Key skill assessment: improving your own learning and performance

5 Improving own learning and performance

A main purpose of this assessment unit is to help you improve your learning and performance as you pursue your main area of study or work. It involves identifying an aspect of your learning you want to work on and using skills to help you improve your learning and performance. For example, you may want to concentrate on note taking and improving your time management skills as you study, or you may find you need to learn new IT skills and information search skills at work.

The evidence you present needs to show: what you do to plan and meet targets you set; ways you keep track of what you are doing and how well things are going; and, when you have completed the work, how you evaluate what went well and not so well. You need to show that you can use skills to help you improve your learning and performance, including: managing your time effectively; selecting and using different ways to learn; and using feedback and support to improve the quality of your performance. You can use the guidance, Bookmarks and Skill Sheets included in OpenLearn unit U529 Key skills ? making a difference to help you prepare, structure and present your work.

As you work on this assessment unit, use the criteria in Table 1 to help you keep track of your progress and to check that it meets the required standard. Use the statements alongside the criteria to help you check that your work shows you have met the criteria, and label your work so that an assessor could identify easily what your evidence is showing.

Table 1 (PDF, 2 pages, 0.1MB).

To get the best from this unit, it is important to think and plan ahead. At an early stage take time to complete your strategy and plan of action, identifying work you can use as evidence of your learning. You can then monitor your progress by keeping a log or diary, and practise your skills as you work on your course or work activities. When you have completed your work you can take stock of how things went, evaluate your strategy and think about the next steps on your learning journey. You should allow at least three months to improve, apply your skills and put together your portfolio.

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