In this episode, I’m speaking to Richard Wheadon. Richard is a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching (FCCT), a former senior leader and author of Learning Habits: How to Develop Independent and Successful Learners.

It was regarding this book that I most wanted to chat with Richard in the first place. For a while I have been considering the role of metacognition and self-regulation in the classroom and Richard’s book was released in a timely manner for me to further my knowledge on this emerging aspect of school instruction.

We discuss:

• The cognitive processes we need to be explicitly teaching students so they can harness such methods themselves
• Why assemblies before Year 11 study leave are simply not enough when it comes to kids learning how to learn
• How we implement such a programme in a pastoral and/or subject specific context
• The role parents play in habit forming behaviours
• And finally, Richard’s case for choosing this focus as a whole-school focus on improving students' learning

Thanks again to Richard for writing what is an excellent and instantly practical book as well as taking time to talk about implementation and lessons learnt in a insightful manner.

If you’d like to be kept up to date on when chat like this happens, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on LinkedIn @chrisjordanhk or X @chrisjordanhk

Additionally, if you would like a head start on learning how to prioritise your middle years English curriculum, head to the bottom of this podcast’s show notes or top of my stream on X to find a beta copy of my forthcoming book: Make Middle Years English Matter. You can read as much as you want and even highlight elements that you like, dislike or find confusing to help make it better.

Links:

Learning Habits: How to Develop Independent and Successful Learnersby Richard Wheadon