This section focuses mainly on ways of helping students become more effective independent leaners.
The crucial role of the Student planner
It has always a been a concern that students don’t always play as full a part in post-16 lessons as they should. This does not mean that all lessons where students take the lead are always successful. I’ve seen more than my fair share of research groups tediously feeding back to uninterested groups to know that much time can be wasted if students are not fully engaged. What I mean is something more limited. How do we ensure that students play a full and active part in the lesson? One of my keep messages is that students need to come prepared to the lesson with something to say so that any subsequent group work does not end up in a pooling of ignorance. This preparation need only be quite short: reading an article from History Review; listening to a podcast; creating a chart or spider diagram or creating a glossary for the new vocabulary to be introduced that lesson
The idea of a course planner, written for students which identifies what they have to do before, during and
