Self-regulated learning

The term self -directed learning ( SGL) is often used synonymously with the terms self -organized, self-regulated or self -directed learning. All these terms refer to the application of the principles of self-regulation, self-management and Volition in the areas of educational psychology, school education, adult education and vocational education ( staff development).

Features

The characteristics of self-directed learning are:

History

One of the essential foundations of the self -directed learning is one of the research of Albert Bandura since the early 1940s, in particular its social cognitive learning theory and his work on self-regulation. This work and insights have helped to focus the attention of experts on an important problem: By the end of the 1970s it was customary to link the learning to individual abilities such as intelligence, motor skills, memory or the learning environment. In fact, it turned out that many students have in spite of such properties not produced convincing performance or even failure. As much more important for the success of learning, however, proved to competencies of self-regulation. These include skills such as self-motivation, planning ahead and self-assessment (feedback); also been particularly successful learners will be able to shape their learning environment meaningful and apply targeted learning strategies. After their self-image they were autonomous, competent and confident. A recent empirical research project for gifted and highly gifted students in Germany also came to the conclusion that self- control for success in school is more important than intelligence. From these research results, the question of how parents and educators can foster these skills, and if that's at all possible as part of state - bureaucratic school systems.

Historically, previous approaches include Hugo Gaudig (1922 self-activity of the pupil ), Maria Montessori (automatic education in early childhood ), Célestin Freinet ( cooperative classroom management ), Carl Rogers ( holistic human image based on self-directed learning ), Alexander Sutherland Neill and Paulo Freire ( impact on self-directed learning through educational alternative forms of learning ) was coined. Currently, let the concepts within the constructivist didactics classify and are therefore considered didactic- methodological concept.

The idea was basically to have in -coercive learning by Johann Amos Comenius.

Importance

In the school criticism of Klaus Holzenkamp is German educational institutions, particularly the school, accused in the required development towards self-directed learning is still pent-up demand, because too much the individual will be there encouraged or forced by syllabi, teaching objectives and performance evaluations to a large extent externally determined learning.

Unlike the situation in adult education represents Practical workshop exercises, case studies and seminar units, including pupils with an educational training program to have more or less contribute as experts, are for working with students, retrained or live near for internal staff development practice.

Classification

General says the concept of self-directed learning is that learning children or adults decide on the objectives and content of the forms and ways, results and times and places of their learning themselves.

When learners control with given contents and objectives of their own learning and make decisions about the way their learning organization, we speak better by self-organized learning as the " self-directed learning".

Such didactic concepts with the approach, students and other learners with the opportunity to practice gradually independent and self-directed work allowing the learner, the learning process completely or partially to purchase. With complete self-determination, the learner is self- learning objectives and learning activities leads through to achieve the learning objectives. Executes Which learning activities the learner when, where and in what order, it determines itself

Give the students themselves lessons for the other participants or define educational goals, then one speaks of learning by teaching. Self- control is here, however, in some narrower limits. The substance (ie the learning objective) is usually specified. The paths to the learning objective can be organized by the participants, however, largely self. Often this is done on the basis of evidence of the teacher in terms of appropriate procedures for the presentation. Learners thus do not work autodidact, but acquire an escorted methodological skills, with generic point of view, information literacy ( see, to this context, the discussion about " informal learning ").

Even more sophisticated approaches that involve self- control of the entire school operation, as are Democratic school (eg Summerhill ) known ( see below).

Teaching methods and techniques

Concrete methods for self-directed learning from the repertoire of teaching methods can be found across the school operation in education and training, in the course of study as well as adult education. Self-awareness and self-determination shares Shares are consistently higher here than in receptive processes such as the lecture, the classroom instruction or the course. It is made clear that the discussion of learning concepts are not limited to students (must ).

Self-organized learning offers the teacher many opportunities to make an interesting and varied lessons. These methods are divided into:

A) be worked out procedures:

Station Learning → Students must in their own time, edit any order and social form compulsory and optional tasks in stations
Moderation → Group discussion considering all group members
→ jigsaw groups of students to interact as part of an overall theme and topics must each present their topic in new groups then
Project work → Students edit a selected topic together over a longer period

B ) Performing procedures:

Presentation → Updated Topics are presented to the class
Visualization → illustration of abstract topics
Unit → Students demonstrating an edited theme in a presentation to the class ( either individually or in small groups)
Thesis Paper → concise summary of a topic (often in connection with presentations )
Role play / simulation game → complex topics will be added in simplified situations

C) procedures for depression:

Sorting tasks → used to review content learned for subsequent depression
→ structuring complex subjects are shown in simplified form in a clear structure
Domino → pertinent questions and answers must be placed together like dominoes game

D ) Cross-linking of content:

Holistic learning (extended notion of learning )
Discovery learning / ( Enquiring - evolving teaching )

E) Integrating Method:

Learning by teaching ( LdL ) → Small groups of students are given the task to teach a section of the new fabric of the whole class. In this case, all the procedures mentioned under a) to d) are integrated.

F) instruments for the self-organization:

Target planning → to organize free learning phases
Learning diary → for the documentation of the learning process
Reflection methods → as a way to optimize the learning process; incorporated into new target planning

Other methods and approaches are BarCamp, coaching, evaluation, Free Work, Action-oriented teaching, collegial case consultation, open education / open learning, supervision, scenario technique, training, workshop or future workshop.

Special forms

The concept of self Certain learning with its differentiations is currently undertaking in the discourses of school education, adult education and educational psychology a great value a. According to the conceptual definitions varied from author to author are inconsistent.

Parts of the teaching-learning methods or teaching techniques of Göttingen catalog include various forms of self-directed learning with methodological and didactic deviation from the classical classroom teaching:

Alone or in a small group: Distance learning ( Funkkolleg, Telekolleg )
( Edit tasks variants. : Jena Plan, Winnetka Plan) work instruction
Learning project
Case method (assessment case, decision case, post -basket task, ...)
Learning Cabinet
Learning Network

Clerkship
Tutorial
Disputation

Learning exhibition
Sensing ( excursion, outing, museum, ...)

Learning by teaching ( students teach each other in class )
Learning Conference
Workshop Seminar

The various forms in which the participant, even methodical and didactic decisions for knowledge acquisition, divided roughly into three levels of abstraction:

Need

One reason for the relevance of self-organized and self-directed learning is the move of the scientific perspective, away from the behaviorist learning model to the cognitivist and constructivist learning that emphasize the active role of the learner. The human image of the active Wissensaneigners already shaped the reform pedagogy and is in its modern form (in the sense of an operationally closed system ) through numerous neuroscientific underpinned studies on learning factors such as attention, previous experiences and emotions.

To promote self-directed learning, self-directed learning processes are to initiate, for example, can learning tasks that are solved in the group or individual work, stimulate learning activities and thus facilitate learning in motion.

Another reason is the short half-life that has knowledge in many parts of today's society. So Braner and Lackmann (1993 ) have found out that the half -life of knowledge in the banking industry is about five years of knowledge in the IT field, only two years.

However, the developments in the IT field force not only continuous learning, but also make this possible by developing new techniques. For example, the Internet facilitates the independent retrieval of information. In electronic storage media or offered online tutorials allow the learner to learn at any time and anywhere. This e-learning experiences of growing importance, which in turn often through self-directed learning phase is used ( for example, in distance learning, informal learning, or in free learning and training phases).

Last but not least the promotion and reflection of self-directed, autonomous or self-organized learning in several Länderverodnungen and policies is required for quality development in schools, such as in Baden- Württemberg, Bavaria and Berlin

Performance appraisal

In the grading of the self-organized learning must be made to a number of factors into consideration. Firstly, the performance in each subject must be able to be determined objectively, on the other hand, it is important that only which is graded what can be learned. Here, one must consider some important factors:

Transparency ( Grade composition must be visible to the student )
Equality ( equality of the pupils)
Individuality ( Each student will be individually graded)

A potential tool for establishing the performance in the self-organized learning represents the educational portfolio

Individual requirements

In order to organize their learning process is successful, the learner must have some skills or competencies. In institutions where self-organized learning processes are expected and encouraged, therefore, the practicing appropriate skills to the learning object itself.

Competencies

Only when these skills are present, the learner can use his learning strategies. In addition, the learner must have reflectivity and metacognition so that he can evaluate his or her learning process in the connection to his work and can improve.

Cognitive Aspects

To successfully learn self-organized knowledge of learning strategies. These strategies make it easier to understand the learners' knowledge, to store and retrieve.

Repetition strategies

Repetition strategies serve to knowledge that should be learned to keep in literal form in working memory active and so to create the conditions that the information can be transferred into long-term memory. Examples are copy texts and repeated recitation.

Elaboration

Through elaboration attempt should be made to enable already existing prior knowledge about a subject area and to link new knowledge with this. Typical elaboration strategies are to consider examples and gelerntes their own words.

Organizational strategies

This should help to work out within a new knowledge domain order relations to be so set up a coherent picture of the subject. Organizational strategies are for example, write summaries of texts or to create mind maps on the same theme.

Areas of application

Use beyond the institutions

The ideal of self-determined or self-directed learning is carried out in most areas of life that are outside of the training and work area. The learner there has the possibility to decide on the direction and content of the forms and ways, results and times and places of his learning itself. It may decide to cooperate with others and to evaluate its performance according to own criteria. Even the prospect of a teacher to support their own learning processes would belong to this self-directed learning process.

As far as in children and adolescents learning takes place entirely without the institution of school, this is referred to as unschooling.

In particular in the Scandinavian countries are widely used for more than 100 years of study circles ( Study circles ) as a democratic and participatory form of learning. There, people meet and develop knowledge on a self-chosen topic. Experts are invited and moderators, support the work. Some countries encourage these groups and discuss it as the "third pillar" next to school and company formation.

Application in school

From self-directed learning can only be usefully discussed in school, when students can about relevant decision areas which otherwise incumbent on the institution and the teachers ( with ) determine and decide. When self-determined learning and determine responsibility for the students themselves, what is significant and important to them.

In reality, state schools only approximations to the ideal described above seem to be possible. When learning stations, students learn, for example, self-employed, self-organized and self-directed. They do not learn self-determined, as the tasks to be be much set by the teacher and also the decision on the form of organization of these learning processes is rarely taken together with the students. The weekly schedule lessons can be both, depending on the degree of openness, which granted the teacher. However, there are, for example, in social studies of elementary school teaching concepts in which the children themselves decide on topics and independently search for suitable materials (see Bannach 2002).

Reform schools such as the Laboratory School in Bielefeld or the Helene- Lange- School in Wiesbaden and teaching experiments demonstrate also in "normal" schools, that first self-directed learning approaches are possible.

A distinction of this is the open classroom in which children are not just " decide for itself issues ", but the lessons are very systematically aimed to make itself a central element of teaching the topic identification by the children.

In the outdoor work on self-selected topics, a political- pedagogical claim ( maturity ) is in contrast with the self-determination taken didactic action, particularly on the content and goals of learning.

The self-determination of students about their subjects wearing the one hand to the democratization of school structures at - Students determine the school curriculum with - and also enables students to take personal responsibility for their learning in school and to develop their capacity further (see Bannach 2002).

Open learning is different from self-directed learning in that not only the learning processes, but also the social processes within the learning group of the children are designed democratically and beyond even the interaction with the learning environment (eg, other classes in the school, institutions and groups outside the school) is in their hands.

Be Complied with these principles as in open alternative schools or in democratic schools. Known Democratic schools are, for example, the Sudbury Valley School in the USA or Summerhill in England.

In Germany there are currently in various cities Attempts to set up Sudbury schools, which is so far partially thwarted by the opposition of the school authorities.

Application in professional development

Increasingly self-directed learning approaches can also be found in professional training. In model experiments since the late 90s, research has been done to it. Slowly pull these experiences into the educational landscape.

First support vocational training or community colleges offer self- learning centers on individualized training, need no fixed group size. In addition, the concepts find their way into vocational training and retraining.

If the quality of the offers is backed up, then this self- learning centers may also be part of the infrastructure for lifelong learning, which is lacking so far.

Willingness and ability to self-directed learning

Self-directed learning has become in the context of lifelong learning, particularly in informal learning contexts important than gathering information. In the wake of tighter labor market is continuing to individuals necessary for employability. In this case, this form of learning is called by many, but it can not be assumed by all in equal measure.

It is a self-learning competence requires the successful acquisition but depends on many factors such as promotion of family, age and education. This is of particular importance Metakognition. A strong ability to use them selectively facilitates many processes in the Self-directed learning. However, even here, studies show that this capability can not be called unconditionally. Just one third of respondents in a study of emperors and empresses had a high level of expertise to apply metacognitive strategies in difficult thinking requirements.

Educationally disadvantaged population groups, so-called " training distanced ", can be pushed further self-directed learning in the education offside with the demand. You are not unconditionally and without professional support capable to organize their learning self-directed, in order to so participate in lifelong learning can. It is to be feared even more so that existing educational disadvantage rather than more likely to be exacerbated canceled.

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