GoDigital_EN: Material for reading "Understanding the key aspects of successful learning"

Material for reading "Understanding the key aspects of successful learning"

1.1 Factors of successful learning

The Commission’s Women in Digital strategy focuses on encouraging and empowering women to play a more active role in the digital age. Women’s involvement and active participation are indispensable for a sustainable, fair and equitable economy and society. Promoting digital skills and education is very important area of this Strategy. Therefore, it is important to facilitate women during the learning process and help them to become more skilled in digital sector. The seek for excellent approaches regarding how to effectively teach and learn is still a challenge of our times. This became a very relevant issue during the last decades, parallel with the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applied to education and learning. To be successful in coaching you need to support and develop people in their learning. Thus, it is important to know the key factors which promote successful learning:

1. Desire to learn. The learners need to ‘want’ to learn. Try to discuss this matter with the learners at the very beginning of coaching and realise if they are interested in participating in the coaching process towards training and employment in the digital sector.

2. Need to learn. This is the whole ‘wants versus needs’ challenge. Try to discuss with learners their necessity to learn about the digital sector as one of the best opportunities for them to improve their economic situation by getting employment in this sector.

3. Learning by doing. Try to create learning activities/coaching processes towards employment in the digital sector based on self-studying success stories and finding in the Internet the best practices that promote learners making their own decisions towards employment in the digital sector. Here are the digital stories “SUCCESSFUL WOMEN IN DIGITAL SECTOR OF LABOUR MARKET” which can be an inspiration for your learners.

4. Feedback. Remember that feedback the learners are able to gain for themselves is very powerful, and ensure the balance of this self-feedback and the alternative coach-given feedback is appropriate. Try to encourage the learner to give the self-feedback time to time. Self-feedback can help the learner to focus on improvements, examine their own motives and results, to build self-confidence.

5. Making sense of things. The learner needs to make sense of things and understand what is being employed in the digital sector and why they are learning the new digital skills.

6. Verbalising orally. Get learners to discuss with each other what they are learning in the digital area, perhaps ask learners to present to the group their learning or maybe instead of asking ‘closed’ or ‘leading’ style questions just ask the learner to ‘describe’ what they did and why.

7. Assessing their own abilities – making informed judgments. Learners need to be able to assess their own abilities in the digital area and then make informed judgments from this.

1. 2 Recognise the learning problems

The four main factors that influence the process of learning are:

Maturity;
Motivation;
Attention;
Interest.

Therefore, all learning problems the learners can meet during the learning are related to these four factors. The couch has to recognise the possible problems: the lack of motivation, the problems related to work-life balance, the low self-esteem, the problems related to time management, the lack of interest in employment in the digital sector, some gender stereotypes, the low skills, financial barriers etc.

For example, whilst studying may ultimately hold the key to career progression, coming up with the funds in the first place is not always easy, so maybe the learner needs some advice on how to overcome the financial barriers. Another common problem for woman learners is a lack of time - balancing work and family commitments whilst maintaining some sort of social life is tricky enough as it is.

The coach has consult learners on the challenges they face, how to overcome the learning problems and how to lead in their own successful learning, in order to gain the necessary knowledge and skills for the digital sector. The coach has to empower learners to make new choices in a safe and flexible framework.

1.3 The importance of self-discipline

It is important to discuss with female learners the importance of self-discipline while organizing their learning process. Self-discipline has a positive impact on learning outcomes. Achievements at the end of the learning course do not depend on learners' initial competence levels. Contrariwise, self-discipline is the key factor, which influences learners and allows them to achieve main goals.

Here are 6 ways to become a more self-disciplined learner and achieve success:

1) Recover from mistakes

Being able to move on from mistakes is a major part of self-discipline. Whether learner comes across life-changing or very small mistakes, its important to understand that growth comes from mistakes and using mistakes as motivation and a learning experience can be effective as a self-disciplinary tool. Learner should don’t dwell on her mistakes and have them drag her down – use them to improve herself and propel her forward.

2) Create goal planning

It is important to constantly be thinking about how to strategize and create steps towards reaching the goals in the field of iT sector. Learner is more likely to have success disciplining themselves with small actions that lead to a larger goal. For example, every day spend 30 minutes for the IT training or coding.

3) Know when you’re most motivated

There is only so much energy your body has each day. It is important to know that people are often more motivated in the morning. So, a coach can suggest the learners plan their studies around the time they know they are most motivated and productive to create the best opportunities for success and determination.

4) Remain positive

In order to become more self-disciplined, the learners must believe in themselves. Positivity and optimism are huge when it comes to setting and achieving goals. It’s true that a can-do attitude will go a long way – especially when it comes to self-discipline.

5) Fight those unproductive urges

Building habits of self-control is key to leading a more disciplined learner life. Does the learner constantly have the urge to check a phone when studying? The coach can suggest the learner to try leaving the phone in a different room during learning time. Things like this to help the learners fight unproductive urges contribute to self-discipline and success.

6) Surround yourself with support

It is important to include others in own self-disciplinary actions because it will create a comfortable environment and boost the learner's confidence and motivation. Knowing that their environment is supportive allows you to change your habits and sustain your efforts in self-discipline.

1.4 The importance of willingness to take risks and learn from the mistakes

Being willing to take risks and make mistakes is one of the qualities of a lifelong learner. However, this positive disposition may be one of the most challenging to develop. Taking risks is difficult for people. It is our instinct to feel safe in our so-called comfort zone. If people can move past the overwhelming fear of failure and realize the advantages of taking more risks, the more satisfaction we will have with the things learned and the opportunities we never thought were possible. Therefore, the coach has to explain to female learners the importance of willingness to take risks and learn from their mistakes. Ask your learners to identify their fears to try something new, help them to recognize their individual growth and encourage them to request support anytime they need it. Encourage new strategies/activities and risk-taking by emphasizing the long-term benefits: employment in the digital sector.

Discuss with female learners the importance of engagement with the world around them. You can discuss the latest news and statistics data related to women employees in the digital sector. Also, ask your learners to find something interesting about digitalization, digital skills, digital jobs and share this information with others.

1.5 The importance of questioning everything

Guide female learners towards the importance of questioning everything related to the digital sector and learning process. Asking questions is a good way to improve beliefs. If your learners do not ask questions, they are likely to stick to whatever beliefs they already have, right or wrong. But if learners ask questions, they open themselves up to potentially better beliefs. Socrates is said to have said: "All knowledge starts with doubt". Questioning is the key means by which coaches find out what learners already know, identify gaps in knowledge and understanding and scaffold the development of their understanding to enable them to close the gap between what they currently know about the digitalization, digital skills, and jobs and the learning goals.

Understanding the key aspects of successful learning also means having a positive attitude towards learning and believing in the learners.

Links for the self-learning

Factors of successful learning

7 Important Factors that May Affect the Learning Process

Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities
Developing the willingness to take risks and make mistakes

Taking risks and learning from mistakes

The essential guide to learner engagement

COACHING FOR FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN THE DIGITAL SECTOR IN ORDER TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY IN THE LABOUR MARKET