April 1998
Booklet Series Builds Skills for Lifelong Learning
Business representatives and futurists tell us that today's students will need to be lifelong learners in order to succeed in the modern workplace, make sense of the "information explosion," and become competent citizens in a fast-moving world. Parents have a powerful role to play in their children's development as learners, research has shown. When parents take an active part in their children's education, children do better in
school, like school more, and have more confidence in their abilities as learners.
A new series of five booklets from NWREL is designed to help parents, students, and teachers build the skills and attitudes lifelong learners need, both in and out of the classroom.
"Research shows that children benefit most when parents work directly with children on learning activities at home," NWREL author and researcher Kathleen Cotton writes. "Research also shows that parents do not have to be highly educated or have a lot of free time in order to help their children learn. The earlier a child's parents get involved in his or her education, the more good it does."
Three of the booklets are aimed at parents and recommend out-of-school activities that can help students build the motivation and the skills-in communication, studying, research, and thinking-needed for lifelong learning. Suggested activities are short-term and require no special training; most call for only common household items. A fourth booklet, targeted at high school students, offers strategies they can use to build their own learning skills. The fifth booklet, aimed at educators, identifies research findings and provides research-based recommendations for classroom activities that can build students' lifelong learning skills.
Individually, the materials are as follows:
Lifelong Learning Skills for the Preschool/Kindergarten Child: Tips for Parents (Booklet 1)- Following general information about lifelong learning, this booklet identifies the kinds of learning environments researchers recommend for young children. It then outlines learning activities that parents can do with their children to help them to be ready for school and to begin building skills for a lifetime of learning. Suggestions range from imitating animal noises and common sounds from the environment to encouraging "pretend" reading and having the child look for letters of the alphabet on cans and boxes of food. Also included is a listing of other parent resources and ordering information.
Lifelong Learning Skills for the Elementary School Child: Tips for Parents (Booklet 2)-Background information about lifelong learning is followed by parent-child learning activities in several areas: (a) learning styles, (b) positive attitudes toward learning, (c) communication skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening), (d) research and independent learning skills, (e) study skills and learning strategies, and (f) higher-order thinking skills. Activities include starting a home library, visiting secondhand bookstores, doing cooking projects, making a book, keeping a travel journal, and maintaining a family log of events. Resources for parents and ordering information are listed.
Lifelong Learning Skills for the Middle/Junior High School Student: Tips for Parents (Booklet 3)-Organized in the same manner as Booklet 2, the parent-child activities recommended in this resource reflect the growing knowledge and critical thinking abilities of these older students. Suggested activities include helping the child connect new facts and ideas to prior knowledge, modeling respectful listening, recording the child's oral reading, discussing educational TV programs, and teaching the child to use home references such as dictionaries, phone directories, TV schedules, and encyclopedias. Resources for parents are identified and ordering information included.
From High School Student to Lifelong Learner: Your Route to Independence (Booklet 4)-This booklet is addressed to secondary students who want to strengthen their lifelong learning skills. Beginning with a questionnaire to help each student clarify his or her learning style, it presents general information on lifelong learning and a series of activities that can help students become independent lifelong learners. Activities are organized by the particular skill they address: positive attitudes toward learning, reading, writing, speaking and listening, independent learning, study skills, higher-order thinking skills, and "thinking about thinking."
Education for Lifelong Learning: Literature Synthesis (Booklet 5)-Written for teachers, principals, and district staff, this resource discusses the need for today's students to become lifelong learners. It identifies requisite traits (such as curiosity, teamwork, independence, persistence, and flexibility) and skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Finally, it offers research-based strategies for helping students to develop them. Strategies are organized under the headings of personal traits for lifelong learning, learning skills, the teacher's role, and the family. An annotated bibliography is included.
The lifelong-learning booklets comprise Series I of the new school improvement research series titled Research You Can Use. To order one or all of the booklets in Series I, please see the Order Form.
