Self-Directed Learning: Changing How We Understand the Acquisition of Knowledge

The disruptions caused by Covid have made clear that the current way of “doing business” in schools is not sustainable. With large chunks of the school day shifted to online or lost, how does an educator help a learner understand the importance of gaining the skills to do new things rather than simply repeating what others have done before them?   

I recall teaching a group of 9th-grade boys in Doha, Qatar. They were an incredibly innovative group of young men who were well-travelled and could make connections to the literature we were reading at the time. During an assessment reflecting on big ideas, I asked if they had thought about their learning process. They were puzzled by the question. I asked them, “Have you had a conversation with yourself on what you gained from the process in this project?”   

Before I could continue, the class burst out into laughter. “Are you asking if we talk to ourselves?”— “Sure, do you self-talk and work things out with yourself?” I inquired. The idea was so foreign that at one point when they knew I was serious, I could feel the discomfort in the room. As I was not sure where this tension was coming from, I decided to move on and continue discussing the assessment and could feel that after a couple of minutes, the upbeat mood that this class was known for had returned.   

I reflected on that conversation for a long time and, over the years, could not understand the strangeness that they displayed with the idea of self-talk or self-monitoring. Years later, these issues came up again during conversations with a group of academic leads in my school on the importance of extension assignments connected to their Project Based Learning units. An extension assignment is an application of the content students learn in ways that contribute to developing new knowledge or inquiring about that content in ways that connect to other content areas. The idea that learners should be able to create new knowledge or extend what they are learning to something new is part of 21st-century skills. While no teacher disagreed with the need to develop the extension assignment, most struggled with how much control the teacher should have. They preferred to create a standard extension with an attached rubric that was the same for all learners with the necessary scaffolding, which could be easily put into the grade book.   

I responded that this was not technically an authentic extension assignment because the teacher was guiding the process and not allowing authentic inquiry to take place. This conversation with the academic leads brought me back to the 9th-grade boys and why students struggled with the idea of self-talk. I better understood that self-talk was a strange concept for the kids because they were not being asked to question themselves or examine their feelings and motivations. The standard practice was for teachers to direct the task so that it is “appropriate and fair,” that is, allowing students to operate too independently would unfairly leave out the less self-directed learners. Therefore, the only solution is for teachers to direct the learning process and make sure everyone gets what they need. But if we want to foster creativity and discovery, the learning process must belong to the students.  

Teachers often become mental crutches for their learners. This cycle of defining, planning, and monitoring makes students masters at assisting (Zhang et al., 2020), and teachers who conform to this pattern often are praised. Rarely do we question the role of the learner in the doing, defining, planning, and monitoring of content. Teaching them to be more self-directed is unusual even when student passivity is recognized as a concern. The notion that self-direction, motivation, or organization are innate traits that learners are born with is a misconception, a neuromyth that has been debunked for several years. Because this idea that these traits are granted to the most intelligent and talented continues to make its way into our classrooms and our interactions with learners, we shy away from teaching these skills. Can we teach our learners to be more self-directed and not be disappointed when they direct themselves or extend their knowledge to areas that fit outside of our content box or expectations? Yes, we need to change how we “do business” in our classrooms and schools.   

One of the ways to support self-directed learning is through using the personalised learning model that places emphasis on customising learning and content. This model forces teachers to move away from conformity to diversity instead of using the one-size-fits-all approach. Although teachers struggle with the variety of tasks they must take on and the possibility that extension tasks will stray from the content they are teaching if the real-world connection project in some way incorporates the key topics, the content knowledge can still be mastered and assessed.   

Many schools limit the personalized learning approach model to learner strengths and accommodation needs, that is, as a differentiation or scaffolding tool despite years of work on the importance of placing the necessary accommodations to support diverse learners. But it cannot just be limited to being used as a scaffold up or down. Student interest is crucial when thinking about and designing a personalized learning unit in your class. This form of teaching and curriculum planning moves us away from a transactional approach when it comes to content learning. We move away from the simple delivery of knowledge to a more complex system that includes motivation, attitude, and emotion.   

When extension tasks allow learners to take the assignment in any direction they want, they allow for more creativity and innovation with a higher chance of new learning. This requires teachers to change their mental models around classroom control and learning. This approach will allow students to build the skills to be more self-directed and have self-talk conversations about what they are interested in and what they want to learn more about. It might start with a superficial extension with limited connections or innovation. Still, when done consistently and with constructive feedback on possible ways to extend the knowledge, this extension task allows learners to understand themselves better.   

Bray and McClaskey (2014) in their book Making Learning Personal describe how personal learning models stimulate students to actively participate in their learning process. They have a voice in what they are learning and how they want to learn it. They become co-designers of their education. This can be a powerful feeling for some learners who previously had always seen themselves as receivers with little to no control or voice in the process. The more opportunities learners must experience this personal agency in their learning, the less they will seek direction from teachers as they acquire more skills in self-directing.   

Another essential method to support learners in becoming more self-directed is teaching self-monitoring skills. Self-monitoring in early childhood can make a significant contribution to school readiness and long-term academic success (Willis & Dinehart, 2014). Self-regulation and monitoring allow learners to be more reflective and take responsibility for their learning. A meaningful way to teach self-monitoring is to explicitly define and explain it to learners. Some learners might not understand the importance of the skill and can reflect on their self-monitoring skills when encouraged to do so.   

Another way to support learners to be more self-monitoring is to make reflection or journal entry a part of every unit they work on. This is an important technique in self-monitoring as it allows learners to track progress and make sense of their thinking. I recall a student who was shocked when reviewing his portfolio and his reflection thoughts. He could not understand why he wrote some of the entries after a unit that had occurred months ago and could then pinpoint specific life events that made him connect to the content in a way that later surprised him. This type of self-monitoring allows learners to take more ownership of their learning. Self-monitoring also enables learners to generate multiple and varied solutions, innovations, and approaches to a task they are working on because they actively monitor their thoughts and ideas. It allows for a more enhanced creative problem-solving method.   

The topic of self-directed learning did not come about due to Covid. Yet, as educators, we realised during COVID-19 the importance and advantage that self-directed learners have regarding engagement and academic growth. Like any skill, self-direction can be taught and refined but, like most academic skills, will require work from both the educator and the learner. I think of my grade 9 students from years ago who laughed at the notion of self-talk and asked themselves what they had learned and what they wanted to learn. I am reminded that, as educators, the evolution of educational practice always initially feels strange to us, and pushback from both teachers and learners is common. Yet, as with all academic initiatives, we know that what is beneficial for our learners benefits the world around us: when students are engaged and curious, they can solve real-world problems and bring innovations to make the world a better place.