3.+Findings

Research Findings

I found that Year 3 and 4 students’ understanding of Managing Self could be developed further than the organisational and self-disciplinary understandings they began with.

Hipkins (2006) encourages teachers to look beyond organisational matters and self-discipline when teaching the Key Competency ‘Managing Self’. She suggests that “on one level, ‘managing self’ is about setting, working towards, and monitoring learning goals with reflective self-awareness, and about being organised and ready to learn” (p. 33). Discussion with students at the beginning of the project revealed their understanding of Managing Self focused on organisational matters and self-discipline. Comments such as the following were indicative of children's understanding at the beginning of the project: “Getting organised in the morning before school” “Ignoring distractions when people are being silly” “I manage myself when I don’t talk when I’m working”

I had contributed to this low-level understanding as our class ‘learning challenges’ focused on these aspects. Hipkins (2006) informs teachers that the competency “includes much wider cognitive and metacognitive components. It is also about being aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a person and a learner, and being willing and able to use this self-knowledge to approach living and learning tasks strategically” (p. 33). There was a direct correlation between my level of understanding and the initial understanding of the students.

As we unpacked the definition of Managing Self from the Curriculum, comments from the children began to show greater depth. When referring to having a can-do attitude, students commented, “It’s egging yourself on”, “encouraging yourself” and “believing that you can do things”. Regarding being resilient, one child commented, “If you don’t get something right, it’s not the end of your life.”

As opportunities arose over the following weeks, I referred to classroom and playground situations that exemplified Managing Self. For example, children seeking support and help from each other (being a capable learner/strategies for meeting challenges). I deliberately used the language from the definition and discussions we had. This encouraged the transfer from the words of the document, to the behaviours of the children.

Developing a rubric to challenge and support students to develop the Managing Self Key Competency was not possible due to time restraints. By building on the current practice of daily learning challenges, it was possible to focus on the learning and implementation of the competency rather than introducing a new routine to students. One issue that arose was encouraging students to select a challenge that was challenging! I found myself intervening to ensure that students were being honest in their selection. Again, when reflecting on their progress, there were some students that continually found it difficult to reflect on their progress critically or to give any evidence that would provide proof of their progress and development.

It is difficult to conclude whether this project has affected student behaviour in significant and long-lasting ways. By listening to the comments made by students, it is clear that the level of understanding around what Managing Self means has deepened. Current thinking about learning acknowledges that learners must ultimately be responsible for their learning since no one else can do it for them. Thus assessment for learning must involve pupils, so as to provide them with information about how well they are doing and guide their subsequent efforts. Much of this information will come as feedback from the teacher, but some will be through their direct involvement in assessing their own work. The awareness of learning and ability of learners to direct it for themselves is of increasing importance in the context of encouraging lifelong learning (Assessment Reform Group, 1999, p. 7). The process that was used in the project relied heavily on the input of students. Onore (1992) points out that negotiating curriculum decisions promotes student engagement, exploration, and reflection, all of which are key ingredients to the maximization of learning (retrieved from []). The process that was used could be applied to other competencies to make them meaningful to students.

Davis & Davey (n.d), state that how teachers structure the learning environment affects students’ self-regulation, self-efficacy and achievement. “Regardless of the subject, providing a process goal with progress feedback and time for self-evaluation leads to the highest levels of self-efficacy, strategy use, and learning. Self-regulation is a way of thinking about learning that effective learners do easily” (p. 2).