Competent learners are not only skilled but also strategic. That is, they have a repertoire of learning behaviors that they can consciously apply in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes. In order to use a strategy a learner needs to know:

1. What the learning behavior is
2. How to apply it
3. Why it works
4. And in what situation it should be used.

Modeling is one effective instructional tool for helping students learn the strategies they need to be successful in a content course.

1. Demonstration of the strategy with explanation
2. Use of analogies and examples for clarity
3. Think alouds- a way of making thinking public and modeling the cognitive process being used in the learning.
4. Student trials-students model for each other with feedback

(School Improvement in Maryland) ( CRISS Program 1993

Focused on metacognition-giving the students insights into their own thinking process. (Example -- How do students choose an organizing system for their learning)

Modeling thinking, reading or calculating strategies

1. Naming the strategy

2. Explaining why it should be learned

3. Provide explicit steps for using the strategy

4.Telling when it is appropriate to use it

5. Evaluating its success

(Funderstanding. COM,) (Paris, 1990)

Supplying an initial amount of support and then gradually backing off allowing students to use what they have learned as independent learners. It is an important transitional process for first and second year students.

In scaffolded instruction professors model the appropriate thinking and working skills, help with organizational processes, fill in background information and assess progress as ways of helping students to master the material. This type of instruction gives students the support they need at the beginning of a course. Instructors then gradually shift the responsibility for the learning to the students as the course progresses. If the students show that they are not able to achieve independence some support is brought back until independence is achieved. (Harmin 1994)

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