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curious and open-minded.  Even when the origin of their inquiry is a class assignment, effective learners still open themselves to new terminology, new concepts, and new challenges.  Nearly anyone can memorize and regurgitate information, but that isn't necessarily learning.  Effective learners place that new content into a personal context that they can relate to, and draw parallels to their own experience.  They are happy to learn for learning's sake.  While they may earn a good grade as a consequence of their attitude towards learning the material, they take personal pride and satisfaction in gaining the mastery that produces that good grade.  Effective learners are open-minded in that they self-evaluate and accept constructive criticism and alternate viewpoints, but more importantly, they adapt their thinking to make course corrections to improve their understanding.  But the best learners follow their passions and inspirations and put in the effort until their work product reflects their self-set goal.  They act on inner motivation, find the resources to satisfy that curiosity or question, and then put the concepts into practice.

Case in point, just as Kayla Scheer and Mr. Knight noted in their video/presentation, today's effective learners go straight to YouTube and teach themselves what they want to know.  My son makes complex origami objects like (and including) the ones pictured below just for fun.  The orange one is made from 12 sticky notes and rotates/turns itself inside-out if you push the inside points from the front, through the center, towards the back.  The blue one is a single sheet of origami paper and one piece of tape, and it can assume the shape of a tube or a sphere, depending on which axis you compress its shape.  My son thinks it's fun spending hours making complicated folding sequences, but what I see is an in-depth understanding of spatial conceptualization to transfer to practical, engineering applications. Now that's effective learning!

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First it's important to know what an effective learner is. An effective learner is a life long learning who uses resources, like the internet, has their gatekeeper to knowledge and information. The effective learner is a new type of student that we should be encouraging in our classrooms. So what are things we can do in the classroom to create and support effective learners?
1. Encourage students to ask more questions - constant questions are a positive sign for the teacher. Questions = curiosity! If appropriate, teachers should try answering with a question to help gain critical thinking in their students.
2. Be up to ideas - whether the idea is from a student or society, teachers should be open to incorporating these ideas into lessons. If the topic is an interest of the class, than the student will be more likely to get involved with the assignment/lesson
3. Personalize the learning - all students have their own learning habits, therefore, one method of teaching will not work. Teachers should try to personalize some lessons towards those students that will need more assistance in certain subjects.
4. Teach beyond the classroom walls - Whether you like it or not, students will eventually leave school and enter the real world. We want to supply our students with knowledge that can be used in that real word. We need to introduce elements, such has technology, into the curriculum that students can use in the community.
These are only a few examples of how to create a highly effective learning environment. We need to update our ways of teaching to meet the engaging and responsive world around us.

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There are many ways to learn. And many ways to teach. But when it comes to understanding what makes up a successful classroom environment, that's when it becomes a little bit tricky in measuring its effectiveness.

So what makes a highly effective classroom? Terry Heick has put together a very smart list of ideas that teachers should perhaps consider when studying their students' learning effectiveness.

10 characteristics of a highly effective learning environment
Encourage students to ask questions
When students interact with their instructors by constantly asking questions, it's a positive sign. It's the best proof available of a student's curiosity and the teacher's teaching effectiveness.
Pay more emphasis on questions; not the answers
According to Heick, questioning is the art of learning. When good questions are asked, learning takes place via the student-teacher interaction. Hence, the student should also be graded on questions asked. And not just on answers given.
Be open to ideas
Ideas for lessons, reading, tests, and projects can come from anywhere. Keep an open mind and stay inspired. It's a surefire way to keep your students inspired as well.
Mix up your learning techniques
Whatever your choice of learning model-whether it's inquiry-based learning, direct instruction, eLearning, and on and on- make sure you have a blend of techniques as that only enriches your students' learning experience.
Your teaching reaches beyond the classroom walls
Students eventually leave their academic world and enter the real world...and they take their learning with them. Make sure your curriculum makes sense to them when they are out in the community.
Personalize your learning
From the very first day of class, try to figure out which of your students need more of your attention-where they are at their learning quotient. Try to gauge where they need to be at their reading level, or readiness for new material, for instance. Accordingly personalize and pace your lessons. This strategy is guaranteed to give you the results you desire from your students.
Do away with a clinically based assessment plan.
When it comes to assessing your students' learning, your goal, according to Heick, should be to chaff out the "good students" from the "good thinkers." Clinical testing methods are passé. Make it clear to your students why they are being tested and what it means to them. In short put the ball in their court and watch the difference.
Ensure that students understand your criteria for success.
Create an assessment plan based on a nice mix of classroom participation, testing, etc. and make it clear to your students right from the very beginning how you plan on assessing their work.
Relearn learning habits.
There is never one way to learn. Keep challenging your mind by picking up new learning habits. And encourage your students to do the same.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Learning never ends. Revisit old thinking and learn from mistakes. Above all, never give up. Your students rely on you. ( image via Shutterstock)

Source: Terry Heick | 10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment | June 2014 | TeachThought.com

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10 Ways Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment

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There are many ways to learn. And many ways to teach. But when it comes to understanding what makes up a successful classroom environment, that's when it becomes a little bit tricky in measuring its effectiveness. So what makes a highly effective classroom?

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This video I found is a great illustration of some of the qualities that make up an effective learner.

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A small video if you wish to become an effective learner

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Some qualities that create effective learners:
1. Curious - As mentioned in multiple videos what we've watched, students are more likely to engage in learning if they have an interest in the topic. Curiosity will lead students to diver deeper into research to gain a better understanding of the subject. The more curious a student is, the further they will go!
2. Creativity - effective learners will look for a way to complete an assignment in a "out of the box" type of way. Willing to improvise, which results in creating new ideas to solve problems.
3. Willing to Collaborate with Others -Effective learners are willing to share their ideas, and listen to their classmates ideas, to solve a problem. Willingness to be challenged by their peers, and able to provide others with constructive feedback.

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It seams to me that to become an effective learner the student first needs to have a desire to learn. As a teacher I believe that it is up to us to find engaging and dynamic ways to present our material and lessons. We have the opportunity to unlock the students mind and interests in a subject. That being said not all students or even many students will find all subject matters interesting. So we do our best. How can teachers make the subject and lesson interesting or at least more interesting?
1. By engaging the learner through hands opportunities. We as teachers need to come up with ways to help our children move and manipulate materials, but that wont work alone.
2. Teachers need to also give other types of learning styles appropriate time in the classroom as well. It is great to give a balance of auditory-musical and spatial or visual material as well as verbal.
3. The best lessons incorporate a bit of all those learning styles and more but also helps the children to want to learn. They inspire the children.
What is an effective learner?
1. Effective learners are lifelong learners! This concept was brought up in our Module #2 video. Lifelong learning is a part of being human. We must constantly learn and grow to have a fulfilling life.
2. Effective learners are "natural navigators". This concept was also brought up in our module but really elaborated on in my link from the Education Endowment Foundation link. This is the idea that they must take charge in their own learning to be effective.
3. Critical thinkers are effective learners. They need to know how and why they are searching for the info they are to really gain meaningful knowlege.
4. Effective learners need to be creators to. This goes back to what I was saying about engaging fully through hands on experiences.
5. Communicators make for effective learners because they can then learn from different people and share their learning effectively.
6. They also need to be thinkers. If they can't think beyond the paper or book they will never truely develop a meaningful understanding of what they are learning.
7. Lastly they need to be collaborators as well. This way they can work together to achieve a goal and by far something greater than they could by themselves. They also learn to lead and follow which are great skills for effective learners to have.
Effective learners as you can see incorporate the "4 c's". They are: Critical thinkers, collaborators, communicators and creators.

This image.diagram is very helpful to me.

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Effective teaching and Learning_ Jennifer D'Angelo

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Effective teaching and Learning_ Jennifer D'Angelo

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Although not just about children this video talks about the research side.

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Effective teaching, effective learning: how do we know what works? Laura Patsko

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How many ways are there to teach or learn a language? What materials, techniques, tools, approaches and attitudes are involved? How can we know which combination is best for a particular learner in a particular context? This presentation will outline what pedagogy research involves and what insights it brings to CUP ELT, our partners and our customers.

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‘Developing effective learners’ means that the students need to be in charge and understand their own learning. This would help motivate them to be effective learners. How is this done? By tutoring, collaborative learning, feedback, and metacognition and self-regulation strategies.

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'Developing effective learners' refers to approaches that support pupils to plan, monitor, understand and manage their own learning, in order to develop

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How to learn anything fast is an informative video. In my point of view,  it is very much it is related to effective learners.

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How to Learn Anything... Fast - Josh Kaufman

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In my opinion, I see this steps help the effective learners to be very effective.

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7 Steps for Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

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Neale Donald Walsch once said:“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

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Raghad Alagil
This picture is beautiful explaining the types of learners.
I like to share it.

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Funders and Founders Notes - The Types of Learners - which one are you?

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Raghad Alagil.

Effective learner.
I chose a beneficial article talk about who is the effective learners and why they are becoming effective learners in natural ways.
The article mentioned four keys for the effective learners in my point of view they are very informative.  The keys are:
1-    They are curious.
At this point, the article explained how the effective learner has to be curious to learn more about anything that you want. Moreover, curious is make a huge difference in the process of learning. You will be having fun while you learn and your knowledge will be more effective.
2-    They are process- oriented.
Here the article explained that if you want to be an effective learner you have to focus on the process of learning, not the result. Furthermore, as long as you focus on the process, you will learn more, and you will enjoy the journey.
3-    They apply what they have learned.
Effective learners apply what they've learned on the real life. So, this thing is helping them to be effective while they learn because they're doing this thing in real life.
4-    They retain what they have learned.
So effective learners retain what they have learned. Also, they did not forget what they have learned quickly. I support this point because it is a very effective point if anyone wants to be an effective learner.
For more information. (See the article below)!

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Becoming a good learner is essential in the world we live in today. Things change fast, and you need to upgrade yourself constantly to stay relevant.

Being in the field of IT, I can really feel the pace of things. It seems like no week goes by without a new technology coming out. If I were satisfied with sticking only with what I learned years ago, my skills would soon be obsolete.

I believe such a situation happens, not just in IT, but also in other fields. That's why it's important that you constantly update your knowledge and refresh your skill set.

But how can we be effective at learning?

Based on my observations, there are some characteristics that effective learners have. You should aim to develop them in yourself. Here are four characteristics of effective learners:
1. They are curious
As I wrote in How to Educate Yourself Online, your curiosity is like the fuel that will determine how far you'll go. The more curious you are, the further you will go.

Curiosity makes a big difference in the process of learning. If you are curious, you will enjoy learning. Learning will become an adventure. As a result, you will do more of it. Over time, the gap between those who have curiosity and those who don't will become huge.
2. They are process-oriented
A while back, I read The Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner. It's a relatively short book, but it gives me a useful perspective on becoming an effective learner.

One thing the author emphasizes is the importance of focusing on the process instead of the product. To be a good learner, being process-oriented is essential. You should focus on the process of getting better instead of the end result.

For instance, in learning music, rather than worrying about whether you can play a piece, you should focus on improving the techniques that will get you there. Figure out where you lack and practice it. If you do this, the outcomes will take care of themselves.

There are some benefits of having this mindset:

You minimize disappointment and frustration.
If you focus on the product, you will be disappointed when you don't get what you want. But if you focus on the process, you won't have such a negative feeling. Your goal is simply to improve yourself as much as you can.

It focuses your energy on what's important.
Mastering a skill requires a lot of energy. Having a process-oriented mindset allows you to focus your energy on what's important (that is, improving your techniques). You don't waste your energy worrying about something that's beyond your control.

You have the patience to go through the process.
If you focus on the product, you might not have the patience necessary to go through the process. You just want to get the final result. As a result, you might take shortcuts (with bad consequences) or simply give up.
On the other hand, if you focus on the process, you will have the patience necessary. That will enable you to go through the process and eventually get the desired outcomes. Plus, you will enjoy the journey.

3. They apply what they've learned
To fully learn something, you need to apply what you have learned. That's why I'm an advocate of having side projects.

Working on a project takes time and energy, so you don't need to create a project for everything. Do it only for a few things that you want to learn deeper. My article entitled Learn New Skills With Project-Based Learning explains more about it.
4. They retain what they've learned
It's easy to forget what we have learned. That's why you need to think not only about how to acquire knowledge but also how to retain it. When you are losing your grip on certain knowledge, you should be able to "reinstall" it with relative ease.

Taking notes is a common approach that people take. But make sure that your notes are effective: they should be able to trigger your memory in the least amount of time.

In reading books, a good method to retain knowledge is to highlight the key points of a book. It makes it easy for you to "reinstall" the knowledge later on.

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Having these four characteristics will help you become an effective learner. You will be able not only to adapt, but also to thrive in a changing world.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions on becoming a good learner? Feel free to share them in the comments.
For interesting links and updates, please follow me on Twitter.

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4 Key Characteristics of Effective Learners

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Becoming a good learner is essential in the world we live in today. Things change fast, and you need to upgrade yourself constantly to stay relevant. Being in the field of IT, I can really feel the pace of things. It seems like no week goes by without a new technology coming out.