Direct Your Learning

Estimated Time: 2 hours

Reflection: SDL in Real Life

I will assume that you unpacked the device, read the user manual (or not 🤷🏿‍♀️), watched some YouTube videos about your new device, or maybe even asked people who owned this model before you about some of the steps and hacks that could help you to get the best out of your new device. Then you played around with the device, testing if you could get certain features to work, and learned from your explorations. If this describes what you did, then you demonstrated self-directed learning. One of the reasons this was effective was because you had a clear goal, you wanted to be able to get the best out of this new device.

Self-directed learning is a learning process where you take responsibility to initiate and perform your own learning around a subject matter. This has numerous benefits, including strengthening your confidence as a learner and improving engagement with, and retention of, what you are learning.

What is Self-Directed Learning?

Here is a summary of how the two most extreme types of learners (the dependent learner and the self-directed learner) compare:

• Dependent Learner

  • Relies on an instructor to set learning goals, monitor learning progress, and evaluate learning outcomes.
  • Is able to complete a list of instructor-created tasks
  • Has little awareness that there is an option for them to take some control over their learning
  • This type of learner is common place in traditional primary and secondary school environments, and many university environments with the "chew & pour" mentality

• Self-Directed Learner

  • Is able to set their learning goals, monitor learning progress, and evaluate their learning outcomes.
  • Can identify their desires and knows what they need to do to pursue them.
  • Sees the instructor as a learning consultant who can provide advice and feedback.
  • Can identify and source the resources needed to complete their learning.
  • This type of learner is commonplace in professional environments.

Self-directed learning allows you to take responsibility for your own learning, which results in greater ownership and autonomy. In self-directed learning, the teacher acts as a guide/facilitator/consultant to support you and give you feedback during your learning journey. At Kibo, you will learn using a combination of all four levels mentioned in the video during different parts of your formal academic courses and any additional side projects that you choose to take on.

One of the most challenging transitions young professionals have to make is going from being a Dependent Learner in formal school environments, sometimes through university, into being a Self-Directed Learner in the workplace. A key reason we are teaching you self-directed learning is that this is how the majority of your learning will be once you are in a professional setting. So, it is important for you to get comfortable with taking more ownership of your learning now.

You will notice that a lot of the characteristics discussed in the video are similar to the executive functioning skills discussed in the earlier section. Therefore, people with strong executive functioning skills are well set up to be effective self-directed learners.

Summary of the characteristics mentioned in the video:

• Disciplined, Methodical
• Logical, Analytical
• Reflective and Self-Aware
• Curious and Open
• Flexible
• Interdependently Competent
• Persistent and Responsible
• Creative
• Confident
• Self-Sufficient
• Information Seeker
• Learning Process Savvy
• Critical Evaluation Skills

Activity: Day in the Life of a Self-Directed CS Student

Why Embrace Self-Directed Learning?

Are You Ready For Self-Directed Learning?

Source: Independent Studies: Readiness to Learn. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

Readiness to Learn v. Willingness to Learn

Source

To be an effective self-directed learner you need to have both the will to learn, as well as the skills required for learning!

How can you become a more self-directed learner?

The Self-Directed Learning Process

There are three main stages to the self-directed learning process:

1. Planning = Things you do BEFORE learning takes place.
2. Monitoring = Things you do DURING the learning activity.
3. Evaluating = Things you do AFTER the learning activity.

The table below outlines behaviors that effective self-directed learners exhibit in each of these three stages.

Here are some useful expansions on some of the key terms in the table:

• Diagnosing Learning needs: It all starts with questions like: What do I not know? What do I need to learn? Why do I want to learn this?
• Goal Setting: Taking the learning needs one step further, you should formulate clear goals by asking questions like: What will I be able to do once I have completed my learning?
• Strategic Planning and Determining a Learning Strategy: In order to build upon existing knowledge and ideas, you have to determine an appropriate approach to and resources for learning.
• Help Seeking: While self-directed learning is about being in control of your own learning, it doesn't mean that you need to learn alone. An important practice to use when learning is knowing when to ask for help, where you can find help, and who you can approach for help.
• Testing: When you are learning, it is critical to have an accurate signal of the gap between your current competency and your target competency. One way to get an accurate estimate of that gap is by frequently testing yourself and getting feedback. You can test yourself by carrying out your goal task and seeing how well you do. E.g., if you are learning how to use loops in Python, test yourself by building a python program using loops; if you are learning for an exam, test yourself by completing practice exam questions under exam conditions.
• Self-Evaluation: After learning strategies are implemented, you can evaluate your learning to see how effective the process was. You can also do this periodically while you are learning. Using your learning goals as a benchmark, you can determine how effective your learning process was and can subsequently improve on it.

Here is a summary of the 20 tips from the article:

SDL Skill Reflection