One of the outcomes that is expected for a student in Singapore now is the c2015 student outcomes. Under these outcomes, a student is expected to demonstrate 21 century competencies that will prepare him/her to meet the future.

There are various expectations of a self directed learner and I think its important to think though what those necessary qualities are. Developing this quality is often at the back of my mind as I create my lessons. However, I think it is sometimes lost in transition. There has been a lot of buzz about self-directed learning and I do not really wish to dwell too much on it.

Rather, I think it more profitable to consider how to build self directed learners in the classroom. One of the important vehicles to developing this competency is modelling. After all, how is it possible for a teacher to teach self-directed learning without being a self-directed learner first?! With that perspective first in mind, we can then tackle how to develop this quality.

Recently, I had to conduct a lesson on “Puberty” for Health Education. Needless to say, this caused some sort of discomfort because of the content that I was required to teach but I had to teach it nevertheless. I decided that instead of just direct teaching, I would do an independent learning approach. The students were directed to a particular website (All About Puberty) and they were told to explore the site. This method of teaching shifted the responsibility of teaching from me (the teacher) to the students.

The students were responsible for their own learning and they could freely learn what they wanted to. I noticed that during the session, the boys focused mainly on issues that boys would face and similarly, the girls read about issues related to them. The students were then instructed to go to a forum and share what they learnt with one another. You can see a sample of how it would look like here. The students were able to complete their assignments after the activity. They were able to comprehend what they read and that translated to the ability to answer questions in their workbook.

After the lesson, I did a post mortem. On hindsight, this would have been an excellent opportunity to have created a self directed lesson. If I were given the chance to redo the lesson, it would look like this.

Instead of getting the students to do the readings and the sharing on the forum in class, what I should have done was to inform them the day before. They would learn independently at home and added their comments on the forum after they were done. (This part is the same as what was done in class) During the class time, I would have asked the class what else they wanted to learn about puberty and they would have articulated what they wanted to learn - this is what is meant by articulating their learning gaps. They could then have gone online again and search for additional information that they required. The forum could possibly be used or the students could create a wiki or a FAQ on puberty.

In preparation of the lesson, I could have perhaps spent some time brainstorming what were some gaps that the students would have identified. During the lesson, I would have been able to direct them to these sites. Although the students were able to meet the objectives of the learning outcomes, they did not come away from that lesson learning anything about self directed learning. In conclusion, the modelling for the self directed learning really comes from the teacher and a culture needs to be in-built in the everyday lesson. This integration is important and necessary if we want to develop this competency. Through this modelling, the students will understand what it means to be self directed.