Preparing Students to Take Responsibility for Learning: The Role of Non-Curricular Learning Strategies

Standardized test-based accountability measures often result in overemphasis on knowing facts and cast students into passive roles. Such schooling yields neither the learning nor the learners the modern world requires and can exhaust and demoralize teachers. We assert that students must assume greater responsibility for their learning in order to attain deep understanding and transferable skills that benefit them throughout their lives. Curriculum and instruction must therefore pay greater attention to developing skills that allow students to take such ownership of their learning. We identify and discuss three foundational skills that enable students to assume more responsibility for learning: self-regulation, collaboration, and academic mindsets.  After reviewing current research on factors contributing to these non-curricular learning skills and exploring their importance within school contexts and beyond, we discuss the need for more classroom-based research on interventions aimed at their development.