Office Of Student Success

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Managed Learning

What is the Managed Learning Approach (MLA)?
Peter Ustinov, the late English actor and playwright, succinctly articulated the purpose of education when he stated, "What is education but a process by which a person begins to learn how to learn?"  Learning is an intangible production of a tangible product; and like all production processes, it requires someone who knows how to manage the process in order to achieve the desired result.

In academia, each student is responsible for managing his/her own learning.  However, most students are unaware of this responsibility, and by default fail at the task.  Although educational and life experiences have taught students how to learn by the time they enter college, many remain unaware of their capabilities.  It's no secret to those of us who work with under-performing students that the majority of the academic problems that students encounter are due to an inability to manage their learning, not a lack of competence.  Under-performing students lack a working knowledge of how to use their existing learning skills in a strategic, effective and productive manner.  This dilemma makes them poor managers of their learning.

The primary goal of the Managed Learning Approach is to develop students who effectively manage their learning.  In the recent publication Learning Reconsidered, college officials challenged the traditional "study three hours for every one hour in class" approach taken towards college education, and set forth new expectations regarding our perspective of student learning.  Two key questions addressed in the booklet affirmed my attitude of empowering students to be successful collegiate learners:

1. Do students know how to learn?

2. Can they manage their own learning?

The authors go on to state that students should become "managers of their own learning processes and goals" and should be able to "guide their own learning."  They propose that a new map which describes "how learning occurs, where it occurs, how we can confirm that it is occurring, and what the outcomes of learning are" is needed.

(Me screaming "Amen!")

In essence, they are calling for a new approach that demystifies collegiate learning - an approach that helps empower students to take charge of their own learning. The Managed Learning Approach is in many ways a response to this call.

The MLA applies managerial skills to collegiate learning, thus transforming learning from a list of loosely-related activities to a systematic and manageable process.  It is a change in students' perspective and approach to collegiate learning, as opposed to merely learning more study habits or strategies.

The Worker's Approach vs. The Manager's Approach

The MLA presumes that most students take a "workers" approach to collegiate success that leaves them unsuccessful.  With this approach, they view tasks such as class attendance, textbook reading, note taking, etc as separate objectives with little or no relation.  They are totally unaware that learning is a process, and that these activities are not endpoints, but are designed to facilitate the learning process.  As a result of this faulty perspective, they are unable to set proper learning expectations, gauge and manage their learning, or detect and solve problems that arise while learning.  Instead, they measure their learning by the amount of time spent on each task - a widely-held, yet faulty indicator of learning.

Consider the following analogy: 
In the workplace, workers and managers are hired to achieve entirely different objectives.  This means that their perspectives, responsibilities, skill sets, expectations and desired outcomes are entirely different from one another.  (For clarity purposes, let's define workers as persons hired to perform a specific task or tasks.  Think of an assembly line worker.)  The worker is responsible for performing whatever task that they have been assigned, nothing more.  They're not responsible for considering the bigger picture, overall outcomes, productivity, etc.  The pay structure is also indicative of the different responsibilities.  The worker is paid by the hour; they clock in, do their job and clock out.  The manager is paid for achieving overall outcomes.

Application to college: Students who bring a worker's approach to college have the following perspectives:

• They equate studying with learning.
  They see individual tasks such as taking and reviewing notes, reading the textbook, etc as endpoints. These students "study," but by studying they invariably mean: "I am going to do task ____ (you fill in the blank) and expect that by simply doing so I will learn the things that I need to learn."

• They gauge learning by the amount of time spent on tasks.  In other words, they expect to clock in, spend a little time on a task and clock out.  Having put in a "full day's work" they now expect to automatically be paid (or receive a good exam grade).  If you were to approach such students immediately after they have studied, as I have, and ask them what they've learned as a result of studying, they would give you a blank stare.

Managers approach to work is entirely different.  They are responsible for ensuring that the various tasks are used to achieve specific outcomes.  They understand that the tasks are important only as parts of the production process.  They never see tasks as endpoints, but as means to an end.  They are ever mindful of the big picture and the overall outcomes, and are constantly weighing the various tasks in light of the process. This is why managers are paid for efficiency (accomplishing a job in the least amount of time, effort and resources) and effectiveness (producing the desired results).

Application to College: Students who are able to manage their learning understand the following things:

• They understand that learning is a process.
  These students do not confuse studying with learning.  They are able to manage the various studying tasks along their learning process to achieve their desired learning outcome.

• They understand that their professors are grading them on the outcome of their learning.
  These students understand that the reward (or grade that they will receive) from the boss (the professor) is based on what they have learned, not the amount of time spent studying.

• They supervise their own learning.
  These students measure learning by continually assessing what they have learned.  This allows them to gauge whether they have learned, what they have learned, what remains to be learned, and to detect, self-diagnose and correct problems within their learning.

From the "Hope-so" Approach to a "Know-so" Approach

Currently, most students use the “hope-so” approach when it comes to collegiate learning.  They hope they understood the correct textbook material; they hope they gathered the important material from the classroom discussion; they hope they took good notes; they hope they prepared enough for the test; and finally, after they’ve completed the test, they hope (and pray!) that their work will merit a good grade.  Unfortunately, far too many of these students do not perform well on their test.  The problem is that the “hope-so” approach is the only method of "learning" they know, so they continue to employ this method even as their grades spiral downwards.

The Managed Learning Approach is a "know-so" approach.  It helps students move beyond merely hoping that they have learned what is necessary for their tests to knowing for certain that they have learned what is necessary for their tests. Most students are unaware that such an empowering and assuring approach exists.  But those who adopt the MLA attest to its helpfulness.  Consider the following quotes from students who have adopted the MLA:

"I wish I had learned these things when I was a freshman" - Upperclassman

"The system [Managed Learning Approach] definitely helped me.  Since our meeting I have not failed any tests or quizzes.  I made a 90, an 80 and a 98 on my last tests." - Freshman

"I usually make 50's on my ethics tests, but [after my appointment] I made an 86 on the last one.  I was so excited!" - Freshman

"I have had three assignments since we met, I made an 88 on my bacteriology exam, a B+ on my anatomy exam and a 94 on my physics lab.  These new study habits are paying off! - Probationary student

"I was struggling in Chemistry, and after our meeting, I made a 90 on my test.  Thanks for all your help!! I appreciate it; it really paid off!!" - Freshman commuter student

This approach is not a magic formula, but it has helped many students reach their academic goals.  If you are interested in learning more about this approach, please contact, Leonard Geddes, the Assistant Dean of Students, at geddes_lg@lrc.edu.