Academic progress is certainly an important part of the journey and the grade 12s have been working very hard on completing their extended essays, planning and preparing their TOK presentations as well as completing internal assessments in many subjects.
When looking to make educational gains you need to consider broader issues than the micro focus of course requirements. There is a large body of research detailing how learning about self-regulation can lead to sustained progress. Self-regulated learning can be broken into three essential components:
cognition - the mental process involved in knowing, understanding, and learning;
metacognition - often defined as ‘learning to learn’; and
motivation - willingness to engage our metacognitive and cognitive skills.
Consequently, we took the grade 12 students off timetable for a day to focus on Success, Organisation, Achievement and Readiness (SOAR).
Throughout the day we had the opportunity to engage in activities focusing on their wellbeing, stress management, organisational strategies and revision techniques. This allowed us all to think about what we do and question our routines. Most pertinently it allowed for an opportunity of self-reflection at a point in the school year where there was still much time to make a change and have an impact.
It is important that the skills learnt and discussed during this day are allowed to develop further. During Monday’s advisory time the grade 12 will be continuing to develop the skills they were introduced to from the day.
In the end these factors can be the small changes that lead to great gains and help lead our students to be those that confront their educational challenges.