Tools for developing Learner Autonomy and Self-reflection

1. Tools for supporting metacognitive skills and self-reflection

Development of reflective skills needs to start already at an early school age. Regular reflection on language acquisition progress is an important part of this process. Although it is possible to find self-check sections in some textbooks, these are exclusively focused on the content and the language itself but do not include reflection on how the learning took place, what approaches the learner chose, what helped their learning progress, etc.

Teachers can implement practices including e.g. language journals in which pupils record their reflections - either through pictures, at an early stage of learning, or through simple statements or observations, whether in their native or foreign language, again depending on the level of progress - or also through discussions, interviews where the teacher can record the results in various forms in places accessible to the pupils. At the heart of any good reflection are the following key ideas:

 

- what I have learned / how it made me feel

- how I did

- why I was learning it

- what I struggled with / why I didn't master something

- how I will do it next time / what else I would like to learn/try

 

However, these key ideas can be transformed into many forms and may not necessarily be all included in every reflection. The important aspect, however, is regularity so that pupils adopt this reflective approach and it becomes a natural part of the learning process for them.