Jasper
Q&A
How can I monitor learning?
Monitor and Adjust
In this process, the trainer elicits a specific behaviour from the learners, checks it, interprets it,
and decides on appropriate adjustments as required. An example would be to ask a specific
question, or request a demonstration of a particular skill. For this to work, trainers need to
monitor learners after each step in the learning process and not wait until the end of a large
chunk of learning – ideally, the monitoring should be built into the design of the learning
program.
The process of monitoring provides information about learners’ progress and allows for immediate
adjustments to your training where required. These adjustments may be to your content or the
way you are presenting it. Here are the key steps to monitoring and adjusting:
 elicit required behaviour/action from the learners - use observation to check the learning
 check the behaviour - really look and listen to the response
 interpret the behaviour – what is it telling you?
 act on your interpretation - decide whether to adjust.
Active Participation
Behaviour can be generally classified into two main types: covert or overt.
Covert behaviour is mostly unobservable and therefore difficult to monitor – it’s more of an
internal process of thinking or reflecting. Covert behaviour is essential to the learning process
however, so you should encourage it by using words and phrases such as:
think about… pretend… visualise… imagine… try to picture… remember…
Overt behaviour is observable and more easily monitored. You can instigate overt behaviour by
using words and phrases such as:
show me… demonstrate… report back on… describe… discuss…tell me…write down…
Both kinds of behaviour may occur at any time during your training, but these strategies for
monitoring tend to work best if you incorporate them at the end of a small chunk of learning, or
whenever you need to help learners process ideas.
Active participation helps learners focus on the lesson and increases the rate and degree of
learning. It provides an opportunity to monitor learning to see if an adjustment is needed,
because you can actually see how well the learning process is progressing through the behaviour
of your learners.
Checking for Understanding - Signalling
The most commonly used form of monitoring learning is by asking a question and then looking for
some visible response from the learners. This strategy is called signalling, and can be achieved in
various ways, such as asking for a show of hands in response to a question, or asking for a thumbs
up/thumbs down response to a question.
The goal is to find out whether all of your learners are comprehending the material being
presented – so it really only works if every learner participates.
Although signalling is a very effective way of monitoring learning, it can become tiresome if
overused – learners may get annoyed or feel a little childish if they have to continually raise their
hand to answer a question. So use it wisely, as one of your monitoring strategies.
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Jasper
Q&A
Checking for Understanding - Samples
This monitoring strategy uses a high and low range of responses provided by the learners, in
response to a question you ask.
It’s quite simple, but very effective. Begin by asking a question of the entire group, then call for
a response from one learner who has raised his/her hand, but do not indicate whether they gave
the correct answer or not. Follow this up immediately by calling on a few other learners for their
response, before giving the correct answer. The strength of this strategy is that you may get
several different answers, which will indicate to you whether there is a variance in the learners’
understanding.
Once you have generated a few responses, you can ask the group to signal which answer they feel
is correct, thereby requiring each learner to respond. If the variance of understanding is
significant, you may need to go back over some of the key content to ensure that the learning
process stays on track.
Checking for Understanding - Private Responses
This is similar to the group monitoring strategies covered so far, but provides learners with some
degree of “safety” by not having to provide their responses in front of the whole group. It works
particularly well with more complex topics or questions to which there is not always one clear
correct answer.
The strategy is fairly simple – split your group up into smaller teams, then ask a question or assign
a task. After allowing some time for group discussion, go to each individual group, ask for their
response and discuss their answer privately. This will allow you to monitor how their learning is
going, and check for understanding. You can then address the larger group and discuss any
variances to clear up any misunderstandings.
This strategy can also work well with individual learners, rather than small groups. It can,
however, be quite time consuming if you have a large number of learners to deal with.
Informal Observations
There are many ways that you can monitor learning through informal observation.
Observing learners interacting with each other, working in groups, independently working on
assignments, completing homework, classroom participation – these are just a few strategies you
could use.
Remember, your learners will be quite aware that you are observing them. You need to be
present, but distant, so that they don’t feel that they are being scrutinised. Keeping a
comfortable distance will encourage the learners to be themselves and give you a much more
accurate picture of how their learning is progressing.
Informal Tests
This is probably the most obvious way to monitor learning – setting a quiz, test or miniassessment for your learners to complete. You may actually be doing this as part of your
formative assessment as well.
Just remember that not all learners respond well to written tests, so you should balance this
monitoring strategy with other methods.
© Commonwealth of Australia | Licensed under AEShareNet – S Licence