purposeful Happy to follow a train of thought without knowing where it will end up Enjoy playing with ideas Receptive to hunches and inklings Negative Positive

11. Relationships/interdependence May either be over-dependent on others or fail to engage properly with others Achieve a healthy balance between independent and social learning Like to learn with and from others, when appropriate Recognise the value of watching and emulating Negative Positive

12. Strategic awareness Robotic May confuse self-awareness with self-consciousness Reflective Good at self-evaluation Good at judging the time and resources a task will require Happy to try alternative approaches Can cope with frustration and disappointment Negative Positive

15. Profile of individual

16. Profile of class High Moderate Low Self-reported level in each dimension