Learner effectiveness is *multidimensional*

Introducing a new model for thinking about how to get better at learning stuff

If I may, a couple of quick announcements before we ‘take the helm’…

1. Book launch

The online launch of Making Change Stick will be on Sat 25th Jan, 2025, from 11am-12pm UK time.

After a light grilling by the brilliant Rachel Macfarlane, there will be some *amazing* prize giveaways, including:

• 5x signed copies of the book

• 1x 1h implementation coaching session for your school (worth £100)

• 1x 3-year membership for your school/organisation (worth up to £3,950)

Don’t worry if you can’t make it live, I’ll send a recording afterwards. But to be in with a chance of winning, you need to a) share the post on social media and b) attend the event live.

Social media sharing links:

• Bluesky

• Linked In

• Threads

• X

I hope to see you there!

2. The Learning Planet Festival: Human Rights, Democratic Values and Environmental Justice

There’s a fantastic FREE online festival running from Jan 16-31.

Three events on January 16th will set the tone for the rest of the festival, including one on the ancient roots of schooling by my dear friend and force of nature Ellie Costello.

A dizzying array of rights-centric education events will follow over a fortnight - the Centering Education Practice on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child event on January 26th is one to watch out for in particular.

Sign up here - I’ll see you there!

OK, let’s do this…

Learner effectiveness is multidimensional

Is it possible to teach people how to get better at learning stuff?

I’ve spent much of the last 15 years wrestling with this question, and I am convinced that the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’.

I’m not the only one. This question drives a field of educational theory and practice that goes by many names:

• Learning to learn

• Self-regulated learning

• Learner effectiveness

Recently, Kate McAllister and I have developed a model for understanding the multidimensional nature of learner effectiveness.

In this post - the first of two on this topic - I'll outline our model, which draws on the metaphor of a ship’s wheel, and provide a rationale. In my next post, I’ll demonstrate how we can use this model to help people get better at learning stuff.

Reader, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Either by reply or in the comments below, please let me know:

• Does this model make sense to you?

• Is there anything missing from this model?

• Do you think we're barking up the wrong tree entirely?

The Ship’s Wheel Model of Learner Effectiveness

The key thing to understand is that learner effectiveness is multidimensional.

Our model breaks down learner effectiveness into six domains. We don’t think these are the only six - I’ll return to this in the concluding comments below. But they are six that make sense in the context of school-based education.

Under each heading below, there are a series of questions. These are aimed primarily at teenagers, but they could easily be adapted and applied to other age groups - including adults.

Let’s dive in!

1. Physical

We can think of the physical domain on two levels. First, caring for your body.

• Do students always get at least 9 or 10 hours of sleep on a school night, as doctors currently recommend?

• Do they have healthy habits around nutrition? Do they know what the best fuel is for their bodies? Are they in the habit of eating and drinking things that make them feel bad in some way?

• Do they understand the connection between physical health and mental health? Are they in the habit of ‘getting into their bodies’ and raising their heart rate from time to time?

It’s also important to optimise the physical environment:

• Do students understand the ways in which the physical environment can affect their ability to learn effectively?

• Do they have a quiet, well-lit space where they can study without distraction, either at home or in school?

• Are they able to keep track of their things – their school books, their PE kit, their equipment and their files?

2. Emotional

We can think of the emotional domain on two levels also. First, developing emotional literacy.

• Do students know how they feel about:

  • themselves?

  • school?

  • different aspects of their lives?

• Are they able to express these feelings in ways that make them feel understood?

• Are they able to recognise and understand the feelings of others?

Once students are able to recognise and name their feelings, they can start to develop the ability to self-regulate.

• Are students in the habit of checking in with how they feel in different situations?

• Are they aware of a range of self-regulation techniques?

• Have they built up a repertoire of rituals and routines that work for them?

3. Behavioural

Again, we can think about the behavioural domain on two levels. First, students need to acquire the habits of effective learners:

• Do they organise their time effectively?

• Are they able to successfully manage their workflow?

• Do they have helpful rituals and routines in place and do they actually use them?

It’s also important for students to identify habits and patterns of behaviour that inhibit learning:

• Are they prone to procrastination?

• Are they easily distracted?

• Do they have a healthy relationship with technology?

So far, we’ve looked at three of the six domains. You may have noticed that many of these ideas relate to us as adults as much as to children and young people. I‘ll return to this idea in a future post. First, let’s look at the remaining three domains of the ship’s wheel model…

4. Relational

There are three key aspects of relational learning. First, relating to yourself:

• How do students talk to themselves? Do they engage in lots of negative self-talk, or are they really good at building themselves up?

• How do they see themselves in relation to others?

• What do they believe about who they are and what they might go on to achieve in the future?

Next, relating to others:

• Are students able to communicate effectively in a range of contexts?

• Are they in the habit of actively listening and paying attention to the people around them?

• Can they, and do they, work well with others?

Finally, relating to the world around you:

• Do students have an awareness of current affairs?

• Are they able to make links between their learning in school and the wider world, or their future destinations?

• Do they understand how they influence the world, and how the world influences them?

5. Cognitive

We can think of this on two levels. First, understanding cognition:

• Do students know how their brains work?

• Do they understand how learning happens?

• Are they aware of how memories are formed?

Second, developing cognitive strategies:

• Do students know which learning strategies they already use well, and where they have room for improvement?

• Do they know how to learn and memorise information effectively?

• Are they able to transfer knowledge and skills and apply them in different areas of their lives?

6. Navigational

Finally, we reach the outer layer of our ship’s wheel model. The navigational level is about setting a destination and moving strategically towards it.

We can apply the navigational level to help us achieve our goals in any of the other five domains. Alternatively, we can apply the navigational level to becoming the kind of person we want to become.

In relation to any area of their lives - sleep, technology addiction, study skills - are your students able to articulate:

1. Where they are currently?

2. Where they want to be?

3. How they might get from (a) to (b)?

This is the level at which we learn how to take control of our lives and become more confident, proactive, self-regulated learners.

Why do we need to take a multidimensional view of learner effectiveness?

Ultimately, we want all children and young people to be happy and healthy, to learn effectively, and to succeed in school and in life. To achieve this goal, students need to realise their potential in each of these domains – to be physically healthy, to be emotionally literate, to develop the habits of effective learners – and so on.

If the ship’s wheel were a roulette wheel, it would be fair to say that schools have gone ‘all in’ on the cognitive wedge. Think of the language that has dominated the education debate over the last ten years or so - retrieval practice, cognitive load theory, the knowledge-rich curriculum… all of these ideas are situated firmly within the cognitive domain. As are timetables, subjects, lesson plans, revision booklets, mock exams, homework…

In a sense, this is not surprising. Schools are judged according to exam results. And of course we want people to be able to learn effectively, to understand the world around them, and to gain qualifications.

However, if a student’s barriers to learning are located in one or more of the other domains – if they aren’t sleeping well, if they’re addicted to technology, if they keep falling out with their friends – or all three – then talking about flash cards is going to be of limited use.

In my work, I see this pattern playing out in schools all the time. Teachers plan amazing lessons and teach as well as they can, but often it doesn't ‘go in’ - not because of a cognitive deficit, but because the students aren't functioning optimally in the other domains.

The map is not the territory

The ship’s wheel model is just that - a model. Models are a way of simplifying reality to help us understand it. But they are limited and should always come with caveats.

You could argue that there are things missing from this model. For example, Kate and I thought hard about including a wedge for moral/ethical, and another for spiritual. If we were writing a self-help book for adults, we might well have included such things. But we’re trying to develop a model that can help school students learn more effectively, and so we decided to stick with these six domains for now.

We do not claim that the ship’s wheel model is complete, nor that it is empirically derived. Instead, it is rooted in our collective 30 years’ experience working in the field of self-regulated learning. I do, however, think that this model tells us something important about what happens in schools (and does not happen enough, and should perhaps happen more). As George Box famously wrote: “All models are wrong, but some models are useful.”

In particular, I think it’s important for school-based practitioners to bust out of the cognitive wedge from time to time and to think about how to develop other aspects of learner effectiveness.

Until the next time…

In my next post, I’ll explain how we can use the ship’s wheel model to identify where a students’ barriers to learning lie, and how to identify improvement strategies to help them get better at learning stuff.

In the mean-time, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the story so far.

• What are your first impressions of the ship’s wheel model?

• If you’re a teacher, can you envisage how this model might help your students move forward in their learning?

• If you’re a parent, does this help you think about your child’s learning?

• What does this model make you think about your own ability to learn?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!