Learning to Learn

Metacognition is a term that puzzles many first year Lancing students when they see it on their timetables, but for those who have come through our Advance Programme of early talent selection, they have already shown talent for this essential skill, answering demanding problem-solving tasks to gain early admission to Lancing.

To define Metacognition, it’s best to cite government sources. In the 2018 Guidance Report by the UK-based Education Endowment Foundation, Chief Executive Sir Kevan Collins, defines it in this way:

‘On a very basic level, it’s about students’ ability to monitor, direct, and review their learning. Effective metacognitive strategies get learners to think about their own learning more explicitly, usually by teaching them to set goals and monitor and evaluate their own academic progress.’

At Lancing, we teach those skills directly. Good learning practice is, most importantly, embedded across the curriculum. But we think it is useful to also discretely teach those skills too, not least to set the foundations when students first join us. Each new Third Form student receives a metacognition lesson, taught by teachers from across Lancing’s curriculum, many of them Master’s or doctoral level academic researchers, people who can inspire with their own passion for learning and research.

One of the fundamentals of the course involves teaching students how to use both our library and to be guided by our amazing team of information professionals. Lancing is a proud champion of chartered librarianship and our librarians come in to teach our students research skills, both in the physical library and through its complementary digital resources, our e-library.

We are swift also to teach students how to assess the validity of information sources. We teach web research and how to probe bias in information sources, as well as t the perils of digital distractions and the tools to support a health, productive, focused digital life.

By accessing safe and trusted information sources in a controlled manner, students are also able to inform themselves, bringing reliable information into discussions. Indeed, so fully are debate and discussion integrated into the nature of the school that the Head Master himself teaches all Third Formers about the skills of parliamentary debating, something then augmented by our House Debating Competition, debating activities, whole school and inter-school debating.

Those research skills and the art of argument are then put to work in researching a project. While we have assessment criteria and a scheme of research, the focus here is not on gaining marks so much as on the skills of self-assessment, drafting, planning and project management. This is one of the few opportunities a student has to learn and research for the sake of

doing it. As the government definition has it, the opportunities to learn, reflect and develop one’s own thought are the essential attributes of metacognition.

The skills of independent thought and research fostered during this early stage of students’ academic careers are then extended over the rest of their time with us. Lancing’s Religion, Philosophy and Ethics course in the Fourth Form provides a further research project while at GCSE coursework is still an element of some subjects and increasingly so in the Sixth Form. There, Dr Kerney, our Head of Senior Scholars takes on the mantle, tasking all Lower Sixth Formers to challenge received opinion and engage in scholarly debate via the Heresy Project. This then leads into the Extended Project Qualification, led by Mr Richardson, a chance for a further academic qualification, and the essay and extension prizes of scholarly organisations and universities in which Lancing regularly wins accolades.

Quite simply, independent thought suffuses the College rather than simply mechanical, rote learning. We foster these values through an intentional, long-term project. It is no wonder, therefore, that we receive news so often of the outstanding academic results of OLs in their first and subsequent degrees – the values we teach are enduring. DR JOHN HERBERT Deputy Head