Brandt, C. (2020) Measuring Student Success Skills: A Review of the Literature on Self-Directed Learning

Key Takeaway: This comprehensive article dives into the intriguing realm of self-directed learning and proposes integrating assessment into performance appraisals rather than conventional grading. Tangible tools educators can use for self-directed learning initiatives include performance tasks, behavioral checklists, anecdotal records, and self-peer assessments.  Self-directed learning fosters independent and responsible learners by emphasizing choice, providing feedback opportunities, and fostering collaborations between teachers, parents, and students.

Criteria: Extensive Review of the educational literature on Self-Directed Learning

Resource: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED607782

Title: Measuring Student Success Skills: A Review of the Literature on Self-Directed Learning 

Year: 2020

Author: Dr. W. Christopher Brandt, https://www.nciea.org/blog/author/chris-brandt/

Summation and Insights:  Self-directed learning is defined as a set of holistic practices where conditions of freedom and autonomy empower the learner to choose the what, why, how, and where of their learning.  Common approaches to self-directed learning include project-based or inquiry-based learning, experiential learning, personalized learning, self-assessment, and online and distance learning models.  Self-directed learning encompasses four major dimensions: self-regulation, motivation, personal responsibility, and autonomy.  Each of these dimensions themselves have several components with defined characteristics and operational definitions, and self-directed learning is best understood as a multi-faceted process involving cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills. 

Self-regulation is associated with characteristics such as personal willpower and self-discipline. Self-regulation includes cognitive processing functions such as metacognition (self-awareness that one is developing valuable skill sets and knowledge) and working memory, as well as the ability to self-evaluate and exhibit characteristics such as grit and resilience.  Operationally, self-regulation is defined by behaviors such as diagnosing one’s learning needs, choosing resources and setting goals, managing one’s emotions and persisting in the face of challenges.  

Motivation, commonly affiliated with student desire and interest, is strongly correlated with the ability to develop a growth mindset.  It is operationally defined by the ability to sustain one’s motivation and to recognize that intelligence and personality are not fixed, but rather attributes that can grow and change over time.  

Personal Responsibility takes into account developing responsibility through ownership and ethics, and is operationally understood as the ability to process that actions have consequences for one’s self and one’s environment.  It is also correlated with acting in accordance with a strong set of personal principles or moral values.  

Autonomy, also expressed as agency and independence, is translated operationally into the ability to exercise choice, manage one’s learning process from start to finish, and to engage goals that are difficult but not impossible.  

Given that self-directed learning is defined by a complex set of dimensions and processes, it can be difficult to empirically assess.  For example, it is not clear how competency in self-directed learning is developed nor are there expected levels of self-directed learning at certain markers in time.  As such, this self-directed learning research review recommends that self-directed learning assessments be integrated into performance appraisals rather than grading.  Tools that can help students with self-directed learning include: a) Performance tasks and portfolios of student work, in which students can be given choices about how they exhibit proficiency and that provide value feedback opportunities; b) Behavioral checklists for harder to observe dispositions that may include attributes such as staying on task, redirecting or finding alternatives when stuck, and setting goals; c) Anecdotal records, or brief, qualitative descriptions of student behaviors which can help teachers write personalized summaries for students and contribute to teacher/parent collaboration efforts in which self-directed learning moments are noted both at home and at school; d) Self- and Peer-assessments designed to be personal feedback and reflection tools.  A variety of these exist, including interviews, journals and logs, daily or weekly prompts, and assessments such as goal-setting worksheets or graphic organizers.