Self-Directed Learning for All? — from modernlearners.com
What do we mean by “self-directed learning,” and who gets to pursue it? All students? Or only some? Do we select certain students for these opportunities based on what counts as “good behavior,” for example?
How do we make sure that self-directed learning opportunities benefit all students? How do we balance students’ need for support with their need for freedom?
Author and speaker Sylvia Martinez writes in What a Girl Wants about the ways in which gender plays a role in education and explores how we can help support girls in self-directed learning opportunities.
An excerpt/quote from Sylvia’s article:
The teacher’s role is to help students move past what they know school usually asks of them and take a chance on something that they really want to do.
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Some people assume that self-directed learning means solitary learning. This is far from the truth. Mardziah Hayati Abdullah of the US Department of Education writes that self-directed learning is both collaborative and social, where the learner collaborates with both teachers and peers. Students must learn how to navigate new ways of getting and sharing information with others, both in real life and online. Creating opportunities for self-directed learning means more collaboration and communication, not less, an area in which girls excel.