Bilingual education in Sri Lanka - Part II:

Promoting learning for life

What is self-directed learning?

G H ASOKA

Self-directed learning has existed even in classical antiquity. It has played an important role in the lives of great personalities such as the Buddha, Jesus Christ, scientists and philosophers explicitly exhibiting their achievements in learning and charismatic nature in changing society. They are actually products of self-directed learning in their way of life.

Critical reflection changes one’s life. File photo

As a means for expanding educational opportunities for a large number of students in the presence of scarce educational funds, self-directed learning is a worthwhile solution.

Charles Hayes says people should take control of their own learning and adopt self-directed enquiry as a lifelong priority.

In defining self-directed learning, we can find several tenets which have been taken into consideration:

1. Self-directed learning views learners as responsible owners and managers of their learning process: It integrates management of context including the social setting, resources and actions (self-management) and the process: thereby learners monitor, evaluate and regulate their cognitive processing strategies (self-monitoring).

2. Self-directed learning emphasizes the important role of motivation (encouragement) and volition in mediating and maintaining learner's efforts: encouragement ensures participation and volition, maintains interest and need for ending a certain learning task or activity to reach the goals set.

3. In self-directed learning, control of learning is more or less with learners: so it shifts from teachers to learners. Consequently learners possess a great deal of independence in their approach to learning within a framework set by the teacher.

4. Teacher makes learning 'visible' by modelling learning strategies (strategy instruction) and work with their learners so then the learners promote their ability of using learning strategies.

5. Ironically self-directed learning is highly collaborative so the learners become more interested in working with their teachers and peers than being secluded.

6. Self-directed learning develops domain specific knowledge and ability of transforming conceptual knowledge in new situations. It also bridges the gap between the knowledge gained in school and real-world problems by considering how people learn in real life.

In the attempts of defining self-directed learning, it has been done in three different perspectives:

1) A process in which people take primary initiative for planning, carrying out and evaluating their own learning,

2) A personal attribute-the psychological readiness to undertake one's own learning,

3) A set of attitudes, behaviours and skills for self-direction.

Knowles says that human beings grow in capacity and need to be self-directed. As self-directed learning assumes that individuals learn what is required to perform their evolving life tasks, self-directed learning influences learning for life. The mode of learning assumed as the quite suitable under self-directed learning is task-based and problem-centred: this situation makes the learner critically think, and consequently they are intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically to achieve targets by various internal incentives such as need for self-esteem, curiosity, desire to achieve and satisfaction of accomplishment other than additional pressure or force.

Knowles, in his arguments, introduces three immediate reasons for human beings to use self-directed learning in their lives:

1. There is convincing evidence that people who take initiative in learning (proactive learners) learn more things and learn better than those who always seek teachers' support passively (reactive learners). They also tend to retain and make use of what they learn better and longer than reactive learners.

2. Self-directed learning is more in tune with human natural processes of psychological development to support the learner to be increasingly self-directed.

3. Many developments in education keep a heavy responsibility on the learner to take good deal of initiative in their own learning.

Thus the need for learning through self-directed learning is naturally with people in their social settings with their natural talent and need for it. Candy (1991) mentions four aspects for understanding characteristics of a successful self-directed learner.

A personal attribute (personal autonomy), willingness and capacity to conduct his/ her own education (self management), a mode of organizing instruction in formal settings (learner control) and individual, non-institutional pursuit of learning opportunities in the natural social setting (autodidaxy).

The two psychological attributes behind self-directed learning are personality and cognitive development. Self-confidence, inner-directedness and achievement-motivation are personality traits. The six cognitive skills particularly identified in successful self-directed learning are goal setting skills, processing skills, other cognitive skills (such as sensory information, working memory, elaboration by imaging deducing, generalizing and so on), aptitude in the topic, decision-making skills and skills related to promote self-awareness.

Promoting social change

However, self-direction is naturally a characteristic of every individual upto a certain degree: it does not mean learning in isolation. To some readers, it may be quite a paradox to talk about facilitation of self-directed learning as the term, 'self-direction' literally implies 'learning alone'. Yet it is indeed not. Learners are expected to use teachers' support as just one of many resources. Learners need to gain confidence to utilize learning contexts and opportunities outside the classroom with direction and guidance of the teacher, continually developing their critical thinking and confidence in forming and giving their own opinions.

'Developing these skills normally means taking risks that require learners to venture outside their comfort zone.'

Teachers are able to guide learners to use self-directed learning by gradually introducing various techniques of self-directed learning. In education today, teachers can encourage their learners to be more self-directed deviating from lecture method or any other method governed by teacher centred, chalk and talk teaching style. They can support and allow learners to learn how to establish realistic goals, monitor their own learning and reflect and challenge their own attitudes.

In short, with assistance and guidance of experienced teachers, learners need to take responsibility for their own learning and teachers must step back and encourage them to develop their skills to be able to do so.

Self-directed learner can transfer learning both knowledge and skills from one situation to another easily as experimentators. It arouses critical reflection for changing their lives.

Learners are supported to view knowledge and truth as contextual, to see value frameworks on cultural constructs and to appreciate their ability of acting in their world individually and collectively to transform their experience.

Baumgartner (2003) introduces two other goals in addition to the ability of fostering transformation through self-directed learning: opportunity for individuals to reach their full potential and promoting emancipator learning and social change.

The writer is the chief project officer and Head of the Unit of Language Coordination, project leader of Bilingual Education, Faculty of Languages, Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Education, Maharagama