Abstract:

Learning to learn is a crucial competence student should develop through learning opportunities provided by the school. This schooling aim is an educational policy statement widely spread at the European and national level. The primary aim of this article is to explore the students' conceptions of learning to learn and analyze to what extent these conceptions cover the knowledge, sub-skills and attitudes included in the construct of learning to learn competence found in the European educational policy documents.

This paper deals with the Romanian lower secondary students' perceptions of learning to learn, as resulted by exploratory qualitative research, based on focus-groups and questionnaire that addressed specifically or generally this issue. The research results shed light on what learning to learn competence means for students in operational terms: what a student that knows how to learn does as an independent learner and also what he or she does under the teacher coordination in the classroom. Students referred to the process of developing learning to learn competence as an issue bounded to a desire for autonomy and high-performance, and personal learning experiences and preferences. They pointed out that teacher support through skills modelling, and a sense of socio-emotional security instilled into the students are critical factors for attaining the competence of learning to learn. Besides, the students emphasized the importance of positive attitudes towards learning and self-confidence as a learner.

The attributes of the student who knows how to learn, as voiced by students, definitely show their awareness of the decisive influence of the classroom learning environment on cognitive achievements. Only a positive socio-emotional climate is conducive to personal development skills such as interpersonal skills, motivation for learning and self-management skills that are all deemed as binders for cognitive and metacognitive skills.

The research carried out contributes to the body of knowledge in the field by bringing this necessary input from students on learning to learn competence that allows further comparison between students and policy-makers definitions. A widely agreed definition given by policymakers might be identifiable in the descriptors of learning to learn competence as stated in the 2018 Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council on Key Competences for Lifelong.

Research results have relevance for conceiving fitted intervention means for implementing learning to learn competence in a lower secondary school. Firstly, research findings show the main commonalities and differences in the conceptions of learning to learn held by two educational stakeholders, placed at the opposite pole, namely policymakers and students. Secondly, the students' interpretations of learning to learn competence provide useful insights into teachers' behaviors that might foster or hinder the development of learning to learn to their students. By this, they are useful clues for designing a classroom learning environment that promotes, contributes, sustains and values students' learning to learn competence.

Keywords:

Learning to learn competence, perceptions of learning to learn, lower secondary school students.