Guide to Canada's Six Essential Learning Skills for Students

Written by Kiki Devano

In Canada, there are the six essential skills that are encouraged for students to develop. These learning skills have a formidable impact on student learning and will help them achieve further success. This is a guide to aid students in successfully developing the essential skills.

RESPONSIBILITY

The ability to take accountability for outcomes and to commit to a student’s learning. Students are required to take possession of their learning, behaviour and manage academics. To further elaborate, these are what an E-level student who demonstrates responsibility shows:

1) Bring the required materials to every class session.

2) Completing academic assignments on time or earlier.

3) Be in the right state of mind for learning, one must be open to acquiring new knowledge.

4) Utilize the class time wisely by planning in advance.

5) Managing one’s time.

6) Providing one’s best effort and dedication towards education.

7) Adhering to classroom expectations and being respectful towards peers and staff.

8) Recognizing areas that need improvement.

9) Taking accountability for one’s actions, consequences, and overall presence.

10) Sharing ideas with peers and fulfilling one’s part of the group work.

ORGANIZATION

The ability to manage time effectively, use resources wisely, and control academic tasks while maintaining a clean workspace. This learning skill is very significant to a student’s journey, as it provides the student with good time management abilities, meaning no longer needing to pull all-nighters and wake up in the morning feeling absolutely drained.

Provides the student with the ability to use classroom, digital, and any type of resource the student can obtain wisely. Lastly, the student will benefit from deciding which tasks are more important to complete. Being organized is no different from having an organised and clean workspace! Here are the examples of organizations that E-level students demonstrates:

1) Establishing clear boundaries.

2) Establishing priorities and plans in order to complete each individual task on time.

3) Creating goals for long-term academics.

4) Have a set of resources for each task/subject.

5) Acquiring all the time provided by the classroom staff to work on tasks/projects.

6) Managing workplace hygiene.

7) Having routines such as cleaning routines, study routines, or chore routines.

8) Solving problems effectively and being flexible with schedules.

9) Breaking down complicated tasks/projects into smaller tasks among peers.

10) Assign roles and responsibilities to every group member.

INDEPENDENT WORK

Independent work varies depending on the student’s needs, behaviour, and interests, though principally, it requires students to complete assignments individually, effectively, and productively.

One of the largest complaints received from teachers is during class time working periods, where every student should be working on their individual assigned task. A significant portion of students tend to wander off task and decide to roam the classroom or perhaps chat amongst themselves.

This greatly disrupts the classroom learning environment and affects other hard-working students by not being able to concentrate on tasks efficiently. These students have difficulty concentrating on their own work and their needs, or their behaviours are hard to manage. It’s also the main factor contributing to why independent work is vastly hard for many students to grasp. Nonetheless, the students who do indeed work independently demonstrate an outstanding level on their report cards. Here are examples of how they showcase their independent work skills:

1) Being focused and concentrating on their work by not distracting their peers around them.

2) Utilizing and benefitting from resources around oneself to aid their work.

3) Managing time to complete assigned work in silence.

4) Not disrupting the classroom environment and following classroom expectations during work time.

5) Using planners, checklists, and prioritizing important or close to deadline work.

6) Exploring greater topics and having an interest in learning.

7) During group work, each student should complete their individual work.

8) Set learning goals for oneself and does not require extra assistance or guidance from teachers.

9) Divide greater tasks into smaller objectives.

10) Self-correct after completing work.

COLLABORATION

The ability to work well with others by communicating effectively, participating in group activities, and achieving the main goal.

In contrast to Independent Work, Collaboration is much more attainable for students, especially those with special needs. Aside from being easier to achieve, it’s undoubtedly a crucial learning skill not only for students in school but also in the workplace. These are the steps every E-level student who masters collaboration frequently exhibit:

1) Participating in group discussions and disputes.

2) Listening and sharing perspectives, ideas, and opinions with the group.

3) Being mindful of others and including members who don’t get enough attention for their ideas.

4) Resolving conflicts in a respectful manner and addressing the main problems.

5) Offer advice and criticism to others Providing accountability for the designated assigned task/role.

6) Communicating with others productively and respectfully.

7) Being on the same page/understanding.

8) Acknowledge members who do not do their share of work and those who refuse to collaborate by elaborating the importance of collaboration.

9) If one student completes the entire group project whilst others do not participate, the student is advised to report to classroom staff about the members' behaviours, as well as negotiate to attain all credits.

10) Commit to the workload.

INITIATIVE

Taking risks and stepping forward to set greater goals, trying new experiences, and learning beyond one’s area of comfort might not be everyone’s cup of nice tea. Which is absolutely fine if you want to be in your bubble; however, there are students around the globe setting these goals and ambitions—taking initiative to expand their horizons a small step at a time.

Taking initiative doesn’t mean solely making these goals, but also making strategies to achieve them. Everyone starts somewhere, whether it’s a daily affirmation to remind yourself of the possibilities and your skills, or sharing your ideas with the world on a stage. Everyone will start at some point—it’s just different for everyone, and you can do it as well. We can take initiative by:

1) Volunteering at a community centre and lending a hand.

2) Learn new skills, hobbies, languages, and cultures.

3) Taking the lead in organizing a project

4) Join a club, organization, or drive.

5) Create a new project

6) Demonstrating a science project

7) Create a YouTube channel, a podcast, or a book and share it with the world.

8) Teach your friends about interesting facts or anything you’re interested in.

9) Make new friends!

10) Start a passion project.

SELF-REGULATION

Self-Regulation is the ability to handle one’s own emotions and behaviours in any environment, even if it triggers a particularly strong emotion. This means to stay calm, focused, and confident in the face of overwhelming or difficult situations.

People who demonstrate this ability think before they answer and wisely select appropriate choices. It’s a particularly consequential skill that develops over time, helping individuals create positive relationships, monitor emotions, and improve self-perception. This skill develops over a course of time. Individuals can gradually improve self-regulation by:

1) When overwhelmed, try Grounding Techniques.

2) Identify and recognize areas or situations where one feels triggered.

3) Replace negative thoughts with slightly positive ones to improve overall self-perception.

4) Journaling helps process certain emotions.

5) Meditate occasionally to reduce stress.

6) Having a consistent sleep schedule with a good amount of sleep reduces stress and lowers impulsiveness.

7) Set clear boundaries and expectations.

8) In confrontational situations, don’t impulsively respond with immediate frustration.

9) Control feelings by doing breathing exercises.

10) Release tension via doing hobbies and calming activities.

CONCLUSION

In essence, the Learning Skills serve as a guide to aid us in our journey to character development—a greater and better version of ourselves. Each one of them has unique qualities enabling students to succeed in academic and workforce environments. Nevertheless, they do require effort, consistency and patience to achieve the best possible outcomes, and that ultimately depends on the student themself.