Case Study: Implementing Self-Directed Learning Successfully in Public Schools

As a "searcher" this week for our class blog, I came across a fascincating case study on a public school in Redwood, California that has adopted, whole-heartily, the concept of self-directed learning as a model for their instruction.

In self-directed learning (SDL), the individual takes the initiative and the responsibility for what occurs. Individuals select, manage, and assess their own learning activities, which can be pursued at any time, in any place, through any means, at any age. In schools, teachers can work toward SDL a stage at a time.

Teaching emphasizes SDL skills, processes, and systems rather than content coverage and tests. For the individual, SDL involves initiating personal challenge activities and developing the personal qualities to pursue them successfully. This website is devoted to illuminating these principals as they apply to schooling and to life [1]

The first video, produced by Summit Public Schools in Redwood California, demonstrates why self-directed learning matters. In the second video they go on to explain the skills needed for self-directed learning to occur and show how, with the help of technology, they have redesigned their whole-school model to put student agency and self-direction at the center.

 Tracking Habits of Success

According to Adam Carter, Academics Team Lead for Summit Public Schools, Habits of
Success, or "non-cognitive skills" go by many names and include a broad set of invaluable skills essential for success  but the one they focus on is the ability to drive one's learning, or "self-directed learning."

Drawing on the work of David Yeager of the University of Texas at Austin, the school breaks self-directed learning into five key behaviors their students develop, practice, and model, including:      (1) Challenge Seeking
     (2) Strategy Shifting
     (3) Response to Setbacks
     (4) Appropriate Help Seeking
     (5) Persistence

As students develop these five behaviors, they take responsibility for when and how they learn content, they Set learning goals and make plans for how to get there and then display meta-cognition of knowing how they learn. 

Teachers then can teach skills more than content, become coaches, mentors, and facilitators rather than just experts and ultimately they learn to let go...to let students go further [2].

References:

1. Gibbons, M. (2014). Self directed learning: Achieve success. Retrieved on February 5, 2015 from http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/
2. Wilka, M. & Cohen, J. (2014). Self-directed learning at Summit Public Schools. Retrieved on February 5, 2015 from http://www.springpointschools.org/media/filer_public/3b/f6/3bf612d7-e0ae-4651-9fe9-b46d77616490/self_directed_learning_at_summit_public_schools.pdf