Why are learning strategies, thinking and problem-solving important for school education? By focusing on them, teachers can help their pupils to make sense of things at a deep level, to exercise critical judgment and think creatively.

They can help them to solve problems and reach sound decisions both in and out of school. They can teach them to regulate their own learning and thinking processes, thereby becoming more self-directed learners. And they can teach them to collaborate more effectively and gain in self-esteem and self-confidence.

These skills are important for raising attainment at school and achieving broader educational goals. Pupils’ intellectual growth, their commitment to lifelong learning and their capacity to take charge of their lives now and in the future hinge upon them.

Using a computing studies class at Cardinal Newman High in North Lanarkshire, a high unemployment area, I set out to create an environment which would infuse learning strategies, thinking and problem-solving into the curriculum.

I developed a simple framework, informed by a range of perspectives drawn from research literature on learning to learn, teaching thinking and problem-solving, and from practical experience of curriculum development within computing studies.

The framework has four main strands (see panel):

* creating better scope for effective learning, thinking and problem-solving skills and strategies to develop; * enabling pupils to gain competence and confidence in their use of these skills and strategies; * developing pupils’ self-awareness of learning and thinking, leading to self-regulation; * enabling pupils to learn with understanding.

The mixed-ability class consisted of 12 girls and eight boys, whose progress I followed closely from September of S3 to April of S4, as they learned how to programme as part of their Standard grade course.

Their teacher, Eileen Mallaghan, contributed actively to the research by helping to plan interventions and appraise the research outcomes.

Data was gathered from a range of sources, including pupils’ coursework, assessments, progress rates and reviews of learning, to provide evidence on:

* their understanding of elementary programming concepts, principles and techniques; * their competence at solving programming problems; * their development of a range of higher-order thinking and metacognitive skills; * their ability to generalise learning and problem-solving strategies and to demonstrate near transfer (by using a spreadsheet to solve problems); * their responses to the programming.

What emerged was that pupils’ programs were well designed and contained few logical errors. They adopted a planned and strategic approach to problem-solving, for example, when locating and correcting errors in their programs: Michael said: “I got a printed listing and looked down it, seeing what was wrong and corrected it from there.”

Catherine said: “To find the bugs, I ran the program to see what happened. I also looked at a previous program.”

A range of higher-order thinking skills was successfully demonstrated, such as analysis, evaluation, comparing and contrasting solutions and generating ideas.

When asked to give advice to younger learners, pupils made no recommendations on surface approaches designed for fast progress, but equated efficient progress in learning with careful and planned progress on a problem and with understanding and retention.

Their advice stressed the need to think ahead to anticipate potential problems and take appropriate actions to avoid them, rather than merely reacting to situations.

They also stressed the importance of various aspects of self-regulated learning and how to approach a complex task, for example, with strategy (“go through it one step at a time”); pacing (“take your time, because if you rush, you will not remember”); organisation (“keep your folder tidy and keep all printouts in order so you don’t get in a muddle”); expectations (“don’t expect it to be easy”); perseverance (“new things may seem hard, but they become clear after a few tries”); and accepting help (“be prepared to accept help from other pupils”).

Pupils identified how particular strategies could be applied across the curriculum. For instance, when checking solutions, some suggestions were to make an estimate before using a calculator, do the inverse calculation, and test a hypothesis in science.

They made rapid progress in learning how to problem-solve using a spreadsheet and could readily transfer aspects of their learning from programming. Of 17 pupils who attempted a “football league tables” spreadsheet from a bank of Standard grade projects, 14 gained a grade 1 on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being the top grade) and the average mark was 87.2 per cent.

Most pupils reacted positively to the learning resources and the programming class. They mixed well with others, maintaining a learning pace that suited them personally while still discussing problems, comparing solutions, sharing resources or seeking help.

Their self-assessments on understanding and confidence were carefully formulated and generally reflected their performances accurately. But almost half the class were concerned about their progress, and some found programming laborious.

The timescale has provided ample scope for reviewing learning, for pupils to assimilate the teaching approach, for a deep understanding of the subject matter to emerge, and for effective collaborations to form.

Relationships of trust have been established, which have enhanced the quality of learning and research outcomes.

The degree of flexibility in classroom transactions has enabled pupils to become self-directed as learners. The focus on how they tackle their learning has supported targeted interventions to enable them to manage their learning better.

Two key issues to arise from this study are the need to prune syllabus content to make room for problem-solving, and to re-examine the secondary curriculum to draw out the natural connections between subject matters.

Margaret Kirkwood is president of the Scottish Educational Research Association and senior lecturer in business and computer education at the University of Strathclyde Faculty of Education

SETTING UP A FRAMEWORK

Creating scope

* Reappraise the curriculum, redesign activities

* Make the purposes of learning activities clear

* Place an occasional spotlight on skills and strategies

* Use authentic problems

* Promote autonomous learning

Building confidence

* Scaffold pupils’ learning

* Provide varied practice and offer targeted feedback

* Stress the applicability of skills and strategies metacognition

* Introduce a language of learning, thinking and problem-solving

* Model approaches and encourage self-prompting

* Create opportunities fordiscussing specific tasks understanding

* Promote active learning

* Promote respect for ideashelp pupils make active connections