Fostering Independent Learning

the reDesign Collaborative

The Framework for Effective Instruction (FEI) is a critical part of the reDesign Collaborative: a teaching and learning initiative designed to provide “at promise” students with powerful and empowering learning communities.

The FEI provides teachers with a way to teach students the Independent Learning Strategies that are crucial for the successful navigation of the academic environment.

  35% of students who withdraw early from college identify the challenge of the academic work as the reason they left school;

• College professors are dissatisfied with students’ …ability to think critically (66%), work and study habits (65%), and ability to do research (59%).

• 42% of employers are dissatisfied with graduates’ ability to think analytically;

• 41% of employers are dissatisfied with graduates’ ability to…understand difficult material.

  --Achieve, Inc, 2005

• The ability to use high-impact literacy strategies—questioning, determining

importance, inferring, predicting--to understand complex texts;

• The skill of metacognition—the ability to plan, make mid-course corrections, and

reflect on their learning and actions;

• The capacity to think critically: analyze, evaluate, synthesize, create.

The FEI

• Research-based •  Integrated

• Highly-Scaffolded • Cross-Disciplinary

Instructional Practices

Learning Strategies

• Launching the Lesson

• Investigating new content, skills, strategies

• Synthesizing new learning

•  Assessing new Learning

•  Reflecting on new learning

1st Learning Strategy: Literacy Strategies

2nd Learning Strategy: Metacognition

3rd Learning Strategy: Higher-Order Thinking