Encouraging SelfDirected Learning
Today
•
•
•
•
•
What is Self-Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning Model
Skills for Effective Self-Directed Learning
Grow’s Staged Self-Directed Learning Model (SSDL)
Can you teach Self-Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning
•
•
•
•
•
•
Individuals take initiative and responsibility for learning
Individuals select, manage, and assess their own learning activities
Motivation and volition are critical
Independence in setting goals AND defining what is worthwhile to learn.
Teachers provide scaffolding, mentoring, advising.
Peers provide collaboration
http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com
“
In its broadest meaning, self-directed learning describes a
process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without
the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs,
formulating learning goals, identifying human and material
resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate
learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.
-Knowles, 1975.
WHAT IS SELF- DIRECTED LEARNING?
”
“
In self directed learning, control gradually shifts from teachers
to learners. Learners exercise a great deal of independence in
setting learning goals and deciding what is worthwhile learning
as well as how to approach the learning task within a given
framework.
-Lyman, 1997 & Morrow, Sharkey & Firestone, 1993.
”
Self-Directed Learning Model
Skills for Self-Directed Learning
Goal setting
Identify problem; ability to determine what is important in the learning
environment
Processing
Observing; seeing and translating; reading; listing
Decision-making
Ability to identify, prioritize, select, validate, evaluate and interpret information
Self-awareness
Awareness of strengths and weaknesses; identify distractions from the
environment; know when they need help; and have a realistic perception of their
ability to achieve learning goal.
Content Competence
Familiarity about a representative range of ideas on a certain topic or subject
Others
Sensory, memory, elaboration
Self Vs. Other
• Isn’t all learning SELF-directed?
• Teaching as an Imposition: an
unnatural act, an incursion on another
person’s learningin-progress, a
sustained redirection of another
curious creatures’ voracious cogitation
(Jeff KerssenGriep)
• Isn’t all learning OTHER-directed?
• From kindergarten on, teachers tell
students what to study and learn.
• Teachers set goals and evaluate
learners’ mastery.
(Van Briesen, 2010)
Meet at the Middle
• Experts set the agenda for learning, especially in the professions
• Learners are motivated by intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
• To be successful, learners must learn to give themselves feedback and to
understand their own cognition
(Van Briesen, 2010)
Role of Teachers in Self-Directed Learning
• The teacher has to raise student awareness of their roles in learning
• Learner participation in decision-making is another fundamental aspect of the SDL approach
• Teachers could establish a thematic framework within which students are given choices
•
teachers who want to encourage SDL must free themselves from a preoccupation with tracking and correcting errors
• To establish the habit of self-monitoring, teachers need to encourage learners to reflect on what they did and to revise
attempted work
• Since SDL stresses meaningful learning, a situated learning approach, in which teachers bring real-life problems into the
classroom for learners to work on.
• Finally, teachers need to model learning strategies such as predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing, so that
students will develop the ability to use these strategies on their own. Teachers also need to allow individual learners to
approach a task in different ways using different strategies
Grow’s Model for
Staged Self-Directed Learning (SSDL)
• A way for teachers to be vigorously influential while empowering students
towards greater autonomy
(Grow, 1991)
SSDL Model
Stage 1
Student
Teacher
Dependent
Authority/Coach
Examples
•
•
•
•
Coaching with immediate feedback
Drill
Informational lecture
Overcoming deficiencies and resistance
Stage 2
Student
Teacher
Interested
Motivator/Guide
Examples
• Inspiring lecture plus guided discussion
• Goal-setting and learning strategies
Stage 3
Student
Teacher
Involved
Facilitator
Examples
• Discussion facilitated by teacher who
participates as equal
• Seminar
• Group Projects
Stage 4
Student
Teacher
Self-Directed
Consultant/Delegator
Examples
• Internship
• Dissertation
• Individual Work or self-directed study group
Can you teach SDL?
• Help the learner identify a starting point
• Be a manager for the learning experience rather than an information
provider
• Teach inquiry skills, decision making and self‐ evaluation of work
• Learners transition from “reactive” to “proactive”
(Van Briesen, 2010)
Sample SDL
Taking the First Steps
• Assess readiness with student.
• Facilitate planning of the study unit
• Learning Contract
Schoolbook Tools for SDL
Wikis
Hawaiian term for “quick.” Wikis are collaborative in nature and facilitate
community-building within a course. Essentially, a wiki is a web page with an
open-editing system.
Blog
(shortening of “weblog”) is an online journal or informational website displaying
information in the reverse chronological order, with latest posts appearing first. It
is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an
individual subject.
Portfolio
a purposeful collection of selective significant samples of student work
accompanied by clear criteria for performance which evidence student effort,
progress or achievement.
(Van Briesen, 2010)
Challenges for the teacher
• Give up center stage!
• Give up any part of the stage!
• You don’t have to give the answer to prove you know it. You are not being
evaluated!
• Cultivate uncertainty and try NOT to solve the problem/project ahead of
time. Answer honestly that you don’t know the best approach
• Be confident that the process is more important than the product
(Van Briesen, 2010)