Higher education is making increasing demands on students’ learner-agency and self-directed learning. What exactly are learner agency and self-directed learning? Why are they important? And what does it take? The aim of the five questions and answers on this poster is to support a common language and to be used as conversation starters when you want to discuss learner-agency and self-directed learning.
DOCUMENT
Menig schoolkind houdt zich hier dagelijks mee bezig: het vervoegen van werkwoorden en het plaatsen in de verleden en de voltooid verleden tijd. Is het niet bijzonder om het werkwoord leren in de verleden en de voltooid verleden tijd te plaatsen als de tendens in de huidige samenleving is om een leven lang te leren? Heeft iemand ooit gesproken over een Geleerde Organisatie in plaats van een Lerende Organisatie? Dit taaltechnische fenomeen staat naar mijn mening haaks op de huidige nadruk van kennisontwikkeling, waarbij ontwikkeling door mij vertaald wordt met leren. Een vorm van leren die mijn speciale belangstelling heeft is het concept van Self-Directed Learning.
DOCUMENT
Present-day students are expected to be lifelong learners throughout their working life. Higher education must therefore prepare students to self-direct their learning beyond formal education, in real-life working settings. This can be achieved in so-called hybrid learning configurations in which working and learning are integrated. In such a learning configuration, learning is typically trans-boundary in nature and embedded in ill-structured, authentic tasks. The goal of this study is to develop a set of design guidelines for an intervention that would strengthen students’ capacity for self-directed lifelong learning within a hybrid learning configuration, a one-semester elective course at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands. The research approach was educational design research. An intervention was designed, implemented and evaluated during two iterations of the course. Evaluation methods included interviews with students and the course facilitator, questionnaires, and students’ logs and reports. We developed five intervention design guidelines that will promote self-directed learning. Our conclusion is that the intervention was usable and effective: at a basic level, the students did develop their capacity for self-directed lifelong learning. Further research is needed to investigate conditions for realizing higher levels of proficiency in self-directed lifelong learning throughout the curriculum and beyond.
DOCUMENT
Worldwide entrepreneurship education (EE) is gaining popularity as an employability skill to prepare learners for a future of adaptability and lifelong learning. Its scholarship, however, is concerned that we have lost sight of what works, why, and how in EE. This is especially true for such novel learning objectives as preparation for lifelong learning. This quasi-experimental, mixed methods research sought answers to the question: of how EE pedagogy influences students’ self-directed learning readiness (SDLR). Statistically significant relations were found, especially between self-efficacy and SDLR. The impact of EE was found to be highly significant, which was explained by the effect of a stage-wise, mixed pedagogy approach to teaching/learning. Enhancement of self-efficacy and motivation for self-directed learning was found to benefit from a continuous cyclical teaching-learning process combining passive, participative and self-steered learning within and throughout each step of the learning process, in simulated and authentic learning contexts.
DOCUMENT
This study analyses the dilemmas and practical problems in implementing competence-based vocational education through 11 case studies. Schools seem to meet various fundamental issues, but it remains difficult in what way the acquisition and use of a way of knowing and thinking that is based on vocational theory can be stimulated. Reflection, authenticity and coaching seem to missing. In order to explain these results, the article also reflects on factors that account for the distance between promising concepts and actual teaching practice.
DOCUMENT
This thesis presents an exploration of ‘how entrepreneurship education pedagogy can enhance undergraduate business students’ autonomous motivation for self-directed learning’. It has twin, equally valuable, purposes: to make an original theoretical contribution and to improve professional practice in this area. The work addresses the lack of pedagogical research in entrepreneurship education that focuses on learner development, with a specific aim at development of self-directed learning skills for lifelong learning. The research is approached with a concurrent, mixed methods design, comparing pre- and a post-EE, self-assessment survey results from 245 students, enrolled in a Young Enterprise venture creation programme, and a control group at a Dutch university. With the use of open-question surveys among the same population, during and after the EE modules, as well as from focus group discussions with a selection of participating students and teachers, explanation was sought for the observations drawn from the quantitative study. Significant relationships were found between students’ self-reported maturity of autonomy, self-efficacy, and motivation for learning, and in how these relate to self-directed learning readiness. Entrepreneurship education was found to significantly moderate the relationship between the learning characteristics and self-directed learning, and to strengthen of the students’ perceived readiness for self-directed learning. Explanation for the impact of EE were found to be related to the stage-wise, mixed pedagogy approach to learning, that combines authentic learning with a hierarchical approach to competence development, and supportive team dynamics. The research contributes to practice with a proposed conceptual framework for understanding how to prepare for self-directed learning readiness and a teaching-learning framework for its development in formal educational settings. It contributes to knowledge with its deeper understanding of how students experience learning in EE and how that affects their willingness to pursue learning opportunities.
MULTIFILE
Self-directed learning is often embraced as an important educational goal, although for quite different reasons, from the improvement of school learning to the critical assessment of the claims of democracy. Most reasons imply that self-direction is important in learning throughout life. Therefore process-oriented teaching, which aims to foster self-directed lifelong learning, needs a broad and multidimensional theoretical basis. The important role of experiences in the social and cultural context, prior knowledge, and the emotional aspects in learning is highlighted, and related to self-directed learning in life. Important aspects of process-oriented teaching are summarized in four principles. A multidimensional approach of learning also provides a conceptual basis to teachers learning. Developing a process-oriented approach in teaching presents a major challenge for teachers as well as for schools.
DOCUMENT
Self-directed learning is often embraced as an important educational goal, although for quite different reasons, from the improvement of school learning to the critical assessment of the claims of democracy. Most reasons imply that self-direction is important in learning throughout life. Therefore process-oriented teaching, which aims to foster self-directed lifelong learning, needs a broad and multidimensional theoretical basis. The important role of experiences in the social and cultural context, prior knowledge, and the emotional aspects in learning is highlighted, and related to self-directed learning in life. Important aspects of process-oriented teaching are summarized in four principles. A multidimensional approach of learning also provides a conceptual basis to teachers learning. Developing a process-oriented approach in teaching presents a major challenge for teachers as well as for schools.
DOCUMENT
In this chapter it is argued that self-direction is currently well above the head of the majority of youngsters and even of many adults. Evidence for this conclusion stems from developmental and brain research. However, for various reasons it is important that people develop the competences that are necessary for self-direction. To what degree is it possible to develop these competences? Are they 'learnable'? What can education contribute?
DOCUMENT
